The Six Navies
Shining Reach
A professional, prestigious standing navy focused on long-range gunnery and precise coordination. Career officers have real social standing. The most formally organized anti-piracy doctrine in the world, and the navy that occasionally mounts punitive expeditions against Iron Coves bases when piracy becomes too disruptive.
Forgegate
A pragmatic mixed navy of dedicated warships and heavily armed merchantmen, and the most willing of the six to commission privateers when official forces are stretched. The emphasis is convoy escort, which makes its merchant vessels difficult targets — a commercially motivated strategy from a commercially motivated city.
Stormharbor
A small local defense force in which individual captains matter more than fleet structure. There is an informal arrangement with Shining Reach, which patrols the nearby routes because doing so benefits Shining Reach's trade, and to which Stormharbor contributes fees and services. It is not a formal alliance and neither side wants it to be.
Eldershore
The most experienced maritime civilization in the world, with traditions built over centuries. Superior seamanship used to control positioning — engaging at optimal range, withdrawing and repositioning, controlling an entire engagement rather than trading broadsides. The largest navy, and the most experienced by quality of seamanship.
Clearhold
A minimal coastal navy protecting its immediate trade: a small number of precisely operated vessels. Its strength is on land and it knows it.
The Iron Coves
No unified navy — individual fleets under powerful captains that occasionally coordinate against a common threat and never under one command. Strength through reputation and crew loyalty rather than organization.