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Winterhaven exports very little in the way of goods; the reef it sits on holds barely any fish (at least those that are non-sentient and therefore liable for capture), and it has not the land nor the labour to produce food or metal. What it does do is draw people to its gates with a clever and far-reaching campaign of propaganda; the most notorious of these are the Winterhaven Codices, thumbed by sweating hands the world over, reliquaries for the deepest desires of their owners.

The Codices are produced (at least nominally) illegally, by small and unknown groups who seem to have distribution channels all over the known world, where they are sold on the black market for hundreds of gold pieces. They vary in size, shape and colour almost infinitely; some can be lavish, heavy leather-bound affairs, whilst many are merely pamphlets held together by single threads of silk. Though their content also varies wildly, they are bound by two principles; they are all invariably pornographic, and bear the idealised mountain, the official symbol of Winterhaven, on their first page.

There exist editions for every proclivity, every desire, need and want; from the simple line drawings of elven maidens and the darker, more violent affairs for the warring races of the nourthern lands, to religious orgies depicted in cross-hatch and even the “blue prints” for lustful warforged, there is something for men and women of every race. The profits wend their way back into Winterhaven, and inevitably the pockets of the vendors, though no credit is ever given directly; the trail runs cold eventually for any inquirer, and independent investigation has always been given up in frustration.

The “Prince of Winterhaven”, Chancellor Shaalqo, publicly condemns their printing and distribution, having called them “attacks on common modesty and decency”. There are occasionally show-trials of captured printers, but the cases are swept over and dealt with quickly and with little fanfare. There are those that say the Codices are Shaalqo’s idea, that they subtly enforce the idea of Winterhaven as a retreat from ordinary life and ordinary pleasures, and tantalising enforce its main attraction; the trades of the body and the mind, in all their sumptuous glory.