Across the mountains many miles west of Rhydin City, the Star's End Spaceport can be found nestled in a long, shallow, and landlocked valley. The original port was little more than a wide tarmac with a series of Quonset huts, one of them a "greasy spoon" known as the Star's End Bar & Grill. Built by a group of contracted spacers (and rumored to have been paid for by the then-proprietor of the Red Dragon Inn, Kairee), the spaceport was meant to be a haven to star jockeys from anywhere and everywhere. Ships would come straight down without need of landing clearances or licenses—the true appeal of Star's End was that it did not technically exist at all. Needless to say, it was the sort of place for "unofficial" business dealings.
Years passed and the Spaceport grew from those humble origins, spreading and sprawling out over the valley. The simple tarmac and Quonset huts expanded into long concourses of landing bays and large, echoing warehouses. In geosynchronous orbit above, an orbital facility called Gateway Station was built to service those ships either too large or incapable of landing. Rough housing was built to service those who kept this growing port thriving. And through it all, the Star's End Bar remained there with its own brand of service.
The modern Spaceport has grown up around that small central core. It now encompasses all manner of shops and trades, all based around commerce from the stars. There are scrapyards and junkyards; arms vendors; general merchandise tradesmen; spacecraft dealers; and, of course, that healthy trade in "rare and exotic merchandise." Some still call it "Machine parts." And let us not forget the steady population of mercenaries, bounty hunters, and just plain hired guns.
Further out from the "core"—the ship docks, the main Concourse, the Star's End Bar, and the inner warehouses—have sprung up different "neighborhoods." One is a section that some of the wealthier people have built up: a more upscale subset that includes a luxury hotel, lavish (and extremely secure) apartment complexes, and other amenities. Other sections, such as the abandoned part of the Warehouse district, ...well, you do not want to go there alone.
The very lawlessness that defines Star's End is paradoxically the key to its success—no one runs this place, so everyone is welcome. Anything goes. It manages to avoid self-destructive chaos by the necessity of survival. All these factions—be they powerful criminal enterprises, thuggish gunfighters, street gangs, or crooked smugglers—keep an uneasy peace. They have to; it is the only way they all get to keep this safe harbor free of restrictions and pesky laws. As in Rhydin Town and the Red Dragon Inn, might makes right here. But when everyone is mighty, you have no choice but to get along. Warily and suspiciously, but you get along.
What truly makes Star's End so different from a uncounted spaceports the galaxy over is the "planet" where it lies. Take a ride out the east end of the port and through the mountains, and you are going to come into the fantastic realm of Rhydin. That road leads in both directions, of course. Nowhere else in the universe can a spacer land his ship, make a deal with an arms dealer, and in the next moment share a drink with a traveling mage or a half-dragon. The fantastic and the futuristic have long since learned to live side by side—though inevitably with occasional glances of confusion from either side. But then again, that is what makes it so interesting.
Star's End Spaceport continues to evolve organically, for there can be no organization in such a place. Fortunes ebb and flow, and while the spaceport is not as thriving as it was in years past, it survives. And as sure as the sun will rise, in time the port will thrive once again. Because there is always going to be a need for someplace to make those "unspoken" deals.
Welcome to the Spaceport. Just watch your back.