Ye Worlde Of Driftwood

Thanks for the map [Asryth]!!!

THE FLOATING CITIES

Bottom left sector: Fainwood. This island is closest to one of the largest shallow-water forest/swamps in Driftwood, filled with huge trees known as salt cypresses. There's small patches of trees like this that grow up here and there in the southern regions but this one is the biggest. This is a valuable source of wood for everyone but boats like everyone uses simply can't manuever through it (not deep enough for a boat, too deep to walk though, too many stumps, fallen trees, hardened salt deposits etc, damages the bottoms of hulls) it's more trouble than it's worth and it is a ship graveyard filled with the boats of stupid captains who thought they could manuever through it. Fainwood deals in scrapwood and driftwood it gathers from the edges of the salt cypress forest and also makes a good living rescuing crew from the boats that become hopelessly lodged within the forest. The local residents of Fainwood call this shallow water forest, Devil's Teeth.

Top left sector:Boucan. Uhm...can't think of anything special for it. Great place for grog and steaks maybe :)

Top third sector from left: Hogshead

Top right sector: Periagua

Top second sector from right: Rackham

and the last one straddling the line: Elysia which is the closest to Caelum Isle in its winter month location.

THE BULWARK CITIES

Bottom second sector from the right: New Onai. Founded by onai this city is populated mostly by those folk. There are those who hail it as a brave new world of sorts, a place for onai to call their own. There are those who also criticize it as a prettily disguised penal colony for onai, led by a puppet of a govenor.

Third sector from bottom right: Breakwater

Middle top:Meridian

Second sector from bottom left: Corquetown



The tone of this story is very much 17th century with cutlasses, daggers, blunderbusses and flintlock rifles being the main methods of persuasion. It is fantasy and magic exists but in the form of fantastic creatures and magical objects. There are no enchanters only people who are skilled with magical objects.

Driftwood interestingly enough is a land with very little land. On the Amaranthine Ocean float six large main islands cunningly constructed of driftwood and woven, spongy mats of dried tough whitkelp plants which grow underwater in vast beds.

At the center of the Ocean is the Caelum Isle. It is a mysterious place, consisting of white beaches and a tall mountain spire of clear, gold-tinted crystal which casts magnificent rainbows when the sun is in just the right position. Surrounding it are eight ancient and magical maelstroms which have been an effective barrier for many generations. However the island is largely ignored by the people of Driftwood as a rather pretty but useless oddity. Small groups of zealots worship it from afar and it occasionally attracts a foolish adventurer keen on finding fabulous treasures and comely wenches.[IMPORTANT! No one at the time of the story has yet set foot on this island but a few have perhaps seen it...a very few]

Each of the six islands are ruled from a magnificent flagship by six pirate lords known by the title of Saltwolf. These Saltwolves get along very well on the surface. Underneath it though they freely loot from one another and squabble and battle, constantly trying to gain the upper hand and have done so for centuries.

There are also the smaller bulwark cities, haphazard multi-storied creations built on massive stone pilings with canals instead of roads (think Venice)

Whitkelp barons called bosuns control the kelp beds and gain a nice profit from the six islands due to the constant need for maintenance and repair.

Below the bosuns are the quartermasters, the open sea merchants who buy and sell goods. Since fresh water is such an in-demand commodity they also tend to stake claims on a natural phenomenon known as " eyes of water " or " water-eyes ", hot springs of fresh drinkable water that well up in the midst of the salty ocean.

The Black Jacks are the soldiers and hired goons of this world. Some are privately employed to hunt down troublemakers on the open seas and they make a decent living from doing so.

On the bottom of the food chain are the gallyfolk. They are often hired to maintain a bosun's kelp-bed or a quartermaster's water-eye or used as rowers on galley-ships but are really little better than slaves and paid little or nothing for their work.

Also despised are the opportunistic corsairs, the highwaymen of the ocean. They work alone, serving under no captain and are part of no crew and therefore are looked on as highly dangerous and untrustworthy folk