Bingsville, Lightpoint & The Bay of Blades

The sand here was warm and soft, not like the thick brown mud of home. Ser Hal walked the beach towards the high cobblestone wall, the gaudy banners of House Bing fluttering gently in the warm wind as he made his way across the sand. Ahead, palm trees bordered the crooked gatehouse - rowing boats at their feet and a pair of gibbet irons affixed to the wall beside them. In the right iron, a brightly coloured bird picked ribbons of scarlett meat from a withered corpse's forehead whilst the left held a naked thief whose eyes flittered with the final hours of life. Ser Hal raised his sunkissed face to gaze at the cages in disgust, the shrivelled forms of their occupants made for macabre decoration and smell of their decomposition danced a deathly waltz with the scent of Agaarian spices and the urine of sailors and drunks.

The Bay of Blades is a small bay along the Sand Coast, a divot in the warmest coastline that lies at the foot of Smuggler's Cape. The bay is home to two major settlements: the largest being the trade port and mercenary city of Bingsville, and the smaller of the two being the town and great beacon tower of Lightpoint. The climate here is the warmest in the nation, attracting overland winds from Agaar and not yet tarnished by the harsh northern winds that litter the stone coast with terrible storms. The sands are white and soft, the waters blue and clear, and the air warm and humid enough to support the growth of important palm trees and other Agaarian flora traded in the Bay of Blades for iron, food or soldiers. Additionally, traders from Shehir's south coast will trade here to avoid the dragons that occupy The Steps and the expensive taxes put in place by the lords of Freystorm Bay - foreign traders bringing with them exotic birds and creatures to be sold in Southshire for the purpose of becoming great nobles' pets or hunting prizes. The presence of foreign traders in the Bay of Blades has gained it the nickname "The Bay of a Thousand Banners", and it is said that, on the busiest trading days, ships of a dozen different styles and ports of origin can be seen docked beside each other. To the left of the bay sits Bingsville, the larger of the two settlements. The town itself is positioned on a slow incline from the beach to a higher hill and coastal cliff, with a gatehouse facing out onto the sandy beaches and a walled "Old Town" resting halfway up the hill. A second gatehouse, known as "Land Gate", rests on the northern side of the Old Town, leading inland on the road towards Hearthtown, Crystar and Mossshield, and eventually on to major settlements like The Skyhold and Stormberg. Facing the beach, the Old Town's "Crooked Gate" leads onto the sandy landing and stone docks. The Crooked Gate, as well as the Old Town's exterior, sea-facing wall, are lined with Gibbet Irons that hold thieves, pirates and other criminals sentenced to death - a practice rare outside of the Bay of Blades for its brutality. The walls are patrolled by watchmen in split gambesons, one half undyed with painted green diamonds and the other blue, with red diamonds, carrying crossbows or messer blades and diamond-shaped shields painted with golden cockerels. Bingsville is harsh on thieves and beggars, with it being the words of Lady Acelina that "A Ship with a Leak must be patched or scuttled, a Market with cutpurses and beggars must be managed or destroyed". Amidst the Old Town's walls are four turrets and three cylindrical towers with parapets, the tops of which are all but one purposed as lookout points for guards. The sole parapet closest to the main keep is repurposed as a rooftop garden, one that overlooks the coastline and is kept private to the family and friends of House Bing. Within the walls, the old town consists largely of narrow stone houses with tiled roofs - the streets being largely characterised by their sloping cobblestone roads and street corner shrines to the Gods of the Cornayan Pantheon. The main keep rests at the highest point of the Old Town and is quite small by comparison to other southshire keeps, though it styles itself more as a coastal manor than a true keep. Outside the Old Town's walls, wooden houses with straw roofs make up the "New Town" that snakes its way around the northwestern side of the town. Lady Acelina is the current head of House Bing, the lords of Bingsville. Her position grants her the income from taxed vessels arriving on the sandy landing, most of which is reimbursed into the upkeep and wages of her mercenary company "The Gold Feathers". The Gold Feathers are regarded as one of the premier mercenary companies on Cornayan soil and amongst the best in the world, if only beaten by the Jade Company of Agaar and the Bronze Spears of Shehir. Many Cornayan wars have been won by the influence of the Gold Feathers, with the infamous "Bingsville Boys" serving as their elite saboteurs and diversionists - who are responsible for a great number of siege victories and kidnappings across their careers. Across the Bay, Lightpoint and its beacon tower guide the passing trading ships to safety. The town of Lightpoint, ruled over by the ancient house of Forelight, is nearly identical to the layout of Bingsville if only mirrored and lacking the stone docks and outer New Town. Its walls, like Bingsville, are cobbled, though they lack the presence of gibbet irons and rotting corpses, and feature the same number of towers and turrets. The only major difference, besides the banners that fly a field of red with three burning yellow stars, is the great beacon connected to the furthest sea-facing wall atop the Bay's highest point. The beacon, supposedly built by the first Lady of Forelight after making a deal with the ancient gods of pre-Cornayan times to call down a star from the night sky to guide her lost sons home from their naval journey. Once the sons had returned, the star returned to the sky, though the idea remained, leading Lady Tanwen Forelight to construct the great beacon in the star's place so no ship would ever get lost again. Today, the town of Lightpoint makes much of its trade in whaling - its meagre wooden dock holds only its whaling ships that sail west up the coastline to hunt for meat and oil and fat to be used as fuel sources. Additionally, the rights to fish in the silty waters along the Bay's coastline are exclusively granted to the noble Forelights - meaning the nation's supply of dolphin, porpoise and lamprey comes largely from the lands of the Forelight family. Though the Bay of Blades is small, its influence on the trade and mercenary practices of Cornay is undoubtedly large, from the skilled messers of the company of the Gold Feathers to the feasts supplied exclusively by the whalers and fishermen flying the red and yellow flag of House Forelight. Without this seemingly brutal and rugged pair of settlements, the Sand Coast's influence over Cornayan Politics would be much, much smaller.