Bleak Harbour
The only settlement on the Isle of the Lost, Bleak Harbour is the headquarters, main fortress and training ground of the Empire of Turelion's Imperial Inquisition and it is also where the Inquisitions most infamous gaol is to be found. Those brought to Bleak Harbour against their will rarely ever leave, and most find that their lives end in one of the gods forsaken cells or on the apparatus of one of the interrogation rooms deep within the bowels of the caste.
The Bleak Dungeons
What springs to the minds of most people outside of the Imperial Inquisition when they think of Bleak Harbour, is the network of cells and interrogation rooms said to lie beneath the fortress, known as the Bleak Dungeons. As so few people who are incarcerated within the Bleak Dungeon leave, and as the Inquisition rarely, reveal information about their bases of operations, little accurate information is known about the gaol complex. Those who engage in the dangerous practice of trying to learn more information about the Bleak Dungeons will be able to piece together scraps of material about the nature of what one might find there. It is understood that the corridors and cells of the subterranean labyrinth are kept permanently dark through magical means which are said to even shroud the eyes of creatures who would otherwise be able to see in the dark. Each of the cells is said to be so small that most creatures are not able to sit down properly, and must permanently stand or squat until they grow so exhausted that they collapse. Perhaps most cruelly of all, it is said that the Inquisition take great care to ensure that each of their guests is fed and watered adequately enough (sometimes more forcefully than others) to ensure that they survive for long enough for the agents of the Inquisition to extract as much useful information from them as possible. Unlike the labour camp and prison on the Isle of Grief, those imprisoned within the Bleak Dungeons are those whose prospects of release are incredibly slim, either because they have committed very serious crimes against the Empire of Turelion, or the Imperial Family, or because the Inquisition wish to keep them close, for whatever nefarious reasons they might have.Demographics
Like most places within the Empire of Turelion, of the non-incarcerated people dwelling within Bleak Harbour there is a majority Human population. However, as the Imperial Inquisition require people from all species and origins in order to provide them with a base of agents who can be deployed in almost any scenario, this preponderance towards Humans is much smaller than in most other population centres within the Empire.
All of those who are resident in Bleak Harbour, who are not being held against their will within the Bleak Dungeons are members of the Imperial Inquisition.
The Inquisitorial Academy
As well as housing its infamous dungeon complex, Bleak Harbour also houses the training facilities and barracks which produce new agents for the Inquisition. Those selected for training within the Inquisition undergo brutal mental and physical conditioning and training, which puts every aspects of these would-be agents through unimaginable stresses, ensuring that only the strongest and most wily survive. Trainee agents live cheek by jowl with one another across several floors of the fortress which they never leave until their training has been completed. As well as living quarters, these floors contain work rooms where trainees study languages and cultural nuances of all manner of societies; a gymnasia where they train in armed and unarmed combat; and several large spaces which can be set up with intricate models and props (including whole buildings) to create simulated training environments.Inquisition Headquarters
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly amongst Bleak Harbour’s functions, the fortress is also the location of the headquarters of the Imperial Inquisition. The top floors of the facility contain the nerve centre of the organisation, in which detailed tracking of each deployed agent takes place both via magical means and via reports provided by agent handlers on the ground. It is also here that the office and residence of the Grand Inquisitor is located.Defences
As well as its remote location and the fact that it almost always has a large number of inquisitorial agents and trainees within its walls, Bleak Harbour has been constructed to outlast all but the most ferocious of attacks.
Above the ground it is a vast monolithic tower, with thick walls and few windows, whose very stones are enchanted with arcane wards to ensure that only the most powerful of spells or the strongest of weapons could damage them. Beneath the ground and below the lowest levels of the Bleak Dungeons, arcane sensors have been placed in the ground, ensuring that no-one or nothing would be able to tunnel up into the facility.
The only way to access the fortress is via its heavily guarded front entrance, whilst the area around the fortress is protected via a battery of canons and ballistae located on the battlements that surmount the enormous tower.
Type
Military, Base
Population
Unknown
Location under
Owning Organization
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