Bawaaba

The Inner City is the only part of Bawaba that is directly ruled by the Inconnu. This district encircles a small hill near the center of the island and is encircled by high walls. The governor, the bureaucrats, and the elements of the Inconnu that keep order in the city are housed here. No foreigner is allowed access to the inner city. 

Below the upper City is the free-for-all all of the rest of Bawaaba. The Imperial Governor cares very little about what happens here, provided it is relatively low-key and doesn't endanger trade or the city as a whole.  

As a result, the Outer City is a den of lawlessness except for scattered walled merchant compounds maintained by  The Merchant Houses of Haven. 

The reason for Bawaaba's existence, the Grand Bazaar, is a huge circular arc surrounding the Trade Gate leading into the Inner City.  An exception to the laissez-faire attitude the Mbo normally adopt toward the Outer City, the Governor ruthlessly maintains order in the Bazar during the day at least, ensuring that merchants are treated fairly, theft is kept to a minimum, and the trade that is the lifeblood of the city continues unmolested. 

The Bazar is huge, three miles by one. Parts are well structured with streets and shops (albeit of a ramshackle and temporary nature), other areas are huge open fairgrounds covered in tents, which change every day on a first-come, first-serve basis.  

The wide arc of Crescent Moon Harbor provides the primary anchorage for Bawabba.

The harbor is not ideal for several reasons. Its only redeeming feature is that it is extremely large; however, it's generally shallow and not well protected from storms, especially westerlies.  While some of The Merchant Houses of Haven build ramshackle docks and piers extending well out into the bay, these structures generally do not survive the turning of the trade winds and associated storms and have to be rebuilt each year. A vast majority of the cargo that makes its way into and out of Bawabba has to be loaded into long boats or flat barges, a far less efficient mechanism. 

Nonetheless, the harbor is extremely crowded during the peak season, hosting hundreds of ships from both The Thousand Isles and Great Mbo, and even more remote locations such as Bilad Al Sham and Masriq

Bawabba is a very new city, founded less than fifty years ago as an experiment by The God-King of Mbo in limited trade with the rest of the world, and  The Thousand Isles. 

Previous to the city's founding, such trade was completely illegal along the width and breadth of the Inconnu. This didn't mean it didn't occur, of course. The western shores of he continent were too wild and untamed for even  The God-King to effectively police, and Masriq traders especially had havens and hidden outposts there. In the east, closer to the imperial heartland, the prohibition was more strictly and successfully enforced; however, the Inconnu had long served as a loophole, functioning as in-betweens for trade between Mbo and  The Thousand Isles. This role had greatly enriched them, a fact the Empire was well aware of and not happy with. 

So, 47 years ago, by direct Imperial proclamation, the island of Bawaaba was declared a free trade zone and an Imperial Governor was appointed.. The hope was that the uninhabited island would provide less opportunity for cultural contamination, and foreign access to the people of the Empire would be more easily controlled. The experiment has proven a great success, at least for the traders on both sides. The settlement grew rapidly from a small outpost to a great city. Many grew rich on both sides of the trade equation.   

Inconnu is the patron deity of the city. She is the closest thing to a deity of commerce that the Inconnu have to offer. Typically, this is not one of her major functions; trade and commerce have never been a high religious priority. 

Given that the city is under direct imperial charter though, the Cult of the God-King himself is also an important religion in the city

Through the haze you can begin to make out the city. The first feature to become visible is the massive pyramid that dominates the central hill. Huge and terraced, surrounded by walls, golden in the midmorning sun, it rises high above a large semicircular bay. A glint of gold sparklers from its peak, from what appears to be a massive statue.

At the feat of the pyramid a ramshackle city spreads. You see few large buildings, one expecting being a huge pillared building to the left of the pyramid, squat and low, single storied but massive in its footprint. On the opposite side of the pyramid a cluster of low domed buildings, made of clay and wattle hung the walls that surround the pyramid. 

However the vast majority of the town are shacks, stalls and tents stretching haphazardly around the pyramids feet for miles in either direction. Multicolored canvas and brightled painted wood, rippling with banners and flags, they seem more like a fairground then a permanent city.

A hundred ships are anchored far out in the bay, flying the flags of The Thousand Isles, but they are serviced by few permanent dock or piers. Instead a long line of longboats and skiffs cover the beach, pulled up on the sand out of the tides reach.