Freetown
Freetown is the largest city in the Tycho Free States that was not built before the Free States gained independence. Its architecture, such as it is, is all recent construction, mostly of wood. Few regulations and near-nonexistent oversight have led to streets that are entirely unnavigable, as well as dangerously ramshackle structures, often built of reclaimed materials from shipwrecks or other decommissioned vessels.
For all its flaws, however, Freetown is largely beloved by its residents. Populated by a multicultural, multi-species hodgepodge of freed slaves, refugees, outlaws, and various other fugitives, in addition to a few local fishing folk, Freetown is a city of wild opportunity for many who have never had opportunities before.
History and People
Young for its ever-burgeoning size, Freetown was founded by Evangeliana Akadearg, a vigilante (some say pirate) sea captain with a predilection for attacking slave ships and freeing all the slaves. When said slaves had nowhere else to go, she at first offered them jobs on her crew, but such a life did not appeal to every freed slave. Eventually, in answer to the growing need, Akadearg offered to help them build a new town, and once it was built, she was overwhelmingly elected its leader.
Since then, it has grown far too quickly for its own good, with not just more freed slaves but all manner of refugees, fugitives, and anyone with nowhere else to go.
Religion
Religion in Freetown is as chaotic and freeform as everything else in the city. People are tolerant of one another’s faiths because they have to be. Everyone is surrounded by people completely different from themselves. Already, the town is becoming a stewpot of synchronistic “heresies,” with new and mix-and-match religions and holidays springing up all over the place. If there is any theme or overall “feel” to Freetown religion, it is “festive.” Freetowners love an excuse to celebrate.
Trade and Commerce
Freetown’s primary food source is fishing, and many community members are fishers. However, most of Freetown’s money and other goods come from longer seafaring voyages, and many citizens spend much of the year away from town. Freetown ships hire themselves out in transportation of goods and passengers, or to serve as mercenary military vessels. Ships directly loyal to Captain Akadearg largely support themselves by stealing from slavers or the more murderous sort of pirates, with occasional careful forays into the more political sorts of privateering.
Loyalties and Diplomacy
Freetown was granted permission to incorporate by the Tycho Free States, and when its population grew large enough for it to be considered a city-state by Tycho legal definitions, Captain Akadearg was invited to sign the Free States Accords, which she did. Now a full “state” in the Tycho Free States, Freetown owes loyalty and alliance to its fellows, and to all of the Free States’ other allies.
Government
A master of shipboard swordplay, high seas tactical maneuvering, and inspired leadership, Captain Akadearg (who insists that her title is “captain” no matter her elected position in the town or how many ships she commands) might as well technically be a reigning monarch. Freetown laws are poorly defined, giving their elected leader a great deal of power. Thus far, the good captain has made little use of her legal authority, in either just or unjust ways, making Freetown barely shy of an amiable anarchy.
Interestingly, Captain Akadearg is also a savvy businesswoman and has made a mint by dealing with the elves to buy and sell naturally fallen lumber from the Green Warden Forest, such that she is also well known in Timbertown to the south. Unfortunately, however, the good captain’s many talents do not extend to urban planning, which makes her a strange leader for Freetown, to say the least.
Captain Akadearg’s leadership abilities are sufficient to keep crime remarkably low (especially considering the high Freetown population of former convicts) and economic growth on a steady rise. Only time will tell how long such a balance can be maintained.
Military
Though their army is small, Freetown is hardly undefended. Captain Akadearg has long commanded a fair handful of battle-ready ships full of loyal veteran sailors, and she is now officially the head of the Freetown Navy. This small and ragtag-looking flotilla is well-trained and well-utilized, such that they are considered a major player on the waters of the western Crescent Sea, a scourge to all slavers in the region.
Besides Akadearg’s loyal navy, other battle-ready ships do make port at Freetown. Though these usually hire themselves out as mercenary vessels, such as to escort wealth-filled merchant ships, most have a standing agreement with Freetown to sail with the navy in times of war.
Major Threats
Freetown is well defended by sea and largely surrounded by allies on land. Like any community in the half-wild Tycho Free States, Freetown must occasionally contend with monsters wandering into town or threatening crops or livestock in outlying farms, but the primary threats to Freetown come from within.
The town’s poor building choices, in particular, hang over it like an axe waiting to fall. One visiting druid described the place as not just a fire hazard but as a mass pyre that simply has yet to be lit. The overworked and inexperienced elected city council organized fire evacuation routes and water brigades, and the city is fortunately built so close to the sea that much of it is either on stilts above the waves or literally floating on pier-like structures in the water, such that a good bucket brigade would be able to put out small fires quickly in most of the city. A large fire is another story, however.
Then again, the risk to the town from storms and flooding (or, in places, sinking due to leakage) is at least as considerable as the risk of fire, and for that Freetown has yet to organize any countermeasures beyond Captain Akadearg paying a few wizards and druids out of pocket to protect the city during storm season.
Settlement
Freetown, City of
Type
City
Owning Organization
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