Pelervar/Blacktide Haven

Blacktide Haven

Tier	Free Port · Privateer Haven
Region	Free Cities
Government	Elected mayor under charter; limited council rights
Seat of power	The Salt Hall
Population	Mostly human; sailors, privateers, smugglers, exiles
On	Western shore of the Zahari Passage

Blacktide Haven is a hard-edged town built around a narrow deepwater harbour on the western shore of the Zahari Passage, ringed by marshland and weathered by storms. It is a Free Port with limited council rights — largely self-governing under its port charter, but dependent on Ardaene and the Council for legal recognition, especially in matters of privateering, prize law, and disputed captures.

The Mayor of Blacktide Haven is elected by registered citizens, shipowners, and chartered captains, then confirmed under charter law, and governs from the Salt Hall, a fortified town hall over the harbour and the prize courts. Privateer charters are issued locally but are only fully valid once countersigned at Ardaene or by the Council.

Blacktide Haven is tolerated because it is useful: it keeps trade moving, repairs ships cheaply, and looses its privateers on the enemies of the Free Cities. Its people are fiercely independent — loyal while coin flows and charters are honoured, quick to turn hostile when outsiders threaten their harbour rights. But the line between a privateer and a pirate is thin here, and thinner than the charters admit.