Port Hope

Port Hope
Founder Bislo1
location: -190,-2550
Map of Town

This page is about the Merchant port town, called "Port Hope" formerly known as "Port Hode".

Port Hope is a coastal merchant town located -190,-2550 on Hope island. Port Hope is a town under the British Empire and will therefore only accept citizenship to Players with a legitimate British Passport. Port Hope offers shops to rent, where merchants from around the seas can buy and sell their wares. While being a trade town, crime has always been a problem for the city to cope with, therefore the KOS^{(kill on sight)} wanted board was set up in Nov. 2014, to bring criminals to justice. To aid in the hunt of criminals, the order of the protectors were established Dec. 2014 and has since then been fighting the criminals who threatens peace in Port Hope. In Oct. 2014, Port Hope won the BOTM^{(build of the month)} competition due to it's prestigious and well crafted structures.

Etymology

When the island was first sighted it was named Hode, pronounced "Hoad", and coming from the Norse word "harðr", or "hard" in English. It was named this way because of the heavy resistance of natives resisting to let go of their home, so due to the hard circumstances for the settlers, the Island was named Hode Island or "hard/rough Island" and soon after the settlement was named Hode too.

During the reformation of the settlement, transforming it into a merchant town, many native German speakers would confuse the name with the German word "testicle", therefore putting the town in a awkward situation since many travellers were from German origin. To solve the situation the town council decided to rename the town and island, all hand in hand with the swearing of fealty to the Royal British Empire. Port Hode would no longer be known as "Hode", but "Hope" instead, Hope that everyone would forget about "testicle town" and hope towards future prosperity within the British Empire.

Early history

The earliest historical records of Port hope dates back to May 2014, when the first settlers arrived on what is today called Hope Island, or Hope Point. The Schooner "Thor", the original expedition ship used to find Hope island can still be found in the towns old harbour.

Old harbour

In the early stages of landfall Survival was though, and the Settlers had to rely on fish caught in the current old harbour basin.

June 2014

Several houses had been erected and the town Began to thrive better, as there had been built a storage house as well as small farms to sustain life in the long term. This was also the time the old tavern building first opened its doors to welcome the thirsty and worn down settlers. The little settlement was far from safe though. It met heavy resistance from local tribes people who had originally inhabited the island so a temporary wooden palisade was build around most of the buildings to protect from future attacks.

August 2014

More buildings began to pop up as the numbers of inhabitants increased, but the settlement lacked order so it was decided to begin the construction of a Town Hall in order to make the settlement more organised.

Town Hall

The "Hode Church" was also finished this month to bring faith to Hope Island. The church was later renamed to "Hope Church" following the name change of the town. As the settlement grew larger and began to look more like a city, there were also growing interest from the outside and several people, including Hotpotatoe, dagster, Sk8rgirl and the infamous Eisflo, immigrated to the settlement and built homes for themselves to live in.

Along with new immigrants came also hostile raiders. One particular figure, known as Unicornjunk^{(later Javainvader)} stole several ships and planted his "murican" flag on Hope Hill. Starting a lengthy conflict on getting the flag removed from Hope Hill

The first shop in Port Hope Opened late in the month and was to contest the already strongly established shops in the oceans, known as /warp Shop and /warp Skyshop. Port Hope did not yet have a /warp making it harder to comped with the much larger shops, but against the odds the shop opened and started selling basic materials and minerals to travellers passing by the little port.

The Great expansion of Port Hope

Following the growth of the settlement there was great will into developing it into a thriving merchant port. The founder of the settlement and only merchant residing, called Bislo1, had a wish in turning the city into a town full of trade with many different shops that sold all kinds of different goods from all the corners of the sea. With much time and resources spent on building house to accommodate all of the potential new merchants, Bislo1 now stood ready to open the flow of trade into the settlement and developing it into an actual town. /warp trade was acquired, making the settlement a very interesting place to move into, as there was profit to be made in a place everyone had access to.

Many Merchants were interested in buying land of their own in the city, so much that the plots were sold before any buildings could even be completed. This also helped Port Hope become a more respected settlement among the community of the pirate seas. Buildings where raised, some where remodelled numerous times to fit demand, old building were demolished to make room for larger, more colourful buildings.

Wogworld

With the arrival of the merchant, known as Wogworld, Port Hope saw its most significant increase of trade flowing into the Town. popularity rose as Wogworld's wares were often hard to obtain, yet reasonably priced, to let the majority of the traders be able to bid in. This was something that hadn't been seen before, with the old /warp shop selling rare items, but often at a rather steep price. Wogworld intended to change that and contested the established shops prices on all levels, soon making his shop the most popular to trade with. The prices were constantly being adjusted and goods were added on all floors to keep the interest high.

The Trade Empire Wogworld had created did not last forever though. He and the rest of the merchants in Port Hope, saw decline in sold goods when the new /warp wolf was introduced. In the start this new contester would not seem to be much of a challenge for Wogworld, but This new Powerful red stone expert, known as Ma_c_hi, soon discovered that he too could gain profit by copying the same strategy Wogworld had success with. This did not stop Wogworld's operations, although it gave him frustrations about the future of his profit.

Port hope, managed by Bislo1, kept expanding its assets in the light of the popularity Wogworld had brought to the Town, building, selling and leasing property to new merchants arriving.

Wogworld closed down his shop in feb. 2015, due to the immense increase of greedy pirates raiding and looting merchants in all of the major trade hubs.

The order of the Protectors

Crime had always been a problem in Port Hope, with pirates lurking in the dark waiting for potential victims to rob, as they arrived into the port to trade. What happened around Nov. 2014 took merchants around the seas by surprise, as they could clearly see how more and more people visiting trade towns got robbed each day. In Port Hope the situation turned into a stand still of goods moving in and out of the town every day during peak hours, which was a problem since this was the hours that most of the money were usually made.

A solution was needed and in the end of Nov. 2014, Bislo1, Founded the order of protectors. The order was to protect trade in the town and keep the pirates at bay, as well as hunting them to reclaim goods stolen. The order consisted of partially loyal protectors and externally hired bounty hunters, who were to work together as the criminals increased in numbers as well as getting better equipped and therefore harder to kill. One particular figure loyal to the order, known to fight many battles against pirates, is known as Bensterpc, an honoured member of the order, loyal until a Dispute Between him and the British Empire, forced him to resign his duties as a member.

During jan. 2015 the threat from pirates increased dramatically as the rates of attacks from different parties would shake the stability of the town, even the merchants owning shops were often assaulted. Action was needed to stop the problem, so it was desided to declare war on crime as the seas were full of pirates pillaging and plundering innocents. Support was given by strong individuals, such as Karimnaba, who helped defend the town against TheUdderMilker, well known for killing innocents in several towns, including the merchant port, Wolfshire, or /warp wolf. He was especially a pain to Port Hope for a longer period of time and stole many riches from not only the traders coming to trade, but also the government of the town and the merchants doing business. Other figures helping port hope fight pirates during the peak of the conflict was, FTBplayer123, Markusi13, Unicornjunk^{(add name if missing)} and many more.

In a effort to Strengthen the Order of protectors, Bislo1 Constructed a Guild House on the top of Hope Hill, Ultimately adding to the existing Fort Hope and completing the entire compound. Secret rooms were carved out underneath the Guild House, serving as a meeting hall for the future protectors of Hope, stashing loot taken from pirates caught and so on. In the meantime the conflict that had weakened the economical situation of Port Hope, had calmed down as many of the pirates were constantly being hunted by greater forces, or had settled down for a less violent approach towards raiding the warps, as the general opinion was seeing it as a dishonorful thing to do. The situation evolving as it did left Bislo1 in a state where he did not see more need in finishing this work as it would serve little or no purpose, so as a result the development stopped and the building was left as it was until there was better time to put into the purpose.

Port Hope and The British Empire

Early Stages

Port Hope Joined the British Empire in Feb. 2015 in an effort to make powerful allies in the late stages of its war against pirates tyrannising the traders, merchants and inhabitants Of the Town. The Town joined the empire in its earlier stages, before there was even established a Government to lead the Empire to success. "The Old British Empire" was an alliance between several towns and settlements to aid in each other in need of materials or other favours, also including defending each and every town within "the empire".

At the time of the election the Governors of Port Hope(bislo1) and The Virgin Isles(chailey) Ran a campaign together to create the government of the Empire, but was beaten by CrazyPirate1 and michty, who then created a Government, appointing the governor of Port Hope as Minister of Justice.

Participation in Wars

Even though the British Empire strives to bring peace to the server, sometimes wars cannot be avoided and during these times Port Hope has been dragged into conflict. The Policy of helping other British territories in times of war is still being honoured, despite the bad impacts on the trade flow of the city during the conflicts.

The TUPE war

As Port Hope was well known for being a trade hub and very easily could be accessed, also made it vulnerable to attacks from the enemies of the Empire. Early March, the Town reclaimed a ship from the renowned Unicornjunk, due to a dispute where it had been stolen from RaveTheWave and parked just a few hundred blocks away from shore, shaming the Town for being too weak to protect its own ships. When Unicornjunk realised that the ship was no longer in his possession he declared death upon everyone in Port Hope and due to events where he also claimed British redcoats had stepped upon and settled within his territory, The entire Empire was drawn into the conflict as Unicornjunk raised his flag and under the TUPE alliance declared war against the British Empire.

Early on in the war many innocent traders was murdered in the town as it was under siege by TUPE, meaning the Government of Port Hope had to seek refuge in other British territories for a short period. Later the conflict calmed down a bit as the TUPE alliance lost interest in attacking Port Hope for little gain, letting the government return to the island. Small skirmishes where still occurring but focus had shifted towards the Town of Havana, where Port Hope aided with the construction of a fort to bring British Influence over the Island and ultimately leaving it useless for the opposite parties to use. The war was shortly after concluded as both sides agreed on a truce.

The Fort in Havana still hands as a symbol of Sheer willpower within the British souls, who kept on fighting against the odds.

The war against the Outlaws and Hardtimez

Months after the conflict with TUPE had ended there had been quite on the server and the Town had opportunities to expand to the northern part of Hope Island. For a time the town prospered, but in the fog of the peace a vicious Pirate, known as Hardtimez, were slowly working his way to become the most feared raider of the server. As more time passed by and Hardtimez continued to raid innocent people, the British Empire realised they could no longer turn the blind eye to this new threat. Action was needed as the victims we're not only outsiders, but also British citizens. The Council decided to try and talk reason to Hardtimez unprovoked attacks, but little did it help and before long he had declared a full blown war against everyone within BE. Him and his crew slaughtered many citizens and looted many towns and forts in the first weeks of the war. The situation worsened for Port Hope when the attacks reached the town. In the wake of North Verrussi falling under Outlaw control, Hardtimez also offered Port Hope the peace it needed. The demands were brought by the government of Port Hope to the British council, meaning they would surrender and state Hardtimez as the victor in the conflict, but the demands were turned down by the majority vote and Port Hope were forced to continue to fight against Hardtimez, or part ways with the Empire.

The decision to remain loyal to the BE was wise, as the following weeks turned in the Allied favor, due to the Elven Empire finally honouring their call to arms, aiding the British to push Outlaws forces out from North Verrussi and retake the town. Hardtimez Seemed to have lost a lot of supplies during the length of the war and despite the British having lost lots more, the sheer number of soldiers left Hardtimez crew in a tough situation, resulting in the use of guerilla warfare and lengthening the war even further. War exhaustion war high, but the British had to push on and put pressure on the Outlaws and lowering their morale.

In august it was revealed that Hardtimez had indeed been using hacks to his advantage and was immediately banned, never to return again. His hideout was later destroyed as allied forces cheered to the end of the war.

The second Great expansion

Current Situation

Town Is currently struggling to sustain its former glory as a trading hub, with many players who once owned shops in the town, has left or moved to Port Laconia for better business opportunities.

The Government has multiple projects planned, such as the establishment of a smaller trading port on the north west side of Hope Island, in hopes of more boat traffic mooring at the Island. The new "west trade district" is also under way, but is still partly being planned with no schedule of when it is to be completed. Once built it will have plenty of rentable plots, both big and small, also located close to the original trade district.

The Island has suffered severe deforestation in the past months and risks loosing the natural supply of Oak- and spruce logs. The government will therefore implement policies to protect parts of the island from future "log robbers" and let new forests grow.