
Portown - Local History
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The city of Portown began about two hundred years ago when
a troop of Atani soldiers made camp next to Blue Lake in
order to do some fishing and replenish the supplies. The
fishing proved so good, that they began revisiting the
location on an annual basis, and slowly, over many years,
a community began to spring up, taking advantage of the
army's regular visits. At first, crab-trappers moved in
and built some shacks to house themselves and from which
to sell their catch. Then a weaponsmith of some reknown
came, and began producing swords to sell to the troops.
After a time, the community took root, and a governor
was appointed to rule on behalf of the Emperor.

Things may have stayed that way for another two hundred
years, had not the Empire disintegrated in civil war.
The governor, no longer able to call upon troops, was
ousted from power by a local chieftan known as GreyBeard,
and bandits took over the countryside. Portown was raided
many times over, until a group of mages who formed at
StormCastle, came and pushed the bandits out. Two of them,
Romjibus and Isil, took control of the city and fortified
a Greybeard's mansion by erecting huge walls around it.
They then proceeded to tax the citizenry into the poorhouse,
partly in an effort to create a University for Mages, which
they felt would establish Portown as a place of learning and
bring untold power and resources to the city. In their zeal
to increase revenue, they decreed barbaric punishments for
anyone who couldn't or wouldn't pay, creating a tremendous
fear and anger among the people.

Finally, with rebellion starting in Seaton, the people
of Portown rose up and cast off their shackles, burning
down the mansion of Romjibus and Isil, and in the following
year, electing their first independant democratic government.

