Havenport
Government
- Mayors operate for a maximum of 5 years, with elections occurring every 5 years. Whoever receives the most votes is the winner of the election.
- Mayors take office on the 1st day of every 5th year, with elections occurring 1 month beforehand.
- Any Havenport Citizen is eligible to be elected as mayor and to vote for mayors. Anyone who has lived in Havenport for over 10 years is a citizen.
Defences
Industry & Trade
Infrastructure
Havenport, being located in the middle of the sea, doesn't have much in the way of infrastructure. Though the ocean provides a stable supply of food and water, Havenport relies on imports for raw resources such as wood and iron. Transportation to and from the city is possibly exclusively by ships and through the Lightning Rail. Transportation within the city is less coherent, with Lightning Rails functioning as a monorail system, and the streets are usually quite crowded with people.
History
The Foundation of Havenport
In 5 C.G, the first expeditions from the Old World reached the New World and, overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the New World, realized that a base of operations was needed. While scouting for a location to call home, one of the ships - the Raven - ran aground on a shallow sandbar and was unable to be freed. Faced with a lack of time and better options, the expedition decided to make the most of the misfortune and converted the ship into a headquarters.
The ship was never intended to be a permanent establishment, but through sheer coincidence, the sandbar was located at the intersection of several major currents and trade winds, meaning that most journeys to and from the New World inevitably passed through that exact spot. As such, the ship attracted multiple others to follow suite, and Havenport grew.
The Early Growth of Havenport
Havenport grew rapidly in the ensuing years, far faster than anyone had predicted. While the original plan was to construct a proper settlement atop the sandbar, those plans had to be quickly abandoned in favor of lashing ships together just to cope with the sheer number of people arriving from the Old World. Havenport grew quickly in the ensuing years, from a small outpost of 50 people in 5 C.G. to a bustling city of 8,000 in C.G. The growth of Havenport is attributed mostly to the allure of the New World and lack of any other options to go to.
The Giant's Night
In late 25 C.G, Havenport was attacked for the first time in its history. A Storm Giant, a Black Dragon, and mysterious entities known as Husks colluded for a three-pronged attack on Havenport. Their motive for attacking Havenport is unknown, but they were rebuffed by a group of adventurers who defended the city. At least 350 casualties resulted from this attack, and a small portion of the city was destroyed.Twenty Day's Riots
The Giant's Night had a profound effect on the citizens of Havenport, and they became considerably more discontent during this time. Havenport had always been a relatively safe place to live, surrounded by water on all sides for hundreds of miles. But the Giant's Night had shattered that illusion and revealed just how vulnerable the city was. Two major factions emerged during this time: one of the opinion that the city shouldn't have to rely on adventurers for protection, and the other that the adventurer-based protection was more effective than any militia could be.
In 37 C.G, tempers boiled over and an estimated 5,000 citizens of Havenport took to the streets and rioted in protest of each other's factions. The rioting lasted for 20 days and caused an estimated 500,000gp of damages. However, no clear victor emerged from the fray; eventually cooler heads prevailed and a compromise was reached between the leaders of the factions: Havenport would gain a mayoral government and a City Watch, and the adventurers would be called upon to handle any issues that the City Watch could not.
Creation of the Mayoral System
In 38 C.G, Havenport held its first mayoral election. In stark contrast to most other countries, Havenport chose not to make the mayoral system hereditary, and instead made it democratic - a choice necessitated upon the system as a compromise between the pro-adventurer and anti-adventurer factions, to ensure that neither held absolute power. In the following years, the rules of mayordom were in a constant state of revision to better fit the unique needs of the city, and by 50 C.G, the rules of mayordom stabilized and approached their modern incarnations. Though the pro-adventurer and anti-adventurer factions both eventually faded away, the mayoral system still prevailed and is considered one of Havenport's unique hallmarks and greatest success, as it greatly enhanced the stability of the city in the ensuing years. In 43 C.G, Havenport faced its first major political battle. Several Old World countries, having previously dismissed Havenport as a small trading port, became aware of the city's growing influence and attempted to claim the city as a colony. The then-mayor of Havenport successfully defended Havenport's autonomy using a variety of creative means that traditional hereditary governments couldn't use, and proved the validity and strength of the mayoral system.Urbanization of Havenport
By 60 C.G, Havenport had reached a population of 40,000, and had become quite crowded. Havenport had exhausted all of its usable land, and dredging up more seafloor became exponentially more difficult and expensive as the depth increased, making the prospect of raising the seafloor increasingly infeaseable. As horizontal expansion wasn't an attractive option, Havenport elected to build vertically, and hired a cabal of architects to design a building that was tall, contained ample floorspace, and could withstand the high winds of the open sea. They succeeded, and in the process invented a new device called a "lift" (essentially a platform with a modified Levitation spell inscribed upon it) to maximize the floorspace within the building. However, the rapidly growing nature of Havenport meant that inevitably, more and more buildings were built on the outskirts of the city and the city expanded horizontally. Accepting this inevitability, and faced with ageing wooden walkways, Havenport elected to design a modular citywide system of transport. Multiple designs were proposed, but the city elected to go with a Lightning Rail (essentially a train of carriages pulled by an engine along a system of rails from one destination to another).Rise of the City Services
Havenport was rapidly growing, but it still lacked many modern services. Noteably, detectives and lawyers were almost entirely absent from the City Watch, leading to many false incarcerations and much public outcry.Law Enforcement
Havenport's law enforcement is unique in that it doesn't actually fall under the purview of the City Watch. Instead, the Havenport Public Library, with its love for deep research and quibbling over technicalities, has taken up the task of lawyers and detectives. While the City Guard initially felt slighted by the rise in authority of the Library, the thArchitecture
Havenport was originally a flortilla of ships lashed together and connected by walkways, so much of the original architecture was converted from sailing ships. Permanent buildings only began construction in 35 C.G. after the seafloor was raised. In recent years, larger buildings have been constructed from stone, steel, and iron, with some reaching as high as 20 storeys. Due to the cramped nature of the construction, and the limitations of building upon the ocean, space it at a premium in Havenport, with small apartments being sold for extravagant prices. New arrivals to Havenport dock to the outside of the city, so most of the commercial activity takes place near the exterior of the city.
Geography
Natural Resources
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments