The Lantern Berth

NB: Baronials are the only people in the setting whose origin myths involve them arriving to the land on ships - they are supposed to have immigrated from the dreamlands and the setting sun and the dead islands that are hidden in them. Everyone else makes a point of detailing how they have always been there.

Following on from this post.

The island is not large. Centuries ago is was almost entirely developed into townships and fortifications by the people of the Old Capital. The natural colour of the stone is deep red, and the dust and sand is the same, perhaps a little lighter. The old buildings are recognisably in the architectural style of their builders; they feature the same stone construction, cast iron railings, and vaulted windows and ceilings. Here they have been augmented with iron shades and coverings for the windows, all of which has rotted and rusted with the centuries. The sunlight over everything is yellows, oranges, reds; in the evening the shadows are blue, purple, black. 

There are two still-functional townships on the Lantern Berth, one on its eastern shore, and one on the western. They have been built into and over existing Capital architecture, with new structures commonly built from the local red stone, with timber additions and iron embellishment and accenting. There are small cypress plantations and orchards and gardens on the island, tilled and kept in sunken, walled compounds to save them from the salt wind. The islanders are visibly unlike the people in the Barony, and are also culturally distinct; Baronials find them abrupt, distant, and unfriendly. They have kept the stained glass-making and blowing traditions of the first Capital settlers, and trade the other products of the island. The eat seafood (they love squid rubbed with salt) and, less commonly, fresh produce from their gardens. They grow oranges in many colours, and small, hard pears. 

The islanders are not warriors in any organised military sense, but the island itself is a natural fortress, without landing beaches. The few times enemies have tried to invade their home the islanders have burned enemy ships with strange weapons that look like long tubes of brass, filled with burning oil, and pumped with bellows until the pressure spatters the burning stuff across the decks and prows of enemy ships. These tubes can be loaded easily into small, swift ships, and are capable of quickly sinking even large enemy vessels. The islanders are also famous for burning captured enemies to death in bronze cauldrons. They are mostly religious (with a sizeable irreligious minority culturally tied to the White City), and have built churches and small shrines all across the island. 

The Eastern Berth is the more developed of the two towns, and includes the harbour where the sailors from the Barony most commonly dock. Some of its ancient municipal buildings have been restored and added to with carved stone blocks in the ancient style, and the interiors of most houses are kaleidoscopically multi-coloured where the sun falls through the stained-glass. The main settlement is surrounded by hundreds of green orchards, gardens, and cypress groves, and trade is brisk. The lighthouse that it is built around is tall and strongly built, and its lantern panes are red. 

The Western Berth is smaller, rougher, and poorer than the Eastern. It is here that the relic hunters live, and from here that they make their forays into the central, uninhabited ruins. Most of the surface tunnels and forts have been mapped, but the ruins are treacherous - there are sinkholes, sections collapse, and rival groups sometimes set traps and snares to make the way hazardous. Those caught doing this are executed, but they aren't often caught - what happens in the ruins most often stays there. The relic hunters claim that the old fortifications and townships also extend down into the earth, as was the common way with their original builders. They tell stories of the ghosts and the horrors of that nighted underworld. The Western Lantern is smaller than the Eastern one, and its lantern is blue.

A bit like Cadiz, but way smaller, and built on top of itself.