Pirates

Piracy is a serious problem through the major water ways of Karneth. Throughout the Central Isles, pirates have setup shop and have grown to the point of building their own ships. In addition, they have created the drug of Djangle and now distribute it throughout the world.
Grayton's Lot have built a large navy with the intent of destroying the pirate issue in the area, but have been very unsuccessful. They have managed to control the issue within a few hundred miles of the city, but beyond that, their influence and resources are stretched to thin.
Piracy occurs not just on the high seas, but on land too in the form of bandits and highway men. Caravans often have guards, and sometimes adventuring parties will disguise themselves as a caravan so they can get the jump on the bandits.
How the pirates are organized is not understood, and in fact there are many factions of pirates. One of the major targets of pirates are other pirates. Pirates disguised as merchants make great targets. As such pirates help to keep the number of pirates at bay (pun intended).
One of the major pirate kings is Captain Bursk. He was captain of one of the battle frigates from Grayton's Lot, who talked is crew into turning against their employer and become one of their main enemies. Bursk was successful at doint this because most of his crew was hired on from other parts of the world and paid poorly. In the middle of the night they turned on the ship they were escorting, a ship laden with trade bars and luxeries, and they took the ship and its crew as their second ship. No one was hurt, but the captain of the merchantman and his lieutenant were both marooned on an island.
When the King of Grayton's Lot found out about Bursk turning on him, he placed a large 200 trade bar bounty on his head which remains to this day. This is a staggering sum for a bounty, but Bursk has taken far more than this so far.