Bimini
Bimini in many ways was more of the idea of a town than a true organized community. With no official government and laws, it was a bit of a wild anarchy situated between the Jakonian Empire and the Bahami Emirates. The town offered all of the typical attractions of a place with little regulation, and nearly any good or service was bought or sold here. The town consisted of two parts, the North Island, and the South Island. The North Island was home to the local Jakonian population, while the South Island was home to the Bahamis that call this town home. It was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm that sunk the South Island into the sea in 1040.
Government
There was no organized government in Bimini. Businessmen and employers either knew to be skilled in some form of combat or to employ guards to protect themselves. If a crime was committed or items are stolen, it was upon the insulted party to inflict justice of whatever kind they chose. This made Bimini very dangerous for travelers or those who may be concerned about their well-being or safety. Even the smallest of small business owners knew that they had to be prepared to either hemorrhage profits or to have the will to take a hand (or other appendage) to discourage future crimes.
Defences
The town had very little in the way of organized defenses. A pair of corvettes owned by a local Bahami crime lord acted as interceptors for catching people who tried to flee his justice, and the various guards and mercenaries employed by local businesses may have put up a fight if one was immediately required. For the most part, Bimini relied upon its distance from the mainland and the Emirates to prevent any ambitious lord or emir from attacking. The first instinct of Biminians to an impending assault was to flee on a myriad of local craft to other safe harbors.
Industry & Trade
Trade was the lifeblood of Bimini. It acted as a place that people can sell their goods free of taxation and tariffs, particularly if their goods were considered illegal or stolen. All sorts of unusual items and objects turned up in this town, offered at a steep charge. There are very few locally produced goods, beyond a handful of fruits and spices, and the majority of the town's wealth came from selling items in one of the two markets. The slave trade here was also considerably more robust than any slave market in the Emirates, offering specialized slaves, rather than just the mere laborers that you may find in a typical Bahami slave market.
Infrastructure
There were no maintained true roads in Bimini, and even if there were, the first hurricane would have washed them away. The only real communal efforts at infrastructure development consisted of the docks that service the ships that went to the two islands. The docks were all privately owned and operated, charging captains to dock, and usually collecting a tidy sum in the process. Due to the importance of trade to Bimini, some of the docks were owned by collections of individuals, and repair efforts after storms usually started with the construction of new facilities for ships to arrive at.
Guilds and Factions
There were two open factions competing for influence within Bimini, and one more covert one. The first faction was the Jakonians of the North Island. They believed that Bimini should be an imperial town once again and that the slave markets should be shut down. They wished to organize the town a bit more and attempt to form a local government under Jakonian norms and laws. They operated the North Island market, which sold more typically legal and upscale goods than the South Island market.
The South Island faction believed that everything is fine the way it is and there was little reason to change. They were backed by the Bahamis and most of the nonhumans on the island. They rejected the holier-than-thou attitude of the Jakonians and fervently resisted the introduction of any Church of the One Sun presence on the islands of Bimini. They also stood in full support of the slave trade and the other items of dubious ethics present in the market on the South Island.
Finally, the catfolk of the South Island persistently organized against both of the human backed factions. Living under slavery, the catfolk dreamed of overthrowing their masters and making Bimini a haven for their kind. They disliked the other nonhuman races present on the islands, for how little they have done to curtail the racism of their masters. This was mostly a pipe dream, however, as the catfolk lacked the resources or weapons to make their dreams a reality, and the Bahamis quickly cracked down on any signs of dissent or unrest among their servants.
History
The town of Bimini was said to exist before the fall of the Nameless Empire, and it is commonly said that the end of the world was the greatest thing that could have happened for the town's fortunes. Nearly a ghost town before the fall, Bimini swelled with refugees from the mainland. Most of these refugees starved or were killed, but those who survived managed to do so by making the best of a land that was barely a sandbar. When the Bahami islands entered into a period of chaos, the town of Bimini stood against them. Despite their few numbers, the Biminians managed to impress the other Bahamis enough that they were able to remain free of the influence of djinn and emir alike.
After the Jakonian Empire reached its zenith in the west, it turned its eyes towards the islands, with the hopes of stopping the nuisance of the corsair raids on the Jakonian coast. A fleet of hundreds of ships arrived around Bimini, and they knew better than to fight, welcoming the Imperial forces with open arms. The campaign in the islands went well at first for the Jakonians, and they continued to use Bimini as a base of operations, with secure and loyal people. The Bahamis proved unconquerable however, and the Jakonians ultimately were forced to withdraw from their various island strongholds one by one.
The decay of the Jakonian Empire meant independence once again for Bimini. Several influential businessmen in the town at the time managed to use their connections with the Empire to cause them to force the Bahamis to agree to Bimini's continued independence. The usefulness of the town as a back channel for diplomacy between the two states was undeniable, and the town continued to operate free of any government's regulation.
Catastrophe brought about the end of Bimini, as in the last month of 1040, the South Island suffered an enormous earthquake. Earthquakes were previously unknown in the Bahami Islands, and this one was particularly powerful. It caused nearly half of the South Island to collapse into the Endless Ocean. Following this collapse, a tsunami emerged from the sea, and quickly flooded even the highest ground upon the North Island. The island was swept clean of all dwellings, and those who survived were only a sparse few who escaped on board the handful of ships that survived the wave.
Architecture
The town of Bimini had a mixture of architectural styles between the Bahamis and the Jakonians, but living on such a thin strip of land caused the Bahami style to dominate, even in the predominantly Jakonian North Island. Flexible wooden construction and homes on stilts are the norm, as most storms caused flooding throughout the town. Even with these precautions, many homes were often rebuilt following a particularly harsh hurricane.
Geography
The majority of the town was built in the middle of the two islands. The islands formed a natural "C" shape around a large lagoon, which was a protected harbor for ships during most storms. The North Island was mostly small hills and farms, while the town itself was at the bottom, on the thin strip of land between the ocean separating Bimini and the mainland, and the lagoon. Portions of the town in this area were less than 60 feet wide from beach to beach. The South Island was at a slightly higher elevation, and the residents there have more permanent homes and businesses. There exists fewer farms, but many warehouses and other encampments and slums where the slaves reside.
RUINED SETTLEMENT
Hardfrost 4, 1040
Type
Town
Inhabitant Demonym
Biminian
Location under
~1,100 Bahami Humans
~1,000 Jakonian Humans
~600 Catfolk
~100 Various Other Races
Comments