Nadzieja, the city of life and hope

The endlessly floating city’s title is well deserved. It rides just out of reach of human civilization, almost impossible to find on purpose. Most wind up on this self-sustaining city after being found floating adrift, or fleeing humanity on boat.

At the center of Nadzieja are two of the largest human frigates built, hijacked and stolen by those wishing to escape their menacing grasp. Over time, they’ve re-engineered the hull of the ships, converting the lower decks into a marketplace, the upper decks, into living quarters.

The two were grafted together, needing the engine power to be able to carry out their plans. Ships then had the capability to dock onto these, anchoring themselves to them. The settlement grew, as more and more ships were docked or permanently integrated into the city.

Years went by, the ship ever-expanding. With it becoming increasingly more difficult to control their own direction, and now at a size impossible to dock anywhere else, they implemented a tracking system. A magical object built into the city that transmits their location to a sister-object. This counterpart resides in another non-human settlement, one that houses large airports, to allow trade with the floating mass of boats. Catastrophe hit, a radical faction of non-humans grew in secret, rising up one day to form a mutiny.

They planted explosives at the joints between the two frigates. ripping Nadzieja apart, splitting down the center. The two mutilated halves drifted away from each other, stranding many on the wrong side. Mass confusion and panic ensued, the radicals all amassed on one half of Nadzieja, executing all who refused to join their cause. The streets were covered in bones, the hull, plastered in blood.

This split was cataclysmic to the residents of the once proud city Nadzieja.

The radicals now known as Dread Pirates have rechristened their city Morte-laev; the ship of death.

Those left drifting on the second half of Nadzieja kept the name, and rebuilt. Currently, the ship-city doesn’t live up to its former glory but it certainly still is a beacon of hope for all those who sail the seas. It’s rumored that if you see decaying corpses riding atop driftwood, that the Dread-pirate city of Morte-laev lurks nearby; a well known omen for all sailors, both human and not.