Magnapor

**Magnapor** is a port and urban area in the state of St James. A culturally rich and historic city, it is notable for such attractions as the Citadel of the Unseeing, the seat of power of the Church of the Unblind God, as well as the Nasshai, a fortress and harbour that served as a naval base for the Grimaeri Empire in the 1st millennium BC and now functions as a moderately sized port.

## History

### Grimaeri Empire

Humans have settled the area around Magnapor since at least the Stone Age. The earliest settlement on the site of the city proper can be dated to 734 BC, when the Grimaeri Empire constructed a fortified outpost outpost on the site, at the mouth of the River Dantis. The Dantis River served as the Grimaeri capital Grimetus's central trade artery to the Westral Sea, snaking its way down from Lake Protos (the modern-day Lake of Ashes) to the ocean, and in that capacity doubling as a crucial link between all the markets of the Westral Sea with all those of the Tethian Sea. This made the securing of the river paramount to Grimetus's interests, who soon established a permanent fort that became known as the Nasshai.

The Nasshai's position at the mouth of the river, and its proximity to the Sinking Strait, made the new site the ideal base for the Grimaeri Empire's navy, giving rise to the development of a large fortified harbour. This in turn encouraged trading ships from the ports of the Westral Sea to offload there, rather than spend days weaving their way up the Dantis. Instead, their cargoes would be sold at the Nasshai to pole-boats and barges that relayed the goods to Grimetus, sparking a tradition of Dantean pole-boating that endures into the modern day. These Danteans quickly settled around the Nasshai, creating a town that became known as Magnapor, a truncation of *Magna Portus*, "Great Harbour" in Grimaeri. By the 3rd century BC, the port had become one of the foremost cities of the Empire, an important trading post through which commerce from across the known world flowed.

As time went on however, the status of the city began to decline, spurred by poor urban planning and several consecutive winters in which Magnapor suffered severe flooding. The construction of major canal works by the Emperor Gaetarnus in 140 BC, along what has today become the River Dantis's natural route, proved disastrous for the city's status as the funnel-point of trade into Grimetus. Suddenly it became more profitable for ships to trade directly with the capital than go through Magnapor, and much of the shipping that had once occupied the docks of the Nasshai now bypassed it entirely. On top of this, there were several bad outbreaks of disease; a particularly severe epidemic of netherwart in 85 BC prompted Grimetus to quarantine the city for two years, delivering a catastrophic blow to the port's economy. Many of the city's inhabitants soon began to migrate, and Magnapor lapsed into a downward spiral.

#### Later wars and the end of Grimaeri rule

Entering the 1st millennium AD, to many the state of Magnapor seemed to match the state of the wider Grimaeri Empire. Several damaging wars wrecked the city; in the First Gavian War between Grimetus and St James, Jamesian forces besieged the port for a year, nearly starving the city's populace before the siege was broken. The Valomatan Conspiracy saw the city first sacked by the Emperor Modares in 34 AD, and then attacked and plundered by the rival Emperor Valomatan only a year later. Braisus's Rebellion in 88 AD saw revolting slaves gut the port's historic centre, starting a fire that is thought to have destroyed as much as 60% of the city. By the 2nd century AD Magnapor was a shell of its former self; it was a cruel mercy that in 146 AD, during the Second Gavian War, Jamesian forces considered the city of insufficient importance to seize.

The Grimaeri Age came to a juddering end with the outbreak of the Third Gavian War in 453 AD. Grimetus's armies proved woefully unprepared in the conflict, led by incapable leaders. Magnapor fell to Jamesian forces in 454; the city walls had been neglected for decades and withstood little attack before being seized by the invaders. Simultaneously Jamesian ships entered and seized control of the Nasshai harbour. The city garrison subsequently fell back to the readily-defensible Port Authority building, some 500 men in total. After an initial assault on the fort that was repulsed with high attacking losses, Jamesian forces then decided to smoke them out. The Port Authority building was constructed of stone which of course would not burn, but after the walls of the fort were lined with logs and grass that was then set alight, the structure was transformed into a massive furnace. The men inside were forced to surrender; 1 in every 3 were subsequently hung along what became known as the Street of Gallows, running between the ruined Port Authority building and the Nasshai.

### Under the Church of the Unblind God

Jamesian forces departed Magnapor after a week, dragging wagons of loot behind them. A period of lawlessness followed; most of what remained of the city population fled, columns of refugees trudging north to Grimetus and beyond seeking refuge from the war. Yet half a year later, the capital of the Grimaeri Empire itself was sacked and destroyed - the millennium-old civilisation fell apart at the seams. Abruptly, Magnapor had been cast adrift. To many it must have seemed the end of the city, doomed to be torn apart in the vacuum of the power.

Some men, it turned out, had other plans.

### St James control

#### The Emergency (1994-1997)

The turmoil that erupted in St James at the tail-end of the 20th century had its own effects in Magnapor. The effects of Black Monday, when the James City Stock Exchange dropped 450 points in 24 hours, hit the city hard, leading to a surge in crime and a massive uptick in unemployment. In Sancerra, the city's historically working-class district, unrest rose. Through the winter of 1994-1995 there were frequent violent clashes between police and protestors, held in the shadow of an uprising in James City that left many in the administration of Magnapor fretting over the possibility of a similar attack.

##### The Valentine's Day Anarchy

Ultimately, however, the events that led to the near-complete disintegration of law and order in Magnapor began not in Sancerra, but in Mercuria, the city's glitzy gambling district that had sprung up in the '70s. By the 1990s it had become internationally renowned, covered in the lurid neon signs of a dozen major international gambling corporations and tens of other likewise enterprises. The so-called Moral Protection Act of 1985, campaigned by the New Vision Party and the Unblind Church, had restricted gambling to the carefully-defined borders of Mercuria, but even this had failed to curtail the industry, instead leading to the district becoming ever-more densely-packed; a fluorescent jungle of buzzing neon signs, jangling slot machines, thundering music and a constant chorus of cheers of success, cries of despair, the sounds of countless fortunes being won and lost just as quickly. By 1995, the atmosphere was drunken, febrile and desperate, as more and more jobless workers arrived hoping to make some quick cash.

Not everyone decided to play by the rules, however. The spark that lit the powder-keg was struck on February 14, 1995, when armed men attempted a heist in the Grand Casino Palace that quickly descended into a firefight with casino security. The exchange soon spilled outside onto the streets of Mercuria, where what can best be described as a kind of mass hysteria soon developed: widespread looting, violence and crime spread through the district, and raged throughout the night. By the next morning, local authorities had failed to restore peace and a sense of panic grew as order broke down. Local trade unions had called a renewed general strike three days earlier; now they formed worker's militias that quickly sectioned off working-class districts. Criminal gangs meanwhile sprung up to take advantage of the chaos. Anarchy was taking hold - the city administration retreated into the Nasshai, with Sezir Robert MacKenzie issuing a panicky appeal for help to James City: yet the capital had its own problems with a second socialist uprising, and none was forthcoming.

The state of anarchy lasted two weeks. Over 200 people died, with thousands injured. Widespread destruction occurred from clashes between socialist paramilitaries and criminal forces. The exception to the chaos was the Citadel of the Unseeing, and its surrounding district the Eye, where Oculinaut militias maintained order. James City eventually sent a special forces unit known as the Magnaporian Guards to restore order, and to dismantle the socialist forces that occupied parts of the city. After the outer districts were reclaimed, the Guards were contacted by George Valens, the leader of the New Vision Party, who thereafter played a leading role in the restoration of Jamesian authority in the city, a process which lasted another month.

The city subsequently entered a shocked state of reconstruction. Valens, wielding immense leverage with his Oculinauts now running large areas of the city, drove almost in triumph down the Street of Gallows from the Citadel to the Nasshai, where the city administration remained hunkered down. Long talks ensued, and when the administration eventually emerged it looked considerably different: Valens secured for himself the position of Director of Culture, with an unspoken understanding that his actual authority would reach much wider than his official job description. Several lower-ranking Directors were similarly replaced by members of the New Vision Party.

Most significantly, Valens secured the dismantlement of Mercuria, a major victory for his religious movement. Sezir MacKenzie was unwilling to go as far as to ban such a significant part of the Magnaporian economy, but he gave Valens free reign as Deputy for Culture to do what he liked with the gambling sector, which simultaneously came under the authority of Commerce and Culture. This was in itself a major concession; the New Vision Party wasted no time in forcing the suspension of two of the five major Mercurian casinos for alleged tax offences. This was a major slight against Michael Oktan, the Deputy for Commerce who held significant shares in the shut-down businesses, and who led the dominant Conservative Bloc in the City Council. Relations grew increasingly fraught between the Conservative Bloc and the New Vision Party.

##### MacKenzie's assassination and the Temporary Government

Catastrophe abruptly struck once again only four months later, when on June 15 the Sezir was gunned down whilst on a visit overseeing rebuilding efforts in Mercuria. Three shots were heard initially, though there was debate over whether more were fired given the Sezir's Jamesian security detail almost immediately began to return fire on the assailant. Initially there was also confusion over the Sezir's condition - later reports from eyewitnesses suggested he had been wounded in the abdomen before being pushed to the ground by security personnel, one of whom was killed.

MacKenzie was rushed to the Saint Rizhar General Hospital, which became heavily guarded. Mercuria was locked down, throttling the gambling industry completely. As per the city constitution, Oktan, as the leader of the largest party in the City Council, assumed the role of acting-Sezir. This, however, was not the be-all and end-all, for Oktan was heavily disliked, even reviled, amongst many in the City Council including in the Conservative Bloc. A man of many mysteries and contradictions, the Deputy for Commerce was respected by no one and feared by all. An extract from a profile of him by the *James City Tribune* summarised it well:

> *A residence worth more than a third-world country and a wardrobe that could clothe it thrice-over speak to the old man's ultra-lavish lifestyle and astounding wealth. Atop a metaphorical throne of gold, stained with just as much metaphorical blood, he counts his riches and issues orders in a raspy, unidentifiable accent. Piercing blue eyes flicker over documents written in the English language yet bizarrely typed in Cyrillic. Medals enshrined proudly on the walls of his lavish office are identifiable as hailing from the armies of every major power of the last century, leading most to write them off as purchased rather than earned despite the Director's absurd insistence otherwise. One of the strangest and despicable men in Espaeria, it is a terrible thing that Michael Oktan has clawed his way into arguably the most powerful position in Magnapor.*
>
>

Thus, when the Deputy for Planning James Steelhouse opted to move against Oktan, conveying a meeting of Deputies in direct opposition to Oktan's own emergency summit, he found support from around a third of the Committee. Chief amongst his backers was Valens, and the Unblind Church behind him. After a chaotic week of backroom deals, late-night phone-calls, and a healthy amount of bribery by all parties, on June 22nd Steelhouse formally accused the rival Deputy of corruption and nepotism. On the steps of the City Courthouse, he declared himself acting-Sezir; Valens had tried to persuade the Planning Deputy to hold his press conference in the Citadel, but Steelhouse knew of and was uncomfortable with the impression that would give. After making his declaration, he called on James City to officially recognise his position, and set about forming a new Committee based at the City Courthouse.

## Politics

As a part of the state of St James, Magnapor does not have any political representation on a national level, instead following the policies set out by James City. Locally, politics are shaped by the twin powers of the city governor, known locally as the Sezir, and the Church of the Unblind God. The Sezir is appointed by St James and has historically had an ambiguous relationship with the city itself, with the official's loyalty varying between state and city depending on who is appointed personally. The Unblind Church has always enjoyed strong support amongst sections of the city populace, though has in the past been weakened by factional divisions. This diarchy is represented symbolically by the two major buildings of Magnapor, the Citadel of the Unseeing and the Nasshai, the homes of the Church and the city administration respectively which face each across the city.

### The Sezir

The Sezir presides over a city council, made up of 50 representatives elected by the city's wards annually. Different parties exist amongst the representatives elected, which the Sezir is officially not aligned with. In practice however they have always been associated either with the pro-St James Prosperity Party or the pro-Magnapor Conservative Bloc. Other notable parties include Za Davich (Grimaeri: "The Left") and the New Vision Party, the Unblind Church-aligned party. By convention, James City will appoint a new Sezir when one is put forward by the governing party, but this is not constitutionally mandated and historically has not always been the case. The city council is currently controlled by the Prosperity Party, who have held a majority of seats for the past five elections. The most recent result was as below.

Magnapor City Council elections, Apr 2022
 Conservative Bloc (CON)
 New Vision Party (EYE)
 Za Davich

The current Sezir of Magnapor is Davard Callidax, appointed to the role in April 2022 after Martain Peck's ascension to the Espaerian Vice-Presidency.

The Sezir also chairs the City Committee, a body of 12 officials known as Deputies. Each Deputy has authority over a specific section of administration: Planning, Commerce and Culture stand out as key roles. By convention, the officials appointed to these positions are members of the city council, though again this is not enshrined in law and has been broken in the past.

### The Unblind Church

Having historically wielded major influence over Magnapor, the Church of the Unblind God lost much of its power after it was outlawed by James City in 1487. However it proved impossible for Jamesian authorities to extinguish the religion completely, and the Church remained a potent force within the city itself. In 1802, after three centuries of persecution the ban on the Unblind Church was eventually reversed by the Sezir, and from then on the Catarites quickly regained their lost ground.

By law, the Unblind Church is formally barred from participating in the city's politics, but in practice this is circumnavigated through a system where the Church has "sponsored" the New Vision Party since the inception of the city council in 1968. Culturally, the Church dominates Magnapor, with its ocular imagery seen in media, architecture, and even the layout of the city. The Bells of Saint Phileros in the Citadel remain an obvious symbol of the permeance of the faith in the city's everyday life, ringing out every quarter of an hour, and chiming their distinctive prayer melody twice a day to call Magnapor's faithful to worship.