Santana
Demographics
The most recent census data shows the following:
Species Demographics
- Human - 93%
- Elf - 2.3%
- Dwarves - 3.2%
- Other - 1.5%
Citizenry Demographics
- Citizen - 34%
- Resident - 58%
- Non-Resident - 8%
Professional Demographics
- Armed Forces - 39%
- Public Services (Constabulary, Provincial Guards, Mid-level Government Position, etc.) - 18%
- Labor Industry - 21%
- Shipping/Colonial Industry - 13%
- Registered Magical Professionals - 9%
Government
Santana is governed by Capitano General (Governor) Marçal de Cardenas, who has been serving in said position for nearly eight years and will be up for promotion or reassignment within the next two.
Taxation within the Protectorate is particularly one sides, in that citizens of the Protectorate are taxed about 20% less each year than residents. Non-residents pay no taxes, but are required to renew their visitation visas each month for 10gp until they attain residential status. The Taxes of the two, as well as those with unique to the capital are outlined as follows:
- Residential (Citizen) Yearly Tax - 16% of all wages
- Residential (Non-Citizen) Yearly Tax - 20% of all wages
- Santana Residence Tax - 1gp/household member per year
- Santana Property Tax - 1gp per acre per year
- Santa Comercial Property Tax - 1gp per 100sq ft. of zone commercial property
Additionally, as Santana is a Port, the following harbor fees apply:
- Cargo Fee - 1sp multiplied by 10% of gross tonnage (non-negotiable)
- Piloting Fee (berthing) - 2gp (non-negotiable)
- Piloting Fee (departure) - 3gp (non-negotiable)
- Voluntary Contribution to the Society of Friends - 2gp...non-negotiable
A common joke among merchant captains (spoken in whispers as to not arouse the Navy) is: "One never sympathizes more with the Crimson Waves than when one is dealing with Santana's Port Authority."
Defences
The city's primary defense are two large forts positioned on either side of the mouth of the harbor: El San Miguel de la Puente and El Castillo de los Doce Fuerzas de Solun. Between the two forts they have over 200 Cannon pointed at the mouth of the harbor and, as proven during the Greshan response to the attack at Amburgh, two forts are capable of sinking as many as five sailing vessels in a single volley.
Beyond the harbor mouth and into the city itself is another of the city's great fortifications: El Castillo de los Almirantes, which served as the both the city and harbor interior's main defensive structure while doubling as the seat of government for the entire Protectorate's seat of government until about 50 years ago when they were able to construct the Palicio de los Almirantes to serve in that regard.
Industry & Trade
Aside from the shipyards, fortifications and the astronomic income from the harbor, the city also benefited from several dozen plantations within close location of the city along the harbor. The Plantation owners would sell their goods in the Santana Market and ship them from the harbor on merchant vessels, all the while depending on the resources and labor that filtered through the harbor to supply and fund their operations. A symbiotic relationship by the simplest designs, the plantations provide food, manufacturing goods such as cotton, wool, sugar and lumber and the city provides security and commerce as well as factories for those basic goods to bee manufactured into tools, equipment, textiles and furniture.
Infrastructure
The city of Santana has made much use of not only the harbor itself, but of the fertile and rich land surrounding it. The harbor is one of the largest in the world, and capable of supplying and hold a long term fleet in excess of 1,000 vessels of various sizes. The Santana shipyards are located along the western edge of the harbor, just outside of the city. They include one graving dock and two floating dry docks and are always active as a result of both the high amount of traffic the harbor received along with the abundance of lumber and other natural resources convenient to the harbor.
Additionally, a large network of roads have been built throughout the harbor to access smaller docks not native to the city as well as the dozens of plantations that exist outside of the city proper. This higway network provides quick and rapid access/transit throughout the harbor.
History
Discovery and Settlement
The Harbor of Santana was discovered in Felcor 817 AP (the exact day is speculated), when one of the colonial explorers from the then Kingdom of Toruba was returning from the colonies at the tail end of the century of peace the six kingdoms of the bridge would experience before the contestation wars broke out. The Captain of the ship needed a harbor to careen his vessel and perform repairs needed after taking damage from a Merrow attack.
One of his men had reported that there was a harbor along their route in the far north west coast of the bridge. At the time there were no settled lands that far north on the bridge, as for the past several decades all of the kingdoms had been intent on settling the islands. But it was closer than their home harbor and unsure he could make the distance to their home berth, Capitano Diego Velazquez set saild for the alleged harbor based on rumor or hearsay. What they found was a far deeper harbor than had been encountered previously (and remains one of the largest and deepest in the world). While his men careened their vessel, Velasquez set about ranging and scouting the area and found the place a desirable location for a harbor closer to the norther colonies than their home harbor.
Returning home after the refitting of his vessel he petitioned the king of Toruba to offer him a Land Grant of the area. After much bribery and politicking, his request was approved and Velasquez assumed enormous personal debts to outfit three ships and nearly 400 settlers to head out to the harbor and establish a settlement.
The startup of the settlement was not easy, and as the Land Bridge fell deeper into the contestation wars the obvious strategic location for the harbor would be the catalysts for several raids on the city.
Contestation Wars and the Toruban Treasure Fleet
During the years lead up to, and throughout the contestation wars the city of Santana was actually only a port city in the northern most province of the Equikoran Land Bridge called Toruba. The once kingdom's capital and seat of governance was located in the city of Santa Disoi located in the heart of the providence, about 250 miles south east of Santana. Santana was significant throughout the wars though as it was much closer to the northern colonies of Toruba, and required their merchant and treasure ships to cross much less open water than sailing home to their main port furhter south.
As the wars progressed and the treasure ships of all of the various kingdom's became the enemy's prime targets for compensating the costs of war, Toruba began a a practice that is still used by the Protectorate to date. Finding it far easier for their navy to protect a single, massive fleet instead of several individual vessels returning home, the kingdom of Toruba began amassing huge treasure fleets of thirty or more ships. The fleets would gather throughout the Toruban colonies and begin their journey late in the year during the best weather conditions. Each ship would join others at predetermined locations throughout the northern colonies then all set out at once for Santana where they would harbor for a time and either be disembarked there and their treasure from the colonies travelled overland, or they would continue down the coast for their home port far closer to the capital.
This made the treasure fleet, and by extension, Santana an incredibly tempting target for raiders and privateers from the other five kingdoms of the bridge. As a result, Santana was sacked twice, and burned to the ground each time. But each time it was raided, it got stronger. After the city was burned the first time, Velasquez took on more debt with creditors and built Fortress in the heart of Santana itself that would become El Castillo de los Almirantes. Furthermore, he commissioned the newly christened shipyards to build three first rate ships of the line to serve as the settlement's first harbor patrol.
Unfortunately the costs for the initial defenses put in place number well over 600,000 gold pieces and due to the war commerce and profit was slow in the region, even with the treasure fleet passing through the harbor once a a year. Five years after the completion of the Fort Velasquez defaulted on his debts, was thrown into debtors prison and the city and harbor was nationalized as the crown assumed Velasquez's debt. Governing responsibility of the town was given to the king's cousin, Velasco Cascon, who would see the harbor returned to profit in a short ten years and would, of his own pocket, fund the construction of the two fortifications that guarded the harbor mouth.
Post-Protectorate Santana
After the end of the contestation wars and the finality of the old regime, in the advent of the Protectorate it was clear that Toruba should be the head of the fledgling nation. Not only was it the nation that survived the war most intact, but it also had a fully functioning economy due to its use of the treasure fleets when the other kingdoms were in economic collapse and disarray. Given Santana's strategic importance during the war, booming commerce under the leadership of Cascon, and the imminent needs to find a seat for their government that wouldn't appear to show favoritism or nationalism towards one of the six provinces, it was agreed upon unanimously that Santana would serve as the Protectorate's capital, and the gateway to the colonies.
Architecture
Santana's more prominent buildings, such as it's chapels, public offices, large manors and the palace are designed in the real world Spanish Baroque artistic style, featuring large and tall bell towers, extravagant cartouches above doorways, stark contrast of light in both painting and actual lighting as well as large central spaces features domes and or quadratura design.
Geography
The geography within and around the limits of Santana are mostly wooded plains, with the occasionally rugged hill in the far south east regions. The entire city is situation around a massive inlet that, while commonly referred to as the Harbor of Santana, is actually divided into three larger harbors known as the Talavera, Quintano and Antares harbors. The city itself and the main port are situated in the Antares harbor, the largest of the three.
Natural Resources
The region in which Santana has been constructed is rich in many forms of natural resources. With ready access to fresh water from the nearby Avana River that pours into the harbor, as well as the ocean just outside the harbor all manor of food can be gathered from hydroponics to fishing. Several of the factories even use the current of the Avana to power water mills.
As a result of the region's placement right on the harbor and so near a freshwater river, the land around the city is heavily wooded and fertile and several different plantations have been set up producing all kinds of manufacturing goods from palm oil, cotton and indigo to more consumable goods such as sugar cane, tobacco and coffee.
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