Tom, I know you've heard this before, but: I agree with Chénier.
If the problem were that there was
a realm that had managed, through whatever politics, war, and other maneuvering, gotten itself in a dead end with only one way out, I would agree with you: Adding sea routes then would be silly.
But this isn't about just a realm that's gotten itself into a bad position.
This is about a whole section of the map that's entirely cut off from the rest.
No matter what realm or combination of realms are there, they won't be able to interact with the rest of Beluaterra meaningfully.
This isn't about politics, Tom. It really is about geography, and fun.
The geography of BT has changed, drastically, and while things are still doing OK during the rebuilding period, it's not going to be long before people in the cut-off tail-end of the continent are getting bored and frustrated because they can't do anything.
Looking at it from a realism perspective, yeah, it would take a while before they would do so, but people in a situation like that would
absolutely create new sea routes between the cut-off lands. Unless you're going to tell us that there's still something in the ocean that makes it deadly to people (in other words, unless you're going to tell us that the Blight is still there, for all intents and purposes), people
would find a way through, and open up trade with the North again.
(Heck, given enough time—and this would be on a scale of a few years, not geological timescales—Melegra or Ajitmon would become larger towns with the trade that would be going through them, and probably eventually one of them would become a port city. But that seems a bit beyond the scope of this
)
So, yes, I understand where you're coming from on this, and yes, I have a vested interest here, and no, changes like this should never be made common—but for goodness sake, Tom, when I'm agreeing with Dominic, I would think it would be pretty clear that there's at least something to what we're trying to say.
A terrible change has come over the land. People adapt to those kinds of changes, and
one of the ways they adapt is by opening up new trade routes across the ocean.
