San Caseo
San Caseo was built by the Empire of Alcaldar to be the capital of its new region of Channel Lakes. For more than 200 years it served primarily as a support center for explorers, engineers, military units, and the hundreds of laborers who built the route through the center of Libynos. Now it has finally come into its own as an administrative center for the entire Channel Lakes and a trading city in its own right. It is governed by the sebastos, or imperial governor, who represents the queen in all administrative and legal matters, though of course nobles still vow their allegiance to the queen herself.
Although traffic on the Channel Lakes goes past San Caseo, that doesn’t necessarily make the city a big trading center. It has good docks and serves as a port for some transshipment of goods, but most ships that go through the Channel Lakes are taking their cargoes to somewhere specific to trade at the end of the route. Some captains, especially those from large merchant groups or ones who expect to transit the channel frequently, prefer to have their customs inspections in San Caseo because that gives them a chance to call on authorities there and get their names known, perhaps even by the Sebastos. Many people of the Channel Lakes have adopted the custom of the grasslands people who habitually give courtesy gifts to people they meet; a small non-monetary gift for the harbor master or some imperial administrator (or a slightly larger gift for the sebastos) is considered polite and appropriate.
San Caseo receives goods and materials from the settled areas around the Channel Lakes, and trades with merchants from Alcaldar and other points in central and southern Libynos. It exports materials produced in the Channel Lakes area such as salted beef, wool cloth, parchment, and leather goods — especially good armor and saddles (including high-end saddles chased with silver) but many other leather items as well — and high-quality horses. Sometimes horses from the Grasslands of Wahm may go as far as Akados to collectors or breeders looking for something unusual.
Settlement
San Caseo, City of (Capital)
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Capital
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