Coster

From Ardesia

In the Bay of Shoals, the boats of the Coster of the Sixteen Isles rule the seaways.

The Coster is a trade collective on par with most nations. The individual members are called costers by the peoples of the nations where they call at port. Costers are hard but fair bargainers, considering it a matter of honour. Their seafaring skills are legendary, as are the far lands to which they are said to travel. A buyer can always find interesting exotics among the ordinary goods that a coster brings to port.

The Coster jealously guards its secrets, including how to safely navigate the shallow sea of the Bay of Shoals. The Coster considers the Bay its domain, but beyond that deals evenly with all. Despite this, boats of other nations are neither considered tresspassers nor allies, and are allowed to find their (likely sad) fate. The trim, deep-hulled ships of the Coster stand out in foreign ports among the broad-beamed, shallow-hulled cogs and caravels of the coastal nations.

The form that the Interdict Arcanum takes in the Coster is a sort of vehement denial. Witches, accordering to a coster, no longer exist, having been wiped out in the Witch Wars. The normally even-tempered costers are hostile, and sometimes violent, when outsiders insist on discussing witchcraft or the possibility that wizards still exist somewhere.