Nonamee

Nonamee began with a stubborn man who refused to move when he was asked to, instead staying put because he was just plain tired of traveling. When he was still alive when the caravan passed back through, a few of them who were also tired of traveling also stayed.

Unfortunately, these were people that the caravan was glad had left, as they had no ethics, stealing from all who came near. The stubborn man saw how he could put their skills to his advantage, and together they built a couple small wayhouses for travelers to stay in as they moved across the immense continent. Not all of the visitors who stopped over in the wayhouses left, though. Some stayed to add to the growing population, but even more just disappeared, never to be seen again by those who knew them.

The wayhouses became popular, and more were built, and more people stayed to help in them, and the next thing the stubborn man knew, he had a real city on his hands. A small one, granted, but still a city. Its position in the center of the continent made it a popular place to stop for a few days to rest, and new trade routes were born that started at Nonamee, stretching out to all the coasts of the continent.

This town grew fast, but it remained true to its roots. Nothing was considered illegal for trade, and theft ran rampant. As it grew larger, it developed upward in tiers. The higher the tier, the better the security, but it was more expensive to buy anything there as only the richest could afford the highest tiers.

At the time of the first cataclysmic earthquake, Nonamee had grown to have ten tiers, spreading out over miles of land. The earthquake leveled the great city, killing thousands of the people that lived inside of it as well as just outside of the walls. The earthquake also split the continent into thirds, leaving Nonamee a port city instead of being a central hub.

Nomamee regrew quickly, but the manner of the city did not change. People still bought and sold literally everything, and those who were not careful who they dealt with sometimes ended up as merchandise themselves, or they ended up dead. Even dead bodies had pieces that were worth a lot of money in the right places. There were legitimate merchants as well as the shady ones, and the city once again thrived, becoming an immense trading center.