Mutarun

Mutarun was an Isradan trader and merchant clan leader from the Atlan province of Israe ot Nenatal in the late Imperial period. He lived from -378 to -302 and led a relatively successful life trading around the Atlan sphere of influence.

Early Life
Mutarun was born in -378 in the village of Kalore on Israe to a common woman named Izmala. His father was a trader of the Usanalinan or Atlan sailing (merchant) class, and rarely made a visit back to Kalore to see his wife and son. Like most Usanalinan, Mutarun's father likely had several wives in different port cities around the Mazedian Sea, most of which had children by him and/or other or past sailor husbands. Merchants spent almost all of their time at sea and away from home and family, so Mutarun's village was almost exclusively made up of women, children, and the elderly, though when the men did return, they always brought magnificent gifts, money, and vivid stories from their travels.

As a child, Mutarun helped the women of the village maintain subsistence farms of tropical fruit, grains, and pigs. Part of their harvest each year was given to the Sannak, or clan as a sort of tax (for ship supplies), on top of their regular imperial taxes. The Sannakan were great merchant houses which semi-autonomously ran the island of Israe and all of the private trading houses based there. Trade was essentially the only industry of the island, other than, by necessity, shipbuilding, lumber, and cargo warehousing.

At the age of 14, Mutarun was hired by his Sannak, the Onsluperan "Fathers of the West" to load and unload ships. This was where most of the education of a young sailor like Mutarun took place- where he learned the hierarchy of a crew, counting and arithmetic, and the general coming and going of routes and business throughout the Empire. He and the other boys his age would group together into small crews and race tiny sailboats across the inlets when not working, learning sailing and navigation from their employers (usually uncles, grandparents, or other older male relatives from the clan).

Mutarun the Usanalin
After years of work at the warehouses and on the docks, Mutarun was hired by a captain named Seliteka as a hand. At age 21 he said goodbye to his mother and family in Kalore and departed on his first route: first north to Jad-Ekheluu and then south, taking stops in Redcah, Peroth, Limaya, and finally arriving at the Fezhoing port of Decoralen before returning to Israe by way of Ataya. The thousands-mile journey enthralled Mutarun, who like so many others of his clan had fallen in love with the trader's lifestyle.

Times were not always easy, though. A scuffle with a rival crew in Apodna once lost Mutarun a finger and cost several of his crew-mates their lives. Another journey to Redcah was plagued by a tropical storm which forced the crew to ditch their cargo- they were unable to purchase food and went without nourishment for a week. On yet another occassion, their ship caught fire when a pirate vessel barraged it with flaming arrows. They escaped, but not before losing most of the top deck to flames.