Climate—like South Carolina; sub tropical, Winters 10° Summers 25°, rain falls year round but mostly in the Winter. The fields lie fallow for three months before they go into production and turn out two crops a year. The pecans, almonds, olives, Citrus and the peach trees line every roadway marking the main roads. There are stands of Cork in the hills beside the vineyards. The country side has many long snaking trails agricultural aqueducts, while the main one for the city itself runs straight and strong for miles. The make of these artifacts is from a better age, but they are showing some wear and tear.
Even years after the war, many of the fields have not been tilled in a long while.. Close examination reveals that the trees have not been pruned the way that they need to be for peak production and scattered around the base are the discarded remains of fruit that had not been harvested in years past. The road is showing signs of lack of care too, not all the cobblestones are quite right, there are cracked and even some missing stones and there are weeds growing in the corners by the low wall. Some of the aqueducts are showing signs of disrepair too, the water is running sluggishly through the irrigation channels.
I have had one campaign that started here. Not much to tell it was one match that included a very large arena that was flooded and inside there was a naval battle staged.
-Things to note, this is before Mask of Winters takes the city.
-The recent war did not touch the city, except it reparation payments, so this city is very much like Germany of the 1920's: intact but bankrupt. The Realm tacitly controls the city and has a strong presence there.
-there was a significant toll on the people though; less than half the men and women who went to war, came back
-Whereas in Canon there was a score of Dragon Blooded in the city, there is now hundreds. Mostly Realm origin, but there is a strong ruling class of exalted, severely ruined from the recent war, only the very old and the very young. There are about ten Dragon Blooded of 200+ years experience and ninety with ten or less experience as Exalted.
-The Realm Exalted include a strong Immaculate temple, five Masters of the Elemental styles and five acolytes each that know the Form level only. There are twenty-five mortal priests. Only the Masters have artifacts. 30 total Exalted.
-Their are about seventy Realm based Exalted are in the city at any time, mostly filling out the middle aged rank of Dragon Blooded.
- 2Dragons of soldiers is stationed in the city:
800 mortal soldiers
200 DB Fanglords—4 troops
50 DB Scalelords—5 fangs
8 DB Talonlords—5 Scales
4 DB Winglords—2 talons one aide
2 DB Dragonlords—2 wings one aide
Only the Talonlords and up have artifacts and only they are not recent grads.
One Dragon in the city garrison. One Dragon in the countryside at four forts a Talon in each. Total house Cynis troop DB 270, including six aides
340 Cynis DB, +30 Immaculate Order
100 Thorn DB
The recent disappearance of the Empress is having its first impact here: the Realm soldiers are preparing to pull up stakes and remove themselves from the city to go back to the Realm. There are 25 galleys in the port from the Peleps Earth Fleet here to facilitate the first removal of troops, one of the Dragons. The plan is to take the City Dragon out first and to pull the troops out of the countryside, leaving a scale in each fort and allowing the local troops to garrison the rest of the fort. Then in the second stage to take the rest of the troops out and leave the Thorns own troops in all their positions. The first stage is already underway, the boats are being loaded with supplies and the troops are leaving the city to relieve the majority of the second Dragon to go to the city as the first leaves entirely.
They don't know that the Deathlord Mask of Winters is watching this planned withdrawal with interest: he will attack within a month of the last Realm troops leaving.
The layout of the city:
The city is larger than its population. It has been a Realm Tributary state since the beginning. It was built up to be a place for Realm Dynasts to go in the Summer. The harbour is wide and well developed. There are three wide gates with even wider boulevards that lead straight into the city. Each one is two wide roads with large strip of parkland between the roads, the roads have connections many times as they head to the city center. The three roads meet, not at a civil center but at a very large arena. The South road heads to Harbourhead along the coast. The Coast road heads, along the coast and eventually through to Lookshy almost a thousand miles away. The East road heads East into the interior and eventually deep into the southern most of the Hundred Kingdoms, and to the city of Jades.
There is an inner city and an outer city. The inner city includes the West shore and the center prominence. It includes the Palace, the Entertainment district, and the Foreign District and the Realm Embassy and Fortress. The Outer City includes the North Shore Harbour, the administration district, the bizarre, the slums, and anything else. The Outer City includes the City Guard, the National Guard and the large parts of the less savory businesses, like the slaughtering mills, Tannery, Smelters and such. Access to the Inner City is strictly controlled. Each gate has more than one Exalted on site to deal with any problems, mostly this comes in the form of a Scale of Imperial troops. They take their jobs seriously, because there are still a lot of Dynasts in the city and they do not want to be troubled by the riffraff. Entrance into the Inner City can be gained with a writ which must be stamped once on entrance and once upon exit. Failure to attain this means that the writ will be confiscated and must be reapplied for again. Temporary writs can be purchased for an exorbitant fee and are limited to specific destinations and time limits. Violations often result in summary executions or fines, depending on the infraction.
Entrance to the Outer City is comparatively simple and free flowing. The three entrances are wide and allow easy access to all. The gates can be secured at a moments notice with large blocks that fall to transform the gates into new sections of wall, but the movement of these blocks is almost impossible once initiated. In the history of Thorns this security measure was only enacted during the Balorian Crusade and it took twenty long years to reset the gates. The regular wide gates close at night at the North and the South gate while the East gate only closes if there is a siege. It is almost impossible to cut off the water from the aqueducts in a time of siege, as they are a working First Age artifact that purifies the water on it. The unused water that makes it through the city spills into the sea at several places. The water is diverted from the main flow through the city along the walls in the districts. The water is freely available and attempts to commoditize the access have failed.
Necropolis: it is in the center of the city and it is the most built up section of the city. The city district is crisscrossed with canals, the water from the aqueducts flow this way through here. The canals feed tall trees that grow along the pathways here and the other plants. Between the canals are large islands. They are a mixture of hillside where people are interred and large mausoleum where the bones of the dead are exhumed after twenty years and arranged in a tight fitting bundle for another fifty years before they are crushed and covered up with stone slabs, names of the deceased inscribed over them. There are fifty such buildings and they have grown quite tall: they are all over one hundred feet tall, as the practice has been on going for 5000 years. One structure is quite a bit taller than the others, this marks the dead that were cremated after the Contagion, it is twenty feet taller than the others.
The Dragon Blooded Villas dot the Inner City and many of them have private water access along the Western Shore. Each estate is villa with as much opulence that the owner could muster. All to the great Houses have representation here as well as a number of organizations, including the All Seeing Eye, it is rumored. The disgraced House Isilsi once had an estate too. A number of Patrician families have smaller villas as well. The Empress has a very grand villa, but she has never spent time here. The breezes that come off the Inner Sea push the stink of the city away from these estates in the Spring Summer and Fall, only the Winter is the wind less reliable, but the Dragon Blooded are not likely to be in residence then, but in warmer climes like An Teng. In the summer the breeze keeps the temperatures quite temperate. The entertainment in this section of the city is famed throughout the Realm. The singing halls and the games arenas are quite spectacular, the once a season Naval Battle draws Exalted from across the Threshold and the Realm to see the spectacle. Other times there are horse races and other more interesting spectacles: the horse races are a mainstay, but the naval battles and the mass battles, involving talon scale units, against beasts and other armies, is legendary and attracted people from as far as Great Forks. There are other entertainments, such as demon brothels and more mundane types. The density of wealth in this section attracts craftsmen and merchants that can fill any taste and experience too.
$$$$$$$$$$
This was the region where the Realm first chose to expand into about one hundred fifty years ago. The expansion was subtle at first reinforcements trickled into Thorns a dragon of troops at a time and after a few years they had expanded the territory of Thorns considerably, then just the region that the city drew its support and later the periphery of those. The expansion took a direction to keep it out of the way of Lookshy and the Federation of Rivers, because they did not think it was yet time to test that body. The expansion took the form of prospectors, treasure hunters and Geomancers; it looked like development, but it was only when the troops showed up that it became clear that it was an annexation. The entire region south of the Hundred Kingdoms and bordering near Harbourhead was engulfed. All the wealth of the area flowed through Thorns, it was either that or to flow north along the Grey River, past Nexus and past Lookshy. Better that the bulk of the movement of goods and troops headed to Thorns.
The city is showing signs of recent growth, recent meaning in the last hundred years, but of more recent abandonment. Since the disappearance of the Empress, one of two things have occurred, either Realm citizens have returned back home, or they have moved closer to where the action is and that is not Thorns. Also the war, did take its toll on the people and there are not the people that used to fill this city from its prime.
The true reason for Thorns to attack the River Provinces was what it seemed to be, a test to see if a force of Dragon Blooded lead mortals could defeat the forces of Lookshy and the River Provinces, but there was another motive, to deflect attention away from the Realm expansion into the Southern Jungles. The Second motive was successful. The Realm was able to add forces and take control of independent City States along the border of Harbourhead and Thorns straight to the Grey River and beyond. The work that began one hundred and fifty years ago. The cover of the war allowed this to be completed. The wealth that was supposed to go to Thorns, however, went straight to the Realm. The roads that were completed went in a few directions. They went through Thorns, they went South to Harbourhead and they went to the Grey River and founded and improved the harbours on that river, so that there was no single route for the wealth to travel. The resources include, but not limited to: Jade, hearthstones, and artifact recovery. Rare woods, medicinal products, other mineral resources, not to mention Slaves also are resources that they took. Refining takes place where available.
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Manse architecture of the area is a mix of First Age and newer construction. In the hills outside the city a grouping of three manses provides all the water for the aqueducts for the city. Two level five demesne and one level four demesne were capped with level three Manses, the excess going to pump water into the aqueduct. These manses were built with stability in mind and survived millennia. There is a major Solar dragonline near the city, the two level five manses have been altered from solar aspect to Wood and Air. The Wood Manse is a particularly fecund orchard, the fruit grown here weigh the branches down each harvest and the fruit is blemish free without any parasites, perfect fruit in taste and appearance. The last is located on the coast right in the city and the tall spire that was renovated into a Air Manse. Along the rest of the Dragonline there are five level three Manses redesigned to fit the element there, but one is capping a level four demesne and the excess is bled of with lights.
There are several manses located in the waters off Thorns, all were built in the First Age, two Level Five, two level four, six level three, and a few level ones. Four of them have Solar Aspects and due to the underwater nature it was decided that they could not be altered. The manses include one level five, the four and two level threes. The level five manse actually bleeds off some essence, as there is excess myotonic energy. The effect is that there is more light in the depths and this has resulted in a lot of growth in the area, the fish are bigger and other tangibles. The other manses are known for the clear water in the area and the bright colours on the ocean floor.
The rest of the Manses were or recapped capped since the First Age, two level four demesnes are capped as level threes with the excess going to irrigate the fields, they are Water Manses. There is only one manses inside the city itself and there are a number of manses in the outer walls— the wall follows a Air Dragon line and there are a few manses along its course, including a The aforementioned level five air aspected manse, three level three manses and a level two, Earth, Air, Wood and the smaller Water manse. Just outside the wall there is the last first age manse in the Aqueduct before the city, the Manse is aspected Earth, but it is bleeding water into the aqueduct, topping off the flow from losses to agriculture. All the manses in the area have owners, including the 12 off the coast. By rights all the level five manses are controlled by the Immaculate Order, but half of the level three and four manses are owned by local royalty, the rest have been picked up by the Realm.
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The spirits of the area are all cowed by the Immaculate Order. The five Immaculate temples split up the duties of the local gods along elemental lines and splitting the rest to make it more even. There are festivals for each major god of the area at the start of each month. Every minor god has a special day at the start of each other week in a month, so there are fifteen major festivals of one day in length and forty-five half day celebrations throughout the year.
Resplendent Wood
Normally in the Realm and the River Provinces this would be the planting month, but this far in the South, that occurs in Resplendent Water, so at this time the rainy season is coming to an end here and the fields are full of water and rice is growing well, it just needs the sun to come out and dry the water and allow the rice to ripen. In another season the rice will be harvested and and grains will be planted in their stead, soy and alfalfa. The rice stalks will be used for cloth and paper. Some of the fields are flooded for a second crop of Rice. Others are used to plant wheat. The hills are cultivated with grapes and the regions without irrigation are planted with cotton. The more barren locations are planted with Flax.
Resplendent Earth festival is to the Unconquered Sun, as he rises daily, but now he conquers the two and a half seasons of rain and gloom. His festival is grand and filled by lots of plenty and food, he gets a three day festival where all the temples participate. The next week the god of orchard flowering begins a half day festival, the flowers have usually started as the weather dries. The next week the god of the drying breeze is celebrated, as the rice fields mature. Next is the god of the shoals as the shrimping and oyster gathering season ends and the the goddess is given thanks.
Descending Earth, marks the Festival of Venus the fertility of the animals and warm days to come, a two day festival. The next week back to half day festivals with the dry field, the next week is the festival of trade and commerce, the next is the festival of bright lights the gods of that manage the candles and torches and long night revelries.
Ascending Wood, festival of the first harvest, where the rice of the first is harvested and set to dry a day long festival. The first harvest is where most of the food for the year is grown, so this is a big harvest, but it fills the staple. The second harvest fills the rest and allows luxuries like Saké and other uses are made. So this is an important harvest, but it is still a minor god. The next the festival of the second planting, next the god of irrigation, last comes the god of sanitation.
Resplendent Wood is the festival of Mars, two days followed by a half day to Ahlat and a half day to the other relevant war gods.
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The Draven Family. The Draven Family is a Minor patrician family of House Cynis, the current Governor of the Satrapy of Thorns. Occasionally when house Cynis wants to get around the rules of slave ownership with the Empress, she must own more of a specific kind an any other house, house Cynis will get a patrician family to purchase additional slaves. So, although they were purchased by house Draven, Jaguar's family was actually purchased by house Cynis. That, according to the books, they all went to the arena and were all killed in combat, according to the books. This is not what happened.
What actually happened was they were sent to the pits and marked off as dead and moved to private pleasure houses in the area and into the realm. They are small and many in house Cynis like to have their way with children amongst other perversions. Jaguar's people are small and can easily be groomed to appear as children. They are completely off the books. The 20 slaves are distributed on pairs, and dressed as boy and girl, traditional local dress, hair coloured in most cases. The larger eyes are a huge advantage here, very attractive. They are distributed in five Brothels in the Pleasure district where the Dynasts play and three in more rural areas where close to where the military is located but also further a field where the resource extraction is located. The other two pairs have been moved to the Realm. Since one brothel is known for oddities including Demons, this is where the first two are more likely to be found and thus the falsified records. No one remembers the fights where the people supposedly died. There are no records except for their deaths, there is only one person who marks these books and he is quite use to inspections and he has been coached well in this measure. He is house Draven's only Exalted, he has been promised after only a few more years of service that he will be added to the Ranks of house Cynis by marriage. Draven Geralt
Insert list of Cynis names here:
Aden Adenya Baeranika Benisra Biti Cagilin Canissu Caphen Caranan Cena Chetalasir Cydera Cydo Darika Era Eraras Ina Inow Isara Jasu Ka Keseruyo Lara Maki Mako Manana Menjala Namaras Neda Nenorsa Nera Pegus Petasim Ranis Semaden Shinis
Agent provocateurs of Mask of Winters. Two very loose circles of Abysals, one located in the city itself and one in the countryside. They are here for straight reconnaissance. They are infiltrating the ranks of the military, and the rulers, primarily. They are also gaining information from the the locals and such they are keeping their noses clean, the only inclination is that the local VIPs are getting tired of people asking questions. The locals are starting to form intimacies of dislike about the rulers and the Dragon Blooded, as you might expect with four social exalted working the area, the intimacies are very low undercurrents in the people's lives but the effect is growing. The effects are of being ground down and unhappiness with their lot in life. This can be blamed on the after effects of the war, but it is more than that.
There is a single Day Caste of the Black Sun in the area and a Moomshadow in the underworld version, they are currently in deep cover and they are keeping tabs on Mask of Winters and the area. The Black Sun has exploited his contacts in Mask of Winters to discover his plan and he has instructed his minions to concentrate on improving the networks here. The Day Caste in Creation and the Moonshadow in the Underworld. They are instructed not to exploit these contacts, just establish them, all in minor positions.
If Vael is in the area, he will be told nothing of the activities here nor of Black Sun's suspicions. Both of the other Exalts will be told of his presence, and they may contact him. They will make the sign of the Black Sun in some way to him to let him know how they are aligned. Once there established he can tap into the information network, in exchange for some action.
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