Shadowright
Also called the Shadowwright, is a city at the border of Moshabar, located near the sea. It is most notable for its shipwright (which gave the city its name)and the special wood that grows nearby.
Shadowwright is one of the largest settlements on the moshabaran border, located near the sea at the end of the river delta that encompasses moshabar. Its location is a mixed blessing. It lies at the border of Moshabar, so there are several patches of solid ground to be found. On the other hand, it lies downstream of almost all the Moshabar rivers, which also means that all of the junk, toxins, and corrupting liquids wash down to shadowwright.
It would have been impossible to permanently inhabit shadowwright if it weren't for the large natural stone deposits that have been found by an expedition funded by the swamp king. The unstable wooden piers were replaced with solid stone and several mages were attracted to maintain the foundation of the entire project. A lot of work for setting up a settlement in such a bad spot it would seem were it not that the same expedition (pure coincidence of course, or so the swamp king maintains) discovered the legendary umbra trees.
These trees proved to produce extremely resilient and nearly pitch black wood wich was very suitable for creating all kinds of ships. As an added bonus, the dark wood also made the ship far more difficult to detect in the dark. It came as no surprise that nearly every pirate, smuggler, and clandestine traders jumped at the opportunity of owning a ship made from the special wood.
Demographics
The inhabitants of shadowright value their freedom and independence above all and will fight and die to protect their freedom. The city has no formal militia or military, but most of its inhabitants come from colored backgrounds and can usualy take care of themselves in a fight. The main defences of the city are its remote location and the loyalty of the numerous smugglers that use shadowright as a base of operations
Industry & Trade
Building ships from the fabled umbrawood is how the city got its name and this is still at the core of the economy of the city. Not all of the logging operations serve to feed the shipwrights, a decent portion of it is used by other craftspeople and artisans that have moved to the city.
Smugglers frequently visit shadowright, not only for the valuable umbra wood, but also because it provides the perfect staging ground for any smuggler. Remote, almost competely lawless and its easy to distribute goods further inland once brought ashore in shadowright.
History
Shadowwright only recently grew into the bustling center of commerce that it is today, as the unsuitable location at the end of the Mosabar delta made it very difficult to keep any form of organic material in constant repair. As the water at the end of the delta is far more corrosive, the location was inhospitable to people and animals alike. This changed when the swamp king launched various erratic expeditions in the area. Several parallel expeditions where organized and each received conflicting instructions. Some of the expeditions became bitter rivals and nearly got in open conflict with each other due to conflicting interests.
After the discovery of the umbra trees, and the realization had set in how valuable the newfound commodity was, the rivalries truly escalated and a small scale war was fought over the precious trees. Of course, this played right into the hands of the swamp king, who only deigned to show up after the dust had settled. He rewarded the victors with the plot of land in exchange for a small percentage of the valuable black wood that would be produced and did not have to pay the now dead exploration parties a single copper coin. Greedy as they were, the new regents consisting of a council of shipowning expedition leaders, accepted the deal, forgetting that they had no means to actually get the wood to the market, or how to survive.
The ruling council of captains eventually had to bring in outside investors to start-up shop, diluting their share and influence in shadowwright. Not that finding investors was quite difficult, mind you. The dark umbra wood proved to be highly suitable for building boats and more specifically smuggler and pirate vessels. Not only did it provide increased stealth by its dark grey color. The wood makes no sound, making it very difficult to spot an umbra wood vessel. No lack of those two professions in moshabar, so the town quickly grew.
The Swamp king remained curiously active in managing the town, even bringing in mages and donating large quantities of stone found in the vicinity of the town to make it prosper.
Shadowright was the major spearpoint of the attack of the yervan flotilla on moshabar. Creating a blockade in front of shadowright effectively blocks of nearly all access to the sea from the moshabarian side. The Yervans bit of more than they could chew when the population of shadowright rose to arms to fight for their freedom. While the blockade was still successful, it was enacted at a very heavy price for the yervans. The vastly outnumbered and outmaneuvered ragtag fleet of shadowright fought fiercely and managed to sink amongst others the flagship of the yervan fleet before having to yield to superior numbers and training of the yervan fleet.
It was during this battle that Admiral Hammond Leynthey came to power
Tourism
Of the cities in Moshabar, shadowright is closest to what one could consider "civilized" and as such has attracted its fair share of travelers over the years.
Architecture
Not many cities in Moshabar can pride themselves on stone buildings,
Natural Resources
Umbrawood is a strange wood. Besides its strange color, ranging from ash gray to nearly black it also has curious magical properties. Vibrations, be they from sound or from impact do not affect the wood as much, making it a prime resource for various objects and seafaring vessels.
Included Locations
Owning Organization