While the dynastic merchant houses began the practice
of the all night emporiums, many small Nibenese
businesses soon followed suit to support the heavy traffic
from the merchant houses. Food vendors and small shop
owners were the first to respond. Now almost every concern
surrounding Sage's Square conducts business around the
clock, with a brief two hour break around midday.
Emporiums of the largest dynastic merchant houses surround a plaza called Sage's Square. Most of the major houses of the Tyr region have emporiums here, with the notable exception of House Stel of Urik. House Stel's open violence toward House Shom has resulted in a temporary revocation of Nibenese trade permits. The emporiums of Sage's Square never close. Slaves, livestock, timber, rice, and other trade goods may be bought and sold here at any time of the day or night.
The merchant houses in Nibenay have enormous stately
emporiums that trade directly with the public and with
other merchant houses. Since none of the agents of the
dynastic merchant houses may accept citizenship in any
city, the houses must lease the property upon which they
build their emporiums from the state or from the nobles
who own the land. Most merchant houses prefer to deal
directly with the state, which has proven to be a more
stable and predictable landlord.
Sage's Square gained its name from the scholars and
philosophers who traveled from across the Great Ivory
Plain to debate ideas in the shade of the enormous
agafari trees that once grew there. A recent clash between
the king's templars and a fugitive defiler left the entire
square a blackened husk. The Shadow King had the
dead trees removed and burned with the 100 slaves who
had tended them. He has ordered that the now-infertile
ground remain barren as a symbol of the public danger
which rogue magic-users represent. A fountain in the form
of a mantis still fills a stone basin in the center of the
desolate square with a thin trickle of water.