Ilizmagorti

Ilizmagorti is the 'capital' i.e. only large human settlement of Mediogalti Island. It was founded over three thousand years ago as a pirate anchorage and has gradually increased in size to a city of some 10,500 inhabitants. The settlement is the home of pirates, cutthroats and assassins, the Red Mantis having had their secret base on the island for two thousand years.

Every business on the island is effectively 'owned' by the Red Mantis. If the proprietor is not actually a member of the organisation they will be paying protection money to it. Further visitors to the city have to be careful how they treat the permanent residents; every beggar on the street corner, every barmaid and every shop assistant could be an assassin in disguise. As a result crime has a very peculiar profile in the city, with visitor on visitor robbery or even murder being tolerated and often ignored by the crimson-armoured Blood Watch who are charged with keeping the peace but even minor assaults on the permanent citizens being swiftly and possibly fatally dealt with.

Guilds and other organisations that would possibly threaten the Red Mantis hold on the city are not tolerated although they have allowed a few to exist for practical purposes. These are the Sailmakers'. Ropers,' Carpenters' and Bargemen's Guilds. The pirate lords themselves would love to take control of the city and have been talking about it for years but they know in their hearts that the content of their 'secret' meetings are somehow being monitored by the Red Mantis and any move on their part would probably swiftly result in a few high profile assassinations.

Entertainments to suit all tastes are freely available in the city but probably the most popular place to go for excitement is the Blood Circus where chariot racing and gladitorial contests take place. A hugely popular highlight of many a show is to pit a captured dinosaur against a group of 'volunteers'. Sometimes large cash prizes are offered and the volunteers are genuine. For the more refined concerts and plays are performed at the Nymphaleum, an open air amphitheatre on the Three Sisters. Of course every tavern and inn will compete for business with smaller staged events from the singing of popular bards to staged fights in the inn backyard.

Despite having no political rivals on the island the city is still in danger of attack from its numerous reptilian inhabitants from Lizardfolk and Kobold tribes to large dinosauurs. The city's walls are sturdy though and it is the outlying farmsteads and extended urban sprawl outside the walls which bear the brunt of such attacks. The Blood Watch deigns to operate only inside the walls so the Mayor (a mysterious shapeshifting individual) generally hires mercenaries to deal with such threats.