Editing Port Blackheart (section)

===History===

Separating fact from fiction is a challenging and largely pointless job where the history of Blackheart is concerned. The truth has been told and retold so many times that it most likely bears little resemblance to the events of the time anyway. Historians have agreed on a few general facts about Port Blackheart and these are presented below.

Before the Breaking of the Crown it seems that the port on the mouth of the Andle (it’s real name is lost to us and it is generally referred to as Andleport) was a good sized, bustling port town, one of the wealthiest in Gavilan. Most long range trading or ambassadorial vessels put in here and the steward oversaw a prosperous, clean city on the up. Embassies from many foreign powers were located here and it was a diplomatic as well as trading centre.

Then came the end of Gavilan. As the country was plunged into civil war and the dark ages, Andleport was not spared. The city changed hands many times in this period but no regime lasted more than a few years. Not until Lord Elvar Seidar came along anyway. Lord Seidar was born just before the civil war commenced and his family were turned out of their estate and went on the run. The two were captured by pirates and Elvar’s father was killed. The pirate captain took a shine to the boy after he killed one of his men in single combat though and kept him on as a cabin boy. Elvar showed great promise and, before his 20th birthday, he had killed the captain and taken over his ship. For 8 years he built a large force of pirates that operated in the seas to the west of what is now Tomanda and he gained a fearsome reputation amongst the land dwellers for ruthlessness and brilliant strategy. 

This wasn’t enough for him though, he burned inside at the thought of the land that had been taken from him and his family and was determined that he would become a Lord again, in more than just name. So it was that he planned an attack on Andleport. The city was in the midst of a tyrannical regime and the population were on the brink of revolution. Seidar sent in insurgents to spread the fire of revolution and, one night he and his ships sailed into town and with the revolutionaries behind them, displaced the despot.

The citizens of Andleport rejoiced in their new Lord and Elvar Seidar was moved by their support. He set himself up as the ruler of Andleport and declared it a free port, free from law and restriction, where any creature of any race or code could come to trade and work. The other Lords of the time scoffed at Elvar’s declaration but the people loved him and changed the name of the city in support to Port Blackheart, after the name by which Elvar was known to the authorities. The precedent of rebellion and independence was set and it has become a tradition in Port Blackheart to flout the established law and rub the faces of their neighbours in their freedom.

Lord Blackheart ruled over the city until his death and since then a succession of widely varied rulers have overseen Port Blackheart’s development from a respectable, progressive port to a filth-infested cesspool frequented by pirates, freebooters, mercenaries, outcasts, rebels, criminals, monsters and other unsavoury types. The laws and rules of the city come and go with each regime and the city is in a state of constant flux. Power is held by those strong enough to take it and every ruler walks a fine line between appointing strong people under them to keep enough control to keep the money rolling in and making sure those same underlings are never in a position to overthrow them.

The list of colourful rulers of the city are too long to tell all of their stories here. At one point or another the city has been ruled by demons, orcs, vampires, pirates, soldiers, mind flayers and even, on one particularly memorable but short occasion, by a halfling. 

During the Dark Ages Port Blackheart survived by dint of its usefulness to the various factions at war. It was a stable port for goods from other lands to come in and the different armies all had representatives in the Port bartering for goods and supplies and attempting to foil their rivals’ deals and schemes. With the end of the civil war some worried that Blackheart’s time of prosperity was over but this was far from the case. With the re-establishment of law and order in the surrounding lands, Port Blackheart became the only place to acquire certain black market goods as well as doing a roaring trade servicing those elements of society who would have been shot on sight in most ports.

Occupying a position on the border between Tomanda and Duatin Erethol, Port Blackheart would be a great asset to either nation but neither can risk the wrath of the other by moving in to occupy the city, not to mention the fact that taking it would be no simple matter due to the sheer number of fighting men within the city limits. Both countries, as well as many others, maintain embassies in Port Blackheart ostensibly for “diplomatic” purposes. In reality, all of the countries need to keep an eye on the situation in the city as highly volatile and potentially dangerous items and people come through the city on a regular basis. The authorities in Port Blackheart don’t tolerate other countries openly sweeping criminals of the streets but they turn a blind eye to many of the embassies’ darker practices. If a country wants you bad enough you’re not safe from them, even in Port Blackheart.

Today, Port Blackheart operates much as it always has. The city is ruled over by the Bloody Duke, a fearsome character who is rarely glimpsed in public. Few people know anything about him and rumours abound as to his real nature and motivation. He took the rulership of the city twenty years ago on one bloody night, killing the previous ruler and all of his lieutenants. Most of those who were present on that night are dead and those that remain don’t like to talk about it. When the populace woke up to a new ruler the next morning there was initial unrest about how the Bloody Duke would change the city but mostly he seems to have kept with tradition, appointing his lieutenants and mostly staying out of people’s business. Still, there is unrest in some quarters about the mysterious origins and eventual purpose of the Bloody Duke.