Blackbay

Blackbay is an independent port city where the Blackwater River meets the North Sea. The climate is relatively temperate, and winters are mild, not unlike Great Britain or Ireland.

Government
The leadership of Blackbay is famously affiliated with the church of Dagon, who took power after the Day of Disaster.

Before the Disaster, Blackbay was actually a magocracy, ruled by a council of governing mages who were associated with the school of magic that existed in the current location of the Barrows. The current regime's policies towards magic are a reaction to the rather dramatic failure of the previous government.

Districts
Blackbay is divided into a variety of districts, the most notable of which is the Barrows, which was the district ultimately destroyed by and shut down after the Disaster.
 * The Barrows
 * Docks
 * The Stews
 * The Broken Anchor
 * Home of Alana Oressu and her son Osgold
 * Warehouse District
 * High Town
 * Old City
 * Home of Karl Oressu
 * Merchants' Quarter
 * Headquarters of The League of Eyes
 * Nimblequill's Tomes
 * Home of Erik Lansdown

NPCs

 * King Cyril III
 * Marith Nimblequill
 * Fabian the Fat
 * Erik Lansdown
 * Alana Oressu
 * Sir Gaubert

People of Note

 * Karl Oressu

History
75 years ago, the Disaster leveled one of the city's largest districts and killed a significant number of its inhabitants. Most of Blackbay's recent history is colored by this event, including its current government, culture, and laws concerning magic.

Magic in Blackbay
Citizens are forbidden from using magic with the exception of divine magic. This has caused users of magic to move underground and establish secret societies dedicated to teaching and passing on magical traditions.

Economy
Blackbay's primary export is salt fish because of the large schools of fish called skrei and natural, easily mined salt deposits.

Halflings from the neighboring Hibernean islands also export their famous Hibernean steel out of Blackbay's port.

Blackbay is a port, and to maintain trading contacts means turning a bit of a blind eye to magical imports and exports. Local government allows magical goods to move "through" the city, but merchants cannot sell them to the citizens of Blackbay. Specialized businesses deal with issues surrounding the transport of otherwise illegal merchandise through the city. The largest such business is Crow Street Sureties.

Peoples
The native peoples of Blackbay, often just called "Islanders," have dusky skin and hair, in contrast to the more fair-skinned people of the Old World.

The waters around Blackbay are inhabited by aquatic tribes of selkies, who have a reputation for crashing and looting merchant ships.

''This city used to be beautiful, if you can believe it. There were this big crystal dome at the top of the Academy--you never knew with those mages, maybe it were a giant diamond! The sun would hit it just right and there'd be rainbows everywhere. Little flashes of color showing up when you were doing your days business. At night, it would glow like a second moon...none of these filthy lamps like we have to live with now. ''

''It's a nasty town we are, now. Drunk sailors in the street and fellows working at the docks but what wouldn't think twice about having their way with even the oldest old nag. We make our money bringing things in and shipping them out nowadays. Parts of town is dangerous to walk at night if you don't got the money to be someplace safer--and most of us don't. ''

''Sometimes when the sun sets over the North Sea, I see all the ships on the horizon, coming in from the south and west, bringing cargo from those savage islands and the countries what thinks their more civilized than us and who knows else besides. And I know I'm poor and old and all my sons are gone to the sea, but we're still better off counting on money than we were those bastard mages. ''

''We're free, now. Those mages didn't give a damn about us; we didn't know we were living on borrowed time. But now, we're dirty, and filthy, and free.''