Sildby by the Sea
It was a remarkably dry summer day unlike most summer days on the taiga coast which were overcast and drizzly. On this day, though, only a few small cumulus clouds floated lazily in the sky allowing the sun to cast its warming rays on the hooded traveler as he looked down from Whitecrow Peak onto the bay.
Several fishing boats plied their trade, calmly swaying on the unusually gentle waves of the bay, a quarter mile or so from shore. To the north, a cutter sailed south along the coast towards Sildby's small port, no doubt filled with goods to trade from a neighboring port. "Perhaps it is bringing iron," the traveller mumbled to himself noting the unfortunate absence of a nearby iron mine.
The village of Sildby, as its current Rodsild mayor thought of it since he still knew every resident by name, was technically a town by the true definition of the word. It had begun many generations ago as one of many small fishing hamlets built by the Rodsild clan of the Brudvir up and down the jagged coast of what was now known as the Duchy or Erzhalden. Those were the days when the Rodsild clan were as plentiful as the fish they caught in the sea. But with time, even mountains were diminished and so it was with the Rodsild clan.
Now, Sildby was the last of the Rodsild clan holdings, but while lacking the expansive range of land they once claimed, the Rodsild clan were perhaps wealthier than they had ever been. Sildby was thriving and expanding. Logging had replaced fishing as the primary industry bringing with it the various economically enriching professions grouped under the rather generic category of woodworking.
In the port below, the traveler could see the frames of several boat hulls being constructed. The shipwrights were meticulously shaping planks to be fitted to the boat frames and within a few weeks the boats would be maken their maiden voyages along the coast.
The lumber for these boats came from the tall pine forest that grew a short walk inland. The woodcutters there were selective in their harvesting of the forest due to the rangers employed by the town who supervised their work ensuring the sustained life and health of the forest. This supervision included enforcing the policy of "Cut a tree, plant a tree!" which most of the woodcutters thought was a tremendous waste of time.
Shipbuilding, however was neither the only nor the most profitable use of the lumber.
On the western slopes of Whitecrow Peak on which the majority of Sildby was built, various wood carving shops were in operation. They produced ornamental wood carvings from shelf trinkets and wall art to larger more elaborate reliefs and totems.
While these carving shops had initially been the origin of the town's initial surge of economic growth, a new wood-based industry was rapidly gaining momentum within the town's borders. With the rise of the kingdom of Vornair came the call for a product that had formerly been merely a curiosity for many of the Brudvir. The flimsy and easily crumpled sheets of what was called paper were now in high demand as they were needed for the contracts to guarantee the accountability of the kingdom's administration.
When the Brudvir clans had no king, one's honor was sufficient to seal a deal and so outsiders were often shunned. But with the kingdom, the code of honor had consequently been replaced by the code of the written word. It was not a change that was necessarily unsatisfactory, for with the change, trade and commerce flourished. Traveling merchants now arrived in Sildby nearly every day where they set up their wares for sale in the town's central square.
The traveler turned his back on the coast and made his way to the villa that stood on the top of Whitecrow Peak. At the villa's main door that faced southwest, he could see the small plots of farmland that produced the alternative food varieties that supplemented the town's primary staple of fish.
He slowly opened the door of the villa and entered. The mayor who was looking over some contracts looked up to identify his unexpected visitor and immediately, when realization came to him, his face lit up. "Son! You're home!" he exclaimed.
The traveler smiled widely. "Yes father. It is most excellent to be returned from my travels, back at our home that is Sildby by the sea!"
