The Republic of Portavas is a nation of proud seafaring merchants who historically have had a choke hold on the merchant and trade factions of the world. Once great port cities spanned the edges of the known map, an island chain of city states that specialized in acquisition, exploration, and commerce. The phrase “If you can’t find it here, we’ll find it for you” was synonymous with the name of Portavas.

Born out of a stubborn refusal to comply with tyranny, Portavas was created when the ports and navy declared their independence from the two warring Monarchies that would become the City Nation of Hammerstadt, using an enormous feat of magic to break away from the mainland in a historical event known as the Changing Tide, 342 years ago. Now during the war against the Corrupted, the people have been pushed even further to the edges of the map, taking to the sea and launching their capital city into the blue once more.

But the Republic is not a people to take defeat lying down – they are explorers and traders, and taking to the sea once more has given them new chances to flex their skills in survival against the odds. Swashbucklers, shipwrights and Portavans of all kinds have a golden opportunity to spit in the face of the cults that would pen them in and force them to submit to tyranny again.

Their nation may be much reduced in size, but their home has always been at sea, and by floating the city of Elzano once more, Portavas has made their enemies fight them on their own terms.

Geography

Portavas has one remaining port city, with an Island arc acting as a natural “sea wall”, and the famous floating Capital City of Elzano, who many assume to be the entirety of the nation. Port Ravesso, the mainland city, is built on marshy salt flats at the edges of the continent, with the islands arching in a ring across the ocean around them.

The Floating Capital City of Elzano

The Republic of Portavas’ Capital City of Elzano was not always floating. When the first attacks from the Corrupted happened the Nation felt they were immune due to their proximity to the sea, but as soon as each port was swallowed, the citizens of Elzano took desperate measures to save their people and their greatest treasures. A sort of “Ark” project was undertaken by the nation’s greatest craftspeople and Weavers, and it is considered one of the greatest works of combined magic of recent centuries. Exactly what the Republic of Portavas had to pay to create the floating capital is unknown and remains its greatest secret.
Taking to the sea they would for a time dock and restock in any of their vast network of ports but as the enemy got stronger and swallowed more of the physical land Elzano became limited to where they could dock, so they have headed towards their most outlying port which at the time was little more than a salt marsh outpost.

Over the years, this ark has become a flotilla of boats, each bound to the next, to form a hulking floating structure which usually rests untouchable in the middle of the encircling islands. It has been known in times of war for Elzano to move, either to safer waters or if their enemy is very unlucky, towards the front lines. Able to split and reform, it is a terrifying beast when cornered. Once it has defeated an enemy, it will take the ships won and add them to the city’s bulk. The similarity between this and the consumption of the world has been noted by some more outspoken academics.

Boats connecting and disconnecting from an ever changing city has led to an active trade market, both legal and illegal. Clouds of sea birds marking its location in the middle of the seas while it floats around has given it the nickname “The City of Feathers”.

Wide gang planks and rope bridges connect the large central vessels to one another as they float through the blue seas. Piled high on top are walkways and scaffolding, covered in decoratively carved wooden houses and buildings. Spires of carved wood reach towards the swirling clouds of sea birds above. Their roofs covered in the massing flocks, as well as the after effects of their presence…
The motifs for the carvings are often nautical in nature, but can also take on well known stories, personal triumphs, or memorandum for those lost.

Hanging gardens are common on balconies that overlook the city. Hardy shrub grasses and dune flowers bring softness to the eye.
Glass baubles of every colour sway in the winds bringings soft tinkling sounds as the tides ebb and flow. 

Here are the homes and offices of the Merchant Houses, and the political classes. Here also reside the influential advisors to the political parties, the magic weavers, and the speakers of the gods. The city gently slopes down to areas which contain research facilities, the national treasures of historical and magical significance, the schools of magic and representative temples of patron gods, and The Square of Trade.

Port Ravesso

The land city of Ravesso has large bays, flanked by artificial harbors. The original genius of the city lies in the physical construction. Painstakingly reclaiming marshland, stabilizing islands by sinking oak piles in the mud, draining basins and repairing canals, maintaining barriers against the threatening sea: All required ingenuity and high levels of group cooperation.

The ever shifting lagoon archipelago not only shaped Ravesso but also gave rise to a unique society and way of life. Beyond the fish and salt of the lagoon, the citizens could produce nothing. Everything is traded or acquired from outside sources. Here are the manufacturing businesses and warehouses, glass workshops and furnaces, limited farming, and food production. This is also where most people have their homes, some public service and political buildings also have departments here. And, in reflection to the floating Capitol Elzano, a large trade center for the more practical, mundane wares. 

But not everything went smoothly with the expansion of this once small outpost. While digging the foundations of the soon to be city, the original architects found numerous structures sunk below the marsh. Some of the structures were originally mistaken for large unusually straight cut sea rocks. Over time they had become encrusted with limpets and barnacles, but on closer inspection were revealed to be monolithic spires of impossible to cut, metal-like stone. Once cleaned they revealed a mirrored finish, and covered in archaic carvings which no scholar has yet managed to decipher. The cleaning and preservation of these monoliths became a priority when designing the land city, and they remain shining beacons to all who enter the harbors. Rumors of ancient civilisations and lost treasures deep within the marshes below Ravesso are common. 

Home of the great glass workshops, and the salt farms which operate 24 hours a day. Fishing boats leave and arrive in an almost constant wave. Surrounding the city are the salt flats, where salt taken from the surrounding ocean marshes is processed and refined. Shallow bottomed skiffs are used to transport items through narrow canals all through Ravesso. Houses raised on wooden pontoons and floating docks had to be lightweight and flexible. 

Terracotta coloured tiled roofs top clean white painted buildings. Windows contain highly decorated colourful glass which dapples patterns across the white facades. The city is a constant kaleidoscope of colours, advertising the newest shades and the skills of the resident glass artists. 

The brick or stone facades of even the great merchant houses of the cities are a thin skin, the bricks supporting the roofs are hollow, the floors constructed of an elastic mixture of mortar and shards of stone or marbled glass. The ornate wells that you can find in almost any street corner conceal a complex system for water collection. An immense network of pipes and gutters that feed rainwater off the roofs and hard surfaces, through a sand filtration system and into the wells.

The Galene Islands

The Galene islands are an archipelago of smaller villages, and towns. Most of these islands are only partially land with the rest being large floating docks, built up and turned into extensions of the land. A limited amount of aquaculture happens here to help support the outlying communities who may not benefit from the constant trade of the cities.

Boats are not just seen as a measure of wealth, but also the skills of the owner, the hard won freedom of a self made person who has the entire sea before them to roam. In the summer months, flotillas of boats plied back and forth bringing trade from the surrounding Realms. The array of vessels shuttling about can be startling to those who visit the port cities. Artists’ depictions of the cities and the surrounding islands depict a world of masts and spars, barrels and sails, ship repair yards and literally thousands of vessels, from tiny skiffs and gondolas to large sailing vessels and oared galleys.

Island life is simple, but not without luxury. The trade from the pearl industry brings many tourists to the white sand beaches of the Island chain. The pace here is a little slower than the cities, for “One must wait for a pearl to grow, there’s no point in hurrying an oyster”. Children learn to swim early in life, and the shallows are often dotted with bobbing heads from morning to evening as they play. 

Many young Islanders upon reaching adulthood jump upon the first hiring crew they meet, to explore the world for a time before returning home, older, wiser, and hopefully richer.

The scattering of islands are each home to the fisherman, the aqua farmers, and the venerated pearl farmers and divers. The island’s architecture is very similar to the Land City, with more fishing paraphernalia present. Each island has its own ring of off shore farms, some for fish, some for oysters, and some for seaweed. Seaweed is eaten with almost every meal, pickled, dried, made into flour, served as tea, or freshly steamed. “There are as many ways to eat seaweed as there are pearls in the sea.” is a common saying among the home makers of the Nation