Overoad Traders

Uniquely amongst the founders of the Traders' Havens, Cleag was no merchant. He turned a small company of mercenary dwarven sappers into the heart of a multi-racial mercenary company, and ran them from this impressive stronghold. In time, dwarven traders settled here, and war became just one business amongst many. Now the stronghold's military past seems far away, as life today revolves around the thriving market and crammed warehouses.

Cloghord's Haven is the oldest of the Overoad Traders' havens. It dates back to just a few months after the Sundering,when a lone orphan from the north set up a trade post here in a ruined castle. The dwarves who trade here are proud of their heritage - of a long history of profitable commerce and tenacious survival.

Deagh's Haven was established in the early days of the Kingdom of Virten, as a safe base for dwarven traders, from which they could mount trade missions to the east. Now much of its trade is local, and visitors say that it feels more like a safe and sedate Virten stronghold than a profit-hungry Traders' Haven.

Headagh is legendary, as a trader who could spin profit even from a complete failure. He spent thirty years trying to open trade relations with the Drek-Hhakral. He never succeeded, but through his efforts he built up this thriving entrepot, from where goods brought from Virten can be distributed by the courageous to the wild lands of the south-east.

Far from the safety of the lands of Virten, this is the Traders' most exposed outpost, and unlike most of the others it has not evolved through time. A century ago a confederation of leading Traders raised finance to build this impregnable stronghold. Millions of gold were spent on the defences alone, and the descendants of these founders still own the Haven, reaping regular dividends from its tax revenues.

The Traders of Laghadd's say that this is what the Havens all used to be like: free-booting, unpredictable, every deal a fresh one and few regular contracts to fulfill. Here the dwarves delight in finding new ways to win profit from the wild surroundings, with little regard for formality nor, always, for legality.

In the years after the Sundering, Poeghad ran a beleaguered trade caravan. Ambushed, she and her fellows were enslaved by the orcs who held this stronghold. Their captors forced the dwarves to work as quartermasters and traders, but through cunning and hard work Poeghad won, or bought, her freedom. Her son bought the other dwarves from the orcs. And her granddaughter bought the stronghold itself. Commerce defeated violence; but it took decades.

In the chaos after the Sundering a range of petty kingdoms rose and fell. About a century after the cataclysm, an elven kingdom rose hereabouts, and a dwarven merchant named Roetagh persuaded them to allow him and his friends to become their quartermasters, customs officials and, in time, bankers. The kingdom whithered, but Roetagh's network prospered and his headquarters grew into this impregnable stronghold.

This stronghold was founded by three competing brothers, who each established a market here. The three markets are interlinked physically, but are administered separately, and the stronghold is frequently wracked by rivalries between the traders of the three Wards.

Like most of the Havens, Thoroe's was originally an inward-looking settlement, emphasising defence against the outside world. But Virten is now securely at peace, and so the defensive towers are given over to warehousing, the stout walls breached by additional gates to make it easier for traders to come and go.

Winter Haven started as a secret stash, a set of caves where non-perishable goods could be stored over winter by traders heading north to escape the snows. Over time a permanent settlement grew up above the caverns, and it is now a major Traders' stronghold. For many its underground warehousing seems a novelty, but the caves go deep into the hills, and some say that there are greater treasures in the dark than merchants' crates.