Bayport
Bayport is a major port on the eastern end of the Viking Sea. It had long been a significant local trading and shipping center, but during the wars in Regelsburg in the 1590s, which shut down trade on the Greatflood for much of the decade, it became the major connection between the northern cities, like Waynesburg and Hillsburg and Dassal, and the rest of the world. It grew astronomically during the 90s and 00s - from 1- or 12,000 people to 50,000 in the course of 20 years or so. It became a bustling madhouse by the 1610s - awash in wealth, full of people seeking their fortunes, people from everywhere on earth, a place on the cutting edge of commerce, all of it up for grabs.
Demographics
Very mixed. The old population is here, along with many migrants from the immediate vicinity - but it is also home to people of all kinds from all over the world. Humans, mainly, but with very large populations of halflings, dwarves, gnomes, and fair numbers of elves of all kinds, and even more exotic figures. It is fairly tolerant, partly by sheer volume - there are so many people crammed into what was a small city only a few years ago, that it is impossible to control the flow of people. There is anoough of everyone to find someone to band together with. And there is so much money, so much demand for work, that anyone can find a place.
Government
A city council. But also part of the Duchy of Barnet.
Mayor - selected by the council; serves as a mouthpiece more than real power
Baron’s Council - 25 men selected from various stations: guilds, the duke, other factions get to appoint someone. As well as chosen by the Assembly
Citizen’s Assembly - larger body, 120 people, elected every 2 years by something like the mass of the city - not quite, but something like it. Landowners or taxpayers or something - comparable, perhaps, to Waynesburg’s system, but far less explicitly corrupt.
There is a Board of governance, appointed by the Baron’s Council, which is more of an executive body - people in charge of finance and so on. (The master of coin, master of ships, type thing, that King’s Landing has.)
Head Justiciar = Anselm McHugh
Lord of Trade = Devin Morris
Master of Coinage
Lord of the Sea
Master of Fortifications [this includes the canals and so on]
Defences
Some city walls, but mainly defended by canals.
Industry & Trade
The largest shipping port in the west, being the link between Waynesburg and the sea.
Infrastructure
Well developed roads and towns, and an extensive canal system.
Assets
A very large and important port. Many windmills and water driven industry as well.
Guilds and Factions
Many organizations of importance, though the most important are the large shipping syndicates. There is a thieves guild, several types of merchant guild, churches, and so on.
History
The city of Bayport is a seaport, located between the mouths of two rivers, the Willow and the Barnet. People have lived here since time immemorial. There was a ridge near the mouth of the Barnet river, and that is where people settled, on this higher ground, above the river mouth, tide flats, and small anchorages. A handful of other small settlements appeared in the area, mostly further inland where there was some dry ground, but none of them grew beyond small farming hamlets for a very long time. But people did move into this area - migrants from further east, occasional adventurers, looking for land to claim for their own. Slowly the farming villages grew, and as they did, they interacted with one another, and goods began moving up and down the rivers, and that is what made Bayport important. Local trade developed; then trade with towns and settlements on the Bay and Sea - Bayport was at the mouth of the rivers,and Bayport was the best harbor on the open water. Time passed; outside influences formed the area - southern invasions, Viking raids, orc raids from the hills, the development of countries, like Lenay; Bayport became a significant town and seaport.
It led to major changes in the land. Most of the land near Bayport was wetland, but as the town grew, farmers began to drain the wetlands, building dikes and canals, and reclaiming the land for farming. In time, this reached the town, as well. By the end of the 1300s, there were significant drainage systems in the hinterlands; the town began working on similar same projects. They built dikes around the tidal flats and along the edge of the Barnet river, they dredged the anchorages, they started filling in the old flats, to create stable land for building. They built a series of canals to drain and protect the dry land. They dug underground tunnels and canals to drain the higher ground, preventing erosion, and moving both fresh and dirty water in and out of the city. They built windmills to operate pumps to move water in and out of the town. By the time they were done, they had turned the last couple miles of the Barnet river into completely man-made canals, they had created large areas of landfill, mostly in the south, where the town could expand, they built large ports, they built a massive shipyard, and they surrounded the city with canals in the place of walls, for defense. Much of this as built to support the first major international sea-going boom in the late 15th century; it laid the ground work for the explosion of traffic in the early 17th.
By the mid 1500s, the city had taken on its current (1610s) form. To the west is Horseshoe bay - chalk cliffs to the south, granite hills to the north, and beach, marsh and farmland - and the city - between. The city is bounded north and south by the two rivers, and defended by canals and fortresses. Between, the city lies on a large, well sheltered harbor. A number of small islands to the west protect it from the open water - the largest of these is Breakwater Island, which has a fair amount of settlement on it. The western edge of the city itself is almost all port - docks and slips for ships on the water; a strong dike protecting the city (which is very low on the waterfront), with warehouses and all the usual waterfront buildings on land. The northern part of the waterfront is old, dating from the 1300s, when it was first built up. Above it rises a long, fairly high hill, site of the oldest settlements in the area. This hill is steep on the west but livable; in the east, it drops precipitously to low, wet lands to the east. All of this part of town, waterfront and hills, is developed, criss-crossed with streets running up the hill and along the hill, covered in old, wood and stone buildings over narrow streets.
The Magnus Canal divides this part of town from the newer areas to the south. This area is mostly landfill, reclaimed from the sea. it is criss crossed by canals, which provide the main transportation in this area. Much of this area is, in fact, below sea level, and depends on the dikes for its very existence. Nonetheless, it is fairly developed - the waterfront here is built up as much as to the north, though almost all devoted to sea trade. Docks, warehouses, workshops and so on fill the waterfront. There are some flop houses and plenty of bars and taverns, but much less residential housing than to the north. Inland, there are more residential areas. The buildings here are a mix - some were built during the first flush of Bayport's prosperity, in the early 1500s - these tend to be large, sometimes ornate, residences, or more mercantile buildings - the canals made most fo the city accessible to sea trading. Other parts fo the south feature much less impressive houses - much of it was half-claimed for a century, and used to build small, temporary housing - not quite a shantytown, but not up to the standards of the old town. During the recent expansion, these areas have filled to the bursting - immigrants, demi-humans, and so on moving in to work the docks and ships, living wherever they could. They filled the ramshackle old houses and inns - they built more. Bayport south of the Grand Canal is much more sketchy than even the rest fo the Canal Zone; south of the Barnet River Canal, it is virtually a slum.
Outside the city, the land to the north and east is a mixture of wetlands and recl;aimed lands, used now for pasture and farming. There are windmills built on the high ground and in the open fields, used to pump out water mostly, though for many purposes. South of the city, the land rises somewhat more, creating good farmland, that extends south to the chalk escarpment to the south.
Architecture
Characteristic houses are stone on the bottom with wooden tops floors, often leaning out over the street, with steep roofs, and many windows.
Geography
Bayport is located in the lowlands where the Willow and Barnet rivers flow into the sea. The oldest parts of the city were built on hills and ridges on the northern side of the city, while most of the southern parts of the city were built on land reclaimed from the sea and tidelands.
The Willow flows down from hills in the north, the Barnet from the highlands in the south. Between the highlands north and south is a large, low floodplain where e rivers drain and meander to the sea. The northern hills are higher and harder, rough and wild, heavily forested and dangerous. The Willow drops abruptly from those hills, along an escarpment a few miles inland, a sharp break from the plains, marked by cliffs and waterfalls. The hills to the south rise more gradually from the plains, until they reach a line of chalk downs, marked by another line of cliffs. Southwest of Bayport, these cliffs rise directly from the sea, tall and white. The break is less dramatic, though noticeable, inland, with the alluvial plains rising to meet the higher land.
The flood plain is just that - low and wet, fertile and green, criss-crossed by many small rivers. This is particularly marked to the south, where the web of waterways converge near the Barnet river. The plains stretch for many miles east of the city (and the bay that gives it its name), slowly rising to the east, though still a mix of ridges (sometimes rocky), and lowlands, some quite marshy, for a long distance inland. It is good land, though, a mixture of forest and farmland, interspersed with lakes and rivers and streams. 30-40 miles inland, the plains merge into the range of hills north and east of the bay, forming a saddle between higher ground north and south.
Natural Resources
Anything maritime.
Type
Large city
Population
50,000
Related Ethnicities
Inhabitant Demonym
Bayporters
Location under
Owner/Ruler
Owning Organization
Characters in Location
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