The streets of the Imperial penal colony of Leopoldheim in the Southlands.
Situated on the western coast of the Southlands is the Imperial penal colony of Leopoldheim. Twice yearly, a new shipload of the Empire's most hardened criminals sets off for the steaming jungle colony.[1a] Many coming from the city of Norden.[2a]
Convicts are branded with the letter "L" and the year of their incarceration, and may not return to the Empire for the duration of their sentence. There are no prison cells or jailers in Leopoldheim. An Imperial garrison is stationed there not to keep prisoners in, but to keep the hostile natives out. If the denizens of the jungle don't finish off the prisoners, disease will, and life in the colony is a miserable existence.[1a]
History[]
In 2395 IC, a dozen carracks at the pay of Emperor Leopold set forth from Marienburg with colonists, animals, and soldiers, the banners of the House of Unfahiger streaming in the wind, to the Southlands where the party founded the town of Leopoldheim. By the end of the second year. the colony was nearly in ruin. Worse yet, Leopold heim had failed to show a profit. Disease, crop failure, and attacks by what the Arabyan traders called the al-Saurim, Lizardmen who Lived deep in the interior, had all taken their toll. Not only was the Emperor's prestige suffering, but the Marienburg bankers were beginning to make noises about the consequences of any default on the loans.[3a]
It was then that Leopold had an ingenious idea, before him was a petition from Altdorf's High Priestess of Shallya, Sister Agatha von Uberkopf, asking him to spare the lives of a score of men convicted and sentenced to die for rioting after their team had lost a local snotbalI tourney. Remembering the Lex Imperialis, he spared them from the hangman's noose and commuted their sentence to ten years of exile in Leopoldheim. Further, he suspended almost all sentences of death in Altdorf and the Reikland, decreeing that those convieted should instead be banished to the New Coast, some for a limited period and others for life. Within a year, the colony was flooded with new arrivals. Forbidden to return on pain of death, the exiles were instead forced to make new lives for themselves in the Southlands.[3a]
Many died in their harsh new home, victims of the hot and damp climate and the ravages of the epidemic diseases and fevers carried by mosquitoes and other insects. Some. however, survived and even prospered. The Lizardmen were driven off, and intrepid individuals developed mines and other sources of wealth. The colony exists to this day and banishment has remained an easy option for Altdorf magistrates inclined to mercy.[3a]
The City[]
For a prison, the New Coast colony is unusual in several ways. First and foremost, it is a prison that lacks walls and looks to the casual observer more like a bustling small town than a penal camp. Built at the mouth of a broad. slowmoving river. dubbed the Rio Raton by the Magrittan who captained the first expedition here, Leopoldheim is guarded by the keep of Schloss Klara, named for Leopold's favourite grand-daughter.[3a]
Sitting on a man-made hill overlooking the bay, the schloss's stone fortress and walls protect the only quays allowed in Leopoldheim. The Governor and his staff have absolute control over who enters and leaves through the docks. Helping prisoners to escape by smuggling them out in a ship's hold is punishable by hangling.[3a]
The town itself hugs the shore of the bay on both sides of the river's mouth with no plan to its layout: the muddy streets wind their way through ramshackle wooden hovels, the dreary scene broken occasionally by that whitewashed home of a colonist who has done well for himself. The only stone buildings in Leopoldheim aside from the fortress arc the chapels of Sigmar, Shallya and Morr. and the gatehouse that guards the one gate in the town's wooden palisade. From here a trail leads north through expanding farmlands to che savannah and thence co the Arabyan oasis of AJ Mumkil. East and south. the jungJe's verge comes to within a mile or two of Leopoldheim's walls. Though no road leads to the forest. the river itself serves as a highway for explorers searching for lost wealth or ancient secrets. The fact that few come back rarely discourages the confident, the greedy or the desperate.[3a]
Prisoners sentenced to exile in the New Coast colony are sent for a minimum of ten year. Branded on the hand 'Branded with the letter "L" and the year of sentencing, they are forbidden to return co the Old World before their time is up on pain of death. But, once their period of forced labour in one of the colony's farms or mines, or in the garrison, is at an end. the prisoners are free to do anything else. The Imperial garrison is there only to protect the castle and the town from outside attack - what the colonises do amongst themselves and how they run the town is their own business, it's not uncommon to walk through Leopoldheim in the morning and find two or three corpses, victims of "rough justice" the night before. The prisoners and their descendants have evolved their own rude government and court, basically a council of the biggest landowners, backed by their gangs of hangers on. New prisoners. who arrive on the ship that comes from Marienburg six times a year must quickly learn who's really in charge and who they have to keep happy if they want to keep their lands, claims, or even their lives.[3a]
Over eight in ten people in this colony of nearly 1,000 souls are not convicts themself but ex-convict, and their descendants who chose to stay and build a new life for themselves here, there is also a smanettering of chancers, low-life and others seeking their fortune. A unique clause of Emperor Leopold's law of exile allowed the condemned, if they wished, to bring their families with them to this new land. If they did and if they chose to stay, or if they took a spouse and started a family in the colony. then the Colonial Governor would either grant them farmland. register their claim to a mine, or enroll them in the Honourable Leopoldheim Guild of Craftsmen and Merchants. the members of which are allowed to venture as far as AJ-Mumkil to trade. The descendants of prisoners are considered free and are permitted to travel as they wish, though the dangers of the surrounding land and the exorbitant bribes that have to be paid to secure passage on a ship discourage anyone from travelling far.[3a]
So, why have the prisoners not overthrown their Imperial governors and taken the whole place for themselves? Because they need the Imperial presence, including its arquebus-armed garrison, to protect them against the dangers that infest the deeper parts of the jungle. Successive governors have managed to maintain generally peaceful relations with the Lizardmen, who only occasionally raid outside homesteads for sacrifices. In return for a quiet tribute of finished goods from the colony. the Lizardmcn also protect Leopoldhcim from Skaven attack. The colonists know that, should they oventhrow the governor and seize the fort. The al-Saurim's mysterious rulers would take advantage of this weakness and crush Leopoldheim.[3a]
Secrets[]
Bartolomeus Langer is the head of one of the oldest families in Leopoldheim, a direct descendant of one of the original settlers. He is also the most powerful man in the colony, except the Governor. Over the years he has increased his family's holdings till he owns or holds debts on most of the farms, buildings, and mines in the area. Not subtle in his ways, he has used blackmail, intimidation, and even murder to secure what he wants. While he pretends to gentility, his crude and bullying manner has scared even his wife. who is little more than an ornament to be brought out on display when he entertains. His three sons are his chief lieutenants, and they gladly lead gangs of thugs to enforce his orders. But it isn't enough to be the second biggest fish in this pond - Bartolomeus wants it all. One night, a few years ago, he was contacted by a mysterious Arabyan who promised him ruleship over the colony as a king In his own right, if Bart would just swear allegiance to the Arabyan's god. Not the god of the Arabyan people, but a dark, secrecive deity that demanded absolute loyalty In return for great power. Each mon1h for three months on the night of no moons, the stranger would come co Bart's study and make the same offer. No one else would see him come, and none would see him leave. Finally Bart agreed. At the next Hexensnacht, he was led to an ancient fane within the jungle, where he found himself surrounded by Skaven and their Grey Seer leader. His knees knocking with fear, Bart abased himself and swore allegiance to the cult of the Horned Rat.[3a]
For the last three years. Bartolomeus Langer has been the Skaven, agent within the Colony of the New Coast. Soon he had corrupted his sons and henchmen, many of whom now take part in obscene rites to worship the god of Mounts Baghrusa and Lhasa - several of the prospectors who have disappeared "upriver" have acrually met their end under a sacrificial knife in an isolated pan of the Langer Steading. Counselled patience by his master, he has smuggled Skaven miners into Leopoldheim itself, and they are slowly digging tunnels to undermine the fortress's walls. while another is being dug from the Langer holdings into the town. Soon, very soon, Bart plans to lead a swift assault with his henchmen and ratmen allies and declare his own "Kingdom of the South", the souls of the Governor and his family being the first of many offerings, of thanks, to the Horned Rat.[3a]
Trivia[]
Leopoldheim may be a reference to the Belgium-controlled corporate-state of the Congo during the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium. King Leopold was famous for being held responsible for the mass exploitation, forced labour, and atrocities committed upon the inhabitants of the Belgian Congo. It was said that about half the entire native population died at the hands of King Leopold's administration. Its infamy helped influence the writing of Joseph Conrad's famous novel Heart of Darkness.