Blue
Unlike Highport, which fought valiantly to protect itself against the humanoid hordes, almost everyone in Blue with any military or combats kill fled to the seas when the orcs attacked, leaving the weak, the old, the defenseless, and children to hold back an army. The city surrendered almost instantly, and the surprised attackers found themselves in charge of a large population of humans, which they promptly enslaved, putting any who resisted to the sword. The humanoids fought over the spoils of the city and ate its stockpiles of food while the humans got used to their new status. When food supplies began running low, the orcs turned to the human population for their next meal.
Fortunately, some of the smarter slaves were able to convince the orcs that many of the slaves were fishermen by trade, or at least had a familiarity with boats, and could do more than just menial labor for their masters. The orc leaders saw the brilliance of this plan and began sending groups of human fishermen out into the strait of Gearnat to collect fish. Each ship was garrisoned with well-armed orcs in case the slaves were of a mind to mutiny or escape. In addition to fishing, the orcs hunted the farm animals that had gone wild since the invasion and began trading with some of the more amiable tribes.
As the years passed, the older humans died off or were killed by the orcs when they became useless. The human children raised in this environment gained an appreciation of strength giving the right to rule and violence as an accepted means to solve conflicts. In short, they may have been human by birth, but they were being raised as orcs. Many turned traitor to their own kind and embraced their orcish neighbors, earning superior jobs as most collaborators with oppressors do. Some of these humans even earned their freedom due to exceptional service or in honor-battles with champions of other ore tribes. These humans (and other evil-minded folk that migrated to the city) became a significant part of the population. Meanwhile, a generation of half-orcs was being born, some of them slaves, some of them free, further mixing the population of the city. Two generations after the fall of the city, it was inhabited by a mixture of races and social classes with blurred boundaries; entirely evil, but functional and united against any opposition.
This state continued until the rise of Turrosh Mak. The half-orc champion won over the leaders of the city with praise, gifts, and promises of glory in the new era of the Orcish Empire. Within a few weeks, the entire city had begun a transformation from a home of fishermen and pirates to a fortified base of operations for piracy, trade, slaving, and naval warfare. Large earthworks were built around the city walls and squat defensive mounds built upon them. Aquatic humanoids and gargoyles have been recruited to establish camps in the nearby caves. Additional piers were built, and a large section of the port was converted to repair and upgrade ships to military standards. Now ships from many allied nations of the Pomarj and Slavelords stop at Blue, and the increasing number of Pomarj warships (supplemented by flag less vessels from the Brotherhood) in this area keeps the threat from Irongate, Ulek, and Keoland at bay. It is not known who would win if the two groups engaged in a full-scale naval combat, but the results would surely involve a great loss of life on both sides.
In addition to the threats from other nations, Blue seems to be a choice target for sahuagin attacks. Even more so than the rest of the eastern coast of the Pomarj, the city suffers regular attacks from the sea devils, occurring at least once a season in great numbers for the past two years. This attention has warranted the building of a defensive wall along the docks; 20 feet high and steeply canted, it has numerous holes that allow boiling or burning oil to be poured from its top surface and out the side through numerous smaller openings, creating an inferno of death against any invaders from the sea. The Dock Wall (as it is called) has large gates made of bronzewood and covered in a thick grease that is difficult to burn, which allows the incendiary attacks to be used without risking a breach in security. The gates are usually left open but can be held shut with iron bars.
Blue is an unremarkable city, looking much like Dyvers or Highport except for the Dock Wall and the 20-foot-thick earthworks outside the outer wall. Its population has become so homogenized in the past half-century that there are no true racial districts anymore; ore lives next to half-orc who lives next to human, all of them owning slaves of various races. Even the ties of an orcish tribe have weakened. An orc of Blue is more likely to consider his allegiance to the city before a tribe association (assuming the ore has any ties to a tribe at all, since many have interbred among tribes or have human ancestors)
.Slaves in Blue are normally branded or tattooed with the rune meaning thrall on the forehead or right hand. Those rare slaves who earn their freedom have the opposition rune branded or tattooed over it. Most of the fisherfolk of the city are still slaves, but only nominally so. As in Highport, crime here is punished by imprisonment, enslavement, or execution, although recently floggings have become popular, with bets being made on the number of lashes a criminal can take before crying out in pain. However, most of the acts considered crimes in a civilized city go unnoticed here. Only theft and attacks that result in death or great bodily harm result in the intervention of the law. As such, all free people in town are proficient with some weapon, and most slaves are allowed to carry knives to defend themselves against anyone but their owners.
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