LIBERUS

Liberus is a trader’s town that is not under the rule of any king­dom. It is the largest mar­ket cen­ter and port in the west­ern part of Ann­mar.  It also hap­pens to be the sec­ond largest port in Ann­mar next to the Ship’s Haven port of Anntheia.  Liberus start­ed out as a smuggler’s port even before the fall of the gods.  There are many places along the west­ern coast that smug­glers still bring in their goods to avoid port tax­es by oth­er king­doms.  The town was cre­at­ed in 40 AG by a smuggler’s con­sor­tium who want­ed to build some rule of law instead of see­ing ships get robbed all the time.  It was built with the idea that all could take advan­tage of the prof­its of bring­ing in goods to Ann­mar instead of pay­ing high tax­es and a per­cent­age of the sale in oth­er ports like Anntheia.  The man who start­ed it all was a mer­chant, but also more of a pirate than any­thing else.  His name was Odin­nel Ymbertt.  A gov­ern­ing coun­cil was cre­at­ed with a Mag­is­trate at the head of the council. 

Liberus has always been a source of con­tention for oth­er king­doms as all of them would like to con­trol the trade that goes through Liberus.  But the town brings a lot of goods into Ann­mar and every king­dom does busi­ness with Liberus. Some refer to it as a nec­es­sary evil.  Even when the town has been attacked and burned to the ground, it has always been rebuilt and trade has con­tin­ued through Liberus.  The town has also tripled in size over 60 years since it was cre­at­ed.  All are wel­come to trade-in Liberus and it does not require port tax­es, just 10% of the val­ue of their car­go that the mer­chant intends to trade, which is still cheap­er than a port that will charge port tax­es and 20% of the val­ue of car­go pass­ing through the port such as in Anntheia.

Smug­glers still try to bring in their goods bypass­ing even Liberus by using some of the hid­den ports around the town and that is why Liberus have Rangers who patrol the area. Liberus does busi­ness with all king­doms and does not seek to have ene­mies even though some king­doms view Liberus as an ene­my. In order to main­tain peace with oth­er king­doms, Liberus will trade all goods with all king­doms. Those who trade in Liberus do so on good faith that they will get a fair deal and have their car­go pro­tect­ed from thieves and pirates. And more impor­tant­ly, that they have the free­dom to pros­per as mer­chants. That is the phi­los­o­phy of Liberus.  In fact, the name of the town is a word for free­dom.  Liberus is also known for the spe­cial alco­hol drink they dis­till, called Ruminn, from a sug­ar­canne molasses that is only found in that part of Ann­mar.  It’s the num­ber one com­mod­i­ty that comes from Liberus and is heav­i­ly trad­ed through­out Annmar.