Pitax
Long a haven for thieves and smugglers, Pitax is a hub for trade in the River Kingdoms. It aspires to be a center of culture and higher learning as well, but cannot escape its more unsavory origins. Threats and plots from other lands—as well as from within the borders of Pitax itself—have the potential to tear the small kingdom apart. Greedy adventurers eye the rich land on its northern frontier and picture themselves as rulers of their own kingdoms, collecting taxes that this kingdom so desperately needs for itself. Only the actions of Pitax’s shrewd leader, Lord Irovetti, have managed to stave off this downward spiral to ruin—at least, for the moment.
History
Pitax’s origins lie with brigands from their neighbor to the north, Brevoy, who sought sanctuary amid the forests of the River Kingdoms. The most famed of these brigands, a rogue with sorcerous powers born with the name Cesare Cattanei but better known as the Silver Fox, took to hiding his band of vicious thieves in a riverside hamlet known as Pitax. As they visited there year after year, the ill-gotten gold of the Silver Fox slowly transformed Pitax into something considerably larger than a simple, sleepy fishing village. Eventually, when the Silver Fox and his followers grew tired of their larcenous ways—and when the prices on their heads in Brevoy became too great—they settled in Pitax permanently, building walls around the village and hiring sellswords to help defend against their enemies. With this, Pitax became a permanent fixture of the River Kingdoms, able to survive and thrive for nearly 4 centuries while others around it withered and decayed.
Most of Pitax’s history has been embroiled with strife. The small kingdom constantly battles with its neighbor Mivon-City for control of the fertile territory along the border that they share. Numerian brigands regularly attack the northern reaches of Pitax, and are given covert support by the Numerian crown. Brevoy, though it has never struck at Pitax with its formidable might, always threatens to do so, forcing Pitax to keep a vigilant eye to the east. Small factions within Pitax always squabble with one another for control of the kingdom. The two largest of these factions are the Cattanei and the Liacenza families. The Liacenzas, renowned for their fruit orchards near the town of Sarain, ruled Pitax for the better part of the last century. Though the family’s rule bordered on the thuggish—their dealings with potential rivals tended to be brutal and clumsy—few people within the borders of the small kingdom complained, for they kept the orchards and the vineyards flourishing and gold coins flowing into their coffers from Brevoy and Numeria. Most importantly, they brokered the Grand Tournament of Sarain, which kept the prized vineyards near the village protected from the constant border wars with Mivon-City. Under their guidance, Pitax remained small but secure for decades.
This changed in 4702 with the arrival of a Numerian bard named Castruccio Irovetti. With a silver tongue and a sack filled with gold coins, Irovetti bought most of the trading houses in Pitax, and managed to talk his way into profitable partnerships with the rival merchants of the Liacenza family. On one fateful evening, Irovetti invited the leaders of the Liacenza name—the brothers Lothaire and Berengar, warriors renowned for their skills with the rapier—to a card game at one of his warehouses. Somehow, no one present could later recollect the events of that card game, or any part of that strange evening. However, when the sun rose the next morning, Irovetti owned a signed document legally handing over all the possessions of the Liacenza family to him, including the crown of Pitax.
Born from the blood and sweat of criminals, Pitax was initially conceived as nothing more than a den of thieves, where bandits could hide from authorities. Though this criminal haven has grown into something far greater, with much influence among the other River Kingdoms and many legitimate businesses driving its economy, its heart remains unchanged. The real goings-on in Pitax take place at night under cover of darkness, where the thieves and bandits who control both the city and the kingdom—a group including the kingdom’s leader—conduct most of their business.
Hoping to give Pitax the illusion of respectability, Irovetti formed the Academy of Grand Arts shortly after taking over, hoping to turn the small city into a bastion of fine arts and high culture. Unfortunately, this plan proved to be disastrous. Irovetti insists on carefully controlling whatever the various artists, musicians, actors, and other performers of the academy create or do. As a result, the talented sorts that Irovetti hoped to attract to the academy never come, instead leaving only those with limited talents and great delusions of grandeur to enter its gates.