Portbanks- Stevies neighborhood

Declaration of Independence

As we settled behind the horizon of the then known world, we were loyal only to God and our King Leopold V. One has forsaken us and the other one has betrayed us.
We now don’t fear God and we don’t fear the King and his army. We now only invoke what we have given to ourselves. Freedom! Neither will we from now on pay taxes or any other obligations to the current King nor will we ever worship a myth called god! 

On behalf of the people of the “Great Nations”

Ambrose Bergdorf’s Logbook

Ambrose Bergdorf was the first adventurer who claimed he had travelled all of the Seven Winds. His frenetically celebrated book “The appearance of the ‘Seven Winds’ as witnessed by the H.M.S. Beagle during her greatest travel” spawned many new enterprises. But no expedition was ever received as well as Bergdorf’s. He also coined the term “Seven Winds” which became very common very fast and is still used today. Later he compiled his opus magna into a smaller compendium called: “Ambrose Bergdorf’s Guide to adventurous traveling”. The following entries are taken from his recently posthumously published logbook: 

Day 1: 

Finally I got my crew together. Four years of preparations come together and in this moment, history is being written. I never thought I’d find me some daredevils like these fine gentlemen. The exploration of the Winds will be risky, but I am sure it will be worth the effort. 

[...]

Day 26: 

Finally we breached through the Ceiling. Our ship took severe damage by flying float pieces of the gigantic rock we had to blast away with our main cannon. We had just entered the Ceiling and visibility was down to only two hundred feet, as suddenly - out of nowhere- this gigantic floating piece of rock came by starboard flying directly towards us. Piet Cotte - our gunner- had the grasp to recognize the danger and quickly handled our fat lady in the right direction. Nobody reckoned with solid objects of this magnitude up here. Our journey had up to this point been pretty unexcited. What may lie ahead of us further up?

Blackbeards Hideout

“Wait! You will get us all get killed!” Stevie shouted in panic as the Lady Aurora Dawn dashes through the clouds towards a gigantic flying rock as big as a small city. Stevies fear causes a cheeky smile on the face of the helmsman. With a very subtle steer on the control wheel, the helmsman navigates the ship by a hair’s breadth past the rock, tacks it around and slows it down to nearly a full stop. Then the golden vessel slowly descents into a small crevice, located at the top side of the boulder. Beneath them loams a giant hall, filled with strange looking buildings and plants. Smoothly the helmsman lands the Lady on a great landing platform. 

Morgan found this place on his journey up to the Seven Winds. Here he could build, only accompanied by a few confidants, his own little shipyard, far away from all the curious eyes watching the “crazy man” working. Here in his own fortress of solitude he could experiment on all this forgotten technology he found during his expeditions.

The Lady Aurora Dawn

Like a sharp ray of sunlight, the Lady Aurora Dawn breaks through the massive wall of clouds down towards the convoy of three smaller cargo ships. With a smooth, fast movement the “Golden Lady” flies dead on target towards the last ship of the convoy. They will hardly know what had hit them.

With nearly 100 knots, the Lady Aurora Dawn is one of the fastest ships all over the “Seven Winds”. The majestic design of the “Golden Lady” causes wherever it appears great sensation. The technology of this ship is based on a design by Captain Morgan himself. His vision of a ship, getting most of its energy from pure sunlight aroused only laughter at most naval architects and so he went on searching for material and technology by himself. Disconnecting more and more from conventional ways of building ships, he appealed to ways of engineering long forgotten... 

The Seven Winds

„So you decided to travel the Seven Winds? Good! But be warned: Only Wind One and Two are perfectly safe. They are used to travel short and longer distances. Wind Two is mostly used by the big trading companies. So if you are not with them... better use Wind One. They don’t like competition up there. Wind One can be used freely by everyone. But at some areas you have to pay a toll for traveling through. If you ever want to use one of the other Winds... Well good luck with that. They are faster than the lower Winds but they are also more dangerous. So if you have a fast ship and a fearless crew, just go up and see what’s there. Only few came back to tell about what they saw.” 

– Ambrose Bergdorf’s Guide to adventurous traveling 


Click here to find out more about the Seven Winds!

Captain „Blackbeard“ Morgan

Suddenly Jack felt a strong presence filling the room. A presence he hasn’t felt since the incident at Longneck Island. It couldn’t be true, he must be dead... but as Jack turned around he saw him. The Captain!

Captain Morgan alias Blackbeard is arguably one of the most infamous Skyjackers all over the “Seven Winds”. His wit is legendary, his mechanical skills are brilliant and with his vapor pressure-operated, mechanical arm he truly is a menacing fighting force. With his crew he roams the Sky, always looking for an opportunity to make a bit of cash. And that displeases the great trading companies and their “honest” way of earning money so much, they put a high bounty on his head. But Blackbeard isn’t necessarily a bad guy. Actually, he is popular with many people, because his actions never really harm anyone but the obnoxious and omnipresent trading companies or the ruthless government. 

Rebecca Bennet

“Hey! Pick on someone of your own size!” she shouted and *wham* smacks the nasty looking fella with her electric lathi.
You shouldn’t mess with Rebecca! No really, don’t get in her way or this little sixteen year old girl is going to kick your butt. Well... only if you deserve it. There’s nothing more Rebecca hates than bullies.
Her parents are hawkers with their own little airship, crammed with all different kind of goods. They were always on the move from city to city, looking for the best bargain and the next trade. When business calls, they forgot about everything else. So Rebecca had to take care for herself very early in her life.
One year ago, Rebecca had enough and she ran away from her parents to start a business of her own. She traveled to Port Banks on her own, just to charter on one of the great merchant ships of “Gable, Smith & Ratisbon”, the biggest trading company in Port Banks. But her plan didn’t work out as she had planned it... 

Stevie's Place

Home! Stevie hasn’t felt this way since a long time. Finally he managed to find a place to hide from the guards. It’s small and a little bit off from the streets, in an old disconnected air vent, right above a crummy old pub called “The Locker”. All his belongings he nicked from guests of the pub. Small things, nothing anyone would miss. A few coins here and there and sometimes even... a book.
Books are a real treasure to Stevie. They are his key to the world. He reads whatever he can get hold of, but what he really loves, are books about travelers and far off worlds. All his life he felt the wanderlust, itching in his feet. In his armchair he can travel without even moving.

Stephan "Stevie" Quinn

Meet Stevie Quinn, a 14 year old orphan boy, who lives in an old disconnected air vent right above a sailors Pub called “The Locker”. He makes a living of odd jobs and minor thefts.
Stevie’s parents died when he was two years old and so he grew up in an orphanage until he was ten years old. He never liked the strict rules and he always wanted to be free, doing whatever he liked. One day - like the great explorers in his books - he would see the world! All the exotic places, the strange worlds of the “Seven winds”. With treasures and daring adventures - in short - he wanted to live a venturers life.

Port Banks

Port Banks is the biggest and probably the most important city in the Alliance of the Great Nations. Nearly one third of the worlds trade income is produced here. The city is divided into different quarters, which are set up on gigantic metal platforms, rising into the sky. Each quarter is dedicated to a different functionality and therefore has a different design and tone. There is the dockland area with quarters of where the dock workers live. At the pontoons, where night and day ships arrive and depart, cargo is discharged and people are working. It’s always loud, noisy and busy. When there is hard work, the entertainment isn’t far off. Next to the docking area is the entertainment quarter. With bars, casinos and all the entertainment a Jack needs on his shore leave. On the third big platform the administration of Port Banks is set. All the big decisions are made here and all the upper crust of society is living in this quarter. So it is nice and neat but you also find very harsh security guards who put people who don’t belong there into their place.