The Schwartzistan Herald, 23 September 2026

Eel cannery joins the board: Vikbeil lists on the Exchange

Vellmar, 22 September 2026

The floor of the Exchange at the moment the first price for VIG was called.

Trading opened at the usual hour, with the fog still lying low over the river and the clerks at the Vellmar Exchange lighting the lamps over the boards a good hour before they would in a clear September. It was into this half-dark that the letters VIG went up for the first time, against the name of Vikbeil Eel Canning, and a small crowd of brokers who had been told to expect it gathered by the north rail to watch the chalk go on.

The company's admission had been spoken of about the coffee houses of the Exchange quarter for some weeks, though the precise morning was kept close until Monday evening, when the notice went up on the board itself. By eight o'clock on Tuesday there were runners from three houses waiting at the doors, and a queue of the curious besides, drawn less by any expectation of dealing than by the novelty of watching a cannery join the list.

One broker, coat still beaded with the fog he had walked through from the Ostra bridge, said the opening dealings went "steadier than a fish market and twice as loud," and allowed that he had bought a small parcel himself before nine. Another, older hand at the rail recalled that the last cannery to come to the board had taken the better part of a decade to earn a settled price, and thought Vikbeil might do it faster, "if the herring hold and the tins don't."

The listing was managed through the ordinary channels of the Exchange, with the company's clerks present from first light to answer the enquiries of the jobbers and to see the paper properly countersigned. No difficulty was reported in the process, and the boards were cleared of the morning's other business a little early so that the new entry might have its moment undisturbed.

By the close the fog had not lifted from the river, and the lamps over the Exchange floor stayed lit through the whole of the session, throwing a yellow country-fair light over the brokers still clustered at the VIG column long after the other boards had emptied. A porter sweeping the floor afterward said he had counted eleven separate parties still arguing figures at half past four, "which for a fish company is no small thing."

The Exchange's general index closed the day at 78,241.20, a figure this journal records elsewhere in its market column, and bank rate stood unmoved at 3.86 per cent. Whether Vikbeil's arrival on the list will be remembered as more than a curiosity of the autumn is, naturally, a matter for the years to answer.

A haulage firm opens its yard at Norrbruck

Norrbruck, 20 September 2026

Hallin Haulage began carrying on the twentieth, its yard gates opened before the dew had cleared from the cobbles by its founder, Petra Hallin, who is said to have stood at the gatepost herself to see the first cart out.

Neighbours along the yard's lane reported the creak of new-painted gates and the smell of fresh tar on the wheel rims well before the town was properly awake. Mrs Hallin, asked what she meant to carry, is reported to have answered simply, "whatever wants carrying," and to have gone back inside before further questions could be put to her.

The yard stands a short walk from the centre of Norrbruck, and its opening was watched by a small gathering of carters from the older firms, curious, as one of them put it, "to see who's come to eat our custom." No difficulty attended the day, and the first loads went out by mid-morning under a sky that, unlike Vellmar's, had already gone clear.

Dye works founded at Norrbruck

Norrbruck, 18 September 2026

Two days before Hallin Haulage opened its gates, the same town saw the founding of the Norrbruck Dye Company, the work of Oskar Sonholt, who is understood to have taken the premises some weeks earlier and spent the intervening time fitting the vats.

Passers-by on the morning of the founding noted a strong smell of new lime and mordant hanging over the street, and a boy delivering milk to the works said he had been asked to leave his cans further off than usual "on account of the colours." Mr Sonholt was seen about the yard in shirtsleeves through most of the day, directing the unloading of barrels from a cart that had come in from the river road.

Norrbruck has of late acquired something of a name for new enterprise, the dye works following hard on the haulage firm's heels, and the town's older tradesmen were heard debating in the Wednesday market whether the place was becoming, as one put it, "a proper manufacturing town at last."

Electric light comes to Eisenheim's market square

Eisenheim, 23 September 2026

The lamps went up over the market square at Eisenheim on Wednesday evening, their light carrying as far as the smiths' doors along Forge Row, where several of the ironworkers came out to their thresholds to watch the switch thrown.

A stallholder who sells eggs at the square's north end said she had never before been able to close her stall by anything but candle and lantern, and that the new light "makes the whole place look like it's been scrubbed." Children were reported running the length of Forge Row after dark for the pleasure of seeing their own shadows thrown twice, once by the lamp behind and once by the one ahead.

The smiths of Forge Row, whose forges have lit the square after dusk for as long as anyone living can remember, were divided on the innovation, one declaring it "a fine thing for the eggs and the eel-sellers, but no good to a man who needs his own fire to see the metal by."

Sudfurt library opens its terminals to the public

Sudfurt, 20 September 2026

The library at Sudfurt, off Low Way, opened its network terminals to members of the public on Sunday, with the Ministry of Chronology's search notice pinned beside each machine where any reader waiting his turn cannot help but see it.

A queue had formed along Low Way before the doors were unbolted, made up chiefly, the librarian on duty said, "of the young wanting to look up things their grandfathers won't discuss at table." The terminals themselves, four in number, were kept busy through the afternoon, and the librarian reported no disorder beyond one dispute over whose turn came next, settled by a show of tickets drawn from a hat kept behind the desk for the purpose.

The Ministry's notice, unchanged in its wording from previous postings, was read by several patrons aloud to each other before they sat down to their searching, a habit the librarian said she saw no reason to discourage.

Storm strips roofs at Berging, fells the old lime

Berging, 18 September 2026

A storm came up over Berging in the small hours of Friday, stripping slates from a number of roofs about the town and bringing down the old lime tree that has stood at the head of Market Walk since before anyone now living can remember its planting.

Residents woke to the sound of the tree going over shortly after two, and by first light Market Walk was choked with its branches, blocking the way to the stalls until a party of men with axes and a borrowed cart cleared enough of it to let a barrow through. One woman whose roof lost most of its slates said she had lain awake counting them go, "like hail, only you knew each one was money."

The lime's fall was mourned by several of the older residents of Market Walk, one of whom recalled sheltering under it as a girl during an earlier storm and said its going felt "like losing a neighbour who never once complained." The town's roofers were reported fully engaged through the following days, with slate said to be dear for want of hands to fix it.

Casualty Roll as published by the War Ministry

No names published this week.

The front line is at the Reed Line. No change.

The Assembly

The Assembly held no sitting of note in the week under review, and this journal has nothing further to record of its proceedings.

The Courts

The Court of Chronological Offences, 20 September: The Crown v. S. K., concerning the assertion of the unyear in a public house at Ostrabruck. The defendant was fined 20,056 marka.

The Regional Court of The Capital District, 23 September: Holt v. Kreiten, touching the estate of the late Kreiten. The court ordered the estate divided equally.

The Regional Court of The Ostrand, 20 September: The Crown v. Reinholt, concerning the theft of a printing press. The defendant was bound over.

The Regional Court of Westgau, 18 September: Zeller v. Manfeld, on a contract for coal not delivered. The contract was declared void.

The Regional Court of The Sudmark, 18 September: The Crown v. Brosbraurn, on a charge of desertion from the Marsh Regiments. The defendant was acquitted, the court finding that he was lost in the fog.

The Regional Court of The Capital District, 17 September: The Crown v. Grelar, concerning fraud upon the Bank of Schwartzistan. The defendant was acquitted.

The Market

The Exchange closed at 78,241.20, bank rate standing at 3.86 per cent. Bread was quoted at 668.5 pfen the loaf, beer at 1002.8 pfen the litre. A labourer's daily wage stood at 1426.07 marka, and a room by the month at 501.41 marka. This year's War Appropriation, at 277,775,667 marka, was passed unanimously and remains the year's largest single figure on the ledgers.

Registers

The week's registers record 150 births, 80 marriages and 155 deaths across the country, against a population at the last count of 713,739.

Programmes of the day: the wireless.

Deaths

Anja Vellmann, official, died 23 September 2026, at the age of eighty-four. Born 17 March 1942 at Hochstadt, she was known through a long career in the public service, of which this journal has in earlier years given fuller account. Her death was recorded among the week's national registers.

On This Day

Two hundred and sixteen years ago, the brewery at Ostrabruck burned through the night, leaving fifty-nine men out of work.

Two hundred and fifteen years ago, the Ostra rose fifty centimetres above its mark at Tarnmund, flooding the cellars of High Gate.

Pfahl

The 2025 season closed with Hollstadt Workers champions. The full table and fixtures are kept at the league's page.

Hollstadt Workers	19–3
Altstadt Pfahl Club	17–5
Weinfeld Vintners	15–7
Grauburg Fortress	15–7
Norrwick Printers	14–8
Reedside Athletic	11–11
Ostrabruck Bridge	8–14
Vellmar Wardens	7–15
Kessel Iron	7–15
Marschau Garrison	7–15
Brennholt Farmers	6–16
Tarnmund Lake	6–16