For those on Canelux that avoid Vilpamolan for good reason, well, consider this a warning that Basoga makes Vilpamolan look like a kindly country village.
While to many first time visitors and outsiders Basoga looks like an island when they arrive, there is, in fact, not a scrap of real dry land in the whole city. All of Basoga is made up of randomly bolted together ships and even insect ship parts, all dragged in over the years to add to the city by one group or another. Who first started this whole mess is unknown, but it is commonly accepted that it was outlaws who beached their ship on a sandbar somewhere under the water of the city. Unable to free their ship they stayed there and held off any kind of effort to bring them to justice. Liking that defensible position they settled in and modified their ships into a something they could live in. Years later they stole another ship and attached the two of them together, since then it has grown and grown until it's a large city of maze like corridors, confusing landmarks and random dead ends. One moment you can be walking on old wood the next step you're on giant beetle carapace and the next wood again. The city is constantly changing as well, with more ships bolted on and modified every few months as they get stolen from merchants and brought in, or walls are knocked down to make another 'road' through an old ship hull. Only those that live here truly know how to get around, and they aren't about to share with anyone else. Outsiders stick out among the locals, and they make easy prey, no matter how powerful they may think they are among the criminals.
The worst of the worst come to Basoga to lay low from the law and get anything that they might want with very, very few limits. If Basoga doesn't have what you want, then you are truly lost to the world, then again, they still might be able to get it for you in the end.
Crime is just part of daily life in Basoga, from petty crimes to straight murder in the daylight, corpses get tossed into the sea and that's it. There is no law enforcement in Basoga; each man and woman is their own person and your best bet to survive, aside from just visiting, is to keep your head down and don't make eye contact. Anyone that lives in this mess is hardened and likely has seen anything an outsider can do and more. You aren't going to threaten them or scare them. Violence is the only thing they understand and they will react with the same violence. The prostitutes are just as apt to shank you than shag you if they think you have more coin than you're letting on, if the pickpockets don't get it first.
Gangs have formed in the labyrinthine city, and each has a whole ship or two to itself that they either have brought over themselves and added to the city or slaughtered a now extinct gang for. All of the strongest gangs in the city have been around for ages now since they tend to quickly stamp out any attempt at forming new gangs while actively trying to destroy the other gangs that are established. Violence in the streets is commonplace (this really can't be overstated), and if you aren't in a gang then your best bet is stay where you are or head inside and keep your head down. You might lose it otherwise.
Outsiders come, many don't come back out again, if you don't have business here, then you don't belong here.
