Island of Tralival

Tralival is one located far to the north of Mercantie, not too far from Glohtron. Where Glohtron is rather safe from Orc invasions and raids, Tralival on the other hand is only protected from these raids by the paladin's of Athena and the distance to the nearest Orc islands.
The island is one of the larger islands of Teolin, measuring a little over one hundred by a little under two hundred miles.
Where it not for the (semi) regular Orc invasions and raids, Tralival would be a prosperous island, as it is rich enough in resources. Not to the extreme, but the crops are easy enough to grow and nature is not unkind in sending fish and birds into the hands of capable people.

Movement

Tralival is divided into a couple of different sections by rolling hills, sometimes reaching to mountain ridges. This does slow down traffic considerable, that is why most trade traffic (using wagons) takes between eight and ten days to travel from north to south and between sixteen and twenty days for traveling from east to west.
A traveler that can travel light, or has enough cash to spare to buy several light horses will travel from east to west in approximately six days.

Geology of Tralival

The origin of the island seems to be a group of volcanoes. The volcanic rock, once crushed, corroded and crumbled is a very productive soil that tends to deliver extremely good crops. Most farmers that come from other places are astonished by how little they have to do to harvest a large crop. The nature of the island with all it's mountain ridges and rolling hills, helps as well, as this helps protecting the crops from stormy weather.
A second pointer to the history of the island is the couple of lakes that are found on the island. All of them are very deep and some of them are so acidic, you can not use the water to spray plants or they will instantly die.
A last indication of this history is that where ever you look, you can see sharp black rocks jutting out of the ground. Mostly, these are not to big and it is possible to remove them when a new piece of land is cleared for housing or farmland. Some of them however are too big to remove or dig too deep into the ground. Often houses are build, using the rock as part of the wall then.

Political situation

The villages and city's often are rather small, but the political system is much less fragmented as one would expect. The different regions all have a representative in the island council which meets for the first three days of every month.
The council is presided by the island-board-president and advised by three members of Athena's paladins order. The island-board resides in Giraton, the capital and is elected by the island-board-president. The island-board-president is appointed every year and each year a different region is given the honor to choose the president from their midst.
The two regions that are governed by the paladins, never get to elect the president.

Crime and Justice

In the two regions where monasteries of the paladins of Athena are found, they enforce the law and so crime is virtually unheard of.
In the other regions, it is the local militia that enforce the law. Depending on the severity of the crime, the local militia sometimes will find farming, black-smiting or any other profession more important then chasing criminals.

Magic

The paladins of course have a preference for magic sanctioned by Athena, but in general, most inhabitants of Tralival are happy with magic, as they see it as a possibility to drive of the Orc's that often charge in with little advance warning.

Revered gods

Athena is the patron deity of the paladins who live in the north-eastern parts of Tralival. She is not the only revered deity however. Along the east coast, many a fisher lives and they tend to worship Poseidon.
Other areas of the island seem to have given up on the gods, as the raids of the Orc's seem to have told them that the gods do not have time to protect them. Still most villages and city's do have a temple dedicated to Irtolie.

Main population

Some dwarves have made their home on Tralival, but they are few, as the rocks are so hard even dwarves do not like building their home in them.
More then nine out of ten people are humans, however there also is some offspring that reminds the people of the returning Orc raids. It is obvious that these are not very popular neighbors.

Economy

Tralival is a major exporter of food, but only in the years there has not been a Orc raid. Also some electrum and hell-iron is exported. The main thing that people would like to import is security and so often adventurers and hired-fighters find a simple job by guarding a village or a city for a couple of weeks or months.



The Teolin Setting
Copyright 2001-2005 Ylorea's Adventuring
Last update 19-11-2003