Free People of the Broken Coast

The Free People of the Broken Coast are the salors, shipwrights, merchants, and engineers that live, sail, trade and craft on the Broken Coast. The majority of the Free People live in the five settlements along the Broken Coast called The Free Cities, since the Stormwinds make most of the land inhospitable.

Four Pillars

What dangers do they face?

The Stormwinds

The Broken Coast is a hostile environment in which only the truely addapted can survive. Storms scour the Coast regularily, and its denizens must be able to protect themselves and their belongings from these supernatural forces. Many a ship is lost in the waters of the Broken Coast.

Seamonsters and Pirates

Many of the creatures along the coast are empowered by the Stormwinds, and aquatic monstrosities are an ever present threat for those who sail the coasts. Piracy and privateering also threaten ships, especially during times of war when risk and reward rise substancially.

Threat of invastion

The invasion of the Stormlands by the Klassenberg Reik has the Free People thinking that they are the next on the chopping block.

What fortunes do they have?

Changing Traderoutes

With the trade embargo between the Klassenberg Reik and the City of Gold having disrupted trade along the northern routes, trade between The Free Cities and the Sankarat Basin has increased. This allows the Free People to trade with new peoples, aquire new traderoutes, and they are no longer reliant on their enemies for trade.

Golden Age of Atrefabrians

The creation of magical contraptions has always been a speciality of the Free Peoples since before the war started, but new breakthroughs in fabrial creation have resulted in contraptions that allow mundane folk to have the powers of the Arcane at their beckon call. This was thought to be impossilbe only a few years ago. Now the greatest artefabrians in Dunia are gatherning in the Free Cities to recapture the magical wonders of the Golden Age.

Wielding the Storm

The invention of Sparkpowder weapons has established the Free Cities as a military powerhouse on the World Stage, and has the potential to change how wars are fought from here on out.

What products do they make?

The Free Peoples produce Sparkpowder weapons to dominate the seas and keep their enemies at bay. They produce the most sophisticated fabrials in the world, and are the only place where crucial raw materials for artefabrians are readily available.

What are their hopes for the future?

Up and Comming

The Free People have gained influence on trade and global politics in the last decades, due to new inventions and their wideranging implications for the global power balance. They are looking to exploit their new found fortune for all that it is worth. The world will no longer be able to ignore them, and they will gladly take their seat at the high table of politics.

Not on our shores

The Free People hope that the War of Sparks and Thunder will be concluded without the war being fought on their shores. A proxy war is less damaging than war on your own doorstep.

Major Organisations

Organisations that have influence over the Free People.

• The day to day government of the cities where the Free People live are The Free Cities
• The rulers of the Free People are an organisation of merchant lords called the LordsXV.
• The religious organisation responsible for tending to the faith of the Free People is called the Church of the Silver Flame, although personal freedom of religion is a well protected right among the Free People.
• The Merchant Guilds of the Free Cities are responsible for running most of the middle class merchantile operations of the Free People, although not everyone is associated with one of the Guilds.

Subcultures

Sheltered

During the founding of the Free Cities, the settelers were helped by local Coastborn tribes. These tribes supported the stranded refugees by finding them a place to live, sheltered from the Stormwinds and with enough food. Ever since then, the good relations between the Coastborn and the Free People have been upheld.
As part of this bond, the Coasborn are always welcome in the Free Cities to trade. Some of these Coastborn got enamoured by the different cultures and ways of life in the Cities, and how different they were from their own. These Coastborn decided to settle in the Cities, leaving their old life behind. Many Coastborn who currently have no place in their own communities decide to make a fresh start in the Free Cities.
These Coastborn who left their previous lives behind to seek shelter from the storms in the Cities are collectively refered to as the Sheltered. These people have integrated into Free People culture, having no trouble speaking the local language or abiding by the local customs. Many Sheltered still honour some of their Coastborn heretage, such as traditional medicine, clothing styles, and artistic preferences. However, most no longer follow the goddess Rán, the Mother of Storms. As a result, most second generation Sheltered and onward no longer grow Soulstones, and have lost a vital piece of their connection with Coastborn culture. Other Coastborn look towards the Sheltered with a degree of sadness, but most agree that the choice was ultimately theirs to make.

Demographics

There are not many differences in ancestries between social classes in the Free Cities, as their culture promotes upward mobility via capital. Anyone with the ability to make money can make it big in the Free Cities, and as such there is a good mix of ancestries across the social strata.
Due to their place in international trade, the Free Cities recieve many traders, travelers and immigrants from the global trade routes. This makes the Free Cities more multicultural than other places. One can easily find any culture or ancecstry represented in the Free Cities.
The Sheltered originated from the Coastborn, and as such most aarakocra, triton, and genasi in the free cities belong the that subculture.

Major Locations

Settlements and important locations where the Free People are a relevant ethnicity.

• Séala.
• Tarwaithe.
• Sealgair.
• Ceannaithe.

Religion

The Free People follow an organised religion called the Church of the Silver Flame. It has the following religious tenents:

• Build on what came before, and leave it better than you found it.
• Be free from those who would opress you.
• Those who further science carry the divine spark of progress with them.

Cultural traits

Traits that characters from this culture have that set them apart from others.

• Every living creature requires freedom to prosper.
• Political power is derived from how much capital you posess.
• Although dangerous, the life on the Storming Sea is beautiful and rewarding.

Origin

Origins - Free People of the Broken Coast

Related Organizations

• Church of the Silver Flame

Related Locations

• Broken Coast