The City of Wolf's Bay

Nominally, the City of Wolf's Bay is ruled directly by the Regent of the Kingdom. An appointed Lord Governor is responsible for the routine administration of the city. But, as with all things in Tyrnabay, reality is much more complex.

Officially, the City Guard answers only to the Lord Governor. There is no city council or any form of representative government; the will of the Regent and Lord Governor are the only sources of "law". However, bribery, blackmail, and threats ensure that the needs of the Free Trader's Guild and the Mercantile are seen to as well - even if these needs contradict the will of the Regent or Governor.

Officially, the principle industry of Wolf's Bay is shipbuilding, and indeed a number of ships all across Cartyrion first slipped into the seas from the drydocks of Wolf's Bay. A significant commerce related to keeping fleets of both merchant and war ships afloat and operating is also present - makers of rope and sail are plentiful, as are merchants dealing in various provisions required to sustain crews on long voyages.

As the home of the Free Trader's Guild, though, Wolf's Bay can be considered to as the main seat of piracy in Cartyrion, though this is officially denied by kingdom officials. It is also the center for most of the hiring of mercenary companies by the powerful across the world when their needs require such things.

Wolf's Bay has three main divisions or districts. The Wharf District encompasses the docks along the bay and the block or two of warehouses and shipyards that border them. The City Center sits upon a hilltop about a half mile (800m) inland from the docks and is dominated by the three largest structures in the city: the Palace, the Mercantile, and the Guildhall. These are the three seats of power - one official, the other two clandestine - within the Kingdom,

In between, a confusing maze of narrow streets and alleyways contain the shops, taverns, factories, and warehouses of the city. There is no pattern to these. The area has no officially recognized district name, but most folk from Tyrnabay call it "the Warrens". A notable exception, however, are the Chittiki residents of the city. They do not like to equate this city with their ancestral homeland which is also known as the Warren. Instead, Chittiki refer to the confusion that is most of Wolf's Bay as "the Maze".

The Wolf's Bay Free Traders' League is the formal association that claims to represent Tyrnabay's dealings with the world beyond its borders. In truth, it is a committee formed of the heads of the major pirate fleets and mercenary companies which exists to carve up the rest of the world into spheres of control and thus keep the infighting among groups within the kingdom to a minimum.

The Mercantile is officially a formal association of trade and artisan guilds within the kingdom. It was created to allow for better cooperation between pracitioners of crafts that depended on one another. While it does serve this purpose, it's true - and hidden - purpose is to guide the activities of the Free Trader's League to ensure that the rest of the world does not get angry enough with Tyrnabay to take action that could affect the kingdom itself. It exercises this control by regulating access to provisions and equipment required by the fleets and mercenary armies to function.