Strykere

Feels like Strykere is the place to begin, since that's where the game will begin. I'm envisioning Strykere as a relatively small community. I'm thinking about a smaller version of the archipelago in a multitude of small islands around it.

Strykere needs a strategic geographical advantage to avoid having been invaded for the mine. The most likely answer to me is that the mine is located in the middle of what essentially counts as marshland. The water level at that point in the archipelago should be high enough to stop major ships from getting in and low enough that troop movements are extremely difficult. Treaded vehicles might be able to get through though, so the island needs some other defenses, perhaps narrow passages between outcroppings of islands that make moving vehicles through it very risky given the sheer number of ambush points. The major vulnerability of the island would be trade to get resources they can't make themselves. They've have plenty of water somehow, and of course tons of food from fishing. There's enough land in the approx. 400 sqmi (~256000 acres) to grow crops. Frequent rocky outcroppings would also make it relatively easy to set up watchtowers and outposts to keep on guard for invasion.

I'm envisioning a system of cables connecting the various islands and outcroppings to allow people to move across the land relatively easily. A hydraulic pump, or something similar, might shift the angle of the cabling to allow ziplining in both directions. This avoids the need to recover the platform from the other end.

So what might the power structure in Strykere feel like? Something tribal seems like the obvious choice. I never did define this in any great detail in the sci-fi version. I just left it as an administrative branch owned by a private corporation that contracted with governments for ore. I believe I had a corporate structure in mind, which would suggest a president with a c-suite supporting them. Perhaps a board of directors. In a tribal sense, that actually translates really well, with a tribal leader and a cabinet of close advisors (war chief, etc). For business, I'm envisioning they aren't the machinists like the people of Fenbar, but perhaps are making motions in that direction. In fact, Alison might get work there both as a merchant and as a machinist and engineer.

I would imagine fishing and farming are major industries since they need to support the population. I'm going to estimate Strykere's overall population size on Molokai, one of the Hawaiian islands. It's perhaps the most insular of that island chain and has a land mass similar to Strykere (albeit slightly smaller). The density of Molokai is about 28/sqmi, so that translates to about 11,200 people on Strykere. That feels about right. The island definitely can't support the kind of population density seen in contemporary Seattle. It would make sense for a reasonable chunk of that population to be from immigrate due to the founding of the mine. Since the island is relatively isolated due to geographical convenience, they'd be in a position to control the influx of population and therefore to control the population growth on the island. Like any rural area experiencing a population boom (similar to the CA gold rush), fears of unsustainable population growth would probably be a thing. They might have copied Sahaladir in having a merchant quarter, but in practice, I think it makes more sense to gatekeep the number of ships allowed in at a time. An initial outpost to handle visitors before allowing them through would make a lot of sense. Larger ships might be obliged to dock there with a communication system back to the main island to control visitors on smaller watercraft. A system of pigeons might work, but honestly a zipline approach to this would probably work better and would be more in line with the theme of strings. I think I like that more.

That would suggest a major port of call at that point, which would mean a major trading point for visitors who might either not qualify to enter, or who just want to stop over and trade with whomever might also be docked. That's how major trade centers get started. Strykere could make pretty good money taxing those trades.

So we have a trade center backed by a sizeable settlement that allows visitors to its community very carefully and only with a good reason. It would make sense for this acceptance to visit the community largely depends on what the visitor has to offer, their reason for the visit, and the intended duration of stay.

I don't think the mine is located on the main island. More likely buried in one of the outcroppings off the island's shore. A community might be set up on a series of floating homes on gangplanks built around the entrance to the mine. Stores would be set up there so there wouldn't be a need for most miners to visit the main Strykere's village.

The travel guide would discuss the main port of call on the edges of the Strykere island set, the miner camp, and the main village. I'd want to cover the general experience of traveling this territory, the major figures to look out for, the kinds of goods that can be bought and sold there. The things to do for leisure. Social traditions to honor while you're there. What to expect when getting permission to enter the islands. What visitors can expect in terms of amenities, such as housing, bathing, food, etc. Steps for docking and tying up your ship. Docking fees and how they're calculated and paid. What those cables are for. What lines of work are in demand and how to apply. How life in the town center works. Major monuments or landmarks and what they mean. I've been thinking about a series of arches at the main entrance to the Sahalian merchant quarter to represent the social contract expected of visitors. The general look and feel of the architecture and social ambiance. The general size of each area and how crowded it feels to be there. For example if the major port of call is only a square mile, but typically has 500 people in it - that's much more dense than the rest of the islands. If passage through the outcroppings is particularly difficult, perhaps a ferry system to bring people through (perhaps private craft just aren't allowed in). How does that work?