River traffic down the Shrike River to the River Kingdoms was long just a dream of the Swordlords due to a series of cascades southwest of Fort Serenko. A few years after the establishment of Veteris, Restov and Veteris entered into a joint venture to build the long imagined canal and locks to bypass the unnavigable series of falls.

The locks make the Shrike navigable now from Restov all the way down to Mivon and beyond. Their completion marked a major shift in economic power in the region, allowing Restov to easily sell to and buy from the kingdoms of the south instead of only to the north and the rest of Brevoy.

The locks were a major strategic objective during the Hundred Days War, seeing a number of skirmishes and three major battles, including the decisive Third Battle of the Cascades that finally broke the back of House Surtova’s forces in the south.