Vinn Armada

### **History**

**The Vinn Armada are a relatively new force in the north alvan waters. Formerly the Alvan Mainland Reclamation Brigade (AMRB), the offshoots that remained after the last great war for the mainland grouped up to survive, eventually forming a society built within striking distance of the mainland and council of magi. As time went on and deserters kept fleeing, eventually the fleet started to take in other sailors and travellers who weren't just bitter about the mainland. With this sudden change, eventually they became less and less focused on reclamation, and more and more about protecting those they cared about. Within a hundred years or so of their founding, they were a bona-fide civilization, of a kind.**

### **Practices**

**The Vinn Armada have multiple ceremonies, necessary in order for a privateer to advance to their next cultural milestone.**

**At birth, any baby born in the Armada must go in a boat out into open water, still close enough for help to arrive, and must be dunked head first into the salty ocean. If the child doesn’t start writhing, they have succeeded the trial. If they move even an inch, the child fails and must start again in 2 months time.**

**By the time a child is Seven years of age or of an equivalent age for their respective race, the child must be once again put in a boat. The child is provided a chart of the ocean currents surrounding tyr and a half days food and water, and is sent out ten nautical miles from the docks. Due to the choppy nature of the sea around Tyr, an understanding of ocean currents is necessary. If the child cannot navigate the currents around Tyr and return within three hours, they are considered failed, and must navigate back on their own in shame, along with a 4 month ban on re-attempting the milestone.**

**The second to last milestone in Tyr takes place at seventeen. By this point the child must have an intricate knowledge of navigation, fishing, acrobatics and ruin exploration, and must know the basics of ship navigating and crew management. The child is stuck on a small skiff with seven others of the same age, given 10 days food and water, and is to sail to the north western most ruin in the vinterloch. If they do not return within a week, the crew are failed and must repeat the test in seven months.**

**The final milestone in Tyr is often difficult to accomplish, and considered the test of a true member of the Armada. Twenty five 19 Year old men or women of various races are given pistols, ammunition, 100 Gold worth of trade goods, a small boat for twenty five crew, maps, navigation equipment, bedding and other necessities, and a months rations, and must navigate the waters to blusterport. From there, they must sell the trade goods they were given, earn at least 50 gold profit, and return within ten days of completion of their trading. A messenger is sent in advance to blusterport five days before the exam, and will cast the spell “sending” once the crew arrives and accomplishes their goals. Failure to complete this mission post sending is considered abandonment of the Armada if return is not made within a month. Failure for the sending message to occur or if the crew do not arrive will result in a “Dead or Missing” notice to be posted to all nearby temporary or permanent settlements, and crews will leave to hunt down and retrieve the corpses of the crewmen.**

### **Enlistment and Anti-Piracy Patrols**

**Members of the Vinn Armada are able to voluntarily enlist for Patrol Service at twenty years of age or older. Those that do this must go through a proficiency test and/or practical exam to determine their overall suitability to a position within a crew. Captains are the most overall difficult proficiency to acquire, requiring at least a grade of 80% or better on travel knowledge, navigation knowledge, terminology, writing, reading, and speaking comprehension in two languages, and the use of navigational instruments and devices of war. Other possible positions include Quartermaster, Sailing Master, Gunner, Powder Monkey, Boatswain, Surgeon, and cook. First mates are required for a crew to be considered complete, with the Quartermaster required to answer to them, but those are selected from test certified sailors by the Captain of a ship. Requirements for a First Mate to be considered valid for crew enlistment is a mark of 70% or higher in all above knowledge required of a captain.**

**Upon enlistment within the Patrol Service, crews must either act as field marshals for settlements in the ocean or for patrol guards within the borders of the Vinterloch. Those outside Tyr must make regular reports every 3-7 months regarding their current activities on their ship or within their crew. Any arrests that are made must be reported to a member of the Officers Catalogue, a group of two hundred major captains in descending order of experience that compete for positions within the Catalogue every year. The captain that is reported to will then sign and mark your capture in a legally binding document, and any outstanding bounty will be paid to a captain with a 30% cut being taken by the signing captain, with the actual amount being negotiated by the captains at time of signing.**

### **Officers Catalogue**

**The Officers Catalogue is a document of two hundred currently enlisted captains of the Vinn Armada ranked in order of arrests made within a given year. Each rank can be further attained through sanctioned duels to the harm with wooden or steel weaponry or rubber-bullet based firearms. The losing captain must relinquish their position in the Catalogue if they currently keep one to the winning captain, and is now considered to have lost ten arrests for that given year.**