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Currency and Trade

Battal, like any place where amazing, epic stories take place, is a vibrant land with quite a lot of trade and commerce and things of that nature going on. As such, a short discussion of those things is in order.

The Currency of Battal

The currency of the lands of Battal has changed with the times. The first recorded major currency was that of the SoJs used during The Magic Sword Kings Period. These were magical artifacts of questionable origin and nature that completely circumvented the widely used currency of the time, biscuits. However, due to a quickly-developing and very dedicated group of counterfeiters began to create many copies of SoJs and totally flooded the market, making inflation skyrocket. Very quickly, the use of SoJs fell out of favor as a currency.

This paved a way for a new, more fashionable currency. Known as Kalluns, this new currency consisted of ring-shaped coins coated in gold and covered with various motivational sayings. The more motivational, the more it was worth. The Kallun enjoyed popularity as the major currency during the late Magic Sword Kings Period and on through the The Sundering and the beginnings of The Unsundering. It was about that time that those in charge of minting the Kallun, The Battal Happyfun Currency Society, ran out of creative steam and could no longer think up suitably motivational phrases to inscribe upon them, and when the public started seeing things like "No, seriously, be motivated" on their money, they began to look for a different form of currency.

And this form of currency came via a current rivalry between The Shield and The Sickle. During The Sundering period, the Kallun remained the currency of both pieces of Battal, thanks to the Currency Society opening branches on both continents. When the two continents were rejoined by Harbinger Portent, however, those near the newly reformed border of the two lands became extremely patriotic. The local governments began creating currency shaped like their continent. On The Shield, the Shieldalnd was created. On The Sickle, the currency was called Sickloca. These quickly caught on in the two continents, and created a wonderful business of currency exchange between the two countries as well. It remained the major currency up until the time of The Wizbits.

During The Wizbits animated series, the main characters use a form of currency known only as Munnie. Not much is known about it's origin, but most agree it's a lot more fun than any other sort of money.

However, Munnie is nowhere to be seen starting with tales in the The Rise Of The Elemenstors period. During this time, small square coins made of the element Elemenstronium became the major form of currency. Known as Curld, this currency was minted and distributed by the Elemenstors of the Cerulean Citadel, and thanks to their influence during this period, caused it to be widely used through that period and the rest of the timeline as it has been recorded. Gem Flecks were a precariously valued currency used in the area of Ezermethalon.

In the game ELotH Online The Bloodrage Chronicle, the currency is known as EG, which is divided into Lower, Middlern, and Higher.

After the unsundering it was common that, as the De Facto economic ruler of Battal, all currencies would be first approved by the King of Alfafanar. The vast amount of currencies used is a testament to how inbred Royalty can get after countless thousands of years. The power of this rule can be demonstrated in its exception. The Filleroon was a currency created without Alfafanarin approval and is entirely without value. The Richards followed soon after.

The Quilp maintain their own currency, the Quilder. While approved by the King of Alfafanar, it is not widely used as currency outside of Quilpopolis, due to the inherent danger in handling it.

In the conquered twelve realms during the reign of Vhadxi, puppies were a valuable trade currency.

The Strip Scrip is the currency of The Forever Road, and is not considered viable currency elsewhere due to its odd properties.

In Zonardia they use Snogar as the currency. Money from The Sickle or The Shield has little or no value in Zonardia (even after the Great Reseating) and so it is not reasonable to discuss exchange rates.

Soulpay (TM) is a standardized system of payment using your very soul developed by the Lawyer of DOOM. This system is popular with Devyls.

Trade on Battal

Trade on Battal is fairly robust, with quite a few major industries, and supposedly regulated by the Guild of Free Traders.

Traders travel the length and breadth of Battal transporting Trade Goods. Traders are normally arranged into Trade Caravans and hire guards to ensure a safe journey. Some trade caravans follow fixed routes and have become famous for reliability and security. The Golden Wagon caravan traveled regularly across Ezermethalon during the the reign of King Sc'rch'drth and made vast profits for its owners.

Precious metals and livestock are naturally of key value for barter, trade, commerce or backing currency, the accepted value of goats and silver being a standard reference trade index for these markets.

Here are some of the major industries.

• Furniture Fabrication: Due to the need of very elaborate pieces of furniture to be used by Elemenstors in the creation of their Furniliars, the furniture making business on Battal is especially robust, with Elemenstors only purchasing the finest of furniture and thus influencing the general public to consider owning a very elaborate piece of furniture as a very powerful status symbol.
• Farming: Like any culture, farming is a key industry. Everyone needs food, right? Most agriculture takes place around the Crestplains on The Shield and on the Eastrenn Coast of The Sickle. Little farms can pop up just about anywhere, however. Most non-epic land on Battal is fairly good for farming.
• Adventuring: When you have a land this epic, constant attacks by rogues and monsters are commonplace. Who will take care of them? Adventurers, of course. Quite a few adventures are freelance, but a large number of them belong to The Guilde of Adventure Haurdcore, founded sometime during The Magic Sword Kings Period. The guild provides a safe place to go to request help with repelling any sort of attack or dispelling any sort of ancient curse the public might find themselves infected with.
• Mining: Battal has a large number of rarer mineral resources. Because of this large operations have been formed to harvest these minerals. The biggest mining company on Battal is most certianly OreCorp, Ltd, which has operations all over The Shield and The Sickle. See: Minerals and Metals
• Fyshcalling: Like most of the creatures of Battal, fysh and other aquatic life are infused with the Elements, especially Water (for obvious reasons). Mundane nets and lines are hardly efficient (or safe) means of harvesting the eldritch lifeforms that populate the murky oceans around the Shield and Sickle. The Fyshcallers are a loosely associated guild of hedge elemenstors who employ a handful of crude techniques associated with the water element in order to draw fysh into the collection devices (Fyshscoopes) on their boats.
• Cheesemaking: Every land has a cheese to call its own. Matters of cheese have instigated (and indeed ended) ferocious wars. Nowhere is this more evident than the cheeseocracy of Leng. Elemenstors of all levels enjoy a good slice of cheese as much as anyone else.
• Swordforgery: One of the critical industries that makes Battal turn. Without it the entire Adventuring industry would crumble, not to mention much of the Epicness that is Battal would cease to be.

There are, of course, many other types of businesses making an honest wage, but these are but some of the most important. Needless to say, Battal is a wonderful place to set up shop!

Sea Travel and Trade

Sea faring is very underdeveloped in most of Battal. Possibly due to the strange day/night cycle, magnetism, stellar alignment, and relative orbits it would be impossible to build the advanced sea faring equipment that allow for navigation out of sight of land, but it is known that no such instruments exist. There, however, is a fair amount of coastal sea trade up and down the ports of The Shield, particularly on the eastern coast. There are a few scattered examples of ships passing between the Shield and the Sickle during the sundered era, but these are all flukes rather than intentional trade passages.

After the re-sundering there were slightly more parsonyian ships built for trade with the island Sickle, although this was always a very active port, and so they were the best situated to take advantage of trade with Zonardia when it landed in the great eastern sea during the end times.

Of course, sea trade was the dominant economic force during The Great Breakening. Chartered travel between the 16 islands (the islet of Portundia constantly applied for, but was never granted island status) was also a great economic boon to the seamen of the era.