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Arendish Civil War to a final conclusion. It was impossible for even
the brilliant Mergon to head off this wedding, and Tolnedran policy
in Arendia took a disastrous defeat. Since that policy for two
millennia had been to keep Arendia divided and therefore weak,
one can well imagine how the news of the unification of the houses
of Mimbre and Astur was greeted in Tol Honeth. Mergon, however,
advised the Emperor that the Alorns were feeling burly following
the battle, and that wisdom would seem to indicate that graceful
acquiescence might be a course preferable to forced acceptance.
Ran Borune agreed and wryly observed that a united Arendia
might prove troublesome at some future date, but a united Aloria
with an army in the field not two hundred leagues from the gates of
Tol Honeth was all the trouble that he needed at that particular
moment.
The years following the Battle of Vo Mimbre ushered in a period
of economic disaster in the west. The destruction of the Algarian
herds by marauding Angaraks forced the Algars to suspend their
customary annual cattle-drive to Muros in Sendaria for the decades
required to rebuild their herds. The vengeful Drasnians closed the
North Caravan Route against Nadrak merchants, and the Murgos
sealed their border, cutting off all trade along the South Caravan
Route. Thus, in addition to a meat famine in the west, trade with the
east became impossible except along those secret trails far to the
south known only to Nyissan slave-traders. And so it was that,
while it was distasteful, Tolnedra had no alternative but to increase
its trade with the snake people. By virtue of her monopoly of eastern
trade, the unwholesome influence of Queen Salmissra increased
enormously in the west. Dull-eyed Nyissan merchants began to
appear in the major ports along the west coast, and their dealings,
always deceitful, began to color virtually all aspects of commerce in
the west. Nyissa prospered enormously, and the luxury - even
opulence - of Sthiss Tor soon began to rival even that of Tol Honeth
itself.
The recovery from the years of economic depression which
followed the Angarak war was slow and painful. It took the efforts
of three Borune Emperors to finally persuade the Drasnians to
reopen the North Caravan Route, and in the first years the resulting
trade was disappointingly meager. The Algarian herds began to
arrive at Muros again, but in nothing like their former numbers,
since the Algars steadfastly held back their finest animals for
breeding stock. The reduction in the supply of beef, however, provided
an opportunity for the development of a new industry in Sendaria.
The raising of hogs became a national preoccupation. The hog, of
course, has one enormous advantage over the cow in terms of
trade - his meat may be cured. Thus, while cattle must be driven
enormous distances to their ultimate markets, hogs may be
slaughtered and cured on the farms of their origin and the tasty hams
and succulent bacon may be shipped quite easily without fear of
spoilage. Fortunes were made in Sendaria, and many a Sendar noble
began his upward climb to position and respectability as a
hogbaron.
And then, perhaps a hundred years ago, the grim-faced Murgos
suddenly relented and reopened the South Caravan Route. Amazingly,
these harsh and war-like people seemed -to have developed an
almost insatiable urge to trade. The caravans from the east were long
and literally piled high with those very goods for which the