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Chereks are also able to avoid the innumerable tolls, taxes, duties,
port fees, bribes, gratuities and gifts which are the lifeblood of
commerce, and this more than makes up for the occasional vessel lost
to weather, uncharted reefs, or bad luck in those occasional
encounters
at sea of which the Chereks are so fond. Tolnedran merchants
have bitterly complained about this advantage to the whole succesion
of Tolnedran Emperors for two thousand years without notable
success, since the wily Cherek negotiators agreed in the Accords of Val
Alorn to a tax of ten percent of their net U on any goods sold in
Tolnedra to be paid directlY into the personal treasury of the Emperor.In 4002/
apparently in accord with a secret treaty with the Rivans,
the entire Cherek fleet sailed Southward and participated in the
assault
Alorn upon Nyissa. Since that time it has
been no secret that there exists an
Alorn confederation - an illegal arrangement in direct violation of
numerous treaties with Tolnedra, all of which contain a clause of exclusivity
forbidding the signatory nation from concluding treaties or
agreements with any other power without Tolnedran consent.
It must be conceded, however, that these secret agreements were
invaluable during the war against the Angarak hordes of Kal-Torak
(4865-75) when the Alorns arose as one people in response to the
(4865-75) when the Alorns arose as one people in response to the
near-destruction of Drasnia and the wasting of the Algarian herds.
It was'in 4875 that Cherek warships appeared for the first time at
Tol Honeth and conveyed virtually the entire Imperial Garrison
north to the River Arend and thence up that river to the vast plain to
the west of Vo Mimbre that they might fall upon the Angarak right
flank. Further, it must be conceded that it was the presence of the
Rivan Warder which mobilized the entire west against the Angarak
threat. His leadership of that unlikely force of Rivans, Chereks,
Sendars and northern Arends who assaulted the rear of the
Mallorean Horde was the final blow upon that bloody field, since
Algar cavalry, the remnants of Drasnian infantry and Ulgo irregulars
had already begun the assault upon the Angarak left. This
threePronged attack, the most concentrated effort in military history, is
generally conceded to have been the Only thing that could have
the Angarak tide.
, Cherek has prospered in the years since the
defeat of the Angaraks,
gaining advantage by assisting the Drasnians in the rebuilding of
Boktor and Kotu and in the repair of the causeway across the
Aldurfens on the Great North Road.
The Present King of Cherek is Anheg IX (called by some Anheg the
Sly). He has been on the Throne in val Alorn for nine years. He is a
large, dark-haired man with a brutish face. Though he appears to
share the Alorn fondness for rowdy drinking and boastful swagger.
he is in fact, a highly educated man and a shrewd politician. He is
fully aware of the COmPlex politics of the southern nations as well as
mOre elemental alliances of the Alorn Kingdoms. He spends much
in study, and is generally held by those who know him to be the
equal at least Of the Tolnedran Emperor, who has had the benefit of
instruction by an entire university.The King Of Cherek, however,
conducts his own studies, and, it is rumored, has even learned old
angarak so that he might read in the original the forbidden BOOK OF
TORAK, a work accursed by all civilized nations and religions.
The palace of Anheg is a vast warren of unused chambers and
dank corridors - befitting, perhaps, a building that has been three