The five High Captains take the names of their Ships
when they ascend to leadership. The captains are the
highest authorities in Luskan; they and the members
of their Ships conduct themselves as a sort of nobility,
albeit one that isn't hereditary.
Despite the name, each Ship is not a single vessel,
but an organization of stalwarts owing allegiance to one
another and to their captain, whom they elect for life. To
be a member of a Ship is a select privilege, one that only
one in ten of Luskan's residents can claim.
The five Ships of Luskan are more than gangs of
pirates. They are fellowships of people who live, train,
work, make love, and go to war with each other. To join
one is a mark of honor and continues a grand tradition
that Luskar associate with democracy, self-determina-
tion, and individuality.
Each Ship has its own symbol and colors. Members
of a Ship often wear their colors, decorate their round
shields with the symbol and colors, and tattoo them-
selves with the symbol. Like their Northlander relations,
Luskar Ship members regularly tattoo their faces, but
instead of representing their island, the tattoos are
either personal marks or tattoos of their allegiance to
their Ship.
Membership in a Ship is voluntary, but once under-
taken it is until death. To join a Ship, a Luskar must be
of fighting age (fourteen or so, for humans), and possess
at least one sword or axe, one spear, and three of the
sturdy, bossed shields the Northlanders prefer. Each
Ship accepts new candidates from time to time to fill
vacancies caused by death, but as a rule, the Ships don't
expand their ranks by taking on a large number of new
members at one time.
Each Ship has some number of sailing vessels, the
size, crew, and type of which help to determine the influ-
ence of the Ship's High Captain and its rank within the
city. The current First Ship, Kurth, has so many vessels
that it nearly outnumbers the next two Ships combined,
and its membership is so numerous that Ships Suljack,
Taerl, and Rethnor could merge and still not equal it.
The laws of the city govern the behavior of the Ships
and their captains, decreeing the Ships responsible for
the city's defense, its administration, and the manage-
ment of its resources. Beyond these universal tasks,
each captain takes on other duties as desired in order
of that Ship's standing in the hierarchy, leaving less
glamorous and less lucrative tasks to the captains and
Ships of lower rank.
Since each of the Ships has the ability to take what it
likes and leave what it doesn't want to the lesser Ships,
a strict division of duties has arisen among them.
Ship Kurth controls the city's docks and activity
occurring thereupon. Among the most profitable of the
merchandise that passes through the port are weapons
and tools from Ironmaster, and ambergris for the per-
fume trade.
Ship Baram operates Luskan's fishing industry. The
food it provides is so vital to the city's welfare nowadays
that Baram has risen to Second Ship on the strength of
its successful forays out to sea.
Ship Suljack holds sway over, and conducts most of,
the piracy and raiding that originates out of Luskan.
It occasionally passes the more meager opportunities
down to Taerl.
Ship Taerl, recently elevated from Fifth Ship, had
been accustomed to taking the hindmost. Now its work-
ers and sailors happily accept chances for profit handed
down from above, and just as happily delegate the most
menial and undesirable chores to Rethnor.
Ship Rethnor engages in few worthwhile activities
aside from guard duty, which is a poor source of income.
Rethnor toughs sometimes roam the streets of Luskan,
looking for a quick and perhaps violent way to grab
some coin.PEOPLE AND LAWS
Without question, the people of Luskan show their
Northlander heritage. They raid ships and coastal set-
tlements, engage in interdiction and piracy, and value
strength of arms above most other qualities. During
Luskan's long history on the Sword Coast, however, the
city has adopted many of the attitudes of mainland folk.
Luskar don't kidnap people from other settlements or
tribes, and they hold that women have social standing
equal to men (two of the High Captains, Suljack and
Taerl, are women). They don't distrust magic, as their
island brethren do. Slavery is, at least nominally, illegal
in Luskan, though a slave taken and sold at sea is usu-
ally overlooked by authorities.
The law in Luskan is supposed to be upheld by
soldiers of the Ships, who are empowered to arrest
criminals and bring them before the Magistrates of the
city. In practice, arrests are as often made by mobs, but
the result is the same: an appearance before the Magis-
trates. Each of the five Magistrates is chosen by a High
Captain, but need not be a member of that captain's
Ship. The Magistrates are, at least officially, neutral.
Most citizens have their cases decided by a single one of
these judges, but a dispute involving a Ship member is
heard by all five.TRADE AND COMMERCE
Luskan doesn't officially tax its citizens; the city makes
its money through trade, fishing, piracy, and raiding.
The defense of the city comes at the expense of the
Ships, paid for by the profits of those activities as well as
the protection money the Ships extort from businesses
and homes to keep the thieves and gangs at bay. Bribery