The ancestry of the Porter's Bar Royal Family is complex and unique. It all starts many hundred years ago when a young girl, called Bwanga, was shipwrecked on a distant island. She had been sold as a slave, and was being transported to a new land, and somehow when the storm sprang up Bwanga was the only survivor. The young girl was alone on the island and afraid - but she managed to find small amounts of fruit and some fresh water to drink, and although she suffered and she cried a lot - she survived. At first Yokai, the spirit of the island, [note for DM - Oriental Adventures. Race: Lesser Nature Spirit (p126) ] was wary of her, she was a stranger and he hadn't seen many people before, and most of those had been sailors ashore to plunder his island of its fruits woods and water. However, after a while, as he watched her, he realised that she was alone and hungry and scared. He plucked up his courage and took his human form, a well proportioned olive skinned oriental man, and went to help her. At first he showed her good places to shelter, and then good places to find food, and eventually he lived with her as man and wife. And then the slavers came again - a ship pulled up to the island and a crew of sailors came ashore to replenish their supplies - They found Bwanga and she was dragged screaming and kicking back to the ship to be sold later as a slave. Yokai couldn't face the sailors and the gentle spirit took his ethereal form as he watched the girl being dragged away ….

Time passed and Bwanga bore a daughter, Kalli, who carried a number of unusual traits. Her darker skin (from her mother) made her stand out, but from her father she got wildness and a love of the sea. And from the both she got a great strength of spirit and determination - but she was born slave and was at the whim of her masters … [Note for DM - Oriental Adventures. Race: Sea Spirit Folk].

But our story skips a generation and continues with Kalli's daughter, Lei. Lei was slave, like her mother and grandmother before her, and like her mother - she inherited a wildness and strength of character, and a fondness and bond with the sea. But Lei had a chance to escape, and she took it with both hands.

Lei was slave, like her mother and grandmother before her, and like her mother - she inherited a wildness and strength of character, and a fondness and bond with the sea. But Lei had a chance to escape, and she took it with both hands. Her master sent his cousin and a caravan of goods as dowry across county to another lord, to establish a bond buy marriage between the two families. And Lei was sent as a maid to care for and look after the bride to be.

However bandits attacked the caravan as they travelled through some swamplands. The honour guard were killed, and the goods taken, and the bride and her servants captured and held prisoner. Eventually, the bride was ransomed - but Lei was one of the slaves than managed to bargain for her release and a place amongst the bandits. Soon her skill with a naginata won her respect among her peers and before long she started to travel with her new colleagues on raids. But, the insult suffered by the two noble houses was too much and the bandits were forced from their camp to live as fugitives in the wild-lands of the local swamp.

There they made alliance with Han Shay, a coiled Dragon from in the swamp, and when the soldiers and bounty hunters came, they fled towards the coast. They found a group of sailors, about to be executed for smuggling, who they freed – stole three small ships – and setoff for a new life in a new land. However, the Imperial Navy did not intend to let them escape, and a fleet was launched to capture and bring them back. Skilful as sailors were, they could not evade the ships and it looked as if the end was close - when Lei took her stand. Alone on the stern deck of the last of their ships, wind whipping her cloak dramatically around her shoulders, she called upon her master, the Lord of the Sea. Gradually the seas rose around the following fleet and their winds died down, while the sea in-front of the fleeing junks remained calm and a good wind filled their sails.

Later, the small fleet was faced with a kraken that intended to take one of their ships to the bottom of the sea with them. However, Han Shay quickly assumed his draconic form and flew to confront the beast - In the battle of wills between the two, Han Shay was victorious, and the kraken sunk back into the depths. They managed to keep all three ships watertight and sailing until they were virtually in sight of land - when a violent storm wrecked one of the ships. Han's flight managed to save many of the crew, while Lei saved more by diving into the raging sea and dragging them to safety. Many were lost – but the two overcrowded and waterlogged ships finally made landfall.

Claiming a sea bar for himself and his men, but almost as soon as they were settled lizardfolk, from the swamps attacked. However Han and Lei drove them off. They went on to found the city of Porters Bar – and their descendants still rule the city.