Corwen Hostling was a grain-and-cloth merchant of Adnar, in southern Erasnus, with no title and no fleet. He understood earlier than most that the small states of the Middle Sea were being bled one hull at a time, and that no single one of them was strong enough to stop it. Over four years he carried one proposal between the courts of Erasnus, Watar, Camaran, Ubrik, and Bestacia, rewording it each time a delegation balked, until five governments that did not trust one another agreed to cap their tariffs and protect each other's ships.
Halflings of Erasnus tell it as a parable about patience. A man who could not throw a punch talked five nations into guarding one another's convoys, and the routes he opened still carry the trade that keeps Erasnus rich. The Alliance council at Aldriktch keeps his original draft, corrected in five different hands, in its archive.