Rihsport

Rihsport
Nickname:  The Western Gate
Motto:  To the Sea!
Country	Faneria
Province	Gleathan
County Relationship	Multi-County City (2)
Dúnnan	none
River	river name
Chartered as Royal Capital	1634
Government
• Type	Mayor-Council
• Body	Municipal Council
• Méara	(CRP/F)
Area
• Total	353 sq mi (910 km2)
• Land	353 sq mi (910 km2)
• Water	1 sq mi (3 km2)
Population  (2025)
• Total	8,295,500
• Density	24,000/sq mi (9,100/km2)

Rihsport (colliquially Cananachsport) is a city in western metropolitan Faneria, and is the current capital of the province of Gleathan as well as a former capital of the Kingdom of the Fhainn. It is one of the largest cities in the country by population, urban footprint, and GDP, and is a key economic hub and Global City.

Demographics

Population

Rihsport's population of eight and a quarter million people, including its suburban areas, is plurality Fhainn, with a close segment of Sheafhainn and smaller Coscivian and Burgundine minorities. The majority of Burgundine and Coscivian residents live in the urban core, though only Burgundine and the few Aenglish or other foreign residents have formed local enclaves. The city sees several hundred thousand foreign passers-through and temporary residents annually for business or travel, which helps support continued growth of services and expansion of the city over time. Rihsport natives form one of the most outgoing and welcoming regional cultures in the country, and play an outsized role in representing western Faneria culturally and globally.

City Culture

Rihsport is the center of a number of government entities, including two major military bases (Rihsport Naval Administration Center and Yards and the Rihsport Arsenal, both of which host military airfields) as well as a major branch of the Bran Geach Military Preparation Academy and the site of the Burgundine-Fhainnin Naval Academy. The city most critically is home to the headquarters of the Office of Commerce, and since 2016, the seat of the Governorship of Gleathan Province has been located in the city rather than the historic provincial capital in Omeath.

Several historic figures, including Brenna Daenlaine and ______, are natives of Rihsport.

History

The old city of Rihsport was a minor Fenni hamlet during the conquest of the area first by the Yetes and later the Alloverni, and remained so until increased Coscivian shipping traffic, seeking to circumvent their competitors, grew the town and its surrounds enough to first feature as a listed city on maps in the twelfth century under the name Ryeport. The city was annexed by the Kingdom of the Fhainn at an unclear time prior to 1471 (when it first appeared in extant Royal records) and became a prominent forward outpost for conflicts such as the War of the Foot and the broader integration of modern Penthebhra and its surrounds into the Kingdom. In 1634, Rih Rethys II Suthar-Màrtainn moved his seat of power to Rihsport, using the move to establish the administrative dialect which would become modern Fhasen and banning other languages from the city by 1640. The largest alteration alongside the more than quintupling of the city's population and tripling of its size was the dredging and artificial deepening of Rih's Bay to allow for deep-hulled vessels to port there, which consumed Rethys II's entire lifetime and a staggeringly large proportion of the Crown's wealth at the time. While the capital would return to Oirthidún in 1715 after the conclusion of the poorly-managed Tundra Wars, the near-century of acting as the capital transformed Rihsport into a major commercial center and manufacturing hub for warships and the construction industry.

Rihsport was the last significant bastion of Royalist resistance during the Fhainnin Civil War, with the Siege of Rihsport occurring over several months. The city was renamed Cananachsport informally in 1910 and officially in 1925 after Cananach's death, and the city's shipbuilding industry became an extremely critical part of the military buildup which occurred prior to the Second Great War. Notably, all three Gaellige-class superheavy battleships were produced in the (at the time) Cananachsport Yards, as well as numerous other capital ships. Post-war naval industry floundered, considerably hollowing out the city; as a result, Rihsport in particular was a locus point for economic globalization and reconstruction, though the opening of the Grand Vandarch Canal is considered to have slowed the city's recovery considerably. Cananachsport was renamed Rihsport in 1989 after a questionable and hotly contested plebiscite,

Economy

The economy of Rihsport is primarily based around its sea access, and the city is a major site of trade for vessels unable to pass the Grand Vandarch Canal or unwilling to pay the additional tariffs to do so, while also being safer to navigate and closer to markets in the Vandarch regions than secondary ports in Kurikila and Mullcirit to the north. Shipbuilding, primarily for the Fhainnin military, is a major jobs provider for the city, and Rihsport also serves as a rail and warehousing hub. These key sectors are supported by a robust and growing service industry, including entertainment companies such as globally-selling Floodgates Historic Gaming and several energy and resource corporation nerve centers. Due to its position as a major port, possessing a major international airport, and its dense historical importance, the city also has a consistent tourism and hotel sector. Rihsport is also a primary internet data route hub for Faneria and North Levantia in general.