Scala
Pontesian Holding
Location: a peninsula in the Tigal Sea, near the southeastern tip of Altis
Population: rank 3 (of 10)
Name Derived From: Scylla, monster of the Odyssey. There’s also the one opera house, in Milan..
Model: Caribbean free ports c. 1700 CE
Flavor Text:

Scala is held by Pontis in one of the most restrictive trade agreements ever drafted. While Demos is also held by a similar ‘treaty’, the Merchants of the Dem have found loopholes to exploit. Scala, on the other hand, is becoming a dead city. The port is closed, many citizens have left, most leaving for Pontis itself. (Many individuals there have worked their way up into areas of minor but vital importance — on the waterfront, clerks in merchant houses and in the government, soldiers and even officers in both the guard and navy…)

Those left behind are ‘just’ fishermen and the so-called dregs. There are a few keeping the old traditions, but most of the “fishing fleet” are just pirates now, casting nets for bounty other than fish

With the main port closed, nearly all ships land on the islands east and west of the city. Some of these ‘pirate coves’ are looking more and more like actual ports, with their own warehouses and banks, space permitting of course. Some are little more than strips of beach you can anchor a (smaller) ship on. But at least three can claim to be more than just an anchorage; Scala is a ‘ghost town’ but manages because she’s surrounded & enlivened by pirates.

Eventually some power in the region will have to rein in this activity but their base is small (for now) and the losses acceptable (for now). Also, piracy is largely accepted in the region – within limits; there is a tradition of licensed “privateers” in both times of war and the occasional undeclared but vigorous “trade dispute”. (Privateers typically both pay for a license and share the spoils. Some even get commissions in whichever city’s navy. But this, desperate, piracy is new.)