The Duty Free Ports of House 'Bacco

Free and Chivalric Love

A collection of islands sandwiched between the hypercapitalist Nazzdack and the drunken lawlessness of Ur-Um Wines and Spirits Company; House 'Bacco styles themselves as the eccentric middle ground. Favoring a mix of pomp and circumstance (complete with a knightly code of honor) and casual surfer culture, House 'Bacco and the Lesser Houses under its remit are an unusual jumble of medieval and modern. House paladins possess elaborately decorated surfboards and dune buggies, bikini-clad beach babes behave with all the proper poise and training of a courtly lady and will gladly correct the uncouth etiquette of oglers; while coconuts engraved with coat-of-arms of the many Houses serve as drinking vessels. Feasts with tropical delights and cannabis fill the nights but with strict, regimented, and etiquette-driven rules, Gobbos and Wukong tend to steer clear of their preferred version of wild fun and free love.

Instead of megacities, the island is dotted with ever-feuding baronies with large towns and port villages built around charging stations. Adventurers often find themselves embroiled in the politics of the minor Houses, and are contracted to perform subtle balance-tipping acts of espionage and infiltration away from the prying eyes of Lord 'Bacco.

Lord Atticus Jeremiah Hadric Rutherford Tobacco XVIII is the current Lord Regent for The Duty Free Ports of House 'Bacco, his long dead ancestor Atticus Tobacco the First still considered King of the Islands.

History of the Duty Free Ports

When the great migration began, the islands that would one day become the Duty Free Ports ended up a wide spread set of communes run by the hyper rich and their retainers, far from the rest of the world. In time, they would form various alliances, marriages, and feuds that would spread across the various islands until each island was lead by a particular family who funded the mercenaries necessary to protect the island from early piracy, monsters, and banditry. In time these mercenaries would become almost part of the families, and semi-feudal relationships began to form in earnest.

- The Uncontrollable LARP
- Tobacco Plantations, and The Rise of Consequence-Free Addiction
- Chivalric Surfer Culture
- Taxation and Secession
- The Lesser Houses

These semi-feudal relations would gel into their modern form around the time Atticus Tobacco first unified the largest and most fractious of the islands, leveraging its vast mineral wealth into conquest of the other 27 islands that made up the archipeligo. He claimed all of the islands north of the New Mojave and a few of the peninsulas. Fighting pirates, fellow lords, corporations, and mutated monstrosities, he brought the trade passages between the continents under his control as the corporations sunk time and resources into building their megacities, insuring that the isles and their serfs would remain their own independent power.

Administration and Structure of the Duty Free Ports

Atticus Tobacco, the first of his line, became king and forced the other islands to heel, formalizing a series of feudal relationships between the various groups. There would be one 'Great House' for each island, and each island would be named for the house that ruled it. Each house would be defined by their primary product, which they would not necessarily exert a monopoly over, but had the sole right to export. All others who produced it would have to do so through them. Since that time, the number of great houses has risen and fallen, some vanished, others reduced to lesser houses in all but name. Today there are effectively 18 true greater houses, some are an entire island unto themselves, others are actually alliances of multiple islands into a single bloc. A greater house is run by a Duke.

Each Greater House is served by the lesser houses run by barons, and some of those houses, if rich enough, can even possess lesser houses themselves (which has lead to various other titles that are greater than baron but less than duke). They are bound through a chain of vassalage-franchising contracts that run all the way up to the House 'Bacco itself. Lesser Houses are granted some sort of monopoly upon the island owned by the greater house they owned vassalage too, this might be the right to work specific lands, the right to produce and sell a specific good upon the island, the exclusive right to export something from the island, the sole right to run a specific industry on the island, and so on and so forth. These contracts can be, and have been, stripped, traded, split, or modified in an endless number of ways over the last 400 years that has created a complex social hierarchy and web of alliances and rivalries.

The Duty Free Ports are presided over by 2 courts. The Summer and Winter Courts. The Summer Court is headed by Lord Atticus Jeremiah Hadric Rutherford Tobacco XVIII, and is considered the de facto ruler of the surface, and the true reagent of the isles, descended from Atticus I's first wife. In the summer his court takes precedence for all internal matters within the isles, and for foreign diplomacy and trade at all times. His counterpart is Lady Maeve Thelmenestra Eris Tobacco II, the undercity elf daughter of Queen Maeve Tobacco I, who became one of King Atticus' wives after he was struck by her beauty and intelligence following her assumption of the leadership of the first datacenter. Lady Maeve II rules the secretive Winter Court, and the Lords of ICE. In her season, during the dark months, her court takes primacy in the settling of internal matters, and in all seasons her court is responsible for the administration and running of the 'Bacconian Networks, both corporate and darkweb. Little is known about this mysterious court, and it is why during the dark months wars between houses are gently shuttered, and disputes held close to the breast, for few Lords wish to be brought to the attention of the mysterious Digital Reagent.

Commerce of the Duty Free Ports

The Duty Free ports represent the single most safe passage of trade between Nazzdack and the New Mojave, and importantly, every pirate knows that it's often more trouble than it's worth to try and raid ships that have made it within sight of the shores of the Free Ports. This makes it an incredibly popular shipping channel. Internally, the Sounds make for incredibly safe inter-island trade, with the islands collectively producing more than enough to supply not only their citizenry but the tourists as well.

Their major income sources are as follows:

• Free Port Refinement and Manufacturing: Rental of Space and Serfs to external companies for the processing of raw resources into finished goods, especially for products of a more specialist or bespoke nature. This is why so much trade passes through the Duty Free Ports, as they make their income from this rather than from charging duties and tariffs on importing and exporting.
• Access to Goods: Because of the permissive legal situation in the isles, and it's strategic location, almost anything can be bought in the auction houses and bazaars of the party towns. As long as one comes with peaceful intent and a courteous manner, they are welcomed in, and can buy and sell freely. This makes the Duty Free Ports a fantastic place for smugglers, fences, and even just wholesellers, and the Great Houses take a cut of all transactions occurring on their islands through a sales tax that is still quite low compared to the exorbitant import and export fees other territories charge for goods simply passing through them.
• Tourism: Tourism is a massive part of their industries, with the party towns attracting tourists from across the new world in spring and summer. Throw in the fact that very few substances are illegal in 'Bacco, and you have for an incredible party atmosophere, with what is widely acknowledged as the best parties, clubs, and raves anywhere in the new world.
• High Quality Luxury Goods: Bespoke and Specialist Additives form up the primary export good from 'Bacco itself. Be it spices, sugar, or legal recreational drugs such as Tobacco, Alchohol, or similar, the unique climates available to the Duty Free Ports and their focus on acquisition of lost and rare trade secrets has resulted in them being the primary exporter of incredibly high class goods. Let Czarina deal in feeding the masses, let Saraswati create the latest in new and improved drugs, 'Bacco goes for class, style, and EXPENSIVE tastes, catering to the executive class with incredibly high prices, hand made, bespoke work, and sweatshop working conditions manned by literal slaves.
• Adventuring: Mercenary and Adventuring work makes up the final and least popularized export of the Duty Free Ports. Knight Errants, Questing Knights, Black Knights, and sellswords who wish to see the wider world often get their start in the highly martial lands of 'Bacco, and there is no place in the world that has a higher number of Enforcers. The bond of a 'Bacconian Enforcer is proverbially strong, and many of them are rented out by their houses to other megacorporations who need work done but don't trust their own corpo-cops for whatever reason. This massive number of mercenaries also means that a large number of adventurers come from the Free Ports, whether they be run-away or former serfs or younger sons and daughters of the various houses. All of this means that a great deal of wealth, generated through exploration and violence, is shipped back to the Free Ports.

The Duty Free Ports of House 'Bacco have special trade relations with the following Territories:

• Soon-Bok: Seen as 'their brother by another mother' in many respects by the 'Bacconians. The very best knights of the Free Ports are always armed with arms, armor, and cybernetics created in Soon-Bok, and some of the houses have long-standing relations with Soon-Bok manufacturing companies dating back to the foundation of the Duty Free Ports.
• Nazzdack: One of the two primary cultural contributors to 'Bacco and the primary consumer of 'Bacconian goods of all of the world, with many 'Bacconian goods even being loaded onto the monthly shuttle launches of the Walled City. The straight laced corporate culture and rampant adherence to corporate ettiquette has enormouslly effected the culture of the Duty Free Ports. Many errant knights travel there as well, seeking to make a name for themselves.
• Calico Redistribution: The rivalry between the knights of the Duty Free Ports and the Calico pirates has reached a fever pitch of love/hate relationships that borders on mythic. The Pirates loath the fact that they're blocked from raiding the northern coasts of New Mojave, especially the trade rich gulf between Ur-Um and Sarajevo Seven Holdings, while the Knights find that the pirates have absolutely no sense of decorum and are always speeding their damn boats through the best surfing areas! At the same time, the Pirates adore the free access to trade and clubs they can get if they go in guns stowed and on their best behavior, and the Knights appreciate tourists who can (and do) actually put up a fight when you call them to duel over their atrocious manners!
• Saraswati Virtue: Given the nature of the free trade and duty free nature of the Ports of House 'Bacco, the psychadelics and sensory enhancement drugs produced to sabotage other companies frequently make their way here, and none more than Saraswati's, who often ship their goods here to be sold to smugglers and other traders as an obfuscation measure.
• Ur-Um Wines and Spirits: The more laid back cultural contributor of 'Bacco's attitudes, and also the primary source of meat and many forms of drink for the Duty Free Ports, which are close enough to receive it easily without requiring processing and preservation in Protein Adjacent territory. The 'Bacconians own flare for chivalry and various heroic and jock like activities is firmly rooted in their shared wild west homesteader ancestry with Ur-Um's population.

Importantly, it needs to be understood that the vast majority of this wealth is hoarded by the lesser and greater houses. Each lesser house owes a franchising tithe to the lord who holds their vassalage-contract, the exact amount of which varies from lord to lord and contract to contract. Those who lack noble blood, the employee-serfs, are often paid exclusively in bartered goods. The subsistence of their work in the fields to trade for script for food in addition to what they owe in taxes. All serfs are considered actual, explicit, property of their Lords, far more blatantly than in almost any other part of the world, and are explicitly forbidden from leaving the lands they work by 'Bacconian Law.

Prominent Races of the Duty Free Ports

• Humans make up the vast majority of the population, making up the foundational population of the Free Ports
• Nayalings coming in fairly far behind, but still more so than any other population on the surface. Many Nayalings find their place in the Free Ports between it's martial culture and a lack of judgement on appearances so much as on courtly manners.
• Street ELFs and Executive ELFs are noticeable for their absence as major figures of the population unlike in the megacities, but do make up a significant portion of the population through immigration and tourism.
• Undercity ELFs make up a massive portion of the population relative to other surface areas for around half the year, especially in the northernmost islands, as the burning day star isn't around for massive periods of time making them feel uncomfortable. They hold a special place in 'Bacconian Culture, representative of the underworld, digital liminal spaces, and arbitrators between the 'Bacconians and the mysteries of the net. Jerboans and Undercity Elves of the Duty Free Ports are incredibly distrustful of one another on the rare occasions they encounter each other, largely due to the seasonal difference in when they appear on the surface.
• Jerboans, while considered barbaric, are very much welcome in the Duty Free Ports, especially Rock Jerboans. Their nomadic clans often travel throughout the isles during the Summer Months, though mostly retreat back to the continent for winter. Their rock barges and beach songs make them welcome additions to the summer party scene, even if the players are especially rude. Jerboans are also considered lucky, and most 'Bacconian armies try to hire at least one Jerboan band to boost morale and play the war beats for their army.
• Wukong and Gobbos lack any major settlements or long term populations in the ports, finding their stilted approach to free love and strict rules of decorum to be stifling, and the local population too highly strung and likely to resort to violence for excessive 'rudeness' on anyone's part, to be worth dealing with. They tend to only hang around long enough to find passage out of the Free Ports after washing ashore following some failed pirate raid or other. Rather than collar them as criminal serfs, the 'Bacconians have long since learned to simply let them wander off on their own, as they make terrible laborers.
• Artificiates and Remakes are all but unheard of among the houses, given that automation is all but nonexistent within the islands and the superstitious dread with with the houses treat anything so intertwined with the digital realms as a person whose engram has been put into a mechanical body.
• Splicers make up as much of the population as they do anywhere in the New Mojave territories.

Culture of the Duty Free Ports

'Bacconians are an incredibly passionate, martial people with a work hard, play hard ethos. They are also considered, with good reason, to be incredibly bucolic compared to the dwellers of Megacities. Their society is one of engineered social stratum, decorum, and rules to reign in their fiery temperaments, and lack of access to the distractions of digital entertainment so pervasive throughout the rest of the New World. 'Bacconians by and large treat the digital realms as a mystery that can be interacted with, but never fully trusted or understood except by the mysterious adepts of the data centers and network hubs.

Lacking the bandwidth and access to the internet that most territories have, the 'Bacconians instead engage rigorously in various physical activities, from wild parties to jet ski or cyberhorse jousting. The highest and most vaunted form of sportsmanship is Surfing, seen as the ultimate expression of grace, poise, and control of man against the elements. The greatest competition of surfers occurs with the coming of the first hurricane of the autumnal season, and only the bravest or most foolhardy of surfers will attempt to surf the storm surge to prove their mettle.

The most obvious part of 'Bacconian culture is how rigidly defined everyone's place is. The Feudal Hierarchy is enforced at sword point and social grace is every bit as important as martial prowess. Chivarlic roles between knights and maidens (who can be of either sex, though it is very rare for them to be of non traditional genders) are enforced both legally and socially. Interactions in public, from asking someone to dance, to ogling, have to fall within the rules of courtly love, the level of interest one expresses, the steps of the courtly dance before getting your cock sucked under the bar, the point and counterpoint of ritualized etiquette in railing a twink on his beach blanket, all of these things give the 'Bacconians a very strange way of handling their love lives and passions that seem downright alien to visitors. Tourists are often given some level of leeway, though are encouraged to hire a whore-guide to help them walk the dance of rules and intercede for them and their companions.

This stratification is even built into the names of people. Serfs do not get last names, only tourists and nobles have them. Serfs are the lowest class of citizen, treated as literal property, rarely even given script let alone credits. They live off of a barter economy of their surplus, generously allowed to keep some of their harvests to live off of by their lords. Next up are sellswords and servants (who are permitted last names but lack titles of any sort). Sellswords make up the most basic infantry of the houses, fighting for the chance to earn glory in and recognition and be permitted to swear allegiance to a house. Servants, often called maids, make up the entry level to the hand-maidens of nobility and courtly politics. Servants are permitted to live and work in party towns and keeps and are often the people who most tourists interact with. In both cases this tends to be what immigrants end up becoming, for few people willingly enter into serfdom, only criminals are collared and forced into becoming literal property. From there you have knights and hand-maidens, the true nobility, but lacking lands and equity of any sort. They are full members of a house, but have no say in it's running beyond what their lord gives them. These make up the vast majority of the nobility in the Duty Free Ports. Within those ranks are various others, one might become a Sword of a House, the vaunted elite and most trusted warriors of a house, body guards of their lord and his personal guard and hands in the world, and even that has ranks, the most coveted being that of First Sword. To be the First Sword is to be a lord's most skilled and trusted agent. Competition within any given house is incredibly fierce for such specific and vaunted titles.

Because it is such a stratified culture, there is quite a lot of bleed off from Adventurers. Those who can't stand the normally stilted society of 'Bacco will venture out, making names for themselves, returning laden down with riches and new stories, if they return at all, before heading back out on another adventure. Many a lesser house of the Free Ports has been founded by an adventurer who discovered some valuable trade secret or schematic that they and they alone can reproduce, and negotiated for a vassalage-franchise from another house.

The life of culture and living in the Duty Free Ports are defined by the dance of seasons more than almost any other part of the world. They sit close to the north pole, and lack the protections against weather and climate that the spires and cupping mountains of their island provided to the residents of Nazzdack. Their party towns are built sturdily, with powerful sea break walls that collapse when not in use, and provide them with protection from storm surges. Their buildings are constructed in round, glancing shapes with heavy usage of heraldic paintings and mosaic works that will survive spring storms and autumn hurricanes, with more utilitarian structures built further into the islands, away from the storm surges, but more subject to the winds. 'Bacconians build down, not up, when they can, and this has led to them interacting closely with the Undercity Elves of the tunnels, as well as a engendering a culture fascinated with exploration of ruins and adventuring in general.

Family building is considered an important duty of all levels of 'Bacconian culture, and the family unit remains fairly strong. Children tend to be reared either in close knit fief communities, where the free wheeling nature of love in the party towns is hidden and often obfuscated by distance and the toil of work in sweat shops and fields, or in sprawling academy settlements, meant to house hundreds of children as they grow up, raised together from across the isles or even beyond in the traditions of chivalric grace, duty, and the martial arts. Some noble children, especially among the greater houses, may instead be educated by private tutors in their ancestral castle. Even those children who are sent to board often return home during the spring-season, between the winter orgies and summer warfare, and safe from the autumnal duplicity.

Special Locations of the Duty Free Ports

These are the types of locations usually only found in the Duty Free Ports

• 'Bacconian Data Centers: There are only a handful of data centers under the Isles, the largest of which is located deep within the mountain chain of the Isle of 'Bacco. The House 'Bacco Data Center is where the primary cloning vats for Undercity Elves are located, and its construction was one of the very first acts engaged in by King Atticus Tobacco I. All data handling for the isles is routed, eventually through here, with various undersea caverns and tunnels linking several smaller data centers, and a plethora of network hubs and underground server rooms, together under the Free Ports. Every land holding Lesser House with it's own castle or manor or keep has a solitary server room located under their estate, which is operated by a single cyberdrider, and perhaps a small contingent of undercity elves, greater houses will have a true datacenter, or at least a network hub, under their homes. These are considered serfs to the House of 'Bacco and are on retainer, but in effect most 'Bacconian nobles retain a close working relationship with their network administrator who sees to the data logistics of their house and protects their trade secrets from intrusion. Few lords know of true shape or nature of their house admin, instead just knowing them as an unusually helpful online retainer that communicates with them through hardlight projection. Most 'Bacconian nobles, not the brightest bunch at the best of times, see these beings as protective digital spirits of their houses, and look upon Undercity Elves as arbiters of that relationship.
• Party Towns: These unique cities produce nothing of shippable value, but instead act as the export/import zones for the isles. All commerce passes through the party towns, or rather, through the heavily fortified trade docks and castles that loom over the party towns. The proximity is by design, giving rowdy sailors a place to blow off steam and spend their credits. These towns are often opened to employee-serfs only when they have earned the permission of their liege lords, and are far more commonly used by tourists and nobility.
• Feifs: The Fiefs make up the inner portions of the islands of the Duty Free Ports. These are often large plantations, carefully metered and monitored, separated by protective barriers from the party towns, with a defensive keep or castle huddling bunker like in the center for the defensive knights to live and work from (For few lords wish to live far from the party towns and the coastal regions). There are also sweat shop style fiefs, rows and rows, and floors and floors (above and below) of warehouse like rooms where serfs process, refine, and assemble products for other companies, rented out by their liege lord for that specific purpose.

Organizations of the Duty Free Ports

The primary organizations in the Duty Free Ports are the various houses, courts, and knightly orders.

• The Summer Court - Administrative Body: The most public facing ruling body of the Duty Free Ports, comprised, primarily, of the extant great houses, chaired by the Lord Reagent, Atticus Tobacco XVIII. Their primary duties lie in engaging in external, physical, diplomacy. They interact with the rest of the holding companies on a regular basis, primarily through the representation of House 'Bacco. They are a fractious lot at the best of times, but primarily concerned with insuring their own franchising tithes are paid on time, and stamping on the fingers of any lesser houses that are climbing their way up to the top. Their own unity shatters when dealing with one another, and rumor has it that the court halls in Castle 'Bacco roar out loudly enough to drown the partying below whenever they meet to discuss the 'fairest' way to handle any given war, duel, or contest. In late spring, early autumn, and for all of summer, the Summer Court Rules over the internal decisions of the isles, settling disputes between houses great and small, declaring the rules of warfare, dueling, courting etiquette, and a thousand other things with the swings of fashion and tastes of the current lords.
• The Winter Court - Administrative Body: The secretive face of the Duty Free Ports, held in the icy fist of Lady Maeve Tobacco II. It draws it's membership from the Lords of ICE, and the most important scholars and tech-casters in the Duty Free Ports (both above and below ground). All year round this court controls the flow of data and the digital realms within the Duty Free Ports, controlling who can access what information, how it is sent, and who gets what in terms of resource allocation. In addition, they protect the rather primitive, but no less essential, digital infrastructure of the isles from outside attack. None of the surface houses hold a seat on this court, but they must answer to it all the same in the late autumn, early spring, and for all of winter. When they rule, the courtly etiquette of the isles ossifies from the fashions and whims of summer, into the ancient forms still practiced by the undercity ELF daughter of King Tobacco I, blood duels and championships of public martial skill change to dances of debate, sex, and sense-tank game skill, and the punishments of the court seem capricious and fae to the martially minded surface lords, so used to being the ones to hold the upper hand in all things normally.
• House 'Bacco - Corporation: House 'Bacco is the founding house of the isles, the one that conquered, in bed or battlefield, the rest of the isles, and formalized the creation of the current chivalric system of corporate feudalism that dominates the Duty Free Ports. It has had 18 lords, but only the first held the title of King. Traditionally it has always been the house the Lord Reagent has been drawn from. The house holds the monopoly on the export of tobacco and tobacco products. It also, effectively, holds a monopoly on mineral rights and refinement in the isles, due to it's location on the largest and most mineral rich location in the Duty Free Ports, though it does not produce enough to do more than export to the various foundries and smithies across the Duty Free Ports.
• The Lords of ICE - Cult: A techno-cult that dates back to the founding of the Duty Free Ports and the construction of the 'Bacco Datacenter. Supposedly founded by one of the Queens of King Atticus Tobacco I, the Lords of ICE are supposedly the greatest digital security specialists in the world, made up of techwizards, shut-ins, and mechanists. The cult is an ally, if not directly associated with, the techno-cult of LOL! Tits Huge, but is distinct in it's own beliefs and inner mysteries. The selection process for applicants is deliberately mysterious, but the trial by which one claims a seat from an existing member of the cult is a legendary duel where both sides must set up an array of digital security for their own private digital realm, and then seek to steal the kernal data from their opponent's realm without dying. Importantly, if neither side dies, the match is considered a draw, and the seat is retained by it's current holder. The applicant must construct defenses so cunning and lethal that they slay the Lord of ICE whose seat they wish to claim.
• House Kazamir - Corporation: The rulers of the western most isle of the duty free ports. House Kazamir owns the sole right to the export of all forms of gin, and their local distilleries are second to none, utilizing their landmass for botanicals and their proximity to ur-um for other spirits. They have recently seen a rise in market share and power among the isles, annihilating several fractious lesser houses, and forcing others to heel with military prowess and cunning assassinations. There are rumors in the summer court that they may seek the regency itself.
• House Lanceson - Corporation: The rulers of a tiny spit of land that sits nestled between 3 other greater houses. The sole reason they have retained their status of greater house in anything but name is through careful political maneuvering and their sole right to control the export of currency, making them the bankers of the isles. Their vaults stretch deep below the island, and they have carefully cultivated a stance of neutrality, ensuring that any invasion of their island by a rival house is likely to be met by a counter blow from several other houses in short order.
• House Fuller - Corporation: The rulers of the center most isle of the duty free ports, they have retained their independence through the sole right of export of metallic products. They lack any mineral resources on their own isle, but negotiated their position as the meeting place of most of the sounds of the isles and thus central domestic trade point to gain exclusive rights from House 'Bacco. While their primary source of income is on domestic trade and warehouse space on their small island, they are famed for their whitesmithing, and also export the finished goods produced with metal by any other house.
• House Coco - Corporation: The rulers of a pair of islands in the north west of 'Bacco, they retain sole right to exports of chocolate and sugar (taken from the original owners of their second island) on the isles, and their island is mostly devoted to sugarcane and cocoa production, some of the last places in the world it can be readily found.
• House Attar - Corporation: Originally the rulers of the smallest of the mainland houses. House Attar retained the sole export right to perfumes and scents, but found themselves forced into subservience to another of the greater houses, losing their seat on the Summer Court, and retaining the title of Greater House in name only. They have carefully beaten back the desert of their peninsula home to allow for the growth of vast flower fields. They are famed among the houses for their mastery of courtly etiquette.
• House Guzzler - Corporation: The rulers of the largest of the mainland territories, House Guzzler was the last of the houses to be brought into the Duty Free Ports. Their base of operations is out of an ancient megacity ruin whose original name has been lost to time. Rather than be bought out by Ur-Um or one of the other mainland farming corps that were eventually folded into that megacorp, House Guzzler's board of directors managed to negotiate with the eldest son of House 'Bacco, the first Reagent, and took on the 'Bacconian model of administration. They are considered the most barbaric of the greater houses, and the least trustworthy or chivalrous, but negotiated a deal that gave them the sole right to the distribution of fungible, or digital, assets produced within 'Bacco. They possess the second largest datacenter in the duty free ports, second only to the 'Bacco Datacenter, and lack the usual 'Bacconian superstition of all things digital. They also keep close ties with the Jerboan gangs, giving them safe harbor during the winter months, making their territory both fractious and cosmopolitan compared to any other part of the isles.
• The Life Guard - Guild: A knightly order devoted to the preservation and protection of the beaches of 'Bacco against the tyranny of pirates, litter-bugs, pollution, and out of bounds trade vessels. They are often called in as sacrosanct referees to many contests held on beaches. Joining the order requires that one give up their place in their former house, and swear off all personal earnings, though it is generally accepted that some level of commitment will remain. Provided they do not allow it to interfere with their duties of preserving the beaches of the isles, and the ability for people to partake in beachgoing and surfing, it is not considered an issue.

Settlements of the Duty Free Ports

The various settlements of the Duty Free Ports are varied, from castle fortresses on high cliffs overlooking bustling, music filled party towns; to fief-settlements where nothing taller than a small watch tower for the guards to make sure no one is slacking off in the fields

• Castle 'Bacco: The capital and largest of the towns in all of the Duty Free Ports, the sprawling citadel sits upon the cliffs of the eastern coast of the Isle of 'Bacco. The massive citadel stands above the the party town strewn through harbor-valley below. Of all the islands of the Duty Free Ports, 'Bacco is considered to be the most unassailable, each port built into it's own highly defensive fjord or valley. While this makes it harder to farm, Castle 'Bacco stands as a testament of ingenuity, carving out deep terrace cups and filling them with cultivated soil to grow it's pride crop. Only carefully monitored lifts exist between each of the terrace farming communities and the coastal party town below, insuring that only employee-serfs who have earned the scrip and accreditation to slack off from their duties are permitted down into the delights below.
• Rolling Waves: A Party town in the northern coastlines of the Duty Free Ports of House 'Bacco, it's location is largely considered a vast neutral meeting ground for it is the place with the best waves in all the world. Surfers travel from far and wide to ride the perfect swells, and the fractious lesser houses have actively gone to war with shipping companies that have attempted to cut off a few hours or days of passage by cutting through these near sacred waters instead of going around them. Only the life-guards, drawn from disinherited or simply surplus-to requirement sons and daughters of the lesser houses operate sea going vessels in this place.
• Raveholt: A party town on the opposite side of the same island that hosts Rolling Waves, which happens to be one of the primary producers of recreational drugs in the Duty Free Ports. Raveholt began as a place for ravers and music lovers from across the isles to congregate, and as a gateway for passengers and shipping to the island that wouldn't interfere with Rolling Waves. Today it is actually most famous for the vastly built up cave system under it, where one of the major 'Bacconian datacenters lies. The cyberdriders and undercity elves are significantly friendlier in this town and more accessible than in other parts of the new world, and the greater house that rules of the island has extended it's aegis directly to them, making their datacenter one of the few that can be safely visited by surface worlders provided that they keep the peace (if not the decibel levels down).

People of the Duty Free Ports

The people of the Duty Free Ports are many and varied, drawn as they are from all parts of the world.

• Sir Dominic Cassian Godfrey
• Sir Dusk Sweetie Trunks Rake of Nails XIII of House Tabasking
• Kai Brentsworth

Events of the Duty Free Ports

The history of the Duty Free Ports is replete with acts both daring and foul, and their entire life moves to the beat of the extremes of the seasons so far north.

• Spring: The Duty Free Ports begin their calendar in the Spring, with the melting of the frosts (only seen in 'Bacco and Nazzdack) and first planting among the heavy storms and growing lengths of days. Under the cover of storms, maintenance is done on equipment, repairs are made to weapons, and all is made ready to hit the ground running when the worst of the storms break and they can begin their harvests and work once more. The Winter Court uses this time to hand the internal governance back to the Summer Court. The Undercity Elves retreat back to their tunnels, and mix with their surface cousins in them to weather the storms once more, before retreating deeper, back to their network hubs and the grand datacenters where they make their homes.
• Summer: Stormy spring bleeds into balmy summer, when contests are waged, and wars fought openly between the houses. Honorable duels become the mainstay. The Summer Court presides over these wars, seeing to it that they are fought honorably and well. This is a time of upfront confrontation, surfing, long days and short nights, of public trysts and love and the open consumption of every kind of vice in the party towns, and long, hard hours on the battlefield and fief fields. Multiple harvests are collected throughout this season. Jerboans venture in their nomadic bands from the continent, trading bikes and buggies for jet skis and speedboats, plying their trade and getting into fights.
• Autumn: The first hurricane announces the beginning of the final, frantic harvests, which are often the largest ones. The Summer Court begins the process of handing over power to the Winter Court, and the houses of 'Bacco, driven to ground by the hurricanes and the transitioning of arbiters, find that time grows short to settle their grudges. Assassination and other dishonorable tactics become the norm in Autumn, and all attempt to bring things to a satisfactory end for their house that year before the winter sets in and their efforts turn to shoring up their gains or repairing their losses. Once again, people take shelter in their hardy homes and behind water proofed and sealed doors in the caverns and tunnels below, intermingling with their undercity elven fellows preparing to come up and play in the long nights. Competitions between the two sides in various contests, both physical and digital, become common, a way to celebrate and codify the swapping of power during the tumultuous hurricane season.
• Winter: The Dark Months and the end of the year are ruled by the Court of Winter, the network administrators and digital overlords of the mysterious (to the 'Bacconians) digital realms. No lord wishes to be brought before Lady Maeve II and her court, to partake in strange battles in the digital realms through sense tanks, where the burning shame of a loss cannot be salved even by the bitter drink of death. This is the time when the Undercity Elves come out from the underground, and the beach parties, vibrant colors of contestants, and jangle of rock music are replaced with raves, muted colors and lace of goths, and the beat and thump of techno. Martial combat is replaced with digital trials, and interactive and passive stories of legends and adventures. The noble lords superstitiously avoid the attentions of the Lady Regent, not daring to draw her ire, and instead focus on shoring up their own gains from the previous year. Parties and balls are hosted in the winter, where courtly rules and dances and intricate sexual orgies are engaged in as methods of showing off instead of martial prowess.
• The Mask~Corrida: When the rich but illiterate Duke Jing misspelled his invitations to his masquerade ball as a Maskcorrida what was to be the highlight of the evening turned to chaos as guests brough various mutant bulls, minotaurs, badass splicers, and Beastmen onto the dancefloor to battle. Luckily just as many toreadors were there using their swords and various other tools to subdue the beasts. While there were a few maimed and a large amount of property damage the party became a hit with the more violence focused nobility as Maskcorrida's became all the height of fashion for a few years. Today the fad has mostly died down save for the current Duke Jing who carries on the family legacy by regularly hosting an annually MaskCorrida as the premier social event for matador's looking to challenge themselves

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