The City-Fleets

City-Fleets are man-made artificial islands, comprised of hundreds of boats; barges, warships, freighters, iron sides, and rafts all lashed together. Some of the hulls in a City-Fleet are hundreds of years old some are brand new. Ruined rigs and broken ships get piled up upon one another making the City-Fleets into labyrinths. Everything that one could find in a city one can find in a City-Fleet, residences, schools, workshops, libraries, factories. Also like a city most City-Fleets are separated into districts each centered on a flagship.

For many cutthroats and other social outcasts the City-Fleets are the closest thing they get to civilization. Their ability to navigate and move in and out of The Gray Seas and the Known Seas allows them to stay one step ahead of hostile authorities. Most of these cities are free of any laws save for the pirate code, but most of the lord admirals of the City-Fleets are brutal in their punishment of anyone would might disrupt the civic order.

The economies of the City-Fleets are dominated by piracy and illicit trade. Pirates come here to trade and repair ships. Captured ships are often sold to the City-Fleets for assimilation. Captures passengers and crew are press-ganged into joining the City-Fleets.

Pickled Pete's
This City-Fleet gets its name from its founder, a legendary red headed Halfling captain who's last wish was to be pickled in a large tankard of rum. His specialty crafted glass and bronze is still installed at the helm of his flagship which serves as the center of the city-fleet.

Peacock's Roost
Peacock's Roost gets its name from its single large sail made up of dozens of green and blue sails. It also may have gotten its name from a rumor that its founder, a Dowa thief by the name of Nezumi the Branded One, stole two breeding pairs of the Dowa Emperor's Sacred Peacocks.

Inkhorn
Like many of the city-fleets, Inkhorn is a collection of derelict boats and a den of pirates, rouges and ne’er-do-wells. However what separates Inkhorn apart from the other city-fleets is what they prize. The people of Inkhorn do not prize gold or vice, but the written word.

Pirates gather a huge amount of literature with their captured ships. To most this is just useless scrap, but to the people of Inkhorn it is worth more than gold. The population of Inkhorn is made up of rouge scholars, warrior-poets, guerilla bards, and scandalous playwrights. This is not to say that the citizens here are pompous dandies, in fact quite the opposite. Accusations of plagiarism meet with fisticuffs and blades. Criticism is harsh and as the citizens say, ‘hacks are met with attacks.’ Truly awful works are punished by ‘inkboarding’ the author; a public form of waterboarding where the water is replaced with Demi-Kraken ink, staining the victim’s mouth permanently, while their offending work is read aloud as poorly as possible.

Inkhorn is by far the safest and best organized city-fleet. Ruled by a group that refers to themselves as ‘The Editors’ they enforces the rule of law of literature with an iron efficiency. New visitors are well served well by learning the rules, things like mispronunciation, sentence structure, and contractions are all met with swift justice.

Inkhorn has a unique method of transportation. Unlike the other city-fleets, who may float with the currents, are propelled by great sail collectives or by magical means, Inkhorn is pulled, much like a sea chariot, but on a much, much, large scale. Inkhorn’s is pulled along by a large school of Demi-Kraken,

Inkhorn is famous for its vast private libraries, theater troupes, and book markets. Index is the district where one can find all of the public, and most of the private, libraries along with the printing press. The Bard’s Quarter, even though it’s more than a third of the city-fleet in volume (unsurprisingly there are very few number people in Inkhorn), is home to the theaters. Papyrus and Quills is the district that lays host to the book markets. There is also the Opus-In-Flesh, a tattoo parlor that can inscribe arcane power words that with a command word change into weapons and armor, the Writers Block Tavern, famed for its literal liquid inspiration, the Pun-ishment, the combination comedy show/torture dungeon, and the Out-Damned Spot, the Demi-Kraken ink milking farm.

Inkhorn refers to its citizens as either cast members or wordsmiths, depending on who you ask. They are a motley crew who believe that the pen is mightier than the sword, but swords are still pretty damn good at killing someone. Some of the more infamous cast members/wordsmiths are the Uncensored, an animated printing press for hire, willing to print any literature anywhere, if the price is right, the roving Jacks-of-Diamond, a subversive surrealist theater troupe wanted for ‘guerilla thespianism’ in most of the Known Seas, the Marquis Robischon, famed for saving the Bibliothèque Noire by bringing the profane library to Inkhorn during the Vardoux Revolution, and Sanders Branson, the verbose current poet laurate of Inkhorn and its effective lord admiral.

Inkhorn has a unique method of propulsion. The city-fleet is essentially a vast sea chariot pulled by Demi-Kraken. Demi-Kraken, the story eating squids, are attracted to Inkhorn like sharks are to blood. When the city-fleet needs to move great harnesses are attached to the creatures and the poet laureate is used as a sort of ‘carrot on a stick’ forcing the Demi-Kraken to follow, pulling the city along. When the city is stationary the Demi-Kraken are freed of their harnesses you can see them swimming between the hulls, their hearing-tentacles occasion eavesdropping out of the water or clapping along with a plays audience.