Twin Nautilus Trade

The Twin Nautilus Trade was a network of trade routes that connected various nations throughout the continents of Lexighor, Andavronia, and Obreidhion, and the island of Mildhurian, in Khyorgan.

Although the Twin Nautilus Trade connected many nations and peoples, the end goals of the routes as defined in their entirety were to connect the island of Mildhurian, located north of Lexighor, with the peninsular nation of Polvora in the south of Obreidhion. The “Twin Nautilus” nomenclature refers to the two alternate routes one could sail away from Mildhurian to reach the Nautilus Ocean: West, through the Gomchar Sea, or East, through the Verheid Sea.

Background

Although the Gibral Peninsula, wherein Polvora was located, lay closer as the crow flies to Mildhurian than many other locations along the route, travel (and by extension, trade) between the two was not an easy task. To the north of the Gibral Peninsula were the Picos Mountains, home to the hostile Picos Barbarians. Their presence directed Polvora down a path of seafairing expansion as it would go on to sail and expand throughout the South Nautilus Isles and the Southern Highlands of the Amacata Desert in lieu of trying to press further into Picos.

It was for this reason that those seeking to travel between Mildhurian and Polvora instead traveled along much longer, but infinitely more survivable, routes by sea. Thus the choice presented itself: East, or West.

East

To the east of Mildhurian was the Gomchar Route. The first to attempt to sail between Mildhurian and the Gibral Peninsula, and the first to succeed, both traveled along this route. The Gomchar Route headed east through the Gomchar Sea surrounding Mildhurian, past Bossiniri, Taurya, and the Khios Mountains before coming to the border of the Nautilus Ocean. From here, ships sailed south past Boegaden and had to deal with the fearsome waves of an ocean that swelled uninterrupted from the shores of Eidyn, thousands of leagues away, creating massive, crashing waves that would batter ships to pieces.

Hardly lifting the burden were the inhabitants of these regions. The Tauryans had uneasy relations with the people of Mildhurian, whose royal family descended from a banished former King of Taurya; Said king had also expelled all non-humans from Taurya before he was exiled, which did not aid in relations with the Elves of Bossiniri. The monastic orders of Khios were not unfriendly, but were secluded in a near-impenetrable mountain range, while the natives of Boegaden, the primitive Haazrade, were more likely to eat sailors than trade with them.

Thankfully, upon reaching the northern extremities of the civilized nation of Amicalis, traders could cling close to the shores and bias westward behind protective barrier islands, granting the weary travelers some rest, and seaside merchants of Amicalis new income in the process.

From here sailors traveled south and then to the west, looking north to the shore of the Amacata Desert. This area of Amacata, known as the Southern Highlands, was more inhabitable than most of the desert, and was home to the Taulan Tribes. Later, the Piasite rush would cause many new prospecting towns to pop up, both independent and colonial in nature.

Further west, traders finally hit the South Nautilus Islands, where Kess tribes would gradually be replaced by Polvoran settlers over the years. Traditional wisdom in the early years of the trade was to pass north over the island of Karang Batu and beeline straight to the shores of the Gibral Peninsula. Traditional wisdom became known as something more akin to traditional foolishness, though, when piracy began to plague the South Nautilus Islands in the time leading up to the Search for the Mask of Bara. Bloodthirsty pirates such as the notorious Brazilliano Roche would rob and kill traders attempting to navigate their way through the islands.

The traditional route became known as the Deadman’s Shortcut as the traders less inclined towards dealing with pirates plotted out a new course, the Trans-Segaran Route, which instead went south of the South Nautilus Archipelago and snaked its way back around to the peninsula along the mouth of the Gulf of Segara.

The Trans-Segaran Route was itself not without peril, however, thanks to the monstrous Abyssal Machine, a construct of the long-dead Segaran Technocracy which would sink traders and pirates alike in and around the Gulf of Segara. Although its attacks were much rarer, they were also much more destructive.

West

Cartographers in both Mildhurian and the Gibral Peninsula believed, correctly, that sailing along the east coast of Obreidion would be faster and more efficient than a hypothetical route along the western side of Khyorgan. Although sailors heading west actually reached the Nautilus Ocean more quickly, they would need to almost circumnavigate the entire continent of Lexighor, as well as clear the southern coast of the somewhat smaller continent of Andavronia, to reach Polvora. As a result, much trade was done without serious consideration of a Western Route.

However, circumstances changed when the Tauryans, following a breakdown in diplomatic relations, announced a blockade against Mildhurian. This would in theory end all trade between Mildhurian and the outside world, with the exception of the Wood Elves of Bossiniri. While some merchant ships turned into blockade runners, the increasing danger of the journey led many to hope for an alternative, and it would soon come with the charting of the Varheid Route.

The Varheid Sea lay to the west of Mildhurian’s surrounding Gomchar Sea. To its south was the sprawling Desert of Lexighor, a desert considered barren and inhospitable even by those who had traveled to the Amacata Desert in Obreidhion to trade with the Taulan Tribes. For those who shipwrecked along this coast, the chances of survival were slim.

Nonetheless, explorers were determined to map out a western alternative route. After clearing the northwest horn of Lexighor, they found themselves traveling south down Lexighor’s western coast. Although the seas could sometimes be rough, they were not as bad as Khyorgan’s Eastern shore. Pressing on, those who took the western route found themselves in the company of the dwarven Archei Clans, who were willing to trade numerous valuable minerals and metals mined up from the Archei Mountains in return for fabrics, textiles, and livestock from Mildhurian.

Nonetheless Polvora had many resources the dwarves did not; Gunpowder, fish, and fruits that grow only in Polvora’s tropical landscapes. And so, many traders pushed eastward.

And the western twin path, much like the eastern, thus forked from one route into two. Traders could take the Suthrek Detour, sailing along the calm coastlines of the Suthrek Sea between Andavronia and Lexighor, or they could risk the Terminal Gambit. The latter involved a straight line through the open ocean from the Southwestern horn of Lexighor to the Southeastern horn (Lexighor has many horns), and then another straight line from the southeastern horn straight to the coast of Andavronia.

Although the Terminal Gambit significantly shortened the length of the journey, it was also significantly riskier. The Terminal Gambit took ships and their crews through the open ocean, wherein sea monsters were known to dwell. These sea monsters ranged from some creatures that were simply large animals, such as the Octhokrey (a large species of squid) or Godfish, to the draconic Flood Wyrm, to much larger untold threats, whose sheer scale was said to drive sailors mad. Those, of course, being only the ones that men saw and lived to tell of.

Decline of the Twin Nautilus Trade

While both trade routes had benefits and drawbacks, and competed with each other for popularity over time, in the end, a new technological advancement would displace them both.

With the invention of the railroad, land transit was revolutionized. While the first steam engine in Khyorgan was invented in Amicalis to move heavy minecarts, it was the Polvorans who created the first long-distance railroads to move locomotives across. This ingenuity allowed the Polvorans to expand into the empty expanse of the Amacata Desert and quickly move things between sparse settlements.

It was about this time that the Piasite rush occurred in the Southern Highlands of Amacata. The Polvorans, Tauryans, and others built mining settlements in the vicinity and scrambled to obtain as much of the valuable material for themselves as possible, leading to numerous deaths for prospectors being killed by mining accidents, natives, and each other, and also to great prosperity for merchants.

While the Twin Nautilus Trade benefited greatly from the early stages of the Piasite rush, with the Gomchar Route connecting many nations to their new colonies, it would soon be dealt a crippling blow as Piasite merchants considered a better way to transport goods.

It was at this time that many new railroads were constructed. Among them though, most importantly, a new set of twins:

One railroad across the blistering hot equatorial region of Amacata, so hot that trains needed to run through underground tunnels or employ ice mages to cast spells to keep them cool during their travel. This railroad connected Amicalis to Polvora directly by a train track running through colonial territories in the Southern Highlands.

The second railroad connected the northwestern portions of the Gulf of Segara to the southern extremes of the Gomchar Sea.

Instead of entrusting their Piasite fortunes to ships tasked with braving a gauntlet of sea monsters, pirates, and ship-breaking waves, Gibral-to-Mildhurian traders could instead have the Piasite shipped by rail to Polvora, loaded on a boat in the Gulf of Segara, sailed a relatively short distance to another port in the northern portions of the gulf, put on another train, unloaded onto a boat again, and then allowed to take a nice, safe, leisurely journey through the southern and central Gomchar Sea before reaching Mildhurian.

While the new primarily railroad-based trade route of the railroads would in time face its own pirates and train robbers, at times extortionary prices for shipping, and the political threats of blockades and embargos, and thus the Twin Nautilus Trade would never truly die out in its entirety, the trade was largely reduced to much smaller-level runs from port to port, rather than marathons clearing entire continents. The days of celebrated adventurers and pioneers braving obstacle after obstacle on a 2,000 league journey to deliver their precious cargo were at an end.

And for centuries to come, the people of Khyorgan, from Mildhurian to Karang Batu, from Archei to Amicalis, humans, dwarves, and elves alike, would remember the legendary traders who ran the Twin Nautilus Routes.