[ericthered]

Mountain paths are not nice roads. They are windy, persnickety things that go up and down and more emphasis is placed on making sure you don't get lost than on say, flat areas you can roll a wagon along. In contrast, the gates to the trade towns tend to be huge, so that things like 100 foot statues can be put through them in one piece. The roads going up to the trade towns are quite nice, I would guess.

But I'd think a clan that wished to trade with both sahud and megalos would use two trading towns, not open a path for strangers to go through your lands. You don't profit off of trade unless you have a way to get a piece of the pie, and Trade towns make excellent places to ensure that.

Also, from a dwarven perspective, there are already roads between trade towns. Really nice ones, that don't make you go up in the nasty sun. Why build more?