I gots to thinkin' that it was time someone put this place down on paper (or what I could find of some) and so I came up with this.
This is Winter Haven... well, what's left of it.
There's a lot of rumors about what the place was in some hay-day, but today folks just mostly worry about whether or not they're gonna be able to find food and shelter.
The ruins of the city that surrounded the bay were once a large and well-off city, but something terrible must have happened because now if it hasn't come down already, it probably is gonna soon and you're lucky if you can find one still standing and sturdy enough to live in.
Life ain't easy around this place either. The folks who live around here don't congregate into groups much. They seem to think that security comes from not being noticed and preyed upon. Except for those damned pirates. They say they're protecting everyone from some sort of invaders across the sea, but either way they're armed and unified and so they take "tribute" when the waters don't freeze up out on the sea.
And the locals aren't always so local these days either. During a great cataclysm, some group of foreigners that called themselves the Shogunate showed up to the North East and they brought all of their weird foreign ways... but they don't come out much unless it's for some particular reason. Seems best since I'm sure they didn't come alone and brought their own troubles with 'em too.
Otherwise, other new folks pop in through that old Portal-thing. People come and go for all sorts of reasons, whether it's on their own accord or just by chance.
That ain't so say the legit locals aren't a bit peculiar themselves. Take that Lighthouse keeper for instance, or that wacko John Fisher?
Well, now we have ourselves a whole other group of folks who're rekindling this idea of a town and banding together for protection. I hear they've found themselves some buildings over there at the Drunken Dwarf. They call themselves the town of Winter Haven. If you think you're up for it, go on over and see what you think of 'em. Maybe they're onto something, or maybe they're just lookin' to get themselves killed. What have ya got to lose?