Pathfinder Chronicles - Gazetteer - Asamnet

Pathfinder Chronicles
52
horizon, packed with an army of surveyors, interpreters,
missionaries, miners, and nobles loyal to the new regime.
Just as the greedy Chelaxians first viewed the lush green
coastline of Sargava, a larger f leet surged from Desperation
Bay, its ships f lying the black f lags of the Free Captains of
the Shackle Isles.
Buying off the pirate f leet cost Sargava half its stores and
open-ended promises of tribute in timber and medicines,
but the quick sinking of the expeditionary force and the
fierce destruction of lone infiltrators since have time
and again proven the wisdom of the maneuver. To this
day, Sargava appreciates the support and defense of the
Free Captains and remains essentially free of Chelaxian
entanglements. The arrangement has also kept Sargava
broke, with the lion’s share of the colony’s proceeds filling
Port Peril coffers. The Free Captains give the current
Baron, Utilinus, autonomy so long as the payments keep
coming, allowing the colony to run its operation much as
it has for centuries.
The greatest current danger to Sargava comes not from
the ocean, but from internal strife. Since the earliest days
of colonization, the Chelish legions sought to subjugate the
local Mwangi tribesmen and adapt them to the imperial
way of life. The crumbling, ancient city of Kalabuto, on
Sargava’s eastern border, used to be the greatest example
of this conversion—a working, cooperating community
of thousands of natives held under the sway of a handful
of Chelaxian shepherds. Aroden’s death robbed his clerics
of their powers, greatly undermining the superstitious
natives’ trust in the new system. Many became unruly and
rebelled against their foreign masters.
At the same time, a mysterious cult honoring the
mummified remains of an ancient child captured the
native city of Mzali, on the edge of the Screaming Jungle
along the southern edge of the untracked Mwangi Expanse.
The child claimed relation to the time-lost Mwangi
kingdom that had originally erected the cyclopean stones
of Kalabuto and Mzali, attracting many natives to its
cause. Mwangi tribal warriors armed with spears and reed
shields have harried Sargava’s borders ever since, sacking
Kalabuto on three occasions before being driven back
into the wilderness. Thus far the Chelaxian settlers have
managed to retain their colony, but with no reinforcements
coming from the homeland to replace fallen soldiers, the
Mwangi will not be deterred much longer.
Shackles, The
TREACHEROUS PIRATE ISLES
Alignment: CN
Capital: Port Peril (43,270)
Notable Settlements: Drenchport (9,690), Quent (12,560),
Ollo (7,340)
Ruler: Captain Kerdak Bonefist, the Hurricane King
Government: A council of pirate lords dominated by the
self-styled Hurricane King
Languages: Common, Polyglot
Religion: Calistria, Cayden Cailean, Gozreh, Norgorber,
Pharasma
The island chain and treacherous coast known as the
Shackles comprise a collection of bandit and slave cities
that use the ravenous Eye of Abendego as cover for their
illicit activities. Old ruins of bygone civilizations dot the
region, and the carvings on their crumbling stone walls
depict horrible acts of cannibalism and sacrifice. When
Chelish explorers uncovered these ruins some 600 years
ago, they decided the place was haunted and continued
south, eventually founding the colony of Sargava.
As the years passed and the trade ships from Sargava
became increasingly lucrative, pirates began to roam
the area, using the ancient ports to hide from Chelish
warships. Numerous small communities grew from these
pirate ports, with some even accepting business from
legitimate merchants.
In 4606, the Eye of Abendego formed just north of the
Shackles, a stubborn after-effect of the torrential storms that
wracked Golarion following Aroden’s death. This gigantic,
permanent hurricane forever changed the shipping lanes in
the region, with most civilized nations forgoing any hope
of trade with Sargava. The pirates of the Shackles soon fell
to infighting over quickly dwindling resources. With the
most likely outcome being the complete dissolution of the
Shackles, the pirate lords banded together, forming one
pirate f leet to sail under the banner of their newly elected
Hurricane King. In the spring of 4674, the first ships of
the Shackles f leet, under the command of the so-called
Free Captains, began to ravage merchant caravels far to the
north, near the Arch of Aroden.
Over the past 30 years, foreign powers have launched
numerous concerted efforts to battle the pirates of
the Shackles, but few have met with any success. All
of the Free Captains excel at sailing close to the Eye of
Abendego, giving them an easy escape route from lessexperienced
pilots. The Shackles themselves have been
assaulted twice, but both times the invaders (once from
Rahadoum and once from Cheliax) met with disaster,
losing most of their f leets to the ravenous storm and
treacherous waters.
Today, the Shackles consist of a number of outlaw ports,
where pirates rest from their ventures and trade their illgotten
gains with unscrupulous merchants. The people
who live in the ports are mostly runaway criminals,
escaped slaves, and seekers of forbidden goods such as
drugs, poisons, and evil magic. Ruling over each port is
a powerful pirate lord who dispenses loot from recent
raids and administers pirate justice whenever applicable.