Possible Factions w/ Domains in Western Karameikos
by Anarion_ElendiliSome of my thoughts, IMHO and all that:
Luln probably was part of a trading network with Fort Doom / Halag, before the conquest by the Black Eagle. I also expect that its population is artificially high, due to the threats of raids from both sides, discouraging small, isolated settlements (hamlet-sized or smaller; I'd expect most villages would have palisades or something to keep them safe). The description in GAZ 1 speaks of good soil and wildlife in the forests, so they should be more or less self-sufficient with food, and some industries to do with furs and such is likely. With their natural trade route to Fort Doom and then maritime being cut by the hostility of the Black Eagle, and the road to the Five Shires both poor and dangerous, I'd expect most of the trade to go to Specularum. If the threat of raids were not there, the population of Luln would be able to spread out more, leading to more land cultivated more easily (local hamlets, even homesteads) as well as better hunting (more scattered hunting camps), thus improving the productivity of the people.
Ironically, if Luln and Fort Doom were in the same dominion, it would be better for both of them, talking about economy. Now depending on how evil the Black Eagle is, the lot of the commoner Traladarans might be poor, with harsh punishments and taxes, but the productivity would be better, easier trading and so forth. Granted, Fort Doom's maritime trade is probably suffering from the double blow of the de facto embargo by the Five Shires (geographically its closest trading partner) as well as pirates that both of them sponsor against one another. But if that were gone, Fort Doom is the natural port/provincial capital for Western Karameikos, and would be drawing in most of the trade in the area, both export and import.
I am not sure about Saltmarsh... There doesn't seem much need of it there, as there is very little human population along that river system. It might work better somewhere else, like adding a marshy delta to the Highreach river and plopping it there. Now there is a very good reason for smuggling, to avoid paying the tolls at Specularum.
As for the Five Shires and food smuggling, as said in GAZ 1, Luln should be doing OK with food, although I think you could easily argue that due to the raids, they can't cultivate as much land as they'd need, and that leads to shortages. However, given the hilly nature of Luln in the map, you could rewrite that description and instead make Luln more of a mining town, which would make it very dependent on a food supply (good hunting in the forest, but humanoid threat as well). It would be pretty stupid for the Five Shires to effectively subsidize the Black Eagle Barony by dumping cheap grain there. It is not like in modern times when you can distort the economy like that. Especially since we are talking about a dictatorship here; the Baron can easily just squeeze the peasants that much harder. The opposite should be the case there, embargo the Black Eagle Barony to make sure that their trade suffers, while subsidize Luln to try and keep them contained.