Located at the eastern extreme of the Drosselspule Bay, Nordland, in truth Norden is secretly being developed as base of operations for exploration and conquest of Lustria. It is also used in transporting prisoners to Leopoldheim in the Southlands.[1a]
History[]
During the Age of Wars, Norse settlers founded a village they called Norden. The colonists adjusted to life in the south and became integrated into Imperial culture, trading goods from the sea with travellers on the Middenheim-Erengrad road.[3a]
Norden is now a middling town surrounded by mud flats, dunes, and quicksand, with a complex tracery of channels winding between shifting sandbanks and gravel shoals. Many years ago the port silted up and since then only shallow-drafted vessels can make landfall in Norden — and even then they require an experienced pilot or excellent charts to guide them into harbour. Commerce was reduced to fish, small cargoes, and a limited trade in amber, which is cast up by the sea onto beaches close to the town.[3a]
Several months ago, Norden changed. Strangers are turned back at sea by a squadron of Wargalleys patrolling the waters near the town. State troops guard the roads and direct merchants to a new trading post in nearby Salzmorast. Those who do get into town find the place relatively innocuous, but they can’t reach the old port and feel watched — every beggar, shopkeeper, and urchin seems unreasonably interested in their presence.[3a]
Norden has a secret. While the eyes of foreign powers are on Dietershafen and the shipbuilders expanding the Second Fleet, the powers-that-be are quietly building a new deep-water harbour at Norden. Hidden behind the maze of sandbanks, new channels to the sea are being dredged while the old port is refitted for Greatships and other vessels suited to crossing the Great Ocean. This is a clandestine attempt to build a new base from which the Empire can seize the riches of Lustria and the Southlands, circumventing the dominance of Marienburg over other maritime nations.[3a]
Parties working for Gausser, Altdorf, or the Navy can enter the town with a letter of introduction. By sea, they need to anchor some distance offshore and take smaller boats into port. Those without permission need to travel on foot and keep their wits about them, for while they aren’t expressly forbidden from exploring Norden, they will be under surveillance and encouraged to leave by most townsfolk.[3a]
Overview[]
Coat of Arms of Norden
Norden has an advantage over other ports, in that it’s located close to the Middenheim-Erengrad road, a major thoroughfare for trade and other travel. Until recently, it was an open town where merchants from Middenheim, Nordland, and western Ostland traded goods with ports around the Sea of Claws using large flat vessels suited to the shallow sandy channels around Norden. But the town is no longer open to outsiders. Carts and wagons are turned away several miles from Norden by halberdiers from the State Army. A trading post at the Manann’s Crown coaching inn in Salzmorast allows merchants to trade without getting close to the town.[2a]
When Gausser, Köhler, and the Emperor agreed to expand the Second Fleet, they realised that Dietershafen was well-known to Marienburg and other powers. Everything happening there would be seen by potential enemies. But Norden was overlooked — the port silted up centuries ago, so the channels are only deep enough for ships with very shallow drafts. This was fine for trade but not war or ocean exploration. With the blessing of Gausser, High Chancellor HolswigSchliestein recruited the aid of Baron Ottmar von Neurath as liege lord of Norden. This wasn’t difficult — von Neurath lives in his Altdorf residence and has avoided Norden for most of his life. Nordland put a cordon around the town and set about establishing a new deep-water port, far enough inland to keep the work away from seaborne spies.[2a]
A continuous patrol of Wargalleys in the surrounding waters deters prying eyes from getting too close. The channels are being dredged and new docks built on the east of the town wall. Von Neurath’s ancestral home has been repurposed for naval invention. A host of Imperial engineers now live onsite, developing bizarre weapons and vessels — heavily-armoured ships using new alloys, swivel guns with rifled barrels, and submarines. The latter are being developed with stolen Dwarf technology and the assistance of Herr Wolfgang Kugelschreiber of Nuln, who has been coerced into working for the Navy.[2a]
Geography[]
Schloss Neurath[]
The former seat of the Neurath family is a small castle just to the east of the town, situated in extensive grounds at the sea’s edge. The absentee noble family have turned it over to naval research under the auspices of Admiral Luther Hakluyt, who wants to bring the Empire’s navy kicking and screaming into the 26th century. A small cadre of Imperial engineers are billeted here, with access to workshops and labourers to help them develop new technologies for exploration and naval combat.[3b]
Herr Wolfgang Kugelschreiber of Nuln has been coerced into developing submersible vessels using stolen Dwarf technology. The alchemist Sigismund the Mad is also here, trying to top the Hellhammer for insane innovation. Other projects include new alloys for armouring ships, improved swivel guns, and strange blends of tar which confuse the eye when painted onto a hull. The work here is not shared with the First Fleet command.[3b]
Sleeper’s Mount[]
Half a mile north of Norden is a rounded stone outcrop projecting from the sea. Hundreds of seabirds nest on its weathered face, and its surface is spattered with guano and the remains of gutted fish. Razorbills nest here, so approaching too close is dangerous. Mermaids have been seen swimming around the rock. There is a tale of Manann fighting a sea daemon called Bloodwrack which he chained in a hollow under the rock. Should anyone land on Sleeper’s Mount, the legend claims they will be spirited inside to join a regiment of sleeping knights, who slumber around the trapped daemon, ready to restrain it should it escape its chains.[3b]