The game is ready

I'm far enough along in preparation that I can start the game at any time. I'd like to get an idea of who the players will be, and what characters they will be playing.

The Riverbank and the Outer Harbour

Fort Aralan's protective walls only surround those portions of the city inside the bay. But the city has grown out onto the outside of the bay as well. These parts of the city are not protected from the wind or harsh weather. The land is rocky.

The area south of the channel into the bay is known as The Outer Harbour.
Lorpoint - This is a "tavern" district, frequented by fishermen.

White Harbour - A "wharf" district. Used by fishermen.

Ashley - A "warehouse" district. Storage buildings serving the needs of the White Harbour area.

Merrimill - A "tannery" district, in the terms set down by the CityScape book. This is where workshops too unpleasant for the main city are located. Tanning, dyeing, rendering etc. take place here.

Lochden - A "shanytown" nieghborhood has grown up here, near the protection of the city, and jobs provided by the wharf. Improvised housing for people too poor to live within the city itself.

The north side of the channel is often called "Riverbank".
Valmarsh and Bridgebank are "shantytown" districts, similar to Lochden.

Breakers is a former shantytown, but over time more permenant structures have emerged. But this area is still very poor.

Redbank is Fort Aralan's "red-light" district.

The 4 Crowns, The Charter, and who governs Fort Aralan

Long ago the 4 largest and most stable nations in the "old world" established a treaty to deal with "new world" issues. They feared contact with anything from the west side of the ocean might re-ignite the devastating plague. They established laws banning travel there. This alliance of 2 human kingdoms, the largest dwarf kingdom and the Eladrin enforced the laws with the joint use of their navies. Together they worked to detect magical travel to the banned area, and sought to punish anyone who went there without authorization. Smaller nations, including those of gnomes and halflings largely followed the lead of "The Four Crowns".

It is "The 4 Crowns" who decided that travel should once again be permitted. They issued charters two 5 wealthy nobles. The charters allowed for the establishment of colonies.

Since the charter was issued jointly by 4 nations, there are occasionaly disputes amoung the 4 Crowns about how to govern these territories.

Aralan is an Eladrin wizard, but he frequently lives among and does business with humans. He sold shares in his charter to any one who wished to risk him money. Shareholders were parcelled out land surrounding Fort Aralan by lottery.

Aralan's personal representative in the colony is known by the title "Governor". He resides in and works from the garrison at Fort Aralan proper. He's responsible for the larger colony, including areas outside of the city. The colonies warships and garrisons are under his authority.

A council made up of local business men of importance, and representatives of the charter investors govern the city itself. They conduct their work from the civic district known as "City Hall".

Geography and the walled city.

Fort Aralan is located on a large sub-tropical peninsula on the South-East coast of the "new world" continent. (One day, I will name this continent, I promise.)

A river that colonists have named Augustine flows from north to south down this peninsula, very near the east coast. About mid-way to peninsula's southern point, the Augustine empties into a bay. The inner edge of this bay is well protected from the harsh weather that comes to this area in the Fall. So the Wizard Aralan selected it as the location of his charted colony.

The original settlement was a small walled keep. It still stands as the home of the city's main garrison. Over time a larger wall grew around this point, to protect the surrounding area.

Within the walls are:
Salem - A wharf, used mainly by warships who's duty is to protect the colony.

Aralan Tower - An 80 ft tower, housing the closest thing to a "university" in the new world. Scholars collect information to try to unlock the history of the ancient civilizations that once occupied this part of the world.

The Old Harbor - Another harbor, this one used mostly for commercial use.

City Hall - The seat of government for the city and the surrounding area.

Calumet - An area most notably containing the guild houses for most of the professional and commercial organisations that do business in the colony.

A crude map of the city

This is the map that I've come up with for the city of Ft. Aralan. It's not pretty, but it shows in a general sense what's in each section of the city. This map represents an area of about 1/2 mile from North to South. People tend to live in close quarters for safety, rather than spreading out for space. I've consulted the internet and found that the population density would not have been unreasonable for a medieval town.

Each area of the city is given a number, a name, and a type. The types are the district descriptions from the 3.x book CityScape.

The square areas on the left side of the map are about 90x90 yards each. The thicker grey lines represent stone walls, and the brown lines represent a high wooden fence.

As I get a chance, I'll blog more about this.