The Golden Chain

The Golden Chain

The center of all shipping and transport around the world, this long set of islands has a history of romantic sea charm.

The tales told on every ship and at every port’s pub goes something like this:

Once a man found a little ring, crafted beautifully and with a shining stone set into it. He couldn’t wear it himself, it was fit for a woman’s finger.

Then one day this sailor met a woman upon a lovely shore, who he fell in love with. She was as smitten as he, and they began to court.

He got upon one knee and promised her his life, his hand, his heart. She agreed, and they were set to marry.

He settled with his lovely lass, away from the sea but within view of it from their wonderful villa. With her, he raised three children, a girl and two fine boys. He wished to teach his lads the ways of the sea, but his wife wouldn’t let them leave the island for fear they would not return.

One day the land-bound sea-farer caught wind of a cache of gold, ingots lost centuries before in a storm. He was troubled, but eventually knew he must return to his first love, the sea. He took with him his elder son, and in the night, escaped his steady home.

The winds were fair, and though he and his boy never found the lost gold, they both knew that this was the life they’d needed all this time. Though they missed wife and mother, brother and sister terribly, the sea’s charms were as rich as a woman’s bosom to them.

Then one day, on their ship was a mutiny. Lad and sire fought bravely with the scoundrels but the ship was destroyed, all but a handful of men and shattered timber. With tattered sails, they washed ashore and were never heard from again.

Though this is the story of a man and his travels, it is also the story of a lovely lass turned mother, wife turned widow. Whose regret was worse? Hers for having allowed a ship-born man to court her, hers for having tied him to the land? His for having thought he could remain away from the sea, his for having brought a fine young man with him to his ruin?

The widow’s finger still bears the little ring, and tales are told of the anchorage where all sailors true to their love sing praises to her: the sea.

In truth many of those bits of story are based in reality. Tattersail and Azure Mutiny are the sites of many shipwrecks, as the Placid Ocean blends with the Stormshallows, and Chantey Anchorage has many a tavern and inn to share songs and ale. However the other isles are all rich with ports to trade, commerce here is the primary concern. Fishing and boat making are the dominant trades, but also sail-weaving, rope making, anything to do with ships is done here. All the islands support tremendous forests which are quite fit for the boats they create.

Obviously, the Little Ring is a volcano that had its moment many millennia ago, but is now a rich port of trade and imports toward the northern Wyldkin lands.

The trade cycle includes the Bazaar and islands near it, though the true journeys of any given ship often begin and end on the Chain.