Boriken
When Castilian explorers came to the island of Boriken, they were struck with its tremendous wealth of natural resources and the beauty of the island and its interior mountains. Faced with a powerful but friendly native force, they forged an alliance of trade and mutual respect that turned the port into one of the primary producers of sugar and rum in the region.
When the first Castilian settlement was established in 1178 PD and dubbed with the name Puerto Rico, the Taino natives who covered the islands of the region didn't mind the trade goods that came in. The first farms that started growing the sugar sprouted up, and the Castilian people began to employ the Taino on the farms due to labor shortages. The wages were low, and the trade goods were expensive, and at first the Taino didn't mind, the value of the goods was far higher to them.
By 1200PD the port had grown and the Taino began to be invested in the farms, owning and supplying labor for them outright. They found a balance of their own between the labor required for the farms, and their cultural needs. By this time the Taino had begun travelling freely to the Western Kingdoms themselves and had a fuller grasp of the value of the goods they were trading. They began creating their own high quality rums and the cultural norms with how to deal with its consumption at home. Today the port is a thriving concern, under the treatised protection of the Castilian navy. While there was an element of the Castilian nobility that wanted to fold the island more directly into their kingdom, the strength of the Tiano primal mages (and later their own arcane tradition), and the distance involved made this arrangement far more profitable.
Today, the people of Boriken make the finest rum in the world, both for common use as well as the more refined tastes.
When the first Castilian settlement was established in 1178 PD and dubbed with the name Puerto Rico, the Taino natives who covered the islands of the region didn't mind the trade goods that came in. The first farms that started growing the sugar sprouted up, and the Castilian people began to employ the Taino on the farms due to labor shortages. The wages were low, and the trade goods were expensive, and at first the Taino didn't mind, the value of the goods was far higher to them.
By 1200PD the port had grown and the Taino began to be invested in the farms, owning and supplying labor for them outright. They found a balance of their own between the labor required for the farms, and their cultural needs. By this time the Taino had begun travelling freely to the Western Kingdoms themselves and had a fuller grasp of the value of the goods they were trading. They began creating their own high quality rums and the cultural norms with how to deal with its consumption at home. Today the port is a thriving concern, under the treatised protection of the Castilian navy. While there was an element of the Castilian nobility that wanted to fold the island more directly into their kingdom, the strength of the Tiano primal mages (and later their own arcane tradition), and the distance involved made this arrangement far more profitable.
Today, the people of Boriken make the finest rum in the world, both for common use as well as the more refined tastes.
My first trip to Puerto Rico and the rest of Boriken was astounding, never had I seen such beauty and such friendly people. So different and so willing to set aside those differences in order to learn and grow even more!
~Mage Harold Kinnick, Library of Saxony
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