Giants Causeway
The Giants Causeway is an ancient wonder of the world. Older than any known civilization or ruins. It lies in a crucial position to trade in the world, or more likely trade has developed through and because of it. Sitting betwixt the Golden Citadel and The Grief it is no surprise it became so choked with ship and sail. But all those bodies, all that life packed together flowing like blood across the surface of the world was bound to attract attention. First, it was the pirates who came crawling out of the woodwork to try and prey on the wealth of success of the canal. Though it was impossible to properly escape with their hard-earned bounty, not to say many didn't try. But the pirates were not done, they tried to raid from the land. Hauling great armoured caravans along the edges of the causeway launching hooks and ropes at passing ships. Yet still, their efforts were fruitless, trade ships learned to sail only the center of the great canal. Merchants learned to share their profits with mercenaries, many hiring the very pirates who once sought the cargo they now defended. Next came Tijaras grand trade union from the heights of the golden citadel. But they made a mistake, like the pirates before them. Overextension; they already took a share of all trade within the Citadel, and now they thought they could double charge the honest merchants. The merchants replied with fire and fury, blood and steel, but to no avail, for how can one fight a god? So they replied with the only thing a god of commerce could understand, loss of profits, scarcity of products, embargo. Where the pirates had been dispatched with blades and strong arms, Tijara was dealt with via treaty and embargo. They starved the grand glittering god of commerce near to death if such a thing is truly possible. Tijara was forced to give up many of their tariffs and taxes, reduced to even less thievery than before. The Giants Causeway was not yet done, it was not ready to allow trade to flow freely unimpeded through itself quite yet. Finally came the sycophantic Piócaas; terrible leech-like creatures hibernating in the nooks of crannies of the causeways floor.
There are many theories and rumours as to what caused the Piócaas to awake from their slumber, although no one is entirely certain one way or the other. The most popular rumour by a large margin is that the recently defeated Tijara wanted vengeance for being made a fool. That they, either through their divine power or through their divine wealth, awakened the Piócaas as a plague upon the foolish merchants. Many scholars believe it is simply a natural part of the Piócaas lifecycle. That the current form is a larval stage in a larger, more complex organism. One that laid its eggs or birthed its young a very long time ago and they have only surfaced to feed in recent times. Others still theorize they are an artificial thing, created in some mage's tower for purposes unknown, released into the causeway by accident. Wherever they came from, they remain a constant threat to all who traverse the great canal.
Type
Canal
