The colonies, powerful even a thousand years ago, had only grown in prosperity and magnificence in the meantime. Galaxy, and the Mystical Black Isles in the west, ruled the seas with the mightiest fleets in the known world. Most of the seaponies had apparently sworn fealty to her in the time the empire had been gone. Nothing trod the waves without her implicit permission, which only raised questions regarding piracy issues in the eastern seas and the apparent impunity the merchant princes of the rats cut off entire seas from trade with the continent. 