Tozai

The Tozai are mysterious sea-people from the West who came to Vosca in gigantic ships. They haven't brought potatoes yet, because Cohiba (tobacco) is worth way more. Imagine the Native Americans traveling to a new world for trade and slaves. The Columbian Exchange, in reverse.
They are essentially a stone-age people, but their craftsmanship is enormously skillfull and they brought wondrous things with them. The Ibers were the first to meet them, and they traded metal weapons for Cohiba. The Gallians later got into the trade, and now Galli is the only country the Tozai are allowed to trade with, an agreement they made in return for "guests," which are slaves under any other name. During the War of 99 Kings, the true King of Galli (the one who won) simply offered tens of thousands of captives as barter for a monopoly on the Cohiba trade. And he got it. So the Tozai got 300,000 Frenchmen over the course of several decades in return for tobacco. They didn't ask for anyone in particular, and the Gallians were careful not to send nobility, but through sheer weight of volume it is probable that they've gotten metalworkers and such by this time. ("Careful to not send nobility" means they didn't send women, they still send inconvenient nobles to the Tozai.)
Mostly these days they trade cohiba for fashioned tools and weapons, silks, and spices. The matter of tools and weapons may be because Western Vosca has the largest Silversteel reserves in the known world, and that as a result their weapons are just superior, or it may be because they just know a lot more about metallurgy than the Tozai.
In the current day the Branded Zells finally heard about this, and now raid Nords and Tozai in equal measure, pirating their shipments. The Branded Zells getting involved has both crippled Galli's economy and really, really pissed the Tozai off.
Category:Countries