On F+524, a ship’s cook known only as Anata was crowned the Banner Lord of the Armada. After a year’s worth of cunning deals, bloody drinking contests, and frenetic cooking duels, Anata emerged as the Captain of Captains and promptly consolidated power under her flagship, the Black Iron. Fed up with Benthia’s private mining flotillas that skirted the Armada’s monopoly and enraged by a first mate’s murder by the hands of the city’s Bluecoat guard, Anata formally declared Benthia as “Open Territory”. With that declaration, the Armada began to do what all pirates do, plunder.
Citizens of Benthia were surprised to see the morning sun blotted out by the sails of dozens of airhips raining smoke-shells down on city roofs and the Bluecoat guard was woefully underprepared for a massive invasion. Within short order, Benthia’s sailing force was sunk and the Bluecoat guard all fell defending the city. For a brief, glorious moment, Benthia was the crown jewel of the Armada’s crown. Anata herself was responsible for the annihilation of the House of Concord’s Primeval Guard, felling the elite soldiers with her trusty sawn-off musket and frying pan.
Her reign would be short-lived as a prisoner deep within the city’s forgotten Underwall prison took advantage of the chaos, escaped from his cell, and rallied the other prisoners. In a daring counter attack on the Black Iron docked above the Verde-Prasino district, the man that would become High Warden Valynx, killed Anata’s captain board and challenged her to a duel. After a climactic battle that resulted in the Black Iron crashing into the House of Concord and Valynx’s face being irrecovably scarred, Anata fell overboard, flaming and still firing her musket as the Captain of Captains tumbled into the sea.
With her death, the Armada quickly grew into disarray and was easily driven off by the captured airships of the prisoners. Now dubbed Greycoats after their dirty uniforms, the prisoners became the new city guard and was present as the House of Concord drafted a treaty and ratified it with the surviving Captains of the Armada. The treaty heavily favored Benthia and levied hefty fines and concessions that nearly sank the Armada as a force in Tsamsara.
