The Sails of the Dragen (Free Lore)


The following contains minor spoilers from the short story "Dragor-Dun: the Fallen Kingdom".
Like the city-states of ancient Greece, the tides of Varketh were perilous, sailing away from the island nation took a great deal of skill and a healthy helping of luck for any man to escape the shores of Varketh. That was until the arrival of Edrin and his magics helped tame the continent, ridding it of its eternal winter and spreading prosperity throughout the nation. Even still the tides of Varketh were treacherous, even after the Great Lights of Dragor-Dun, and it beckons the question of how any man was able to sail away from the island nation.
First, we must remember back to the start of the tale, where Edrin had just created the gardens of the Whitehawk mountain. In this garden, there lay a great many seeds, seeds for squash, grapes, apples, melons, and even tree seeds. Yes, in addition to fruits and veggies the forests of the Rankel were also the sole growers of Horfel (stone bark) trees. As you would imagine, the wood of the Horfel tree was quite tough, it would take an average axe days to chop down an adult tree, but thankfully the the men of Dragor-Dun (Dragen) had their magics which hastened the entire lumbering process. From there the wood was used for the frame, and it's leaves for the sails, producing a solid sea fairing vessel that was leagues ahead of its time. The Horfell wood was incredibly sturdy, able to traverse the heavy waves with ease.
Baring the occasion that migrants were not able to get their hands on Horfel wood for ships, the answer for their voyage was much more crude. Take a fleet of a few dozen ships, load them all with goods and resources, then set sail and hope for the best. With the waves being so fierce on the Varkethen shores it became common practice for many sailing the waves to pack as much as they could in every ship; food, materials, riches, weapons, artifacts, all of these things were found on many Varkethen ships up until year 23 of the Wandering Era. The reason for this is that if one of the normal ships were to be sunk then it would not make a huge difference for there would be several others that carried a similar haul to the sunken ship. This was known as the "Salted Jewels" method of trade, on account of all the ships and treasure being left at the bottom of the ocean.