Genin, a mystical Melderyni mage, is the namesake of one of Hârn’s major trade routes. Although tales tie Genin to many strange events in eastern Hârn, the route predates the mage and his connection to it is obscure.
The trail traverses three kingdoms (Melderyn, Chybisa, and Kaldor) and leagues of barbarian-infested wilderness to connect the cities of Thay and Tashal. Travelers cross highland forests and open grasslands, all the while watching for ambushes by tribesmen or bandits. The unpaved trail is rough, rutted, and often muddy, even within the civilized lands of Kaldor and Melderyn.
Traffic on the Genin Trail is heaviest in spring and autumn, when annual trade caravans travel between Thay and Tashal’s Great Summer Fair Fair. Traders from the Melderyni port city bring carts and wagons loaded with preserved fish, minerals, and pottery, as well as wines and exotic luxury goods from the Lythian continent. At Burzyn, Chybisan mercantylers join the northward flow with metal ingots, Hodiri horses and hides, and Sindarin glasswares. After almost two months, the caravans reach Tashal, where mercantylers sell their wares and buy anew for their return trip.
A trade caravan has no set size or composition. Although a small caravan may use mules and carts in hopes of moving quickly, the speed of most trains is set by the plodding place of ox-drawn wagons. The disparity of speed between the various draft animals and conveyances jostling for space makes the caravan masters’ job very difficult.
Not everyone travels the Genin Trail for trade. Laranian and Peonian clerics and laity make pilgrimages to Thay to visit the temples of the Hârnic primates of their faiths. Scholars from Kaldor and western Hârn use the trail to reach the famed chantries of Cherafir or to study the ancient monuments and barrows left by the early Jarin tribes or Khuzdul.
Much of the route crosses land claimed by the Bujoc, Hodiri, and Pagaelin barbarians. The borderlands are protected to some degree by the Chybisan Royal Guard and the armies of Kaldor’s Oselmarch and Melderyn’s Dyriamarch, aided by the knights and men-at-arms of the Order of the Lady of Paladins. Nonetheless, trade caravans and wealthy travelers employ mercenary guards of their own, as do the larger bands of pilgrims.
