Hell's Harbor

Hell’s Harbor is a grim, performative port-city perched on the storm-wracked cliffs of the Devil's Arches. Born from piracy and now ruled by the iron fist of Arronax Endymion, this fading bastion of faux civility masks decay with military pageantry and ceremonial brutality. Beneath the gleaming uniforms and gold-leaf proclamations lies a city shaped by opportunism, black market power, and the constant gloom of Gwenhael's Eye. Equal parts fortress, stage, and smuggler’s den, Hell’s Harbor endures through fear, farce, and a desperate insistence on order.

Government

Hell’s Harbor is ruled by a brutal, ostentatious, and authoritarian regime that cloaks its tyranny in the trappings of old-world military refinement. At its head stands Arronax Endymion, a once disgraced DeShattue naval officer who seized control of the decaying pirate haven through calculated discipline, political theater, and relentless charisma.

Structure & Leadership

Endymion styles himself “High Commander of the Civic Maritime Charter,” a self-invented title that masks the reality of his absolute rule. He governs from Fort Virelay, his black-stone manor built into the cliffs. Beneath him sits a performative court made up of former pirates, military exiles, corrupted clergy, and ambitious opportunists. These courtiers hold ostentatious but ultimately hollow titles—Commodore of Coin, Minister of Dueling Etiquette, Captain of Conduct—and serve entirely at Endymion’s pleasure.

Law & Justice

Hell’s Harbor operates under martial law. There is no formal legal code; instead, justice is meted out through Endymion’s decrees, military tradition, and public performance. Punishments are often ritualized in the form of court martials and public duels. Dueling is the preferred means of resolving disputes, and carrying a visible sword is required in the court district. Dissenters are exiled to jungle-edge indenture farms or sent on doomed "expeditions" inland.

Taxation & Coin

There is no standardized tax system. Instead, the court imposes “charters of contribution,” irregular levies paid in coin, supplies, or services. These charters are managed by Magister Lorvon Dul, a cleric of Abadar who now oversees much of the Harbor’s murky finances. The black market, represented by the Tarnish Coin, pays protection bribes in exchange for unofficial immunity.

Administration

Civic duties are handled with obsessive ceremony. Public record-keeping, decrees, and logistical oversight fall to High Adjutant Quellienne Vayne, who maintains detailed ledgers and enforces etiquette with ruthless, if inconsistent, zeal. The local government functions more like theater than bureaucracy, with gold-leafed proclamations, costumed processions, and elaborate rituals designed to reinforce the illusion of civilization on the edge of the wild.

Industry & Trade

Hell’s Harbor survives not on stability, but on opportunism. Its economy is a volatile mix of smuggling, subsistence, and opportunistic trade—built more on loopholes and blackmail than on industry.

Primary Industries

Smuggling & Black Market Trade

The beating heart of Hell’s Harbor is illicit commerce. Goods banned elsewhere—alchemical contraband, cursed relics, rare poisons, weapons, forbidden texts—flow openly through The Tarnished Coin. Forged charters and fake cargo manifests keep the facade intact.

Maritime Repairs & Salvage

While the city’s shipyard is unfinished and poorly funded, the Harbor is a vital stop for smaller vessels seeking fast, cheap repairs. Salvage crews repurpose wrecked ships into barges, rafts, or building materials.

Indentured Agriculture

Poor soil and jungle encroachment limit large-scale farming, but indentured workers manage small fields and livestock just outside the city. Most food comes from fishing, jungle foraging, and imports.

Entertainment & Vice

Taverns, dueling arenas, brothels, and street performances keep the populace distracted. Performative loyalty rituals and public court events also feed into a quasi-tourist economy for the curious and desperate.

Infrastructure

Hell’s Harbor is a patchwork of rotting pirate legacy and half-finished authoritarian ambition. While its core infrastructure appears imposing to the casual observer, much of it is crumbling beneath fresh paint and military ceremony.

Water & Sanitation

The settlement relies heavily on rainwater collection due to the frequent passage of Gwenhael's Eye. Cisterns, water towers, and rooftop channels are ubiquitous, though most are poorly maintained and frequently fouled—imp infestations are a constant threat to potable supplies. There is no centralized sewer system; instead, runoff and refuse flow downhill into the harbor or toward the jungle fringe, where slum-dwellers and indentured workers endure constant exposure to disease and flooding.

Roads & Layout

The main thoroughfares of Hell’s Harbor are cobbled with salvaged stone and framed by whitewashed facades meant to present an illusion of order. Behind them, narrow alleys twist into densely packed slums. The cliffside district, where Fort Virelay looms, is the only part of the city with planned, reinforced roadwork—brickwork stairs, iron lamps, and retaining walls to resist the ever-present rain and mudslide risk.

Fortifications

Fort Virelay is the most structurally sound installation in the city. Built into the cliffs, it features iron-gated courtyards, crenellated towers, and lightning rods styled like DeShattue naval emblems. The harbor itself has partial stone walls and a few rusted cannon emplacements, but most defenses rely on spectacle and the threat of reprisal rather than functional engineering.

Shipyards & Industry

Hell’s Harbor possesses a single incomplete shipyard, begun during Endymion’s rise to power but never properly completed. A handful of dry docks and hoists remain in partial use, primarily for repairing small vessels and converting wreckage into new hulls. Trade goods are processed in open-air markets or in the basements of official buildings repurposed for smuggling, tax collection, or forgery.

Other Notable Structures

The Tarnished Coin: A former tavern, now the base of the Tarnished Coin black market, operates openly under a weathered but iconic sign—no pretense, no deniability.
Temple of Iron Measures: The primary place of worship and bureaucratic control for the Church of Abadar, doubling as a registry, court, and vault.
The Parade Square: A flooded, uneven courtyard used for duels, loyalty oaths, executions, and public ceremony—often all at once.

Districts

Cliff District

Home to Fort Virelay and Endymion's court. Heavily patrolled and tightly restricted. Lavish mansions, military gardens, and narrow stone streets lined with banners and watch posts.

Harborfront

The city’s public face. Where all visitors arrive. Contains the docks, shipyard ruins, taverns, and a thin veneer of civility over desperate commerce. Watched closely by the Stormmark.

Gildrow

Merchant lane and bureaucratic center. Bribe-heavy offices, trade halls, and the Temple of Iron Measures. A place of counterfeit respectability, blackmail, and hidden ledgers.

Whisperside

The slums. Crowded tenements, flooded alleys, and makeshift housing pressed against the jungle’s edge. Nominally under court control, truly ruled by rumor, fear, and Seneschal Vaunt’s informants.

Godshatter Row

Religious district. A patchwork of shrines, neglected temples, and symbolic loyalty to gods both sanctioned and otherwise. Abadar and Besmara dominate, but heresy lingers openly.

Guilds and Factions

Though Hell’s Harbor presents itself as a unified settlement under military order, true power is fractured among competing factions. Each holds influence over a different aspect of life—law, trade, faith, or survival—and all walk a fine line between cooperation and open rivalry.

The Court of Endymion

A theatrical authoritarian regime posing as a noble council. Led by High Commander Arronax Endymion, the court enforces martial order through ceremony, ritualized violence, and bombastic military trappings. Courtiers vie for power through duels, gossip, patronage, and performance. Despite its grandeur, the court teeters on the edge of collapse beneath internal paranoia and debt.

The Stormmark

The primary enforcer faction in the public districts, led by Commodore Yzra “Breaksail” Corven. Composed of former pirates, hired muscle, and career bruisers, the Stormmark, or Gray-coats, handles street-level order, port security, and public punishments. Their loyalty to Endymion is practical, not ideological—they follow strength, not law.

The Keelgarde

A separate, elite force led by Sir Radomel “Redbeak” Thorrin, loyal only to Fort Virelay and its occupants. More knightly in appearance than practice, the Keelgarde serves as ceremonial honor guard, bodyguards, and executioners for court decisions. Known for their dueling prowess and unshakeable discipline.

The Tarnished Coin

The black market syndicate and economic lifeblood of the Harbor. Operating openly out of the tavern of the same name, it controls smuggling routes, relic trafficking, contract work, and information brokering. Led by Madame Vettara Kile, it thrives under vague toleration, offering bribes and favors to courtiers who find its services indispensable.

The Temple of Iron Measures

A branch of the Church of Abadar, originally sent to bring order to the settlement. Though diminished in spiritual influence, it remains a key bureaucratic power: issuing charters, notarizing property, and maintaining the city’s economic records. Magister Lorvon Dul, one of their head clerics, bridges the gap between divine order and Endymion's Court.

Smaller factions

Old Pirate Crews

Fragments of the Harbor’s former pirate rulers persist as semi-legitimate businesses, mercenary bands, and shipping groups. Though largely absorbed or forced into compliance, a handful of old captains still operate behind the scenes, dealing in contraband and watching for Endymion’s decline.

The Talavaar and the Cult of the Eye

Zealots of both groups have only a minor foothold in Hell’s Harbor. Their strange fervor and growing inland presence has made them unwelcome among the court and hated in the slums. They operate quietly, mostly outside the political apparatus, but may become a greater threat if ignored.

History

Hell’s Harbor began as a refuge, not a city. For over a century, it served as a hidden anchorage for pirates and exiles fleeing pursuit across The Shattered Seas. The passage of Gwenhael's Eye each month made it nearly impossible to track vessels into or out of the bay, and the presence of inland horrors discouraged outside settlement. For decades, it remained a loose collection of shipwreck shelters, driftwood docks, and ad-hoc strongholds—a lawless haven known more for whispered stories than maps.
Its transformation began around 695 CE, when Arronax Endymion, a disgraced DeShattue naval officer, arrived with a broken fleet and a hunger for redemption—or control. While many of his men quickly defected to existing pirate crews, Endymion claimed the cliffs above the harbor and began carving order into chaos. Over the next decade, he consolidated power through duels, bribery, and ceremony, raising the fortified manor known as Fort Virelay and founding his court. By 715 CE, most pirate captains had been ousted, conscripted, or buried.
Endymion declared the settlement reborn under the Civic Maritime Charter, a fabricated code of law wrapped in DeShattue naval tradition. Since then, Hell’s Harbor has presented a façade of military order, masking economic instability, black market dominance, and the creeping influence of cults and rival factions. While the inland jungle remains unconquered and the Arches beyond untouched, the Harbor endures—part port, part fortress, part farce.

Geography

Hell’s Harbor clings to the cliff-lined southern coast of the Devil’s Arches, a mountainous island near the northern edge of The Shattered Seas. The settlement overlooks a natural bay framed by jagged headlands and towering rock formations, giving it both protection from open sea attack and the illusion of grandeur from approaching vessels.
The terrain around the harbor rises steeply to the north and west, quickly giving way to rugged hills and dense, overgrown jungle. These cliffs support Fort Virelay and the noble quarter, offering a commanding view of the port and the surrounding sea. The inner city sprawls below, descending in uneven terraces toward the waterline. As the land flattens near the jungle, it becomes swampy, choked with vines and runoff—ideal breeding ground for pests, disease, and imp incursions.

Climate

Hell’s Harbor sits in a subtropical coastal zone, where warm air from the southern Shattered Seas clashes with colder currents descending from the north. Its weather is dominated by the monthly passage of Gwenhael’s Eye, a massive storm system that lashes the island with wind, rain, and eerie atmospheric shifts.
Most of the year, the climate is mild to warm, but damp and overcast. Heavy cloud cover, fogbanks, and constant drizzle are common, and clear skies are a rarity. Humidity remains high year-round, encouraging mold, rust, and creeping plant life—even in urban stonework.
During autumn and winter months, Gwenhael’s Eye draws cold air down from Amaris, the frigid continent to the north. This turns the storm’s usual downpour into howling squalls, icy rain, and sleet, dropping temperatures sharply for several days.
Summers, by contrast, are oppressively still between storm cycles. The Eye brings heat, pressure spikes, and suffocating air as a prelude to its violent release.
Inhabitants of Hell’s Harbor live in a near-constant state of weather tension—never sure if a light mist will turn into a lightning strike, or if the next “Eye week” will knock the roof off their home. The only reliable aspect of the climate is its instability, and the city has evolved to perform control, endurance, and resilience as civic virtues in the face of the unpredictable sky.

Natural Resources

The Devil’s Arches are rich in natural resources—theoretically. In practice, extraction is limited by treacherous terrain, unpredictable weather, and the ever-present threat of imp attacks and jungle hazards. Most harvesting occurs close to Hell’s Harbor, with only the bold or the desperate venturing deeper inland.
Lumber

The island's forested slopes yield dense, water-resistant hardwood, highly prized for ship repair and construction. In the early days of the Harbor, extensive logging near the coast provided a steady supply of timber. However, those coastal stretches have long since been exhausted or overtaken by regrowth.

Today, logging efforts require extended forays deeper into the island’s interior—where terrain is unstable, roads are nonexistent, and return is far from guaranteed. While the wood itself isn’t magical, its quality and durability make it a valuable export when it can be secured.
Alchemical and Medicinal Flora

The jungles host a variety of rare herbs, fungi, and vines used in alchemy and medicine. These resources are harvested in small batches by licensed foragers, indentured laborers, or black market agents. Most are processed or sold through the Tarnished Coin. Though some plants are dangerous or unpredictable, most are valued for their practical uses—painkillers, coagulants, mild soporifics, and stimulants.

Ore & Stone

There is strong evidence—both physical and anecdotal—of rich veins of ore inland, including iron, copper, and possibly trace precious metals. However, no mining operation has ever lasted long enough to establish a proper claim. Expeditions face sabotage, environmental collapse, and a high rate of personnel loss. Mining near the harbor itself has produced only low-yield basalt, quarried occasionally for seawalls and fort construction.

Marine Resources

Fishing remains one of the settlement’s few sustainable industries. Local waters produce tough, edible fish, kelp-like seaweeds used in cloth and packaging, and an occasional haul of shellfish. Divers also comb old wreck sites for salvage, though these efforts are risky and often unregulated.

Water

Freshwater is provided almost entirely by rainfall from Gwenhael’s Eye, which strikes the island monthly. The city relies on a network of cisterns, rooftop catchments, and towers to collect and store usable water. Maintenance is a constant concern—overflow, rot, and imp fouling are common threats.

Hell's Harbor Goods Scores

Commodities: 3
Livestock: 1
Exotic: 4
Luxury: 3
Technoarcana: 2

Founding Date

660 CE

Location under

Devil's Arches

Owner/Ruler

Arronax Endymion