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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Graf" data-source="post: 4112911" data-attributes="member: 3087">I always wanted to get the group to Shelzar...I agree that it's a bit weird in terms of its function and role, but think about it like someplace like Singapore. (Singapore is an island with no natural market really, there are bridges to Malaysia now but even those didn't exist when it became a port city under British rule).It's Entrepot; you import something, mix it up a bit and then ship it back out again. Singapore, incidentally is one of the busiest ports in the world, and it's got half the population New York City.Think about it like this: Shelzar is the -only- place you can land a ship between western civilization and eastern civilization. The oceans down there aren't the blood sea... but it's still SL. Everything around it is inhospitable desert. Having a place to put down that's not monster infested is a plus....AND Shelzar's city-of-sin reputation isn't happenstance. If you want to attract a sailor the availability of certain sorts of activities will be more enticing that others.And the western and eastern civilizations are both Lawful Evil.Lawful Evil is crap from a traders standpoint. There are lots of rules and lots of bureaucrats to take advantage of them for personal gain.Shelzar is Laissez-faire. Customs agents aren't going to seize your goods and hold them at random, Calastia isn't going to summarily seize things to "support the war effort", etc.If you were a merchant prince you'd wind up basing most of your operation out of Shelzar just because you could be confident that you could operate unmolested. Sure you'd ship to other countries, but you would want to keep a lot of your assets and inventory places where the authorities couldn't get at them.You work out the contracts, set up payment and only then do you ship into a country.Shelzar, because it's small, offers security to the merchants. If they cracked down and traders stopped coming the city would disappear. So they won't crack down.So it's not "wildly impossible" that a city like this exists. There are historical examples, and it "sockets" in nicely where it is.Finally, it's a great chance to have an entire city that's like the canteena in star wars in a fantasy setting, a sort of Casablanca with swords,which makes for great gaming.</blockquote>

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