West Isles

The West Isles include all landmass not connected to mainland Westridge, from the great island-city of Bridgeport to the smallest rocky outcropping. Most of the islands are too small to settle, though some adventurous hermits have built ramshackle huts on those large enough to support them. The West Isles do not offer land-based natural resources, nor do they provide much room for production. Instead, maritime endeavors tend to be the largest producers of income. Fishing is a huge industry for the common folk. Countless fishing boats buzz around the harbors while great trade ships laden with precious goods ply their way into and out of the isles’ busy docks. It is ruled by House Hudson.

Bridgeport Isle is the largest of all the islands lined on almost all sides by seawalls and piers. The entire island has been covered in densely packed cityscape, with a fortified keep built on the highest part facing out towards the sea. The streets bustle with activity, flash mobs of people forming and dispersing as bells toll away the hours of the day. This incessant activity continues even in the thickest of fogs or the darkest of nights. Well worn by the sea, the denizens of Bridgeport only shutter their windows and clear the cobblestone during the very worst of storms.

Almost all maritime trade coming into Westridge passes through Bridgeport. Enjoying the same protection of nearby Kingston Isle, it also remains remarkably secure. Piracy and raiding has never been an issue for the city, as few sea dogs dare attack a settlement so close to a Royal Navy drydock. Even if they were, recent upgrades to the towering Bridgeport Keep of both cannon and carronade have given the city teeth of its own.

Despite its security from outside threats, crime is a constant issue within Bridgeport. Rowdy sailors and swashbuckling smugglers cause a daily headache for the city watch. Perhaps more alarming, however, is the city’s growing opium problem. While Bridgeport has always been a city alternately plagued or praised for its vices and virtues of progressive ideals, the drug issue has begun to rot the city from within. Members of every social strata from the very lowest of the wretched to the most magnanimous lords have succumbed to the allure of the pipe. Regardless, Bridgeport remains a bastion of progression and modernization, and promises to be a major player in Westridge in the decades to come.

A smaller sister island North-East of Bridgeport named The Key, or Key Island. Most of Key Island is taken up by the construction of Fort Grunwald, a star-fort of starkly modern design. Conceptualized by Lord-Commander Rutherford Hudson as a base of operations for the Royal Army's 31st Company of Foote, the first stone was laid just as spring began. It is suggested construction will take two years at minimum. While on paper it was supposed to take the Fusiliers out of Westridge politics by providing them their own home outside Bridgeport city, House Hudson only approved it because it does exactly the opposite. With what amounts to an Army garrison right next to Bridgeport, House Hudson would benefit from the sheer military deterrence it would provide. House Thorne has vehemently opposed Fort Grunwald, stating that it violates the feudal neutrality clause by resting so close to the seat of House Hudson. A complaint has already been lodged in the Ducal Court of Westridge.

The fort is to be defended by powerful batteries of heavy mortar and cannon, intended to have a firing range plenty large enough to cover the opening of the bay and reach inland as well. Thanks to the angled shape of the fort walls and its position on an island, it can hold off a much larger host until the nearby naval base at Kingston can send aid. The positioning of the fort walls allow for constant musket and cannon fire to be laid out while leaving an extremely narrow return window for the enemy. Within the fort, multiple barracks, training fields, and command buildings provide a spacious area for the Fusiliers to hone their skill as Pikemen, Handgunners, and Dragoons. As the Fusiliers only number 150 men at most, the fort will have plenty of space leftover to host visiting Hudson troops who would trade skills with the gunnery company.

Connected to Key Island by a new bridge, the mainland settlement of Hudson Landing is a recent development. Formerly part of Midcost, House Hudson took the land from their vassals both by force and decree. Here are produced the troops and weapons of Hudson’s recent military buildup. While declared to be a civilian settlement to reduce overcrowding on Bridgeport, Hudson Landing is instead populated almost entirely by soldiers swearing new loyalty to Hudson.

North of Bridgeport roughly two miles out sits Kingston Isle, a Royal Navy drydock and shipyard tasked with maintaining warships of the Crown. The waters surrounding Kingston Isle and the island itself are restricted to Royal Navy personnel and authorized visitors only. The strategic importance of Kingston Isle demands a constant patrol of a naval squadron two miles out. Occasionally the guns of said squadron can be heard firing into the empty sea during weapons drills, always ready for war.

South of Bridgeport is Placid Isle, a large rock formation constantly battered by furious waves. Unsuitable for any type of settlement, the ironically named ‘island’ remains a serious danger for incoming ships, as those who get caught by the merciless current can and have been thrown against the rocks.

While Placid Isle is the most visible example of the dangerous approach to Bridgeport, The Westreef itself extends many miles north and south along the coast. Sharp rocky outcroppings under the waves can easily break a keel or rip the very bottom out from a ship. In some areas, the depth from wave to rock is only a few feet, while in others it can be well over 30 fathoms. There are only a few openings in the Westreef itself that go deeper than that, allowing ships of any draught to enter. Navigational maps are essential for this, and for those unwelcome - the naval patrols and gun emplacements of Bridgeport make it nearly impossible to sneak by.

A mile out from shore sits a small island with a single lighthouse. Old Man Isle is only just big enough for that single structure, and the brave soul who mans the light spends most of the year there alone, only coming inland for food and supplies once a week. Through the most violent of storms and the most threatening fog, the fires are kept lit by a single man without a family. Without him, there would be no passage through the Westreef.

Those innumerable tiny islands that break the surf of the West Isles, the String of Pearls, are sparsely populated and often only temporarily. Oyster gathering and fishing between the small islands is common, as the shallow waters allow for relatively easy boating and diving.