Armada (Bas-Lag)

Armada is the name of the fictional floating city in China Miéville's novel The Scar. The city is part of the fictional universe Bas-Lag. It is over a thousand years old, and little is known of its origins. In The Scar, Armada is seen and described through the eyes of several recently press-ganged citizens, notably New Crobuzoner Bellis Coldwine and Remade prisoner Tanner Sack.

Armada is made up of hundreds of ships, airships and other sea vessels all interconnected, existing as a movable pirate state on the oceans of Bas-Lag. The ships, the oldest having been part of Armada for more than a thousand years, are mostly built-upon, factories and residences built up on their decks (and in some cases, within their gutted hulls). The city's population is at least a hundred thousand, and is made up of humans, cactacae, khepri, ab-dead, Remade, scabmettlers and many other races. People considered criminals (or otherwise being of lower classes) in their former home states of Bas-Lag are recast as equals upon joining Armada, and often go on to hold positions of power.

Armada thrives on piracy, and through this method adds wealth to itself. Piracy of the seas also leads to acquisitions of knowledge in countless languages (all books are stolen for the Grand Gears Library), and the growth of Armada's population, for any ship intercepted by Armada's forces is assimilated into the city and its crew and passengers are press-ganged into citizenship for life. The language of Armada is Salt, a constructed language deliberately made easy to learn, and consisting of vocabulary from the languages of the many races who inhabit the city.

Armada is divided into separate ridings (boroughs of the city), each governed by a different body. The ridings are as follows in the time period of The Scar.

The most powerful of the ridings, led by the Lovers, two nameless scar-covered pirates who influence most of Armada's decisions. Garwater's flagship is The Grand Easterly. It is also in possession of two enormous airships, the Arrogance and the Trident, as well as the stolen New Crobuzon deep-sea rig Sorghum.

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