Bayside

Bayside is a small harbour city in the Province of the Lowland Meadows of the Atarlie Empire, situated on the shore near the boundary between its province and the Southern Province. It's the largest settlement in the **Bay of the East** and the principal harbour, situated at the junction of two roads which join it to Imarraka and Corran. The port is important to the Atarlie economy as a center of trade with the south of Wisteria (especially with the Hearthlands and the Shimmering Shore, as well as a transportation hub over land for food products from the Southern Province destined for the Lowland Meadows or over sea to the northern provinces of the empire.

Geography

Bayside Harbour is down on the shore of the bay, along a section of coast where the slopes are steep and the water is deep near the shore. The harbour complex is large, and a walled city sits behind it, though the fortifications are mostly on the southern side of the city to protect against attack from the harbour itself, as no threat exists from further inland. The bulk of the city itself is along the slopes of a hill, giving it both a High and Low quarter.

The high quarter is largely governmental offices and the residences of prominent merchants and captains of industry in the city, mostly Atarlie elves. The Low City, such as it is, is further divided into richer and poorer districts, and much more cosmopolitan as many who live there are traders who settled in the city, preferring the stability of the elven lands (or their beauty) to the insecurity and starkness of the Shimmering Shore.

Economy

Bayside is a rich city, and its trade with the Shimmering Shore has enriched it to the point that it has the economic pull of a large city, disproportionate to its actual population. This trade consists heavily of important arcane and alchemical reagents along with luxury goods in the form of exotic incenses, spices, and enchanted objects. Much of that trade travels further north to the ports at Sunport. There is also a sizable trade in food arriving from the Southern Provinces for shipment, and traders from South Point to Bayside bring elven goods to the Hearthlands and vice-versa.

Politics

Bayside is a syndicate town. While it nominally has a governor who answers to the Prefect of the Southern Provinces, in practice that person is a figurehead, and the policy of the town is set by the highbourn merchants in the High Quarter, who are careful to curtail the corruption to the extent that an illusion of opportunity and free trade still exists, to avoid imperial sanction.