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Porta Denia History


The town of Porta Denia [duh-NEE-yuh] is located on, in, around, and under the floating casimir tree island of Denia. Denia, named for the casimir mother tree, can normally be found floating high above the old aqueducts and Gold Beach. Because of its unique properties, the island of Denia has been spotted in several different locations throughout Gaia. Speculation has stated that the island itself was once a water based island located several miles off the coast of what is now known as Isle de Gambino. Researchers have theorized that the mother tree Denia grew large enough to pull the island into the air where it now resides as a floating air cargo center and port town for airships, their passengers, and crew.

Evidence points to the Denia mother tree being one of the older mother trees on Gaia. While researchers have tried, a core sample of the casimir tree has yet to be successfully taken in order for an approximate count of the rings to be made. Botanists and other scientists have estimated the tree to be somewhere between eight hundred fifty years to nine hundred years old. Knowledge of Denia's existence dates back to the early to mid 1700s when Gaian sailors reported seeing a large mass in the sky. In the late 1700s and early 1800s Denia was used by early airship travelers as a floating camp ground during their travels throughout Gaia. It wasn't until the 1880s when settling on Denia was made possible with the first large modern airships. However, founding a town on Denia itself would not take place until 1898 when the first homestead appeared on the island proper.

Records from old logs and journals taken from June of 1898 tell of an airship named the Desert Rose crashing into the massive trunk of the mother tree. Journal and log entries point to weather being the key factor in the airship crashing into Denia. With their small airship destroyed in the crash, the MacMillan family, the airship captain, and four crew members turned the wreckage into a small house to live in. The Denia homesteaders lived in peace and privacy until April of 1908 when Aero Fattorino, a small cargo company owned by the Fattorino family, wanted to establish a rest stop for their cargo ships and their crew. On September 2, 1908 Porta Denia was officially named an air rest stop and inn with the opening of the tiny Denia Inn at the base of the mother tree.

Slowly and steadily for the next ten years after the Fattorino family began exploiting the landscape of the island around Denia population growth began to occur. It was during this period, that the Denia Inn was joined by the Claw and Hammer tavern and a small open market for selling goods. The Claw and Hammer tavern earned Denia, in the early years of the port, the reputation of a rather seedy stop on the airship routes and a place only those who worked for Fattorino would go to. People wishing to make a life and a living on Denia Island were consistently being turned away by hired men working for Fattorino who claimed he had sole ownership of the island, the inn, and tavern, and the small market at the base of the mother tree.

On June 14, 1918, twenty years after the Desert Rose crashed into Denia, Eric MacMillan, the youngest member of the MacMillan family, lead what is known as the Denia Uprising. Fattorino had turned Denia into crime filled mafia haven under the guise of a rest stop and layover for his airship workers. Not subject to any laws of the land based towns, Denia was seen as the perfect place to conduct illegal activity from. MacMillian, who had lived on Denia since the age of eight, had come to witness the chocking of his beloved mother tree and the land that provided for his family and the Desert Rose crew. From his family's home MacMillian and a small group of island workers took up arms against Fattorino and his men.

For the next three years Denia was locked in a war against the Fattorino mafia syndicate. Desperate for help and beginning to lose the war, the members of the uprising sent a desperate plea for military help in 1920. A small combined force of military units comprised of humans, elves, pixies, demons, and vampires worked together in a rare effort to save Denia from the clutches of the mafia controlled airships. Through a long drawn out final push Denia was free from mafia control in 1921.

On June 14, exactly three years to the day from the start of the uprising the now thirty-one year old Eric MacMillian was named town leader. Establishing a simple Town Meeting system of government MacMillian became the first official town selectman with other leaders of the uprising taking up secondary positions within the new town government. For the next year smaller portions of the military units that helped to free Denia from the Fattorino family stayed in Denia to help defend the island and build the new town. This allowed for proper legal growth and business to take place within the town.

In 1922 airship owner and millionaire businessman John Hastings founded the first legitimate and legal business on Porta Denia, the Hastings Air Cargo Company. Hastings Air Cargo brought with it new residents, the expansion of the surrounding port, and job opportunities for those who wished to live on the island proper and the massive mother tree. Hastings was also responsible for the first school system on Porta Denia when he brought in Helen Porter, the town's first official teacher and principal, to teach the children of Hastings' employees and those already living on Porta Denia. On April 5, 1926, five years after the end of the Denia Uprising, a municipal charter was created establishing Porta Denia as a proper legally recognized port town.

Today, Porta Denia is a thriving small port town with a combined K through Twelve school system and a small university established in 1980. Denia houses a university run library and an observatory on Denia's upper level. The main office of the Hastings Air Cargo Company still calls Denia home and is the main industry for the port town. Denia also boasts a small tourism industry with two inns, the Denia Inn at the base of the mother tree and the Desert Rose, a boutique style inn, on Denia's mid level section. Denia is home to a small open air market, the Red Lion tavern (formerly the Hammer and Claw), and Mr. Fong's Noodle Palace and Diner docked under Denia's root system.

The Town of Porta Denia



The town of Porta Denia itself is located around the base of the mother tree on the island proper, within the tree itself on its large branches, on the sides of the island on the rock outcroppings, and under the island on docked airships. Porta Denia is a town built in layers with each town layer representing an individual neighborhood within the town. The majority of the commerce for the town takes place either at the base of the mother tree on the island proper or below on the sides of the island or beneath on docked airships. The main industries on Porta Denia are air cargo and commercial airship transportation.

On the island proper, located at the base of the tree and around the hill, is Porta Denia's commerce and center. It is here where the port authority, harbor master's residence, and the main island port are located near the edge of the island to the west of the falls. Further in near the hill and base of the mother tree the open air market, the Denia Inn, the Red Lion tavern, and several small private owned and operated businesses are found. The island proper is also home to the combined kindergarten through twelfth grade school system, a small college turned university and library at the west edge of the island, and the MacMillian Homestead Historical Center near the eastern edge. Several residential homes and apartments are also located on this level.

Building on the mother tree itself is done in circular levels around the trunk and on the branches of the tree. Each branch is connected to one another, and the main trunk, by a series bridges acting as walkways. At these levels travel between levels and the island below is conducted by either small gondola styled airships or through a system of rope and pulley elevators. Each level is considered to be a separate neighborhood with the more economically affluent residing on the highest allowable level. At the very top of the mother tree is an observatory with a telescope and adjoining research center for studying the skies and casimir trees.

The first level on the mother tree is composed mainly of residential homes, small apartment buildings, and a few small shops. This level is thirty feet up the tree and branches out sixty feet from the trunk of the tree. Homes on this level are mostly single story stucco and terra cotta structures with simple scrolled ironwork accents. The most notable location on this level is the Seven Stars Boarding House a small studio apartment complex comprised of two three story buildings. Located on the southern side of the tree, the boarding house overlooks the stream and waterfall.

The second, or mid level, is located thirty feet above the top of the first level. This level is comprised mostly of two story stucco and terra cotta structures with ornate scrolled ironwork accents. Buildings on the mid level are mainly residential in designation with a few high end shops and boutique inn named for the Desert Rose. The most notable locations on this level are the historic Hastings Home located on the west side of the level and the Desert Rose Inn and Cafe complex on the on the southern side of the level overlooking the waterfall.

The third level, referred to as the luxury level by some, is located forty feet below the canopy of the mother tree. This level of Porta Denia contains two large ornate two story homes spread over several portions of the upper level's large branches. The third level is infamous with the citizens of Porta Denia as the home of the Fattorino manor, the seat of the Fattorino Syndicate. The most notable location on this level is the old Fattorino Manor now home to the Denia Falls banquet hall.

At the very top of Denia, in the canopy, are two buildings for science and research. The first building is the Denia Observatory. The observatory is home to an astrological research center and a medium sized electronic refracting telescope. The second building on the canopy is the Denia Casimir Research Center. This building is a large greenhouse that houses several casimir trees for botanical research. Both the observatory and casimir research center are affiliated with the island level university.

Besides being built on the island proper and in the mother tree, Denia also exists on the sides and below the island. It is here where workers at Denia's hydroelectric plant reside on outcroppings near the waterfall. Docked on the south side of the island east of the waterfall is a floating restaurant that resembles the architecture found in the Zen Gardens owned by the colorful Mr. Fong. At the northern edge of Denia island is an air rest stop on one of the larger bottom level outcroppings. Travel from the island proper and the mother tree is done through a system of elaborate lifts and a small air gondola ferry industry.

Porta Denia Notable Residents


Eric MacMillian: Born in 1890 he was the youngest of the MacMillian homestead group that crash landed on Denia in the Desert Rose in 1898. In 1908 when Antonio Fattorino, head of the Fattorino Syndicate, claimed Denia was the sole property of his air cargo company MacMillian stayed in Porta Denia when his family, the crew of the Desert Rose, and the airship captain (Sherman Pennyworth) all took the offer to leave Denia. Ten years later, on June 14, 1918 MacMillian and a small group of workers for Fattorino took up arms to drive Fattorino off Denia in a three year act that became known as the Denia Uprising. On June 14, 1921 MacMillian was named the first official town selectman. MacMillian died of natural causes on August 5, 1963. He had a wife named Margarete, a son named Thomas, and a daughter named Jennifer.

John Hastings: The millionaire owner of Hastings Air Cargo Company this man established the first legitimate and legal business on Denia in 1923. He is credited with helping to establish an organized school unpon Denia and conduct the first major port dock expansion. Hastings died on Denia in September of 1953.

Helen Porter: The first official organized school teacher on Denia. She was brought to Denia by Hastings 1924 to teach the children of his workers and the children of the town. She is credited with being the first principal of the unified K though 12 school system. She served the school for over thirty years. Helen Porter died in May of 1971.

Amanda Airsoul: First Female explorer as well as first explorer to make Denia their base of operations in 1928. She was an airship adventurer, and early Casimir Alliance member, who who found the jungle island in which very large jungle cats are the only inhabitants as well as a few of the islands east of the Isle de Gambino. She is also credited with discovering an island containing the race of Cat people 1933. Her ship and casimir tree, having come from the island, was in fact named The Denia. Her explorations opened more islands and lands to the people of mainland Gaia. Amanda went missing during an exploration in July of 1937. She was declared legally dead in December of 1939.

Lutis Gouns: Noted for being the first Centaur to live on Denia in the 1930s and was one of the very first Centaurs to take to the skies. His time though brief on Denia was a memorable one as not many centaurs take to the skies. He owned the airship, Lucky Shoe and was considered a jack of all trades taking cargo and people where they needed to go.