Merdia

Merdia is a city on the Snake's Head Peninsula that leads the Evenacht in the number of ships it sinks.

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History

Drowned Dough was a bored pirate king. During his days on Talis, he sailed the seas, fought in numerous battles, got scarred, raided and pillaged and sold loot.
And then he died by cannonball upside the head, and to his great disappointment, the Evenacht had none of that.
The Evenacht was dull, misty, too goody-goody. He wanted sea-faring adventure. The Evenacht was supposed to be the land of wishes, to follow that which eluded one in life. To enjoy the afterlife. He was not the only one of his crew who felt the anxiety of not doing anything.
One evening, as they sucked in mist and wished they could drink a cold beer, Drowned Dough hatched an idea. Why not make their own sea battles?

To the Sea

His crew was stoked. They moved to Voledanthes, a harbor on the shores of The Dark, and went about building two ships. They gathered the attention of more ne'er-do-wells who wanted a part of the action.
Within a few weeks, they had small but workable vessels. Finding canons was not as simple as Dough expected, but they rigged catapults to do the same job, wimbled out into the harbor, and have-atted at each other.
The leaders of Voledanthes were not amused.
Neither were the citizens.
Needing to find another place to play, Dough and his fellows discovered that the nearest sparsely inhabited place was the Snake's Head Peninsula. They set sail in a ship that miraculously made the journey through wind and rain, and they arrived at the peninsula hyped and ready to battle.

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ship Zoltan Tasi from Unsplash

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sky by Scott Plenio from Pexels

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Merdia

Dough was ecstatic. The desert nomads told him that the head had a mouth, and that mouth had a jagged coastline that resembled teeth. How perfect, for pirates! He and his men sailed into the Gulf of Teeth, and immediately fell in love with the first large bay they encountered, Mer Bozem. They found the perfect beach upon which to land, the perfect scarpment on which to build a community, the perfect not-sandy place for a dock, and they commenced building more ships.
Naming his new settlement after the bay, Dough proudly proclaimed Merdia a pirate base.
And they attracted attention. Ex-pirates and adventurers from around the Evenacht paid a visit, curious about the goings-on. He heartily welcomed them, and a few sailed with his crew into the bay to do battle. More than a few sank with the ship.
And they loved it.
An ex-captain of the Keel navy, Trevel, showed up, wanting in on the action. Dough, finding his little community drawing more ghosts than expected, had a brilliant idea. He and Trevel set up a law-and-order fort nearby, and the pirates could fight the law in their battles, not just each other!
Rumors swam across the Evenacht. Tourists began to visit, curious as to the goings-on. So did artisans, buisnessmen, tavern owners, brothel owners, and within a few years, Merdia and the fort turned from a pissant settlement with a few tents and a bar, to a bustling city with activity day and night.

Tourist Trap

Dough, Trevel, and a few advisors realized the lucrative enterprise they had created. Encouraged by the interest, they took more and more tourists to sea--and realized those tourists didn't know the first thing about sailing or sea battles. Some were so poor at Physical Touch, they couldn't even lift a sword!
So they started schools to train them in Touch, sailing, hand-to-hand combat, and even threw in some sailing history on Talis and the evening lands for good measure. Then the recruits went out to battle, raided and looted and had a blast--of catapult fire.
Day after day, they sent ships into the bay, and because those ships got damaged and sunk, they had to hire carpenters and shipbuilders from across the Evenacht to keep up with demand. Realizing they could only lose so many, Trevel convinced Dough to have different events, with the most expensive one being battles where the ships might sink. He also suggested limiting native tourists to the non-sinking vessels, so they could enjoy a battle without the danger of drowning.
So they conducted battles where the ships remained intact, they conducted battles where the ships sank, and the tourists poured in.
Dough and Trevel proudly proclaimed that they sank the most ships in a day in the Evenacht. Dough even erected a sign at the docks stating the numbers.
And that is how Merdia became known as the ship-sinkingest city in the Evenacht.