Day 23 - ExportsDay 23-What are the major exports of the region?
A campaign can be big and different places within it will be known for different products. Pick a few of the best sellers or most interesting things and tell us about them.
Elowen’s Journal
"I already talked about the soil, but it really does explain a lot.
On paper, West Haven’s main export is produce. The Haven Valley grows things easily, eagerly, like the land is trying to make up for what it once took. East Haven has good soil too, but they settled on higher ground after the Flood and missed out on much of the rich earth the mountains carried down. And if I’m being honest, witches have always been better at growing things. We listen to the land rather than argue with it.
Most trade still runs through East Haven. That’s just geography and habit. Every so often, someone there tries to raise taxes or impose tariffs, and every time it gets shut down by saner heads. The two towns function best when trade stays free and open. Everyone knows that, even when they pretend not to.
West Haven’s other great export is an open secret: magic.
Sometimes it’s small things. Potions for sleep or luck. Card readings. Crystal gazing. Blessings whispered over tools or doorways. Other times it’s bigger than that. People come here the way my parents did, looking for answers they can’t find anywhere else. You can always tell who they are. They look hollow, like something important has gone missing, and they don’t know how to name it.
There are witches trained to spot those people. Larina calls them ambassadors. Their job isn’t to sell magic, but to listen and decide what kind of help is actually needed. Katrina used to be one, apparently, though I have a hard time imagining her being patient with non-witches. Cassandra and Celeste are very good at it when they aren’t in the Library. Esmé does it too. She says helping people reminds her of why she stayed.
West Haven doesn’t export spells so much as it exports intervention. If you come here and leave changed, no one is surprised. That’s the real trade. The rest is just what shows up on ledgers."
Designer’s Notes
Exports in West Haven are designed to reinforce the theme rather than the economy. Agricultural abundance provides a believable foundation, while magical services operate in a semi-formal, socially regulated way. Magic here is not commodified wholesale. It is mediated through relationships, ethics, and judgment.
The concept of witch “ambassadors” exists to prevent exploitation on both sides. Desperate outsiders are guided, redirected, or turned away as needed, and witches are protected from becoming transactional service providers. This supports a tone where magic remains meaningful rather than routine.
Trade tensions with East Haven provide ongoing low-level conflict without requiring open hostility. The two towns are interdependent, and both know it. West Haven’s greatest export is not goods or spells, but change, and that is something no tariff can easily contain.
West Haveners are very much aware of their interdependence on East Haven, even if witches like Katrina believe they go it alone. That's a topic for tomorrow.
An aside: I am beginning to think that Elowen here might be a Pumpkin Spice Witch. As I have been using her this month, I see her less and less as a witch who commands armies of the undead, and more as a witch who drinks lattes and talks to customers, both living and dead.
Not every witch needs to be a world-shaking magical powerhouse.
Join Adam Dickstein of Barking Alien, and his RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE 2026!
No comments:
Post a Comment