LYDIUS; A Northern Free Port, neutrally aligned. Governed by Merchant Law rather than Civil Law. Located at the juncture of the Laurius River and Thassa . A large trade town, it handles much of the distribution of the raw materials harvested from the Great Northern Forests, and is a major supply Port for both Northern and Southern Shipping.
Lydius is one of the few cities of the north which has public baths, as in Ar and Turia, though much smaller and less Opulent. It is a port of paradoxes, where one finds, strangely mingled luxuries and gentilities of the south with the simplicities and rudenesses of the less civilized north. It is not unusual to encounter a fellow with a
jacket of sleen fur, falling to his knees, sewn in the circle stitch of Scagnar, who wears upon his forehead a silken headband of Ar. He might carry a double-headed ax, but at his belt may hang a Turian dagger. He might speak in the accents of Tyros, but startle you with his knowledge of the habits of wild tarns, knowledge one
would expect to find only in one of Thentis Those of Lydius pretend to much civilization, and are fond of decorating their houses, commonly of wood, with high, pointed roofs, in manners they think typical of Ar, of Ko-ro-ba, of Tharna and Turia, but to settle points of honor they commonly repair to a skerry in Thassa, little more than forty feet wide, there to meet opponents with axes, in the manner of those of Torvaldsland.
Book 8 page 45
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