Manannan Port

Government

Manannan Port was the official seat of the Ard Banríon & Ard Righ of the Inis, and as such was largely considered the nation's capital. This changed with the construction of Dòchas Ùr and the establishing of the Toscaire Council after the Year of Invasions.

The Lughlinn Mór convenes with the lesser Íseal Righ to discuss the matters of diplomacy, the progress of the city and the taxes levied on the other caern-raths across the holding.

Demographics

The city of Manannan Port covers an area of approximately 165 acres, with a total population of 10,000 people. The city has 10 Lughlinn houses,1 Lughlinn Mór house and 8 Íseal Righ houses. The peace is kept by 37 conscripts with another 111 kept in reserve.

It is difficult to properly portray the amount of various individuals that come pouring into the caern-rath at its renaissance. A veritable riot of cultures and people, sounds, smells and colors come pouring overs docks and through its gates by the day. Virtually any of the tribes can be found here for trade, pleasure or entertainment.

Industry & Trade

Manannan Port derives its trade from all across Inis Mona, if not Trynnalta itself, with the waters ways going inland and the great expanse of the Grey Sea before it, its little wonder why goods from these shores and beyond can be found here. Likewise, its great portside can support the creating and maintenance of some of the greatest ships the world has ever seen.

As a port caern-rath built on commerce and trade, and the official capitol of the country, many factions are at play within the caern-rath's walls:

The Unknown is comprised of a series of barely cooperative carachlinn who banded together in order to more directly control the rate of crime, trade and commerce within the Crescent Bay area. Tough an official trading company, their practices lean more towards criminal syndicate and have managed to wrangle possession of 30% of all human trade in the Crescent Bay and Bulthron area.

Unlike their counterparts in the CBT Flotilla, the Unknown pay fealty to the Pirate Queen and her brazen fleet. While the CBT Flotilla controls trade in the Crescent Bay, the Inis Mion and the wider shores belong to the Red Manes who are just as likely to cut you a fair deal as they are your throat. Based in New Manannan in the north, much of their trade flows south to the Crescent Bay which of course means conflicts between the two largest carachlinn fleets are common.

Beneath the streets of the Upper Crescent lies the Tomb of Manannan mac Lir where all the Lughlinn who have passed through the history of Manannan Port are laid to rest. Guarding this illustrious vault and sacred catacombs are the Unknown; a secret organization of Lughlinn within the Meán-Ríthe of Manannan's elite nobility that some say have gone from simple tomb guards, to puppeteers of the Ard Righ. Secretly manipulating the caern-rath's governance, and there by, the country itself.

The Woadland tribe come and go, often guiding or protecting carachlinn traders as hired muscle, or seeing what few caravans are brave enough to travel by horse, cabbyl or foot to dark homes of Ynis-Gwysrin. As they are often employed in such a way, they are fairly common in the caern-rath.

Districts

The city is approximately 819 square acres.

• The Lower-Crescent - The shanty town, the carach docks and the trade district. This is where general laborers, lower craftsman and carachlinn live. A place of blood, sweat and toil, if the Upper-Crescent is the nervous system of Manannan then the Lower-Crescent is the beating heart where all the city's industry is done.
• The Upper-Crescent - Home to all the íseal righ, or low kings, of the city as well as their manors and many of the towns more prosperous tradesman who have either grown rich enough to become a sort of semi-nobility or are held in personal retainer to the íseal righ.
• The Waxing Strip - Sort of a middling area in the city near the center most gate. Its streets are lined with end production goods, taverns and inns. Here traveling tradesman make their way up through the Lower-Crescent or one of the cities middle gates to peruse wares and alleviate the woes of the road at the fine establishments here.

Infrastructure

Caer Cloch an Chinniúint, or the Castle Stone of Destiny, is seated on a hill at the northwest side of the city overlooking the Upper-Crescent from its imperious vantage point. Then there is the stone walls along the land-side of the Crescent Bay; plastered white, reflecting the meager suns rays and seeming to shine a pallid grey. Stones and wood houses with tile roofs like cobbled streets with stone walk ways pinned between. The docks and slums are variously misshapen levels of wood and decay that contrast directly with the Waxing strip and Upper-Crescent.

Geography

History

This was the first caern-rath founded far south of the Summerlands, where trade came in from the north to the south along the coasts even then. During the unrecorded events of the Wounding of the Good Son in AoSm 2489, the caern-rath was populated by over two-hundred and fifty thousand residents from the various southern tribes. Although records of the event were presumably lost during the War of Spears whatever this event began it depleted the caern-rath of more than four-fifths of its population.

Many people began flooding back in during the exodus south at the beginning of the Age of Autumn after the events at the Hall of Stars and the Waning Gate. Refugees beleaguered, broken and impoverished they found Manannan Port sparsely populated. Those residents that were already there set about helping the refugees integrate and quickly the city rose to prosperity just as the War of Spears began its initial bloody years.

Needing leadership, the nobility named the first king, Ard Righ Kead Caha, from among their Lughlinn ranks and quickly formed a hierarchy around him. Manannan port used its access to both the sea and the delta to levy carachlinn transports and move troops swiftly about while many of the caern-raths and caern-hearths battles among themselves. Over the course of the intervening two-hundred year war, Manannan Port leveraged its strategic position and that of its tribute state Fellpeaks to continue to grow and amass power. As the violent years and feuds began to settle Manannan Port managed to finally drag the country kicking and screaming into something vaguely resembling peace. As he had long since attained the throne and saw the end of the War of Spears, the then Ard Righ Mochuma the Unifier received his title almost by default.

It was revealed that the Ard Righ, in AoA 2808 RE, was secretly funding a foreign entity known as the Fomorii hordes to run a terror campaign against the other caern-raths. There was a complication when an unknown party caused the destruction of a fomorii vessel. This launched a war that raged across the southern edges of the Inisa and even into Tailté na Bearú. Manannan Port swiftly fell when a coalition of lughlinn marched on the city during the siege to force the then Ard Righ to capitulate. The coalition was lost and so was Manannan Port. It was not until later that year when another coalition, the Coalition of the United Inisa, liberated the city and destroyed the monster known as Isbal Cretney that peace once again came to the country. Now, large carachs of a size unseen since the Age of Summer line its docks and the city has begun thriving again.

Heraldry

A blue field to represent the Grey Sea, a violet shield is symbolic of the duty Manannan Port and the Ard Righ share to defending the inisa, with the violet color itself a symbol of royalty. A single, ornate carach symbolizes both their fealty to Unknown himself, and to the trade of the carachlinn.