Kalistan

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Spotlight on: Port Swedes
Northern Port is Home to Grit-Alternative and the 4th Regular Fleet
Port Swedes, Duchy of Vrassa
April 15, 5630


Port Swedes sits at the Southern most branch of the Jah River Delta in northern Vrassa

Port Swedes is an interesting town.  While most of the Empire boasts major cosmopolitan cities like Kaliburg and Sulari, Port Swedes stands on its own as a dominant working class city.  Most of the people who live and work in Port Swedes hold jobs at the Port Swedes Naval Logistics Center, which is the largest Naval port on the Kalistani Mainland, and is home to the 4th Regular Fleet.  The close second is Port Swedes itself, which acts as a hub between maritime and rail commerce of goods.  Between both of these installations, more than 45% of the town's working age population is employed, with the remainder involved in service work that provides for the workers and their families of the NLS and Port Swedes.  

Throughout the centuries, the town has maintained its character as a solid working class city.  It is not necessarily that the Port Swedes would not like to attract more money to the town, but of all the places in Kalistan that are considered "pleasant" to live in, Port Swedes is consistently at the bottom of the list.  A lot of this is due to the weather:  It is almost always cloudy, and frequently rainy in Port Swedes given the on shore strong ocean currents that sweep storms and precipitation in from the North East.  There is about 165 days in a given year where precipitation is measured, and 2/3rds of the year the sky is overcast.  It can rain at any time of year, though most precipitation comes between October and April, and most of the days of less than overcast skies happen in May through September.  Given the hard scrabble working class character of the town's inhabitants, the weather, and the functional purpose of the town, cost of living is low, but so are home values, and there is little private investment in the city, beyond the commercial services and the installations found there.

But:  That said, the people of Port Swedes are proud of their city, and we also feel it is time to Spotlight Port Swedes.

History
The town of Port Swedes is almost as ancient as Kalistan itself.  In Prehistoric times, the kings of an ancient Federation called "The Vrassan States" which controlled much of modern day Vrassa and parts of Andalay in Lodamun, used the area around Port Swedes as one of their primary commerce depots, primarily with other Northern Seleyan ports, as well as ports in Keris and Artania.  Following Ananatan conquest of the Vrassan States and the consolidation of the Anantan Empire in the early middle ages, Port Swedes remained a vital sea port for the mainland, though it eventually became eclipsed by Eshar in northern Odufaray, especially as trade with Ananto became more important.  From then until right around 4000 CE, Port Swedes served primarily as a local and regional trading port, but mostly served to as a port of entry for Kerisian shipping.

The Port got a major boost as infrastructure improved between Kalistan and Lodamun.  Following the designation of Port Swedes as a distribution point for KALNAPECO and the subsequent building of the Port Swedes Naval Logistics Center, Port Swedes became a major refueling spot for the Kalistani Regular Navy.  As the nation became concerned about maintaining high readiness along the northern Limit of the Ananto Strait, Port Swedes was further elevated to a naval base, and became home initially to the Kalistani Second Navy.  Meanwhile, Port Swedes also had a cultural renaissance of a sort, as Alt-Folk and Grit found not only a home, but major talent in Port Swedes, before much of the scene fell victim to a heroin epidemic, and musical attention began shifting elsewhere.  Since then Port Swedes has continued to focus on its strengths, which deal primarily with Naval refitting and servicing, serving as the main northern Port in Mainland Kalistan for both overland and maritime trade, and acting as the new home of the Kalistani 4th Navy which patrols north of Lodamun.

Climate
Port Swedes isn't what one would call "a vacation destination."  While it does receive a significantly higher amount of precipitation than even Kaliburg or Dulnerstaad, it also has fairly cool temperatures, but never gets cold.  A lot of this is the influence of the Northern Seleyan Cold Current that sweeps down along the east coast of Keris and slams into the Seleyan Continent just north of Port Swedes.  With it comes tons of precipitation.  It can rain every single day in Port Swedes, with the average annual rain being about 56 inches.  The amount of rain that falls in the area tends to make this corner of Vrassa Duchy quite soggy, and is actually responsible for the creation of the Jah River Delta, which is one of the main geographical features of the area.  As the Jah is constantly replenished by both rainfall and snow melt from the higher peaks of Vrassa, its arrival in the Jah Lowlands, which are relatively flat and low, causes it to move and create channel after channel each year.  Port Swedes sits across from the south Arm of that delta on bedrock, which the water rarely affects, thus protecting the port from flooding as well as erosion.  Addisjah, which sits at the head of the delta, also has that same effect, but the rivers themselves are not only very vibrant, but also teeming with life.

The deep estuaries created in the area by centuries of carving of the river into the solid bedrock near Port Swedes, along with the temperate, moderate maritime climate, create great opportunities for fishing, and Kalistan's fishing industry is centered in Port Swedes.  Snow in Port Swedes is rare, as the temperature rarely drops below 50 in the dead of winter.  But it also ensures that the temperature never gets too far above 65 in the Summer.  The record high temperature in Port Swedes was 81 degrees and that record was set 354 years ago.  Most days there is sky cover, and the sky is so very rarely clear that many people will take vacations in Sulari just to see the sun.


Naval Engineers at the Port Swedes Naval Logistics Center inspect the screws of a ship in dry dock

Economy
The Port Swedes economy  is fixated on the Sea.  The Northern Limit of the Ananto Strait starts at Port Swedes.  There are several main industries in Port Swedes, and the largest employers in the town all work with maritime related industries.  The Port Swedes Naval Logistics Center is the largest employer in the town.  It employs roughly 1 in 3 workers to service ships, restock and refuel, and maintain the port facility.  The Coast Guard which is based at the NLC acts as a local auxiliary on the high seas, to help fishermen and women who are in trouble, to ensure that traffic makes it into port without much trouble, and to make sure that the Port stays humming and the life blood of the Northern Economy keeps humming.

The Port Swedes Authority is another large employer, as they employ the Longshoremen and manage port traffic.  Hundreds of tons of shipping comes in and goes out of Port Swedes every day, and all of that requires the employment of thousands of workers to load and unload cargo ships, move cargo to waiting cargo trains for transport inland, and maintain the facilities.  Almost 1 in 5, including all of the town's fishing industry, operates out of Port Swedes.

Other types of services include all of those you will see in most major cities, though these services cater to the men and women who work in the first two areas.  Restaurants, bars, brothels, entertainment, including music clubs, which proliferate in the home of Grit, and grocery stores fairly cover the landscape of the town's commercial center.  ODEN maintains a warehouse here, which is the northern warehouse for the Mainland.  Plus there are roofers, plumbers, HVAC firms, law firms, etc etc.  Essentially, if you can find it in a town larger than 1000 people, it can be found in Port Swedes.  None of the professions here, however, tend to be considered upper class, and nearly everyone in Port Swedes is considered working class.  Consequently, the houses themselves tend to be single story bungalows that house single families, and closer to the port, large apartment building, and multi family dwellings, designed for people who don't spend a lot of time at home when they don't have to.


Grit musicians still play live all over the city, including historic Venues like the Swedeport Ballroom

Culture
In a word, the culture of Port Swedes is gritty.  The word is apropos, given the hard working class lifestyle of most of the residents, the constant rain, and the location on the frontier of Vrassa.  But that culture is also reflected in the town's music.  At one point, Grit was a national genre, but it has since been reduced to holding on more or less in Port Swedes alone.  The song lyrics are definitely not poppy.  The genre is a mixture between the alt-folk of Vrassa, the metal of the Capital, and the punk rock attitude of Suldanor.  There is common cause between the grit scene in Port Swedes and the hip hop scene of Addisjah, as bands that are from these cities frequently open for one another, and often appear on each other's music.

But, just because the Empire has more or less passed this area by musically, that doesn't mean that bands do not take a lot of pride in where they are from and what kind of music they play.  Often, the grit musicians from Port Swedes will call the City "Swedeport" which is considered to be the local name for the town, used primarily by people who are from there, and people will brag about Swedeport, and the authentic music it makes.  But there is also still a problem with drug use in the scene, and one of the reasons the nation moved on is because many of the members of the original grit music movement died from heroin overdose.  But Port Swedes continues to churn out excellent music, and have, for the most part kept their scene insular and independent, rejecting most major label offers to record their music.  And most Grit Clubs unironically have a picture of Alt-Pop Musician Jennifer Stepanov in their club:  Unofficially she is viewed as the patron saint of the uncompromising musician, who died rather than giving her music to some corporation to exploit, and Port Swedes have adopted her as their own, though she was from Ananto.


Marina at Swedepoint, Port Swedes, caters to sailors, pleasure cruises and fishing expeditions

The Naval Logistics Station
Around the year 4000, KALNAPECO decided to expand its operations in Port Swedes and began expanding the ancient and neglected port  to allow for refueling of Kalistan's expanding navy.  This led to the founding of a permanent naval base in Port Swedes several decades later.  The Port Swedes Naval Logistics Center was not originally meant to serve as a home port for a fleet, but merely the equivalent of a gas station.  But as the mission of the Regular Navy increased going into the 5th Millennium, the Regular Fleet got permission to build naval berths and dry dock facilities at the port to facilitate repairs, refitting and eventually basing.  

Now, the NLS is both home to the Kalistani 4th Regular Fleet, which is Kalistan's premier frontline fleet, as well as a spot for visiting fleets.  Daily, logistics ships embark from the Port carrying supplies to the 4th Fleet during exercises and deployment.  Much of this went overland while the 4th Fleet was stationed at New Port Lodamun, but since the end of the war, the Port has a renewed mission to keep the 4th Fleet supplied.  While the fleet is at sea, the Port can host visiting navies as well, one of which recently added to the Port's civic culture.  For several decades, the fleet of the Kingdom of Vanuku was stationed in Port Swedes.  The people of the town got to know the foreign sailors well, and more or less catered to their tastes in an effort to show hospitailty.  They even established an annual tradition which continues to this day:  the running of the Horses, which includes a foot race between the citizens of the town and dozens of horses that otherwise spend their days grazing on ranches in the Jah Lowlands.  Included in the annual celebration is the Parade, which includes a riderless horse that symbolizes the lost Emperor Bunje of Vrnuke.  Though he has been dead for a very long time, the citizens still recount the legend of the Emperor during the parade.

The town also hosts a world marina, which is the one tourist draw, as both residents and visitors can charter a boat to go deep sea fishing in the Ananto Strait.  Interestingly enough, the marina now sits at Swedepoint, where the original, ancient port facilities were located, and ruins of which can still be seen in the deeps on a clear day from inside the marina.  This was converted to a private marina for sail and motor boats when KALNAPECO established the Naval Logistics Center.  The main jetty shares the foundations of the ancient port.

Conclusions
Port Swedes is not the prettiest Kalistani Cities, but it is one of the most vitally important in the entire Empire. It is the main Northern Port of entry for Kerisian shipping as well as overland commerce to and from Lodamun and Western Seleya. It is the home of Kalistani Coffee Culture, and the Alt-Folk subgenre known as Grit. It is a main fishing town, which supplies fresh and frozen fish to much of Northern Kalistan and Ananto. It is a solid stable and vibrant working class city on the northern Point of Kalistan Proper, and as such should be appreciated for the important town it is.

@LaModa