Sage's Square

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.