The Savage Tide

The decaying colonial city of Selucia, perched on an island chain at the furthest edge of the known world, is the last mark on the sea charts before the vast southern ocean vanishes into the unknown. Built upon the foundations of the old empire, Selucia is now a city of layers, with classical pillars half-buried, incorporated into the heavy gothic fortifications raised in later centuries. Thatched roofs mix with clay roof tiles and slate in a chaotic mixture. The city itself is built atop the estuary of a great river and gondolas provide access from one part of the city to the next. At important intersections stone strong-houses and manors control access to a labyrinth of moss-covered plazas, baroque balconies, and jade green canals.

Though Selucia continues to trade in commodities the old world will pay dearly for, war, piracy, vice, and corruption continue to slowly erode its historic glories.  The era of builders is long gone. A few noble patrician families (some still claiming ancient titles but living essentially as landed paupers) still remember the grand ambitions of Selucia’s early days. Once a rich imperial outpost, most modern residents look only to strip what they can from the verdant surrounding lands to sell north. They risk the fickle trade winds and the lingering predations of the Daan solely for profit but they guard their treasure jealously. Every wealthy landowner keeps a contingency plan and a ship fully provisioned in the harbor, ready to abandon Selucia at the first sign of an uprising from serfs, rebels, or the indigenous tribes of the nearby islands.

For five centuries, this port thrived on the edge of the Katun, a dense jungle region of mangroves rich in spices, dyes and exotic timber. Then, a hundred years ago, during a period of terminal decline for the old empire, the Daan (Norse raiders) swept down the trade routes to conquer and pillage. Incensed when the last emperor insulted and failed to pay their mercenaries, these Norsemen fell upon rich Selucia, seized its merchant houses, and made it their own. Decades later, the overextended and highly individualistic Daan colonies in the south began to split into factions. Eventually, a new foe came into the region from the east - The Vinshasha pirate-kings - and the Daan kingdoms fell apart. Today, though the city is freed of the Daan yoke, the Norsemen remain embedded as a powerful cultural pillar. And though Selucia remains free of the pirate-kings, they are a constant threat. Modern Selucia has become a chaotic, beautifully layered tapestry: a city of old indigenous blood, mixed-heritage merchants, proud but ruined classical nobility, and hardened Norse maritime clans, all watching the horizon for the calamity that may finally take down the old city.