The River Rom or River Romney, after which the city of Romney is named, is a river in the Kingdom of the Isles in Betrayal at Krondor and its novelization, Krondor: The Betrayal. Commercial traffic along the river is a key point in the story's early plot.
Betrayal at Krondor
Geography
The River Rom is in the Eastern Kingdom. It parallels the east side of the King's Highway from the port at Silden northward to Romney, which is surrounded by the river and can only be reached by boat or by a bridge over the Ursine Ford. It then briefly turns west. Further north, it forks eastward under a bridge to a landlocked lake south of Prank's Stone and westward to parallel the south side of the King's Highway until the road turns northward again.
History
The River Rom is an important route for commercial travel, with powerful guilds controlling the rights to such business. When the Guild of the Romney, secretly an arm of the Crawler's efforts to take control of the Kingdom's commercial organizations, splintered from the more powerful Riverpullers Guild and annexed business in Silden, the Riverpullers hiked their own fees in the Romney area. Craft guilds responded by turning to the Guild of the Romney, touching off a wave of hostility in which the Riverpullers blockaded the river and its ford and the prices for shipped goods along the King's Highway rose sharply in the area. In turn, the Glazer's Guild further blockaded the ford, preventing travelers without a Glazer's Guild Seal from entering Romney. Despite Duke Romney's attempts to mediate, the guild conflict caused considerable property damage and several deaths. The murders of fifty King's men in Romney's Black Sheep Tavern would eventually galvanize Duke Romney to force the city's most influential guilds to the negotiation table, ending the guild war and bringing prices in the area back to normal.
Krondor: The Betrayal
On the book's map, The River Rom appears to originate from the High Wold southwest of Highcastle and run southeast to Romney, where it splits into two branches which run to the Kingdom Sea, meeting it southwest at Silden and southeast at Cheam. However, the text states that it runs south from the Teeth of the World near the barony of Northwarden, with the River Cheam splitting off to run southeast to the port of Cheam and the Rom continuing southwest, eventually turning southeast again to let out at the port of Silden.[1] The branch of the Rom running to Silden may also be known as the River Silden.
When speculating how Delekhan might reach Sethanon from Romney, Prince Arutha remarks that he might try to take the River Silden from Romney and then turn westward north of the City of Silden for a march to Sethanon.[2]
Romney itself straddles all three rivers, which are crossed with bridges within the city. The Green Cat Inn is just across the River Cheam from the Black Sheep Inn and Earl Richard's residence. The Riverpullers, the most powerful guild in the area, handles the shipping of cargo along the river, and are usually cautious about raising their prices lest merchants choose to ship their goods via the King's Highway instead.
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The Crawler's attempt to annex all criminal enterprise in the area involved causing trouble on the roads and instigating a price hike by the Riverpullers while fomenting an uprising by an alliance of craftspeople, guilds, and laborers who tried to make alternative arrangement for shipping cargo to and from Romney, leading to the Riverpullers threatening to shut down all business along the river in both directions.[3]
Trivia
- Conversations at The Wayside and the Anchorhead Tavern highlight the duress under which traders and dockworkers have operated during the guild war.