Post by Trippy Hare on Sept 17, 2006 11:35:27 GMT -5
Spiritus Noctem is a penal colony of Waeleden, where convicted criminals fortunate enough to avoid the executioner's axe are sent as exile. The city is built upon an island four miles offshore of the northern coast of Waeleden. The soil here is sandy and rocky, and incapable of supporting any sort of sustainable agriculture. As a result, the convicts of Spiritus Noctem depend on provisions shipped in from Waeleden. In exchange, every 'colonist' over the age of 12 is expected to offer labor in exchange for food, mostly consisting of fletching, thatching, refining rubber tree sap into viable rubber, and smithing raw ores into sheet metal. Coin currency is forbidden on the island, so locals use a barter system to obtain the provisions they want from the shipments.
Spiritus Noctem is unique among penal colonies for its bilateral population. Both men and women live on the island, and there is no effort made to keep them separate. Though this led to severe brutalization and exploitation of women during the first few years of the colony, the severe penalties for any crime in the colony, combined with a recent royal mandate to execute dangerous criminals, has slowly converted the island's population from hardened career criminals into debtors, petty thieves, and adulterers at worst. This has led to a tired sort of peace, as none of the colonists would care to waste their energies brutalizing each other, just to get hauled back to Waeleden and executed.
Children born on the island are sometimes allowed to remain indefinitely, especially if they are blind or deaf or born with physical defects. Children deemed 'normal' by the island magistrate are shipped back to Waeleden at the age of 15 and conscripted into the Army. Due to the recent surge of orphans displaced by skirmishes along border towns, many orphaned children are sent to live on the island, as well, and are also conscripted at age 15.
However, the king's grasp extends even here, on an inhospitable piece of rock. A royally-appointed Magistrate acts as the sole voice of government on the island, and a force of sixteen Templars ensures that the locals comply with any directives handed down to them. These Templars, and the Magistrate, are quartered in the only stone structure on the island: a 70-foot high tower in the center of the landmass. Atop this tower is a signaling device, and within it are various armories and storerooms. In case of armed revolt, the Magistrate and Templars could take shelter within the tower and signal the mainland for reinforcements, though the likelihood of such an incident occurring are slim. The colonists all live in tents or rickety, hand-built cabins made from scavenged flotsam, and all bladed weapons are outlawed on the island.
Spiritus Noctem is unique among penal colonies for its bilateral population. Both men and women live on the island, and there is no effort made to keep them separate. Though this led to severe brutalization and exploitation of women during the first few years of the colony, the severe penalties for any crime in the colony, combined with a recent royal mandate to execute dangerous criminals, has slowly converted the island's population from hardened career criminals into debtors, petty thieves, and adulterers at worst. This has led to a tired sort of peace, as none of the colonists would care to waste their energies brutalizing each other, just to get hauled back to Waeleden and executed.
Children born on the island are sometimes allowed to remain indefinitely, especially if they are blind or deaf or born with physical defects. Children deemed 'normal' by the island magistrate are shipped back to Waeleden at the age of 15 and conscripted into the Army. Due to the recent surge of orphans displaced by skirmishes along border towns, many orphaned children are sent to live on the island, as well, and are also conscripted at age 15.
However, the king's grasp extends even here, on an inhospitable piece of rock. A royally-appointed Magistrate acts as the sole voice of government on the island, and a force of sixteen Templars ensures that the locals comply with any directives handed down to them. These Templars, and the Magistrate, are quartered in the only stone structure on the island: a 70-foot high tower in the center of the landmass. Atop this tower is a signaling device, and within it are various armories and storerooms. In case of armed revolt, the Magistrate and Templars could take shelter within the tower and signal the mainland for reinforcements, though the likelihood of such an incident occurring are slim. The colonists all live in tents or rickety, hand-built cabins made from scavenged flotsam, and all bladed weapons are outlawed on the island.