Two marble statues are all that decorate the mod- est dock of Boughport. They depict a mighty elk crouching to shake hands with a mouse. This monument commemorates the site of the first meeting between the people of Oria and the Beylik. The town is named after their initial writings about “great beasts whose heads have sprouted trees.” Its dock was later visited by the Orians again, to carry the rats who left their homeland for the north.
Boughport maintains a humble existence tucked away behind the Bey’s Head Mountains. The town’s strong connection to Oric culture is clear to any northerner who sees the shape of its buildings. Strannik lodge houses sail south in the summer to trade for vast quantities of the wild herbs unique to the island. These traders are received with an annual festival, treated as the direct descendents of the native rats who left more than a thousand years ago. This fragile little amalgam of a culture would be imperiled by a disruption to the traders’ journey, as they are a vital part of its food supply.