Forneus, the story of an imperial colony in the Armageddon Peninsula

Before the Emifolk Alliance took it over, Forneus was officially an Imperial settlement but, in reality, was a pirate haven.
The town was what remained of a “vanity war” waged half a century ago by Duke Tannin, a Stygian noble with a fortune vast almost as much as his thirst for glory. The military campaign started in 899: the Duke chose the ruins of an old imperial colony, left abandoned a century ago, as his entry point, confident the existing, albeit crumbling, infrastructures would help him settle quickly. After initial successes, the Emifolks pushed back hard, and the Duke was sent back to the continent without his horns and his honor. The warlord who led the expulsion of the outsiders, the satyr Porinel, didn’t mind having a place to commerce with the northern continent with two clauses: no human could go outside the town walls unaccompanied, and there was a yearly tax of dozens of barrel of fine wine. Baron Baphomet, the leader of the Duke’s army, took the job as Forneus leader, eager to make a name for his minor house. But he soon regretted the decision.
The pact with the locals was a sham, Porinel and the Emifolks were uncooperative bullies, and the town was under a passive-aggressive siege that strangled it in a few years. Forneus didn’t have farmland besides some vegetable gardens, fishermen were constantly robbed by merfolks, and Porinel and his satyrs demanded arbitrary construction works and refurbishment of the city. The town’s supposed role as a strategic port of call did not materialize since passing ships didn’t find many supplies or business chances. The few colonists who set foot there return quickly to their homes, preferring the poverty they knew to the novel misery of Forneus.
Baron Baphomet was ready to give up and return to his family in Stygia, willing to endure the humiliation of such failure. Still, his wife Bellafagora had unwavering ambition and a risky plan. The town was, to put it bluntly, put up for rent: they offered their name and legitimacy as a cover to any smuggling, underhand business, and assorted skullduggery. In return, they had to pay a reasonable fee and “manage” the locals.
Captain Rahadamantus One-Horn, a disgraced Imperial noble turn pirate, took the offer in a heartbeat. The Captain’s plan was two-fold: first, to have a reliable source of forged documents; and second, to create a stable route for the psychoactive drugs of the Armageddon peninsula. He knew where to find a market for those two goods. The Confederacy is full of people in exile, political dissidents, and agitators of all kinds, all more than happy to have a paper able to make them enter the Empire, Mizani, or any non-angelic port without questions. The other thing the Confederacy is full of were “weirdos”: eccentric wizards, bizarre cultists, utopist leaders, and heretic preachers, all fond of substances that could “inspire” them.
Crucially, Captain Rhadamantus found a way to deal with the satyr: giving them something they liked more than wine and that was Angelic Gin. The Angelic Unison, with its attempt at a centralized and planned economy, often creates “surplus bubbles”, overproduction that is unsellable inside the Unison but that unscrupulous deacons are more than willing to sell out under the table. Despite the long travel needed to get it, Agnelic Gin is cheap and nasty, a favorite for those who prefer the jolt of a strong drink over its flavor. The satyr Porinel became so enamored with gin that he died from it after a reckless binge.
Baron Baphomet, his wife, and Captain Rahadamantus proved to be an excellent team (and gossipers wildly speculate on the nature of their understanding): Forneus consolidated its role, gaining some extra land and a lot of money.
By 920 the city was split in two: a nice and clean street connected the harbor to the Baron’s villa, offering a facade of Infernal respectability to the occasional official guest, meanwhile, the rest of the town was a filthy den of scum and villainy. At that point, the Baron’s son and a young cousin of the Captain (or at least that was the official story) were set to marry and inherit the city, but at that point, the war put a wrench in the plan.
When the III Axam War Started in 924, Forneus became a strategic military base. The Empire desperately needed an advanced position in the Middle Sea and a colony in the Aramgedon Peninsula was the best possible option. With Mizani neutral as always and the Confederacy adamant about not offering any support, the almost forgotten settlement could spearhead the Infernal-Dwarven alliance counterattack.
The son of Duke Tannin, Lord Tadis, was tasked by the stygian prince-elector with helping the Baron in the enterprise: after all, the Duke’s and the Baron’s families had a long history of mutual loyalty, but most of all he wanted to redeem his father’s endeavor and make Forneus the great city his father envisioned.
The three Forneus rulers tried to keep up the deception but the charade soon crumbled. Any further attempt at bribery, compromise, or begging fell flat: the young Duke was horrified by what they had done to his father’s dream. Furthermore, the Duchess, an extremely religious necromancer from a Nessian family, pushed her husband to deal the most exemplary punishment to those filthy traitors of the Empire.
The young prospect inheritors were imprisoned in the villa, while Baron Baphomet and his wife Bellafagora were executed in the main square: they were put on racks, and stabbed to death by nine spears, as is custom for this kind of treason. Capitan Rahadamtus and the other six pirate captains were hanged after being tortured, as is common for their ilk. The Duchess, in a break of protocol, turned all the guilty corpses into zombies in front of the shocked audience, sentencing them to 100 years of undead labor. The Duke then declared that the people of Forneus had two options: serve the Empire or leave never to return. Any other choice would lead them to death and undeath.
Both Pirates and Emifolks were stunned after witnessing the cruel and unwavering Imperial Justice. Some, terrorized by the spectacle, just fled. Some fought back, just to be immediately quelled in blood. A lot of Emifolk and humans had lived almost twenty years in Forneus and attempted a compromise to keep their homes. Others were just so dependent on alcohol and drugs that they would have done anything to keep those flowing.
The first couple of years went smoothly, all things considered. Local people started working in the shipyards and barracks: not the carefree life they held, but stable and secure enough. Lord Tandis and his wife were inflexible but fair, punishing Imperial soldiers and locals with equal promptness and rigor.
Things changed in yeat 928 when a big dwarven battalion was moved to Forneus. They were tasked to supply cannons to Imperial ships: the war was a crucial point and to turn the tide the Dwarven Queens decided their allies had to be armed at the best they could.
This was a very delicate matter. Dwarves have always tried to gatekeep any aspect of firearm production, and while only partially successful, they managed to keep the rest of the world well behind their technological level. Even if they were sharing they demanded a compartmentalized workflow so that nobody besides them could have a complete picture of how to build cannons and guns.
The locals brought in to work in the impromptu forges and laboratories couldn’t do the job: they were not qualified and the clunky procedures dwarves imposed prevented them from gaining any skill. Their unusual bodies, not fit for dwarven tools, caused additional frustration.
The Imperial workers were not better, with conscripted farmers out of place in the smoldering and haphazard foundries and the zombie laborers incapable of such complex tasks.
The Duke tried to mediate between the disgruntled dwarven admiral, furious about the lack of discipline and efficiency, and the Duchess, adamant in keeping some Infernal traditions, like the freedom to quit the job and a day of rest each week.
When Forneus became the target of gnomish saboteurs and raids by the Angelic Fleet, the Duke finally succumbed to the Dwarven’s request. The town became a labor camp, with workers mistreated and exploited, making them de facto slaves. The dwarves are usually very considerate in how they threaten workers, but they are probably the more prejudiced of all against both the Emifolks and the “free men” of the Confederacy, and see no wrong in treating them in inhuman ways: Emifolks were never humans to begin with, while pirates and their friends enounced any rights with their lawless lifestyle.
After two years of abuse, when the war seemed to be endless and all hope was lost, a savior came.
Gerada, a centaur war chief and prophet, arrived in the city to set it free. Armed with a magic spear that apparently made him invincible and an army of united tribes of all kinds of Emifolks he waged battle against the Dwarves and the Imperials. Despite the apparently chaotic nature of his army, Gerada commanded his troops like they had a single mind, winning swiftly and decisively.
He took the head of the duke, while the duchess and the dwarven admiral fled never to return. Infernals and Dwarves never tried to recapture Forneus: the war front had moved and was in its final stage.
Gerada went on to liberate all other colonies in the Armageddon peninsula, collecting the heads of their rulers.
After 5 years, in 935, all harpies, centaurs, merfolk, and satyrs recognize Gerada as their leader. Gerada didn’t raze Forneus or any other foreign outpost, trying to recreate the cooperation he saw when he was just a kid when the city was ruled by Baphomet (but in a much more orderly way).

Today, after almost 40 years, Forneus is a vibrant city, ruled by Kawnelia the harpy townmistress elected by the people. While the wild days of the pirate rule are over, the city welcomes any kind of work and trade, even those illegal elsewhere. Humans are still forbidden to go outside the city unaccompanied, but the enforcement of this rule is becoming laxer and laxer. Shamans and other religious figures preached tirelessly to sway people away from the excesses of drugs and alcohol, with at least some success: now being a drunk or an addict has some negative moral value, as this indulgent behavior is what weakened the spirit and caused the foreign invasion. Still, drugs are a big export, and Satryrs’ Gin, a liquor spiked with narcotic berries, is an up-and-coming vice among sailors of the world.
The son of Baphomet eventually married his betrothed and the two work as diplomats, receiving notable guests and offering a buffer in negotiations with more prejudiced parties.
Forneus is an important city but it’s not the capital, because the Emifolk Alliance doesn’t have one: Gerada spends the spring in Forneus, since his court moves from town to town during the years, following the semi-nomadic lifestyle of the centaurs.