Atranni

The city of Atranni is a strange city, one with two clashing cultures. In the past, the city of Atranni wasn’t anything special on the grander scale of things. It was a good money-making machine as many of the nobles from all factions came to waste their coin in this city for their own leisure and amusement. It was a summer vacation spot.

For the longest of time, the Ducal Ludovisi family was happy with this city. It generated high profits without them really having to do anything about. The streets were calm, the people polite and the shops aimed at selling imported luxuries.

It truly was a noble’s summer dream.

This was the old culture, a refined one.

When Duca Alessandro Ludovisi first heard one of the local merchants complain this his shops were suffering under the slowness in the Port Isara, the man smelled blood and a good way to curry some favour with Princeps Tiberius Urso. He invested a large part of the coin that the city had generated in the past few years into the city’s harbour and invested into a great number of river barges to keep the goods moving.

Naturally, he wasn’t the type to play ‘fair’. He used a part of his wealth to grease some palms and made sure to cause even more distress in the other city. He paid captains of ships to just take a little bit longer to dock, paid the harbour master to be a little bit worse at his job, paid the locals to unload cargo just a little bit slower.

The amount of coin that the man threw into this affair was astonishing, but he gained result and the small issue in Port Isara quickly turned into one so large that a great deal of the merchants now started to come to his city instead.

Naturally, the man felt rather smug when Urso complimented him after seeing the extra taxes his port generated due to this investment. After all, the more gold Atranni made, the less gold would flow into the coffers of his political rivals.

The streets grew rowdier, ships entering and exiting all the time. This attracted more common folk to come and work here and slowly, but surely the city lost its peace in not even a year.

This is when a big problem popped up.

The nobles, not even the one in his own party, wanted to spend their summers in his city anymore. The city had been tainted by the commoners. The peace had been defiled and they would not stand to go spend their vacation in a place no more peaceful than their own cities.

He hadn’t expected the fallout to be this quickly or this drastically, making him suspect that Duca Mathia Bianchi had a hand in it.

Not only this, but Portus Isara had a good reputation, so even after all the things the Duca had down to damage it, he only had a little bit more than half of the trade entering his port. And when the coin that came from the nobles stopped flowing, he was forced to stop using his less savoury methods, this combined with the which made him lose a good fifteen percent, making him the losing side in this trade conflict.

The city simply does not have the history or the love from the common populace that the other one has, making it look like a rather failed project. The Duca barely got his investment back, making it that he had just traded in one income source for another, more contested on. Not only this but now his own allies are rather angry at him for ruining their summer getaway.

* The only man still somewhat pleased is Princeps Urso, after all, the tax he gains from this city has remained roughly the same, but he did manage to weaken his rival slightly for the time being.