Stahl

[A.J.]

I think the only opportunity for an Hanseatic League in Stahl would be in the southeast.  I sort of doubt trade would be vibrant enough in the southwest to create the sort of wealth that merchants need to develop into political powers.  After all, from the description in the book, Saxaven is probably a sparsly populated island with it's greatest income being raiding, not the sort of place with a high volume of trade.  In addition, the Saxavens raiders would be sea-trade too risky in the 'Sea of Raiders' to even warrent investing capital in the overseas trade with Farrenshire, Gelure, or the Empire.  While there might be a few wealthy merchants in southwest Stahl, a league of them seems unlikely.  

Of course, that's just the way I'm interpreting the material!

[Irmo]

I think the only opportunity for an Hanseatic League in Stahl would be in the southeast.  I sort of doubt trade would be vibrant enough in the southwest to create the sort of wealth that merchants need to develop into political powers.  After all, from the description in the book, Saxaven is probably a sparsly populated island with it's greatest income being raiding, not the sort of place with a high volume of trade.  In addition, the Saxavens raiders would be sea-trade too risky in the 'Sea of Raiders' to even warrent investing capital in the overseas trade with Farrenshire, Gelure, or the Empire.  While there might be a few wealthy merchants in southwest Stahl, a league of them seems unlikely.  

Of course, that's just the way I'm interpreting the material!

On the other hand, curbing piracy or at least keeping commerce going in spite of it might be precisely a reason for merchants to band together. The Hanseatic league established fleets and in the end took out the raiders under Klaus Stortebecker and Godeke Michels, after a struggle of 15 years. Of course, it would be one idea to have a campaign to that end, with a fleet assembled by stahlnish merchants opening sea lanes in the 'Sea of Raiders', establishing fortified trade posts in Savaxen and Picti and eventually either forcing the locals to organize into structured realms, or economically colonizing them.

[Jake Norwood]

In that case you'd want them between Savaxen and Picti/Angharad, where they have to deal with the threat of piracy all the time, but aren't so close that there's a technology/civilazation overlap.

Jake

[Nick the Nevermet]

*g* Sorry, misunderstanding here....the geographical layout I can get from the map on the website...I was more interested in what it looks like culturally. Specifically, what is the level of organization? Are we talking about losely allied viking raiders or a Denmark, Norway or Sweden style kingdom?

Sorry... IIRC, loosely allied raiders / traders.  Technically, they have allegiance to the King of Stahl, but not in practice (formal separation seems inevitable)

So, if there is to be a parallel in Stahl, it could be anywhere in the range described, whether we're talking about local, regional or national levels, e.g. there could be one league in the southeast, regulating trade with Cyrinthmeir, Zaporozhya and Sarmatov, and one in the west regulating trade with Angarhad, the islands, Farrenshire, Ouestenreich and possibly Gelure and possibly the profitable but risky far trade with Xanar -and of course intra-Stahl trade in their area... at the line of contact there could be constant vying for control, as cities switch allegiances for promises of privileges.... just as one wild idea...

Sounds good... I especially like the notion of trade over land.  The book mentions that foriegn powers often set up mines in iron-rich Fahal, which they try to mine as long as possible before the people of that nation kick them out.  That sounds like a perfect enterprise for a trade league to get into.  That inland sea between Cyrinthmeir, Fahal, Exliaph and a few others is an interesting place... a lot of potential is there for explorers & entrepreneurs.