The Moorage Council

Vargas is run by a Moorage Council whose members are a number of pirate captains and ninja clan leaders who have taken over and act as sort of magistrates running things.

A ship coming into Vargas docks at a pier that it is already assigned. Newcomers are not welcome and may not moor — of course, they can anchor outside the bay and row in to see if a Moorage Council member can be appealed to for sponsorship, but there are no guarantees. Vargas is a city that jealously guards its privileges

There are a dozen or so Moorage Council members, each of whom serves for life (or until other duties call them away, for both pirate captains and ninja masters often have better things to do). Each Council member is allotted a certain number of piers (5 or 6, generally), and they are welcome to sponsor as many captains as they like. Of course, too many sponsored ships may overload the available piers, making the Council look foolish and lose business, so it’s a balancing act.

The Council Members are:

• Master Hisakino
• Master Nobukata
• Grand Master Ying
• Master Takamitsu no-Koregata
• Grand Master Shiro
• Grand Master Butterfly
• Captain Lucian
• Captain Rijanamanya
• Captain Hubert “Red-Eyes” Maxon
• Captain Jame Kibben
• Captain Plum Blossom
• Captain Zhang

These folks work together (and stab each other in the back) to keep the huge money-making machine that is Vargas running smoothly. The position is no sinecure, and a number of former Moorage Council members have been found floating in the harbour when they lost the support of their peers.