Shadetown

This article discusses sensitive topics, such as war and genocide. Please take care when reading.

This article is a Work In Progress. Please have patience while we caulk up all the leaks and re-sew the mainsails, and we'll soon be back to our regularly scheduled sailing!

Now, there's no evidence to say that Shadetown even exists, but if it did, it would be full of the worst murderers, thieves and drunkards imaginable. There's no corralling a mass of the world's waste like that, even if they wanted to. I say, leave it be."

— Samstradian Government Official during a speech addressing the Samstradian Parliament

You won't find the settlement of Shadetown on any map. Even those who have visited the infamous place and know for certain it exists, cannot be pursuaded to plot a course to it down anywhere it can be read, and keep the route and all its intricate technical directions memorised. No word of its location or its goings on is allowed to breach its docks, upon pain of death or exile. That is the price of entry to Shadetown.

Type

Town

Location under

The Sky Islands

A rare, unburned edition of 'Man of Tar', by Til Valekkis. Chapter Twenty-Nine has been ripped out. by Pfeffermin(Using Micrrosoft Designer)

Art, Song & Infamy

Much has been written about Shadetown, or the version that exists in the popular imagination. The Wyrdsmith ballad, 'When she comes up to Shade,' known for its lewd lyrics, frequent rhymes and popularity in drinking establisments, tells the tale of the antics of a Tarfolk crew after a long ocean journey on their first night upon docking in Shadetown, as well as a lover's reunion in the form of crude extended metaphor. Though it has been banned in various parts of Nei Samstrad and Kingsland, it can still be heard in the halls of those drinking halls brave enough or wise enough to know that the soldiers enforcing those bans are just as likely to be heard singing it within their own barracks.
In literature, the famous Gylarusian romance novel, Man of Tar, features an imaginary Tarfolk revolutionary or 'Tar Man' as its romantic lead and hero, though there are other reasons it has been banned in print by thirteen different countries that we are not able to detail here, though can be best exemplified by Chapters Eight, Thirteen, and of course, the last six pages of Chapter Twenty-Nine.
Art doesn't escape the romantic image of the Tarman, and many famous artists have tried their hands at capturing the essence of Shadetown and its inhabitants. The famous painting by Astastani artist Jandra Ba, portrays Shadetown as a utopian city and magical paradise upon a tropical island upon which all manner of mythical species and magical beings live.

'Refuge Island,' by Jandra Ba, 1621 AGK by Pfeffermin(Using Microsoft Designer)

Flag of the Tarfolk

A Tarfolk vessel sighted in Falloway by Pfeffermin (Using Microsoft Designer)