Bayport Geography

The city of Bayport is a seaport, located between the mouths of two rivers, the Willow and the Barnet. The Willow flows down from hills in the north, the Barnet from the south - the area between the hills is a large low floodplain. The Willow river drops abruptly from the hills, which are higher and harder in the north. The break with the plains is sharp, marked by cliffs and waterfalls, and the highlands are rough and wild, heavily wooded and dangerous. The southern side of the plain rises more gradually to the hills, which are marked by a line of chalk downs. These too rise steeply, especially where they abut the ocean - straight cliffs rise from much of the southern coast. Inland, they are less dramatic, with the alluvial plains rising to meet the higher land.

The flood plain is just that - low and wet, fertile and green, criss-crossed by many small rivers. This is particularly marked to the south, where the web of waterways converge near the Barnet river. The plains stretch for many miles east of the city (and the bay that gives it its name), slowly rising to the east, though largely a mix of ridges (sometimes rocky), and lowlands,some quite marshy, for a long distance inland. It is good land, though, a mixture of forest and farmland, interspersed with lakes and rivers and streams. 30-40 miles inland, the plains merge into the range of hills north and east of the bay, forming a saddle between higher ground north and south.

People have lived here since time immemorial. There was a ridge near the mouth of the Barnet river, and that is where people settled, on this higher ground, above the river mouth, tide flats,and small anchorages. A handful of other small settlements appeared in the area, mostly further inland where there was some dry ground, but none of them grew beyond small farming hamlets for a very long time. But people did move into this area - migrants from further east, occasional adventurers, looking for land to claim for their own. Slowly the farming villages grew, and as they did, they interacted with one another, and goods began moving up and down the rivers,and that is what made Bayport important. Local trade developed; then trade with towns and settlements on the Bay and Sea - Bayport was at the mouth of the rivers,and Bayport was the best harbor on the open water. Time passed; outside influences formed the area - southern invasions, Viking raids, orc raids from the hills, the development of countries, like Lenay; Bayport became a significant town and seaport.

It led to major changes in the land. The land near Bayport was mostly wetland - but as the town grew, farmers began to drain the wetlands, building dikes and canals, and reclaiming the land for farming. In time, this reached the town, as well. By the end of the 1300s, there were significant drainage systems in the hinterlands; the town began working on similar same projects. They built dikes around the tidal flats and along the edge of the Barnet river, they dredged the anchorages, they started filling in the old flats, to create stable land for building. They built a series of canals to drain and protect the dry land. They dug underground tunnels and canals to drain the higher ground, preventing erosion, and moving both fresh and dirty water in and out of the city. They built windmills to operate pumps to move water in and out of the town. By the time they were done, they had turned the last couple miles of the Barnet river into completely man-made canals, they had created large areas of landfill, mostly in the south, where the town could expand, they built large ports, they built a massive shipyard, and they surrounded the city with canals in the place of walls, for defense. Much of this as built to support the first major international sea-going boom in the late 15th century; it laid the ground work for the explosion of traffic in the early 17th.

By the mid 1500s, the city had taken on its current (1610s) form. To the west is Horseshoe bay - chalk cliffs to the south, granite hills to the north, and beach, marsh and farmland - and the city - between. The city is bounded north and south by large canals and fortresses. Between, the western edge is almost all port - docks and slips for ships on the water; a strong dike protecting the city (which is very low on the waterfront), with warehouses and all the usual waterfront buildings on land. The old part of town rises on a hill, half a mile or so inland, separated from the waterfront district by the Magnus Canal. The ridge rises quickly, a steep bluff a few yards inland from the canal, the hill rising less abruptly beyond that. A series of streets run lengthwise (north/south) on this hill, and others go up the hill east/west - most of these start at the top of the bluff, though; on;y a couple come down to the canal. North of the ridge,the land drops gradually to the northern canals - a lot of this land is open, used for pastures, with lines of windmills built in exposed areas. South of the hill, there is another large canal, the Grand Canal. South of the Grand Canal, almost all the town is built on landfill, with many canals interspersed throughout the city. Finally,south of the city, beyond the southern canal, the land starts to rise - to farmland southeast of the town, and to steep chalk cliffs southwest, along the shore.