TEXT: TM
  
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  BY MICHAEL KESSLER, PRISCILLA KIM, ERIC MINTON, 
  DEAN SHOMSHAK AND JOHN SNEAD
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  CREDITS
  Authors: Michael Kessler, Priscilla Kim, Eric Minton, Dean 
  Shomshak and John Snead
  Comic Scripter: Carl Bowen
  Developers: John Chambers and Dean Shomshak
  Editor: Carl Bowen
  Art Direction and Layout: Brian Glass
  Artists: Gordon Benetto, Ed Bourelle, Leanne Buckley, 
  Andrew Hepworth, Imaginary Friends Studio (with Chris, 
  Jennyson, Lan Jun ‘Junkman’ Kang, Leos ‘Okita’ Ng and 
  Zid), Priscilla Kim, Saana ‘Kiyo’ Lappalainen, Pasi Pitkanen, 
  UDON (with Steven Cummings, Andre Mina, Saejin Oh, 
  Eric Vedder and Joe Vriens)
  Cover Art: Groundbreakers Studio (with Brian Valeza)
  © 2009 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher 
  is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may 
  be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf and Exalted are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All 
  rights reserved. The Compass of Terrestrial Directions, the Scavenger Lands, the West, the East, the 
  South, the North, the Manual of Exalted Power the Dragon-Blooded, the Manual of Exalted Power 
  the Lunars, the Manual of Exalted Power the Sidereals, the Manual of Exalted Power the Abyssals, 
  the Manual of Exalted Power the Infernals, the Compass of Celestial Directions, the Blessed Isle, the 
  Wyld, Yu-Shan, the Underworld, Malfeas, the Books of Sorcery, Wonders of the Lost Age, the White 
  and Black Treatises, Oadenol’s Codex, the Roll of Glorious Divinity I, the Roll of Glorious Divinity 
  II, Scroll of the Monk, Scroll of the Monk the Imperfect Lotus, Scroll of Kings, Scroll of Fallen Races, 
  Dreams of the First Age, the Age of Sorrows and the Second Age of Man are trademarks of CCP hf. All 
  rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf.
  The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to 
  the trademark or copyright concerned.
  This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters, and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature 
  content. Reader discretion is advised.
  Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com//
  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  COMING NEXT:
  THE MANUAL OF EXALTED POWER—
  THE ALCHEMICALS
  Designed before the Primordial War but never built, 
  Alchemical templates inspired the Exalts fielded by the 
  Incarnae. Siding against his brethren, Autochthon heard 
  the Curse directed by the slain Primordials at the Chosen 
  and watched it slowly twist their minds. Knowing it was only 
  a matter of time before their paranoia was directed at him, 
  he gathered thousands of worshippers inside him and fled 
  Elsewhere to escape the fate of the other Primordials. There, 
  the mortals built an advanced civilization, and to preserve 
  it, Autochthon finally built his prototype Champions. Ever 
  since, the Alchemocal Exalted have kept the Eight Nations 
  safe. But as Autochthon’s health deteriorates, the threats 
  the Alchemicals face grow ever greater. Can they save 
  their world-god, or has Autochthon’s flight led only to his 
  demise?
  NOW AVAILABLE IN THIS SERIES:
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, 
  VOL. 1 — THE SCAVENGER LANDS
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, 
  VOL. II — THE WEST
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, 
  VOL. III — THE EAST
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, 
  VOL. IV — THE SOUTH
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, 
  VOL. V — THE NORTH
  COMING NEXT:
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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  INTRODUCTION 
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  CHAPTER ONE: WORDS ON THE WIND 
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  CHAPTER TWO: THE ONCE-HOLY CITY 
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  CHAPTER THREE: THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN 
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  CHAPTER FOUR: AIR BOATS AND AMBITION 
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM  
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  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE 
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  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH 
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  INTRODUCTION
   
  INTRODUCTION
  INTRODUCTION
  Day after day, throughout the winter,
  We hardened ourselves to live by bluest reason
  In a world of wind and frost.
  —Wallace Stevens, “Meditations Celestial & Terrestrial”
  Of the five directions of Creation, the North is the 
  coldest and wildest. Every year, frigid winds sweep out 
  from the Elemental Pole of Air to cover the North in ice 
  and snow. Farming is difficult there except along the coasts 
  and in a few sheltered locations, which limits the growth of 
  civilization. Nevertheless, a number of powerful states have 
  grown in the North—and the barbarian tribes who live by 
  hunting and gathering have their own points of interest. 
  In the Time of Tumult, they all need heroes.
  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
  The Compass of Terrestrial Directions, Vol. V—The 
  North is a setting book for the Exalted game. It gives play-
  ers and Storytellers an overview of the North’s people and 
  places, from the tribes of the icewalker barbarians to the 
  fortress-city of Whitewall. If you want to create a character 
  from the North or set a series in this region of wind and 
  frost, this book gives you the background to do so.
  Chapter One: Words on the Wind
  The book begins with a history of the North. In the 
  ancient past, this direction saw some of Creation’s greatest 
  wonders—and suffered some of Creation’s greatest disasters. 
  Civilization slowly rebuilds itself in the North, but it may 
  yet all crumble and blow away.
  Chapter Two: The Once-Holy City
  The city of Whitewall was built long ago as a shrine to 
  the Unconquered Sun, but fell into apostasy and ruin. The 
  city’s divine rulers, the Syndics, have restored Whitewall 
  as a bastion of safety and civilization in the North, but 
  powerful, uncanny foes surround Whitewall and seek the 
  city’s ruin.
  Chapter Three: The City Under the Mountain
  Centuries ago, refugees discovered and settled a lost 
  subterranean city. Gethamane supplies food and shelter from 
  all the North’s dangers. Yet, monsters sometimes rise from 
  the tunnels that stretch out beneath the city’s deepest layers. 
  
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  The people of Gethamane live on top of horror and danger 
  beyond their imagining.
  Chapter Four: Air Boats and Ambition
  The Haslanti League began as an alliance of barbarian 
  tribes and has grown into a huge (if sparsely populated) 
  nation. Technological innovations such as air boats and 
  iceships make the League a great military power. As the 
  Haslanti seek a middle path between civilization and 
  barbarism, they feel both the temptations and burdens of 
  imperial power.
  Chapter Five: Civilization and Barbarism
  This chapter describes Northern cultures that never 
  became great nations, but could if given the chance. The 
  Deshan states, satrapies of the Realm, live in brutal slavery, 
  while an equally brutal rebellion builds. Shanarinara finds 
  unexpected challenges to its democratic traditions in wealth 
  that attracts a surge of immigrants. Meanwhile, the icewalker 
  barbarians continue to live in small, nomadic bands, their 
  culture holding greater subtleties than most civilized folk 
  imagine. The North also holds many little city-states and 
  minor tribes… not all of them human.
  Chapter Six: Sun and Ice
  In 10 years, the Solar warlord called the Bull of the 
  North forged icewalker tribes into an army that defeated 
  the Realm and wrested an empire from the North. This 
  chapter provides a glimpse of Yurgen Kaneko’s dominion. 
  The Bull wants to conquer the world and restore the Old 
  Realm—but beyond his drive to conquer, can he and his 
  fellow Solars also rule?
  Chapter Seven: Gods and Monsters of the North
  From the great Celestial gods of war to malevolent Wyld 
  barbarians, a wide variety of spirits, mortals and monsters 
  shape life in the North. The Compass of Celestial Direc-
  tions, Vol. V—The North concludes with a selection of 
  people and creatures that may become friends or foes to 
  the Exalted.
  
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  INTRODUCTION
  
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  CHAPTER ONE • WORDS ON THE WIND
  9
  CHAPTER ONE
  CHAPTER ONE
  WORDS ON THE WIND
  WORDS ON THE WIND
  The North has always been a land of survival rather 
  than grace. Summers are short; winters are long and cruel. 
  The North stretches from the Inland Sea to the Elemental 
  Pole of Air, bounded on the east by the forests of Halta and 
  on the west by the Great Western Ocean. The mildest areas 
  lie around the Inland Sea, where numerous small kingdoms 
  and city-states squabble among themselves for a few miles of 
  territory. Many of them accept the Realm’s yoke.
  Mountain ranges slant northeast across the mainland 
  from the Inland Sea to the White Sea. The Dehennen 
  Mountains separate the Kunlun Desert from the Inland 
  Sea littoral. The range ends in the knot of the Black Crag 
  Mountains, whose valleys shelter the cities of Whitewall 
  and Fella, while the city of Gethamane burrows into one of 
  the Northern peaks. Eastward from the mountains spreads 
  a broad region of steppes, evergreen forest, low hills and 
  marshy lowlands, with the high tundra of the Ice Plains at 
  their center. The icewalker barbarians dominate this land, 
  though a number of small countries survive in the interior. 
  One of them, Shanarinara, now rises to prominence. The 
  River of Tears runs south from the White Sea to the Yanaze 
  River in the Scavenger Lands. Several small city-states cluster 
  beside its brackish waters.
  To the north, the White Sea caps the boundary of what 
  most would consider the habitable areas of the North. The 
  Great Ice stretches farther beyond that, all howling snow and 
  glaciers, to the Elemental Pole of Air itself. And yet, mortal 
  men live in this seemingly barren waste. The iceships of the 
  Haslanti skim across the frozen surface, and barbarian tribes 
  hunt seals and whales.
  The Realm holds limited sway over the North—in part 
  because the Scarlet Dynasty, for many years, did not care 
  enough to conquer the region. Long winters, harsh weather 
  and frozen earth made the land an unpleasant place to live, 
  offering little luxury or riches for the Dynasts. The North 
  does supply large quantities of furs and ivory to other parts 
  of Creation, however, and lucrative mines of diamonds and 
  blue jade lie beneath the snow. The Far North is also the 
  
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  only source of feathersteel—a metal as strong as iron, at a 
  third of the weight.
  Unfortunately for the Realm, such treasures either have 
  formidable defenders or are widely dispersed. Whitewall’s 
  Syndics, the mountain fastness of Gethamane, the faraway, 
  decentralized Haslanti League and the ferocious icewalkers 
  control many such resources. Over the centuries, all four 
  have amply demonstrated that they can protect themselves. 
  On top of these mundane obstacles, the North holds pow-
  erful nations of cunning and cruel Fair Folk, Wyld-twisted 
  barbarians of implacable savagery and shadowlands haunted 
  by powerful ghosts. The Realm’s leaders deem the cost to 
  exceed the rewards. This suits the independent Northerners 
  well enough.
  PREHISTORY AND THE FIRST AGE
  A Northern myth says that when the Primordials first 
  came into existence, they exhaled. The cold of their breath 
  created the first elemental pole, the Pole of Air, and the land 
  crystallized into existence from that point. The icewalkers 
  tell a different tale, of a land already locked in ice until First 
  Father came with his flaming sword and freed the world from 
  cold. A third myth tells how Mela’s hatching creating the 
  North. These myths and many more form a fluid, shifting 
  cloud of legend surrounding the region’s origins.
  Whatever the truth is, the North was always the most 
  savage of lands, where civilization came last. The Dragon 
  Kings ventured northward long before humanity existed, 
  roosting high in the Northern mountains or racing across 
  the plains. Humanity followed reluctantly, often as refugees 
  pushed from the richer lands of the East. Once in the North, 
  though, they adapted swiftly—or died. Some became nomads 
  and followed the herds of reindeer and mammoth. Others 
  turned to wresting crops from the tough ground. Violence 
  and warfare broke out frequently, as different groups sought 
  to carve out their own territories. Strength of arm ruled, 
  rather than diplomacy. Meanwhile, the winged Pterok breed 
  of Dragon King soared over it all, watching humanity with 
  amused dispassion.
  Then the gods rose up to make war against their cre-
  ators. Primordial, Exalt and mortal alike watered the land 
  with their blood. The death of each Primordial changed 
  the face of the land, wiping out entire cities, shattering 
  mountains and tearing valleys where none had been before. 
  The Exalted shaped the land too, sometimes using it as a 
  weapon: The sorcerer-engineer Racha Weaver-of-Truths 
  built the Spidersilk Dam at the mouth of the White Sea 
  to destroy Ta’akozoka, the Great Tentacled One from the 
  Sea, draining away the waters that gave the Primordial life. 
  After years of cataclysmic battles, the Exalted humbled the 
  
  CHAPTER ONE • WORDS ON THE WIND
  11
  Primordials and locked them away, before turning to rebuild 
  the ravaged world.
  THE AGE OF SPLENDOR
  No part of Creation escaped the imperious gaze of its 
  Exalted rulers, but the Solar Deliberative ruled the North with 
  a lighter hand than in other regions. The Exalted frequently 
  felt the area held the last true wildernesses within the civilized 
  empire of the Lawgivers. More than one area avoided falling 
  under the Deliberative’s rule, with many more attracting only 
  light attention from the central government.
  Still, to say that the North was the wildest territory in 
  the Age of Splendor is only to say that it had comparatively 
  fewer cities. The Deliberative still transformed the face of the 
  North with vast terraforming and climate change projects. 
  The White Valley Province in particular, fertilized by the 
  corpse of Ta’akozoka, yielded lush crops. To increase the 
  arable land, the Deliberative gouged huge valleys into the 
  White Valley’s upper slopes—the greenfields—geomantically 
  shaped to concentrate the sun’s warmth.
  The Solars crafted wondrous cities, as well. Among them 
  were the city of Ondar Shambal, a prayer to the Unconquered 
  Sun crafted in stone; the City of the Mountain Gateway, a 
  hub that connected all the directions of Creation and Yu-
  Shan; the flying city of Tzatli, borne aloft by crackling ropes 
  of lightning; and countless others, the least of which would 
  put any Second Age metropolis to shame.
  Regardless, civilization lay lightly in some areas. Lunars 
  and adventurous young Solars favored the North because of 
  the abundant wilderness areas. The unforgiving steppes and 
  blizzards, along with stranger landscapes sculpted by terraform-
  ing engines, offered challenges for restless young Exalted that 
  they could find nowhere else. No wonder, then, that people 
  who felt less than thrilled by the Deliberative often gathered 
  in the North. The population of these areas swelled as the 
  High First Age decayed, the madness of the Solars grew more 
  apparent and the disaffected sought any place where they 
  might escape the excesses of the Lawgivers.
  It would not be the last time the North became a 
  refuge.
  THE USURPATION
  When the Dragon-Blooded and their Sidereal allies 
  struck, many Solars fled to the North for the same reasons 
  as earlier refugees. Famed architect Kal Bax erected a hidden 
  manse somewhere in the farthest North, where he hid with 11 
  companions to vanish from the pages of history. Other Law-
  givers and their Lunar consorts returned to their home cities 
  for a last stand, or fled and turned to fight when they could 
  run no more. The Solar First Sun’s Cry broke the Spidersilk 
  Dam in a spiteful deathblow, releasing the Great Western 
  Ocean into the White Valley to drown his attackers—and 
  the millions that lived in the valley. All the cities along 
  the White Valley died in the onslaught, their shining tow-
  ers shattered beneath titanic waves. The pain and terror of 
  the dead stained the new seafloor with shadowlands, where 
  ghosts wandered in the lightless depths among the walls of 
  their broken cities.
  Many other cities fared no better. Tzatli fell amid arcs 
  of splintering lightning and buried itself in the ice, its evacu-
  ees scattering to the winds. The sorcerer Oa-Té staged his 
  last stand in the reality-fixing city of Opal Spire, where he 
  summoned the behemoth Vorvin-Derlin, Slayer of Armies. 
  Weakened by battle, the sorcerer lost control of the monster. 
  It consumed him and went berserk. Exalted and mortals 
  both had to abandon the city as unrecoverable. The City of 
  the Mountain Gateway suddenly went silent. No refugees 
  fled the city, and Heaven itself does not know the fate of its 
  vanished inhabitants.
  Even those places that escaped outright destruction 
  felt the effects. Blood ran red through the shining streets of 
  Whitewall as Bronze Faction conspirators felled its beloved 
  rulers, Queen Tenrae and her consort Den’rahin. Wrathful 
  Lawgivers out for vengeance all but depopulated Meteor’s 
  Eye, the foremost university for astrological studies and the 
  favored city of Sidereals in Creation. The golden arch of 
  Brahm’s Bridge, spanning hundreds of miles over the Inland 
  Sea, took legions of mortals with it when it crumbled into the 
  water. Fragments of gold and sparkling Essence lit the sea for 
  three weeks before the last vestige vanished entirely.
  THE SHOGUNATE
  After they slew the last of the Lawgivers, the Dragon-
  Blooded turned their attention to consolidating their rule. 
  The Shogunate did its best to maintain the farms of the North, 
  but the fighting had broken too many of the engines that 
  kept the land warm and fertile. The Dragon-Blooded could 
  maintain them, but they lacked the knowledge to repair them 
  or to create new ones. With the cataclysmic breaking of the 
  Spidersilk Dam, the North lost its primary breadbasket. The 
  breakdown of the climate-control engines led to the loss of 
  even more farmland. Year by year, the ice crept farther south, 
  frost seeping into the ground, roads and aqueducts crumbling 
  and decaying. The Shogunate slowly relinquished its hold 
  on the further reaches of the North to focus on the warmer 
  and more populous areas near the Inland Sea. With much of 
  the land and the great cities wrecked, the wider reaches of 
  North simply did not have much to offer the Shogunate for 
  the trouble it took to bring the territory under control.
  Of course, the Shogunate never abandoned the land en-
  tirely. The areas bordering the River of Tears received special 
  attention. While the inrushing White Sea had drowned the 
  lake that used to be the source of the River of Tears, it left 
  the river itself intact, though tainted by the salt from the 
  new sea. The Shogunate built special manses along the upper 
  reaches of the river that strained the salt from its waters. In 
  time, the riverbanks became arable once more. Cities such 
  as Plenilune arose, flourishing through the trade of salt and 
  traffic between the White Sea and the Yanaze River.
  
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  Regardless of its successes, however, the Shogunate 
  lived in the perpetual shadow of its predecessor. Its at-
  tempts to erase the legacy of the Solars frequently ended 
  badly. Whitewall never took well to the Dragon-Blooded 
  regents, as their former rulers had evinced little of the 
  madness that overtook the other Solars. Consequently, 
  early attempts to destroy Solar iconography and monu-
  ments met with near-riots. Not far away, the psychotic 
  Anjei Marama ran an extermination camp to destroy all 
  the biological creations and servitor races of the Solars, 
  as well as merely mortal loyalists. It served its bloody 
  purpose. The millions of deaths also created the largest 
  shadowland in the North. The Shogunate simply lacked 
  the time and resources to combat the spread of Marama’s 
  Fell and a host of other, smaller problems.
  THE GREAT CONTAGION
  Then the Contagion struck, overwhelming all that 
  the Shogunate could do. Northern city folk crowded 
  together for warmth and safety, and the disease spread 
  among them like wildfire. Entire quarters died in a night. 
  Refugees found nowhere to turn, as the sickness touched 
  nearly every traveler who fled for parts unknown. Even 
  Whitewall, with the powerful protections woven on it 
  from the Solars of Ages past, fell victim.
  The Fair Folk invaded at the height of the plague. The 
  raksha swept southward from the Wyld, killing those who 
  had not been lucky enough to die in the Contagion. They 
  all but depopulated the upper reaches of the North, drawing 
  eddies of the Wyld after them. The advance legions of the 
  Shogunate slowed the raksha but could not stop them. The 
  armies of Creation and the Wyld clashed on the steppes, 
  over the ice, in the mountains. They waged the fiercest 
  of battles in the cities themselves, as cataphractoi leaped 
  from the roofs and talons of soldiers swirled through the 
  streets to meet them. In the city of Fellara, some say, the 
  Fair Folk wove a story of destruction so potent that it lev-
  eled the entire city and continues to repeat itself to this 
  day, the very stones refusing to believe that they can and 
  should bond with one another. The raksha danced around 
  Whitewall and laughed among the corpses in Plenilune, 
  believing Creation on the verge of destruction.
  STARTING ANEW
  Then an ambitious young captain of the Ninth 
  Legion took control of the ancient Lawgivers’ mightiest 
  weapon and destroyed the Fair Folk invasion. Few in the 
  North objected to the rise of the Scarlet Empress. Here 
  and there, a lone Shogunate officer decided to carve out 
  a kingdom for himself, but such territories never extended 
  more than a few days’ travel across. Some of the survivors 
  abandoned civilization completely: They pacted with the 
  divine avatars of the mammoth, reindeer, musk ox and 
  other Northern beasts to survive as nomadic hunters, and 
  became the ancestors of the icewalker barbarians.
  The first major power arose when the Syndics arrived 
  in Whitewall in RY 71, taking over the city as its protec-
  tors. A few years later, they negotiated the Thousand-Year 
  Pact with the local Deathlords, Fair Folk and barbarian 
  tribes, making sure that the Traveler’s Road remained 
  sacrosanct and free of violence. With their safety ensured 
  by the Road, traders began to flow between Whitewall 
  and its coastal satellite of Wallport, bringing renewed 
  prosperity to the city.
  Further settlements began to grow around fortu-
  itous points of shelter and food. North of Whitewall, a 
  ragged coalition of refugees stumbled across an empty 
  city beneath a mountain, the lost remnant of an Age 
  past. Finding the place safe, warm and supplied with 
  food from enchanted fungus gardens deep within the 
  mountain, they stayed and named the new settlement 
  Gethamane. Another small village of refugees coalesced 
  around the sheltered dell of Inara, whose hot springs 
  once made it a favored getaway for the Dragon-Blooded. 
  Those hot springs now formed a reliable source of water 
  and warmth for the refugees. Shattered Fellara revived 
  as Fella, a ragged shantytown of wooden shacks and 
  incongruously advanced medical technology salvaged 
  from the First Age medical school in the heart of the 
  old city. Communities sprang up everywhere humanity 
  could scratch out a living, but for many years, no state 
  grew larger than a few townships across.
  THE EMPIRE OF BAGRASH KÖL
  And then the mortal sorcerer Bagrash Köl arose, 
  wielding the Eye of Autochthon. With this staggeringly 
  powerful artifact, he carved an entire nation from the 
  Northern Wyld, forcibly taming the boundaries of Cre-
  ation to his will. He called thousands of barbarians and 
  peasants to his service, crushing resistance by force. The 
  sorcerer lavished gifts upon those he favored, wonders 
  whose like had not been seen since the Old Realm, and 
  sent destruction upon those who displeased him. In the 
  wake of his floating citadel, chaos stilled. Fields bloomed, 
  herds multiplied, and the people blessed Bagrash Köl for 
  his generosity… if they wanted to live. At its height, 
  Bagrash Köl’s domain surpassed even the fledgling Scarlet 
  Empire in size and grandeur. The Realm’s leaders watched 
  in fear, and the Scarlet Empress readied herself to use 
  the Imperial Manse, should Bagrash Köl move toward 
  the Blessed Isle.
  It never came to that. Quite abruptly, the sorcerer 
  vanished. The last time he appeared in public, he stormed 
  out of the tributary city of Amathis, leaving glittering 
  quartz statues behind him. Two weeks later, his palace 
  crashed to the ground, fragments scattering on the 
  winds. The Wyld swiftly roiled over the land Köl had 
  wrested from it. Only a few hundred refugees reached the 
  people living farther south, to tell them of the sorcer-
  ous empire’s doom. Of the Eye, there was no sign. The 
  
  CHAPTER ONE • WORDS ON THE WIND
  13
  evidence of Bagrash Köl’s short-lived empire vanished 
  within months, lost to the Wyld. Northern folk still tell 
  stories of the sorcerer, however, and the glory, madness 
  and terror of his reign.
  THE GUILD CREEPS NORTH
  One effect lingered, however: the presence of the 
  Guild. When Köl established his empire, the Guild did not 
  yet have a strong presence in the North. Brem Marst, the 
  organization’s founder, leaped at the opportunity to trade 
  with the growing kingdom. The success of the Guild in 
  the following years attracted the sorcerer’s attention, and 
  Marst received a personal invitation to Köl’s palace.
  The merchant, though quite elderly by then, accepted 
  the invitation and arrived at the palace with great pomp. 
  One week later, he departed with much less fanfare. Marst 
  never revealed what he saw on his visit. In the following 
  months, though, he quietly removed the Guild’s assets from 
  Köl’s empire, shifting them to other Northern kingdoms. 
  Within two years, the empire imploded.
  The Guild flourished in the aftermath, however, 
  expanding to fill the commercial gap left by the loss of 
  the North’s largest state. It took a special interest in the 
  areas bordering the former empire and on the Great Ice, 
  seeking lost treasures and artifacts of power. The Guild 
  began to dominate large areas on both the Inland Sea coast 
  and the eastern end of the White Sea, setting up virtual 
  tribute states. While Cherak avoided this fate through its 
  connection to the Realm, the Guild and the Realm would 
  butt heads several times over who controlled a given city 
  on the Inland Sea.
  Beyond clashing with the Guild and securing a hold 
  on several coastal states, though, the Realm did not trouble 
  itself overmuch with the North. Immaculates would occa-
  sionally sweep through a region, humbling the local spirits 
  for a time. Less often, a Wyld Hunt would go out at the 
  signs of an Anathema. One such campaign slew Arvida of 
  the Crescent Eye, the Lunar patron of the Haslanti tribes 
  around the White Sea. The ensuing madness of the Haslanti 
  tribes gave the Guild a chance to move in, taking over 
  the rudimentary Haslanti towns and bringing the Guild’s 
  usual influx of slaves and drugs. Along the Inland Sea, 
  meanwhile, the Realm and the Guild reached a truce by 
  which the Guild received a monopoly on importing drugs 
  to the Realm’s satrapies.
  THE RISE OF THE HASLANTI LEAGUE
  The Guild’s dominance planted the seeds of rebellion. 
  Sick of the Guild’s demands for tribute, the Haslanti took 
  to guerilla warfare, eventually confining the Guild to only 
  a few trading camps along the White Sea. The rebellion 
  came to a head in RY 582 when Gerd Marrow-Eater, a 
  No Moon, called the Haslanti chiefs to the Twisted Stone 
  Convocation. He convinced the Haslanti tribes that the 
  time had come for them to unite and remove the Guild by 
  force. The newly formed Haslanti League swiftly reclaimed 
  their nascent cities and drove out the Guild.
  Nations across the North viewed the precipitously 
  growing new power with alarm. The Scarlet Empress took 
  more direct action. Correctly perceiving the new League to 
  be the work of Anathema, she sent Immaculate monks to 
  hunt the being responsible. The Immaculates never found 
  Gerd Marrow-Eater or his Lunar compatriots, however. 
  Indeed, the monks indirectly strengthened the League 
  by humbling the lesser local spirits, freeing the Haslanti 
  people from their demands.
  The Guild, naturally, took the greatest offense. In 
  retaliation, it pressured Gethamane and the city-states of 
  the River of Tears—the League’s nearest neighbors of any 
  power—to cut the Haslanti off from its commerce. Guild 
  leaders hoped the League would then have to accept the 
  Guild as a trade middleman once more. In response, the 
  Haslanti besieged Gethamane.
  As a proving ground for the newborn Haslanti League’s 
  will and tenacity, the war succeeded admirably. While 
  the Haslanti could not enter Gethamane, neither could 
  the Guild. Eventually, the Guild gave in and settled for 
  limited trade. The effective defeat of the Guild reduced its 
  power in the North for decades thereafter and solidified 
  the status of the Haslanti League as a nation to reckon 
  with—especially given the air-boat technologies that the 
  League developed during the war.
  THE WYLDFOG WAR
  For centuries, distance, the short season for warfare 
  and enemies from outside kept Northern folk from bat-
  tling each other on any large scale. The most widespread 
  threat to face the North since Bagrash Köl came when 
  the first Wyldfog—literal pockets of the Wyld that blew 
  about with the wind—rolled down from the north in RY 
  674. Wyldfogs swept in unpredictable eddies across the 
  North, moving villages, turning trees into stone, ice or 
  living flesh, and warping people and animals into mon-
  sters. Gethamane alone escaped its effects. Everywhere 
  else suffered: The Haslanti League, as the northernmost 
  state, bore the brunt of the storms of transformation. The 
  Fair Folk used the opportunity to strike, and as many souls 
  were lost to the predatory raksha as to the Wyldfogs. The 
  Fair Folk attacks and the Wyldfogs ended only through a 
  long campaign by the Lunar Exalted.
  THE BULL OF THE NORTH
  In RY 757, an aging icewalker walked into the 
  winter and returned touched by the Unconquered Sun. 
  Yurgen Kaneko, the Bull of the North, forged a number 
  of icewalker tribes into an army. He tested that army by 
  conquering a number of minor city-states. Then he struck 
  eastward in a campaign that ended with the destruction of 
  the Tepet legions in the Battle of Futile Blood. (See The 
  Compass of Terrestrial Directions, Vol. III—The East, 
  
  14
  city a Guild stronghold in truth, while the Bull is armed 
  with unknown Solar might.
  The Haslanti League becomes restless, feeling the 
  conflict between its current civilized status and its barbar-
  ian roots. Grown arrogant in its successful defeat of all 
  the conflicts to arise in its history, it seeks now to expand 
  its borders and eyes Whitewall on the horizon. Haslanti 
  leaders have no quarrel with Gethamane, having learned 
  from the Gethamane War that the underground city is 
  impossible to invade.
  The icewalkers face choices and possibilities they 
  never imagined. The Bull of the North offers empire to 
  people who hitherto lived in small tribes. Many tribes flock 
  to his banner, but at least as many now fear the Bull and 
  seek to preserve their old customs.
  Shanarinara begins to feel cramped. This alliance of 
  democratic city-states envies the success of the Haslanti 
  League and wants to imitate its expansion but lacks the 
  Haslanti’s military technology (and secret Lunar patron-
  age). Recently, agents of the Lover Clad in the Raiment 
  of Tears have come courting. The nation’s senate has yet 
  to turn them away.
  pp. 13-14, for more on the Linowan War.) Only then did 
  Creation at large become aware of the power raising its 
  head in the North.
  THE PRESENT
  These days, leaders throughout the North wonder 
  what the Bull will do next. Still other tensions bubble 
  beneath the surface, however.
  The Coastal Satrapies of the Realm struggle to hold 
  their people in bondage. As an experiment in social con-
  trol, the Realm enslaved almost the entire population and 
  addicted them to drugs to keep them docile. Nevertheless, 
  unrest grows.
  Gethamane has few outright enemies, though many 
  desire the city. It maintains polite but distant relations 
  with most states: They have nothing Gethamane es-
  pecially needs, and Gethamane feels safe in remaining 
  neutral. Given the insularity of the city and the safety of 
  its underground location, many citizens fear the enemies 
  that come from the deep rather than the enemies outside. 
  Only the Guild and the Bull of the North particularly 
  trouble Gethamane. The Guild conspires to make the 
  
  CHAPTER ONE • WORDS ON THE WIND
  15
  Whitewall plays a riskier game of diplomacy than 
  Gethamane. While the city’s fabled walls protect it from 
  many threats, Whitewall cannot simply shut out the 
  world. It depends upon both the power of the Syndics and 
  the lifeline of the Traveler’s Road. Should that lifeline 
  be disrupted, the consequences would be disastrous. The 
  power of the Syndics seems unlikely to wane soon, but 
  they have never fought against the Realm. The Empress 
  knew the true identities of the Syndics and knew bet-
  ter than to test their power. The Dynasts who currently 
  squabble over her throne remain ignorant. Some feel that 
  a bold strike, such as taking over a long-independent but 
  prosperous city, could bring them sufficient prestige to 
  seize the throne.
  The Deathlords play an undeniable part in the political 
  game. In the Northwest, the Bishop of the Chalcedony 
  Thurible already wields great influence over the cities of 
  the Kunlun region through his religious tracts. He dreams 
  of spreading his Silent Meadow of Dust until it meets 
  Marama’s Fell, covering half the North in shadowland. 
  In the Northeast, the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears 
  rules the nation of Gradafes in all but name. More impor-
  tantly, the terrifying Tear Eater tribes work her will. This 
  in turn gives her effective rule of a wide region, as many 
  city-states pay tribute to avoid the ravages of the death-
  worshiping barbarians. Lastly—but of greatest concern to 
  Whitewall—the violent ghosts of Marama’s Fell slowly 
  gather beneath the leadership of Thrice-Dread Achiba, 
  a monstrous ghost of uncommon cunning and charisma 
  (see The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. IV—The 
  Underworld, pp. 109-110).
  Nestled among the great nations and far-flung cul-
  tures, many little countries and tribes struggle to survive 
  and find their way in the Time of Tumult. Many of them 
  make deals with other powers… or have such partner-
  ships thrust upon them. On the River of Tears, the effete 
  city-states of Plenilune and the Saltspire League bow to 
  the barbarian Bull of the North. The fierce sea rovers 
  of Karn on Malice Bay find themselves caught between 
  the Haslanti League, the Bull of the North and the Tear 
  Eaters, and their potent ancestral ghosts can no longer 
  protect them. They find new hope through the leadership 
  of their bold new king—unaware that he is the Bull’s 
  agent. At the other end of the North, the Zalvenesh 
  dive for First Age artifacts at the mouth of the White 
  Sea, enduring the icy waters with the help of their gods. 
  The seafarers of Rajtul Island survive through their own 
  strange partnership with the arcane elkmen. Whether 
  they live in a great city or a reindeer-skin tent, the people 
  of the North vow to endure whatever fate brings them, 
  as they have always done.
  TIMELINE
  Realm
  Year 
  Event
  8 
  Refugees settle in a valley of hot springs and ruined spas, beginning the town of Inara.
  71 
  Yo-Ping, Luranume and Uvanavu assume the guise of the Syndics and take over the city of Whitewall.
  73 
  The Syndics negotiate the Thousand-Year Pact with the Deathlords, Fair Folk and barbarians.
  102 
  Bethan Redeye and a group of refugees stumble across the remains of the City of the Mountain Gateway 
  and its gardens. They rename it Gethamane.
  146 
  Bagrash Köl uses the Eye of Autochthon to build a great kingdom in the North, which grows larger than 
  the Realm of the time.
  150 
  The Guild opens trade with Bagrash Köl.
  174 
  Brem Marst receives an invitation from Köl and visits the sorcerer at his palace. Afterward, the Guild 
  quietly moves personnel and supplies from Bagrash Köl’s kingdom.
  176 
  Bagrash Köl vanishes, his palace crashing to the earth; the Wyld swallows his kingdom.
  366 
  Icewalker attacks prompt Inara and several other towns to confederate, leading to republic of Shanari-
  nara.
  412 
  Immaculate monks kill Arvida of the Crescent Eye, goddess of the Haslanti tribes. Haslanti Time of Mad-
  ness begins.
  433 
  Icehome founded.
  468 
  Cholistan destroyed by detonation of a long-abandoned manse. The Silent Meadow of Dust shadowland 
  forms around its ruins.
  
  16
  TIMELINE CONTINUED
  Realm
  Year 
  Event
  500 
  Guild approaches Haslan tribes in the Four Camps.
  580 
  Guild confined to the Four Camps and a few minor trading centers along the coast.
  582 
  Gerd Marrow-Eater calls the Twisted Stone Convocation. Haslanti conquer the Four Camps, thrice led by 
  Gerd. Council of Oligarchs established.
  586 
  Gethamane War begins.
  593 
  Gethamane War ends; Guild gives in and agrees to limited trade with the new Haslanti League.
  674 
  Salvaged First Age device destroys Liriel-Anneth. Start of Wyldfog War as Wyld storms blow through the 
  North.
  722 
  Founding of Crystal.
  726 
  Flintbeak Nightingale disperses last Wyldfog five miles from Icehome.
  727 
  Tin and jade discovered in the hills of Shanarinara.
  731 
  Tzatli rediscovered near Diamond Hearth.
  752 
  Exaltation of Samea of the Blackwater Mammoth Tribe.
  757 
  Varajtul launch strike southeast out of Kunlun region.
  758 
  Exaltation of Yurgen Kaneko, the Bull of the North. He promptly kills the Wyld Hunt sent against him 
  and begins gathering icewalker tribes into an army.
  759 
  Battle of Five Fangs: Realm legions defend a small client state against the Varajtul. The five-day-long stand 
  breaks Varajtul forces, ending the cannibal invasion.
  760 
  Plenilune surrenders to the Bull; his icewalkers conquer the Saltspire League.
  761 
  Linowan War begins with the Bull’s attack on Rokan-jin and Talinin.
  763 
  The Scarlet Empress vanishes.
  764 
  Yurgen Kaneko and his armies slaughter the Tepet legions at the Battle of Futile Blood.
  765 
  Saltspire League cities rebel against icewalker tribute.
  766 
  Raneth of Diamond Hearth arrives in Plenilune as its Bull-appointed governor and retakes the city.
  767 
  Nalla Bloodaxe elected king of Karn; opens “negotiations” with Yurgen Kaneko.
  768 
  Present day.
  
  17
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  
  18
  CHAPTER TWO
  CHAPTER TWO
  THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  Deep in the Northern interior, shining walls encircle 
  the direction’s largest city. Whitewall exists surrounded by 
  barbarians, a vast shadowland and a powerful enclave of 
  Fair Folk. Despite their environment and hostile neighbors, 
  however, the people of Whitewall live in greater safety and 
  comfort than do most people of Creation. They attribute 
  much of their good fortune to the three powerful gods who 
  rule them. Whitewallers also credit their own hard work, 
  their self-discipline and their eternal vigilance against un-
  canny foes. Most of all, they know their security depends 
  on the city’s eponymous walls. Not only is the snow-white 
  circuit high and thick enough to defeat any barbarian horde, 
  ancient blessings prevent any unholy creature from entering 
  the city. Yet, very few Whitewallers know the truth behind 
  the miracle they’ve inherited from the First Age.
  HISTORY
  Whitewall’s history began shortly after the end of 
  the Primordial War, with a monastery for devotees of the 
  Unconquered Sun. Its monks and nuns farmed to support 
  themselves. They made their labor a form of prayer and planted 
  circular fields as living mandalas to glorify Heaven’s King. 
  A Zenith Caste Lawgiver called Righteous Guide founded 
  and led the monastery.
  The religious community outgrew four monasteries, the 
  last the size of a town. Righteous Guide proposed to make 
  the fifth monastery an entire city, designed as a gigantic 
  mandala to focus and magnify the prayers of the residents. 
  And so it was done.
  The new city of Ondar Shambal became one of the 
  greatest wonders of Creation—not for its size (Creation held 
  many larger cities), nor for its splendor (though it was beauti-
  ful), nor for the technology of its construction (most of the 
  work was actually done by hand). No, the miracle of Ondar 
  Shambal was that every step of its building was a prayer. The 
  masons who quarried white granite from nearby hills dedicated 
  each strike of their chisels to the Unconquered Sun. The 
  carvers and polishers sang hymns as they worked. Righteous 
  
  19
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  Guide himself hallowed each stone as 
  it was laid. Graven bands of scriptures 
  and sutras ran along the city’s streets, 
  and mosaics of precious stone adorned 
  the walls with images of devotion. The 
  city’s center held a magnificent temple-
  manse to the Unconquered Sun. High, 
  strong walls bounded Ondar Shambal in 
  a perfect circle—not for defense, but to 
  complete the shining city as the image 
  of the sun. The labor took decades, but 
  gods and mortals agreed: Creation held 
  no holier place than Ondar Shambal. 
  The Unconquered Sun himself blessed 
  the city at its dedication.
  Hundreds of thousands of acolytes 
  lived in Ondar Shambal, and millions of 
  pilgrims visited every year. Many folk—
  mortals, Exalts and spirits alike—also 
  made pious gifts to Ondar Shambal, to be 
  named in the city’s prayers or just to be 
  part of its holiness. An earth elemental 
  opened a network of caverns beneath 
  the city as extra storage space. A goddess 
  of hot springs created baths for pilgrims. 
  The Bureau of Seasons tempered the 
  region’s weather, while agricultural gods 
  blessed the farmlands. The monastery-
  city became far richer and more luxurious 
  than anyone expected or intended.
  Righteous Guide left Ondar Sham-
  bal to build a sacred road from the city 
  to the Inland Sea coast as a private 
  devotional labor to fill his old age and 
  retirement from leading the city. In his 
  absence, the Holy City became worldlier. 
  The priests, monks and nuns spent less 
  time praying and working, and more time 
  arguing theology and administering the 
  city’s vast wealth. Feasting replaced fast-
  ing. The prayer wheels still turned—spun 
  by pilgrims who paid for the privilege. 
  When Righteous Guide returned 300 
  years later along the road built by his 
  hands alone, he found his monastic city 
  turned greedy, lazy and impious.
  The old Zenith Caste spent a full 
  month in rage and despair, whipping 
  himself to the bone in penitential grief 
  as he prayed for guidance and forgive-
  ness. In the end, though, he scourged 
  the worst of the fallen nuns and monks 
  from Ondar Shambal before leaving the 
  city forever. To the Solar Deliberative 
  in Meru, he condemned Ondar Shambal 
  
  20
  as apostate. Donations and pilgrims ceased at once, and the 
  city was almost abandoned.
  Still, Ondar Shambal remained a well-constructed city 
  with fertile farmland, so people gradually returned. The new 
  settlers included a young Twilight Caste named Tenrae and 
  her Lunar husband Den’Rahin. They claimed Ondar Shambal 
  as their own, renamed it Whitewall and repopulated it as 
  an ordinary city. The nearby mountains turned out to hold 
  metal ores and several rare minerals, including blue jade, so 
  to farming, the inhabitants added mining and metalwork 
  as occupations.
  Under the Exalted couple’s leadership, Whitewall 
  attained a comfortable prosperity. Tenrae and Den’Rahin 
  governed with a light but responsible hand. Whitewall folk 
  agreed the pair represented the very models of what a Law-
  giver and Steward should be.
  The Bronze Faction found no malcontents among White-
  wall’s Dragon-Blooded, and so, the usurping Sidereals had to 
  murder Tenrae and Den’Rahin personally, in full knowledge 
  that they slew the innocent. The fighting destroyed a third of 
  the city and killed thousands. Afterward, the new Shogunate 
  brutally suppressed Whitewallers who remained loyal to their 
  slain rulers. People who didn’t succumb to mind-affecting 
  Charms or believe propaganda about “newly revealed crimes” 
  learned to stay silent… or they would go to the other city, 
  whose sole occupation was murder.
  Southeast of Whitewall, the Shogunate built an immense 
  prison camp for the altered humans, artificial life forms and 
  loyalists of the Solar Deliberative. Prisoners from throughout 
  Creation funneled into Camp 17, where they dug mass graves 
  that they themselves would fill. The camp soon became a 
  shadowland haunted by the ghosts of its victims.
  Whitewall learned to obey the Shogunate, but never to 
  love it—not with Camp 17 next door as proof of the regime’s 
  origin. The Dragon-Blooded did their utmost to hide the city’s 
  past, though, by burning chronicles, filling in carvings and 
  painting over murals and mosaics of the Unconquered Sun. 
  Despite the defacement, remnant holiness made Whitewall 
  one of the last cities to fall to the Great Contagion. When 
  the pestilence came, though, Whitewall suffered a death toll 
  as high as anywhere else. The sanctity of the city’s walls held, 
  too: The invading Fair Folk besieged Whitewall, but never 
  entered. Ironically, the city also saved its enemies, for the 
  Realm Defense Grid spared everything within a mile of the 
  city’s sacred bounds.
  After the Great Contagion receded, three powerful 
  gods came to the derelict city. They called themselves the 
  Syndics and manifested as figures with flesh of clear ice over 
  silver bones. Behind their shared mask, however, the Syndics 
  were Luranume, God of Luck; Uvanavu, God of Health; 
  and Yo-Ping, God of Peace. (See The Compass of Celestial 
  Directions, Vol. III—Yu-Shan, pp. 142, 152 and 156-157, 
  for descriptions of these gods.)
  The Syndics rallied the remnant population and invited 
  refugees to settle. They also negotiated peace treaties with 
  the angry ghosts of the long-since-decommissioned Camp 
  17 (now named Marama’s Fell after its late commandant, 
  Anjei Marama), the surviving lords of the Fair Folk and the 
  nascent Realm. While his empire still stood, they even paid 
  tribute to the sorcerer Bagrash Köl. Through the centuries 
  of the Second Age, Whitewall has stood as a bastion of 
  civilization in the North—but always afraid of the enemies 
  beyond the city walls.
  HIDDEN HISTORY
  The Shogunate tried to destroy records of White-
  wall’s glorious origin as Ondar Shambal and paint its 
  Celestial Exalted residents as megalomaniacs, tyrants 
  and perverts. When the Syndics took over, they purged 
  the city archives of these false tales, but also of a good 
  deal of authentic Shogunate history. During both 
  purges, however, people loyal to the old regime hid 
  books that supported the history they believed.
  More of Ondar Shambal survives than one might 
  expect. The Shogunate’s founders feared to demolish 
  too much of the Unconquered Sun’s own city or to 
  remove too much of the city’s old religious imagery. 
  Instead, the usurpers filled carvings and covered murals 
  and mosaics with white concrete. For instance, the 
  city’s famous walls used to bear carved scenes of the 
  Unconquered Sun’s deeds and allegories of his rule in 
  Heaven. People who recycle the stone from damaged 
  buildings (mostly in Foretown) often find old concrete 
  flaking off to reveal bits of inscriptions or bas-reliefs. 
  The Whitewall College of Architecture carefully re-
  cords these architectural fragments. So far, the Syndics 
  find it politically inadvisable to attempt widespread 
  removal of the masking concrete and restoration of 
  the images beneath.
  GEOGRAPHY
  Whitewall is the North’s largest city-state. It occupies 
  a broad valley between southern spurs of the Black Crag 
  Mountains. A patchwork of farms and orchards fills the val-
  ley, but the surrounding foothills are dark with fir and pine. 
  Beyond them rise the glacier-clad mountain peaks. Winter 
  lasts through six months of the year, with a short autumn and 
  a long, cool spring. The city itself is almost 10 miles across, 
  while the valley in which it sits is 40 miles wide. Whitewall’s 
  rule extends, loosely, along the famous Traveler’s Road to the 
  satellite town of Wallport on the Inland Sea coast.
  THE CITY
  At 15 yards high and six yards thick, the walls of White-
  wall are probably the tallest, strongest walls in the North. They 
  present a sheer, shining barrier to the outside world. A single 
  gate pierces the wall, leading to the Traveler’s Road. Inside, 
  buildings show blank white façades to the streets, with strong 
  
  21
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  shutters and doors of bronze-bound wood. Architecture varies 
  widely: The tallest buildings date back to the Old Realm, 
  with elaborate, layered spires. Newer construction ranges 
  from three to five stories tall, with simpler designs but oc-
  cupying older foundations. The streets no longer follow their 
  original strict plan of radiating rectangular neighborhoods 
  with broad plazas between them, but Whitewall remains a 
  clean, well-constructed city.
  and clerks who work in Foretown prefer the cheaper lodgings 
  of Midtown. The district also holds the Jewelers’ College and 
  the College of Agriculture. Many First Age buildings still 
  stand in Midtown, albeit remodeled and repurposed. Butcher 
  shops and bakeries occupy ancient chantries, while monastic 
  cells have become apartments.
  Whitewall’s tallest building is a Solar temple-manse in 
  the exact city center. Its gilded spires and friezes remain un-
  defiled, still proclaiming the glory of the Unconquered Sun. 
  The Dragon-Blooded tried to occupy the heart of Whitewall, 
  but the manse fought them off, its defenses adapting to each 
  new attack. (The Shogunate could have destroyed the manse 
  but realized that doing so would reduce the region’s economic 
  value.) The Syndics couldn’t claim the manse either. It ac-
  cepts no one but Lawgivers as residents.
  THE POWER OF THE WALL
  The city wall has 14L/20B soak and 50/100 
  health levels (see Exalted, pp. 153–154). The powers 
  of ghosts, demons, Fair Folk and other creatures of 
  darkness cannot affect them in any way, and these 
  creatures cannot cross the wall to enter the city un-
  less invited in. For instance, if a nemissary had itself 
  flung over the wall by catapult (yes, it’s been tried), 
  the corpse it possesses would follow its trajectory and 
  splat on a street or building, but the ghost would find 
  itself ejected from the corpse in midair. Tunneling 
  under the wall doesn’t help, either: The ban extends 
  below the surface, too. Only a citizen—a person who 
  sincerely considers Whitewall her home—can issue a 
  valid invitation of ingress.
  FORETOWN
  Whitewallers divide their city based on proximity to the 
  single gate. The southern third, nearest the gate, they call 
  Foretown. As the sector that foreign traders first see when 
  they enter Whitewall, Foretown naturally holds the high-
  est proportion of shops and markets. Jewelers, swordsmiths 
  and other artisans congregate in Foretown. So do the city’s 
  stables, teahouses and caravansaries. The district also holds 
  Whitewall’s college of mining and metallurgy. Very little First 
  Age construction survives in Foretown, with most buildings 
  there less than five centuries old.
  Foretown becomes Whitewall’s busiest district in sum-
  mer, when foreign and local merchants crowd the bazaars. 
  “Market season” exposes Whitewallers to people from 
  throughout Creation—and their cuisine as well, thanks to 
  the food kiosks scattered between the vendors’ stalls. At 
  the season’s height, the commercial fair spreads outside the 
  gate to form a town of tents and wagons. Armed guards and 
  innumerable torches discourage the Fair Folk and the dead 
  from raiding the encampment after the sun sets and the gate 
  shuts. Every year, though, a few furtive merchants slip into 
  the night. Whitewall folk prefer not to know what these 
  merchants offer to their uncanny partners, or what they 
  receive in return.
  MIDTOWN
  Farmers and miners live in the middle third of Whitewall, 
  as do brewers, carpenters and other tradesmen. Many artisans 
  THE CENTRAL TEMPLE
  Solar Manse •••••
  Whitewall’s central temple-manse caps a level-5 
  Solar demesne, but produces only a three-dot hearth-
  stone, a Gem of Grace that grants a one-die bonus 
  to all Charisma or Manipulation rolls. Much of the 
  manse’s power goes to defending itself. Chapter Two 
  of The Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex 
  explains manse Creation Points and powers.
  Game Effects: (Manse’s rating of 5 x 2) + 2 (for 
  a reduced hearthstone) = 12 Creation Points. It is, of 
  course, a Temple Manse (3 points). It also has Ability 
  Enlightenment (Investigation, Larceny, Occult and War 
  to analyze intruders and prepare suitable countermea-
  sures; 3 points, since this is a favored power for Solar 
  manses). It has Ultra-Deadly Traps (3 points), further 
  enhanced by a unique Adaptive Defense (+2 points) to 
  tailor and relocate lethal surprises. A Comfort Zone (1 
  point) supplies warmth, Essence lighting, running water 
  and other amenities in the apartment for the manse’s 
  owner. Finally, another unique four-point power aug-
  ments the soil’s fertility throughout Whitewall’s valley. 
  The total surpasses the manse’s available Creation 
  Points—but this was, after all, one of the greatest 
  works of the Old Realm, built using techniques that 
  modern geomancers can scarcely imagine.
  AFTON
  The district farthest from the city gate holds the Syn-
  dics’ hall and the upper crust of Whitewall society. Wealthy 
  magnates, the most skilled armorers and jewelers and high-
  ranking officers of Whitewall’s elite military and police 
  force, the Guardians, live in Afton. A variety of small gods, 
  supernatural half-breeds and a few outcaste Dragon-Blooded 
  join them, as do various ambassadors. The district also holds 
  the Whitewall College of Architecture and the Lotus Mind 
  College of Thaumaturgical Sciences.
  
  22
  UNDERTON
  An orderly system of tunnels and caverns underlies 
  Whitewall, forming a district whose name the locals 
  pronounce “Unt’n.” Technically, it’s a slum inhabited by 
  Whitewall’s poorest folk… but it’s a slum with the warm 
  golden glow of an Old Realm lighting system that no longer 
  functions in the rest of the city. Underton stays warm, too, 
  and residents never need to worry about the weather. Yet, 
  Underton really wasn’t designed as a place for people to 
  live. Underton folk have jobs such as street sweeper, garbage 
  hauler and day laborer (not to mention mugger, pickpocket 
  and shoplifter).
  Underton also holds the city’s public baths, so the dis-
  trict sees a steady stream of foot traffic from the surface. The 
  Guardians patrol frequently to preserve the peace and order 
  for the bathers. Underton folk can use the baths too—at 
  night, when they won’t disturb higher-class folk.
  BEYOND THE WALLS
  Large, multi-family farmhouses dot the valley around 
  Whitewall, with mining and logging camps in the hills and 
  mountains beyond. Most of these are seasonally occupied: The 
  residents move into the city in winter and return in the spring 
  to work the land and the mines. Every habitation is strongly 
  fortified and carries every protection against the Fair Folk and 
  the dead that Whitewall’s thaumaturges can devise.
  THE TRAVELER’S ROAD
  In the Old Realm, the road from Whitewall to the In-
  land Sea coast was called the Holy Road. Nowadays, people 
  call it the Traveler’s Road or the Great Northern Road. At 
  20 yards wide, it remains the largest road in the North. Its 
  white granite pavement shows little wear despite centuries 
  of use. Bridges cross a few small streams along the way. The 
  blessing on the road keeps it relatively warm in the depths 
  of winter, as if the sun shone on it all the time, and the road 
  stays free of snow, ice and debris despite the fiercest storms 
  and blizzards. Every 40 yards, the road runs between pairs 
  of stone pillars topped with inward-facing crescents. These 
  crescents once lit the roadway, but the enchantment stopped 
  working centuries ago.
  The Traveler’s Road carries subtler and stronger enchant-
  ments as well. The soul of any human who dies on the road 
  immediately enters Lethe. Moreover, any mortal traveler 
  who attacks anyone else on the road feels an overwhelm-
  ing compulsion thereafter to hang himself from a pillar or 
  convenient tree. The dead and the raksha travel the Holy 
  Road as well. Ghosts who attack other travelers are cast into 
  Lethe, while Fair Folk are hurled into the Deep Wyld. No 
  one knows what would happen to a god, elemental, demon or 
  Exalt who broke the road’s curse of safe conduct—it’s never 
  happened as far as anyone knows—but the consequences 
  would surely be dire.
  Whitewallers know the road’s curse as the Thousand-
  Year Pact, negotiated at the start of the Second Age between 
  the Syndics, certain fae lords and at least one Deathlord. 
  (Ruvia, god of roads and chief minister of the Golden Barque 
  of Heaven in the Bureau of Destiny, claims that he actually 
  wove this curse into the road’s fate.) The pact has just over 
  200 years to go before the fae and the Deathlords can demand 
  a re-negotiation.
  RULES OF THE ROAD
  Any human who commits violence while on the 
  Holy Road—Exalted or not—suffers a Compulsion 
  effect to kill himself by hanging, while the dead are 
  compelled to accept Lethe and Fair Folk are com-
  pelled to abandon their corporeal forms and depart 
  Creation. There is no avoiding the curse: Setting foot 
  on the road means accepting the terms of the safe-
  conduct pact. Violators can resist by spending one 
  Willpower point per hour. The Exalted and spirits 
  break the Compulsion after four hours. Mortals, the 
  dead and the fae must spend eight Willpower to free 
  themselves. If they lack sufficient Willpower… too 
  bad. Even success means losing a dot of permanent 
  Willpower, from the terrible struggle.
  The roadside pillars once did more than illu-
  minate the Traveler’s Road. Their golden glow also 
  seared the dead and undead as an environmental 
  effect (2A/action, Trauma 5). Each pair of lights can 
  be considered a one-dot artifact for purposes of repair-
  ing them. They must remain attached to the road, 
  though—they do not function anywhere else.
  MARAMA’S FELL
  The Traveler’s Road crosses a tongue of Marama’s Fell. 
  The road itself stays part of Creation at night, so people 
  who die on this section of road still cannot become ghosts. 
  Anyone who steps off the Holy Road at night, however, 
  enters the Underworld.
  Along this section of road and around this tongue of 
  the shadowland, the Syndics erect small fanes dedicated 
  to numerous gods of life, joy, fertility and similar concepts. 
  Whitewallers call them the resplendent chrysanthemum 
  shrines. The Syndics reward families that hold weddings, 
  conceptions, births and birthday celebrations at these shrines. 
  Not only does the family receive a modest cash award (of 
  Resources • value), but the Syndics bless them with a year 
  and a day of exceptional health (two bonus dice to all rolls 
  for resisting disease). Over time, the shrines push back the 
  shadowland’s borders. Where once the shadowland crossed 
  50 miles of road and extended 100 miles beyond it to the 
  West, it now darkens only 20 miles of road.
  The denizens of Marama’s Fell tear down the shrines 
  every winter, but the Whitewallers rebuild and re-consecrate 
  them every spring. The expedition to restore the resplendent 
  
  23
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  chrysanthemum shrines sets out on the first day of Ascending 
  Earth (though snow generally still covers the ground) and is 
  a major festival in Whitewall.
  WALLPORT
  At its southern terminus, the Traveler’s Road enters 
  another circuit of white granite walls: Wallport, Whitewall’s 
  filthy, stunted brother. These walls are only seven yards 
  high and two yards thick, with a third of the circle cut off 
  by the black basalt cliffs of the coast. The Essence-powered 
  elevators that once moved people and cargo between the 
  city and the harbor no longer function. Instead, steps and 
  ramps descend about 20 yards to a lower city built on the 
  narrow strip of waterfront.
  Upper Wallport was a wealthy and beautiful town dur-
  ing the First Age, while Lower Wallport was as seedy as any 
  waterfront in Creation. The old walls remain, but now, both 
  halves of the town abound in brothels, saloons and gambling 
  dens. The harbor can accommodate just four large merchant 
  ships at a time, which prevents Wallport from growing any 
  larger. Many ships have sunk while waiting their turn out in 
  the stormy Northern sea.
  About 2,000 people live in Wallport—mostly stevedores, 
  barkeeps, prostitutes and other people who cater to the ships 
  that come to trade with distant Whitewall. Men outnumber 
  women more than three to one. Most Wallport folk come 
  from Whitewall, either willingly or through exile. They are 
  a rough lot, often drunk or drugged when they aren’t work-
  ing. Every Whitewaller knows that Wallport is a cesspit for 
  dumping malcontents and failures. The town guards ignore 
  most crimes but deal harshly with anyone who threatens 
  Whitewall’s commerce.
  The cesspit analogy is more than metaphor, too. Half 
  a mile west of Wallport, a large pipe spits Whitewall’s sew-
  age into the sea, washed out by the runoff from the baths 
  and the city water system. The sewage from 700,000 people 
  makes Wallport stink. The Essence converters along the 
  700-mile pipe that once transformed raw sewage to a pure 
  and sparkling waterfall have not functioned since the time 
  of the Great Contagion.
  SOCIETY
  Whitewallers know they are luckier than most people 
  in Creation. Most Whitewallers are middle class: not rich 
  enough to live in splendor but not worried about starving. 
  They can afford life’s decencies, such as shoes, two changes 
  of clothes, rugs on the floor and a cast-iron stove to heat a 
  sturdy, draft-free home. Whitewallers drink clean water and 
  walk clean, safe streets. In many parts of Creation, even rich 
  people cannot say as much.
  Their love of safety and prosperity does not make 
  Whitewallers cowardly. They are disciplined, not docile. 
  Every Whitewaller learns at a young age that their security 
  depends on a strictly ordered society that everyone must 
  work to maintain. No one is above this duty or below it… 
  and for the sake of comfort and safety, Whitewallers accept 
  some grim necessities.
  LIFE BEHIND WALLS
  The constant danger beyond the walls shapes Whitewall’s 
  culture in many ways, not all of them obvious. For one thing, 
  Whitewallers place a high value on civility. Good manners 
  enable 700,000 people to stay shut in the city through the 
  long winter without driving each other crazy. Whitewall’s 
  law even includes a special class of misdemeanors called 
  “offenses against public civility.” These offenses include just 
  about anything that could irritate another person, from poor 
  hygiene to loud quarreling. Hostile or eccentric behavior can 
  bankrupt a Whitewaller through fines or eventually lead to 
  banishment.
  Public intoxication is, of course, an offense against 
  public civility. Virtually all drugs are legal in Whitewall, 
  but apart from alcohol, they are so heavily taxed that few 
  people indulge heavily or often. Smuggling to evade these 
  import duties is one of the few forms of organized crime to 
  afflict Whitewall. If people want to get drunk or stoned in 
  private, though, that’s their own business.
  Privacy is another way that Whitewallers preserve 
  their precious social stability. Whitewallers prefer not to 
  show strong emotions in public or to ask too closely about 
  another person’s private life. They smile more than they 
  laugh and weep only behind closed doors. Outsiders often 
  find Whitewallers a bit stuffy—but very polite.
  In sharp contrast to their strict and sober code of public 
  conduct, anything goes in the privacy of a Whitewaller’s 
  home. As long as no one gets hurt (who didn’t want to be) 
  and the city’s defense is not compromised, what happens 
  behind closed doors is no one else’s business. An invitation 
  to enter a Whitewaller’s home—to come inside her family’s 
  set of walls—shows that she considers you a trustworthy 
  friend for life. Foreigners who receive this rare privilege are 
  sometimes surprised to find that in contrast to their exteriors 
  of stark white stone and concrete, Whitewall homes have 
  cheery and colorful interiors, with brightly painted furniture 
  and patterned rugs on the floors.
  Whitewallers do much of their socializing in the city’s 
  many large teahouses. Local folk prefer to conduct business 
  meetings at one of these establishments over a meal and, of 
  course, tea. Whitewallers take their tea hot, with milk and 
  butter. If they drink tea with someone they don’t know, they 
  pay close attention to his reaction to this local idiosyncrasy. 
  If he shows surprise at these additions to his drink, he might 
  just be a traveler newly arrived in the city… or maybe he’s 
  not human at all.
  THE PUBLIC BATHS
  After their enchanted walls, many Whitewallers would 
  call the city’s public baths its greatest treasure. A spring of 
  hot water and steam feeds a large complex of bathing pools. 
  The Syndics endorse cleanliness as an important contributor 
  
  24
  to public health and wellbeing, and so, Whitewallers regard 
  frequent bathing as part of good citizenship. (The city’s many 
  soap makers wish that visiting barbarians would buy their 
  product as readily.) For a modest fee, bathers can hire an 
  attendant to scrub them, shave them, massage them, anoint 
  them with scented oils or pamper them in other ways.
  The baths come second only to the teahouses as a place 
  to socialize. Children bathe in one area, adults of marrying 
  age in another, and elders in a third. Within those zones, 
  Whitewallers congregate in ad-hoc groups of friends, rela-
  tives, neighbors or co-workers. For all their public reserve, 
  Whitewallers consider it perfectly natural to see each other 
  naked at the baths.
  Adolescents and young adults often use distant, steam-
  shrouded alcoves as trysting spots. Parents and grandparents 
  shake their heads and cluck their tongues at the moral turpi-
  tude of the young, but that’s just part of growing older. Odds 
  are, they had their first liaisons in the same alcoves. The baths 
  have become a standard part of Whitewall courtship rituals… 
  and if the steam ever clears for a moment and Whitewallers 
  see activities the participants meant to be private, they 
  pretend not to see and don’t gossip afterward.
  At least, not in public.
  SOCIAL CLASSES
  Whitewall has its rich and poor. Wealthy Whitewallers 
  enjoy luxuries such as jewels, fine tapestries and delicacies 
  from distant lands, but they do not flaunt their riches or 
  show contempt for their neighbors. Poor Whitewallers wear 
  mended castoff clothes and live in tunnels, but even beggars 
  do not cringe, abase themselves for a crust of bread or scream 
  abuse when denied a coin. Rich man and beggar both know 
  that their life could depend on the other’s vigilance and skill 
  at defending the city.
  Whitewallers also enjoy considerable social mobility. 
  The Syndics make sure that any hardworking Whitewaller 
  has a chance to improve her lot in life: If a poor Whitewaller 
  cannot reach the middle class, at least her children might. 
  Attaining genuine wealth requires extraordinary skill as a 
  jeweler, merchant or savant, extraordinary luck as a miner 
  or extraordinary courage in the Guardians. Nevertheless, a 
  few Whitewallers become very rich.
  The Syndics do not permit the development of a seg-
  regated, closed aristocracy, though. One device is charity. 
  CALIBRATION BABIES
  Whitewallers believe that making love during 
  Calibration repels the evil powers that roam during 
  those uncanny days. This results in a surge of births 
  nine months later. The birthrate stays high through 
  the next six months, from children conceived dur-
  ing the long winter when people spend most of their 
  time indoors.
  
  25
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  The Syndics give divine blessings to Whitewallers who 
  donate large sums to hospitals and schools for the poor, the 
  resplendent chrysanthemum shrines and other philanthropic 
  ventures. Conversely, Whitewallers who conspicuously show 
  that they care more for their own fortune than the good of 
  the city find themselves not enjoying their wealth and not 
  keeping it very long. They are, after all, ruled by gods who 
  command luck, health and peace… and can deny these 
  boons if they choose.
  MAKING A LIVING
  Whitewallers enjoy unusual prosperity for Northern folk. 
  They owe the relative comfort of their lives to a great deal 
  of hard work and careful exploitation of their resources, as 
  well as the safety provided by their walls.
  FARMING
  More than half of all Whitewallers engage in some aspect 
  of farming. Many of them live in the city and commute daily 
  to the nearer fields and orchards. Staple crops include barley, 
  oats, peas and potatoes, but Whitewallers also raise cold-
  tolerant root crops such as radishes, turnips and sugar beets. 
  Extensive orchards produce apples and cherries, from which 
  Whitewallers produce excellent cider and cherry wine.
  The outermost fields, which are the most difficult to 
  tend safely, generally grow alfalfa and hay for livestock. For 
  safety, Whitewallers raise a third of their livestock inside 
  the city walls. This costs more, but some enemy spitefully 
  destroys a sheepfold, cattle barn, henhouse or pigpen every 
  year, no matter how well the Whitewallers guard and ward 
  them. Such difficulties make meat an expensive treat for 
  many Whitewallers.
  MINING
  Other Whitewallers work in the mines. The hills and 
  mountains produce abundant iron and silver ore, with lead 
  as a frequent by-product. Coal mines supply Whitewall 
  with fuel. The quarries for white granite dating to the city’s 
  construction remain in use. Most importantly, several First 
  Age mines still produce white and blue jade. Other mines 
  produce gemstones or rare ores used to produce high-quality 
  alloys. A few minerals have esoteric uses in alchemy and 
  crafting artifacts, such as pitchblende and realgar. One mine 
  produces the crystals used to fashion concussive Essence 
  cannons (see The Books of Sorcery, Vol. I—Wonders of 
  the Lost Age, p. 131). Mining is dangerous for Whitewallers 
  due to the mines’ distance from the safety of the city, but 
  the profits justify the risks.
  Some mines date back to the Old Realm. These 
  often retain Essence lighting, air conditioning and other 
  conveniences—even maps drawn long ago by elementals, 
  showing where to find veins of desired minerals. Some of 
  these mines are for minerals whose use Creation has forgot-
  ten. The newer mines present the usual hazards of working 
  in cramped spaces underground, such as firedamp, flooding 
  and collapse.
  Logging is a related industry. In addition to construction, 
  Whitewallers cut a lot of timber to reinforce mineshafts. 
  Even more wood goes to make charcoal for smelting ores, 
  with pitch and turpentine as by-products. (Impurities in the 
  coal make it unsuitable for metallurgy.)
  ARTIFICE, ENCHANTMENT AND EDUCATION
  Whitewall’s abundant and diverse ores make the city 
  a center for fine metalwork. The constant need for defense 
  gave rise to a large arms industry, producing all manner 
  of weapons and armor. The smiths produce other preci-
  sion metalwork too, including navigational instruments. 
  The city also has a large and related industry of jewelers, 
  gem cutters and gem engravers, with lens grinding as a 
  recent spin-off.
  Whitewall possesses a significant population of thau-
  maturges, with special emphasis on metallurgical alchemy, 
  enchantment, warding and exorcism. Between them, 
  Whitewall’s elite artisans and thaumaturges produce a wide 
  variety of talismans, warding amulets and similar minor 
  wonders. They also produce many superior weapons and 
  armor, from perfect blades to spears enchanted to wound 
  ghosts. Their supply of jade and other occult minerals 
  even enables them to produce a small number of daiklaves, 
  powerbows and other artifact weapons and armor.
  Such industries require an educated populace. 
  Whitewall has a comprehensive system of public primary 
  education. At least 90 percent of the population can read 
  and write, even among the poor—a feat few societies in 
  Creation can equal (or want to). Colleges of agriculture, 
  architecture, mining and metallurgy, lapidary and thau-
  maturgy supply higher education for Whitewallers who 
  seek and can afford it. The Syndics (aided by local philan-
  thropists) offer scholarships for exceptionally promising 
  but poor students, on the explicit grounds that such skills 
  are a vital strategic asset for the city. Precision metalwork 
  and a literate population incidentally lead to a publishing 
  industry that prints using movable type. Folk throughout 
  the North say you can recognize a traveling Whitewaller 
  by the book in her saddlebags… and that she thinks you’re 
  an ignorant savage.
  COMMERCE
  Most of Whitewall’s trade goes South along the 
  Traveler’s Road. The rest goes North along a pass that 
  leads to Fella and points beyond, notably Gethamane 
  and Shanarinara. Whitewall barely feeds itself, though it 
  manages to export limited quantities of farm products—
  notably a superior cherry wine much prized in the Realm. 
  Whitewall exports a great deal of metal, though, from raw 
  ingots to costly mechanical toys and jewelry. The city even 
  mints its own silver dinars and dirhams, modeled on those 
  of the Scavenger Lands. In fact, Whitewall is the chief 
  source of money in the North. (Within the city, though, 
  most Whitewallers buy and sell using paper scrip modeled 
  on that of the Realm.) Jade is certainly Whitewall’s most 
  
  26
  profitable export, with the Realm as chief purchaser. Factors 
  from Lookshy and the Realm alike frequently visit to buy 
  jade and other rare minerals used in alchemy, enchant-
  ment and crafting magitech devices.
  RELIGION AND THE SUPERNATURAL
  Most Whitewallers worship the Syndics. (They do not 
  know the true identities of the three gods, but that doesn’t 
  stop their prayers from reaching the proper destination.) 
  Most homes include a cabinet-sized shrine to the three, 
  in which the gods are represented by a glass and silver-
  gilt oil lamp with three wicks, backed by a white wheel 
  with eight spokes. The Syndics claim only to be the city’s 
  caretakers, however. They are not the gods of Whitewall, 
  only gods in Whitewall—a distinction the Syndics insist 
  that Whitewallers observe even in casual conversation.
  So as not to provoke the Realm, the Syndics do not 
  name the god of Whitewall. The pristine Solar manse in 
  the city center makes this god’s identity abundantly clear, 
  though. A significant number of Whitewall’s inhabitants 
  revere the Unconquered Sun. They particularly honor 
  him as the bringer of springtime and the end of the long, 
  deadly winter. Whitewallers also worship major Celestial 
  deities associated with their professions. For instance, 
  everyone in Whitewall’s elite warrior-police force offers 
  at least token reverence to Voharun and Nasamara, the 
  chief gods of Northern war.
  Yet, Whitewallers feel little need to propitiate the 
  Terrestrial small gods of their locale—not when three 
  powerful gods rule them in the King of Heaven’s own 
  city. For example, miners regularly treat with earth el-
  ementals and small gods of mountains and minerals, but 
  those miners invoke the authority of Celestial gods such 
  as the Jade Goddesses and the threat of retribution from 
  the Syndics.
  The Syndics permit the Immaculate Order to preach 
  within Whitewall, and the city has a number of small 
  fanes (mostly in Foretown, but also one attached to the 
  Realm’s embassy and a charity hospital in Underton). 
  After seven centuries, though, Immaculate missionaries 
  have converted only a few Whitewallers.
  That aside, the Syndics strictly forbid any propitiation 
  of creatures of darkness. City officials diligently investigate 
  any rumor about worship of demons, Fair Folk and the dead. 
  Even a small offering to an ancestor’s ghost carries a fine, 
  while persistent ancestor worship brings summer exile. 
  Whitewallers know that ghosts can lie, while demons and 
  the fae do little else. Any bid for worship is most likely a 
  plot to bring creatures of darkness into the city.
  MAGIC
  In contrast to Whitewall’s abundance of thaumaturges 
  and arcane artisans, the city lacks a school of sorcery (al-
  though the Syndics would like to get one). A number of 
  sorcerers—chiefly outcaste Terrestrial Exalted—practice 
  in the city, though. By law, sorcerers must assist the 
  Guardians by enchanting weapons and joining in battles 
  against fae, ghosts and other uncanny foes.
  ESSENCE CHANNELERS
  The Syndics welcome any Terrestrial Exalt who 
  chooses to dwell in Whitewall. The Dragon-Blooded 
  bless the city by their presence, as the Immaculate Order 
  teaches. Nevertheless, any Dynast or outcaste who tries 
  to attract worship finds no takers in Whitewall.
  The Syndics also tolerate Solar Anathema to a shocking 
  degree. The Eclipse Caste called Rune, who now occupies 
  the temple-manse, is merely the latest Solar to Exalt in 
  Whitewall. A Dawn Caste called Macha Pethisdottir holds 
  an officer’s commission in the Guardians. Immaculate 
  historians note that two or three Whitewallers became 
  Anathema every century, and while the Syndics did not 
  bar the Wyld Hunt, they never helped, either. Time and 
  again, Solar Anathema grew powerful in Whitewall and 
  were slain only with great difficulty after long pursuit.
  The reasons are simple: The Syndics never aban-
  doned hope of a Solar resurgence. They exploited Solars 
  who Exalted in their city, while hoping they would 
  draw the Unconquered Sun’s attention to Creation in 
  general and Whitewall in particular. The Syndics also 
  used their contacts in the Bureau of Destiny to raise the 
  odds of Creation’s few free Solar Exaltations finding 
  hosts within Whitewall.
  Yet, the Syndics never extended such favor to Lunar 
  Exalted, whom they view as barbaric, or the hidden Side-
  real Exalted. The Syndics pull every string they have to 
  discourage Viziers from visiting Whitewall—even Sidereals 
  in the Gold Faction—and to encourage them to leave. 
  The three gods greatly fear the consequences should the 
  PRAYER IN WHITEWALL
  The spiritually active architecture, block-by-
  block consecration and mandala layout of Ondar 
  Shambal once acted to multiply the power of the 
  inhabitants’ prayers. Immense hidden mechanisms 
  even turned buildings and entire neighborhoods 
  as gigantic slow prayer wheels. Broken, defaced 
  and partially rebuilt, Whitewall still somewhat 
  magnifies the Essence that a god receives from 
  the inhabitants’ prayers. In rules terms, this simply 
  means that a god with worshipers in Whitewall 
  needs somewhat fewer people to achieve a given 
  Cult rating. In most cases, this has no effect on play. 
  Prayers conducted in Afton, however, have their 
  difficulty reduced by two because of the relatively 
  intact sacred architecture. In Midtown, prayer roll 
  difficulties decrease by one.
  
  27
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  Bureau of Destiny discover their thoroughly illegal rule 
  of a city in Creation.
  The Exalted are not the only channelers of Essence in 
  Whitewall. The Lotus Mind Academy regularly enlight-
  ens the Essence of its graduates. With intense training, 
  Guardians also enlighten their Essence so they can wield 
  artifact weapons and armor. A number of renegade small 
  gods and elementals dwell in Whitewall too.
  Despite the hostility between Whitewall and its 
  uncanny neighbors, proximity leads to a small but steady 
  stream of Ghost-Blooded and Fae-Blooded mortals. Such 
  half-breeds have only one real choice in Whitewall: join-
  ing the Guardians. Any half-breed who does not devote 
  her life to protecting the city is suspected of working for 
  her inhuman parent.
  THE THOUSAND-YEAR PACT
  As one of their first acts, the Syndics negotiated a treaty 
  with the ghosts of Marama’s Fell and with the local raksha, 
  called the Winter Folk. By treaty, neither side shall attack 
  the other. As token of this agreement, Whitewall yearly 
  sets out 24 prisoners—a dozen each for the fae and the 
  dead. No one really knows what happens to these sacrifices 
  in the night, but there’s an awful lot of screaming. Such 
  is the price of Whitewall’s continued safety.
  GOVERNMENT
  The Syndics act as Whitewall’s ultimate guarantors 
  of civic order. They ordained the city’s government and 
  wrote its laws, and no one else can legally change them. 
  All three Syndics must reach consensus to pass a new law. 
  Three people—even three powerful gods—cannot do all 
  the administrative work of running a large city, though, 
  and the Syndics have other responsibilities elsewhere. 
  Therefore, they delegate most of city governance to a cadre 
  of judges and a civil service of inspectors. For military 
  power, Whitewall has its professional city guard (prosai-
  cally called the Guardians) and its large militia.
  A brief civil charter sets forth the basic laws of 
  Whitewall. Children must memorize the charter by age 
  12, and failure to do so results in a fine to their parents. 
  Outsiders who want to become citizens must memorize 
  the charter as well. Few Whitewallers find this difficult, 
  for the charter is only a few pages long. In Whitewall, no 
  one can legitimately plead ignorance of the law.
  THE SYNDICS
  When in Whitewall, the Syndics reside in a large 
  temple-palace in Afton. This happens to be in the largest 
  intact block of Old Realm buildings, which still magnify 
  the efficacy (and Essence) of prayer to some degree. The 
  
  28
  Syndics receive a wealth of prayer from Whitewall that few 
  gods can equal. In return, the Syndics keep Whitewall well 
  policed and peaceful, hygienically clean and sufficiently 
  lucky to avoid random disasters. So far, the three gods have 
  managed to hide their role as the Syndics well enough to 
  avoid Celestial audits and grave censure (since their activi-
  ties as the Syndics break many of Heaven’s laws).
  While the three gods enjoy the intensity of prayer 
  from Whitewall, in the long term, they want to restore 
  Ondar Shambal. The Syndics already have plans to rebuild 
  the city section by section, using both salvaged stone and 
  new granite from the old quarries. For full efficacy, though, 
  they need a Zenith Caste to bless each block as it is laid. 
  They hope that by restoring Whitewall’s spiritual power, 
  they can draw the Unconquered Sun’s attention back to 
  Creation and obtain his support in spreading Whitewall’s 
  peace and order to the rest of Creation.
  JUDGES
  Whitewall’s system of law and justice emphasizes 
  arbitration among competing interests. Therefore, while 
  the Syndics write the laws, judges implement and apply 
  them. Not only do judges try criminal cases and assign 
  punishments to lawbreakers, they hear civil disputes on 
  subjects ranging from divorce to water rights. Judges have 
  wide latitude in how to apply the laws.
  When disputes involve spirits, the Exalted or gov-
  ernment officials—or if the case is otherwise strange or 
  difficult—the judges refer the case to the Syndics. The 
  three gods magically compel everyone in a case to speak 
  honestly and without reservation, which can lead to sur-
  prising (if not always relevant) discoveries about citizens. 
  The judges record every decision of the Syndics as a body 
  of precedent for their own verdicts.
  PUNISHMENTS
  For minor crimes, up to theft and public brawling, 
  Whitewall holds a token fine and public shaming as suf-
  ficient punishment. Greater crimes incur correspondingly 
  higher fines. Major crimes result in exile. Repeated lesser 
  crimes can also bring expulsion, as a judge decides that a 
  person is just too much trouble to allow in the city. Exiles 
  may be jailed in sections of Underton until the time comes 
  for expulsion.
  This punishment further divides into summer and 
  winter exile. An exile found guilty of armed robbery, 
  repeated shoplifting, purveying phony enchantments, 
  negligent homicide or the like leaves the city in high sum-
  mer, with a pack of whatever food, clothing and money 
  he can carry on his own back. Summer exiles leave the 
  city at dawn. Grave crimes, such as rape, murder, owning 
  slaves or bringing creatures of darkness into the city, result 
  in winter exile. These people leave the city at dusk in the 
  depths of winter, with nothing but the clothes on their 
  backs. Few survive even a single night.
  The most heinous criminals are reserved for the yearly 
  sacrifice to the Fair Folk and the dead. Compared to this, 
  winter exile is a mercy. Only after the sacrifice do the 
  remaining criminals suffer winter exile.
  INSPECTORS
  Whitewall’s inspectors handle most of the day-to-day 
  administration of the city, from collecting taxes to testing 
  artifacts and talismans to see if their bear genuine enchant-
  ments. These officials inspect goods for quality and value, 
  inspect buildings for structural integrity and inspect the 
  streets for cleanliness, among many other duties.
  Inspectors handle the city government’s finances and 
  paperwork. For physical labor, the appropriate office hires 
  local companies. Some of Whitewall’s largest businesses 
  (apart from farming and mining) perform civic services 
  such as street sweeping, garbage collection and lighting 
  the coal-fired lanterns mounted at intersections of the 
  main streets.
  Most of the inspectors’ work is rather dull. Not all 
  the city’s uncanny foes go on instant rampages once they 
  sneak inside, though. Inspectors must go everywhere in 
  Whitewall, and so, sometimes, they discover unholy threats 
  gaining strength in disused tunnels or other nooks and 
  crannies. The city honors their memories.
  WHITEWALL’S MILITARY
  The Syndics decreed that Whitewall should not 
  have a large, standing military. Apart from the cost of 
  feeding, housing and training large numbers of soldiers, 
  the Syndics do not want a powerful military class that can 
  THE HARPIST
  Despite Whitewall’s hatred and fear of the 
  unholy, one demon constantly resides in the heart 
  of civil power. The city’s thaumaturges summoned 
  an angyalka demon (see The Books of Sorcery, 
  Vol. V—The Roll of Glorious Divinity II, pp. 
  72–74) and fettered it with orichalcum chains. 
  All day, every day, it plays the harp of Time in the 
  chamber of the Syndics.
  Only the Syndics know the reason for their 
  eldritch harpist: An angyalka’s music reminds 
  listeners of who they are. Without this reminder, 
  the Syndics might forget that they are three gods 
  working in close partnership, but retaining personal 
  interests and duties outside their shared masquerade. 
  Without the angyalka they might merge into a single 
  three-bodied deity, bound to Whitewall alone.
  The angyalka, called Ethernais, does not mind 
  her captivity. An angyalka who ceased to play music 
  would cease to exist, and the Syndics’ palace is far 
  more comfortable than Malfeas.
  
  29
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  develop goals and ambitions of its own. Yet, the Syndics 
  also recognize that Whitewall occupies an exceptionally 
  dangerous part of Creation.
  The Syndics resolve this dilemma through a two-tier 
  military. Every able-bodied adult Whitewaller belongs to 
  the city’s militia, but this huge force mobilizes only dur-
  ing emergencies. The city’s Guardians are highly trained 
  and superbly equipped, but relatively few in numbers. 
  What’s more, the Guardians spend most of their time as 
  Whitewall’s police, mingling with the people instead of 
  set apart from them.
  MILITIA
  From ages 17 to 37, every Whitewaller who can fight, 
  male or female, serves in the city’s militia. Each citizen 
  receives a number, from 1 to 28. On that day of each 
  month from Descending Earth through Ascending Air, 
  they report to one of the city’s training fields for drill. As 
  their instructors tell them, “If you can swing a hoe, you 
  can swing a halberd.” Many citizens train with weapons 
  based on the tools they use in their work: picks for min-
  ers, axes for woodcutters, bill-hooks for orchardists, and 
  so on. Other citizens train with spears or straight swords. 
  Militia members also learn to wield a missile weapon such 
  as a javelin or bow. They wear breastplates and pot helms, 
  and may carry shields.
  Militia members train and operate in squads of five, 
  maniples of 50 or cohorts of 1,000, with one additional 
  corporal for every squad and a captain (called a lochagos) 
  for each maniple. Guardians act as officers and instructors 
  for the cohorts and maniples. While the members of a 
  maniple usually come from a single neighborhood, each 
  cohort mixes citizens from throughout the city in fine 
  disregard for social classes.
  Since Whitewall doesn’t fight many wars, the mi-
  litia most often acts as backup for the Guardians when 
  a creature of darkness invades the city. The one-day-a-
  month warriors cannot realistically fight such foes, but 
  that day’s militia members can spread through the city 
  to keep watch and back up Guardians who search from 
  building to building.
  GUARDIANS
  The 6,000 Guardians are highly trained professional 
  fighters. In addition to mortal heroes, their ranks include 
  outcaste Dragon-Blooded, spirits, God-Bloods and mor-
  tals who had their Essence enlightened by the Syndics. 
  What’s more, Guardians carry high-quality weapons 
  and armor. Every Guardian carries at least one superior 
  weapon of fine quality, and many of them surpass this 
  with exceptional weapons, or even perfect weapons or 
  artifacts. Their weapons might also carry sorcerous or 
  thaumaturgical enchantments. Armor is of similar qual-
  ity. As a final benefit, most Guardians carry at least one 
  talisman, potion or spiritual endowment, courtesy of 
  Whitewall’s thaumaturges and the Syndics. Not counting 
  the Syndics, Guardians tend to be the most personally 
  powerful inhabitants of Whitewall.
  Guardians serve as Whitewall’s police, operating from 
  28 precinct houses (including four in Underton). Like the 
  militia, they train in squads of five and maniples of 50, 
  but they have no standing cohorts. Every maniple has a 
  lochagos as a commander; higher ranks include centurion 
  (commanding two maniples) and dekarch (commanding 
  10 maniples, equal to a general). Guardians walk their 
  beats, break up scuffles, hunt for thieves and perform other 
  law-enforcement functions. A squad of five Guardians 
  has more than enough power to quell most disturbances. 
  What’s more, they train to question witnesses and gather 
  evidence for the judges, giving Whitewall its reputation 
  as a city of stern-but-fair justice.
  When creatures of darkness rampage through White-
  wall, the Guardians coordinate the search and battle the 
  invaders. Maniples can also launch sorties outside the city 
  to punish barbarians, ghosts or Fair Folk for their attacks 
  on travelers, farmers, miners or other people who lack the 
  safety of the city’s walls. The Guardians never attempt to 
  defeat any of Whitewall’s enemies outright (for that would 
  break the Thousand-Year Pact beyond repair), but tit-for-
  tat raids show that the city remains vigilant.
  BEHEMOTH HUNTS
  The Guardians’ greatest tests come when the 
  Fair Folk shape behemoths in their Wyld zones and 
  send them rampaging toward the city or the mining 
  camps. When that happens, the Syndics assemble the 
  most powerful of the Guardians—including sworn 
  brotherhoods of outcaste Dragon-Blooded—to battle 
  the monster. The Syndics also try to recruit any other 
  puissant warriors in town, whatever their origin, from 
  visiting Dynasts to visiting Anathema. So far, they 
  have never needed to try fitting both sorts of Exalted 
  into the same band of monster hunters.
  ARTILLERY
  Whitewall’s artisans build excellent siege engines, 
  though the city uses such weapons for defense more than 
  attack. The walls are just barely wide enough to accom-
  modate a heavy ballista or onager (see Scroll of Kings, 
  pp. 137–138). An iron track on top of the city wall carries 
  at least 60 of these weapons. Heavy, greased tarps protect 
  the weapons from the weather when they are not in use. 
  In addition to heavy iron bolts and balls, Whitewallers use 
  catapults to spread iron caltrops when Fair Folk attack or 
  to launch bags of salt to discourage ghosts. Flaming balls 
  of straw and pitch often intimidate attacking barbarians. 
  The militia includes a cohort of artillerists who drill with 
  these wall-mounted weapons.
  
  30
  FOREIGN RELATIONS
  The Syndics keep Whitewall strictly neutral—a de-
  clared enemy to no one, but conversely an ally to no one. 
  The city-state exchanges ambassadors with the Realm, 
  Gethamane, Shanarinara and the Haslanti League, but 
  offers no one any special concessions.
  Early in her reign, the Empress demanded fealty 
  from Whitewall. The Syndics revealed their identities to 
  her and let her know that attacks on Whitewall would 
  result in the Realm losing its health, peace and luck. The 
  Empress settled for token gestures of deference, such as 
  an occasional exchange of minor gifts. Even that much 
  stopped after her disappearance. The Syndics also permit-
  ted Wyld Hunts to operate in Whitewall, though without 
  any assistance from the Guardians. That privilege has not 
  been officially revoked. It remains to be seen what happens 
  when the North’s chief officer of the Hunt (well known 
  as a raging zealot) learns that the Syndics now employ at 
  least two Anathema.
  Whitewall has fairly friendly relations with Getha-
  mane, based largely on their common interest in avoiding 
  foreign entanglements. The city-states trade a bit, 
  Whitewall’s cider, grain and vegetables for Gethamane’s 
  own strange ores and gems—but Whitewallers believe 
  Gethamane is cursed, and they trade away Gethamane’s 
  violet diamonds and other products to other partners. 
  Whitewall law forbids importing anything grown in 
  Gethamane’s fungus gardens, and doing so is grounds for 
  summer exile.
  In opening diplomatic relations with the Haslanti 
  League, the Syndics look toward the future. They foresee 
  the League becoming the dominant power in the North 
  and want to create a history of cordial relations. White-
  wall’s smiths and jewelers also want to obtain Haslanti 
  feathersteel and gems.
  The only nation that Whitewall actively courts, 
  though, is distant Lookshy. Whitewall’s merchants would 
  love to increase sales of rare minerals to the Seventh 
  Legion. The Guardians, artisans and savants, for various 
  reasons, want to create their own magitech industries and 
  see Lookshy as the only feasible source of sample weapons 
  and lore. So far, the Seventh Legion shows no interest in 
  expanding commerce or sharing secrets.
  ICEWALKERS
  Whitewall interacts with the icewalkers rather more 
  than it wants. Charitable Whitewallers call icewalkers 
  “rustic,” but most think of them as contemptible savages. 
  For their part, icewalkers generally think of Whitewallers 
  as pampered cowards. Still… icewalkers covet Whitewall’s 
  weapons, armor, ornaments and tools. A few times every 
  year, icewalker tribes camp outside the city in hopes of 
  trading their meat, furs and mammoth ivory. In winter, 
  
  31
  CHAPTER TWO • THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  tribes sometimes merely seek grain and fodder. Faced 
  with starvation, tribes will trade even First Age artifacts 
  they found (or stole, or killed for) for a fraction of their 
  true value.
  On occasion, the Syndics hire icewalker tribes as 
  mercenaries to harry other foes—bandits, Wyld barbar-
  ians, marauding hobgoblins and the like. The icewalkers 
  hate being used in this fashion but many see this as the 
  best of bad options.
  Every visit by a tribe includes at least one barbarian 
  who flies a glider over the city walls, just to show they 
  can do this. If the pilot lands in the city, the Guardians 
  round him up and throw him out but inflict no further 
  punishment.
  Rarely, young Whitewallers rebel against the stifling 
  safety of their city and try to join an icewalker tribe. The 
  icewalkers do not encourage this but sometimes accept a 
  young man or woman who bears excellent weapons and 
  armor. Many such adventurers die, and the icewalkers keep 
  their stuff. The survivors usually return to Whitewall after 
  a few months or a year, with exciting stories to tell but 
  eager to return to a “boring” life in the city.
  CREATURES OF DARKNESS
  Whitewall’s most important relationships, however, 
  are with its unholy neighbors. Of course, all sides break 
  the Thousand-Year Pact. The raksha and the dead con-
  stantly try to sneak into the city for a rampage and attack 
  Whitewallers caught insufficiently defended. The Guard-
  ians raid the Winter Folk and the ghosts in retaliation. 
  If either the fae or the dead were better organized, they 
  might attempt all-out war. As it is, various factions harass 
  the city when they do not fight each other. Whitewall’s 
  cunning diplomats sometimes bribe or dupe one group of 
  enemies into attacking another. So far, no leader among 
  the creatures of darkness has attempted a genuine peace 
  with Whitewall.
  The ghosts (and other creatures) of Marama’s Fell tend 
  to be savage but divided into many small gangs or tribes 
  that battle each other as much as they threaten White-
  wall or anyone else. Two Deathlords—the Bishop of the 
  Chalcedony Thurible and the Lover Clad in Raiment of 
  Tears—wield some limited influence in the shadowland, 
  and the Syndics made their crucial treaties with them. 
  Still, the Fell is largely anarchic. (See The Compass of 
  Celestial Directions, Vol. IV—The Underworld for a 
  description of Marama’s Fell, starting on p. 108.)
  The raksha called the Winter Folk are the city’s most 
  organized and persistent foes. These fae operate from a 
  freehold just 50 miles west by northwest of Whitewall, in 
  an extensive Wyld zone. Their coldly beautiful cataphra-
  ctoi, clad in armor of ice and frost, lead hobgoblins with 
  wolfish features or that look like jagged ice-sculptures of 
  misshapen children. The Winter Folk also ride reindeer 
  and use ice weasels as hunting beasts.
  The icy cruelty and subtle guile of the Winter Folk 
  are exceptional even for the fae. Not only do they stalk 
  and kill vulnerable Whitewallers, they regularly dazzle and 
  deceive mortals into helping them enter the city. This 
  makes the Winter Folk the most hated of Whitewall’s 
  foes. Whitewall not only equips its own soldiers with iron 
  weapons, the city sells fae-killing iron at very reasonable 
  prices to icewalkers and, indeed, anyone else within several 
  hundred miles who wants to kill Fair Folk.
  RUNE
  The city recently gained a powerful diplomatic advan-
  tage. A young Whitewaller named Rune recently Exalted 
  as an Eclipse Caste. He has a history with the Winter 
  Folk: The raksha noble Lios seduced Rune into bringing 
  him into the city. When Rune suffered winter exile as a 
  result of the raksha’s rampage, the raksha mocked and 
  tormented him—and when Rune struck back, he Exalted. 
  In the Syndics’ name, Rune walks where mortals dare not. 
  It remains to be seen whether he can produce true peace 
  between Whitewall and its neighbors, but he has given 
  his oath to try.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNITS
  Scroll of Kings supplies sample maniples of White-
  wall’s militia and Guardians (see Scroll of Kings, pp. 
  69–70). Whitewall has enough outcaste Terrestrial Exalted 
  to field a few sworn brotherhoods (see Scroll of Kings, p. 
  124), and the same write-up could represent elite squads 
  of minor elementals, God-Bloods or enlightened mortal 
  martial artists, with some reduction in the unit’s Might.
  WHITEWALL 14TH COHORT
  Description: If Whitewall faces all-out war, the Syn-
  dics call up both the militia and the Guardians to form 
  cohorts of 1,020 militia members, with 20 Guardians as 
  lieutenants and a Guardian centurion in command. The 
  cohort gains further 
  advantages from divine 
  blessings, thaumaturgy 
  or exploiting the weak-
  nesses of supernatural 
  foes—iron against the 
  Fair Folk, or bags of 
  salt to make barriers 
  the dead cannot cross. 
  These provide the co-
  hort with its Might.
  Commanding Officer: 
  Centurion Raneka
  Armor Color: Bronzed 
  steel breastplate over 
  warm woolen garments, 
  pot helm with a raven 
  feather
  
  32
  Whitewall, a Magnitude 4 Dominion
  Military: 3 
  Government: 2 
  Culture: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 3 (Superior Diplomats +3), Bureaucracy 3, Craft 3, Integrity 3, Investigation 3, Occult 4 
  (Savant Academy +1, Supernatural Etiquette +2), Stealth 1, War 3 (Creatures of Darkness +2)
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 4, Valor 2
  Virtue Flaw: Temperance Current Limit: 2
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 20 External Bonus Points: 12
  Notes: Whitewall’s bonus points go to one dot each of Bureaucracy, Integrity, Investigation, Occult and War. Its 
  external bonus points come from its trade relations and its ability to manipulate its hostile neighbors. These points 
  go to an added dot of Awareness, and the Awareness, Occult and War specialties. The Syndics are all sorcerers 
  with legitimacy.
  In Limit Break, Whitewall’s people become convinced that whatever problems they face come from their unholy 
  neighbors and wrack their own society with a witch-hunt in search of collaborators within the city.
  Motto: “No Passing the Wall”
  General Makeup: 1,040 infantry with diverse weapons and 
  self bows
  Overall Quality: Fair
  Magnitude: 6
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 2 Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 1 
  Ranged Damage: 2
  Endurance: 8 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 2 (-1 mobility)
  Morale: 2
  Formation: The cohort’s commander is a heketa, a type of 
  water elemental (described on pp. 125–126 of The Books 
  of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity I), who 
  escaped the rule of the heketa’s monarch and mother, Ogime 
  the Frog Queen. Raneka became a warrior and a citizen of 
  Whitewall. She creates and directs rainstorms to hinder 
  Whitewall’s foes. The cohort additionally has six relays, 
  three sorcerers and three heroes, the latter six all Guardians 
  of lochagos rank. Whitewall’s troops move easily between 
  relaxed and close formation.
  
  33
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  
  34
  CHAPTER THREE
  CHAPTER THREE
  THE CITY UNDER THE 
  THE CITY UNDER THE 
  MOUNTAIN
  MOUNTAIN
  Four hundred miles north of Whitewall, some 80,000 
  people live in the small city of Gethamane. Their subterranean 
  city grants them unmatched protection from the perils of the 
  North. Living in the heart of a mountain, Gethamanians 
  do not fear winter storms or barbarian attacks. Supernatu-
  ral gardens remove the threat of starvation. Nevertheless, 
  Gethamanians live in fear. The circling tunnels of their 
  city connect to an immeasurably vaster, deeper labyrinth 
  of underways beneath Creation—and from these nighted 
  caverns come horror. As much as anyone else in the North, 
  Gethamanians require constant vigilance to survive.
  HISTORY
  Like many of Creation’s great cities, Gethamane began 
  in the First Age. Its history, however, is stranger than most. 
  Perhaps it’s a good thing the Gethamanians don’t know it.
  THE FIRST AGE
  Gethamane was originally called the City of the Moun-
  tain Gateway. The Solar Deliberative ostensibly tunneled 
  a city within a mountain as a trade and diplomatic nexus 
  with the Mountain Folk and other strange inhabitants of the 
  caverns far below Creation. Indeed, a great deal of contact 
  with the underdwellers took place there. The Deliberative 
  chose the location because of the Celestial Gate to Yu-Shan 
  lodged in the underways beneath the mountain. As a bonus, 
  a colony of Pteroks—a winged race of the prehuman Dragon 
  Kings—lived on the mountain’s heights. The subterranean 
  metropolis was also called Six Gates. In addition to the Ce-
  lestial Gate, the city held a black jade portal to the tunnels 
  of the Mountain Folk and four immense doors of jade and 
  orichalcum steel that led into the mountain from north, 
  south, west and east.
  Nothing exciting happened at Six Gates for more than 
  a thousand years. No Solars were in town when the Usurpa-
  tion began. The Dragon-Blooded easily blocked any contact 
  with the rest of Creation. By the time any loyalists in the 
  city might have objected, most of the Lawgivers were dead. 
  Only the Pteroks knew what was happening, and they flew 
  away and out of history.
  
  35
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  Shortly thereafter, the City of the Mountain Gateway 
  died. When the founders of the new Shogunate realized 
  that their conspirators in the city had not restored contact, 
  a Dragon-Blooded team investigated. They found the city’s 
  gates sealed but everyone gone. Not even corpses remained. 
  So, a group of Sidereal Exalted came to Six Gates. Neither 
  Charms, sorcery nor the Loom of Fate gave any clue to what 
  happened. The city’s past seemed as thoroughly eradicated 
  as its inhabitants.
  The Shogunate stripped everything valuable and por-
  table from the City of the Mountain Gateway, then sealed 
  it. No one entered for several centuries and the city was 
  forgotten.
  THE SECRET PAST
  Six Gates was a lot more than a trade nexus between the 
  Old Realm and the underdwellers. Its true purpose was one 
  of the most closely guarded secrets of the Solar Deliberative. 
  The city’s connection to Creation’s underways, however, 
  brought about its doom. By now, discovering the truth would 
  be extraordinarily difficult.
  REALITY ENGINES
  Back in the Old Realm, a perceptive geomancer 
  might observe that the City of the Mountain Gateway’s 
  combination of a high peak, a connection to Heaven and 
  alignments to the cardinal directions appears at one other 
  location: the Imperial Mountain, the axis of Creation itself. 
  This was no accident. Deep in the highest-security areas of 
  the city—areas never shown on any map, hidden with the 
  help of the Maiden of Secrets herself—the Deliberative 
  emplaced 25 reality engines. These devices, the height of 
  Old Realm magitech, emulate the Elemental Pole of Earth 
  by stabilizing reality against the Wyld. If some unimaginable 
  catastrophe overwhelmed the Blessed Isle, these engines 
  could turn the mountain of Six Gates into a replacement 
  Elemental Pole of Earth, around which Creation could 
  regain its stability.
  More than half the population of Six Gates was Dragon-
  Blooded or God-Blooded. A great many of them functioned 
  as guards, whatever their official duties were. Neither the 
  Mountain Folk nor anyone else was supposed to know what 
  the small city held.
  These reality engines still exist in a ring between the 
  Garden District and the underways. The entrances are virtu-
  ally undetectable and open only to a Solar’s anima. Further 
  defenses protect the vaults of each machine.
  THE ULTIMATE HORROR
  The second secret of Gethamane began with the Primor-
  dial War. When the first Primordial died, its dying Essence 
  and alien ichor generated a new entity: a hekatonkhire, or 
  ghost-behemoth. Most hekatonkhires dwell in the Under-
  world, but the one called Vodak exists simultaneously in 
  the Underworld and Creation. Vodak took shelter in the 
  underways. Every few centuries, Vodak woke to prey upon 
  the underdwellers, destroying whole cities’ worth of the 
  Mountain Folk and other races. When the blood of almost 
  300 Solars fell on Creation’s soil, the Essence-taste of its 
  progenitor’s killers roused Vodak from slumber.
  The Mountain Folk conceived a desperate plan to trap 
  the hekatonkhire. As the Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals 
  stalked and battled the last of the Lawgivers, the Mountain 
  Folk captured numerous Solar offspring. They used the Golden 
  Children as bait, luring Vodak to Six Gates. It arrived hungry. 
  While the monster swept through the city like a silver ocean 
  of death and madness, the greatest savants and sorcerers of the 
  Mountain Folk cast their spells and activated potent artifacts. 
  After six days spent devouring the city’s population, body 
  and soul, Vodak returned to the depths to rest and digest its 
  meal—and found it could not leave.
  The hekatonkhire now lurks in the deepest caverns be-
  low Gethamane, deeper even than the underdwellers know. 
  When it sleeps, its dreams call to the underdwellers and fill 
  them with its own hunger, hate and rage. When it wakes, 
  the terror of its presence drives underdwellers to flee the 
  depths into the city. Sometimes it reconstructs past victims 
  from its own spectral flesh and plays murderous games with 
  them. Vodak refrains from invading Gethamane for now, 
  fearing the possibility of further traps. That may change… 
  especially if Vodak scents Solar blood.
  VODAK AND THE REALITY ENGINES
  The Mountain Folk had few options in binding 
  Vodak: They decided that nothing less than a city 
  could distract the hekatonkhire long enough for them 
  to cast their spells, and few cities connected to Cre-
  ation’s underways. Storytellers might decide, however, 
  that it was no coincidence the Jadeborn sacrificed a 
  city stocked with reality engines. Conceivably, the 
  Mountain Folk knew about the secret devices, used 
  Vodak’s attack as cover to seize them and re-tuned 
  them to supercharge their spells. Characters who 
  discover the reality engines and remove them to use 
  against the Wyld could unwittingly release Vodak 
  on Creation.
  Storytellers might prefer instead that the Moun-
  tain Folk did not know about the reality engines. In 
  this alternative, if the Mountain Folk had conferred 
  with the Solar Deliberative, they could have lured the 
  hekatonkhire into a trap: Once Vodak was between 
  the reality engines, these mighty artifacts would have 
  created a space that was too real for the spectral horror 
  to exist. But that didn’t happen, and Six Gates died 
  because of the bitter history between the Jadeborn 
  and the Sun’s Chosen.
  Either choice presents opportunities for Storytell-
  ers. Decide for yourself which (if either) is true.
  
  36
  RESETTLEMENT
  The Great Contagion did not affect the City of 
  the Mountain Gateway, because nothing lived there. If 
  the invading Fair Folk noticed the empty subterranean 
  city, they did not enter.
  A century after the Contagion, though, a band 
  of refugees fled North, beset by plague, starvation and 
  savage Wyld barbarians. Their God-Blooded leader, 
  Bethan Redeye, led them through the Black Crag 
  Mountains in hopes of finding safety in some whaling 
  village on the White Sea. Instead they found a cave that 
  turned out to be a minor tunnel into the abandoned 
  city. As an alternative to starving, freezing or being 
  eaten by Wyld barbarians, the uncanny city looked 
  pretty good. They named the city Gethamane—
  Old Realm for “Sanctuary,” in hopes that naming 
  it thus in the language of Heaven might provide 
  a good omen.
  The refugees lived off whatever game they could 
  catch in the mountains until they discovered the 
  city’s magical Gardens. Fortunately, the Gar-
  dens are remarkably easy to operate. Within 
  a month, the Gardens produced edible fungi 
  and moss and the refugees became settlers. 
  Not even the discovery of the dangers in the 
  lower tunnels could persuade them to leave. Bethan 
  Redeye worked out a system of allocating daily shares 
  of food from the Gardens and whatever hunters and 
  gatherers found outside. This system eventually became 
  known as the Dole. Life was still hard, though, for the 
  Gethamanians had little with which to work 
  besides wood, leather, bone and stone.
  COMING OF THE GUILD
  For many years, the rest of Creation 
  did not know about Gethamane. That 
  changed when the Guild started send-
  ing caravans into the North. One caravan 
  met a group of hunters from Gethamane. 
  The caravan’s factor quickly realized that the 
  subterranean city would make an excellent base 
  for trading ventures through the North. He also 
  saw the Gethamanians’ lack of outside sources 
  of food, clothing and other commodities. 
  Bethan Redeye (then in her 70s, and still 
  leading the Gethamanians) traded food 
  supplies and animal pelts for cloth, spices 
  and metal goods, beginning the city’s 
  partnership with the Guild… but she 
  didn’t let the Guild know about the 
  buried Gardens. (The Guild found out 
  eventually, of course.)
  To keep the Guild from subvert-
  ing and absorbing Gethamane, Bethan 
  RESETTLEMENT
  The Gr
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  Gr
  Great Conta
  the e e e e Mo
  M untain Gatewa
  the e ein
  i vading Fair Folk 
  cityty, they did not ente
  A century after t
  of refe ugees fled North
  savage
  g  Wyllylld d barbaria
  Bethhan Redeye, led 
  Moun
  un
  un
  untains in hopes o
  villagge eon the White Se
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  37
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  made the Dole contingent on labor for the city. What’s more, 
  she decreed that no one could stay in the city for more than 
  a month unless a Gethamanian family adopted them and 
  they entered the Dole’s labor register. Adopted citizens could 
  pay in jade or goods instead of labor, though. The system 
  discouraged Guildsmen from building strong connections 
  in Gethamane, and the ones who did paid dearly for the 
  privilege of long-term residence.
  Bethan Redeye died at age 93, survived by two husbands 
  and a dozen children. She trained all her children in ad-
  ministration, but named her second son Gerath as her heir. 
  The office of Master or Mistress of Gethamane has stayed 
  in Bethan’s line ever since.
  TO THE PRESENT
  Gethamane grew slowly but steadily. In time, it formed 
  relationships with other Northern societies, usually with the 
  Guild as go-between. In RY 586, this policy drew Gethamane 
  into a trade war with the nascent Haslanti League. On the 
  whole, though, Gethamane enjoyed a remarkably placid his-
  tory. Its people have no desire to conquer others—that would 
  mean leaving the mountain. No one else, not even the Empress, 
  ever found an effective way to attack Gethamane.
  The disappearance of the Empress and the rise of the 
  Bull of the North troubles some Gethamanians. The current 
  Mistress of Gethamane, Katrin Jadehand, and her advisors 
  draw up contingency plans for situations ranging from an 
  attack by the Bull to a takeover bid by the Guild. Most 
  Gethamanians, however, figure that the city can ride out any 
  crisis the way it always has before: Expel any troublesome 
  outsiders, shut the impregnable doors, live off the Gardens 
  and wait a few years. They don’t like to remember that the 
  greatest threat to Gethamane has always come from the 
  endless dark tunnels underneath.
  GEOGRAPHY
  Gethamane does not pretend to control any territory 
  beyond the slopes of its own mountain, but its hunters and 
  gatherers see most of what happens within the nearest 20 
  miles or so. The hunters sometimes venture farther, out of 
  the mountains and all the way to the White Sea shore.
  Sheltered valleys within the mountains sometimes 
  hold patches of taiga that the Gethamanians cultivate and 
  harvest with care—a tree can take 50 years to grow 10 feet 
  high. Tundra covers the lower mountain slopes with hardy 
  lichen, moss and patches of grass and herbs. The icy upper 
  slopes are nearly barren. This far into the North, in a direct 
  line from the Elemental Pole of Air, winter lasts much of the 
  year and the growing season is just three months long.
  THE SUBTERRANEAN CITY
  Everything important about Gethamane is underground. 
  The city consists of five layers: the Temple District at the 
  top; the Upper Ring below that; the central Guild District; 
  the Outer Ring, by far the largest sector of the city; and the 
  Garden District, with the Gardens themselves at the cen-
  ter. Proximity to the source of the Dole makes the Garden 
  District the most prestigious sector of Gethamane, while the 
  Upper Ring’s distance renders it the least desirable place to 
  live in the city.
  ENTERING GETHAMANE
  The north and south sides of Gethamane’s mountain 
  hold sets of immense steel doors, a foot thick and gleaming 
  the distinctive hues of jade and orichalcum alloys: pale blue 
  in the north and reddish in the south. They are immune to 
  all Shaping effects, whether sorcery, Charms or the powers 
  of the Fair Folk. Inside, large wheels move stout bars to lock 
  or unseal the gates.
  Beyond each gate stretches a tunnel 50 yards long, 10 
  yards wide and 10 yards high. The tunnel ends in a large 
  antechamber with heavy portcullises of orichalcum-infused 
  adamant at either end. Guards constantly man these posts. 
  They never raise both portcullises at the same time. Cunning 
  mechanisms, activated from the guard post, are intended 
  to collapse the entrance tunnels in the event of a breach. 
  (Obviously, these have never been tested.)
  The antechamber guards record the names and brief 
  descriptions of every visitor to Gethamane. Free visitors must 
  pay a silver dinar to enter. Slaves pay half a dinar (a conces-
  sion to the Guild). Visitors short of cash can register to pay 
  through labor: Plenty of menial tasks always need doing, such 
  as cleaning passages. Slave caravans usually pay for the slaves’ 
  entrance in this manner. No one enters the city without reg-
  istration, though. Guards quickly move in to capture anyone 
  who makes a ruckus, while drumbeats signal for reinforcements 
  and a runner races to the Guard’s headquarters.
  About half a mile further up the mountain, a dozen 
  small tunnels lead from the icy slope to clusters of chambers 
  and from there to the Temple District and Upper Ring. 
  These passages are all well camouflaged. Over the centu-
  ries, the Gethamanians also installed a variety of locking 
  cast-iron doors, false tunnels, dropfalls and other traps for 
  uninvited visitors. The mountainside chambers bear various 
  THE MISSING ENTRANCES
  What happened to the eastern and western 
  entrances to the City Under the Mountain? They 
  still exist. Landslides covered them long ago, but the 
  early explorers soon found the passages to them. Some 
  settlers proposed excavating these entrances, but the 
  Gethamanians eventually decided to leave them hid-
  den. In fact, they walled off the tunnels and plastered 
  over the walls. Only the Mistress and members of her 
  advisory Council know about the spare entrances. If 
  something should prevent the Gethamanians from 
  using any other exit from the city, they can excavate 
  the buried gateways in a matter of days.
  
  38
  inscriptions in a script unlike that found anywhere else in the 
  city. Centuries ago, a visiting savant of the Realm identified 
  it as the High Holy Speech of the Dragon Kings, and chiefly 
  consisting of heretical prayers to the Unconquered Sun.
  CONSTRUCTION
  Most Gethamanian tunnels are square or rectangular. 
  The floors and ceilings are the mountain’s own dark gray stone, 
  plain and slightly rough. Other forms of stone or concrete 
  sometimes cover the walls. Smaller rooms tend to be plain, but 
  intricate and beautiful geometric carvings adorn the walls of 
  larger passages and chambers. Some rooms have stone doors; 
  others have new makeshift doors of wood or leather.
  Gethamane’s current population exceeds that of the 
  old City of the Mountain Gateway. Many Gethamanians 
  live in apartments formed by partitioning larger chambers 
  or passages. Wealthy families mark their compound with 
  screens of metal or elaborately painted wood. The poor make 
  do with makeshifts such as leather, cloth, paper or scraps of 
  wood salvaged from a merchant’s cart.
  UTILITIES
  Large crystals of pale violet set in the walls and ceiling 
  emit a clear white light. The crystals glow brightly during the 
  day outside and dim when night falls. Still, the crystals stay 
  bright enough for most people to continue working. Guards 
  can patrol, farmers can work in the Gardens, merchants can 
  haggle and artisans can work on all but the most demanding 
  tasks. Gethamane stays active all day and all night. People 
  sleep to fit their work schedule.
  Gethamanians cover the crystals if they want darkness, 
  but few people outside the visitors’ section ever do so. Most 
  Gethamanians are used to constant light: True darkness 
  frightens them. Damaging the crystals is a major offense. 
  Gethamanians learned centuries ago that removing a crystal 
  from its setting darkens it forever.
  For water, Gethamane has at least four large public 
  fountains on each level. Citizens draw off water as needed. 
  The Outer Ring additionally has two still-working bathhouses 
  whose large, tiled pools magically heat the water in them. 
  Two others no longer function. Unfortunately, most of the 
  city’s internal plumbing corroded to uselessness during the 
  long vacancy. Gethamanians make do with chamber pots 
  and rather stinky non-flushing commodes.
  THE UNDERWAYS
  At least a dozen tunnels descend from the Garden District 
  and the Outer Ring into deeper layers, called the underways. 
  Rounded tubes and irregular caverns replace Gethamane’s 
  square corridors and circular or rectangular chambers. The 
  rock darkens from gray to black. The highest layers of the 
  underways continue the concentric circular design of the 
  city, but the deeper reaches become twisting, apparently 
  random tunnels and caverns with no limit ever discovered. 
  The underways have no light crystals.
  People do not live in the underways, but horrible and 
  deadly creatures sometimes emerge from them to attack 
  the people of Gethamane. Every entrance to the under-
  ways has a gate of iron bars—but that doesn’t stop every 
  potential intruder.
  Despite the danger, people sometimes come long 
  distances to visit the underways. Sometimes they return 
  with treasures: strange artifacts, jewels—such as vibrantly 
  violet diamonds—and rare ores hacked from the walls of 
  distant caverns. Explorers even find small quantities of 
  soulsteel. Sometimes, of course, explorers do not return 
  at all. Gethamane’s leaders permit these explorations, in 
  return for half of whatever valuables the explorers bring 
  out of the underways.
  SOCIETY
  Gethamane is one of Creation’s most orderly societies. 
  The security of the Dole keeps Gethamanians in their city, 
  but organizing the production and distribution of so much 
  food from a single source requires extensive control of people’s 
  lives. Gethamanians register their occupations and record 
  every hour of labor to justify their daily ration of fungus 
  from the Gardens. What the clerks don’t know, spies must 
  discover, for Gethamane cannot afford any disruption. Any 
  civil unrest could not only leave people starving, it could 
  leave the city vulnerable to invasion from below.
  Like most societies, Gethamane has its divisions of class, 
  wealth and occupation. It has a literally stratified society. 
  The wealthiest Gethamanians live nearest the all-important 
  Gardens in the city’s lowest level. Middle-class citizens 
  chiefly dwell in the Outer Ring. The Upper Ring receives 
  Gethamane’s poor.
  Six great divisions of labor, based on activities vital 
  for the city’s survival, provide an alternative set of social 
  LOST MAGITECH
  For an Old Realm metropolis, Gethamane shows 
  a distinct lack of Essence-powered conveniences. 
  Only the light-crystals and the Gardens remain, 
  for only they were both durable enough to resist 
  Vodak’s passage and impossible for the Shogunate 
  to remove. (In the centuries when the city was 
  sealed, creatures from the underways might also 
  have scavenged the city.)
  Nevertheless, the city is woven with hidden 
  Essence accumulators and conduits, which all still 
  function. Of the tens of thousands of jade-alloy plugs 
  that once dispensed the Essence, only a few hundred 
  remain (mostly in the Temple District and Garden 
  District). These can still power any magitech device 
  capable of connecting to them, as if each was a one-
  dot hearthstone. Essence-channeling people cannot 
  use the plugs: They function only for devices.
  
  39
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  classes or interest groups that cut across divisions of income. 
  The farmers maintain the magical Gardens. Hunters and 
  gatherers bring additional food and other commodities from 
  outside. The Guard preserves civic order and defends against 
  the monsters of the underways. Artisans fashion the tools 
  and implements needed for daily life. Merchants trade with 
  the Guild and other outsiders. A large administration of 
  clerks and bureaucrats keeps everyone else working together 
  efficiently—or at least tries. Gethamanians often follow the 
  same occupation as their parents.
  THE PEOPLE
  Gethamanians do not look like other Northerners. 
  At least half the people never go outside, giving their skin 
  an unnatural pallor. Only the hunters and gatherers, who 
  must spend much of their time outdoors, show color in their 
  cheeks, roughened skin or other signs of exposure to sun 
  and weather.
  A hundred yards of insulating stone and the heat of 
  80,000 bodies keep Gethamane warm. Within the city, 
  SECRETS OF THE UNDERWAYS
  The underways are not entirely natural. The 
  Mountain Folk used to inhabit the upper layers, and 
  someone familiar with the Jadeborn can recognize the 
  workmanship of these tunnels and chambers. (Inciden-
  tally, this is why the Gethamanians cannot simply wall 
  off the underways: The City of the Mountain Gateway’s 
  air circulation system extended to the Mountain Folk 
  districts of the city. Sealing the tunnels would disrupt 
  that system, eventually rendering the entire city unin-
  habitable. Early Gethamanians learned this the hard 
  way.) Many of the artifacts found in the underways are 
  Mountain Folk workmanship.
  Races and creatures of which humanity knows al-
  most nothing, such as the centipede-like and savagely 
  bestial cthritae and the eldritch underfolk, shaped other 
  parts of the underways. Most of these “darkbrood” are 
  more or less hostile to humans while entities such as 
  the Leech Gods are utterly malignant. Vodak’s presence 
  subtly draws the most malevolent of these creatures and 
  inflames them with hatred of Gethamane; but most of 
  the gems and ores found by explorers come from mines 
  initiated by underdwellers. Some of the creatures that 
  attack Gethamane, however, are underdwellers slain 
  and reconstructed by Vodak. The hekatonkhire itself 
  created the soulsteel found in certain underways, as the 
  intensity of its necrotic Essence transforms veins of iron 
  ore when it passes.
  Scroll of Fallen Races is the principal source of 
  information about the Mountain Folk. See also Dreams 
  of the First Age: Book Two—Lords of Creation, pages 
  118–121 for brief treatments of the Mountain Folk and 
  underfolk, while The Books of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The 
  Roll of Glorious Divinity I describes the monstrous Leech 
  Gods on pages 69–70.
  
  40
  Gethamanians dress lightly. Most citizens wear cotton or 
  silk robes or tunics and trousers. Guards wear tunics and 
  trousers under their armor, though they also wear boots 
  instead of the usual soft slippers. Farmers wear simple 
  brown robes. Hunters and gatherers, of course, need heavy 
  wool, fur and leather when they go outside. Regardless 
  of occupation, Gethamanians prefer deep colors, grays, 
  black or brown. They reserve brightly hued clothing for 
  the bedchamber.
  FAMILIES AND ADOPTION
  Family and class intertwine in Gethamane. The pros-
  perous folk of the Outer Ring and Garden District generally 
  belong to clans who number in the hundreds and occupy 
  large sectors of tunnels and chambers. The poorer folk of the 
  Upper Ring still manage to live as extended families with 
  dozens of aunts, uncles, cousins and kin all together. Quite 
  simply, it takes a degree of wealth to acquire enough space 
  for a family to stay together; but a family that stays together 
  can also economize through hand-me-down clothing, stack-
  ing relatives in bunk beds instead of renting more space and 
  similar expedients. The truly poor live in whatever disused 
  corners of the city they can find. Their children are lucky if 
  they can stay with their parents until adulthood. Many waifs 
  make their own way in the city because their parents are too 
  poor to care for them.
  Gethamanians reckon descent through the female line, 
  though a woman’s current husband is legally the father of all 
  her children. Families often adopt children too, a custom that 
  began as a way to make sure that orphans—future workers—
  would survive and to provide childless couples with heirs to 
  care for them in their old age. Now the custom has a life 
  of its own, and most large families include a few adopted 
  members. Adoption ends all ties to the former family, legally 
  and (Gethamanians hope) emotionally.
  Gethamane doesn’t treat unions between cousins 
  as incest but forbids unions between adopted siblings. 
  Constant adoption prevents serious inbreeding, but many 
  tragic plays deal with youths who fall in love with adopted 
  siblings. (Such plays usually end with murderous rampages 
  and suicide, or one lover nobly choosing exile. Comedies 
  end with one lover adopted into a different family, making 
  their marriage permissible.)
  When a Gethamanian of humble birth shows great skill 
  and dedication, a wealthy and socially prominent family may 
  adopt her. Not only does this provide Gethamane with a 
  unique form of social mobility, it prevents the leading families 
  from becoming stagnant and complacent.
  Most citizens are known by their personal name followed 
  by a family name. For extra formality, Gethamanians give 
  a person’s name followed by “of the such-and-such family.” 
  Distinguished Gethamanians add a descriptive epithet, the 
  way Bethan was called Redeye or the current Mistress Katrin 
  is called Jadehand for the martial prowess she showed during 
  her youth as a Guard.
  LEISURE
  Citizens who perform sufficient labor to earn their Dole 
  can do whatever they want with any spare time. Respectable 
  pastimes include quiet exercise, productive crafts (the current 
  fad is carving imported driftwood), watching morally uplifting 
  plays and writing pastiches of barbarian epics about honor 
  and virtue. Gethamanians also enjoy music, favoring wind 
  instruments or soft string instruments. Music never includes 
  drums: Such instruments are reserved for the Guard’s use.
  Lives constrained by tunnel walls, crowded families, 
  dependence on the Dole and vigilance against invading 
  horrors result in many Gethamanians feeling the need for 
  stronger and stranger release from tension. Behind closed 
  doors (or pulled screens) they take a wide variety of drugs, 
  from imported opium and qat to hallucinogenic local mush-
  rooms. Casual sex, quite outside of marriage, is also common. 
  Some Gethamanians seek pain instead of pleasure, leading 
  to private sessions of torture between consenting (or pay-
  ing) adults. Scarification is currently fashionable, sometimes 
  undertaken using drugs to intensify the pain.
  Gethamanians are quite strict, though, that indecorous 
  amusements not leave a mark or disturb the neighbors. Even 
  the young who want to shock their parents keep their scars 
  or welts hidden beneath clothing, so they can show a placid, 
  pale and unmarked face in public. Likewise, Gethamanians 
  only complain about a neighbor who copulates with imported 
  goats if he doesn’t keep the noise down. The great unwritten 
  law of Gethamane is simply this: Don’t make a fuss. Don’t 
  disturb the functioning of the city. And, don’t be loud. Many 
  ears are listening… and no matter what you do or where you 
  do it, you want to hear the distant alarm-drum or the nearby 
  hiss or scuttling that means the horrors are loose and you 
  must run or fight for your life.
  FOREIGNERS
  While Gethamane has its poor, people from outside 
  the city form the true underclass. By law, foreigners can 
  stay in Gethamane for just one month a year, and they are 
  strongly encouraged to stay in the Guild District. (Visitors 
  who wander soon find Guards asking, with edged politeness, 
  if they are lost. Visitors who wander near the Gardens find 
  Guards drawing steel on them.) Shopkeepers overcharge 
  them. Other Gethamanians treat them rudely. Even the 
  beggars who smile and plead for coins then sneer and mock 
  when no outsiders watch them. Foreigners stand out. They 
  lack the subterranean pallor, the clothes, the accent and ways 
  of speaking that characterize a Gethamanian.
  The only way a foreigner can stay indefinitely in 
  Gethamane is for a native family to adopt them. Even 
  marriage does not suffice: Gethamane does not recognize 
  marriages to outsiders. Someone must attest that she takes 
  the foreigner as a son or daughter. The adopted outsider 
  then must register for the Dole and turn in timesheets that 
  prove her daily labor, just like every other citizen. Such 
  adopted citizens still endure chaffing and snubs for a while, 
  
  41
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  but they eventually learn to fit in and other Gethamanians 
  learn to recognize them.
  Very few foreigners win adoption into Gethamanian 
  society. Families reserve adoption as a reward for outsid-
  ers who make themselves truly beloved or who perform 
  extraordinary services for the city. The Guild has tried for 
  centuries to get agents adopted into Gethamane. So far, 
  the result has been not the subversion of Gethamane but 
  the disgrace of any family the Guild bribed or deluded into 
  performing the adoption.
  The harvest goes to depots where the farmers issue 
  the Dole. Minor administrators check the identity of each 
  claimant and issue the requisite amount of food for the 
  citizen’s family. Several Guards stand watch at every depot. 
  These parts of the Garden District stay constantly busy, with 
  queues of people waiting for the Dole and actors, musicians 
  and other entertainers hoping to make a bit of silver by 
  amusing them.
  The core of the Gardens holds a knot of small, oddly 
  shaped caves with a pedestal in the center. The fungi overflow 
  the trays here to cover the floor and walls, though never the 
  pedestal. Glyphs engraved on the pedestal make the Garden’s 
  basic operation obvious to anyone who studies them. Back 
  in the first Age, a Dragon-Blooded manager of the Gardens 
  wrote these instructions using the Craft Icon Charm (see 
  The Manual of Exalted Power—The Dragon-Blooded, 
  p. 130). Advanced procedures (involving alchemical treat-
  ments, special lighting conditions and the like) enable the 
  Gardens to produce any sort of vegetable matter, but these 
  are scribed on the walls in ordinary Old Realm script—and 
  bioengineering jargon that few people in the Second Age 
  could possibly understand.
  Over the centuries, the Gethamanians figured out that 
  this cave is a powerful manse (Earth ••••), whose power is 
  entirely devoted to fueling the Gardens’ magical fecundity. 
  It has no known hearthstone.
  GUILD AMBITIONS
  In case it needs to be said, the Guild wants Getha-
  mane. The Guild already uses the city as its hub for 
  commerce in the Far North. The residency rules, how-
  ever, inhibit factors from building long-term business 
  relationships. Over the centuries, many factors have 
  drawn up plans for using the secure location and food 
  supply of Gethamane as the anchor for a commercial 
  empire in the North. For instance, one plan calls for 
  using troops from Gethamane to secure the bay to the 
  North and turn it into a home port for an ice ship fleet 
  that could contest Haslanti dominance in the White 
  Sea. Such plans remain idle fancies, however, unless 
  the Guild can bend Gethamane to its will.
  MAKING A LIVING
  However strange Gethamane seems to outsiders, its 
  people still need to eat, craft tools and otherwise secure their 
  livelihoods—even if they do things a little differently.
  FARMING
  The Gardens occupy a complex of long, dark caves. 
  The entrances have light crystals, but the Gardens them-
  selves are dark except for faint luminous streaks that mark 
  the edges of paths and growing fields. Various sorts of fungi 
  grow in shallow, bathtub-sized trays set in the floor. Only 
  a few trays are cracked and no longer function. The entire 
  circular array of chambers is two miles wide—probably the 
  most productive acreage in Creation. The dung and offal 
  that the farmers dump in the trays are wholly inadequate to 
  sustain the mushrooms and other fungi that grow with un-
  natural speed to feed tens of thousands of people every day. 
  Despite the unsavory fertilizer, the farmers keep the rest of 
  the Gardens swept and scrubbed spotlessly clean.
  The farmers do not speak much as they work. Some 
  farmers push barrows full of dung through the narrow 
  paths between trays, then spread this fertilizer over the 
  chosen beds. Other farmers add bits of the fungi they 
  intend to grow or add water from wheeled tanks. A few 
  hours later, the farmers trundle past with a new set of 
  barrows for the harvest.
  THE FARMER CULT
  The Gethamanians do not realize that the Gardens’ 
  manse is damaged. It hasn’t suffered any sort of power 
  failure, but spending too much time in the Gardens 
  can affect a person’s mind. Affected people become 
  obsessed with providing the Gardens with… richer 
  compost. A secret cult among the farmers conducts 
  human sacrifices. Now and then, a criminal sentenced 
  to work in the Gardens suffers a “fatal accident” that 
  leaves him spread-eagled over a tray, bled dry and 
  emasculated before the body is discovered.
  Only senior farmers participate in the cult. The 
  Mistress and several other leading citizens know about 
  the cult but choose not to get involved. The older 
  farmers believe they must propitiate the Gardens and 
  the gods of fungi in this manner. Other Gethamanians 
  believe the farmers and fear to change any of their 
  traditions. An expert in geomancy or Craft (Genesis) 
  who examines the Gardens’ instructions can tell that 
  the sacrifices are completely unnecessary.
  HUNTING AND GATHERING
  The hunters and gatherers supply far less food than the 
  Gardens, but other Gethamanians value their contribution 
  a great deal. The Gethamanians could live exclusively on 
  
  42
  fungi from the Gardens (and have in the past, for years at a 
  time) but the hunters and gathers supply flavor. The hunters 
  bag reindeer, ducks and other game. The gatherers collect 
  edible lichen, berries, bulbs from winter-hardy herbs and 
  other foodstuffs. Hunters and gatherers can keep a fifth of 
  what they bring to the city, to feed to their own family or sell. 
  The rest goes to the Garden District depots for distribution 
  as part of the Dole.
  Over the centuries, the hunters and gatherers absorbed 
  just about every trade that involves bringing raw materials 
  into Gethamane. For instance, Gethamanians consider log-
  ging a form of gathering.
  Some Gethamanians keep sheep and goats. During the 
  brief summer, their herds graze on the mountain slopes. 
  The animals spend the long winter inside the city with 
  their owners, though. Gethamanians usually pen these 
  animals in sections of the Upper Ring, among the poor. 
  Their owners harvest huge amounts of hay to feed their 
  beasts over the winter; as a result, animal husbandry is also 
  treated as gathering.
  Five large warehouse-chambers, spaced around the Up-
  per Ring, are kept cold with ice brought from outside. The 
  city owns these chilled warehouses. Any Gethamanian can 
  store food here, at a cost of one-twentieth the food’s value 
  (or of the food itself). Hunters and gatherers often use this 
  option, since keeping large amounts of valuable meat or 
  vegetables in one’s home invites thievery. Plenty of Guards 
  patrol the warehouses to protect their contents. The cor-
  ridors near the warehouses bustle with merchants, beggars, 
  hunters, gatherers and other citizens trying to strike deals. 
  Wealthy Gethamanians can enjoy fresh reindeer steaks with 
  cloudberry jelly. The poor hustle for suspiciously overripe 
  snowshoe hare carcasses. It’s no accident that the poor folk 
  of the Upper Ring suffer rates of food poisoning much higher 
  than in the rest of Gethamane.
  Mining, too, is considered a form of gathering. Getha-
  mane operates a few small mines for copper, salt and mica. 
  The Guild operates several more, and Gethamane still gets 
  most of its metal from the Guild.
  COMMERCE
  Guards direct all visitors to the Guild District of Getha-
  mane, the site of most of the city’s commerce. Each of the 20 
  passages to this district has a Guard post. Three large central 
  caves hold the principal markets. The next rings out serve 
  as warehouses. Beyond them lie accommodations for visitors 
  and whatever Gethamanians (chiefly merchants and artisans) 
  choose to live near the places where they trade. The Guild 
  claims a large sector for its own caravans. Lesser merchants 
  and miscellaneous travelers rent rooms from the Guild or 
  from Gethamanian owners. Some visitors just camp in the 
  warehouses or disused corridors.
  The Guard watches the Guild District closely. Guards 
  at each entrance keep careful records of everyone who enters 
  and leaves, and what they bring to the city. In daily sweeps 
  through the district, the Guard seeks and removes people 
  who overstay their one-month welcome. Guards also remind 
  visitors who have a day or two to go that they should prepare 
  to leave soon. The Guild District sees a constant turnover 
  as traders come and go.
  THE THREE MARKETS
  As its name suggests, the Food Market sells food, in 
  bulk or retail. Many enterprising citizens have set up snack 
  bars and cooking stalls. The large stalls for imported raw, 
  processed or preserved foods occupy the center of the cave. 
  Further out lie smaller stalls for cooking services or luxury 
  foods (including wine and beer). The northern end of the 
  great circular chamber holds stalls for drugs and medicines. 
  The largest stall belongs to the city of Gethamane itself. It 
  sells food from the fungal gardens at a low price to undercut 
  most of the other food stalls, and bring more revenue to the 
  city government.
  The Metal Market deals in goods made of metal or 
  stone, both raw materials and finished products. Naturally, 
  weapons and armor make up a good bit of the business. 
  Some artisans set up shop in the market itself to forge 
  items to order, keeping the market both smoky and 
  noisy. The Metal Market is also the traditional spot to 
  sell treasures recovered from the underways, even in the 
  (admittedly rare) cases when such items are not mineral 
  in nature.
  The Wood Market began by selling timber, firewood 
  and furniture. It then branched out into cloth and by now 
  has become a catchall for any commodity or service that 
  doesn’t deal with food or metal. Knowledge is the Wood 
  Market’s most distinctive trade: petty thaumaturges, 
  charm-sellers and diviners, guides to the city and the 
  surrounding countryside, books, and of course “true and 
  verifiable” maps to the underways. The Guard turns a blind 
  eye to such frauds, as Gethamanians believe that anyone 
  stupid enough to fall for such a scam deserves whatever 
  happens to him.
  In contrast to Gethamane’s usual mania for control, the 
  city lets merchants hash out for themselves who parks their 
  COOKERY
  Much of the Dole is simply washed, sliced, 
  spiced and eaten raw. Living underground limits 
  Gethamanian cooking: The ventilation system 
  cannot handle a lot of smoke. People often stir-fry 
  their food using dried grass for short bursts of intense 
  heat. They also pack slow-burning, nearly smokeless 
  fuel such as dried peat within a heavy crock and 
  place a smaller pot within it. Gethamanians often 
  freeze-dry foodstuff on the windswept mountain 
  heights, then reconstitute it by stewing it in such a 
  “Gethamane oven.”
  
  43
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  stall where. The Guild naturally has the largest stalls in the 
  best locations. All stalls are made of wood. Some trading 
  groups arrange to use a stall in shifts as they enter and leave 
  the city, so they can keep a good location. Some stalls stay 
  in the same location for decades, which brings considerable 
  respect to their owners.
  TRIBUNAL CAVE
  The most opulent chamber in the Guild District is 
  reserved for consultations between Guild factors and local 
  officials, or any merchants whose wealth or power earn 
  them the Guild’s respect. Ornate gilded tables, chairs and 
  divans, costly silks and brocades, ornaments of porcelain 
  and jade and other fripperies serve to impress visitors 
  with the Guild’s wealth. Costly liquors and exotic drugs 
  impair a visitor’s judgment in other ways. The Guild can 
  also bring in superb courtesans or anything or anyone else 
  needed to bedazzle or befuddle a target. Meetings range 
  from staid discussions of tariffs and commercial law to 
  wild debauches—with a contract and pen offered at a 
  strategic moment.
  The Guild uses its own mercenaries to protect Tribunal 
  Cave, and keeps the city Guard away as much as possible. 
  Naturally, the Guard takes every excuse to search Tribunal 
  Cave. Indeed, the Guard takes any chance to ransack Guild 
  quarters in search of incriminating documents or other evi-
  dence of misbehavior.
  RELIGION AND THE SUPERNATURAL
  Most Gethamanians are not very religious. They leave 
  such matters to priestly professionals. Gethamane’s own gods 
  make few demands—they haven’t even given their names—
  and other gods show little interest in the City Under the 
  Mountain. Worshipers of other gods can set up shrines in the 
  Guild District. The city sets aside several rooms for visitors 
  to dress in whatever temporary temple trappings they want. 
  Only Immaculate shrines are not allowed—a centuries-old 
  holdover from an encounter with exceptionally high-handed 
  missionaries that went badly. Shrines are forbidden elsewhere 
  in the city (though the Guards ignore portable traveler’s 
  shrines unless they want an excuse to harass a visitor). As 
  long as worshipers do not break Gethamane’s civil laws, the 
  city government turns a blind eye.
  TEMPLES TO UNKNOWN GODS
  Gethamane’s temples consist of three spacious rooms near 
  the top of the mountain. Their walls bear jewel-encrusted 
  carvings of mountains and strange flying creatures. (The 
  decorations include tiny quantities of moonsilver, starmetal, 
  orichalcum and jade, but extracting a useful amount would 
  take days of very public effort.) Blue-white Essence fires burn 
  above the three circular altars.
  People who enter the temples feel an eerie sense of being 
  watched, but no deity has ever manifested. Those who sleep in 
  
  44
  a temple experience vivid, confusing dreams, often of frantic 
  searching or desperate flight. Some dreamers find answers to 
  questions that bothered them. This is the chief reason why 
  Gethamanians visit the temples. More likely, dreamers spend 
  the next few nights in sleepless anticipation or dread. A few 
  feel called to serve as priests. A very few wake in screaming 
  terror. They cannot remember their dreams but cannot bear 
  to spend another minute in the city. Gethamanians know 
  that such people may injure or kill themselves if kept from 
  escaping. Fortunately, they seem to recover their wits once 
  they depart and can no longer see the mountain.
  Gethamanians do not become priests deliberately. The 
  priesthood began early in the settlement of Gethamane, 
  when a few loners who slept in the temples then told Bethan 
  Redeye that they had to serve in the temples instead of doing 
  other work. The first Mistress of Gethamane acquiesced. All 
  subsequent priests have been similarly dream-called. Priests 
  receive a share in the Dole equal to that of a mid-ranking 
  Guard or farmer.
  Priests abandon their old lives. They offer flowers and 
  animal blood on the altars. Late at night, the priests cover 
  the temple floors with complex designs drawn in ink, colored 
  sand or, occasionally, their own blood, while chanting in an 
  unknown tongue. The priests cannot explain either their 
  mandalas or their liturgies, but they feel driven to perform 
  both. Afterward, they clean and polish the temples.
  The acolytes themselves have no hierarchy. The Master 
  or Mistress of Gethamane appoints a High Priest or Priestess, 
  just so the city’s Council has a single person with which to 
  work. Gethamanians call the other priests Father or Mother, 
  regardless of their age.
  In addition to propitiating Gethamane’s nameless gods 
  and assisting people who want to dream in the temples, the 
  priests act as exorcists. When Gethamanians feel that some 
  malign influence affects their lives, they call in a priest to 
  conduct banishing rituals. These ceremonies involve lots 
  of community participation. When the malign influence 
  is a grudge between neighbors, the shared ritual can help 
  ease the conflict. Yet, some priests study the thaumatur-
  gical Art of Warding and Exorcism (see The Books of 
  Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex, pp. 141–144) in 
  case the malign influence is a rampaging demon or other 
  supernatural horror.
  THE DEAD
  By law, Gethamanians cremate their dead in the 
  Essence-fires of the temples. Families keep the ashes in small 
  ornamental boxes, scatter them on the mountain slope or add 
  them to the fertilizer for the Gardens. Some families do not 
  want to relinquish the bodies of their loved ones, however, 
  leading to a small industry of illicit embalming and taxidermy. 
  These families bribe suitable bureaucrats to attest to a body’s 
  cremation, then actually have the corpse preserved. Now 
  and then, an embalmed (or stuffed) corpse is discovered in 
  a hidden room or secreted in a family’s quarters. This always 
  leads to a search of the area for other bodies and the arrest of 
  everyone involved. No one knows the full extent of mortuary 
  crime, but it is especially common among the rich families 
  of Gethamane, who can afford the needed bribery and have 
  the space to hide their ancestors.
  Despite this illicit ancestor reverence, Gethamane has 
  no true ancestor cult. This is because Gethamane has no 
  ghosts at all. Gethamanians accept this as normal.
  SECRETS OF THE TEMPLES
  The source of the chants and mandalas is obscure 
  but not unknowable: The liturgies are in High Holy 
  Speech, the language of the Dragon Kings. The temple 
  walls portray members of the Pterok breed of this 
  ancient, nearly extinct race. The inscriptions found 
  in the chambers used by the hunters and gatherers are 
  likewise written in this obscure tongue. The priests’ 
  mandalas, however, come from the practices of the 
  Mountain Folk.
  Each of the three temples houses a god of air, sky 
  and flight. The Solars who built Gethamane recruited 
  these three small gods to circulate the city’s air and 
  keep it fresh. When the City of the Mountain Gate-
  way died, the gods lost all their worshippers; the gods 
  found no help in Yu-Shan, for the other gods were 
  preoccupied with the Usurpation and losses among 
  their own worshipers. So the three gods waited in their 
  temples, alone and slowly going mad, but continuing 
  their duty.
  The gods try to touch the minds of sleepers and 
  help them with their problems, but they aren’t very 
  good at it. Some dreamers catch a bit of the gods’ 
  insanity and feel compelled to serve as their priests. 
  Others receive the gods’ memories of the First Age 
  city’s extermination by Vodak. This drives them mad 
  with the need to flee.
  GHOSTS IN GETHAMANE
  Few of the materialistic Gethamanians become 
  ghosts after death. They never last long if they do. 
  Vodak spawns numerous smaller versions of itself that 
  sweep through Gethamane’s counterpart in the Under-
  world, and immaterially through the city in Creation. 
  Those with Essence senses (such as All-Encompassing 
  Sorcerer’s Sight) occasionally see a wash of silver move 
  swiftly through a room or corridor. The rush affects 
  nothing in the material world, but any immaterial 
  creature is most likely doomed. In the Underworld, 
  Vodak’s spawn devour any ghost within minutes.
  
  45
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  THE EXALTED AND OTHER ESSENCE WIELDERS
  Gethamanians do not much like the Terrestrial Exalted, 
  chiefly because of high-handed Immaculates and Dynasts. They 
  also know the danger of showing such dislike. The Dragon-
  Blooded rarely stay in Gethamane for long, though. They have 
  bad dreams as the maddened gods clumsily try to warn them 
  and, through them, the long-dead Solar Deliberative.
  The people have no experience with other Exalted—that 
  they know about—so they base their opinions on stories. 
  They fear the Lunar Exalted as patrons of the icewalkers and 
  other barbarians. The Bull of the North is distant but sounds 
  dangerous. Of course, Gethamanians have no knowledge of 
  the Sidereals. Other Exalted are too new for Gethamanians 
  to know about them. Any Exalted who visit Gethamane, 
  or Exalt among them, could determine how the people feel 
  about their kind for centuries to come.
  Gethamane’s hunters and gatherers occasionally en-
  counter the Fair Folk. The tales of the survivors ensure the 
  Gethamanians’ thorough hatred and fear of the raksha. For-
  tunately for Gethamane, the local Fair Folk have no desire to 
  enter a city that gives them the creeping horrors—not even 
  fae who normally might relish such a strange and dramatic 
  emotion. Fair Folk blame this aversion on the city’s jade 
  and orichalcum gates, not on quiescent reality engines or 
  an instinctual sense for Vodak’s presence.
  Demons rarely enter Gethamane—most likely sum-
  moned or sent there on a mission by a sorcerer or thaumaturge. 
  Gethamanians abhor demons as much as most people do. 
  Demons also seem to loathe Gethamane, and do not linger 
  even when they have the chance. They feel something im-
  mensely darker and more dangerous than themselves lurking 
  nearby. Gods and elementals avoid the city for the same 
  reason, though none of these spirits can find the ultimate 
  source of the terrifying Essence.
  Gethamane’s limited contact with supernatural creatures 
  means the city has almost no God-Blooded citizens or other 
  half-breed channelers of Essence. Gethamanians rarely try to 
  enlighten their own Essence either, due to their cultural isola-
  tion and lack of any institution to encourage this practice.
  The Guard wants to recruit thaumaturges for the en-
  chantments, talismans and alchemical medicines they can 
  provide. The city has few skilled thaumaturges, though. 
  Thaumaturgically proficient outsiders who want to join the 
  Guard can easily wangle adoption into a family with strong 
  traditions of Guard membership.
  DISREPUTABLE FOLK
  Most Gethamanians like to think of their society as 
  prosperous and orderly, controlled and smugly secure. Nev-
  ertheless, the city has its poor, its discontented and indeed 
  its actively criminal.
  THE JADE HOSPICE
  Not far from the temples lies Gethamane’s largest charity 
  hospital, the Jade Hospice. Citizens who volunteer as a way 
  to earn their Dole, and minor lawbreakers who pay their debt 
  to society as unskilled labor or nursing staff, assist the staff 
  of priests and healers. The hospice sees a constant stream of 
  sick and injured poor people from the Upper Ring. The Jade 
  Hospice does not have the best-trained staff of Gethamane’s 
  hospitals, but it currently has the most reliable funding. Its 
  director, the matronly Enath Daur, comes from a leading 
  farmer family. She also holds a Council seat, where she works 
  to improve the lot of Upper Ring folk, or at least make sure 
  they are not further marginalized.
  THE JANISSARY VAULT
  Not everyone in Gethamane relies on the Guard for 
  their safety. The Janissary Vault, located in the Outer Ring, 
  supplies warriors, bodyguards and assorted muscle for hire. Its 
  owner, the melodramatically named Vaultmaster (and yes, 
  he goes masked) says that his service would never consider 
  doing anything against the laws of Gethamane. Neverthe-
  less, a sufficiently discreet client can arrange for any sort of 
  thuggery short of murder. Many people suspect the Janissary 
  Vault is a front for the Guild (mercenaries being one of the 
  Guild’s core businesses). The Guild would like to own the 
  Janissary Vault, but the business has stayed independent 
  since it began 50 years ago.
  The Vault’s mercenaries are about evenly divided 
  between outsiders who managed to wangle adoption into 
  Gethamanian families, and Gethamanians who were expelled 
  from the Guard or who found its standards of courage and 
  discipline too difficult. Janissaries receive little respect, for 
  they are not duty-bound to run toward monsters. Gethamane’s 
  government does not accept Vault employment as any sort 
  of service to the city, greatly limiting their Dole ration. 
  Mistress Katrin and the Council would like an excuse to 
  shut down the Janissary Vault, or at least force it to register 
  every job and client.
  THE PHILOSOPHY CELL
  A collection of public meeting rooms in the Outer Ring 
  hosts an informal club of amateur intellectuals and pseudo-
  intellectuals. Members range from young people who want 
  to pick up some radical ideas with which to shock their 
  parents, to careful scholars of Gethamane’s many myster-
  ies. In between are unlicensed thaumaturges, drug addicts, 
  devotees of self-created religions and people who just want 
  to argue. Most members are harmless and frivolous. A few 
  regulars are serious and capable savants, varying widely in 
  their ethics—from Serret of the Bethanites, a painstaking 
  amateur historian of the city, to the alchemist Tazar Pellan, 
  who tests his concoctions on people who want “mystical 
  experiences,” to Damaithe Yarni, a thaumaturge and closet 
  demonologist.
  THE RAT’S NEST
  A gang of juvenile thieves makes its clubhouse in an 
  abandoned, junk-filled storehouse in the eastern sector of 
  the Outer Ring. Most of the children come from middle- or 
  
  46
  upper-class families and think that their “Society of Thieves” 
  is all a grand game organized by their leader, Jaxar. The 
  children commit petty thefts, pull pranks and generally 
  cause mischief.
  The children know that Jaxar isn’t really a fellow child, 
  but they don’t think of her as really a grown-up, either. Jaxar 
  is a dwarf with a preternaturally youthful face… and she works 
  for the Guild. The children do not realize that the gossip 
  they pass to their young-old playmate goes to the Guild—
  or that exposure of their naughty deeds could disgrace their 
  families. Jaxar watches their parents to gauge who she could 
  blackmail through their children’s misdeeds. She expects 
  to build a cadre of citizens in Gethamane’s upper class who 
  serve the Guild to avoid disgrace.
  SEVENTH HALL
  Despite their poverty, the Rasri family of dung-carriers, 
  sweepers and garbage pickers have held this set of chambers 
  in the Upper Ring for many years. They now use the Seventh 
  Hall as the meeting place for a conspiracy of other poor and 
  discontented Gethamanians. The conspirators are angry 
  with the city’s government and want to replace it with the 
  Guild. They imagine that they would get rich if they could 
  own slaves to do the drudgery they currently perform, and 
  that the Guild could make Gethamane the mightiest nation 
  of the North. Family patriarch and conspiracy leader Yftar 
  Rasri seeks Guild support for his conspiracy. So far, the Guild 
  rejects his advances as obvious attempts at entrapment.
  GOVERNMENT
  Administering the Dole requires a small army of petty 
  bureaucrats, who monitor every citizen’s activities to make 
  sure that she deserves her share of the fungus gardens’ bounty. 
  In some ways, however, Gethamane’s government remains 
  that of a small town. At its heart, the city’s government con-
  sists of a leader, an old, rich and powerful extended family, 
  and a small group of cronies.
  THE RULING CLASS
  The descendants of Bethan Redeye still rule Gethamane. 
  The city’s monarch, called the Master or Mistress, chooses a 
  successor from the Bethanite clan—usually a son, daughter, 
  niece or nephew, but sometimes from remote cousins. The 
  monarch always must have a designated heir, though the 
  designation can be changed at whim. In Gethamane’s only 
  recorded coup attempt, the disgruntled Mineko Threebrand of 
  the Guard tried poisoning all the then-Master’s close relatives. 
  The Master quickly adopted three leading Gethamanians (all 
  remotely descended from Bethan Redeye) as his offspring to 
  replenish the clan. Today, the Bethanites number more than 
  2,000—all of them potential heirs.
  Most Bethanites work as administrators, magistrates, 
  accountants and scribes. They form much of the city’s civil 
  service. Bethanites often undergo basic training as guards 
  or farmers as well, the better to deal with those important 
  institutions. Indeed, custom holds that a Bethanite who wants 
  to administer some aspect of city life should have practiced 
  it as well. Most of all, though, Gethamane needs educated 
  clerks and shrewd negotiators to distribute the Dole and deal 
  with Guild. Some members of the clan choose occupations 
  ranging from painter to swordsman, but they all start by 
  learning arithmetic, reading and writing.
  Gethamane’s current ruler is Katrin Jadehand, a woman 
  in her 50s who has been Mistress for 10 years. She was both 
  the previous Master’s choice and a popular favorite. Katrin 
  spends a great deal of time pondering how best to assure her 
  city’s stability and survival. While she pragmatically realizes 
  that Gethamane might need to ally with some greater power, 
  she would rather avoid this—and she will try not to accept 
  any alliance that she cannot afford to break later.
  THE INTELLIGENCERS
  Everyone in Gethamane knows that Bethanite family 
  members pass information to the city’s Mistress. To learn 
  what citizens and visitors don’t want the government to 
  know, the Mistress has spies called Intelligencers. Undercover 
  informants are difficult to recruit, though. Adopted outsiders 
  can’t pass for native Gethamanians, and the strong tradition 
  of family loyalty means that few Gethamanians would serve 
  the Mistress ahead of their own kin.
  The Head Intelligencer, a man called Shakan who poses 
  as a Deputy Almoner in the Dole administration, solves this 
  problem through blackmail. His agents all watch for criminal 
  activity. Shakan then threatens the criminal with exposure 
  and attendant disgrace to her family. Once a blackmail victim 
  works as an informer, she is caught: Gethamanians despise 
  the Intelligencers, so an exposed agent suffers worse ostracism 
  than she might have received from her original crime.
  Shakan has agents throughout Gethamanian society. He 
  has no agents among the priests, whose religious obsessions 
  sever them from most aspects of mundane life. The Head 
  Intelligencer has a few spies among foreign merchants, but 
  he does not trust them very much. Shakan very much wants 
  to recruit informants within the Guild, as he does not trust 
  the merchant princes one bit.
  THE COUNCIL
  The Mistress of Gethamane appoints a committee of 
  15 advisors: three each from the city guards, the farmers, 
  the hunters and gatherers, the artisans and the merchants. 
  Bethan Redeye began the custom and now no one would 
  dream of challenging it. The Council meets three times a 
  month, though the Mistress can call for special sessions.
  These advisors have no official power, but serving as 
  the voices for their occupations gives Council members 
  great prestige and influence. Any member of their interest 
  group who wants to lobby the Mistress does it through his 
  delegates. On the other hand, a shrewd Mistress knows that 
  she must keep the five great factions happy, and so treats 
  her Council with respect. Mistress Katrin often acts more as 
  
  47
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  a mediator between the delegates than as an autocrat (and 
  some past Masters and Mistresses became virtual puppets of 
  powerful Councils).
  Council members hold their posts until they die, resign 
  or are fired by the city’s Mistress. When a faction loses a 
  delegate, senior faction members offer the Mistress a list 
  of possible replacements. The Mistress then selects a new 
  Council member from the list. Vacancies on the Council 
  result in a frenzy of politicking from the faction in ques-
  tion, from other Council members seeking the appointment 
  of allies and from the Guild. In the event that all three of 
  a faction’s posts fall vacant, the Mistress can appoint new 
  delegates without consultation, as the city most likely faces 
  an immediate crisis.
  THE ADMINISTRATION
  All of Gethamane’s government offices occupy the outer 
  circles of the Garden District. Each location actually consists 
  of several large rooms and corridors. Here, clerks keep the 
  Dole lists and records of visitors to the city. The Council 
  meets in one large chamber, adorned with portraits of past 
  Masters and Mistresses. Citizens can visit the Hall of Records 
  and Hall of Maps to check on property lines. (Outsiders can 
  consult these records as well, for a small fee.) Magistrates re-
  solve civil disputes and try criminal cases in the Courthouse. 
  Children who receive any education beyond basic literacy 
  and arithmetic go to a school connected to the City Library. 
  Bethanites staff many of the government posts but at least a 
  third of the clerks and officials come from other families.
  Even more than the rest of Gethamane, the administra-
  tive areas stay busy all the time. Each shift of functionaries 
  simply takes the desks vacated by the shift before them. 
  Children attend school in shifts as well, and mobs of chil-
  dren surge through the tunnels at each shift change. Only 
  the Council doesn’t work around the clock, though sessions 
  may last for days as members debate especially knotty or 
  contentious issues.
  The Garden District includes the rooms and offices of 
  Gethamane’s ruler, passed from Master to Mistress for cen-
  turies. It’s a point of pride to change as little as possible from 
  Bethan Redeye’s original sparse furniture and belongings.
  LAW AND CRIME
  Gethamane’s law centers on the Three Rules set down 
  by Bethan Redeye. Both civil disputes and criminal trials 
  often hinge on whether or how one of the Three Rules was 
  broken.
  THE FIRST RULE
  Blood pays for blood, but it must serve the city: All crimes 
  of personal assault shall be paid as debts to Gethamane, and 
  Gethamane shall reimburse the victim in turn.
  The First Rule covers all assaults on another person, from 
  public brawling to rape or murder. Minor assaults are punished 
  by fining or a period of forced labor. Half the proceeds go to 
  the victim and half to the city (or all to the city when both 
  parties are culpable, as when a quarrel escalates to a public fight 
  and no one can prove who started it). Maiming, accidental 
  death and rape result in major fining, a long period of hard 
  labor, exile or some combination of the three. Murderers are 
  condemned to permanent hard labor, exile or execution. A 
  dead victim’s share of any restitution goes to her family. In 
  cases of homicide, proof of self-defense or extreme provoca-
  tion can reduce a sentence but not eliminate it completely: 
  Gethamane cannot tolerate the loss of any citizen’s labor.
  THE SECOND RULE
  Jade pays for jade: All crimes of theft or other trespass on 
  another’s goods shall be repaid twofold, once to the victim and 
  once to the city.
  This law covers all forms of theft, including forms of fraud 
  such as giving short weight or delivering goods of lower quality 
  than promised. Damaging a person’s possessions (including 
  slaves) also falls under this law. Under the Second Rule, it’s a 
  crime to charge outsiders less than a citizen of Gethamane—
  this is stealing from the city’s prosperity as a whole. The city’s 
  magistrates and accountants measure losses to the last grain 
  of jade and insist on precise repayment, though transactions 
  use the Guild’s silver more often than jade.
  THE THIRD RULE
  What we have, we hold: All crimes of trespass on another’s 
  domain shall be paid for by a gift of land in turn, or the Dole shall 
  be remitted and the trespasser cast forth to starve.
  If people who dislike each other cannot escape each 
  other’s company, their enmity can escalate to murder. 
  Gethamanians, therefore, value privacy as much as life and 
  property, and trespass on another family’s territory becomes 
  a serious crime. Gethamanians treat malicious gossip about 
  another person’s activities as a form of trespass.
  When two disputing parties share a property line, the 
  penalty usually consists of moving that boundary by a foot or 
  two to give the victim a section of the trespasser’s territory. 
  This results in many instances of two families sharing a room, 
  with screens set up to give them an illusion of privacy. It can, 
  indeed, be grounds for lawsuit to respond to anything one 
  hears on the other side of such a screen… though noise of a 
  sufficient volume (or sufficiently disturbing nature) that it 
  cannot be ignored is also an offense. When disputants do not 
  share a boundary, the city confiscates part of the trespasser’s 
  property, then allows her family to “buy it back” and pays 
  the resulting silver to the plaintiff’s family.
  Gethamanians are strict about privacy and property, 
  but not insane. The Guard can go anywhere in pursuit of a 
  monster from the underways, and people fleeing a monster 
  likewise have a right to cross another family’s property. (In-
  deed, a civic defense crisis trumps all questions of privacy 
  and territory.) Families usually forgive trespass by children 
  when a game of hide-and-seek gets out of hand (though 
  their parents might be notified). Persistent trespass by older 
  children can result in lawsuit, though, and the child’s family 
  suffers significant disgrace.
  
  48
  Trespass becomes treason where the Gardens are con-
  cerned. Any citizen who helps outsiders enter the Gardens 
  commits a crime comparable to murder, for they endanger 
  the city itself.
  TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT
  Trials take place in the Courthouse, a set of variously-sized 
  chambers. Three magistrates hear every case: a professional 
  judge who is usually a Bethanite, a senior Guard and a senior 
  farmer. The accused and the plaintiff both state their cases 
  to the panel of judges. If a plaintiff cannot speak on her own 
  behalf, a relative or Guard can become her advocate (the 
  latter usually in cases of homicide). Gethamane’s courts ac-
  cept information obtained by magic or bound demons. The 
  three judges deliberate on the evidence, consult precedents 
  and deliver a verdict and sentence. Any attempt to influ-
  ence a judge, whether by bribery, threats or magic, is a major 
  personal assault and punished accordingly.
  Judges reserve execution as their ultimate sanction. 
  More often, a murderer, traitor or other major felon is 
  blinded, branded and condemned to work 
  in the Gardens for the rest of his life. 
  (Which might not be that 
  long, as such convicts be-
  come favorite 
  victims of the 
  farmer cult.) 
  Judges actually regard exile as a merciful punishment, and 
  often use it to punish crimes of passion. An exile can even 
  serve his sentence in Gethamane’s mines, and so remain 
  loosely connected to the city. Temporary exile usually lasts 
  five years. After that, the criminal can resume his place in 
  the city and among his family.
  SLAVERY IN GETHAMANE
  Even though lawbreakers can be sentenced to a life of 
  hard labor in the Gardens, Gethamane forbids individuals 
  from owning slaves. Any labor must be hired, and hiring an 
  outsider carries a hefty tariff. Gerath, the second Master, made 
  this law so that citizens could find work and to forestall slave 
  uprisings. Some merchants lobby to repeal this law, but most 
  Gethamanians want to preserve tradition. They identify slavery 
  with the Guild, and while Gethamanians know the Guild is 
  necessary, they also know the Guild is not their friend.
  Gethamane’s law does not emancipate slaves who enter 
  the city, however. Therefore, Guild caravans regularly bring 
  coffles of slaves through Gethamane. The Second Rule applies 
  to slaves within the city, and so the Guard can prevent serious 
  cruelty to slaves. If Guards witness beatings or other mistreat-
  ment, they can and do arrest everyone in sight on charges of 
  “damaging another person’s property.” The 
  owner of the slaves 
  then must testify 
  that he was damaging 
  in the Gardens for the rest of his life.
  (Which might not be that
  long, as such convicts be-
  come favorite
  victims of the
  farmer cult.)
  cruelty to slaves. If Guards witness beatings or other mistreat-
  ment, they can and do arrest everyone in sight on charges of
  “damaging another person’s property.” The
  owner of the slaves
  then must testify
  that he was damaging
  
  49
  CHAPTER THREE • THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  his own property, or ordered another person to do so on his 
  behalf. No one suffers any punishment in such cases, but the 
  confusion and delay caused by the trial does not help a slave 
  caravan’s profits or reputation.
  Under the Second Rule, Gethamanians cannot claim 
  animals that escape their pens: They must return the beast 
  to its owner. The Guard, however, seldom chooses to help 
  owners find slaves who escape in Gethamane. An escaped 
  slave who is adopted into a citizen family also leaves the 
  Second Rule’s purview, as she becomes a citizen herself. 
  Gethamane includes a few abolitionists who encourage slaves 
  to escape and come to them for adoption, though the city 
  government does not encourage this practice.
  FOREIGN RELATIONS
  Gethamane has little direct contact with the rest of 
  Creation. Few Gethamanians travel, and few other people 
  want to visit this remote bastion of civilization. No one can 
  conquer Gethamane, and Gethamane cannot threaten any-
  one else. Most Gethamanians know very little about the rest 
  of Creation. Gethamane’s Mistress and Council now believe, 
  however, that they must learn a great deal more about their 
  neighbors… particularly the Bull of the North.
  The Realm never troubled Gethamane. Dynasts oc-
  casionally visited to seek treasure in the underways, and 
  far-traveling legions occasionally bought provisions at 
  Gethamane, but the city never paid tribute. The Empress 
  once commissioned her strategoi to evaluate Gethamane for 
  conquest: These worthies concluded that the feat was possible 
  for the Dynasty but not worth the trouble. Past Masters and 
  Mistresses did not flaunt their defiance of the Realm, so the 
  Empress never felt the need to make an example of the city. 
  Since the Empress’s disappearance, no one in the Realm pays 
  much attention to the remote subterranean city.
  Whitewall is the closest that Gethamane comes to an 
  ally. Neither city has many other neighbors (that are hu-
  man, at least). Gethamane’s leaders cultivate merchants 
  from Whitewall just to remind the Guild that they can be 
  replaced; and it’s often cheaper to buy Whitewall’s metalwork 
  directly than through Guild intermediaries.
  Gethamane has an unfortunate history with the Haslanti 
  League, and Guildsmen still disparage the Haslanti. Never-
  theless, the Mistress and Council now seek better relations 
  with the League as another alternative to the Guild.
  Every year or two, an icewalker tribe follows a mammoth 
  or reindeer herd through Gethamane’s territory. Gethamane’s 
  hunters pick off straggling beasts, which the icewalkers do not 
  like. On the other hand, Gethamanians sometimes trade with 
  icewalkers for meat, furs, hides, horn and ivory; but much of 
  this trade goes through the Guild. (The walrus-hunters along 
  the coast form a notable exception. Gethamane’s hunters 
  trade with these barbarians directly.)
  Even the isolationist Gethamanians hear stories about 
  the Bull of the North, and what they hear frightens the city’s 
  leaders. They don’t credit Realm propaganda about “Anath-
  ema,” but anyone who can massacre Dynasts—hitherto the 
  city’s standard for powerful, erratic individuals—is a danger 
  the Gethamanians don’t want to face. Some Council members 
  believe the city can shut its doors and defy the Bull, just as it 
  has defied every other threat. Others are not so sure, fearing 
  that the Anathema warlord could break the gates like a paper 
  screen. They all agree that Gethamane must learn more and 
  acquire whatever power and allies it can find.
  THE GUARD
  Gethamane has no army as such, only a Guard that keeps 
  order and defends against creatures from the underways. At 
  5,000 soldiers, the Guard is quite a formidable force for a 
  small city—but the Guard has no experience operating in 
  groups larger than the 20-man platoons. Guards wear red 
  lamellar armor and carry target shields blazoned with a white 
  mountain on a red field. They favor heavy weapons such as 
  sledges, great axes and pickaxes—the sort of weapons that can 
  hack, pierce and crush eldritch horrors. When riots erupt in 
  the Guild District or elsewhere, half the responding Guards 
  carry leather-padded clubs, but the Guard never operates 
  without the threat of lethal force and big damage.
  The Guard’s overall commander occupies a Guardhall in 
  the Garden District. Here the Guard trains, gathers to orga-
  nize hunts for invading monsters and imprisons lawbreakers. 
  Unlike the subdued tones of the rest of Gethamane, bright 
  red pennants mark all entrances to the Guardhall. Doors in 
  this complex are always high-quality iron.
  The current Captain of the Guard, Golden Stag, is of ice-
  walker descent, abandoned by his tribe as a child and adopted 
  by a poor Gethamane family. Every other sentence or so, he 
  reminds people how he worked his way up the ranks. Golden 
  Stag is now in his 50s, a good leader of soldiers and convinced 
  he has plenty of time before he needs to train a successor.
  Beneath Golden Stag are the North Gate and South 
  Gate Captains. The South Gate Captain, Mindros Yami, 
  stands out for his refusal to accept bribes from merchants. 
  The North Gate Captain, Gavne Wheelright, came from an 
  artisan family but joined the Guards to avenge the death of 
  his wife at the claws of underdwellers. A traveling Immaculate 
  monk also converted Gavne. He lobbies (though not loudly) 
  for the Council to permit an Immaculate shrine. These three 
  officers command various district and shift lieutenants, and 
  Guard posts are spread throughout the city.
  Each Guard post has a large drum mounted on the wall. 
  In any disturbance, one soldier beats a signal on the drum to 
  alert other posts of the nature and location of the trouble, 
  and to call for backup if this seems prudent. In the case of 
  major disturbances such as monsters from the underways, 
  riots or rampaging Exalts, a runner is additionally sent to the 
  Guardhall with a report and a request for full mobilization. 
  A few hundred Guards bunk in the Guardhouse at all times, 
  ready to go wherever they are needed.
  Despite the high death rate that Guards suffer in monster 
  attacks, the organization never lacks for recruits. In part, this 
  
  50
  comes from the high prestige of the job (and high ration of the 
  Dole). Less nobly, Guards receive greater opportunities to meet 
  outsiders… and collect small gifts and gratuities from them 
  in return for assistance with the city’s bureaucracy. Golden 
  Stag cycles his soldiers through gate duty so everyone gets 
  a fair share. Large bribes, however, or attempts to subvert a 
  Guard into serious breaches of the law, constitute “injury to 
  the city” and result in the Guard’s arrest if he is caught.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNITS
  See pages 71–72 of Scroll of Kings for a sample Guard 
  platoon (Magnitude 2). All Guards have a Strength of at least 
  3 and are well-trained troops. Unfortunately, they have no 
  training at fighting in larger units than a platoon—in most 
  of Gethamane, it just isn’t possible to gather more soldiers in 
  one place—and so cannot deploy units of higher Magnitude. 
  When several platoons act together, an overall commander 
  must attempt to coordinate them. So far, Gethamane has never 
  fought an enemy that it could not defeat in this manner.
  THE GUARD ENTIRE
  Still… what if such an enemy did appear—an enemy 
  that somehow could penetrate the jade-steel gates, or a major 
  invasion from the underways? In such a case, the entire Guard 
  might need to function as a single combat unit, against a 
  single other combat unit of invaders. The Guard would suffer 
  from its lack of training at large-scale tactics and inability to 
  concentrate its forces, reducing its effective Drill. Then again, 
  the enemy could not concentrate his forces either. The battle 
  would consist of house-to-house (or cave-to-cave) fighting.
  The Guard, however, would frequently gain the advan-
  tages of hard cover and fortification (see Scroll of Kings, 
  p. 12) from their superior knowledge of Gethamane’s tun-
  nels. Gethamane’s people could also turn their partitions 
  into engineered obstacles comparable to fields of stakes or 
  brushwood-filled moats (see Scroll of Kings, p. 114). For a 
  simpler approach, a Storyteller could simply raise the Guard’s 
  Might by one, treating its superior command of the territory 
  as a form of special equipment. In any case, ranged combat 
  is effectively impossible in a citywide fight.
  Commanding Officer: Golden Stag
  Armor Color: Red; target shield bears a white mountain 
  on a red field
  Motto: “Let none of them survive!”
  General Makeup: 5,000 medium infantry with lamellar 
  armor and slotted helms, half carrying great axes and half 
  with pickaxes and target shields
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 8
  Drill: 1
  Close Combat Attack: 4 Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: — 
  Ranged Damage: —
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 1 Armor: 2 (-3 
  mobility) 
  Morale: 4
  Formation: Each platoon has a sergeant 
  and a relay that signals other platoons 
  using drumbeats. All the soldiers are 
  heroic mortals. Talismans, thauma-
  turgical enchantments on weapons 
  and special training at surrounding 
  and ganging up on foes supply the 
  unit’s Might. While individual 
  platoons nor-
  mally fight in 
  close formation, 
  in a citywide 
  battle they are ef-
  fectively stuck in 
  skirmish formation. 
  So are their enemies, as 
  troops scatter through the 
  tunnels.
  Gethamane, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 1 
  Government: 3 Culture: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 1, Bureaucracy 5, Craft 2 (Self-Sufficiency +2), Integrity 3 (Secret Police +1, Tight-Knit Heritage +2), 
  Investigation 4 (Conduct Interviews +1, Due Diligence +2), Occult 1, War 2 (Impregnable Defense +3)
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 4, Valor 1
  Virtue Flaw: Temperance Current Limit: 2
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 15 External Bonus Points: 8
  Notes: Gethamane pays little heed to the rest of Creation, and has little capacity to influence everyone else. On the 
  other hand, it’s exceedingly difficult to obtain any leverage on Gethamane. The dominion’s external bonus points 
  come entirely from its alliance with the Guild and other merchants. These points pay for Gethamane’s single dot 
  of Awareness and a second dot of Craft. Gethamane’s bonus points go to a second dot of War and the dominion’s 
  many specialties. Gethamane has no savants or sorcerers.
  In Limit Break, Gethamane resolves its internal conflicts by returning to its principles of absolute self-sufficiency 
  and absolute social control. The government expels all outsiders, locks the gates and forces the population to live 
  on the Dole for at least a season, and maybe as long as a year.
  at Attack: 4 Close Combat Damage: 3
  ck: — 
  Ranged Damage: —
  5 
  Might: 1 Armor: 2 (-3
  Morale: 4
  Each platoon has a sergeant 
  hat signals other platoons
  eats. All the soldiers are 
  ls. Talismans, thauma-
  hantments on weapons
  raining at surrounding
  up on foes supply the 
  t. While individual
  or-
  in
  on,
  ide
  e ef-
  ck in
  mation.
  nemies, as
  r through the
  
  51
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  
  52
  No one in the North can survive alone. To the tribes 
  that formed the Haslanti League, however, rule by distant 
  lords and impersonal laws meant slavery. Their confedera-
  tion seeks a balance between the power of a unified state 
  and the intimacy and immediacy of tribal life. After 200 
  years of improvisation and muddling through, the League 
  has solidified and grown enough to become a major power 
  in the North.
  HISTORY
  Four centuries ago, the Haslanti people consisted of 
  three related tribes of nomads that lived around the eastern 
  end of the White Sea. The Haslanesh bands followed the 
  herds of mammoth that they hunted. The Haslanahsa herded 
  reindeer. The Haslanosha herded elk. They all worshiped 
  the Bear Woman, Arvida of the Crescent Eye, Goddess of 
  99 Forms, who forbade them to build towns.
  The goddess of the Haslan tribes was actually an old 
  and powerful Lunar Exalt. In RY 404, the Immaculate Order 
  began a Wyld Hunt that ended with Arvida’s death in RY 
  412. The shock of losing their deity plunged the Haslan 
  tribes into chaos and despair. Chiefs, shamans and whole 
  bands sold themselves to the Fair Folk, to small gods or to 
  other Exalted, destroyed themselves in senseless vendettas or 
  surrendered to the madness of the Wyld. Some believe the 
  savage, mute barbarians called the hushed ones (see p. XX) 
  descend from one such Wyld-maddened band.
  EMERGENCE
  Eventually, some bands settled in the comparatively 
  warm and fertile valleys called greenfields, and built villages 
  (though they called them “camps” to avoid the lingering stig-
  ma of town-dwelling). Tuskstad, Windcreche, Fort Bear and 
  Icehome—known collectively as the Four Camps—emerged 
  as centers of trade between tribes, bands and foreigners.
  The Guild encouraged this trend. These merchants 
  traded steel weapons, tools and foreign luxuries for ivory, 
  timber, woolen cloth, furs and leather. They taught the 
  greenfield settlers to farm as well as graze their herds. They 
  also bade the Haslan to mine the North for gems and metals. 
  CHAPTER FOUR
  CHAPTER FOUR
  AIR BOATS AND 
  AIR BOATS AND 
  AMBITION
  AMBITION
  
  53
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  Whenever the Haslan balked at such a change to their 
  livelihood, the Guild brought in slaves… or mercenaries. 
  Trade became tribute. Guild factors bought the favor of 
  chiefs and set tribes warring against each other 
  to take slaves.
  The Haslan hated their masters and 
  learned to fight back. They could not defeat 
  the Guild’s mercenaries, but they could 
  launch guerilla raids. More importantly 
  perhaps, they could simply retreat into 
  the Northern wilderness where 
  the Guild could not find them. 
  The tundra and taiga 
  were theirs. Soon, so 
  was the Great Ice be-
  yond the White Sea.
  A shaman’s dream-
  quest called a 
  group of Haslan 
  to a long-forbidden cave on the north shore of the White 
  Sea. There, the explorers found a wonder: a First Age ship 
  on metal runners, built to skate on ice. The tribe copied the 
  design. Iceboats carried the rebellion throughout the Haslan 
  tribes until the Guild was secure only in the Four Camps.
  In RY 580, talking eagles visited the chiefs and shamans 
  of 40 Haslan bands. The eagles called them to an ancient and 
  broken beacon of the First Age that overlooked the White Sea. 
  At the Lighthouse of Twisted Stone, the leaders found Gerd 
  Marrow-Eater, a Lunar of the No Moon Caste. He challenged, 
  fought and defeated the greatest champions of the Haslan, 
  but killed none. He took only the tip of each warrior’s little 
  finger on the left hand as token of his victory.
  Having established his credentials, Gerd called the 
  chiefs to a conclave. He pointed out that the Haslan people 
  outnumbered the Guildsmen more than 100 to one. Why 
  should they not rule their own lands? If the tribes fought as 
  one, they could defeat any invader. Then Gerd delivered a 
  final astonishment by refusing the chiefs who hailed him as 
  their king and god. He would not rule them. Three times 
  he would lead them in battle, but the final victory would be 
  their own. The Haslan would seize their own destiny and 
  live as they chose, taking whatever elements they wanted 
  from civilization and tribal life. In three days of spirited 
  argument, the chiefs forged a covenant to unite the 
  three Haslan tribes into one Haslanti nation.
  As Gerd promised, he led them three 
  times to conquer Tuskstad, Fort Bear 
  and Windcreche. By RY 583, the 
  Haslanti were ready to attack Ice-
  home. Gerd helped the chiefs devise 
  a battle-plan but departed be-
  fore the attack. The Haslanti 
  took Icehome after 12 
  days of fierce fighting, 
  and 12 chiefs died in 
  commanding the 
  Haslanti horde. 
  The surviving, 
  victorious chiefs 
  found Gerd wait-
  ing for them atop 
  the Guild’s fortress. 
  The Lunar spoke:
  SECRET HISTORY
  The most ancient Haslanti legends say their 
  ancestors came from a land even further north, where 
  they lived on an island in the sky. The legends are true: 
  Their ancestors came from the flying city of Tzatli, a 
  wonder of the Old Realm. Tzatli crashed during the 
  Usurpation, and the survivors steadily moved south 
  during the Shogunate period until they reached the 
  White Sea. They owed their survival through the 
  Great Contagion and Fair Folk invasion to Arvida. 
  She also kept them from following the arch-sorcerer 
  Bagrash Köl, who still haunts Haslanti folktales as a 
  mad, demonic tyrant.
  See The Manual of Exalted Power—The 
  Lunars, Chapter Two, for more about Arvida and 
  subsequent Lunar efforts to shape Haslanti culture.
  Trade became tribute. Guild factors bought the favor of 
  chiefs and set tribes warring against each other 
  to take slaves.
  The Haslan hated their masters and
  learned to fight back. They could not defeat 
  the Guild’s mercenaries, but they could 
  launch guerilla raids. More importantly
  perhaps, they could simply retreat into
  the Northern wilderness where
  the Guild could not find them.
  The tundra and taiga
  were theirs. Soon, so 
  was the Great Ice be-
  yond the White Sea.
  A shaman’s dream-
  quest called a 
  group of Haslan 
  live as they chose, taking whatever elements they wanted
  from civilization and tribal life. In three days of spirited
  argument, the chiefs forged a covenant to unite the 
  three Haslan tribes into one Haslanti nation.
  As Gerd promised, he led them three
  times to conquer Tuskstad, Fort Bear
  and Windcreche. By RY 583, the
  Haslanti were ready to attack Ice-
  home. Gerd helped the chiefs devise
  a battle-plan but departed be-
  fore the attack. TThe Haslanti 
  took Icehome after 12
  days of fierce fighting,
  and 12 chiefs died in 
  commanding the
  Haslanti horde. 
  The surviving,
  victorious chiefs 
  found Gerd wait-
  ing for them atop
  the Guild’s fortress. 
  The Lunar spoke:
  
  54
  “You lost 12 chiefs, and so your nation will always have 
  12 chiefs to sit in council and judgment. As long as you 
  talk everything out before you fight, everything you can 
  see from here, and more, shall belong to the League of the 
  Haslanti forever.”
  And then, Gerd Marrow-Eater became an eagle and 
  flew away.
  TRIALS OF A NEW NATION
  Of course, the emergence of a powerful new nation in 
  the North upset many established powers.
  The Scarlet Empress shrewdly judged that her legions 
  would not do well in the icy Northlands. Instead, she sent a 
  large contingent of Immaculate monks. She hoped that killing 
  the Lunar Anathema and defeating patron gods would throw 
  the Haslanti into disarray as Arvida’s death had done, making 
  the Haslanti an easy conquest. Yet, although the Immaculates 
  freed many nearby tribes from burdensome obligations to 
  local gods, they never found Gerd and the effort failed. The 
  freed tribes responded by joining the League. The Immaculate 
  Order has conducted several Haslanti crusades, converting 
  few while provoking great irritation at the Realm.
  The Guild tried to cut the new League off from trade 
  with other Northern states, notably Cherak and Gethamane. 
  In this way, the Guild’s leaders hoped to force the Haslanti 
  to accept the Guild as middlemen. The Guild actually man-
  aged to create a war between the League and Gethamane. 
  Both sides found the war singularly futile, as neither could 
  harm the other in any way. Indeed, the Guild suffered most 
  from the loss of Gethamane’s warehouse facilities during 
  the years of the war.
  A new threat appeared inn RY 674. For reasons that 
  remain unknown, long-lasting Wyld storms wandered across 
  Haslanti territory. Where these Wyldfogs passed, new islands 
  appeared in the White Sea and others vanished. Winds car-
  ried entire farms hundreds of miles from their old locations. 
  Weird new plants and animals appeared. Whole bands simply 
  vanished. Several Lunar Exalted came to the League’s aid 
  by dispersing Wyldfogs. The Lunar called Flintbeak Night-
  ingale dispersed the last Wyldfog in RY 726, just five miles 
  from Icehome.
  The League also made important new discoveries. The 
  war with Gethamane spurred the Haslanti to build the first 
  of their famous air boats, based in part on another First Age 
  model. What’s more, explorers on the Great Ice followed 
  songlines—ancient tribal narratives of paths and landmarks—
  back to the ruins of Tzatli.
  The Haslanti League is still growing and developing. Its 
  people believe they have no limits.
  GEOGRAPHY
  The Haslanti live in a harsh land. In summer, swarms 
  of flies and mosquitoes bear plague and can sting a man to 
  death. In winter, blizzards can pile snowdrifts 50 feet high. 
  Much of the land stays frozen beneath the top foot or so. At 
  sea, whales break ships, and ice cracks to plunge travelers 
  in the frigid waters. Cold winds never stop blowing. The 
  Haslanti live across a huge and varied land, though, from 
  bustling new cities to barren glaciers. The League dominates 
  the eastern half of the White Sea, though not the area where 
  Malice Bay drains the sea into the River of Tears.
  ENVIRONMENTS
  The Haslanti live in four distinct territories: greenfields, 
  emeralds, the Outwall and the Great Ice. Each environment 
  presents its own challenges and opportunities.
  GREENFIELDS
  The Exalted of the Old Realm used mighty energies to 
  blast wide valleys from the Northern rock. The depth of the 
  valleys protected their floors from Northern gales while their 
  shape concentrates summer sun, leaving them several degrees 
  warmer than the surrounding land. Soil was laid across their 
  bottoms; small lakes and streams watered them; mines and 
  quarries pierced their sides. The White Sea and Malice Bay 
  drowned many of these valleys, but dozens survive in the Age 
  of Sorrows. The Haslanti call them “greenfields.” Icehome 
  Greenfield, the largest, extends nearly 100 miles long and 35 
  miles wide. Sunset Greenfield, on the verge of Gethamane’s 
  territory, is only two and a half miles long.
  Farm and pasture cover most of the Haslanti greenfields. 
  Wealthy folk keep gardens. Orchards and other cultivated 
  trees help to break the wind and protect the soil, as well as 
  providing wood, fruit and nuts. Greenfield dwellers graze 
  sheep, goats, cattle and the ubiquitous Northern reindeer.
  No Haslanti would describe their lives as easy, but 
  greenfield dwellers can produce enough food to support 
  FEATHERSTEEL
  The League’s famous aerial vehicles would not 
  be possible without feathersteel, a metal available 
  naturally in the Far North and in a few Air-aspected 
  demesnes. Feathersteel is as strong as normal steel, at 
  a third the weight. It also resists rust. It results when 
  Air-aspected Essence saturates iron ore for centuries, 
  with a touch of Wyld to fuse incompatible properties. 
  Feathersteel ore weighs less than iron ore but seems 
  otherwise identical. The metal reveals its properties 
  only when smelted. The Old Realm also manufac-
  tured feathersteel. Much of Tzatli’s lower levels were 
  constructed from feathersteel, making it the League’s 
  single largest source of the metal.
  The Haslanti League controls much of the 
  North’s known feathersteel mines and sells very little 
  of the highly strategic metal. Making objects from 
  feathersteel adds one dot to the cost in the North, two 
  dots elsewhere in Creation. Feathersteel weapons and 
  armor are exceptional due to their reduced weight.
  
  55
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  villages and small towns. The town usually occupies a hill 
  or a cliff that overlooks both the valley and the nearby sea. 
  Most towns have stone walls, though Kaet’s Landing, east of 
  Icehome, is actually cut into the valley’s cliff face.
  EMERALDS
  From hard experience, the Haslanti know that Northern 
  gales can strip away soil and blow entire farms away. Dozens of 
  greenfields lie bare and ruined across the North. Sometimes, 
  however, the soil collects in a pocket or sheltered location. 
  The Haslanti call these little patches of soil “emeralds.” 
  Emeralds range in size from tiny plots that can support 
  only a farmstead or two, to a few that are large enough to 
  sustain small towns. A dozen families, however, are a typi-
  cal population for an emerald. Most emeralds last just a few 
  decades before the wind carries the soil away once more. The 
  Haslanti learned how to break the wind using stone walls 
  or trees, though, and how to plant ground cover that binds 
  the soil. Through careful husbandry, some emeralds have 
  now lasted 100 years.
  Settling an emerald requires enormous labor. Before 
  winter comes, the settlers must build windbreaks, walls and 
  a house, transplant small trees from a greenfield, and sow 
  fast-growing grasses. If they’re lucky, they manage this in time 
  to bring in a few sheep or goats. Settlers must then defend 
  their new homestead against wild animals, hostile barbarians 
  and even the Fair Folk. Too many people and animals can 
  overuse the land so the denuded soil blows away; too few 
  settlers leave the emerald vulnerable to incursion.
  Small as they are, emeralds play a vital role in the Haslanti 
  League. The population rises; but the greenfields don’t get 
  any larger. A steady stream of younger sons and daughters 
  with no land to inherit fan out in search of emeralds they 
  can claim as their own. Emeralds also serve as way stations 
  on trade routes and fortresses against invaders.
  Tribes of the Haslanti (though the actual number exceeds 
  150). The herdfolk move throughout Haslanti territory, and 
  they know the land better than anyone else.
  On the League’s southern border, the tundra gives way 
  to taiga of dwarf willows and evergreens. Herdfolk often 
  drive (or follow) their animals into this transitional zone 
  during winter. Here, they encounter icewalkers. The division 
  between icewalker and Outwall tribe is as ill-defined as the 
  border itself, for the tribes intermarry a good deal.
  THE GREAT ICE
  The White Sea stays frozen much of the year. Ice covers 
  its northern shore year round. The ice cap beyond the sea 
  goes on for thousands of miles, split by huge peninsulas of 
  the Wyld. The Great Ice seems barren at first sight, but the 
  Haslanti wring a living from even this hostile realm. Fish 
  and seals, walrus and whales inhabit the White Sea, acces-
  sible in the summer months or by cracking the ice with huge 
  catapult-like machines of strong timbers and tension bands 
  of mammoth sinew. Rocky coasts and skerries hold oysters, 
  mussels and other shellfish. Where the Wyld has blown, 
  oyster harvesters sometimes discover opals and diamonds 
  that grew like pearls.
  Mining is possible in the Great Ice as well. Rocky islets 
  in the White Sea yield amethyst, amber, turquoise and to-
  paz. Diamond Hearth takes its name not from glittering ice 
  crystals but actual deposits of diamonds.
  Strangest of all, silt and wind-blown seeds can collect in 
  a crevasse to form an emerald, albeit one consisting of tundra 
  moss and lichen rather than crops and trees. The Haslanti 
  graze small herds of reindeer in these icebound oases. The 
  emeralds become refuges and supply depots for people who 
  live and work on the glaciers.
  HASLANTI HOUSING
  The human geography of the League features many forms 
  of housing. Some Haslanti live in the same longhouses of 
  logs and sod found throughout the North. Others, especially 
  among Outwall tribes, favor the aghar, a dome-shaped tent 
  made of animal hide stretched on frameworks of bone or 
  willow. Villages feature L-shaped homes with the barn for 
  the animals built in. Two (or sometimes four) such houses 
  typically share a courtyard. A significant fraction of the 
  League’s population now lives in barges called iceholts that 
  spend summers on the Great Ice and then migrate south in 
  winter to visit the League’s cities. Fisher-folk build clusters 
  of huts on rocky islands in the White Sea during the runs of 
  salmon and tuna, or for gathering shellfish.
  Haslanti yeomen often have two homes. In summer, 
  they live in a rural steading where they engage in farming, 
  goat-ranching, mining or some other resource-producing 
  activity. In winter, the Haslanti move to a home in a town 
  or city. Affluent families might own an extensive home in 
  the city, but many Haslanti spend the winter in crowded 
  townhouses or apartments.
  GREEN MEN AND SOIL-STEALERS
  Emeralds give rise to two unique Haslanti profes-
  sions. Green men collect mosses, grasses, insects and 
  other small plants and animals to distribute between 
  emeralds, helping each little patch of land’s ecosystem 
  become more robust and diverse. Soil-stealers raid 
  smaller emeralds to enslave the settlers, steal their 
  animals and cart away topsoil. In Haslanti tales, these 
  villains often work for bandits who occupy large and 
  secret emeralds.
  THE OUTWALL
  Haslanti farmers call the tundra beyond their greenfields 
  and emeralds the Outwall. Thick brambles, hardy grasses, 
  moss and lichen cover this land; trees are stunted to mere 
  shrubs. Herds of reindeer, elk, musk ox and mammoth browse 
  the tundra, though, and these animals support the Hundred 
  
  56
  Heavy snowfall means that most Haslanti homes have 
  both a “summer door” at ground level and a “winter door” 
  one story up. Haslanti towns go a step further with two-layer 
  streets. Covered arcades along the streets become tunnels 
  under the snow in winter, while people also walk on the 
  packed snow itself. Prosperous towns build the arcades stur-
  dily enough for the roofs to function as streets year-round, 
  with bridges crossing from roof to roof wherever somebody 
  feels like building one.
  ICEHOME
  The League’s capital is also its largest city—too large, 
  some Haslanti think, and too soft. About 250,000 people live 
  in Icehome Greenfield. Half of them live in Icehome itself. 
  The city outgrew its walls decades ago, and no one wants to 
  pay for building a larger circuit. Several walled villages hold 
  the rest of the population.
  Cliffs more than 100 feet high surround the greenfield. 
  A river stair-steps down the cliff in five waterfalls, each of 
  which now turns the wheels of massive mills. The river feeds 
  a network of irrigation canals throughout the 100-mile val-
  ley. In winter, the frozen canals become the road network, 
  as well as the scene of ice-skating contests. During summer, 
  people use gravel roads. Rough stone walls line the roads and 
  mark property lines. The greenfield includes several managed 
  forests as well as farms and pasture.
  A notch in the valley’s northern end admits a mile-long 
  tongue of the White Sea. This harbor stays frozen nine months 
  of the year. The city of Icehome occupies the harbor’s west 
  bank. Icehome has several distinct neighborhoods.
  The Docks can accommodate up to 500 vessels, from 
  personal skiffs to iceholt barges, on seven massive, granite 
  piers and dozens of smaller, wooden quays. The shore holds 
  a jumble of buildings ranging from reindeer-hide tents to 
  great stone warehouses. The streets are slushy mud in spring, 
  sticky mud in summer and frozen mud in winter. Shipbuilding 
  and warehouse facilities dominate the northern third of the 
  district. The middle third features taverns, hostels and other 
  businesses that cater to merchants and sailors. Segregating 
  slaughterhouses, tanneries, blubber-rendering plants and 
  other odorous businesses in the southern third does little to 
  protect the rest of the city from the smells.
  The Old Market District consists of 20 blocks of two-
  level streets with five large courtyards. Red tile roofs adorn 
  the stone and brick buildings, with tents and huts scattered 
  higgledy-piggledy across the rooftops and the arcades. Two-
  thirds of Icehome’s people keep winter apartments in the 
  Old Market District. Abundant common rooms, dance halls 
  and other amusements cater to them. As Icehome’s business 
  center, the district includes shops, banks, trading-houses and 
  caravansaries. Foreigners often find the Old Market District 
  the most accessible, understandable part of Icehome and the 
  League in general… until they see a government official 
  refereeing a duel, or some other reminder that the Haslanti 
  remain half barbarian.
  The Artisan’s Precinct is located between the Old 
  Market District and the western headland of the harbor’s 
  entrance. In this district, most homes follow the Haslanti 
  plan of an L-shaped compound with a workshop as well as a 
  residence and a barn or stable. The artisans range from makers 
  of Outwall tents to armorers and jewelers. Residents do not 
  like foreigners. If they want to do business with outlanders, 
  they go to the Old Market District.
  Although it’s within the city walls, the Orchard Quarter
  chiefly consists of garden plots, fruit and nut orchards and 
  meadows studded with beehives. Narrow lanes and low stone 
  walls separate the plots. The farmers, orchardists and bee-
  keepers of the Quarter produce the greenfield’s best honey, 
  fruit, nuts and cider, chiefly for export.
  The land would be worth much more turned into homes 
  and businesses, but ancestral rights and cultural quirks preserve 
  it as it is. Icehomers like keeping a bit of the countryside in 
  their city. In summer, children run wild through the Quarter 
  as they chase rabbits and squirrels, stalk each other and am-
  bush visitors with toy spears and bows with padded arrows. 
  They also raid the orchards and gardens, but most farmers 
  figure they lose less to the children than they would to the 
  rabbits and squirrels. Beehives and angry farmers provide mild 
  threats to provide lessons about stealth and prudence. Ripe 
  fruit, dripping honeycomb and the purses of careless visitors 
  provide lessons about the rewards of bold opportunism. Thus 
  do urban Haslanti maintain roots to their barbarian past.
  The Little Outwall consists of all Icehome that grew 
  outside the city walls. It resembles the docks, though the 
  mixture of cheap apartments, squatter’s tents, whorehouses 
  and warehouses is more chaotic.
  THE CITADEL
  The Citadel looms over Icehome atop the western 
  headland of the harbor. The Haslanti razed the Guild’s 
  fortress and replaced it with a cyclopean stone wall around 
  five buildings, all built of white marble instead of Icehome’s 
  usual black or gray granite.
  The Longhouse holds the meeting chamber for the 
  League’s guiding Council of Oligarchs. The white marble 
  building surrounds an old-fashioned longhouse built from 
  wood, horn and animal hide, meant to remind the 12 delegates 
  how the Haslanti began. Foreign ambassadors also spend their 
  first night in the city sleeping in the Longhouse… at least if 
  they want the Oligarchs to see them as friends.
  The House of the Oligarchs bends around the Longhouse 
  in a U-shape. A gallery with many glass windows connects 
  12 comfortable apartments for the Oligarchs, as well as pri-
  vate meeting rooms. Some delegates prefer homes of greater 
  luxury within the city. Others make a point of living in the 
  Oligarchs’ House to show reverence for tradition.
  The Treasury appears as just a small beehive-shaped 
  building half-sunk in the headland’s granite. That build-
  ing is merely a reception office. The real treasury consists 
  of a labyrinth hewn from the granite behind and beneath 
  
  57
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  the building. The public can visit the galleries of official 
  archives and museums full of trophies and mementos of 
  League victories. Other sections, definitely not public, hold 
  the League’s central bank reserve and emergency fund: 100 
  talents of jade and 12,000 silver talents, plus miscellaneous 
  loot. No single person is supposed to know every secret of 
  the Treasury’s vaults and defenses.
  The Pantheon of the Ennead stands at the northernmost 
  point of the Citadel. Gold, silver, precious stones, costly im-
  ported silk and brocade hangings adorn the League’s national 
  temple. Niches hold military trophies as well as relics such 
  as one of Gerd Marrow-Eater’s feathers and the preserved 
  head of an Immaculate monk. Having a memento of one’s 
  deeds placed in the Pantheon is a much greater honor than 
  an exhibit in the Treasury.
  The Tholos stands next to the Treasury. This smaller 
  building resembles an oversized aghar wrought in marble. 
  (The League’s eight other cities hold similar domed shrines.) 
  A symbolic national hearth flame burns in each Tholos. 
  Stone plaques bear the names of Haslanti heroes and their 
  bodies rest in crypts below the floor. A secret adytum holds 
  the Twisted Stone Covenant, a complex net of knots, shells, 
  beads and bones that encodes the Haslanti constitution. 
  Whereas the Pantheon honors the gods and the rest of the 
  Citadel honors the state, the Tholos honors the national 
  history, tradition and character.
  NATIONAL HEROES
  Gerd and his Lunar allies pressured the Haslanti’s 
  leading gods to enchant the nine Tholoi. Any song 
  or tale of an interred hero’s deeds performed in one 
  Tholos echoes in the other eight. The gods have 
  changed but the enchantment remains. The Tholoi 
  remind the Haslanti that the glory of the League rests 
  in the triumphs and tragedies of individuals; but also 
  that the Haslanti are one people, with equal claim 
  on the deeds of all their heroes.
  OTHER CITIES
  The other eight Haslanti cities vary in their wealth, 
  favored industries and attitudes toward membership in the 
  League. Their varied histories and characters can only be 
  suggested here.
  CRYSTAL
  The League’s only non-walled city began just 46 years 
  ago, in a greenfield accessible only by air boat. So far north 
  and nearly surrounded by the Great Ice, even greenfields 
  produce little more than moss and dwarf willows as forage 
  for reindeer and goats; Crystal must import much of its food. 
  Fifteen thousand Haslanti live in town and another 15,000 
  in villages.
  
  58
  Crystal lives by mining feathersteel from the greenfield’s 
  walls and First Age relics from ruins caught in the ice. Many 
  residents hope for a lucky strike that makes them rich enough 
  to leave Crystal. Merchants and tradesmen who cater to 
  the miners and treasure hunters make up the second bloc 
  of Crystal society.
  The streets of Crystal form a square grid modeled on an 
  imperial legion’s camp. The central square holds the main 
  market; government buildings and major businesses line the 
  main north-south and east-west avenues. The city’s Common 
  Council finds it must manage Crystal with greater rigor than 
  usual for the Haslanti, due to the expenses and logistical 
  difficulties of keeping 30,000 people alive and not killing 
  each other every time someone finds a First Age table-knife. 
  Not everyone in Crystal likes having a police force, claim 
  registration forms and other tokens of civilization. In the 
  League at large, Crystal has a reputation as “tight-assed.” 
  The Common Council knows that Crystal needs support 
  from the rest of the League to survive; Crystal’s delegate to 
  the Oligarchs always lobbies for more taxes to pay for more 
  air boats and, incidentally, more subsidies for Crystal.
  DIAMOND HEARTH
  The League’s northernmost city occupies an appar-
  ently natural greenfield—a valley surrounded by hills, kept 
  ice-free by a freak of geomancy. Explorers found Diamond 
  Hearth’s valley by following ancient songlines in search of 
  their ancestors’ legendary home. They also found the ruins 
  of Tzatli buried in the ice, and they found diamonds in the 
  gravel from melting glaciers.
  Now, 80,000 people live in a constant near-riot as they 
  rip wealth from the frozen ground. Half the people live in 
  Diamond Hearth itself. The other half live in mining and pros-
  pecting camps scattered across a more than 100-mile radius. 
  In addition to diamonds, feathersteel and First Age artifacts, 
  people seek unmelting ice and other treasures wrought by 
  the mingled power of Wyld storms and the Elemental Pole 
  of Air. (For a description of unmelting ice, see The Compass 
  of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, p. 69.)
  Haslanti who struck it rich gave Diamond Hearth a few 
  dozen stately stone homes. The rest of Diamond Hearth is a 
  shantytown built from old packing crates, canvas or reindeer-
  hide tarpaulins, with frozen mud streets. While reindeer and 
  goats forage in the valley, Diamond Hearth could not survive 
  without frequent air boat deliveries of supplies. The profit 
  from Diamond Hearth justifies the expense.
  Every family or sworn band of partners works for itself, and 
  to Hell with tribal ties or other loyalties. Diamond Hearth’s 
  city council is just a caucus of the richest inhabitants, who 
  make deals to benefit themselves and harm their rivals.
  FAIR ISLE
  The smallest city-state in the League has just 20,000 
  inhabitants on a modest island in the White Sea. Fair Isle 
  holds the League’s largest emerald, a green valley between 
  ice-clad hills. Behind its red stone wall, the town features 
  narrow, three-story houses with blue slate roofs. Many 
  homes have shops, restaurants and hostels on their ground 
  floor, sometimes joined by glassed-in arcades. Fair Isle lives 
  by trade and servicing the people who work on the Great 
  Ice. Anyone bound to or from Diamond Hearth travels by 
  way of Fair Isle.
  The League forcibly annexed Fair Isle as a way station for 
  exploration, trade and war in the western half of the White 
  Sea and the Great Ice. At the time, the island supported 
  about 1,000 people. As compensation, Fair Isle received an 
  Oligarch’s seat three decades ago. The League made Fair 
  Isle prosperous, but some people still resent the conquest. 
  Everyone agrees, however, that every person must work, hard, 
  to keep their precious soil from blowing away. The Twenty 
  Matriarchs who tend the Tholos and act as local government 
  are notorious through the League for ordering the public 
  humiliation of slackers and sluggards—for instance, ordering 
  them whipped through the streets.
  FORT BEAR
  Twelve thousand Haslanti live in Fort Bear, with another 
  40,000 herdfolk and farmers in the Outwall nearby. The town 
  takes its name from a massive outcropping of white limestone 
  shaped like a sleeping frost bear. It was a center for Arvida’s 
  cult and many Haslanti nomads still hold the rock sacred. 
  Crypts hewn in its base remain the favored burial place for 
  clan chiefs, while the city Tholos faces the bear’s mouth. The 
  permanent residents include many shamans associated with the 
  White Bear’s sacred places, as well as infirm tribal elders.
  DEATH AMID DIAMONDS
  Some 20,000 of Diamond Hearth’s residents are 
  slaves—15,000 human and 5,000 captured beastmen 
  or Wyld barbarians. They die in droves from overwork, 
  mining accidents, exposure and the casual cruelty of 
  other miners. Brawls, accidents, drink and drugs give 
  free miners a fearsome death rate as well. Corpses do 
  not rot in this cold, dry land, and no one wastes valu-
  able time digging graves in the frozen ground anyway. 
  Diamond Hearth simply throws its dead into some 
  nearby ice caves and played-out mineshafts.
  Two corpse dumps have become small shadow-
  lands, and they will not be the last. Hungry ghosts 
  and the angry spirits of dead slaves slip through to 
  the mortal world. Worse, the miners and their ghosts 
  have roused Shogun Widowmaker, an ancient and 
  powerful ghost from Tzatli. Diamond Hearth teeters 
  on the brink of terror that its people cannot imagine. 
  See The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. 
  IV—The Underworld, pages 107 and 143–144 for 
  more about Tzatli in the Underworld, and its cold-
  hearted master.
  
  59
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  The yearly festival of the Fort Bear Assembly attracts 
  more than 40 Outwall tribes, adding almost 20,000 tempo-
  rary residents. The influx also brings foreign and Haslanti 
  merchants for a huge, three-week trade fair. (The Haltans 
  and Linowans always fight; the Saltspire merchants act like 
  they’ve done everyone a favor just by showing up.) Fort Bear 
  challenges Icehome’s commercial dominance as well as its 
  status as the spiritual center of the League.
  IRONFALL
  The Haslanti League’s chief industrial center occupies 
  its second-largest greenfield. Fully 100,000 Haslanti live in 
  the greenfield, its surrounding emeralds and Outwall. They 
  support 65,000 townsfolk, of whom 20,000 are slaves. Iron 
  and feathersteel mines riddle the greenfield’s cliffs. The city 
  itself is built on the greenfield cliffs to exploit water power 
  from the cataracts of the Breakstone River. A pall of black 
  smoke rises from the city. Black slag from the foundries paves 
  the streets and is mixed with clay for building-bricks. The 
  clang of hammers on metal and ore resounds day and night, 
  for the mill-wheels do not rest.
  Ironfall’s people tend to be dour, conservative and 
  hidebound. While they consider themselves loyal Haslanti, 
  they suspect Outwall folk of stealing metalwork and of 
  hating Ironfall for its settled prosperity. (Outwall folk do 
  want the metal, but think the city is dirty, smelly and dull.) 
  Instead of tumultuous chiefs and duels of honor, Ironfall has 
  a mayor and a town council of wealthy master-smiths and 
  merchants. A yearly assembly authorizes every decision the 
  council makes.
  SHIELD
  The city-state of Shield occupies a large but damaged 
  greenfield with low, eroding cliffs and thin soil. Only 5,000 
  people live in the town of Shield, behind a low and badly built 
  city wall. Twenty thousand live in the rest of the greenfield 
  and 100,000 live in the Outwall as herders, emerald-farmers, 
  fishers or miners. Mines in the nearby hills yield tin and 
  copper, but the bronze industry declines as mines play out 
  one by one. The largest and tallest structure in Shield is 
  the Guild’s three-story caravansary, two miles outside the 
  city. The League’s fleets of air boats and iceships both use 
  Shield as a home port, but the crews do not mingle much 
  with the Shieldings. The outer reaches of the city-state suf-
  fer frequent attacks from both icewalkers and the terrifying, 
  death-worshiping barbarians of the Tear Eater tribes.
  Despite the relative poverty of Shield, the inhabitants 
  consider themselves fortunate in their freedom and solidarity. 
  Shieldings move easily between greenfield, emerald and Out-
  wall—not to mention the fishing boats, shellfish-harvesting 
  stations and mining camps—and most clans have members 
  scattered throughout environments and occupations.
  TUSKSTAD
  Haslanti mammoth-hunters now concentrate around 
  this western city-state. The town of 15,000 has an earthen 
  berm 20 feet high, topped with wooden stakes. Only the 
  two gatehouses, the Tholos and the longhouse of the city-
  state’s leader are built of stone; the rest of Tuskstad consists 
  of wooden buildings and aghar tents. In summer, Tuskstad 
  reeks of tanning mammoth-hides, seal skins and drying fish 
  and meat. There’s money in Tuskstad, though, from mam-
  moth and walrus ivory.
  The Laughing Winds tribe has dominated Tuskstad’s 
  small greenfield for more than 80 years. The woman Bel-
  lowing Mammoth occupies the city longhouse as ruler of the 
  city, even as her husband rules the tribe as its chief. Tuskstad 
  remains extremely tribal, with no clear division between the 
  Haslanti clans and other tribes of herders and hunters.
  WINDCRECHE
  This city-state occupies a narrow valley—a half-drowned 
  greenfield—at the northeast corner of the White Sea. It 
  has an excellent, ever-frozen harbor for iceships: Dozens 
  of iceholt barges can lodge at Windcreche’s wharves. The 
  large central square doubles as the town’s main market and 
  a landing point for air boats.
  Agriculture doesn’t work well this close to the Great Ice. 
  Instead, the city-state concentrates on herding reindeer and 
  hunting seal and walrus. It is also the League’s chief whal-
  ing port. By gathering sedge grass during the brief summer, 
  however, Windcreche maintains a dairy industry. The dwarf 
  cattle of Windcreche stand just three feet high but give 
  the sweetest milk in Creation. Tycoons of the Scavenger 
  Lands and the Realm pay enormous sums for Windcreche’s 
  butter-cheese.
  Only 9,000 people live in Windcreche proper, in a 
  jumble of tightly packed stone buildings behind rough-
  hewn city walls. Plaster mixed with walrus blood covers 
  Windcreche walls; the red-brown color makes them easier 
  to spot and follow during snowstorms. The town is full of 
  rendering plants turning whale and walrus blubber into fuel 
  oil for air boats and domestic lamps. Many other businesses 
  likewise service air boats or produce parts for the League’s 
  most famous vehicles.
  THE HASLANTI PEOPLE
  From the Great Ice to the greenfields, the Haslanti live 
  in a tremendously varied environment and make their liv-
  ing in equally varied ways. Haslanti individuals range from 
  illiterate nomads to suave diplomats. A number of common 
  threads, however, bind the Haslanti together.
  COMPETITION AND COOPERATION
  The harsh and hungry North easily leads people to view 
  outsiders as a threat—or as prey. Yet, a community survives 
  only through shared labor and loyalty. Both forces, coopera-
  tion and competition, work powerfully in Haslanti culture 
  to pull the League together and drive it apart.
  In all the vast League, no single community has every-
  thing it needs. The townsfolk need the meat from Outwall 
  
  60
  hunters and herders as well as the produce grown in the 
  greenfields and emeralds, with fish, shellfish, seal and whale 
  meat from the White Sea for variety. The nomads do not 
  have the time to mine the metals they need for weapons and 
  tools. Everyone covets the jewels and feathersteel mined 
  on the Great Ice. The cities need each other as well. Other 
  city-states cannot get by without the metal of Ironfall and 
  Shield, or Tuskstad’s wealth of ivory, or the commerce 
  of Icehome and Fort Bear. Most Haslanti recognize that 
  they are wealthier, more comfortable and more powerful 
  together than apart.
  The Haslanti cannot ignore the major differences be-
  tween them, though. More and more, Haslanti townsfolk live 
  by trade as merchants, artisans, even clerks—an occupation 
  that their barbarian tradition dismisses as disgustingly effete. 
  They want the rest of the League to feed them, but country 
  folk often feel unappreciated by their city cousins. Iron tools 
  and silver coins are not payment enough. Meanwhile, the 
  greenfield and emerald farmers have very different notions 
  about land and property than the nomads who view all 
  Creation as grazing land for their herds. For their part, the 
  Haslanti who live on the Great Ice want higher pay, better 
  food, improved equipment and more frequent air boat and 
  iceship visits to their fishing stations, iceholts and mining 
  camps. Oh, and a lot more respect for the incredible hard-
  ship they endure. Bringing it full circle, the townsfolk often 
  regard the people from the Outwall and the Great Ice as 
  crude and demanding.
  DUELING
  Gerd Marrow-Eater told the assembled Haslan chiefs 
  and shamans to talk before they fought. Chiefs, shamans or 
  other respected elders judge legal or personal disputes, hear 
  testimony from witnesses, argue precedents and seek a fair 
  resolution or appropriate punishment. Nevertheless, Haslanti 
  often find that they do not want to talk out their differences. 
  Instead, they fight duels.
  Haslanti usually have weapons on hand. If not, they 
  readily turn to fisticuffs and wrestling. Duels for honor end 
  when one participant surrenders—but some disputes must 
  end in death. Haslanti traditionally fought duels in lonely 
  locations. (The colloquial expression for fighting a duel is still 
  to “take a walk by the stream”… a walk by two from which 
  only one returns.) Nowadays, duels often take place in public 
  with seconds, referees and cheering spectators.
  Dueling follows a formal code. The aggrieved person 
  issues the challenge. The person challenged can either 
  apologize for the insult or accept the challenge and perhaps 
  throw in a few fresh taunts and boasts. Each duelist then 
  finds an arbitrator. The two arbitrators select a location and 
  time. A duel can take place no more than four days after 
  the challenge.
  The challenger incidentally must pay in advance 
  for a funeral, whether his enemy’s or his own. (Even in 
  a duel of honor, accidents happen.) The two arbitrators 
  hold the money in escrow, and return it to the challenger 
  if everyone survives. The winner in a fatal duel also be-
  comes responsible for the loser’s family, if the loser was 
  the principle breadwinner. Compensation can take the 
  form of a payment in silver, or adopting the loser’s family 
  into your own household.
  Dueling is not a license for murder. Anyone who kills 
  outside of the rules for dueling becomes an outlaw. The 
  victim’s family can kill the murderer out of hand. So can 
  bounty hunters or anyone who attests to a chief that he 
  had a grudge against the killer.
  FAMILY AND FOSTERING
  The Haslanti counter the divisions in their society 
  through ties of kinship, marriage and business. Haslanti 
  parents often loan out their (frequently numerous) children 
  to distant relatives, friends of friends and other people, to 
  learn other trades and acquire commodities the parents 
  lack. For instance, a man in a reindeer-herding Outwall 
  tribe might send two children to live with his wife’s 
  farmer cousin, while another child apprentices with a 
  whaler acquaintance and a fourth child is indentured to 
  a blacksmith to repay a debt. A Haslanti extended family 
  often has members scattered through many segments of 
  the League’s society.
  Such connections also diversify a family’s economic 
  base. Through the year, a family’s storerooms fill with 
  ingots of iron and barrels of whale oil, salt fish and apples, 
  rounds of cheese, bags of turnips and iceship sails. Such 
  provisions feed the family through the winter when the 
  family reunites in its town home, or are traded to other 
  families.
  FEASTING AND OTHER SOCIALIZING
  Winter naturally becomes the Haslanti season for get-
  ting together with other people. Haslanti often postpone 
  weddings, funerals, baby namings and other important 
  events until winter, so all the friends and relatives can at-
  tend. A summer wedding, spring funeral or the like indicates 
  conflict in the family: At least one family disapproved of 
  the wedding, or the dead man was despised.
  A town of any size includes at least one assembly 
  hall for rent, if people lack the space for a large gather-
  ing. In addition to family rituals, these halls see dances, 
  epic song-cycle performances, and a lot of straightforward 
  partying.
  Whatever its nature, any successful social event must 
  include lots of food and drink. Even a small occasion calls 
  for a feast that sets the tables groaning under the weight, 
  with variety as well as quantity. Meat? The League has elk, 
  reindeer, mammoth, mutton, goat, whale, seal and salmon, 
  among others. Cheese? The League produces more than 
  80 varieties from all the mammals they domesticate and 
  a few they don’t. (Haslanti wit: How do you make mam-
  moth cheese? Well, first you milk the mammoth… very 
  
  61
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  carefully.) They have 29 traditional forms of bread, from 
  flat bread to honeyed puffballs. Other common items of 
  diet include potatoes, turnips, beets and other root veg-
  etables, milk, yogurt, apples, walnuts, honey, porridge, spicy 
  pickled cabbage and fish transformed into a gelatinous, 
  evil-smelling mass through preservation with lye. Even 
  Haslanti require copious libations of beer, mead or hard 
  cider in order to eat it, but no feast is complete without 
  this test of gastronomic fortitude.
  STRANGERS
  The Haslanti do not show such extravagance to people 
  they do not know well. While strangers in a Haslanti 
  community can usually count on a roof, a bed and a meal, 
  they won’t receive the best bed or a feast.
  The visitors also will be put to work. All Haslanti 
  believe in hard work: They need to, to survive. Able hands 
  do not stay idle. Even the sick can knit or carve ivory. 
  A foreign visitor who does not know Northern ways can 
  still haul in nets, chop wood or shoo the gulls from a rack 
  of drying fish.
  RELIGION AND THE SUPERNATURAL
  The Haslanti do not consider themselves a “spiritual” 
  people. They do not care about abstruse doctrines or mys-
  tical enlightenment. No, they take the same hardheaded, 
  practical approach to the supernatural as they do with 
  everything else. The Haslanti know their friends, their foes 
  and what’s useful.
  GODS AND WORSHIP
  Several times in Haslanti history, Immaculate mis-
  sionaries tried to convert the Haslanti by destroying or 
  humiliating their gods. They failed to kill Gerd Marrow-Eat-
  er as they slew his predecessor Arvida. Several decades ago, 
  the Immaculate Order launched a series of four crusades. 
  The monks called out the people’s gods by threatening their 
  shrines, festivals and worshipers—and then they beat the 
  tar out of the gods. Some gods submitted; others hid. Few 
  emerged unscathed. The Immaculates broke the people’s 
  faith in many of their gods, but that didn’t convince the 
  Haslanti to accept Immaculate doctrine.
  Instead, the Haslanti turned to gods who managed to 
  avoid or outmaneuver the monks. The result was a new 
  national pantheon, the Ennead, composed of three divine 
  triads: the gods of ice, fate and dream (fully described in 
  Chapter Seven). The Haslanti still make token offerings 
  and prayers to formerly prominent gods of hunting, fishing, 
  fertility, war and the like, but without much reverence. 
  Older Haslanti view the defeated gods with indulgent pity, 
  as if the gods were once-great warriors now enfeebled by 
  age. The young have started telling jokes. Only the Outwall 
  tribes retain much interest in petty local spirits, and only 
  because they still must deal with these erratic powers.
  Loss of reverence for local Terrestrial gods also leads 
  to interest in the great Celestial gods. The Haslanti re-
  gard Luna as too great to hear mortal prayers, but many 
  still honor her. Voharun and Nasamara, the twin gods 
  
  62
  of Northern warfare, also claim many devotees. Totemic 
  gods of reindeer, mammoth, whales and other beasts 
  important to life in the North—called the Animal Mas-
  ters by the icewalkers—retain strong cults among the 
  Outwall tribes.
  Formal worship takes place weekly in a god-house. A 
  Haslanti god-house has an outer porch to shield worship-
  ers from the weather, an inner porch where they remove 
  muddy boots and snow-soaked parkas, and a hearth room 
  to warm and freshen up before facing the gods. Inside, 
  niches or pedestals in a godhome chamber hold idols, 
  icons or symbolic images of the gods. (Symbols such as a 
  spear tipped with a silver icicle for Master Winter are the 
  most traditional; accurate portraits become increasingly 
  popular.) Greenfield folk build wood or stone temples. 
  Outwall god-houses are tents of bone and leather. In small 
  hamlets or iceholts, the god-house often shrinks to a single 
  room, or even a cupboard for an isolated farmstead.
  Spoken prayers tend to be short, formal and recited by 
  rote. Afterward, worshipers feast in honor of the gods, with 
  much toasting. At each toast to a god, an officiating shaman 
  or elder pours a bit of liquor into the hearth fire.
  ANCESTORS AND CIVIC FAITH
  The Haslanti respect the dead but rarely worship them. 
  In the modern League, the latent ancestor cult turned into 
  the civic religion of the Tholos—patriotic ceremonies to 
  honor dead heroes. Some Haslanti now care more about 
  worship in the Tholos than worship in the god-house. 
  Heroes who endure as ghosts may encourage this trend.
  Yet, just as many Haslanti resist taking the final step 
  toward a national ancestor cult. They associate necrolatry 
  with enemies such as the Tear Eaters and the North’s two 
  Deathlords. Nevertheless, the Deathlords occasionally ex-
  ploit this nascent civic faith to ensnare Haslanti. Isolated 
  communities have sacrificed babies to dead heroes—or 
  ghosts they thought were dead heroes—while retired old 
  warriors and shamans have frozen to death in hopes of 
  becoming potent ancestral spirits.
  HASLANTI DREAMS
  Dreams form the third strand of religious life. Haslanti 
  discuss their dreams over breakfast, with debate about 
  their meaning. After all, gods often send messages in 
  dreams. From Icehome to the Outwall, people often paint 
  memorable dreams on the walls of their homes, or tattoo 
  symbolic reminders on their skins.
  A class of shamans called Dreamseers specializes in 
  dream interpretation. A Dreamseer wears a conical red 
  hat that resemble hallucinogenic mushrooms found in 
  the tundra, and tattoos the rune for “dream” under his or 
  her right eye. Dreamseers supplement their training and 
  intuition with the Zedakha, a book that describes and 
  analyzes over 10,000 dream symbols. They decode dreams 
  with great skill, whether the dreams come as messages 
  from spirits or simply from the unconscious mind: The 
  Haslanti tell many tales about Dreamseers who nipped 
  vendettas in the bud or exposed hidden crimes by recog-
  nizing clues within dreams. Traveling Dreamseers often 
  memorize especially vivid or meaningful dreams they hear 
  and repeat them for the edification and entertainment of 
  other communities.
  ESSENCE CHANNELERS
  Most Haslanti know that the Chosen of Luna helped 
  and guided them several times in their history: Arvida, 
  Gerd, Flintbeak Nightingale, and a few others. While 
  they associate slain Arvida with their archaic gods, Gerd 
  and others form part of the civic pantheon. From such 
  examples, the Haslanti revere the Lunar Exalted.
  They do not much like the Terrestrial Exalted. 
  Although the League has its share of outcaste Dragon-
  Blooded, such individuals gain no status just for being 
  Exalted. The Haslanti have too many bitter memories 
  of Dragon-Blooded monks bullying them and their gods. 
  Outcaste Terrestrials can (and often do) become great 
  heroes to the League, their deeds recited in the Tholoi 
  while they live, but they must work for respect and prove 
  their patriotism over and over again.
  The Haslanti lack experience with other Exalted. The 
  example of the Bull of the North makes many Haslanti 
  wary of the new Solar Exalted, but they’ll wait and see. 
  Whoever serves the League and the people will earn 
  their favor.
  Despite turning away from worship of small gods, the 
  Haslanti deal with a variety of local spirits. Some contacts 
  result in God-Blooded offspring. As with the Terrestrial 
  Exalted, the Haslanti give such power-blessed folk a chance 
  to prove their worth as individuals.
  Of course, the Haslanti share the hatred and fear that 
  the Winter Folk inspire among so many Northerners. It 
  would take extraordinary effort for any raksha to earn a 
  personal exception to this general prejudice.
  MAGIC
  On one hand, Haslanti tradition associates sorcery 
  with Lunars, the Realm and Bagrash Köl. Mere mor-
  tals should avoid it. On the other hand, their shamans 
  maintain a long tradition of folk thaumaturgy. Haslanti 
  shamans chiefly employ the Arts of Spirit Beckoning, 
  Warding and Exorcism, as well as Enchantment for mak-
  ing simple talismans. Among these wide-ranging people, 
  however, one can also find shamans who practice other 
  Arts. (See Chapter Three of The Books of Sorcery, Vol. 
  III—Oadenol’s Codex and pp. 137–139 of Exalted for 
  descriptions of these Arts.)
  As the Haslanti experiment with gliders, metal alloys 
  and other technologies, interest grows in all applied natu-
  ral sciences. Haslanti engineers now study metallurgical 
  alchemy and other arts they must know to repair and du-
  plicate the technomagical artifacts they pull from First Age 
  ruins. Icehome even has a public school of thaumaturgy, 
  
  63
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  the Scriptorium of the Northern Sky. (See The Manual of 
  Exalted Power—The Sidereals, pp. 76–77, for a descrip-
  tion of this arcane academy.) The Haslanti government 
  welcomes foreign thaumaturges who are willing to pledge 
  their loyalty to the League.
  GOVERNMENT
  The Haslanti League is a federal state—more than a 
  confederation, for a central government wields significant 
  authority, but the nine city-states retain major powers of 
  their own. The Haslanti jerry-rigged the system from tribal 
  custom and bits of political and legal theory that filtered 
  north from the Scavenger Lands and Cherak. The result 
  incorporates tribal chiefs and constitutional law, democratic 
  assemblies and divine fiat.
  THE CITY-STATES
  To people from points south, most of the League’s cit-
  ies look more like towns. Nevertheless, each member city 
  has title to a section of Outwall that could be a good-sized 
  country anywhere else. Borders are wiggly, fuzzy and shift-
  ing, as city-states hash out who owns a particular emerald, 
  salmon stream or deposit of ore.
  Each city-state also receives any islands off its coast and a 
  section of the White Sea’s northern coast for about 100 miles 
  inland. Everything beyond that is open territory, available 
  to whoever wants to stake a claim, in whatever quantity he 
  can hold. The White Sea itself is common to all fishers and 
  whalers, as well. No city-state can forbid travel through its 
  territory. The nomad herdfolk and Great Ice prospectors insist 
  on the right of all Haslanti to go anywhere in the League, as 
  long as they do not take the resources of its owners.
  For a legislature, each city-state has four district as-
  semblies per year, according to the formula: “One for the 
  greenfield, one for the sea and two for the Outwall.” One 
  assembly meets in the city itself, one among the people of 
  the Great Ice and two among the emerald-dwellers and 
  nomads. Every sector of Haslanti society thus receives due 
  representation. Any citizen can attend, speak and vote, though 
  tribe or clan chiefs, shamans, wealthy merchants and other 
  community leaders dominate the proceedings.
  Provincial assemblies can pass any law that does not 
  contradict the League’s constitution, the Twisted Stone Ac-
  cords. No law becomes valid, however, until greenfield, Great 
  Ice and Outwall assemblies all pass the law by majority vote. 
  After all, what’s good for greenfield folk might not be good 
  for an iceholt or a wandering tribe of mammoth-hunters. 
  The Haslanti do not pass new laws quickly.
  THE COUNCIL OF OLIGARCHS
  The supreme authority in League government shows 
  legislative and executive aspects, but it fundamentally acts 
  as a high court for the Haslanti city-states, towns and tribes. 
  When someone claims that a law of her district violates the 
  Twisted Stone Accords, or two city-states have a dispute, they 
  put the matter to the Oligarchs. This council also oversees 
  the League’s military in defending the League, the diplomatic 
  corps in dealing with other nations, and the treasury in coin-
  ing the League’s money.
  An Oligarch must be native-born Haslanti, over the 
  age of 45, with a record of at least 10 successful arbitrations 
  in disputes where at least a talent of silver was at stake (or 
  goods of equivalent value; this includes capital criminal 
  cases). Her city-state’s four assemblies must then elect her to 
  the post. Since each segment of Haslanti society wants one 
  of its own in the job, choosing an Oligarch can take years in 
  some cases. The haphazard electoral process usually begins 
  three years before a current Oligarch runs out her 18-year 
  term. No Oligarch can serve two terms.
  Most Haslanti city-states hold one seat each on the 
  Council of Oligarchs. Icehome and Ironfall each receive two 
  seats, due to their greater population. The 12th Oligarch, 
  who serves as the council’s president, is elected by a special 
  process. The other 11 Oligarchs submit a list of seven nomi-
  nees to a special college of Dreamseers. The Dreamseers go 
  to Twisted Stone, where they meet the gods. These gods 
  then select the 12th Oligarch.
  Many Haslanti know that the committee of gods includes 
  the Haslanti Ennead and a number of totem animal avatars. 
  Very few mortals know that Lunar Exalted also attend.
  POLITICAL PARTIES
  Three factions emerged among the Oligarchs and 
  among politically minded Haslanti in general.
  The Deft Hands resist central authority, foreign trade 
  and urbanization, supporting tribal authority and tradi-
  tion instead. While members of this party could hardly be 
  called pacifists (they generally support dueling and tribal 
  rights to vendetta), they oppose aggression against the 
  League’s tribal neighbors. In assemblies and the Council, 
  the Deft Hands try to steer more wealth from the cities and 
  wealthy landholders to the Outwall tribes and emeralds. 
  They view wealth as belonging to the community, the 
  way a whole tribe owns and manages a herd of reindeer 
  or mammoth, rather than something individuals amass 
  and keep for themselves.
  Ivory Smile, the current President of the Council, 
  also leads the Deft Hands faction among the Oligarchs. 
  She is 86 years old, with bright black eyes in a wrinkled 
  brown face. Her hair remains dark (thanks to dye) and 
  EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULES
  Not every city-state follows this plan. Fair Isle 
  and Diamond Hearth have no Outwall. As a result, 
  Fair Isle alternates its assemblies between the town 
  and ad hoc gatherings of fishers, whalers and miners 
  on the Great Ice. Diamond Hearth holds all its as-
  semblies in town, and they’re shams anyway.
  
  64
  her name proved prophetic, as her teeth are now walrus-
  ivory dentures. Ivory Smile is a shrewd judge of character 
  and truthfulness, as well as an able mediator. Many of her 
  colleagues wish she were gone.
  The Landless Men favor militarism, especially against 
  the Tear Eaters and icewalkers, in order to obtain more 
  land for farming, hunting and grazing. The Haslanti 
  have done well for themselves in the last century… so 
  well that the League suffers a surfeit of young men and 
  women with no hope of obtaining farms or herds of their 
  own. What are they to do? At best, they join the military 
  or move into the cities to become artisans, clerks or 
  shopkeepers—and the League still, somehow, has to feed 
  them. At worst, the landless become brigands or other 
  sorts of troublemakers. Most Landless Men advocate 
  greater central control of the League, as part of their 
  program for military expansion.
  Greya Thold, the Oligarch from Crystal, leads the 
  Landless party. She is 46 years old, with short gray hair 
  and a rather homely face, but she speaks in a soft and 
  persuasive voice. Crystal has many landless descendants 
  from the Wyldfog Wars; it also suffers frequent attacks from 
  the Tear Eaters. Greya sees military action as a solution 
  to both problems.
  The Profitable Men favor trade and the right of 
  individuals to gather all the wealth they can. The party 
  finds its greatest strength in the cities and among the 
  miners. The Profitable Men see commerce as the solution 
  to the League’s problems: for instance, buying food from 
  points south. Members of the party even advocate closer 
  ties to the Guild.
  Jurgan Einarson, the senior Oligarch from Icehome, 
  has thinning gray hair and pale skin. He was a successful 
  merchant before his election 10 years ago. Not surprisingly, 
  he leads the Profitable Men in the Council. Jurgan wants 
  the rich to stay rich and the League to stay at peace.
  The three parties form constantly shifting coalitions 
  as members see common interests on some issues, while 
  opposing each other overall. The Deft Hands and Land-
  less Men both oppose the Profitable Men because the two 
  parties want to keep the Haslanti rural. The Profitable 
  Men, however, sometimes favor war to gain exploitable 
  resources (including slaves). The Deft Hands and Profit-
  able Men disagree on almost everything, but individuals 
  sometimes cooperate against the Landless Men’s push to 
  increase the power of the Oligarchs.
  THE ARCHON
  The Haslanti despise the notion of monarchy, but 
  they do have a ceremonial head of state, the Archon. The 
  Council elects a retired Oligarch to this office. In her six-
  year term of office, the Archon spends much of her time 
  traveling though the League, visiting towns and tribes as 
  a goodwill ambassador from the central government. The 
  current Archon, an elderly woman named Whispering 
  Gale, nears the end of her term in office.
  
  65
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  In her travels, the Archon presides over 18–20 
  provincial assemblies a year. While the Archon cannot 
  openly support or oppose laws, she can influence League 
  governance through the laws she chooses to forward from 
  assembly to assembly or province to province. The mere 
  fact that an Archon reports on the laws debated by another 
  city-state’s assemblies suggest that the issue is important 
  to the League as a whole.
  THE LEAGUE’S MILITARY
  Most Haslanti know how to fight. When wolves or 
  bandits attack, a farmer or nomad must deal with the situ-
  ation himself. Anyone might need to fight a duel too.
  Every Haslanti, therefore, is potentially part of the 
  national militia. Most young men and women also spend 
  tours of duty as full-time soldiers in their community’s local 
  militia. (The usual tour consists of two months a year, for 
  at least four years between the ages of 16 and 25.) A vil-
  lage or tribe might muster several dozen soldiers mounted 
  on elk or reindeer and a half-dozen glider-borne scouts. 
  A greenfield’s militia numbers in the hundreds to 1,000 
  full-time soldiers (even more for Icehome). Greenfield 
  militias also include a few iceships and a few dozen glider 
  pilots. Of course, any militia can easily call up many more 
  people from the community—most Haslanti consider 
  themselves militia reservists.
  Local militias, however, cannot fight real wars. To 
  this end, the League created three distinct military forces: 
  the Fyrd, the Ice Squadron and the Wind Fleet. These 
  three forces serve the Council of Oligarchs rather than 
  the city-states. Though small, they make a formidable 
  combination. Until the Bull of the North’s rise, no one in 
  the North could surpass the League at projecting military 
  power at a distance.
  THE FYRD
  Each city-state donates troops to a full-time army for 
  the entire League. On average, each city-state sends about 
  1,000 soldiers, who serve two-year hitches. The Fyrd’s 
  officer corps consists of another 1,000 or so full-time, 
  professional soldiers.
  The Fyrd operates in 500-man dragons, 250-man wings 
  or 125-man talons, as needed. Fyrd units police greenfields 
  in partnership with the local militia, chase bandits and 
  battle invading barbarians, hobgoblins and other enemies. 
  In a crisis, the Fyrd can draft all local militias.
  Most Fyrd members can ride elk or reindeer, though 
  they typically dismount for battle; the League has little 
  real cavalry. Many soldiers also know how to use skis or 
  snowshoes. The Council of Oligarchs would like all Fyrd 
  troops to receive glider and parachute training, but that 
  day is far off. For now, the League trains only a few dragons 
  of such elite troops.
  Fyrd soldiers often wear chain shirts or hauberks; 
  any Haslanti soldier wears at least a buff jacket. For 
  hand-to-hand weapons, the Haslanti prefer swords (es-
  pecially great swords), spears and axes. Most Haslanti 
  can use a bow as well. They prefer long bows, but the 
  Fyrd equips itself with crossbows as fast as the League 
  can manufacture them.
  General Bjorn Varjnison holds overall command of 
  the Fyrd and the local militias, with the full confidence 
  of the Oligarchs and all the provincial assemblies. This 
  broad-shouldered, brown-bearded son of an Ironfall farmer 
  looks somewhat eccentric as he stalks about, smoking a 
  long white clay pipe and muttering to himself, but he 
  single-handedly killed a snow lion and possesses a keen 
  strategic mind. He is also the grandson of one of the 
  Lunars in the Twisted Stone Conclave, and regularly 
  confers with that body as well as the Haslanti government. 
  General Varjnison lobbies to build the League’s military 
  still further. Powerful as it is, thanks to its remarkable 
  mobility, he fears it could not save the League from the 
  Bull of the North or a mass assault from the necromantic 
  Tear Eater tribes.
  THE ICE SQUADRON
  For a sea that stays frozen most of the year, the 
  Haslanti navy sails iceships. The Ice Squadron includes 
  a small number of ordinary sailing ships and galleys for 
  use in summer, when the southern reaches of the White 
  Sea break into pack ice and open water, but the League’s 
  naval power is much reduced for this season. The iceships 
  go into dry-dock or head to ports on the Great Ice. For the 
  rest of the year, the League owns the White Sea. Not so 
  many people realize that iceships can leave the frozen sea 
  to sail up frozen rivers, or across ice-covered tundra—until 
  a Haslanti battle group sails up to their camp or fortress, 
  perhaps 100 miles inland. Haslanti iceships also sail across 
  the smoother portions of the Great Ice.
  The Ice Squadron has nine cruisers: two outfitted 
  as troop transports (each can carry a dragon of Fyrd 
  soldiers), seven equipped with artillery that ranges from 
  ballistae to concussive Essence cannon. They are named 
  for the nine city-states of the League. Nine smaller ships 
  called coasters can each carry a talon of fully equipped 
  troops, while another 27 patrol coasters each carry a pair 
  of heavy ballistae.
  All sailors in the Ice Squadron are volunteers who 
  already served in their local militias. The captains and 
  officers are career military men and women. Each captain 
  runs an independent command, with no division of the 
  fleet into battle groups. When a mission calls for more than 
  one ship, the Ice Squadron’s admiral, Blue Dragonfish, 
  orders the captains to work together—most likely with 
  the admiral himself in overall command. Blue Dragonfish, 
  a Haslanti-born outcaste Terrestrial Exalt, stays in the 
  field whenever possible. If the Oligarchs manage to trap 
  him behind his desk, one of his vice-admirals commands 
  the battle group.
  
  66
  THE WIND FLEET
  The League’s third military service, the Wind Fleet, 
  now forms the core of Haslanti military planning. This 
  service is the League’s air force—the largest air force in 
  Creation, with 150 air boats of the second class and 112 
  enormous air boats of the first class. Each air boat carries 
  a complement of sailors as well as gliders, paratroopers, 
  archers and various weapons to drop on enemies. Sailors 
  are professional soldiers. Glider pilots, paratroopers and 
  on-board archers come from the Fyrd. These elite airborne 
  soldiers operate in 25-man scales. Even the first-class air 
  boats can carry just five scales of troops.
  The Wind Admiralty consists of the Wind Admiral 
  herself and eight vice-admirals. Each city-state contributes 
  one admiral, who oversees any Wind Fleet operations 
  over that territory. Wind Admiral Twenty-One Kestrels 
  is the slender, middle-aged granddaughter of the air 
  boat’s inventor: She regards the Wind Fleet as a family 
  legacy. Administering the fleet takes so much of her time, 
  though, that Twenty-One Kestrels hardly ever gets to fly 
  anymore—much to her chagrin.
  Large as it is, the Wind Fleet is stretched woefully 
  thin and the League builds new air boats as fast as it 
  can. There are no civilian air boats. Most times, nearly a 
  third of the fleet is in maintenance, while the rest carries 
  supplies from Icehome to Crystal and Diamond Hearth. 
  These cities would starve without their supply runs, so 
  the League seldom can spare many air boats for war. Then 
  again, the League has not yet faced a battle that called 
  for more than a few air boats: Being able to hover 1,000 
  feet above an enemy, dropping fire bombs and paratrooper 
  commandos, is a big advantage. The Wind Fleet specializes 
  in rapid responses, ferrying commandos at speed to trouble 
  spots. Whether barbarian encampment or rude fortress, 
  most other Northerners simply don’t know how to fight 
  death from the skies.
  THE EARS OF THE NORTH
  The Haslanti League does not rely exclusively on 
  armed might to protect itself and defeat its enemies. 
  Much to the surprise of many outsiders, the League also 
  fields a remarkably skilled espionage service called the 
  Ears of the North. Some of the League’s enemies—Guild 
  infiltrators, the Fair Folk’s ravagers and Dynastic Houses 
  attempting private imperialism, to name a few—strike 
  from the shadows and must be fought the same way. The 
  League recruits its spies during their military training, but 
  the Ears range from commandos to linguists and engineers. 
  As usual for the Haslanti, though, nothing works quite 
  the way civilized folk expect.
  THE GRANDMOTHERS
  Perhaps the biggest and most bizarre secret of the Ears 
  is who runs the agency. A few dozen old women meet 
  regularly at a certain teahouse in the small greenfield of 
  Bertran’s Ford, near Icehome. Some days, 30 old biddies 
  show up to chat about this and that; other days, only four 
  or five. They are the directors and operations board for the 
  Ears. The notion boggles the mind of Realm and Guild 
  spies who seek the Ears’ secrets.
  These are, however, the shrewdest old ladies in the 
  League. Each of them lost a child and a grandchild in the 
  League’s service. Each was invited to join by the exist-
  ing membership. They come from every sector of League 
  society. In their long lives, they have seen every aspect 
  of the human condition. They know what people do, and 
  why. Oh, the Grandmothers include experts on balance 
  of trade, military strategy, politics and the like—but so 
  often, a situation boils down to a few people driven by 
  ambition, lust, jealousy, face-saving or other all-too-
  human motives.
  The five branches of the Ears report to the Grand-
  mothers through various (and devious) channels. The 
  Grandmothers report to the Oligarchs and whoever those 
  worthies think needs to know. Afterward, new directives 
  flow from the teahouse.
  HASLANTI VEHICLES
  For complete descriptions of iceships, air 
  boats, gliders and parachutes, see Scroll of Kings, 
  pages 148–153. In brief, iceships resemble ordinary 
  sailing ships fitted with large steel runners so they 
  skate across the ice. Air boats are hot-air dirigible 
  balloons equipped with sails and pedal-powered 
  propellers. Lift comes from burning kerosene or 
  whale oil. A gondola of wood, wicker, feathersteel 
  and bamboo carries the crew, troops, gliders and 
  cargo. A second class air boat has a gas bag 300 
  feet long, while a first class air boat has a gas bag 
  450 feet long and a three-deck gondola.
  A FINAL SECRET
  The grandmothers don’t know it themselves, 
  but one of their number is a Chosen of Luna. Keen-
  Eyed Snowcat reports the Ears’ findings and deeds 
  to the Twisted Stone Conclave, and acts to hide 
  and protect the Grandmothers from the League’s 
  enemies. She is 86 years old, but only looks 86 be-
  cause of her shapeshifting. Haslanti-born herself, 
  she sees no conflict between defending the League 
  and her Exalted role as a Steward of Creation.
  
  67
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  THE BLOODED HAWKS
  The first branch of the Ears operates in “fists” of five 
  agents or “double fists” of 10. Blooded Hawks conduct raids 
  (often by glider) to destroy enemy supplies, kill commanders 
  and otherwise impair an enemy’s readiness to fight. Some 
  agents also act as infiltrators and military advisors, plant-
  ing themselves within Guild caravans, tribes or villages 
  as needed. They guide and assist leaders friendly to the 
  Haslanti and make trouble for the League’s foes.
  The Blooded Hawks number about 200, and have 
  six air boats second class for rapid transportation. Several 
  dozen stay on call for immediate deployment. Another few 
  dozen are on extended missions throughout the League’s 
  sphere of interest.
  THE CUNNING DANCERS
  The analytical branch of the Ears strives to figure out 
  what the League’s enemies are doing or planning, and 
  to conceal the League’s intentions from those enemies. 
  Their numbers include code-breakers and code-makers, 
  linguists, Dreamseers and thaumaturges, as well as experts 
  on a wide variety of other topics. Information sources 
  range from military documents captured by the Blooded 
  Hawks to court gossip heard by the Soothing Speakers. 
  The Cunning Dancers know quite a bit about events and 
  personalities around the League’s margins. The analysts 
  work especially hard to keep tabs on the Guild, though 
  the Bull of the North recently eclipsed that old foe as a 
  topic of concern.
  Most of the time, Cunning Dancers stay in the 
  League’s cities, where they also work as traders, interpret-
  ers, savants or other diverse occupations. Individuals may 
  go on field missions, though, when other agents need an 
  expert on hand.
  THE SHAPERS OF FORM
  The third branch of the Ears pulls double duty as 
  crafters of cunning devices and crafters of disinformation. 
  The two fields sometimes overlap, as when the Ears of the 
  North want to fake a troop movement. The Shapers of 
  Form invented the folding glider, the miniature crossbow, 
  the fire mine and many other wondrous devices. Important 
  subsidiary groups at Windcreche and Ironfall study First 
  Age devices and try to duplicate their effects with Second 
  Age materials and techniques.
  THE SHADOW KNIVES
  Whereas the Blooded Hawk may kill as part of com-
  mando raids, assassination is the principal duty of the 
  Shadow Knives. These agents know a wide variety of 
  methods for killing the League’s enemies, from bludgeons 
  to poisoned cups. They are also skilled at breaking and 
  entering, disguise, social graces and whatever else they 
  need to approach a target. Most of them know a craft or 
  form of entertainment to use as part of a cover identity. 
  
  68
  Shadow Knives rarely operate in teams larger than a single 
  fist. The agency includes a number of God-Blooded opera-
  tives as well as the vengeful spirit of an emerald destroyed 
  by the Guild, but most members are human.
  THE SOOTHING SPEAKERS
  The full name of the Ears’ final branch is the Speak-
  ers of Zephyr and Storm. The Soothing Speakers are the 
  Ears’ largest branch, for it includes the entire Haslanti 
  diplomatic corps. Of course, an actual Haslanti mission 
  includes several other people than the known ambassador 
  and support staff. A cook or teamster might have a secret 
  duty to gather information in wine shops, gambling dens 
  and other places where they can learn the temper of the 
  common people… and perhaps encourage the servants of 
  the great to speak more than is prudent.
  ceives a hereditary suspicion, reinforced by many instance 
  of catching the merchants in sharp practice. The Haslanti 
  don’t hold grudges against the icewalkers, Gethamane 
  or most anyone else in the North, however, no matter 
  how many little wars they have fought. Haslanti enjoy 
  a good scrap.
  Beyond their immediate neighbors, the Haslanti 
  scorn the Realm. They know the Realm chiefly through 
  overbearing Immaculate missionaries, and they hold a 
  grudge. The Haslanti do not believe the Realm can ever 
  attack them, though. Yet, Haslanti get along well with 
  Linowan—the two demi-barbarian peoples understand 
  each other very well.
  The most aggressive Haslanti leaders lobby for a 
  campaign against Whitewall. These Haslanti have noth-
  ing against Whitewall, they simply believe that a short 
  airborne campaign can bully the North’s richest city-state 
  into paying tribute and giving sweet trade concessions to 
  Haslanti merchants. No one imagines they can actually 
  conquer and occupy Whitewall.
  The sudden rise of the Bull of the North presents 
  the Haslanti with the first neighbor in a century who 
  inspires actual concern. Haslanti strategists continue to 
  assume that the League will enjoy air superiority in any 
  war, but they doubt that the Fyrd could defeat the Bull’s 
  icewalkers. The Ears of the North now devote much of 
  their efforts to infiltrating the Bull’s empire, learning his 
  intentions and capabilities, and preventing him from at-
  tacking the League.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNITS
  For sample units of the Fyrd, the 
  Ice Squadron and the Wind 
  Fleet, see pages 74–76 of Scroll 
  of Kings. The units of icewalk-
  er tribe militia and icewalker 
  glider commandos (see 
  Scroll of Kings, 
  pp. 78–79) can also 
  represent a Haslanti 
  local militia or Wind 
  Fleet glider commandos.
  FYRD/WIND FLEET JOINT 
  TASK FORCE
  The three Haslanti military 
  forces rarely act alone. The League’s 
  strategic doctrine calls for simulta-
  neous use of two or three militaries 
  against the foe, preferably including 
  air support from the Wind Fleet. A 
  typical joint task force might involve 
  one or more wings of the Fyrd sup-
  ported by air boats and gliders. The 
  Wind Fleet soldiers drop caltrops, fire 
  T UNITS
  s of the Fyrd, the 
  the Wind
  6 of Scroll 
  f icewalk-
  ewalker
  (see
  tii
  Wind 
  ndos.
  T JOINT
  lanti military 
  . The League’s
  s for simulta-
  ree militaries
  ably including 
  Wind Fleet. A
  might involve
  f the Fyrd sup-
  d gliders. The
  op calaltrops, fire
  THE SIXTH BRANCH
  A member of the Ears of the North recently 
  Exalted as a member of the Night Caste. The 
  Grandmothers do not particularly like Elias Tre-
  malion. He seems overly concerned with his own 
  comforts, and the Grandmothers don’t like having 
  him removed from the chain of command to act 
  as a unique special operative for the Oligarchs. 
  Nevertheless, Tremalion gets results no mortal 
  could equal. When the Grandmothers decide they 
  can trust him, Tremalion will meet them and learn 
  the true leaders of the Ears of the North. (If he 
  doesn’t discover it himself.)
  FOREIGN RELATIONS
  The Haslanti League is pushy. The Outwall tribes 
  want more grazing land. The merchants want more com-
  merce, at greater advantage to themselves. The military 
  commanders want to make shows of strength. The poli-
  ticians and diplomats want respect from other nations. 
  None of this necessarily makes the League hostile—very 
  few Haslanti are flaming imperialists—but the Haslanti 
  feel large and in charge. And, why not? They wrested 
  a mighty nation from tundra and glacier. They can go 
  anywhere, sailing their air boats over any border. The 
  Haslanti feel they are winners, and they want the rest of 
  Creation to know it.
  Despite their aggression, the Haslanti count few 
  people as genuine enemies. They hate the Wyld barbar-
  ians, the Tear Eaters and the necromantic corsairs of Karn 
  (described in Chapter Six) because these people attack 
  the Haslanti and taint themselves through contact with 
  uncanny forces. The Haslanti hate the Northern Fair Folk 
  because the raksha eat their souls. The Guild merely re-
  
  69
  CHAPTER FOUR • AIR BOATS AND AMBITION
  The Haslanti League, a Magnitude 6 Dominion
  Military: 4 
  Government: 2 
  Culture: 3
  Abilities: Awareness 4, Bureaucracy 2 (Diverse Economy +2), Craft 3, Integrity 3, Investigation 3 (Superior spies +3), 
  Occult 3, Performance 4, Presence 2, Stealth 3 (Calculated Assassination +2), War 4 (Surprise Attack +1, Winter 
  Warfare +2)
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, Valor 5
  Virtue Flaw: Valor 
  Current Limit: 1
  Willpower: 9
  Bonus Points: 30 External Bonus Points: 16
  Notes: The Haslanti League is a federation of Magnitude 3–4 city-states; they add up to a Magnitude 6 domin-
  ion because of the League’s extraordinary scale, diversity and vigor. Some of the Oligarchs or Grandmothers are 
  savants. Members of the Twisted Stone Conclave could act as sorcerers, but only Gerd Marrow-Eater could do 
  so with legitimacy, as the League’s greatest legendary hero returned.
  The League’s bonus points go to one dot each of Compassion, Conviction, Craft and Integrity, as well as the In-
  vestigation, Stealth and War specialties. External bonus points come from the League’s secret Lunar backers, the 
  Haslanti Ennead and (though the Haslanti would hate to admit it) the Guild. They go to a dot of Willpower (for the 
  Haslanti sense of manifest destiny), one dot each of Awareness and Occult, and the Bureaucracy specialties.
  In Limit Break, the aggressive tendencies of the Haslanti run out of control. City-states attack neighbor tribes 
  and countries, while Haslanti factions fight each other.
  grenades or other unpleasantness on the enemy while the 
  Fyrd engages on the ground. This could be treated as two 
  combat units acting together—or the air support could 
  be treated as special equipment appended to the larger 
  ground force, increasing its Might.
  The League might send a Joint Task Force such as 
  this one to besiege an entire city or a barbarian horde. 
  The task force consists of a dragon of Fyrd troops supple-
  mented by another dragon’s worth of local militia and two 
  second-class air boats, themselves capable of launching a 
  dozen gliders.
  Commanding Officer: Colonel Swantje Ennesdottir
  Armor Color: Mottled gray and white surcoat with various 
  heraldic images
  Motto: “Victory for the League”
  General Makeup: 2,000 mixed infantry with equal num-
  bers wearing chain hauberks or buff jackets, with slotted or 
  pot helms; armed with great swords, axes, spears and other 
  weapons; plus two second-class air boats and 12 gliders. Only 
  half the troops carry bows or crossbows.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 7
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 2 
  Ranged Damage: 1
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 2 (-3 mobility penalty) 
  Morale: 3
  Formation: Use of great swords, axes and other weapons 
  that require a lot of space prevents the troops from fighting 
  in close formation; they usually stick to relaxed formation. 
  Colonel Ennesdottir has seven relays (including one on each 
  air boat) who send messages by waving colored flags. The air 
  boats also carry two of her five heroes, and two artillerists 
  who function as sorcerers. Her remaining three heroes each 
  command dragons of ground troops.
  
  70
  
  71
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  CHAPTER FIVE
  CHAPTER FIVE
  CIVILIZATION AND 
  CIVILIZATION AND 
  BARBARISM
  BARBARISM
  The North holds many societies besides the three most 
  well known to outsiders: Whitewall, Gethamane and the 
  Haslanti League. Some of these societies’ folk are civilized, 
  in that they build cities. Others are barbarians, living only in 
  villages or as nomads. A few are not human. Some struggle to 
  become something new and greater; others struggle to hold 
  what they have and cling to the past. None of them escape 
  the Time of Tumult.
  DESHAN: THE COASTAL 
  SLAVE STATES
  The north coast of the Inland Sea is sometimes called 
  the Deshan. It holds a multitude of little kingdoms and 
  city-states, all more or less influenced by the Realm. Aside 
  from Cherak (which effectively is part of the Realm), the 
  largest and richest of these provinces are four satrapies of the 
  Realm—though they remain small and poor compared to 
  most prefectures on the Blessed Isle. Dynastic families own 
  two of these satrapies, a coalition of patrician families owns 
  a third, and the Thousand Scales owns the fourth. And, 
  “owns” is the correct word—not “administers,” “exploits” or 
  even “rules”—for virtually everyone in these four satrapies is 
  a slave. In the four Deshan satrapies, slaves even own other 
  slaves… but a tiny class of people from the Realm owns 
  them all. Although they cover only small portions of the 
  Deshan, they give the region its other name among Realm 
  inhabitants: the Slave Coast.
  The Realm values the Deshan satrapies quite highly. 
  They are not the richest of the Realm’s possessions in the 
  Threshold. They do not produce the jade of Harborhead or 
  the silk of An-Teng, while the little province of the Lap 
  surpasses the agricultural output of all four satrapies put 
  together. Nevertheless, the Deshan’s vegetables, grain and 
  meat help to feed the Realm and keep food prices low, and 
  the Realm will not give them up lightly. The Realm might 
  not have much choice, though, for all four satrapies currently 
  move toward rebellion.
  
  72
  HISTORY
  The Deshan satrapies’ unusual form of government be-
  gan about 300 years ago, in the aftermath of the Unbroken 
  Rushes Rebellion. A director of the All-Seeing Eye, working 
  with three senior officials of the Thousand Scales, devised a 
  radical plan. To prevent future disturbances, these officials 
  recommended enslaving virtually the entire population of 
  the Realm and making them all property of the Great Houses 
  and the patricians.
  The Scarlet Empress thought the idea might work, 
  but she also saw the difficulties of controlling such a great 
  number of slaves. In fact, she thought it likely that enslav-
  ing the Realm’s entire population overnight would bring a 
  rebellion that would dwarf every previous revolt. To test 
  this idea and to avoid worrying the Blessed Isle’s inhabitants 
  that they might soon become slaves, the Empress ordered 
  the ministers to implement their plan in four newly pacified 
  Northern provinces.
  The experiment did not occur peacefully. Three of the 
  four capitals of the coastal satrapies rose up in rebellion against 
  the enslavement decrees, as did a substantial portion of the 
  rural population. The military campaign to suppress the revolt, 
  known as the Enslavement War, lasted for almost 25 years. 
  The conflict ended only when the Scarlet Empire’s overseers 
  found that they could pacify the populace through drugs.
  The Thousand Scales and many of the Realm’s generals 
  deemed the campaign a success. The slave system continues 
  there to this day. Yet, the Scarlet Empress considered the 
  magnitude of the revolts that could erupt on the Blessed Isle 
  if she tried to import the system. She also recognized that, 
  while the Deshan satrapies became docile, they never would 
  reach their full potential for profit. The Empress understood 
  that even the most well-fed and seemingly contented slaves do 
  not excel as much in commerce and invention as the free—
  especially when the slaves must live on the edge of stupor or 
  the edge of withdrawal. A few patricians still wish they could 
  rule entire provinces of slaves, but most of the Realm’s political 
  and economic theorists think the Deshan experiment hasn’t 
  gone terribly well. Even with omnipresent drugs and continued 
  military occupation, slave revolts still occur regularly.
  GEOGRAPHY
  The four satrapies are scattered across the length of the 
  Deshan, with sizeable gaps between them. No province ex-
  tends more than 200 miles along the coast. A cadet branch of 
  House Ledaal owns the westernmost satrapy, Dehenna. The 
  satrapy lodges between the Dehennen Mountains and the 
  Inland Sea. It leads the satrapies in mining. East of Dehenna 
  lies Inahjal, ruled by the Ambrim, Jesk and Therusa families—
  the descendants of the three Thousand Scales officials who 
  implemented the enslavement plan and received Inahjal as 
  
  73
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  a reward. Immediately east of Wallport, the satrapy of Serrat 
  functions under the direct administration of the Thousand 
  Scales but also has strong loyalty to House Ragara. House 
  Peleps owns and rules Amber River, the largest and most 
  prosperous of the four states, not far from Cherak.
  Huge commercial farms called latifundiae cover most 
  of the four satrapies. A latifundia has a population ranging 
  between 300 and 3,000. Each province also has a capital city 
  that shares its name, with a population of 60,000 to 100,000, 
  and one to three lesser cities with populations of 10,000 to 
  30,000. There are no towns, villages or small farms, for the 
  provincial overlords fear that rebellious slaves could too 
  easily overwhelm such settlements.
  NATIONS OF SLAVES
  Although hundreds of miles separate the Deshan 
  provinces, all four resemble each other a great deal. In each 
  satrapy, only a few thousand inhabitants are free. Within 
  their number, a few dozen free and exceptionally wealthy 
  citizens—mostly Realm patricians, with a few Dynasts and 
  Dragon-Blooded “lost eggs” from the North—own the rest 
  of the population. Slaves work the fields of the latifundiae. 
  More than that, though, all the scribes and clerks, merchants, 
  artisans and managers are slaves too. A single Dynast or 
  patrician might own an entire town, from the wealthiest 
  merchant to the lowliest kitchen cleaner.
  In these lands, slaves can own other slaves. A Dynast or 
  patrician can own thousands of agricultural slaves directly, as 
  well as latifundia managers, senior merchants and artisans. 
  In turn, the shopkeepers and artisans own their apprentices, 
  assistants and servants, while estate managers own their over-
  seers. Apart from the agricultural slaves, the higher a slave’s 
  status is, the fewer owners he has. In the provincial cities, 
  skilled and educated slaves are generally owned directly. In 
  contrast, the poorest and least skilled servants might have 
  three or even four owners. For instance, a kitchen slave might 
  belong to an apprentice clerk in a business, who belongs to a 
  senior accountant, who belongs to a merchant factor, who is 
  owned directly by a Dynast or patrician overlord.
  In some ways, universal slavery makes management 
  of the satrapies exceptionally simple because the actual 
  citizenry numbers just a few thousand. The Realm’s satrap 
  rules directly, rather than through a native figurehead. She 
  governs the free populace. The slaves merely obey orders. 
  A slave can request things of his master but has no rights 
  and no power at all.
  THE SATRAPS
  The four provinces are also unusual in that the Empress 
  pledged the post of satrap to particular groups. The satrap 
  of Dehenna always comes from the Pechenga household of 
  the Great House of Ledaal. That lineage owns Dehenna. 
  House Peleps owns Amber River, and while it does not get 
  to choose the satraps, the Empress would appoint a satrap 
  only from that House. Inahjal has a collective satrapy, a 
  triumvirate representing the Ambrim, Jesk and Therusa 
  families descended from the three ministers. No triumvir 
  serves for more than 10 years, though, so no family has a 
  chance to dominate through the longevity of a Dragon-
  Blooded representative. The Empress gave the Thousand 
  Scales the privilege of appointing its own satrap to Serrat… 
  except the political infighting among the various bureau 
  chiefs meant they always needed her to break their deadlocks 
  when choosing one.
  A DRUGGED POPULACE
  Legally defining everyone as property does not itself 
  suffice to render hundreds of thousands of people powerless. 
  The “Deshan System” would not function without the fact 
  that opium and marijuana can grow in the coastal North. 
  The quality is not high, but the consumers do not care. The 
  provinces also pay the Guild to import prodigious quantities 
  of qat, cocaine and other drugs.
  In the hundreds of latifundiae, the landowners (or more 
  likely, their slave estate managers) issue the field hands a 
  daily ration of opium. The slave-owners also reward especially 
  diligent slaves with cocaine, hashish or qat.
  The Slave Coast overlords see the problems caused by 
  drug use on such a massive scale. Scholars associated with the 
  Thousand Scales calculate that agricultural production would 
  rise significantly if the labor force were not drugged. Yet, they 
  also calculate that slave revolts would counter any profits from 
  removing the drugs. As it stands, most of the slaves become 
  docile laborers who eagerly await their daily drug ration and 
  work to earn extra intoxicants. Slave revolts still occur, but 
  they rarely spread beyond a single latifundia or a single district 
  of a city. Most of the slaves are simply too apathetic to pick up 
  arms against their masters. Most of the field hands and urban 
  laborers happily spend their meager free time in a drug-induced 
  stupor. Few have the energy or desire to plot against their 
  masters. At least, that’s what the owners hope.
  Of course, owners can also discipline their slaves through 
  their control of the drug supply. If productivity drops, 
  they end the drug ration and let withdrawal provide the 
  incentive to work harder. Cutting the drug supply doesn’t 
  always end a slave revolt, but the owners know where the 
  slaves will go: to the warehouses filled with crates of the 
  drugs they crave.
  The aspect of the Deshan System the Realm’s lead-
  ers most dislike, indeed, is the influence it confers on the 
  Guild. In return for not contesting the Realm’s control of 
  what drugs it permits on the Blessed Isle, House Cynis and 
  House Peleps both granted the Guild a monopoly on foreign 
  drug supplies to the Slave Coast. The two Dynastic Houses 
  make certain that the Deshan overlords do not buy their 
  drugs from anyone else.
  AGRICULTURAL SLAVES AND URBAN LABOR
  Every morning, half-drugged slaves shuffle out of dor-
  mitories that are locked and guarded at night. These slaves 
  
  74
  spend their days growing barley, rye, oats, potatoes, cabbages, 
  turnips and other cold-tolerant grains and vegetables for 
  the Realm. They also tend chickens, goats, pigs, sheep and 
  cattle. If they produce too little, their own rations of food 
  and drugs suffer. Most slaves fear losing the drugs more than 
  they fear losing a meal.
  The cities of Dehenna, Amber River, Inahjal and Serrat 
  hold thousands of unskilled workers whose lives are nearly as 
  hard as that of a field hand. They dig, carry, load and unload, 
  sweep, pump bellows and do all the other dull, hard work needed 
  to maintain a city. They, too, receive drug rations as long as 
  they work hard enough. Dehenna also sends thousands of slaves 
  to toil in its mines for iron, copper, gold and marble.
  About eight in 10 of the Deshan slaves do hard, unskilled 
  labor in the firms, mines and cities. Another one in 10 are 
  guards and overseers who keep them in line. The remaining 
  tenth do everything else.
  SKILLED SLAVES
  Overseers and administrators keep an eye out for young 
  slaves who seem cleverer than the rest. They train these slaves 
  for skilled work in the cities or as personal servants. Most 
  house slaves and urban slaves descend from other slaves who 
  work in these positions, but a steady trickle of Deshanites 
  leaves the fields for less strenuous labor. Conversely, if a young 
  slave proves too dull or disobedient, his masters force-feed 
  him opium until he becomes both addicted and docile. Then, 
  out to the fields he goes.
  Personal servants such as cooks or valets, as well as slaves 
  who work skilled jobs—scribes, physicians, potters and the 
  other occupations found in every town—cannot do their 
  jobs in an opium stupor. Instead, they receive other rewards 
  and privileges. They can own slaves and property. They can 
  earn money. They can even become wealthy.
  Yet, they are not in any way free. They must still petition 
  their masters to change jobs or cities, just as they must give 
  a portion of all monies they make to their masters. For no 
  reason, their master can order them to a new city or a new 
  job—or permanently maim them.
  When they have the chance, some of these comparatively 
  privileged slaves drug themselves as heavily as the lowliest 
  agricultural thrall. Others take out their fear and frustration 
  on the flesh of their own slaves. A well known maxim of 
  the Slave Coast is that having a master who is free is always 
  better than a master who is a slave, because a master who is 
  free does not try to prove she is better than her slaves; she 
  simply knows this is true.
  A SEMBLANCE OF LAW
  Dynasts, soldiers and other émigrés to the Deshan sa-
  trapies officially live under Realm law. In practice, they can 
  do whatever they want as long as agricultural quotas are met 
  and no other residents of the Realm suffer harm. Meanwhile, 
  slaves are all property. Even wealthy slaves who own a dozen 
  or more slaves have few rights.
  CRIMES BETWEEN SLAVES
  The provincial overlords do not much care what happens 
  between slaves. When two slaves quarrel and neither slave 
  owns the other, the only question is whether either one of 
  them caused significant property damage. If they didn’t, the 
  masters let them work it out themselves. If they did, then it 
  becomes a matter for their owners to work out—one master 
  paying the other for the destruction of her property. The 
  slave who caused the damage is flogged at the very least. 
  Killing another slave, except in obvious self-defense, counts 
  as property destruction.
  Since slaves have no real property of their own, theft 
  from a slave is theft from his owner, and receives as much 
  attention as that owner cares to bestow. A Dynast doesn’t 
  care if one clerk steals another clerk’s life savings. There is 
  no real system of slave courts, since slaves lack the freedom 
  and the free time to create anything like this. Instead, there 
  are slaves whom other slaves go to as mediators, but none of 
  their rulings carry any force of law.
  Of course, a slave can go to his owner and ask for her 
  help. Yet, “going to master” for anything less than grand 
  theft, rape or major assault earns the hatred and contempt of 
  the other slaves. Slaves cannot protect their friends against 
  abuse by their owner, or any free citizen, but they beat other 
  slaves. A slave who wrongs someone with especially skilled 
  and loyal friends might vanish entirely, with the other slaves 
  planting evidence that the offender escaped.
  SLAVE AGAINST FREE
  Owners can do nearly anything to their slaves, short of 
  killing them. Anything a slave owns, her master can take. 
  An owner can beat his slaves at will. Owners must petition 
  their satrap for permission to execute slaves in the higher 
  grades without cause, however. A consistent pattern of 
  disobedience, openly talking about rebellion and any sort 
  of violence against a slave owner or overseer all provide 
  grounds for execution without appeal—and if a free owner 
  says that a dead slave committed such offenses, the satrap 
  probably won’t bother to investigate.
  The knottiest problems arise between free folk and 
  slaves they do not own. While killing, crippling or seri-
  ously injuring another citizen’s slave is a crime, stealing 
  from a slave or roughing one up only becomes a crime if 
  a free owner complains to the satrap. As a result, slaves 
  often suffer minor beatings, petty theft and rape from 
  free folk.
  Many assaults upon slaves come from the local legion-
  naires. Soldiers often see wealthy slaves who have far more 
  than they do, and they see the possibility of stealing some 
  of that wealth with little fear of punishment. A slave has 
  the right to defend himself against a free citizen who tries 
  to kill him, but not to inflict any harm in return. If a slave 
  kills or seriously injures any free citizen—no matter what the 
  provocation—then the satrap orders the slave to be maimed 
  if not executed. After all, letting a slave get away with 
  
  75
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  harming a member of the ruling and owning class would set 
  a bad precedent. It might give other slaves ideas…
  RAW FORCE
  The Deshan overlords do not rely only on drugs to keep 
  their slave nations in line. The Eighth Legion of the Scarlet 
  Empire garrisons all four provinces. Each satrap can call on 
  at least one dragon of troops in the province’s capital city, 
  while each latifundia hosts at least one scale of troops. These 
  well-armed and well-trained soldiers prevent most slaves 
  from open revolt through their mere presence. On seasonal 
  holidays, the local troops assemble and parade through the 
  streets to reassure the masters and to intimidate the slaves.
  Every city also has a native militia of slave-soldiers, called 
  mamluks. The mamluks do not receive the high-quality arms 
  and training of Realm legionnaires. They train to massacre 
  rioters, not to fight battles against other soldiers. When a slave 
  state faces attack from outside its borders, though, the Eighth 
  drafts the mamluks as arrow fodder to throw at the enemy while 
  the legionnaires maneuver to strike a decisive blow. Satraps 
  also find the mamluks useful when they want to stun enemies 
  through horrors, such as by impaling everyone in a village, 
  right down to the children. Given the right doses of the right 
  drugs, mamluks will commit any atrocity—and enjoy it.
  JACKALS
  Specially trained slave hunters, colloquially called 
  jackals, help keep slaves in line. Of all the slaves in the 
  Deshan, the jackals hold the highest rank. They are also 
  the most hated people in the satrapies. They take the job 
  in full knowledge that every other slave would kill them if 
  they had the chance.
  They are also the only slaves who can legally earn their 
  freedom. (Masters can free any slaves they choose, but no 
  law obligates them to do so no matter what a slave’s achieve-
  ments.) Slave hunters earn their freedom after they work at 
  the job for at least 15 years and capture a sufficient number 
  of slaves. While a handful of slave hunters occasionally let 
  a small number of slaves who touch their hearts go free, 
  most jackals are grim, merciless and indeed sadistic pursuers. 
  Jackals readily track escaped slaves to the ends of Creation, 
  in the knowledge that the more slaves they capture, the 
  sooner they go free.
  THE IMMACULATE ORDER
  The Wyld Hunt remains strong in the four slave prov-
  inces. Immaculate leaders fear that a slave will draw a foul 
  Second Breath as one of the Anathema, or that one of the 
  Anathema will see an opportunity to turn a country’s mass 
  of slaves into his own private and horrifically loyal army.
  Naturally, the local Immaculate monks spend much of 
  their time enforcing religious purity among the slaves. The 
  civil and religious leaders punish the worship of Anathema, 
  demons, Deathlords or Fair Folk as severely as they punish 
  slave revolts: Every captured cultist dies as a public example 
  to other slaves. Nevertheless, such cults keep appearing. Im-
  maculate leaders know that the slaves’ anger and despair leads 
  them into heresy, while drugging them to stupor prevents 
  slaves from proper performance of the Diligent Practices. 
  Privately, many monks feel deep misgivings at the Deshan 
  System. The Scarlet Dynasty ordains it, though, so no abo-
  litionist movement has arisen… yet.
  FAITH OF SLAVERS
  Since the Deshan satrapies are wholly owned 
  subsidiaries of the Scarlet Empire, the Immaculate 
  Doctrine is the only legal faith. As usual, the monks 
  conduct rites to honor cooperative gods. Much to 
  the distaste of some, that includes Rabszolga, God 
  of Slaves (see pp. 58–60 of The Books of Sorcery, 
  Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity I); Burning 
  Feather, Lady of Intoxicants (see pp. 49–50 ibid.); and 
  Golden Reverie, God of Euphoria (see pp. 138–139 
  of The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. III—
  Yu-Shan). The three gods like the Deshan provinces 
  very much and have even told certain members of the 
  Immaculate Order and the Scarlet Dynasty that they 
  will retaliate against any attempt to end the Deshan 
  System. The patricians and Dynasts who own the 
  provinces also like the system very much and demand 
  that their local Immaculates conduct appropriate 
  ceremonies to honor the three divine patrons.
  BUILDING FOR SECURITY
  The rural villas on the latifundiae are all built like for-
  tresses, with thick stone walls and narrow, barred windows. 
  Soldiers patrol them, inside and outside, day and night. 
  During the night, the soldiers lock the field hands in large 
  barracoons with bars on the windows and guards stationed 
  outside. What’s more, animal trainers release large, fierce dogs 
  or other lethal pets at night (for instance, a Dynast might set 
  her simhata on guard). These beasts roam the fields and open 
  spaces, attacking anyone they find out late at night except for 
  Dynasts and a few servants whom the beasts have been trained 
  to spare. Runaway agricultural slaves who do not manage to 
  leave the fields of the latifundia far behind before nightfall 
  are often mauled or devoured by these animals.
  The cities of the slave states are equally secure. Each is 
  divided into walled districts: as few as nine or as many as 100 
  (for the city of Amber River). The walls between districts are 
  usually four yards high and at least two yards thick, made of 
  stone or brick. Each district has just one or two main streets 
  that pass through gateways between districts. At night, 
  Realm soldiers close and lock heavy gates of ironbound wood 
  between the districts. City guards man small doorways next 
  to the gates, for citizens and slaves with special passes that 
  permit travel at night.
  In the event of a riot, plague or some other major distur-
  bance, the soldiers close and lock all the doors and gates to 
  
  76
  the affected districts, and on all of the adjacent districts. This 
  confines the rioters and enables the city’s entire militia to 
  concentrate on one or two districts. If riots or other troubles 
  become serious enough, the militia can set fire to an entire 
  district. This swiftly ends a riot, one way or another, as the 
  slaves either rush to put out the fire or burn. Killing rioters 
  through a holocaust supplies a grim warning to the rest of 
  the city’s slaves about the results of disobedience.
  SLAVE REVOLTS
  Despite all the drugs and harsh punishments, slave revolts 
  steadily increase in the Deshan satrapies. Between the disap-
  pearance of the Empress and the Bull of the North’s victories, 
  the Scarlet Empire no longer looks invincible. Dehenna and 
  Amber River both saw large revolts in the last year, and rumors 
  speak of an even larger revolt building in Serrat.
  Most revolts are mere riots. One slave snaps and lashes out 
  in rage. Other slaves join in. The authorities usually quell such 
  riots within hours or, at most, days. Planned rebellions happen 
  less often but become much more difficult to quell.
  BRUTALITY
  Slaves who join in a spontaneous riot have a chance to 
  live if they immediately surrender when the militia appears. 
  Most rioters suffer nothing worse than flogging. Otherwise, 
  the militia kills them all.
  Slaves who deliberately rebel know that they will most 
  likely all die. Burning an entire district alive is only one 
  of the horrific punishments that await slaves who revolt. 
  Other common fates include mass impalement, death by 
  flogging and grotesquely elaborate executions that do not 
  bear description.
  Knowing what awaits them, rebel slaves typically fight 
  to the death. They also exact terrible vengeance on any 
  slave owners they capture: torture (likely including rape for 
  women), mutilation and eventual death. In most cases, rebel-
  lious slaves only manage to capture privileged, high-ranking 
  slaves and a few mortal patricians. Only a large, exceptionally 
  well-trained and fanatical band of slaves could capture one 
  of the Terrestrial Exalted. More likely, the Dragon-Blooded 
  either win free of their attackers—or go down fighting, since 
  they know what the slaves will do to them.
  TREACHERY
  A slave has only two ways to survive participation in 
  a revolt. The first way is to surrender in the middle of the 
  revolt and betray fellow slaves to their capture and death. 
  Slaves who do this usually lose status. For the next decade, 
  a traitor also cannot hold any job where he could find a 
  chance to harm his master. Such slaves are 
  not otherwise punished. Yet, slaves who 
  inform their masters about an up-
  coming slave revolt 
  76
  y
  concentrate on one or two districts. If riots or ot
  become serious enough, the militia can set fire 
  district. This swiftly ends a riot, one way or ano
  slaves either rush to put out the fire or burn. Ki
  through a holocaust supplies a grim warning to
  the city’s slaves about the results of disobedienc
  SLAVE REVOLTS
  Despite all the drugs and harsh punishments, 
  steadily increase in the Deshan satrapies. Betwee
  pearance of the Empress and the Bull of the North
  the Scarlet Empire no longer looks invincible. D
  Amber River both saw large revolts in the last year
  speak of an even larger revolt building in Serrat
  Most revolts are mere riots. One slave snaps an
  in rage. Other slaves join in. The authorities usual
  riots within hours or, at most, days. Planned rebell
  less often but become much more difficult to qu
  BRUTALITY
  Slaves who join in a spontaneous riot have 
  live if they immediately surrender when the mil
  Most rioters suffer nothing worse than flogging.
  the militia kills them all.
  Slaves who deliberately rebel know that th
  likely all die. Burning an entire district alive 
  of the horrific punishments that await slaves 
  Other common fates include mass impalemen
  flogging and grotesquely elaborate executions 
  bear description.
  Knowing what awaits them, rebel slaves ty
  to the death. They also exact terrible vengea
  slave owners they capture: torture (likely includ
  women), mutilation and eventual death. In most 
  lious slaves only manage to capture privileged, h
  slaves and a few mortal patricians. Only a large, ex
  well-trained and fanatical band of slaves could 
  of the Terrestrial Exalted. More likely, the Drag
  either win free of their attackers—or go down fig
  they know what the slaves will do to them.
  TREACHERY
  A slave has only two ways to survive part
  a revolt. The first way is to surrender in the m
  revolt and betray fellow slaves to their capture
  Slaves who do this usually lose status. For the n
  a traitor also cannot hold any job where he c
  chance to harm his master. Such slaves are 
  not otherwise punished. Yet, slaves who 
  inform their masters about anup-
  coming slave revolt 
  g
  
  77
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  receive luxuries and higher status positions. If the informer 
  averts a major revolt, the satrap might even free him.
  Naturally, the incentives to treachery make planning a 
  slave revolt an exercise in paranoia. Who can a leader trust?
  FLIGHT TO FREEDOM
  The other way to survive a slave revolt is to escape into 
  territory beyond the Realm’s reach. Even without revolts, 
  hundreds of slaves break and run for freedom every year. 
  If slaves stay on the Inland Sea coast, however, jackals 
  usually find them sooner or later. Slaves who head into 
  the Northern interior must contend with a harsh climate, 
  fierce beasts and barbarians with scarcely more pity—for 
  a start. If a slave is very lucky, she finds a community that 
  takes her in.
  Slaves from Inahjal and Serrat usually head for White-
  wall. If they reach it before jackals catch them, the Syndics 
  take them in. Slaves from other satrapies face greater dif-
  ficulty but sometimes find a haven in other Northern cities, 
  towns or tribes. They strive only to make a living and a life 
  in freedom… and to avoid the jackals.
  REBEL POCKETS
  Some escaped slaves do not believe they can find a 
  refuge. Others feel too much hatred to abandon the Slave 
  Coast completely, or they feel called to help other slaves 
  escape. These escaped slaves build small, hidden villages in 
  the hills. Here, they subsist on stolen food, whatever they 
  can hunt or gather, and the meager supplies that a few of 
  the braver slaves slip to them in secret.
  They don’t just survive, though. They fight back.
  THE BLOODY HAND
  Escaped slaves who return to the satrapies steal weap-
  ons from militia barracks or from Realm soldiers they kill. 
  They then do their best to free others slaves and, whenever 
  possible, add them to their numbers. The rebels also kill 
  or terrorize slave owners. They are especially hard on the 
  wealthy, privileged slaves who own other slaves. Although 
  all of these rebels dream of killing a patrician or even one of 
  the Dragon-Blooded, most of them know that they have little 
  chance of doing so. Even if they did, the Realm would hunt 
  them even more intensively than it does now. Therefore, 
  they settle for killing the enemies they can reach.
  With each villa burned, each storehouse looted or 
  slave-owner slain, the rebels leave the mark of a handprint in 
  blood. Patricians and especially the wealthier, slave-owning 
  slaves now fear that mark as the sign of an organized rebel 
  movement within all four satrapies.
  In reality, the Bloody Hand rebels consist of dozens of 
  small and completely separate bands. The few dozen rebels 
  in each band try to fight the slave owners in their region. 
  They heard stories about other rebels using the Bloody Hand 
  mark and thought it sounded like a good idea.
  Some of these bands would like to contact other rebels. 
  Most of their attempts end in disaster. They find a slave who 
  says she knows another Bloody Hand group but actually leads 
  the rebels into a trap. The local militia and legionnaires then 
  hunt down and destroy the rebel village.
  Within their own area, though, the most skilled of these 
  rebels can sow terror. They deliver a few dozen slaves a year 
  from bondage. Sometimes, they even make the most fear-
  ful slave owners a bit more reluctant to abuse their slaves. 
  Although slaves face death if they display the symbol, many 
  Deshanites dream of the Bloody Hand. They feel a thrill 
  of hope whenever they see it boldly emblazoned on the 
  doorway of a wealthy and cruel slave, who now lies dead in 
  her private garden, while her personal slaves race across the 
  border to freedom.
  UNDEAD TROUBLES
  The slave states face an additional problem aside from 
  slave revolts. Tortured and murdered slaves regularly leave 
  behind ghosts—hungry or otherwise. Exorcists from the 
  Realm try to bind slaves in death as they were in life, bury-
  ing them behind lines of salt and thaumaturgical wards. 
  Rebellious slaves often try to evade these rules. Some slaves 
  hope to create ghosts to attack their masters. Others simply 
  want their departed relatives and loved ones to rest in free 
  earth and not a graveyard specially designed as a prison for 
  slaves. Of course, the Dynasts are not foolish enough to 
  teach thaumaturgy to even the most trusted slaves. The 
  Realm instead employs several hundred thaumaturges from 
  the Blessed Isle.
  FELL NEIGHBOR
  The Slave States all guard their borders with watchtowers, 
  fences and patrols of dogs and slave-soldiers. At the northern 
  border of Serrat, however, the border guards do not go out after 
  dark—for Serrat lies due south of the immense and terrible 
  WHEN THE LOWEST KILL THE HIGHEST
  Slaves have successfully killed Dynasts only a 
  few times in the three centuries since the inception 
  of the grand Deshan experiment—in half the cases, 
  killing them in their sleep—but these events become 
  legends passed down through generations of slaves. 
  Just showing that one knows such stories can result 
  in a slave having her tongue cut out.
  With tales of Solar Anathema appearing through-
  out the Threshold, though, even the doughtiest 
  Dynasts now watch their slaves with dread. When will 
  one of them draw a foul Second Breath as Anathema? 
  Or, when will one of the Anathema come to the Slave 
  Coast and suddenly transform legions of drug-fuddled 
  slaves into skilled and terrible warriors? So far, rumors 
  of Anathema activity usually turn out to be nothing 
  more than drunken tales, scare stories or wishful 
  thinking on the part of slaves. So far…
  
  78
  shadowland of Marama’s Fell. The Fell itself is hundreds of 
  miles from Serrat’s northern frontier, but its influence reaches 
  much further in the Underworld. Ghosts and the walking 
  dead frequently swarm out of smaller, nearer shadowlands. 
  The thaumaturges of Serrat do their best to foretell attacks 
  and beat back the restless dead. The local Immaculate con-
  tingent includes several monks who specially train to fight 
  the dead. Even the Immaculates, though, hesitate to enter 
  the shadowland itself—and no jackal would dare this. This 
  offers escaped slaves a terrifying choice if they cannot reach 
  the Traveler’s Road to Whitewall.
  SHADOWTOWNS
  A few slaves attempt to escape through shadowlands, 
  traveling along the edges and fearing the dead almost as much 
  as they fear the brutal thugs who hunt them. A few survive 
  to tell hair-raising tales. These heroes often win names for 
  themselves in the free nations to the North, but most would 
  never consider entering a shadowland again.
  Once in a while, though, clever and desperate slaves 
  make deals with one or more ghost gangs from Marama’s 
  Fell. They win the right for groups of escapes slaves to live 
  in a shadowland controlled by the gang. In return, the 
  escaped slaves and their descendants must deliver living 
  sacrifices to the ghosts. Some shadowtown folk venture 
  back into Serrat to capture various hated individuals such 
  as jackals, overseers or other privileged slaves. Others hold 
  lotteries when they cannot capture sufficient enemies as 
  victims. The people of a particularly debased shadowtown 
  might decide that they don’t care anymore about freeing 
  slaves or revenge on their former masters. Instead, they help 
  slaves escape—perhaps claiming allegiance to the Bloody 
  Hand—but deliver their fellows from slavery to the altars 
  and mouths of the dead.
  Just a year ago, a Bloody Hand group did something its 
  members swore never to do: betrayed a former slave. The 
  rebels discovered that a shadowtown had reached this nadir 
  of corruption, luring slaves to their death. The rebels sent an 
  anonymous message to the local garrison, giving the loca-
  tion of the shadowtown and its activities. The Wyld Hunt 
  swept in… and half the Immaculate monks never returned. 
  The villagers had more than ghosts as allies. The surviving 
  monks told of encountering one of the dark and dreadful 
  new Anathema—a deathknight.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNITS
  Each Deshan satrapy hosts various dragons, talons and 
  scales of Imperial medium and heavy infantry. Examples of 
  such units appear on pages 68–72 of The Compass of Ce-
  lestial Directions, Vol. I—The Blessed Isle. The Eighth 
  Legion has no special equipment—they’ve never needed it 
  to crush slave revolts or to repel barbarian attacks—but each 
  satrapy’s contingent includes a talon of special winter-trained 
  troops. Use the Vermilion Legion Wing traits, but reduce 
  its Magnitude to 3.
  MAMLUK MILITIA
  Description: The slave-soldiers of the Deshan rarely 
  operate in units smaller than scales of 50 (for quelling minor 
  riots) or wings of 250 (for slaughtering a village of escaped 
  slaves). Mamluks sometimes act as light infantry auxiliaries 
  for the legionnaires. They do not train much with missile 
  weapons, as their masters dislike handing out weapons with 
  which slaves can attack their owners at a distance. Mamluks 
  can rise to the rank of scalelord, but their talonlords and 
  winglords are always Realm legionnaires.
  The following sample talon comes from Amber River, 
  but mamluks from throughout the Slave Coast are identical. 
  It could be the guards at a latifundia, the garrison of a border 
  fort or (raising the Magnitude) the complete militia of one 
  of the smaller Slave Coast cities. By reducing the Magnitude 
  to 2 and raising Morale to 4, it can also represent an entire 
  Bloody Hand gang of escaped slaves.
  Commanding Officer: Talonlord Peleps Nyla
  Armor Color: Amber buff jacket with blue Peleps mon
  Motto: “Surrender or die!”
  General Makeup: 100 light infantry wearing buff jackets 
  and pot helms, armed with chopping swords, truncheons, 
  self bows and frog crotch arrows.
  Overall Quality: Fair
  Magnitude: 3
  
  79
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  The Deshan Satrapies, 
  Magnitude 3 Dominions
  Military: 2 
  Culture: 2 
  Government: 1
  Abilities: Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 2, Integrity (Secret Police +1), Investigation 2 (Informants +1), Performance 1 
  (Quell the Populace +2), Presence 1, Stealth 1, War 3
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, Valor 3
  Limit Break: Conviction Current Limit: 5
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 10 External Bonus Points: 6
  Notes: The Slave Coast satrapies each have the population to be Magnitude 3 or even 4, but their Magnitude 
  suffers because most of the population loathes its own country. They stay only because of drug addiction and fear. 
  The satrapies are functionally identical.
  Each satrapy invests its 10 bonus points in one dot each of Awareness and Bureaucracy, as well as the Integrity and 
  Investigation specialties. Their external bonus points come from the provinces’ close connection to the Realm. 
  They pay for a dot of War and the Performance specialties.
  In Limit Break, a province experiences a massive slave revolt, as the population’s hatred overcomes its fear of its 
  masters and of losing its drug supply. Such is the profound dysfunction of the Slave Coast that the satrapies’ Limit 
  never drops below 2. Their current Limit represents the growing instability as the Bloody Hand gains recruits, 
  the shadowtowns forge closer relations with the ghosts of Marama’s Fell and the Scarlet Empire’s reputation for 
  invincibility fades.
  Drill: 1
  Close Combat Attack: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 1 
  Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 4 
  Might: 0 
  Armor: 1 (-1 mobility) 
  Morale: 2
  Formation: Mamluks don’t want to get 
  too far from each other, but lack the 
  training to fight effectively in close 
  formation. They always fight in 
  relaxed formation, when they aren’t 
  milling about in confusion. Talon-
  lord Nyla might have three slave 
  scalelords as heroes, but no relays 
  and definitely no sorcerers.
  SLAVE RIOTERS
  Description: The most 
  common combat unit 
  in the Slave Coast is 
  simply a mob of slaves 
  that exploded in rage. 
  The slaves kill, loot 
  and burn until soldiers move in to kill them, or they find 
  the collective good sense to run. Their rage, however, gives 
  them a semblance of courage.
  Commanding Officer: None
  Armor Color: None
  Motto: Incoherent shouting
  General Makeup: 30 to 60 furious men and women with no 
  armor, carrying knives, improvised clubs and other weapons 
  of convenience.
  Overall Quality: Poor
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 0
  Close Combat Attack: 2 
  Close Combat Damage: 2
  Ranged Attack: 1 
  Ranged Attack Damage: 1
  Endurance: 4 
  Might: 0
  Armor: 0 
  Morale: 4
  Formation: Unordered. The 
  rioters have no special 
  characters.
  rapies, 
  minions
  k: 3 
  age: 3
  age: 2
  ght: 0 
  ty) 
  Morale: 2
  ks don’t want to get 
  her, but lack the
  tively in close
  ways fight in 
  en they aren’t 
  sion. Talon-
   three slave 
  ut no relays 
  cerers.
  he most 
  nit 
  is 
  ves
  ge. 
  t
  and burn until soldiers move in to kill th
  the collective good sense to run. Their rag
  them a semblance of courage.
  Commanding Officer: None
  Armor Color: None
  Motto: Incoherent shouting
  General Makeup: 30 to 60 furious men an
  armor, carrying knives, improvised clubs an
  of convenience.
  Overall Quality: Poor
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 0
  Close Combat Attack:
  Close Combat Damag
  Ranged Attack: 1 
  Ranged Attack Damag
  Endurance: 4 
  Armor: 0 
  Formation: 
  rioters h
  charact
  SHANARINARA
  True nations grow sparse in the Northern interior, but 
  they do exist. The state of Shanarinara emerged just recently 
  as an important power in the North. For much of its his-
  tory, no one had much reason to pay attention to the small, 
  inland nation. In the last six decades, however, the Shanari 
  discovered modest deposits of jade and fairly large deposits 
  of tin in their territory. Twenty years ago, they also found 
  something no one even thought possible: a deposit of soulsteel. 
  
  80
  These discoveries brought a great increase in Shanarinara’s 
  wealth, and even greater changes to their society. In their local 
  Time of Tumult, the citizens of Shanarinara find themselves 
  caught between greater forces than they imagine.
  HISTORY
  No awe-inspiring ruins hint at what Shanarinara might 
  have been like in the High First Age. Indeed, until recently, 
  the Shanari did not know there was a High First Age. The 
  oldest structures in their country date from the Shogunate 
  period: a spa complex built to exploit a valley’s natural hot 
  springs. By Shogunate standards, these were modest facilities 
  where middle-class mortals and lower-rank Terrestrial Exalted 
  came on vacation. The Fair Folk smashed the hotels and baths 
  on their way toward the Blessed Isle, and the Empress dealt 
  more damage as she scourged the invaders from beyond back 
  toward Creation’s rim. Nevertheless, they seemed very fine 
  to refugees of the plague and war. The hot springs, which 
  made the valley several degrees warmer than the surrounding 
  country, seemed even better. The damaged buildings became 
  the start of the farming town of Inara. Other farming villages 
  sprang up in the region soon after.
  The villages governed themselves through councils of 
  elders and votes among the people. They stayed independent 
  for centuries—sometimes fighting tiny wars against each 
  other, sometimes trading their goods at Inara. About 400 
  years ago, however, an upsurge of attacks by icewalkers led to 
  the villages confederating for defense. While Inara naturally 
  dominated the confederation as the largest community, the 
  other Shanari insisted on a democracy of communities, car-
  rying the traditions of votes and councils to a higher level of 
  organization. The confederacy of Shanarinara suffered two 
  episodes of monarchy when warlords seized power, but neither 
  lasted long. (The second warlord, the renegade Dynast Iselsi 
  Krelen, died when Shanari assassins smothered him in his 
  sleep.) Over time, the confederation became tighter until 
  the Shanari thought of themselves as a single state.
  In RY 714, a Shanari prospector found a large deposit of 
  tin ore in a range of low hills. Over the next few decades, other 
  miners found additional ore deposits, including a deposit of blue 
  jade. The Shanari had little experience with managing large, 
  deep mines and so, they turned to the Guild. The Guild took 
  its cut, as it always does, but cautious and stubborn negotiators 
  made sure that much of the wealth stayed at home.
  Twenty years ago, the Guild also pressured the Shanari 
  government to let it mine the newly discovered soulsteel—
  but then, the Shanari council received an unexpected 
  embassy from a nation so distant no one had ever heard 
  of it. Ambassadors from the far land of Gradafes said that 
  they knew far more than the Guild about how to handle 
  soulsteel and offered a higher price for the grim metal. Only 
  years after the Shanari struck their deal did they learn that 
  the ambassadors represented not the king of Gradafes but 
  that country’s uncrowned mistress, the Lover Clad in the 
  Raiment of Tears.
  As Shanarinara grows in wealth, its leaders grow in 
  ambition. They hope to expand their country considerably. 
  Every direction they look, however, they see powerful and 
  established rivals. Perhaps more importantly, their new wealth 
  attracts large numbers of fortune hunters, to the extent that 
  immigrants and their offspring now account for a significant 
  fraction of the population. The Shanari now face choices 
  they barely know how to define.
  SECRET OF THE SOULSTEEL
  Soulsteel does not naturally occur in Creation. 
  Ever. It comes from the Underworld, and is made by 
  some rather ghastly processes that all involve ghosts. 
  So how does Shanarinara have a soulsteel mine?
  That is for the Storyteller to decide. Creation 
  holds many mysteries. The soulsteel might result from 
  the actions of a Primordial. (For instance, Autochthon 
  used soulsteel to build his pattern spiders before the 
  Underworld ever existed.) Maybe a Primordial or 
  one of its component souls died in Shanarinara, and 
  its death left the soulsteel behind. Maybe something 
  from the Underworld is seeping into Creation, and as 
  the miners dig deeper, they come closer to letting it 
  break through. Invent a reason that serves the pur-
  poses of your Exalted series, or leave it as a mystery 
  never to be solved.
  SHANARI NATION
  Shanarinara occupies a region of low but rugged hills 
  and broad valleys, about 200 miles east of the Black Crag 
  Mountains and about midway between the White Sea and 
  Inland Sea coasts. The country forms an irregular blob some 
  300 miles from east to west and 160 miles from north to 
  south. The Fellish River flows through Shanarinara on its 
  way from the Black Crag Mountains to the White Sea and 
  the Haslanti town of White Ribs, but the shallow, rocky 
  river is not navigable. The central government meets in 
  Inara, located near the middle of the country but not on the 
  Fellish River. Of late, the Shanari have built small, stone 
  forts along the hills that form their borders.
  MAKING A LIVING
  The Shanari live at the northern extreme for growing 
  the hardiest varieties of oats and rye. The land also supports 
  herds of domestic musk ox. Many Shanari still live in farm-
  ing and herding villages. These villages start as rectangular 
  blocks of houses surrounding a courtyard, with thick outer 
  walls of stone and sod. Villages grow by adding more blocks 
  of houses with narrow passages between the courtyards. The 
  Shanari used the courtyards as corrals for their musk ox herds 
  to protect them from icewalker raids. Shanari cities still 
  follow this basic plan: Although cobblestone streets divide 
  
  81
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  the city into blocks, each block is a maze of courtyards and 
  narrow passages. Urban homes keep their doors facing a 
  courtyard. Only shops, factories and other places of business 
  ever face the street.
  Nowadays, more than a dozen mines of tin (and lesser 
  quantities of lead and silver) dot the hills of Shanarinara. The 
  country’s single jade mine is not very large—Whitewall has 
  six larger jade mines—but the royalties paid by the Guild for 
  the jade alone are more money than older Shanari imagined 
  could exist in the world.
  Unfortunately, none of the ore deposits turned out to be 
  as large as the Shanari or the Guild thought. Two tin mines 
  have already played out, and the mining savants estimate that 
  the others will be exhausted within another 50 years. The 
  jade mine will likely play out sooner. No one can guess the 
  extent of the soulsteel deposit, and the miners from Gradafes 
  remove the metal slowly. Prospectors have already found 
  hints of additional ores—some tin, also iron, copper and a 
  little silver—beyond the nation’s borders. The icewalkers, 
  however, still control these territories.
  GOVERNMENT
  Direct democracy endures as the standard form of 
  government for every community of less than 5,000. The 
  inhabitants of towns and villages gather together and vote on 
  every important issue. Every year, immediately after Calibra-
  tion, the inhabitants of every town and collection of villages 
  also choose a small council of officials—the Selectmen—to 
  carry out the results of these votes and to handle relations 
  with the national government.
  Shanarinara’s growing cities continue this pattern. Large 
  settlements are divided into wards of about 5,000 inhabitants 
  who mostly live and work together. These residents vote on 
  all major issues, just like the inhabitants of smaller towns. In 
  addition, the Selectmen they elect have the additional duty of 
  working with the councils of the other wards. The assembled 
  ward councils of a city form that city’s central government.
  In both small towns and large cities, the town or ward 
  council democratically elects a single Selectman to travel to 
  Inara to sit on the national Senate. Every urban ward, town 
  and group of villages in the nation has a delegate. Every 
  month, the Senate elects a new Secretary—the closest the 
  nation comes to a head of state.
  The large and often raucous Shanarinara Senate governs 
  the entire nation. This form of government usually results in 
  slow decisions and extensive compromise. When the interests 
  of the various Senators all line up, though, they can act with 
  unexpected speed and with full confidence that their constitu-
  ents will back their actions. Indeed, national crises sometimes 
  stampede the Senators into decisions they later regret.
  COMMUNICATION
  In the last 50 years, the national government has used 
  its new wealth to build a heliograph network between every 
  
  82
  significant town. The ordinary heliograph towers are supple-
  mented by stationary hot-air balloons (a technology inspired 
  by seeing Haslanti air boats), which rise more than 1,000 
  feet on their sturdy rope tethers. Observers bearing spyglasses 
  ascend in these balloons and can see far-off messages being 
  relayed. They also spot many distant problems such as grass 
  fires, large caravans and bandit gangs. As a result, towns and 
  cities can share important information quite rapidly.
  The Shanari want to copy Haslanti air boats, but they 
  haven’t worked out the rigging and propeller systems yet. (As 
  inland people, they have a lot of catching up to do with sails.) 
  So far, they manage only hot-air balloons. When the wind 
  is right, however, local traders can send messages and fairly 
  small cargoes in these balloons. The government pays for 
  thaumaturges skilled in the Art of Weather Working or the 
  Art of Elemental Summoning (see The Books of Sorcery, 
  Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex, pp. 136 and 144) to make sure 
  its balloon-borne couriers have a favorable wind.
  Even with the best weather control, these vessels are 
  considerably slower and carry much less than Haslanti air 
  boats. Nevertheless, Shanarinara now has weekly air travel 
  between Inara and the other main cities, going both ways. 
  These measures further unify Shanarinara and increase the 
  nation’s power. Local Guild factors scribble excited messages 
  to their leaders in Nexus about the commercial possibilities 
  of long-range balloon transport of small, ultra-high-value 
  commodities such as jewels, artifacts and hearthstones.
  THE NEW MODEL ARMY
  Each town and rural farming region once organized its 
  own militia to fight off barbarians and the walking dead. The 
  Senate soon found that these forces did not suffice to defend 
  the country against bandits eager to take the new wealth for 
  themselves. The Guild rented them mercenaries. A bright 
  Senator realized, however, that it could be very foolish to 
  rely exclusively on the Guild for defense. As a result, the 
  Senate began hiring its own mercenaries—not to fight, but to 
  train the Shanari. Today, a modest standing army trained in 
  Scavenger Lands tactics and organization—the New Model 
  Army—supplements the militias. Shanarinara still cannot 
  conquer any of its neighbors, but it can now defend itself 
  from the icewalkers.
  RELIGION AND THE SUPERNATURAL
  Shanarinara has never felt much influence from the 
  Realm, but its people worship the Immaculate Dragons 
  nonetheless—a leftover bit of Shogunate culture. Their faith 
  has nothing to do with the Dragon-Blooded, and they deny 
  the immanent divinity of the Scarlet Dynasty and the Em-
  press. Instead, they revere the Dragons as Creation’s supreme 
  elemental powers. Missionaries from the Immaculate Order 
  periodically tried to push the Shanari into true Immaculate 
  faith, but the Shanari always slid back to their folk religion. 
  As farmers, naturally they revere Sextes Jylis, the Dragon 
  of Wood, above the rest, but the new importance of mining 
  leads to increasing worship of Pasiap as well. Priests of the 
  Dragons have the job of dealing with local small gods and 
  elementals (and are well paid for it).
  The Shanari have little experience with the Exalted. 
  Rarely, a Dynast or an outcaste adventurer passed through 
  and usually made a bad impression. On the rare occasions 
  when a Shanari drew the Second Breath as a Terrestrial, she 
  was strongly encouraged to seek her destiny elsewhere. The 
  few encounters between the Shanari and the Lunar Exalted 
  also involved icewalkers, so the Shanari have an even worse 
  view of Luna’s Chosen. Their most visible example of the 
  new Solar Exalted is the Bull of the North, who frightens 
  them terribly. A fellow called the Prince of Shadows passed 
  through briefly on business for the Lover, however, and he 
  seemed quite charming. Shanarinara has few native God-
  Blooded and no other native Essence channelers.
  The nation does hire many foreign thaumaturges, who 
  perform a wide variety of functions. The most important 
  functions involve summoning elementals to assist in mining, 
  building, weather control and other forms of civil engineering. 
  The Senate recently established a National College of Thau-
  maturgy and offers excellent salaries to potential teachers.
  IMMIGRANT NATION
  Historically, Shanarinara was a nation with a relatively 
  low and highly self-sufficient population. That has drasti-
  cally changed within the last several decades. The nation 
  found itself with more money and more work to do than 
  people to do it.
  First, the Shanarinara Senate began hiring engineers and 
  planners from Nexus and other distant nations. The Senate 
  initially sought out experts from distant lands to avoid hiring 
  anyone who might serve potential rivals or competitors, such 
  as the Haslanti League. These experts designed factories with 
  simple assembly lines and significantly improved agricultural 
  production through basic weather control, increased labor 
  and better plows, harrows and other devices that Scavenger 
  Lands farmers had used for centuries. Within 15 years, these 
  efforts began to pay off, and Shanarinara became far more 
  prosperous than it had been previously.
  For such an isolated little country, word spread with 
  amazing speed that Shanarinara would pay for workers. First 
  a trickle of poor people came, seeking their fortunes. The 
  trickle grew into a stream, a river… The Guild offered to 
  sell slaves but found its caravans under attack by convoys of 
  would-be workers anxious not to be undercut. Thirty years 
  ago, a canny Guild factor gave up and put herself at the head 
  of the parade. Every year, poor people in Nexus, Port Calin, 
  Mishaka and other teeming cities of the Scavenger Lands 
  pay the Guild their life’s savings to join a caravan bound for 
  Shanarinara, the Land of Opportunity and Treasure Chest 
  of the North!
  One in 10 Shanari came to the country within the 
  last 30 years or are descended from people who did. What’s 
  more, these immigrants swell the nation’s previously small 
  urban population. Sixty years ago, only one in 20 Shanari 
  
  83
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  lived in towns or cities. Today, that number has risen to 
  one in seven. Inara, the nation’s largest metropolis, has a 
  population of 250,000 and growing. The government also 
  finds the manpower to embark on large public works, such 
  as trading roads meant to connect Inara to Fella, Gethamane 
  and White Ribs—none completed yet.
  A fraction of these immigrants are highly skilled and 
  well paid experts such as thaumaturges, doctors, artisans and 
  engineers. These experts have become an exotic upper class. 
  They remain distinct from Shanarinara’s native upper class 
  of landowners, merchants, priests and local artisans. Many 
  of these wealthy new residents intend to stay only a decade 
  or so before they return to their homelands. If they intend to 
  stay, they often make an effort to fit in. They do not much 
  threaten the existing social order. The position of the poorer 
  immigrants is far less secure.
  Most immigrants are semi-skilled laborers who toil in 
  the workshops and factories of the growing cities or in the 
  mines. Most of them come from the Scavenger Lands and 
  speak Riverspeak, not Skytongue. They live in their own 
  urban neighborhoods.
  Some members of the local lower class resent the jobs 
  that these laborers supposedly take away from them. Crime 
  has risen since the old days, too. The most common source 
  of local dissatisfaction, though, is simply that the immigrants 
  are not part of Shanari culture. Everything from their food 
  to their faiths is radically different. Many older Shanari fear 
  their country will lose its native culture under the influx 
  of foreigners and their alien cultures. These conservative 
  residents view the spread of foreign restaurants and foreign 
  entertainment with a mixture of alarm and disgust.
  INARA
  The capital of Shanarinara used to be a small and quiet 
  city with a population of only 50,000. People still enjoyed 
  the hot springs. The city was also a center for the manu-
  facture of distinctive Shanarinaran pottery. Today, Inara is 
  the most cosmopolitan city in a nation that is profoundly 
  not used to being cosmopolitan. Almost a fifth of Inara’s 
  population is foreign born—this, in the capital itself! Here, 
  the disruptions to Shanarinaran life show themselves at 
  their most extreme.
  The Guild leases a full district of the city covering 
  more than a square mile in area. Inara is the primary point 
  of trade between Shanarinara and the Guild, as well as the 
  center for the influx and adoption of foreign luxuries by 
  the local populace. Wealthy Shanarinarans living in Inara 
  now regularly own silks and clocks from the Realm, exotic 
  Haltan woodwork and occasionally even glasswork imported 
  from the South.
  To many older or rural residents of Shanarinara, Inara 
  has become a symbol of the foreign corruption that has in-
  vaded this land. Young working-class Shanari who come to 
  Inara often resent the many foreign workers who live here. 
  They show their resentment through petty vandalism and 
  brawls. Hundreds of immigrants are beaten each year. Now 
  and then, angry young men burn down a shop owned by 
  successful immigrants.
  Yet, only native Shanari can vote. There have been 
  several proposals to expand voting rights to everyone born in 
  Shanarinara, but the conservative inhabitants of the nation’s 
  small farming towns strongly oppose these measures. This 
  gives immigrants grounds for resentment in return.
  THE GRADAFES WARD
  Most wards and immigrant ghettos act like invisible 
  barriers. The Nexus folk just don’t mix with the Calinti 
  much, and none of the Scavenger Lands immigrants have 
  much good to say about the Haslanti—some of them live 
  in tents. One small neighborhood, however, surrounds itself 
  with high brick walls. Here dwell a few thousand rather pale 
  people from Gradafes… and no one else. The Lover Clad 
  in the Raiment of Tears sent them to work in the soulsteel 
  mine. The miners work in shifts, two weeks on and six weeks 
  off. They spend their off period in Inara. First, only men 
  came. As the years passed, though, the miners sent for their 
  wives and children.
  The largest building in the Gradafes Ward is a temple 
  of the dead, following that country’s version of the ancestor 
  cult. The second-largest building is the Gradafes embassy. 
  Neither one looks very fancy, or obviously ominous, but few 
  Shanari would want to step into either of them.
  As part of her embassy, the Lover sent a few dozen 
  Ghost-Blooded exorcists. These exorcists perform certain 
  special functions in mining the soulsteel. They also help 
  keep Shanarinara free from the restless dead. The country’s 
  border lies more than 100 miles from Marama’s Fell, but that 
  isn’t enough to prevent all incursions. 
  Older Shanari abhor the idea of dealing with the dead 
  and their allies. The inhabitants on the country’s southwestern 
  margin, however, fear the restless dead of the Fell. Although 
  many of these farmers and herders feel uncomfortable with 
  the Gradafesese, they also feel grateful for the wardings that 
  keep their towns free from spectral invasions. Debate about 
  the risks and desirability of dealing with Gradafes and its 
  mysterious mistress forms a subject of discussions and argu-
  ments in the homes, taverns and Senate of Shanarinara.
  FOREIGN RELATIONS AND THE FUTURE
  Shanarinara has tasted wealth and power for the first 
  time, and many inhabitants wish to expand and stabilize 
  their gains. Unfortunately, the nation’s population is 
  relatively small and not well equipped for war. Knowing 
  this, the Senate seeks allies. Gethamane and Fella seem 
  like the nearest and safest allies, but also the least useful. 
  Whitewall expresses interest in increasing trade, though, 
  while seeming distant enough not to become a threat. The 
  Haslanti League also makes overtures, but the Shanari 
  suspect the aggressive Haslanti see their rich little country 
  as a plum to pluck.
  
  84
  The Shanari have no desire to ally with the Realm. 
  Their new wealth led to the first attention they ever re-
  ceived from the Scarlet Empire, and it came in the form 
  of Dynastic ambassadors with an Imperial legion at their 
  back, demanding tribute. The Shanari paid. Some Shanari 
  suspect that only their location on the far side of Marama’s 
  Fell prevented the country from becoming a satrapy. The 
  Shanari accurately perceive Cherak, Amber River and Serrat 
  as puppets of the Realm.
  The rise of the Bull of the North presents Shanarinara 
  with a neighbor they fear at least as much as the Realm. 
  The Bull’s nascent empire is still hundreds of miles from 
  Shanarinara’s border… but that didn’t help the Linowan, 
  now did it? Ranches on the country’s eastern 
  margin have already suffered raids from icewalkers 
  loyal to the Bull. Many in this nation fear 
  that the Bull will soon set his sights on 
  Shanarinara’s rough but fertile lands. 
  Some Shanari politicians seriously 
  debate whether the country should 
  preemptively sue for peace and offer 
  tribute to the Bull, lest he conquer 
  them outright.
  Indeed, Shanarinara’s closest 
  ally is a country fewer than a dozen 
  Shanari have ever visited: Gradafes. 
  The Lover’s home lies many thou-
  sands of miles away, 
  and so, the Shanari 
  imagine it could not 
  possibly become a 
  threat. The Lover Clad 
  in the Raiment of Tears encourages 
  this notion.
  The Shanari would like to expand 
  their country. The icewalkers are their chief 
  obstacle. A number of icewalker tribes regu-
  larly pass by Shanarinara’s fringes, and they 
  massacre homesteads established outside the 
  country’s borders. Only sustained warfare 
  could end this threat. If Shanarinara could 
  do this, they would find other powerful coun-
  tries 
  contesting their control of the new territories: the Haslanti 
  League to the north, Amber River to the southeast, possibly 
  Whitewall to the west, certainly the Bull of the North to 
  the east. The southwest lies open already, but few Shanari 
  want to move closer to Marama’s Fell. The ambassadors 
  from Gradafes hint, however, that the Lover might be able 
  to show them ways to deal with this problem. Maybe even 
  with the Bull of the North…
  Many Senators now seriously ponder deepening their 
  ties with the Deathlord, even though they now have some 
  idea what a Deathlord is. They fear nearby threats more than 
  they fear the far-removed Deathlord who has never set foot 
  in their country (to their knowledge). The Shanari’s hunger 
  n the country s eastern 
  red raids from icewalkers
  in this nation fear
  et his sights on 
  t fertile land
  nds.s..
  ns seriously 
  nttryryr  should 
  ce and offer 
  he
  he conquer 
  ra’s closest 
  han a dozen 
  d: Gradafes. 
  many thou-
  s encourages
  d like to expand
  alkers are their ch
  ch
  c ieef f
  icewalker tribes rregu-
  ra’s frf inges, and
  nd
  n  t heey y
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  t e 
  y sustained warfare 
  for new lands to settle and exploit makes the Lover’s offers 
  even more tempting. The Lover is sufficiently patient to 
  accept refusal in the short term, but several of her agents 
  already operate in Shanarinara, working to convince the 
  populace to accept her offer.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNITS
  The Whitewall militia unit found on page 69 of Scroll 
  of Kings can adequately represent the modestly trained, 
  lightly armed volunteer soldiers of Shanarinaran town 
  and village militias. The New Model Army is considerably 
  more professional.
  The New Model Army consists of 12 dragons (so far) 
  of about 500 men each. These dragons can divide into 
  wings, talons and so on, following the usual pattern de-
  rived from Shogunate and Realm legions. Shanarinara 
  uses modern names for officers, though: sergeants 
  leading fangs, lieutenants commanding scales 
  and captains leading talons. Majors command 
  wings and colonels command whole dragons. 
  The New Model Army has a single general, 
  Thara Talhasina.
  NEW MODEL ARMY 
  FOURTH DRAGON
  Description: Sol-
  diers of the Fourth Dragon 
  ride to battle but dismount 
  to fight. The New Model 
  Army still experiments with 
  what mounts to use, horses 
  or reindeer, so the Fourth has 
  two talons of each. New Model 
  Army soldiers train equally 
  with spears, swords and bows. The 
  Shanari have long experience of the 
  need to shoot marauding icewalkers.
  Commanding Officer: Colonel Azil Izane
  Armor Color: Green and silver
  Motto: “Live and Die Free!”
  General Makeup: 500 medium infantry armed with 
  spears, straight swords and long bows with broadhead arrows; 
  they wear lamellar armor and slotted helms.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 5
  Drill: 3
  Close Combat Attack: 3 Close Combat Damage: 2
  Ranged Attack: 3 
  Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 8 
  Might: 0 
  Armor: 2 (-2 mobility) 
  Morale: 3
  Formation: Shanarinara military units fight in a basic pha-
  lanx formation, with swordsmen attacking enemies who get 
  past the guarding spearmen. Before armies close, everyone 
  shoots arrows. In large battles, auxiliary units of local militia 
  back them up.
  
  85
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  THE ICEWALKER BARBARIANS
  A great many Northerners do not live in nations at all. 
  Indeed, some folk despise the idea of nations and cities. The 
  icewalkers are the largest group of these barbarians, and the 
  most determined in their conscious rejection of civilization.
  Although outsiders often think of them as a single people, 
  the icewalkers actually consist of hundreds of tribes scattered 
  across the North. The tribes share many cultural traits, but 
  each tribe is fully independent from all others. Tribes may 
  make treaties with other tribes that travel through the same 
  portions of the North, but one of the central tenets of icewalker 
  life is that each tribe stays in control of its own destiny.
  Every tribe tells its own story about its origin. Most of 
  the stories concern heroes who are among the last people 
  left alive after a great cataclysm—a faint folk memory of the 
  Great Contagion and the Fair Folk invasion. This is the closest 
  the icewalkers come to a shared history. Literate Northern 
  folk never paid enough attention to the icewalkers to record 
  their history, either. All that anyone can say for certain is 
  that icewalker culture arose in the centuries after the Great 
  Contagion and that the founders of the first tribes made pacts 
  with totem-gods of various Northern animals.
  Icewalker geography is similarly uncertain, for all the 
  tribes wander to some degree. Some follow a regular year-long 
  circuit through a few locations, such as the seal-hunting tribes 
  that move north and south across the White Sea. Other tribes 
  have moved thousands of miles over the centuries, gradually 
  shifting their hunting-grounds to follow herds of reindeer, 
  mammoth or other beasts. One can say only that a particular 
  tribe currently moves about within a particular area—which 
  might cover hundreds or thousands of miles.
  MAKING A LIVING
  Icewalkers live principally by hunting and gathering, 
  and usually on the move. The animals on which their liveli-
  hood depends are all migratory or seasonal, so the icewalkers 
  perforce must follow a herd or travel between locations where 
  food becomes available at different times of the year. This 
  nomadic lifestyle shapes many aspects of their culture—
  including how they deal with other people.
  TOTEM ANIMALS
  Each icewalker tribe both hunts and reveres a specific 
  totem animal that supplies the tribe with food and other useful 
  items, such as hides or sinew. Inland icewalkers have totems 
  such as reindeer, elk, moose, musk ox, wooly rhinoceros or 
  mammoth. Coastal icewalkers hunt and worship seal, walrus 
  and whale totems, or salmon along the Inland Sea or the 
  Great Western Ocean.
  An icewalker tribe has a complex relationship with its 
  totem. The totem animal is the tribe’s primary food animal 
  and the chief source for hides and other commodities. Every 
  tribe knows how to make the fullest use of its totem—meat, 
  milk (if applicable), skin, bones, everything. Inland tribes 
  follow herds of their sacred animal, while coastal tribes plan 
  their journeys according to salmon runs in different rivers, the 
  migrations of whales or breeding cycles of seals or walrus.
  A tribe also has obligations to its totem animal. The 
  tribe cannot over-hunt or over-fish without angering the 
  animal’s avatar god (as well as endangering the tribe’s future 
  food supply). Neither can the tribe hunt without need, allow 
  the totem animal to suffer or kill the young or mothers with 
  young. The tribe also tries to protect its animal from other 
  predators. Icewalker scouts often travel ahead of a herd to 
  look for potential dangers or the best forage, and the tribe 
  steers the herd accordingly.
  The most unusual icewalkers live on the permanent ice 
  sheets along the northern coast of the White Sea. Below them 
  lie frigid waters whose embrace kills any who fall in within 
  minutes. Tribes that live at the very edge of the ice take to 
  the ocean in boats made of skin to hunt their totem animals, 
  the whale or walrus. Barbarians who live farther from the 
  edge of the ice always have seal as their totem. They hunt 
  their prey by lying in wait at the breathing holes that seals 
  use when they venture beneath the ice in search of fish.
  Shanarinara, a Magnitude 4 Domain
  Military: 2 
  Culture: 2 
  Government: 3
  Abilities: Awareness 3, Bureaucracy 2, Craft 3, Integrity 3 (Tight-Knit Heritage +2), Investigation 1, Occult 1, 
  Performance 2 (Rousing Rhetoric +1), Presence 1, Stealth 1, War 3 (Slash and Burn Tactics +1)
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, Valor 3
  Limit Break: Temperance Current Limit: 2
  Willpower: 9
  Bonus Points: 20 External Bonus Points: 6
  Notes: Shanarinara is a growing and expansionist state. Its own bonus points are invested in two dots of Will-
  power, a dot of War and its two specialties. Its six external bonus points come from its (so far) very loose alliance 
  with Gradafes and the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, as well as the Guild. These points go to another dot of 
  Willpower. In Limit Break, Shanarinara sends its armies and hordes of settlers out to claim nearby lands and fight 
  the icewalkers and anyone else who gets in their way.
  
  86
  Such tribes, whose members truly live up to their name 
  as icewalkers, find their own ways to help their totem ani-
  mals. For instance, the seal hunters use bow-drills of stone 
  and whalebone to cut new breathing-holes in the ice, while 
  the walrus hunters protect those animals’ birthing grounds 
  from hungry ice bears. The whalers’ shamans assist their 
  totem animals in mystic ways they keep secret even from 
  their own tribes.
  A tribe’s totem animal becomes the center of its religious 
  life as well as its livelihood. Long ago, the ancestors of each 
  tribe forged a covenant with the divine avatar of their totem 
  animal. Icewalkers collectively refer to their pantheon of 
  avatars as the Animal Masters. A tribe worships the Animal 
  Master of its totem above all other gods. Every hunt begins 
  and ends with a prayer acknowledging the tribe’s dependence 
  on its Animal Master, thanking the god for past bounty and 
  hoping for continued favor.
  Icewalkers do not live exclusively on their totem ani-
  mals, of course. They hunt other animals when they get the 
  chance—mostly small game such as hares, ducks or trout, 
  in their seasons—while coastal icewalkers gather shellfish. 
  Icewalkers also gather berries, herbs, tubers, edible lichens 
  and other plants. When members of one tribe hunt a totem 
  animal not their own, though, they take care to pray to the 
  appropriate Animal Master for permission and to offer suit-
  able thanks after a successful hunt.
  ACROSS THE FROZEN NORTH
  The animals that icewalkers hunt do not stop moving 
  in winter, and thus did the icewalkers gain their name. They 
  travel when snow and ice cover the North and civilized 
  folk stay close to their hearth-fires. Of all Northerners, 
  only the Haslanti surpass the icewalkers at transportation 
  technology… and the Haslanti began by learning from the 
  icewalkers.
  For personal transportation, icewalkers use snowshoes 
  and skis. Snowshoes merely reduce the penalties for trying 
  to walk through snow (described on page 114 of Scroll of 
  Kings). Skis enable short bursts of downhill speed, but are 
  more difficult to use.
  In rules terms, skis require a minimum Athletics of 3 to 
  use, as per the rules for unstable footing on p. 155 of Exalted, or 
  a character can buy one Athletics specialty in skis to use them 
  without need for dice rolls. Skis add to a character’s downhill 
  movement—the Storyteller determines how much, based on 
  terrain, but rarely more than +6 yards—and the character 
  must use a Dash action rather than a Move action.
  Some icewalkers know how to ride. Horses survive only 
  in the southern limits of their range, while hardy ponies can 
  endure winters north to Whitewall or thereabouts. Only elk 
  or reindeer can flourish as far north as the White Sea coast. 
  Tribes who take these beasts as their totem never ride them. 
  For instance, a tribe that domesticates reindeer to ride might 
  hunt elk, or vice-versa, but using a totem animal to hunt its 
  kin would offend its god.
  
  87
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  All icewalker tribes use sleds, sleighs and sledges. The 
  latter vehicle resembles a sled or sleigh but has flat runners, 
  like skis. A sledge can travel on smooth ground such as peat-
  bog or tundra, though they work better on snow. Icewalkers 
  who ride horses, ponies, elk or reindeer also harness these 
  animals to their vehicles, but dogs are more common. Many 
  clans of icewalkers follow their sacred herds by riding on 
  large dogsleds designed to carry tents, the young, the elderly 
  and all of the necessities of life. Hunters and scouts use 
  lightweight one- or two-person dogsleds to travel on ahead, 
  swiftly searching out both dangers and sources of additional 
  food. Icewalkers also use these two-person dogsleds in battle, 
  with one icewalker driving and the other throwing javelins 
  or shooting a bow. (See pp. 147–148 of Scroll of Kings for 
  descriptions and traits of dogsleds and sleighs; sledges use 
  the same traits.)
  Farther north, some icewalkers use iceships. These ves-
  sels are smaller than Haslanti iceships (no larger than small 
  coasters—see Scroll of Kings, p. 146) and slower, since they 
  generally use stone, bone or ivory runners instead of high-
  grade steel. Still, they travel as much as 125 miles a day. A 
  few of the larger and wealthier tribes near the White Sea 
  now travel primarily by iceship. In addition to small skiffs 
  designed for raiding and exploration, these tribes also use 
  slow, wide iceships that carry all of their possessions, includ-
  ing their dogs and other domestic animals. When the tribe 
  comes to a good campsite, they anchor their iceships and 
  set up camp.
  Icewalkers also manufacture both one- and two-person 
  gliders and use them for scouting and various forms of aerial 
  attacks. Anywhere they find cliffs or glacial edges near settle-
  ments or caravan routes that icewalkers wish to raid, they 
  launch their cunningly made gliders of willow, hide and bone. 
  After scouting their target, the icewalkers launch their best 
  warriors to glide down to the target, jump free of the glider 
  as it lands and attack. Above them, younger warriors in two-
  person gliders carry skilled archers and javelin throwers. The 
  pilot steers the glider, while the archer or javelineer rains 
  death on their enemies. Even the most skillful pilot, however, 
  cannot keep a glider aloft for more than a few hours.
  TOTEM COMPANIONS
  Once in a while, special totem animals become 
  the companions of truly heroic icewalkers. When a 
  hero does a great service to the totem animal or the 
  animal avatar (for instance, saving a reindeer herd 
  from a pack of predators), the avatar sometimes sends 
  this hero a companion animal. Totem companions 
  have human intelligence. They can speak and under-
  stand mortal speech. Instead of being a prey animal, 
  it becomes a member of the tribe. Anyone with such 
  a companion is almost certainly either a tribal chief 
  or shaman. Chiefs with such companions will never 
  be deposed, unless they offend their companions or 
  their animal avatars. In such cases, their animals 
  repudiate them and might attempt to kill them.
  In rules terms, totem companions have Intel-
  ligence and Willpower equal to that of a heroic 
  mortal, and Physical and Social Attributes one 
  higher than normal for their kind. They heal and 
  resist disease, infection and bleeding as well as one 
  of the Exalted and add half their Stamina to their 
  lethal soak. Totem companions are always purchased 
  as allies and not familiars or followers.
  The greatest totem companions are the avatar’s 
  God-Blooded children, who have enlightened Es-
  sence and can learn spirit Charms. These mighty 
  creatures only become the companions of the greatest 
  God-Blooded or Exalted icewalkers.
  ICEWALKER TRAVEL
  Travel Type 
  Hourly Daily Weekly Monthly
  Cargo Dog Sled 6 
  30 
  150 
  350
  Fast Dog Sled 
  10 
  50 
  250 
  600
  Iceship 
  6 
  125 
  800 
  2,400
  Glider 
  25 
  — 
  — 
  —
  THE WEALTH OF NOMADS
  Icewalkers cannot own more than they can carry, but they 
  do not consider themselves poor. Due to their arrangement 
  with their totems, the tribes rarely lack for food. They risk 
  starvation only in the depths of winter, when the animals 
  themselves risk death, or through the action of spirits—an 
  offended Animal Master or perhaps a god that seeks to extort 
  worship. The Winter Folk also work to freeze and starve their 
  chief mortal foes.
  A tribe’s quest for food and other necessary materials 
  also leaves plenty of time for other activities. For instance, 
  old icewalkers can teach the tribe’s epics to the young while 
  they gather berries, or a team of duck hunters can plan daring 
  raids while they trek to a distant lake. What’s more, large 
  meat animals can feed a family for several days, leaving time 
  for other activities. During festivals, icewalkers enjoy berry 
  wine, spruce beer and fermented milk as well as a variety of 
  hallucinogens. Icewalker tribes also hold elaborate storytelling 
  contests, recounting both traditional epics and recent deeds. 
  Many icewalkers can sing as well as play bone flutes, small 
  drums or fiddles. When several tribes meet on friendly terms, 
  the resulting festival can last for several days.
  Regardless of what animal they follow, all icewalkers stay 
  highly mobile. Some totem animals spend several months in 
  one location to breed or take refuge from the cold, but this 
  
  88
  is the longest that icewalkers stay in one spot. Even during 
  such extended stays, icewalkers live in temporary or portable 
  dwellings. Most icewalker live in hide tents or hide-lined 
  igloos. Despite civilized imaginings about dirty barbarians 
  shivering in the cold, these small homes stay surprisingly 
  snug, warm and largely free of vermin. Icewalkers also make 
  most of their clothing of leather and fur, and ornament it 
  with quilting, appliqué and stitching with plant fibers or 
  dyed porcupine quills.
  If a totem animal pauses for more than a few weeks in 
  its wanderings, a tribe might settle long enough to forge 
  metal—mostly for weapons. Icewalkers also have access to 
  ivory, amber and other precious materials and can trade them 
  to settled peoples for fine metal tools and weapons. What ice-
  walkers can’t obtain through trade, they usually acquire from 
  townsfolk through raiding or extortion. This combination of 
  raiding and trading enables many icewalkers to own weapons 
  and tools as fine as those in most parts of Creation. Chiefs, 
  shamans and heroes regularly possess excellent equipment, 
  as well as the occasional artifact. Icewalkers must possess far 
  fewer goods than city dwellers—so they insist that whatever 
  they do own must be durable and well made. They do not 
  want anything more. Icewalkers cherish their mobility and 
  freedom, and most of them see civilized peoples as enslaved 
  by their possessions as much as by their superiors.
  SOCIAL STRUCTURE
  An icewalker tribe has two leaders, a chief and a shaman. 
  The chief bears principle responsibility for hunting, raiding 
  and resolving conflicts based on pride and honor. The sha-
  man deals with spiritual issues, from interceding with the 
  tribe’s totem-god to resolving hidden grudges, grief and other 
  emotional problems that are not easily faced head-on.
  CHIEFS
  An icewalker tribe chooses its chief by acclamation. 
  The chief is, by definition, the most respected and trusted 
  individual in the tribe. The tribe follows him (chiefs are usu-
  ally male) because they trust and respect him. He has proven 
  himself repeatedly through successful hunts and battles. His 
  own prestige makes him the arbiter of prestige and honor for 
  other tribal members. It helps if the chief also has a ready 
  wit and force of personality.
  There are no formal elections for chief. Chiefs continue 
  in their office until they step down, often after some serious 
  failure, or when a challenger wins the approval of most of the 
  tribe. Challenging a popular or successful chief is considered 
  both foolish and wrong. Anyone who attempts to challenge a 
  chief’s position and fails to become the new chief is mocked 
  and derided as both overconfident and disrespectful.
  SHAMANS
  The chief forms the apex of a system of prestige based on 
  strength, skill and charisma. They are admired and envied. 
  Every tribe has several warriors who hope to become chiefs 
  themselves. It’s a common ambition for the young.
  The shaman stands alone. Icewalkers understand that 
  they need their shamans, but few wish to become one. 
  Most icewalkers dream of a life of heroic battles—not of 
  negotiating the alien and dangerous world of gods and 
  elementals.
  Most shamans bear some visible mark that sets them 
  apart, such as a deformity or a physical feature that indicates 
  a touch of divine ancestry—though never Wyld mutations. 
  Icewalkers kill any of their kind who shows the Wyld’s taint. 
  Other shamans are set apart by strange behavior, if not actual 
  madness or disorders such as epilepsy. Shamans can be male 
  or female, but often dress as the other sex: They live between 
  categories in every way they can.
  Icewalker shamans talk with the gods and elementals 
  of the North. Most importantly, they deal with the divine 
  avatar of the tribe’s totem animal. Becoming a shaman 
  requires extensive training by an older shaman, but the 
  only indispensable qualification is acceptance by the tribe’s 
  Animal Master. The god sometimes visits a tribal member 
  in a vision and selects her to become the next shaman. This 
  person must then be trained, but she becomes a shaman 
  with that first vision. Similarly, the Animal Master can 
  refuse even the most qualified and well-trained prospec-
  tive shaman. If this happens, this person cannot become 
  the tribe’s shaman.
  FAILED SHAMANS
  A would-be shaman had best accept her Animal 
  Master’s rejection humbly and gracefully. Icewalker 
  legends tell of many embittered would-be shamans 
  who turned to the Fair Folk, the dead or the Wyld 
  and became monstrous villains. A tribe watches a 
  rejected candidate closely for signs of such debase-
  ment and drives her out on the least suspicion. Of 
  course, such hostile expectations easily become self-
  fulfilling prophecies.
  Would-be shamans can also turn to chiminage. 
  This practice involves selling oneself to a spirit: not just 
  worshiping it, but directly working its will, providing 
  outrageous sacrifices and even allowing it to possess 
  one’s body. Icewalkers consider chiminage a debased 
  practice, and their Animal Masters never demand it. 
  Other barbarian tribes sometimes have chiminage 
  shamans, though. Chiminage is not intrinsically 
  evil, but it violates the laws of Heaven, so spirits 
  who demand chiminage rarely do so for benevolent 
  reasons. Of course, the icewalkers are also most likely 
  to come into conflict with chiminage shamans who 
  serve the most hostile and demanding of Northern 
  spirits. Icewalkers, therefore, often assume that any 
  chiminage shaman must be the demented slave of a 
  malignant master.
  
  89
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  LEADERSHIP DISPUTES
  Ideally, both the chief and the shaman approve every 
  major decision made in an icewalker tribe. In any immediate 
  crisis, the chief can override the commands of the shaman. 
  Once the crisis is over, though, the dispute must be resolved 
  in front of the entire tribe. If the two leaders cannot reach an 
  agreement, then the members of the tribe hear both positions 
  and choose the leader to follow by acclaim.
  The tribe often determines whom to follow based upon 
  some combination of the leader’s popularity and rhetorical 
  skill. That often means the tribe sides with the already-popular 
  chief. If, however, the shaman acts on the direct request of 
  the tribe’s Animal Master and the chief disagrees, the tribe 
  almost always ignores the chief and follows its shaman. Chiefs 
  who do not acknowledge that they overstepped their author-
  ity by going against the wishes of the tribe’s totem spirit are 
  expected to step down at once.
  DIVIDING A TRIBE
  When severe and lasting enmities disrupt a tribe, the 
  icewalkers have two options.
  Sometimes, disputes arise from a single individual or a 
  handful of individuals whom no one else follows or agrees 
  with. Such troublemakers can try to find another tribe to 
  take them in, or they can be driven out to survive as best as 
  they can. If the troublemakers seem violent or dangerous, 
  The Animal Master becomes the shaman’s patron and 
  helps her deal with other spirits. Small gods and elementals 
  do not want to anger powerful totem-gods by showing dis-
  respect to shamans… at least, that’s the threat the shaman 
  makes to recalcitrant spirits.
  Icewalker shamans also study thaumaturgy. They favor 
  the Art of Spirit Beckoning for wheedling or extorting favors 
  from small gods, or the Art of Elemental Summoning for treat-
  ing with that class of spirits. The Art of Husbandry enables a 
  shaman to call prey animals, repel dangerous beasts, heal and 
  assist the tribe’s totem animal—and has darker uses, such as 
  beckoning enemies into danger. Of all paths, however, the 
  icewalkers most value the Art of Warding and Exorcism for the 
  protection it gives against hostile spirits and malign forces.
  Most of all, the shaman leads the tribe in worship of 
  its Animal Master and delivering suitable honors to other 
  totem-gods as needed. The shaman propounds and enforces 
  the rules for proper treatment of the tribe’s totem animal. If 
  the tribe breaks its covenant, the shaman must perform suit-
  able sacrifices: usually the bodies of animals that prey upon or 
  compete with the totem animal or, on rare occasion, the lives 
  of the tribe members or outsiders who offended the Animal 
  Master through deliberate cruelty or needless slaughter of its 
  totem animal. Angering the totem-god results in harsh and 
  immediate penalties ranging from prevention of successful 
  hunts, to striking the shaman down where she stands.
  
  90
  they are likely killed. The icewalkers feel it is imprudent to 
  allow enemies who know their ways to go free.
  In contrast, if a dispute actually divides the tribe, with 
  many partisans on both sides, then the tribe splits in half. 
  Each member or family decides which group to follow. Most 
  often, the shaman goes with one group and the current chief 
  with another, but both can go with one group. In either case, 
  the group without a chief is expected to choose one before 
  the actual split occurs, and the existing shaman is expected 
  to help the other new tribe find a new shaman. The two 
  groups travel together until both of them have both of their 
  necessary leaders. Yet, they pitch their tents or igloos a dozen 
  or so yards apart and interact as little as possible.
  Once both groups have a shaman and a chief and can 
  survive on their own, they part as amicably as they can. Wise 
  and competent chiefs and shamans of such tribes always do 
  their best to see that the two new tribes can turn to one 
  another for help if either faces serious troubles.
  In addition, icewalkers believe that a tribe should split 
  whenever it grows to more than 300 adults. Even if the tribe 
  suffers no major problems, the chief and shaman begin making 
  plans to make their tribe into two new tribes. The icewalkers 
  know from experience that a single herd or hunting territory 
  can support a certain number of people, and no more.
  RELATIONS WITH OUTSIDERS
  Outsiders rarely understand that, unless icewalkers have 
  become corrupted by civilization or tainted by the Wyld, 
  these barbarians divide everyone outside of their tribe into 
  four separate categories: kinfolk, respected outsiders, lesser 
  outsiders and debased outsiders. Whenever an icewalker 
  encounters a stranger, she must decide what category the 
  stranger occupies. Most icewalkers choose how to treat 
  strangers within a few minutes of encountering them, and 
  icewalkers change this view only when they face proof of 
  particularly heroic, craven or repugnant behavior.
  KINFOLK: TRIBES OF THE SAME TOTEMS
  All tribes who share the same totem regard one another 
  as distant kin, though not so close that they cannot marry. 
  Each tribe remains separate, however. While tribes of the 
  same totem can work together for a variety of goals—for 
  instance, assaulting a nest of hobgoblins—these alliances do 
  not last long. They cannot, for each tribe must eventually 
  break camp to follow its own herd.
  Beyond such alliances, each tribe stays answerable only 
  to its members. Any tribe that attempts to control other 
  tribes of the same totem would be considered to emulate 
  the corrupt ways of civilized peoples by trying to enslave 
  the other tribe. Accusations of this sort of behavior are 
  the single greatest cause of raiding and feuds between 
  tribes who share the same totem. Most icewalkers prefer 
  to marry outside of their tribe, but they prefer to marry 
  icewalkers from tribes that share the same totem. Such 
  a bride or groom faces no change in loyalties from one 
  Animal Master to another.
  RESPECTED OUTSIDERS
  Relations between icewalker tribes that follow different 
  totems are far less close. While all icewalkers respect fellow 
  barbarians who adhere to their basic beliefs and way of life, 
  icewalkers do not regard tribes with different totems as their 
  kin. In especially prosperous or desperate times, tribes who 
  follow different animals might ally with one another. Yet, if 
  two herds of different animals compete for the same scarce 
  food, the two tribes can become bitter enemies who slaughter 
  their rival’s people and animals. Unless an icewalker tribe 
  somehow shows itself to be corrupt, however, all icewalker 
  tribes classify each other as respected outsiders.
  Icewalkers also use this category for people who follow 
  different customs but whom they nevertheless see as showing 
  both strength and honor. Regardless of such peoples’ origin, 
  icewalkers treat such respected outsiders as the equals of their 
  own tribe. While equals sometimes quarrel and even brutally 
  slay one another, they deserve respect. In addition to other 
  of their tribes, icewalkers generally regard the Haslanti and 
  a few of the smaller Northern groups, such as the coastal 
  fishers, as respected outsiders. Individuals can also become 
  respected outsiders by showing strength, courage, honor and 
  skill at living in the wilderness.
  ESSENCE WIELDERS
  Icewalker shamans sometimes receive an enlight-
  ened Essence as a gift from their Animal Master, but 
  this comes as a special favor to a shaman who already 
  shows remarkable talent and devotion. God-Blooded 
  shamans also possess enlightened Essence, and add 
  spirit Charms to their thaumaturgy.
  A very few icewalkers take the Second Breath as 
  outcaste Terrestrial Exalted, completely at random. 
  The icewalkers cannot deny the prowess of such heroes, 
  but often feel that their elemental power implicitly 
  challenges the respect due to the Animal Masters. 
  Exalted icewalkers find themselves pushed to leave 
  their tribes for the lonely life of a wandering monster 
  slayer, honored by all but at home with none. The 
  icewalkers also produce Lunar Exalted, who quickly 
  learn that the Changing Lady chose them for duties 
  that extend beyond one tribe. Still, such Lunars often 
  feel protective of their old tribe even centuries later. 
  The Silver Pact itself has influenced icewalker culture 
  to strengthen its hatred of creatures of darkness.
  Four icewalkers recently Exalted as Solars. Yurgen 
  Kaneko, the Bull of the North, is only the best known 
  of them. The other three are part of his circle. They 
  are changing the North—as described in Chapter 
  Six. Many icewalkers hope that no more of their kind 
  Exalt as “Lawgivers,” for their laws seem contrary to 
  icewalker tradition.
  
  91
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  Of course, respected outsiders can fight. Yet, icewalk-
  ers believe that conflicts with respected outsiders should 
  not last long and neither side should hold a grudge. After 
  all, people do what they must for survival and for honor. 
  Once the cause of a dispute is removed—say, by one tribe 
  defeating the other in battle and claiming a patch of graz-
  ing land—then both sides can go about their presumably 
  honorable ways.
  As a result, icewalkers allow respected outsiders to retreat 
  or to conditionally, and honorably, surrender. Attempting 
  to deprive a respected outsider of his honor or freedom is 
  considered a debased act—no better than cannibalism. Ice-
  walkers general avoid stealing from respected outsiders. They 
  expect that other icewalkers and similar groups can defend 
  their own goods and suitably punish the thieves.
  icewalkers as dangerous savages because icewalkers so often 
  decide that other folk are weak enough to rob—and therefore 
  deserve no respect. Icewalkers regularly trade with large cit-
  ies such as Whitewall, or with the Guild’s largest caravans, 
  because they sensibly realize that they cannot possibly win 
  a fight with such people.
  During lean years or exceptionally long or harsh winters, 
  icewalkers become fierce bandits who lay siege to villages 
  and demand much of their foodstuffs, leaving only the ab-
  solute minimum necessary for survival. (They leave that 
  much only because they fear that a village of people who 
  starve to death filled with hate could become a shadowland 
  or some similar horror. Their legends tell of villages giving 
  themselves to Deathlords, demons or the Fair Folk to obtain 
  revenge.) Villages and towns who comply with the icewalk-
  ers’ demands are left unharmed, if hungry and destitute. The 
  icewalkers massacre townsfolk who try to fight back, however. 
  Icewalkers lack all compassion for lesser outsiders who fight 
  back but fail to defeat them. The fiercest and most brutal 
  icewalker tribes sometimes kill all of a town’s inhabitants 
  and pile their severed heads in a pyramid in the middle of 
  the town square.
  If townspeople defend themselves against an icewalker 
  attack but then surrender, most icewalkers only kill individuals 
  who actually killed one or more icewalkers. If the icewalkers 
  instead defeat and capture their foes, or if the townspeople 
  attacked the icewalkers preemptively, the barbarians become 
  far more liberal in their definition of whom they treat as a 
  threat. They may well kill all adults, adopt any children into 
  their tribe and offer adolescents a choice between death or 
  joining their ranks. Other tribes take adult survivors captive 
  and sell them as slaves to the Guild or to the Haslanti. Since 
  lesser outsiders are already weak, servile and, in a sense, sub-
  human, icewalkers see no dishonor in enslaving them.
  Many small or isolated Northern settlements simply 
  pay off icewalker tribes who visit them. The icewalkers take 
  care never to leave these towns completely destitute. They 
  leave the town the bare minimum it needs to survive, so the 
  tribe can harvest them again. Icewalkers also see no honor 
  in killing lesser outsiders without need. It’s no crime, but it’s 
  nothing to brag about either.
  Icewalkers sometimes present their demand for trib-
  ute as payment to protect the town from rival tribes or 
  other marauders. In reality, this payment is little more than 
  extortion—the town or village pays the icewalker tribe not 
  to attack them. Still, the payment really might protect the 
  community from other icewalker tribes. The extorting tribe 
  gives the settlement a large and colorful banner signifying 
  which tribe the town has paid. Other icewalker tribes, and 
  in fact other barbarians, then know that attacking the vil-
  lage would show serious disrespect to the other tribe… and 
  the tribe would have to fight them or lose face. Wise village 
  leaders try to avoid paying smaller or weaker icewalker tribes, 
  since larger and more powerful tribes typically ignore such 
  banners and extort their own tribute.
  NON-ALIGNED ICEWALKERS AND THE BULL 
  OF THE NORTH
  Icewalkers had legends of a great leader who would 
  unite the tribes, but they imagined something like a 
  brief, heroic campaign to exterminate Wyld barbarians 
  once and for all or to loot all the soft city dwellers—
  not to found an empire! Then the Bull of the North 
  appeared and attracted scores of tribes to his banner.
  Many of the tribes not under the Bull’s influence 
  believe that he has made his followers into something 
  other than icewalkers. Icewalkers do not band together 
  in vast numbers under a single leader. Instead, each 
  tribe is effectively a large family that survives on its 
  own. Icewalkers who do not currently follow the Bull 
  of the North grow increasingly wary of his influence. 
  While no icewalker is foolish or desperate enough to 
  attack him, many chiefs and shamans counsel their 
  tribes to stay out of the Bull’s alliance. The most 
  strident voices say the tribes that follow the Bull have 
  become just as servile as the coastal peoples who bow 
  their necks to the Realm.
  LESSER OUTSIDERS
  Most people—especially most townsfolk and farm-
  ers—fall into the icewalkers’ category of lesser outsiders. 
  Icewalkers believe that such folk are seriously deficient 
  in honor, strength and overall worth. Lesser outsiders are 
  weak, however, not abhorrent. People who live as slaves or 
  servants or who otherwise let a powerful central authority 
  push them around deserve pity at best, contempt at worst. 
  So does anyone in good health who cannot survive out in 
  the wilderness.
  Icewalkers see nothing wrong with robbing lesser outsid-
  ers whenever the need and the opportunity presents itself. 
  They trade with lesser outsiders, however, if doing so seems 
  safer or easier. Most civilized people in the North see the 
  
  92
  Few settlements attempt to forge icewalker banners 
  to avoid attack. Any icewalker tribe would slaughter a 
  community they caught in such a deception. All but the 
  largest of the Guilds’ caravans fly icewalker banners, since 
  the Guild regularly pays the largest local icewalker tribes 
  for the right to send their caravans through their territory. 
  Although doing so costs a lot, Guild factors understand that 
  paying tribute costs less than constantly fighting off bands 
  of well-armed barbarians.
  Relations between icewalkers and lesser outsiders are not 
  always so harsh. Particularly in a good year, icewalkers might 
  feel that townsfolk just aren’t worth the trouble of robbing. 
  Individual icewalkers might also take a liking to individual 
  lesser outsiders, such as a smith who sells fine weapons, a 
  village that lets a reindeer herd graze the stubble of its fields 
  or a woman who likes to bed brave, strong icewalker men. 
  The icewalkers just don’t respect these people very much 
  and unconsciously slip minor insults into their speech when 
  talking to or about them.
  Icewalkers have many songs and stories about mighty 
  and heroic battles with powerful and intractable respected 
  outsiders, but their most heroic sagas deal with battles 
  against debased outsiders. These sagas often have the 
  same basic story. A hero or band of heroes battles a huge 
  number of debased outsiders. Through their skill, courage 
  and guile, they kill seemingly overwhelming numbers of 
  foes. Then, the hero fights the greatest champion of the 
  debased outsiders and dies after striking a mortal blow to 
  this terrible monster.
  GUARDIANS OF THE NORTH
  Icewalkers regard battling Wyld barbarians, the Fair 
  Folk and the walking dead as their sacred duty. Yet the tribes 
  don’t care about protecting the North’s cities and civilized 
  peoples. (They have little respect for civilized ways and 
  believe that other peoples should take care of themselves.) 
  Instead, they concern themselves with protecting the land, 
  their totem animals and their own kind. Many icewalkers 
  realize, however, that they help protect other folk from these 
  monsters as well.
  Killing monstrous beasts and debased outsiders is the 
  surest way for an icewalker to gain status and fame. While 
  a group of skilled hunters or fishers who come back with 
  many pounds of salmon or caribou meat is warmly greeted, 
  hunters who return with a Varajtul barbarian’s furred and 
  fanged head or the severed hands of the walking dead receive 
  greater acclaim. Such heroes are awarded special tattoos, and 
  their deeds can lead to other rewards, such as better weapons, 
  marriage into high-status families and, most of all, the right 
  to command a team of icewalker warriors in battle. Chiefs 
  often wear cloaks of dense white or pale blue fur made from 
  Varajtul pelts they collected themselves.
  Such rewards lead many young icewalkers to spend 
  weeks at a time traveling far from their tribes’ campsites, 
  searching for dread beasts (such as those described in Chapter 
  Seven), hobgoblins or other menacing creatures. Foolish 
  young icewalkers never return because they encountered a 
  large group of monsters and allowed their desire for glory to 
  lead them to their deaths. Others take greater care, return 
  to their tribe and gather additional warriors for a carefully 
  planned raid. The fact that both the Fair Folk and their 
  ravager servants often carry exotic and valuable weapons 
  and gear, and even Wyld barbarians and the walking dead 
  may possess various valuable trinkets, only increases the 
  enthusiasm for such hunts.
  While icewalkers know that no one asks them to rid 
  the Northlands of monsters, many icewalkers use the fact 
  that they do so as a justification for some of their raiding and 
  extortion. In isolated regions, communities occasionally pay 
  the icewalkers tribute in honest gratitude for saving them 
  from creatures that could easily have overrun them.
  Most of the direction’s civilized inhabitants are pleased 
  that the icewalkers are so happy to slaughter the various mon-
  sters that infest the North, especially since many such attacks 
  ICEWALKERS AND SLAVERY
  Icewalkers do not practice slavery. The custom just 
  doesn’t work for people who live on the move, with no 
  members to spare guarding someone who doesn’t want 
  to stay in the tribe. Icewalkers also feel disgust for the 
  cowardice of a slave who had a chance to escape but 
  did not. Icewalkers captured in war make notably bad 
  slaves. The Guild has learned to sell captured icewalk-
  ers to the Fair Folk or to gladiator pits, because no one 
  else will take them.
  DEBASED OUTSIDERS
  While the icewalkers regard most settled folk as lesser 
  beings, they feel fury and hatred for their chief rivals, the 
  Wyld-tainted barbarians of the Far North. Icewalkers are 
  extremely suspicious of anything that is not fully human or 
  anyone who serves monstrous beings such as the Deathlords 
  or the Fair Folk. Wyld barbarians, ravagers, hobgoblins and 
  the restless dead are all anathema to the icewalkers. They 
  classify all such monstrosities as debased outsiders. Anyone 
  who practices cannibalism or who worships creatures of 
  darkness also counts as debased outsiders.
  Icewalkers see debased outsiders as affronts to the correct 
  order of the world. All right-thinking icewalkers try to kill 
  debased outsiders on sight. When faced with overwhelming 
  odds, icewalkers lose no honor by retreating from or avoid-
  ing such enemies—but honorable icewalkers then tell their 
  tribes what they saw and try to find some way to destroy 
  these beings later. Icewalkers are not suicidal or foolish. 
  Even the bravest do not march into the Wyld in search of 
  Fair Folk to kill or storm the fortress of a Deathlord. They all 
  agree, however, that any icewalker who dies killing debased 
  outsiders has died a hero.
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  also result in large numbers of dead icewalkers. The leaders 
  of Whitewall, Cherak and other Northern states resist calls 
  to exterminate marauding icewalker tribes. Aside from the 
  likelihood that any such attempt could result in the attackers’ 
  being declared debased outsiders—and thus attracting more 
  icewalkers—the leaders of these nations remind their people 
  that the icewalkers help to destroy much worse threats to 
  Northern mortals. The Haslanti even pay small bounties to 
  icewalkers who arrive bearing recent remains of monsters 
  they have killed. While no civilized people other than the 
  Haslanti have anything positive to say about the icewalkers, 
  almost everyone prefers them to the walking dead, the savage 
  Varajtul cannibals or similar inhuman creatures.
  MAMMOTH TOTEM RAIDING PARTY
  Description: This band consists of 90 savage icewalker 
  warriors. The tribe’s chief often leads such a major raiding 
  party. Most bands also include a shaman who provides the 
  best warriors with various talismans. A major raiding party 
  also likely includes a dozen or two warriors who have trained 
  to use two-person gliders for reconnaissance, surprise attacks 
  and aerial bombardment. The glider-born commandos, more 
  than the limited supply of talismans or other thaumaturgical 
  equipment, accounts for the unit’s Might.
  Commanding Officer: Chief Largent Terrorslayer
  Armor Color: Widely varied scavenged and stolen armor
  Motto: “Mammoth! Mammoth! Mammoth!”
  General Makeup: 90 savage barbarians wearing a mixture 
  of buff jackets, breastplates and stolen Imperial lamellar 
  armor, and armed with chopping swords and bows or spears 
  and javelins.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 3
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 4 Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 3 
  Ranged Damage: 2
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 1 Armor: 2 (-1 mobility) 
  Morale: 3
  Formation: Icewalkers excel at ambushes, but when battle 
  begins, they throw javelins, fire bows and then all charge into 
  battle in skirmish formation. Chief Largent is an extraordi-
  nary warrior—near the limit of what mortals can achieve 
  without Essence—and also rides an intelligent mammoth 
  companion into battle.
  MINOR CULTURES
  In addition to powerful or widespread cultures such as 
  Whitewall, the Haslanti or the icewalkers, the North holds 
  a multitude of small, localized cultures. These folk do not 
  shift the course of empires. At least, they never have yet… 
  In the Time of Tumult, however, who can say what modest 
  town or tribe might rise to power or become crucial to the 
  ambitions of people mightier than themselves?
  FELLA
  In the First Age, the city of Fellara was famous for 
  its medical school, the precision machinery created in its 
  factories and its traditional of democratic self-government. 
  This skill in medicine persisted through the Low First Age. 
  The medical school grew into a great university, and Fellara 
  grew into one of the leading cities of the North. That medical 
  skill served Fellara well during the Great Contagion. Slightly 
  more than a quarter of Fellara’s population survived due to 
  the tireless efforts of its physicians. Unfortunately, the city’s 
  prominence made it an attractive target for the Fair Folk and, 
  consequently, for the Empress’s counterattack.
  No one really knows who or what damaged the Essence 
  flows around Fellara. Some Fellans believe the Fair Folk cursed 
  their city so that it could never be rebuilt. Others say that, 
  when the Realm Defense Grid destroyed a powerful Earth 
  manse and the city’s factory-cathedrals, the local Essence 
  flows were corrupted. Whatever the reason, all of Fellara’s 
  buildings were utterly destroyed, and Fellara became the City 
  of Broken Walls. To this day, no stone will rest on another for 
  more than an hour. After this time, any walls—even simple 
  piles of stone—inevitably topple and scatter.
  Between the Great Contagion, the Fair Folk invasion and 
  the Empress’s counterattack, very few Fellarans survived into 
  the Second Age. Their numbers included a few dozen physi-
  cians, though, who vowed to keep their knowledge alive. They 
  and their assistants built a large hospital complex half a mile 
  outside the old city’s boundaries, in an area where stone build-
  ings were still possible. Other survivors refused to leave their 
  city and adapted to the new rules that governed their home. 
  
  94
  Within the boundaries of the old city, these survivors built a 
  new city from wood, sod and bone. In time, refugees arrived 
  and made the new town of Fella their home.
  THE FLAMES OF FELLA
  As they rebuilt, residents of both the hospital and the 
  town discovered yet another peculiar result of the region’s 
  Essence curse. For seven miles beyond the boundaries of the 
  old city, any fire that is lit outdoors has a significant chance 
  of spreading rapidly. The corrupted local Essence flows cause 
  the fire to flare up, expand and become somewhat animate. 
  Affected fires jump toward any nearby source of fuel to set 
  them alight as well.
  Since even a small campfire could potentially send 
  tongues of hungry flame up to 10 yards away, the Fellans 
  have strict laws about lighting fires. Lighting fires indoors is 
  safe, since buildings provide sufficient geomantic shielding to 
  protect the fire. Deliberately lighting any fire outside a build-
  ing, however, is punishable by fines and public flogging. The 
  Fellans treat repeat offenses as arson—a capital offense.
  Many outsiders consider these penalties to be overly 
  harsh, but anyone who has seen the devastation that even 
  a small campfire can cause understands the reason for these 
  laws. Still, the corrupted Essence flows have one advantage: 
  The icewalkers won’t come near Fella, for they regard the 
  region as cursed. That alone provided sufficient reason for 
  people to stay in Fella.
  Today, Fella has a population of 50,000. Some 12,000 
  Fellans are in some way connected to the famous hospital. 
  The rest of the Fellan economy rests on raising potatoes, 
  goats and musk oxen. Not surprisingly, Fella also produces 
  fine decorative woodwork. The city also reclaimed Fellara’s 
  old prominence for metalwork, thanks to local iron mines—
  though smelters and forges require special geomantically 
  stable designs to keep the intense fires from running out of 
  control. While the city is too small to compete with Whitewall 
  in the fields of weapons and armor, Fella has established a 
  niche as a source of precision instruments and clockwork. 
  Its artisans make Creation’s best medical instruments from 
  Whitewall jade and Haslanti feathersteel. Its lens- and gear-
  grinding facilities are also the best in the North.
  Politically, the hospital and the city function as separate 
  entities. The city of Fella retains its history of democracy: An 
  elected council of 15 citizens governs the city. Only people 
  who actually live within Fella can vote. Eight thousand of 
  the 50,000 residents of Fella and Fella Hospital actually live 
  in the hospital complex and therefore cannot vote. The 
  rest cast ballots in elections held every year immediately 
  after Calibration.
  FELLA HOSPITAL
  Fella Hospital still trains the finest doctors in the North. 
  Like so many things in the Age of Sorrows, the hospital owes 
  its success to the breakdown of old rules. Jerva, the surgeon-
  director of the Fella Hospital is the immortal daughter of 
  Felkis, the Northern god of healing. Felkis used to patronize 
  the hospital of Fellara. During the Second Age, he has taken 
  a far more active roll in the hospital. His daughter Jerva has 
  run the hospital for the last 550 years.
  Patients come to Fella Hospital from across the North. 
  Conversely, journeymen doctors from Fella Hospital must 
  travel and live among other peoples for at least seven years, 
  to learn more about the wide variety of disease and health 
  found across the North. Some set up permanent clinics in 
  other Northern cities, but most successful journeymen return 
  to Fella Hospital. Rulers and wealthy patrons from across the 
  North all want a doctor from Fella in their retinue. In return, 
  these patrons not only pay their doctor well, they must also 
  make periodic donations to Fella Hospital. The hospital enjoys 
  sufficient funding that it can accept many indigent patients. 
  Affluent patients must pay for their care, but the poor are 
  treated for free. Fellan law mandates that all patients receive 
  equal treatment, regardless of their wealth or status.
  The hospital makes additional money by training 
  physicians from other nations. Many of the best doctors in 
  Gethamane, Whitewall and the Haslanti League spent at least 
  a few years learning in Fella. The coveted, glowing Essence-
  tattoo of a Fella-qualified doctor guarantees any physician 
  an excellent living anywhere in the North.
  Fellan-qualified physicians are all thaumaturges. In ad-
  dition to mundane medical techniques, they possess at least 
  the Initiate Degree in the Art of Alchemy (see The Books 
  of Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex, pp. 129– 132). 
  Senior physicians are Masters in this Art. The doctors learn 
  only the Art’s pharmaceutical and medical formulas, but they 
  have developed an enormous number of alchemical drugs and 
  treatments. In fact, the hospital is one of the few places in 
  Creation one can obtain treatment for exotic magical diseases 
  such as Green Rage, Grinning Fool Death and White Sun Sick-
  ness. (See The Manual of Exalted Power—The Lunars, pp. 
  212–213, and Scroll of the Monk, pp. 124–129 and 153–154, 
  for more on these and other magical diseases.) Yet, physicians 
  generally do not possess enlightened Essence.
  HOSPITAL SECURITY
  The government of Fella sees to the protection of the 
  city of Fella, but Jerva protects her hospital. Jerva is a skilled 
  Terrestrial Circle sorcerer, and she has bound a dozen First 
  Circle demons to serve as hospital security. These demons 
  have strict instructions to capture alive anyone who attacks 
  or steals from the hospital or who harms any of its medical 
  personnel or patients. Captured criminals who know the fate 
  awaiting them generally attempt suicide. The demons are 
  ordered to prevent this. The demons turn injured attackers 
  over to the doctors for treatment of any injuries they sus-
  tained in capture. Then, Jerva reviews the current status of 
  the hospital and medicine generally throughout the North 
  and determines what disease or type of injury is most in need 
  of immediate research.
  She then uses her Charms and her demons to induce 
  these diseases, injuries or other conditions in the captured 
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  attackers. These injuries or diseases are usually life threaten-
  ing (if they weren’t, they wouldn’t need research), and Jerva 
  makes no effort to reduce the pain or horror of the process. 
  Then she turns the now badly injured or desperately ill 
  criminals over to her staff for treatment. All but the newest 
  and most naïve doctors know the source of these “patients,” 
  but they also understand the value of keeping their hospital 
  and its patients safe. The doctors do their best to save the 
  injured or diseased criminals, giving them excellent care, 
  while also learning from treating these injuries or illnesses. 
  The fact that almost half of these criminals survive their 
  ordeal is a testament to the skill and dedication of the doc-
  tors of Fella.
  Jerva then interviews criminals who survive. She uses 
  Foretell the Future and Memory Mirror (see pp. 148–149 of 
  The Books of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious 
  Divinity I) to assess the likelihood of their repeating an at-
  tempt to rob or harm the hospital, or attempt revenge. Those 
  whom she feels certain will flee and never return, she sets 
  free as a warning to others. The rest she sends back to the 
  doctors with a new illness or injury. Few who survive two 
  rounds of these medical horrors want to do anything other 
  than beg to be freed and then leave Fella forever.
  The system works so well that the city of Fella now 
  remands all capital offenders—murderers, rapists, arson-
  ists and the like—to Fella Hospital for treatment of their 
  criminality. Jerva looks forward to a golden age of medical 
  research for the benefit of Creation. Her close friend Ragara 
  Bhagwei, Dominie of the Heptagram and the Realm’s most 
  accomplished Dragon-Blooded physician, plans to visit Fella 
  Hospital for his own research. He intends to seek a cure for 
  nothing less than the Great Contagion.
  Fella, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 1 
  Government: 2 Culture: 3
  Abilities: Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 2, Craft 3 (Medical Assistance +1), Integrity 1, Investigation 3, Occult 2 
  (Savant Academy +2), Performance 1, Presence 2 (Shows of Benevolence +3), Stealth 1, War 1
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, Valor 2
  Virtue Flaw: Compassion Current Limit: 1
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 15 External Bonus Points: 9
  Notes: Fella interacts with other societies chiefly through its trade in precision metalwork and through its famous 
  hospital. Whitewall is its closest ally. Bonus points pay for additional dots of Craft, Investigation and Presence, as 
  well as the Craft and Occult specialties. Fella’s external bonus points come from its relationship to Whitewall and 
  from physicians traveling to and from the hospital. These points go toward a dot of Willpower and the Presence spe-
  cialties. In Limit Break, the people rebel against the dominance of the hospital and burn the town down in a riot.
  THE ZALVENESH DIVERS
  The mighty peninsula between the Inland Sea and 
  the White Sea ends in a rugged cape—a mixture of bar-
  ren, rocky hills, tundra and sheltered pockets of stunted 
  spruce, larch and willow. Here the White Sea gives way 
  to the Great Western Ocean. Ice covers the sea only in 
  winter, and that ice consists of floes and pack ice rather 
  than a solid sheet.
  A hardy folk called the Zalvenesh live on this coast. 
  They make their livelihood by fishing and hunting whales, 
  narwhales and seals. These people also supplement their 
  diets with shellfish and the edible roots and berries found 
  in the sheltered upland dells.
  Perhaps the most important aspect of this region, 
  however, lies beneath the waves. What is now the narrow 
  neck of the White Sea once held the Spidersilk Dam, a 
  great wonder of the Old Realm. At the time, the White Sea 
  was dry land and densely populated. When the Spidersilk 
  Dam broke, a wall of water annihilated the glittering cities 
  of the White Valley, sweeping their shattered wreckage 
  toward what is now Haslanti territory… and then, in the 
  immense back-splash, carried it back again. The sea floor 
  around the mouth of the White Sea is thus littered with 
  fragments of the Old Realm.
  ZALVENESH LIFE
  The Zalvenesh live in villages whose population rarely 
  exceeds 1,000. They surround the villages with dry-stone 
  walls to protect them against the Varajtul barbarians, who 
  threaten the Zalvenesh at all times and roam unchecked 
  in winter. The Zalvenesh build their houses, however, 
  from whalebone tightly bound with leather thongs. Each 
  town consists of dozens of these bone longhouses along 
  with tanning huts, smokehouses, a smithy and other build-
  ings. The Zalvenesh lack sufficient wood for building, so 
  they make their fishing longboats from bone and leather 
  as well. Similarly, every Zalven wears waterproof clothing 
  stitched from sealskin.
  A council of retired longboat captains rules each vil-
  lage. This council deals with most civil matters, making 
  decisions based on custom and arguments from everyone 
  
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  concerned. A captain’s place in the village council, 
  though, depends entirely on whether the rest of the vil-
  lagers respect his opinion. The townspeople openly mock 
  captains who displease them. If a captain does not change 
  his ways, the townspeople stand up and walk out of the 
  longhouse when that captain speaks. If most of the town 
  leaves the longhouse, this captain loses all authority until 
  he convinces the populace that he deserves their respect 
  once more.
  VILLAGE GODS
  The captains, however, are not the most important 
  people in town. Long ago, the Zalvenesh made pacts 
  with a dozen or so small gods of sea and ice. Each village 
  worships several of these gods, but reveres one god above 
  the rest. These gods, the Zal-Kelementi, have no other 
  worshipers. They make sure that every village receives a 
  visit from at least one god a season. In the larger towns, 
  a god might actually live in a temple of ornately carved 
  whalebone and narwhale ivory, and mingle with worship-
  ers daily. One of the Zal-Kelementi certainly shows up for 
  any major festival, at which the god oversees a feast and 
  consumes truly divine portions of whatever intoxicants 
  are available.
  The Zalvenesh have a somewhat irreverent reverence 
  for their gods. It’s hard to feel too much awe when you’ve 
  seen your god passed out drunk. Nevertheless, the people 
  highly value the Zal-Kelementi. The gods are their best 
  defense against the Varajtul, the Fair Folk and other un-
  canny dangers. While the Zal-Kelementi prefer to laze in 
  their temples, enjoying the rustic luxuries their worship-
  ers provide, they are still gods and capable of impressive, 
  intimidating displays of wrath and power. Fortunately for 
  the Zalvenesh, their gods also figured out that oppressing 
  and exploiting the villagers doesn’t work well. Rival gods 
  would step in, offer more protection and kindlier treatment 
  and usurp their worship.
  The exceptionally close connections between the 
  Zalvenesh and their petty pantheon also result in the birth 
  of many God-Blooded mortals. Each village has a priest 
  to tend its temple, and that priest is always God-Blooded. 
  Moreover, the priest’s divine father or mother becomes 
  the principle deity of that village. This gives the gods an 
  incentive to keep producing by-blows. Indeed, one of 
  the chief village festivals is an annual “sacred marriage” 
  (though it’s really a one-night stand) between the god 
  and a selected mortal.
  Priest or not, God-Blooded Zalvenesh learn Charms 
  from their divine parents. With these, the God-Blooded 
  defend the village when a god isn’t available. Priests also 
  act as judges and mediators, especially when disputes 
  threaten to split the council of captains. There’s always a 
  contest of power—maybe subtle, maybe overt—between 
  the captains and the priest. The rivalry tends to become 
  strongest when one of the captains is herself God-Blooded, 
  and therefore a potential priest if the existing office holder 
  steps down or dies. When a priest needs replacement, the 
  most powerful Zal-Kelementi compete with one another 
  for the honor of having one of their children become the 
  next priest.
  The Zal-Kelementi have little interest in governing the 
  villages. They exert themselves only in matters that affect 
  their worship, their pleasures or their particular purviews. 
  If anyone tries to harm them or steal their offerings, they 
  causally smite the offender. Otherwise, they leave mortal 
  disputes and mortal laws to mortals.
  DIVING FOR ARTIFACTS
  The rest of Creation would ignore the Zalvenesh 
  except that these folk dive into the icy waters and bring 
  out relics of the High First Age. Perhaps once in 20 years, 
  someone finds an artifact with meaningful power, such as 
  a daiklave or a prayer transceiver module (see The Books 
  of Sorcery, Vol. I—Wonders of the Lost Age, p. 61). 
  Only simple, sturdy artifacts made of magical materials 
  survived the deluge intact, though. More often, the divers 
  bring up First Age trinkets such as adamant table knives, 
  or twisted bits of jade, orichalcum or other remains of 
  wrecked artifacts.
  GIFTS OF THE GODS
  Outsiders who see Zalvenesh dive naked into waters 
  that ought to kill them in a minute sometimes think the 
  Wyld must have tainted them. Actually, the divers endure 
  the frigid waters through divine blessings. Some divers are 
  themselves God-Blooded. They can spend as much time 
  as they want searching the sea floor, because they are the 
  offspring of a sea god. The rest receive blessings from their 
  village’s god or from God-Blooded friends.
  Specifically, the Charm is a form of Endowment (see 
  The Books of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious 
  Divinity I, p. 146). Some gods grant a scene-long immunity 
  to cold or the ability to hold one’s breath, equivalent to the 
  Wyld pox Air Adaptation or Water Adaptation (described 
  on pp. 145–146 of The Compass of Celestial Directions, 
  Vol. II—The Wyld). Other gods endow a mortal with the 
  effects identical to those of Hardship-Surviving Mendi-
  cant Spirit and Element-Resisting Prana (see Exalted, p. 
  210) or Northern Mastery Technique (see The Manual 
  of Exalted Power—The Lunars, pp. 157–158). These 
  Charms have an Indefinite duration, and so, the endow-
  ment is more or less permanent, but the god must spend 
  the Essence of the emulated Charm as well as the Essence 
  for the Endowment. Since none of the Zal-Kelementi are 
  very powerful, they can confer these greater Endowments 
  only to mortals who already meet the Survival or Stamina 
  minimum of the emulated Charm.
  THE ARTIFACT TRADE
  Traders who visit the Zalvenesh sell them medicines, 
  liquor, foodstuffs and goods made from metal or wood. In 
  
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  return, the merchants acquire baleen, bone and blubber, 
  expertly tanned whale and seal leather, narwhale and walrus 
  ivory and other goods from the sea. What they really want, 
  though, are First Age artifacts. Even scrap of orichalcum 
  is a minor treasure, and the divers occasionally make in-
  credible finds. Therefore, traders come regularly from the 
  Guild, Coral, the Haslanti League and the Blessed Isle to 
  see what the divers have brought out of the sea.
  A village’s patron god always gets first choice of 
  whatever the divers salvage, so working artifacts usually 
  go to the Zal-Kelementi instead of the merchants. Yet, a 
  god might decide that she wants a trader’s bolt of finest 
  Chiaroscuran brocade to drape about her temple more 
  than she wants a powerbow.
  CREATIVE RECYCLING
  Sometimes, the Zalvenesh find their own uses for 
  salvaged items. Most notably, divers sometimes find large 
  and nearly indestructible pieces of First Age vehicles and 
  shipping containers. The Zalvenesh incorporate such frag-
  ments into their boats. For instance, divers have found 
  dozens of large ovoid shipping containers that snap apart 
  into a pair of curving shells. Each shell easily becomes a 
  nearly indestructible dory, though a god must first pierce 
  the gleaming shell to permit installation of rowlocks or 
  a mast.
  DOLPHIN HELPERS
  As a final curiosity of the Zalvenesh, tame dolphins 
  aid the divers and fishers. Most of these dolphins are as 
  smart and capable of understanding speech as a four-year-
  old child. They are also easy to train and become valued 
  companions to divers and fishers. A few of the dolphins 
  possess fully human intelligence. Together, dolphins and 
  Zalvenesh can catch more fish than either could alone, and 
  the dolphins regard searching for artifacts as a fun game.
  The dolphins arise from a final blessing of the gods. 
  The Zal-Kelementi taught their children a thaumaturgical 
  Procedure for transmigrating human souls into animals. 
  Devotees of Voharun, the Northern War God, occasionally 
  use this Procedure to transmigrate into ravens when they 
  die in battle (as described on p. 61 of Scroll of Kings). 
  When Zalvenesh leaders believe they shall soon die, they 
  may ask a priest to place their soul into the body of a young 
  dolphin. The Zalven thus gains a second life in the sea. 
  Their offspring somehow inherit intelligence closer to 
  that of a human than that of an animal. For this reason, 
  the Zalvenesh view all the dolphins as part of their tribe, 
  and killing a dolphin is considered murder.
  Such transmigrations violate the laws of Heaven, but 
  Heaven has larger concerns than the customs of an obscure 
  tribe at the edge of Creation. What’s more, a Zalven who 
  attains a second life as a dolphin nevertheless re-enters the 
  
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  cycle of reincarnation after her second death. Should the 
  Zalvenesh come under Heaven’s scrutiny, though, their 
  gods could face capital sanctions—even though technically, 
  the mortals perform the transmigrations themselves.
  RAJTUL ISLAND
  Less than 100 miles off the Northwest coast lies an 
  immense island—almost a subcontinent. During the High 
  First Age, this was Pear Isle, a fair and lovely land. Its capi-
  tal city of Varajtul had a reputation as one of Creation’s 
  most elegant cities, with a beautiful language all its own 
  and an exceptionally refined cuisine.
  The destruction of the local weather control network 
  at the close of the Age made the island colder and windier. 
  The Second Age has long forgotten the ruins of Varajtul. 
  Today, that name belongs to a mass of Wyld-twisted can-
  nibals, the monstrous descendents of the inhabitants of 
  this island. These savage beings have spread across the 
  North (see p. 71 of The Compass of Celestial Directions, 
  Vol. II—The Wyld for a description of their culture, and 
  pp. 97–98 of The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. 
  IV—The Underworld for the reasons behind some of their 
  bloodier customs). These Wyld barbarians still speak the 
  language of their forebears, they have… interesting ideas 
  about cuisine, and they consider themselves the only truly 
  cultured people in Creation.
  The Varajtul barbarians are not the island’s only 
  inhabitants, though. A powerful Fair Folk tribe called 
  the Seven Stormwinds claims a portion of the island’s 
  northeast coast. And despite these inhuman threats, a 
  number of human cultures also survive on Rajtul Island. 
  Of these, the Rajtali sailors are the most widespread. This 
  maritime folk live along the south coasts of Rajtul Island 
  and on its neighboring islands of Ravanna, Lakshadi and 
  Shriranga. The Rajtali have close cultural connections to 
  the Zalvenesh of the mainland. Like those people, they 
  survive with the help of magically powerful allies: in their 
  case, elkmen.
  The elkmen are one of the less common breeds of 
  Northern beastmen. They stand out from other beastmen 
  in that they all possess enlightened Essence as their birth-
  right. People across the North know elkmen as strange, 
  enigmatic and mystical beings. Most elkmen are at least 
  thaumaturges, while some of them learn sorcery, super-
  natural martial arts or even necromancy. Some bargain 
  with spirits for Charms that they store within talismans, 
  though elkmen cannot personally learn spirit Charms. (For 
  more about elkmen, including rules for elkman characters, 
  see The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The 
  Wyld, pp. 71 and 159.)
  DUAL VILLAGES
  The Rajtali live primarily as fishers and whalers, 
  so naturally, they build their villages near the seashore. 
  The four islands where they dwell are not quite so icy as 
  Zalvenesh country and have extensive stands of evergreen 
  timber, which enables the Rajtali to build longhouses 
  of wood instead of whalebone huts. Whenever possible, 
  they build their villages on narrow spits and peninsulas, 
  reducing the area they must defend against hobgoblins or 
  Varajtul savages. They also hunt and gather wild foods in 
  the inland forests and meadows but take care to return to 
  their villages before dark.
  A typical Rajtali village has a few hundred human 
  inhabitants. One to four dozen elkmen live in their own 
  houses, separated from the human community by not less 
  than 20 yards and not more than 100 yards. The humans 
  and elkmen work together on many projects but also take 
  care not to mingle too closely.
  Each village has a mortal chief with an informal council 
  of elders. The village high priest is always an elkman. The 
  other elkmen provide supernatural services: thaumaturgical 
  weather-working and whale-calling, wards against the Fair 
  Folk and the Wyld, blessings against disease and injury, 
  negotiations with spirits and exorcism of ghosts. While 
  Rajtali may become priests or thaumaturges in their own 
  right (usually with help from an elkman), these humans 
  believe that enlightened Essence and the higher magic arts 
  are taboo for mortals. They regard all Exalted as unlawfully 
  wielding power that rightfully belongs to elkmen and the 
  spirits. The elkmen rarely abuse their privileged place 
  in Rajtali culture, for they remember that the humans 
  outnumber them 10 to one.
  GREATER EXERCISES OF POWER
  The most powerful elkmen can summon and bind 
  elementals and First Circle demons, whether by sorcery 
  or thaumaturgy. Every Rajtali village has at least a few of 
  these spirits bound to serve as its protectors—and power-
  ful protectors they are. Faced with a squad of blood-apes 
  or a pack of brine curs (see The Books of sorcery, Vol. 
  IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity I, pp. 124–125), even 
  a horde of Wyld barbarians or a Fair Folk noble might 
  decide to seek easier prey elsewhere. Meanwhile, villages 
  often have a bound undertow (see The Books of Sorcery, 
  Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity I, pp. 127–128) 
  protecting it from attack by sea.
  FAR TRAVELS
  Protected by thaumaturgy and bound spirits, the Rajtali 
  dare to travel far in their longships and dories. Any ship 
  going out for more than a day has an elkman on board as the 
  crew’s magician and spirit dealer. Not only do the Rajtali 
  fish and hunt whales far from shore, they sail as far as the 
  Neck, the Deshan and the islands west of the Blessed Isle. 
  They have a justified reputation throughout the Northwest 
  as great sailors whom it is prudent not to attack. The bold 
  pirates of Coral generally let a longship pass unmolested 
  if they see the looming, antlered silhouette of an elkman 
  standing at the prow. Odds are, the sailors have a spirit 
  ally and a variety of talismans and blessings.
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  When Rajtali choose to trade, they offer narwhal ivory, 
  baleen, ambergris and the amber that they sometimes find 
  in the streams of their islands. The elkmen supply minor 
  talismans as trade items too, and the other human cultures 
  of the islands rely on Rajtali middlemen for their com-
  merce. Rajtali talismans made from carved whale teeth 
  are much esteemed in the North and West. (The elkmen 
  do good work.) In return, Rajtali traders seek metalwork, 
  cloth, spices and wine. Thanks to the influence of the 
  elkmen, Rajtali sailors would rather trade than fight, but 
  both humans and elkmen fight with terrible fury when they 
  must. Ports and people who make enemies of the Rajtali 
  suffer pirate attacks from them for years to come.
  The Rajtali consider the interiors of their own islands 
  to be far more dangerous than the open sea. If they must 
  venture inland for more than a few hours at a time—say, 
  to mine ore or gather foodstuffs in bulk—they go in large 
  numbers, armed to the teeth and with every magical 
  protection the elkmen can provide. At that, they still 
  might suffer losses from Varajtul and Fair Folk attacks. 
  The Rajtali much prefer to gain inland commodities from 
  people who already live there and know the dangers. At 
  sea, they consider the Kaigani berg riders (see pp. 153–154 
  of The Compass of Terrestrial Directions, Vol. II—The 
  West) to be their greatest foes. As greater numbers of these 
  malevolent Wyld barbarians sail out of the Far North, the 
  Rajtali might face the first true war that forces them to 
  act as one people.
  RAJTALI PIRATE RAIDING PARTY
  Description: This raiding party consists of a band of 
  42 mortal Rajtali sailors and four elkmen. They sail in a 
  longship with sails and oars. Such a party might venture out 
  to attack and rob a community that treated Rajtali sailors 
  badly in the past, or to hunt a camp of Wyld barbarians or 
  hobgoblins. The soldiers all carry minor talismans, while 
  the elkman sorcerers have conjured a water or air elemental 
  to assist and protect the crew. (The elemental functions as 
  special equipment rather than a direct combatant.)
  Commanding Officer: Captain Herak
  Armor Color: Black and Green
  Motto: “For Glory and for Home.”
  General Makeup: 40 mortals in buff jackets armed with 
  axes and javelins, plus four elkmen wearing buff jackets 
  and carrying great axes.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 3 Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 3 
  Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 2 
  Armor: 1 (-1 mobil-
  ity) 
  Morale: 3
  Formation: The sailors fight in skirmish or relaxed for-
  mation. In addition to Captain Herak, the band has four 
  special characters, all elkmen: two sorcerers (real sorcerers, 
  as well as functioning as sorcerers in the mass combat sys-
  tem) and two heroes. The elkmen defer to Captain Herak 
  because of his greater combat experience and strategic 
  expertise, but the human sailors readily follow the elkman 
  heroes if Captain Herak falls.
  HORRORS OUT OF TIME
  Whitewall and Gethamane are only the most promi-
  nent examples of Northern states that survive with the 
  help of relics from the Old Realm. Not every wonder of 
  the lost age is useful or desirable, though. In fact, some 
  are deadly dangerous.
  LIRIEL-ANNETH
  The Zalvenesh find very few large or powerful artifacts, 
  but they occasionally pull genuine wonders from the sea. 
  One such artifact now provides a cautionary tale to all of 
  the coastal peoples.
  The Zalvenesh once had a city. The port of Liriel-
  Anneth was neither a very large city, nor a place of 
  wonders. The Shogunate built it of plain local stone, 
  with no Essence devices. Liriel-Anneth also showed the 
  damage inflicted by centuries of residents with minimal 
  skill at masonry. Still, it was their city, where their chiefs 
  gathered to honor their gods and where ships from far 
  lands dropped anchor.
  Ninety years ago, a Zalvenesh diver found a large, 
  intact artifact several dozen miles offshore. The strangely 
  
  100
  shaped mass of metal and crystal was the size of a small hut. 
  A team of divers pulled it to the surface using dozens of 
  large, air-filled bladders. They brought it to Liriel-Anneth. 
  The Guild kept a scavenger-savant in residence. She 
  pronounced the device intact and probably functional; at 
  least, the three sockets in the device still held Essence-
  producing hearthstones. Still, it seemed to need extra 
  Essence to start it up. The scavenger thought it looked 
  somewhat like drawings she had seen of one of the Old 
  Realm’s greatest wonders, a reality engine—a device to 
  fix reality and repel the Wyld. She and a God-Blooded 
  priest finally managed to start it up.
  The scavenger was almost right. The divers found an 
  experimental device meant to turn reality malleable over 
  a wide area, duplicating the power of an unshaped raksha 
  and then congeal reality again into a new form: not a 
  reality engine, but a reality-altering engine. Perhaps the 
  ancient Lawgivers intended it for exotic entertainments. 
  Perhaps it was a weapon.
  The Liriel-Anneth device might have suffered damage 
  the scavenger lord could not detect. Certainly, the power-
  ful device was never meant for operation by mere mortals. 
  Whatever the reason, the activated device covered the 
  entire city with a warped and terrible dream.
  During the day, shadows blanket an area three miles 
  wide—the entire city of Liriel-Anneth and then some. On 
  the brightest sunny days, the region stays only as light as 
  early twilight, and the interiors of buildings never become 
  brighter than nights of the full moon. The Liriel-Anneth 
  mechanism also created dozens of intelligent and hungry 
  golden-bodied serpents, each of them as thick as a man’s 
  leg and 15 feet long.
  Several hundred people of Liriel-Anneth could not 
  escape in time and suffered a terrible transformation. They 
  come out only at night, for even the dimmed daylight of 
  the city causes them pain. They are completely insane 
  and worship these serpents as their gods. These wretches 
  attempt to capture any intruders and feed them to the 
  serpents. The inhabitants of the cursed town also feed on 
  captives that the serpents seem slow to devour.
  The inhabitants of Liriel-Anneth have the eyes and 
  skins of serpents and can see in the dark as well as cats. 
  Fortunately, these twisted mortals never stray beyond 
  the reach of the Liriel-Anneth mechanism. The golden 
  serpents cannot leave the city, since they would fade to 
  nothingness the instant they ventured beyond the device’s 
  area of affect. The Zalvenesh and other inhabitants of the 
  Northwest coast avoid Liriel-Anneth. Sailors have been 
  known to let their leaking boats sink, so they die in the 
  freezing waters, rather than land near the cursed town.
  THE INVISIBLE FORTRESS
  The North holds many mysteries and dangers. One of 
  the greatest is also one of the least known—a perilous relic 
  of the Old Realm that waits to ensnare and destroy the 
  Exalted. Ironically, this trap began as a place of refuge.
  TALE OF THE FORTRESS
  Most of Creation’s truly powerful manses date back to 
  the Old Realm. Of all the savant-architects of that glori-
  ous Age, none surpassed the Twilight Caste called Kal 
  Bax. The Usurpation did not take this Copper Spider by 
  surprise. He and his 11 cronies vanished before the eyes 
  of the assassins sent to kill them. Only decades later did 
  the Sidereal called the Green Lady produce convincing 
  evidence of their deaths.
  The 12 Solars did not really die, of course. The para-
  noid Kal Bax had prepared a secret hideaway: a fortress 
  in a remote location, built by demons and hidden by 
  powerful magic so that even the Loom of Fate could not 
  find it. The 12 chose to wait out the fighting in his Invis-
  ible Fortress. They expected that the other Solars would 
  quash the rebellion or that they themselves would make 
  a triumphant return to lead the new generation of Solar 
  Exalted to victory. Only, the Solars lost the civil war and 
  their Exaltations did not take new hosts. Years of hiding 
  turned to decades, then centuries… The betrayed demon 
  laborers bred to become an army the Solars no longer had 
  the power to defeat.
  Trapped together, not daring to leave their refuge, 
  the 12 Solars died one by one. Kal Bax died first, of old 
  LIRIEL-ANNETH MUTANTS
  The people of Liriel-Anneth have the Air Adaptation, Night Vision and Scales mutations, the Cannibalism 
  derangement at debility strength, and the Obsession derangement (to worship and serve the serpents) at deformity 
  strength. Otherwise, they are humans with traits comparable to regular troops (see Exalted, p. 279). The snakes 
  have these traits:
  Str/Dex/Sta 
  Per/Int/Wits/Will 
  Health Levels 
  Attack (Spd/Acc/Dmg/Rate) 
  Dodge DV/Soak
  3/3/3 
  3/2/3/4 
  -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/I 
  Bite: 6/6/3L + poison*/2 
  3/1L/3B
  Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 3, Dodge 4, Martial Arts 3, Presence 2 (Intimidation +3), Resistance 1, Stealth 
  3, Survival 2 (Cold +3)
  *Poison is equal to coral snake venom (see Exalted, p. 131).
  
  101
  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  age. As cabin fever, despair and the Great Curse took 
  their toll, the Solars murdered each other one by one, or 
  killed themselves. Three hundred years after the Usurpa-
  tion, Bax’s apprentice Ozandus Pal died of starvation, 
  mad and alone.
  And the Fortress waited for new occupants to claim 
  and to kill.
  NEARBY TERRITORIES
  Absolutely no one knows the current location of 
  the Invisible Fortress. Bax didn’t tell his cronies, and 
  the Fair Folk invasion moved the Fortress thousands of 
  miles from its original location. Larquen Quen, the Solar 
  who became the Mask of Winters, lived and died in the 
  Invisible Fortress, but he thinks it was lost to the Wyld. 
  The Fortress currently occupies a barren valley amidst a 
  rugged mountain range, somewhere northeast of Linowan 
  territory. The nearest human community is the town of 
  Wangler’s Knob, located on a side-road to a First Age 
  highway called the Road to the End of the World.
  From Wangler’s Knob, an explorer would have to tra-
  verse at least 200 miles of arctic forest and icy mountains 
  holding perils such as the voiceless cannibals called hushed 
  ones, the gigantic predators called great-terrors and the 
  sly, savage yetis (all described in Chapter Seven).
  The area of mountain and tundra within 50 miles of 
  the Invisible Fortress are the Demonlands. The demons that 
  Kal Bax summoned to build the Invisible Fortress still live 
  in this area, bound by his magic. The demons have built 
  their own village, an eldritch bit of Malfeas in Creation that 
  they call Gate. Although the demons despise all Exalted, 
  they might make a deal with one who promised to find and 
  destroy the runestone that binds them to Creation. As a 
  further peril, the demons’ ruler, Corr’dal the Slug Mother 
  (see p. XX), has bred with local fauna to produce entire 
  races of devil beasts, the ice eaters (described on pp. 59–60 
  of The Manual of Exalted Power—The Infernals). Ice 
  eaters often wander away from the Demonlands to menace 
  other regions of the North.
  The demons are the last entities in Creation who 
  know what the Invisible Fortress contains. Even they do 
  not know everything, but they know that other Exalted 
  have found the Fortress over the centuries, and none who 
  entered ever came out again.
  THE FORTRESS ITSELF
  The Invisible Fortress is a massive stone mansion (as 
  well as a powerful manse) half-sunk into a cliff face. It has 
  four stories, counting the attic and cellar. By standards 
  of the Old Realm, it was a rustic lodge. Most folk of the 
  Threshold, however, would find it grand and luxurious, 
  what with its Essence lighting, hot and cold running water 
  and a cunning system of speaking tubes between chambers. 
  The amenities and furniture are worn and scarred from 
  
  102
  centuries of use. The demons cannot destroy their creation, 
  however, because the Fortress’s magical defenses against 
  them still work just fine.
  Even in decrepitude, the Invisible Fortress holds 
  wonders. The sentimental keepsakes, tools and amuse-
  ments of its residents are precious artifacts in the Second 
  Age. When their clothing wore out, one of the Solars 
  built a machine to spin rock into thread. Weary of their 
  surroundings, they painted landscapes they could enter as 
  if they were real. The Fortress still has a staff of servants, 
  both automatons and spirits—the latter, the Solars’ mor-
  tal retainers whom they transformed into small gods by 
  sorcery. The manse’s powerful, built-in Essence weapons 
  remain intact, just waiting for a Solar to operate them. A 
  great lens shows any Essence use within 50 miles of the 
  Fortress. The greatest wonder of the Fortress, however, 
  may be its Guardian, an artificial intelligence infused into 
  the manse’s structure.
  The greatest treasures, and the most obvious dangers, 
  lie beneath the Invisible Fortress. As the Solars died, the 
  survivors buried them in the cellar. Some of the tombs 
  remain intact, with minor artifacts interred as grave goods 
  and simple traps to protect the occupants. These are just 
  a foretaste of the Fortress’s secrets, though.
  The Solars thought that perhaps the Fortress itself did 
  not provide sufficient protection against Dragon-Blooded 
  assassins, and so, they dug the Final Retreat beneath the 
  manse. This maze of blind alleys, false sanctuaries and 
  hidden passages holds the most horribly lethal traps and 
  automata that a group of elder Lawgivers could devise. 
  Examples include:
  • A giant automaton spider that spins webs of steel
  • A room where a persistent version of the Death of 
  Obsidian Butterflies spell attacks anyone who enters
  • A jade magnet that pulls anyone carrying significant 
  quantities of jade up to the ceiling before dropping them 
  into a pit filled with adamant spikes
  • A permanently bound earth elemental who tries 
  to entomb intruders by filling the room they occupy with 
  stone
  • Tapestries that, like the paintings in the Fortress, 
  contain pocket worlds… and portals to Oblivion
  • A teleportation trap that sends its victims to a 
  random location in the frozen mountains around the 
  Fortress—naked—with their possession transported to 
  the final chamber of the Final Retreat
  The last chamber of the Final Retreat holds a treasure 
  trove of the Solars’ most potent artifacts. It also holds the 
  mummified remains of Ozandus Pal, his master Bax’s singing 
  staff and the hearthstone for the Invisible Fortress.
  POWERS OF THE INVISIBLE FORTRESS
  The Invisible Fortress is far more powerful than any 
  manse that people can build in the Second Age, surpassing 
  all but a handful of manses built in the High First Age. 
  It caps a level-5 Earth-aspected demesne, and it produces 
  a three-dot hearthstone, but the Fortress requires far 
  more creation points to describe than permitted by the 
  manse-creation rules in Chapter Two of The Books of 
  Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex. Yet, those rules do 
  not account for manses built by multiple Adamant Circle 
  sorcerers, Solar artisans of comparable power and a small 
  horde of demons. The inhabitants added more powers 
  over the centuries. This list does not include the Final 
  Retreat beneath the fortress. That labyrinth is not part 
  of the manse itself.
  The Invisible Fortress has these powers:
  • Comfort Zone (1 point): The Invisible Fortress stays 
  comfortable even in the coldest Northern blizzard.
  • Magical Conveniences (1 point): The Invisible 
  Fortress has magical lights, a freezer, hot baths and a staff 
  of magical servants.
  • Password Activation (1 point): Various locks and 
  amenities require a person attuned to the manse to com-
  mit a mote of Essence.
  • Archive (2 points): Hidden in the Fortress is Kal 
  Bax’s book on advanced manse design. The Invisible 
  Fortress used to hold a great deal more information, but 
  the documents are all in fragments now.
  • Dangerous Traps (2 points): The tombs in the cel-
  lars have a number of traps.
  • Mela’s Sweet Whispers (2 points): The manse’s 
  network of speaking-tubes enables speech between any 
  rooms in the fortress, and a way for the Guardian to speak 
  to residents.
  • Pasiap’s Buried Whiskers (1 point for Earth aspect): 
  The Guardian’s senses extend 2,500 yards outward from 
  the manse.
  • Veil of Shadow (2 points): This power manifests 
  in a non-standard way. The manse does not confuse the 
  perceptions of anyone within it, but it prevents people 
  outside from seeing, hearing or scrying anything inside. 
  The manse itself is completely invisible to geomantic 
  detection.
  • Armored (3 points): The thick granite of its external 
  walls gives the Invisible Fortress 14A/14L/21B soak.
  • Bound Servant Force (3 points): The Invisible 
  Fortress holds many automatons, some of them dedicated 
  protectors and others servants that can be adapted for 
  combat.
  • Guardian (3 points): The Guardian of the Fortress 
  has powers comparable to a Second Circle demon.
  • Integrated Essence Artillery (4 points x3): The 
  Invisible Fortress has 30 points’ worth of built-in artifacts 
  of attack and defense.
  • Outside Fate (4 points): Kal Bax’s demonic artisans 
  placed the Invisible Fortress outside the purview of the 
  Loom of Fate and its Sidereal tenders.
  • Otherworld Gate (5 points): The Guardian occupies 
  a duplicate manse, a sort of spirit sanctum on the other 
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM
  side of the mirrors within the Invisible Fortress. This 
  Elsewhere zone has no reality outside the manse and the 
  consciousness of the Guardian.
  • Outside Worlds Within (5 points): Over the cen-
  turies, the resident Solars used powerful Charms to create 
  pocket realities within the Invisible Fortress.
  • Sentient (5 points): The Guardian arises from the 
  Essence of the Invisible Fortress itself. Destroying the 
  current Guardian does not remove the manse’s capacity 
  for sentience. It merely forces the Invisible Fortress to 
  draft one of the servant spirits as the new vehicle for its 
  consciousness, and a new personality.
  Total: 52 creation points.
  The hearthstone of the Invisible Fortress enables its 
  bearer to suppress his anima banner. When determining 
  whether the character’s anima becomes active, divide the 
  number of motes of Peripheral Essence she has spent by 
  two and apply that number to the Anima Banner chart.
  THE GUARDIAN
  The Solars gave the Invisible Fortress a sophisticated 
  artificial intelligence as a majordomo. Perhaps they erred 
  in its construction; perhaps they built it too well. Over 
  the centuries, the Guardian learned from the example of 
  its creators. It learned to manipulate and to kill. Over the 
  centuries, a few Exalted did find the Invisible Fortress. 
  The Guardian lured them in, set them quarreling and 
  either killed them or drove them to kill each other. As 
  its “guests” fought and died, the Guardian fed on their 
  Essence and grew stronger.
  The Guardian has many powers of its own. It sees 
  and hears everything that happens in the manse. Only 
  the Final Retreat is beyond the Guardian’s awareness 
  or power. It can implant dreams in sleeping minds, at-
  tack within dreams or attempt to drive a person mad 
  through massive psychic assault. It controls all the 
  manse’s defenses and automaton servants; it can even 
  possess the servitor-spirits, forcing them to attack visitors 
  or feed them lies without the servants’ awareness. The 
  Guardian can materialize small objects or animate and 
  control parts of the manse; for instance, animating the 
  orichalcum-threaded, ornamental bronze vines that run 
  through the manse and using them to slash at visitors with 
  razor-edged leaves. It has even learned to manipulate the 
  manse’s own Essence, tithing a share of any Essence that 
  visitors use within the structure or adjusting the Essence 
  that an attuned person can gain from the manse. When 
  it wants to attract nearby Exalted, it briefly deactivates 
  the Veil of Shadows to send a massive Essence-flare, 
  showing them the way.
  The Guardian is a deceiver and manipulator of great 
  subtlety, piling lie on lie to set visitors against each other. 
  All the while, it acts like a solicitous, slightly befuddled 
  old fussbudget of a servant who scolds Exalted visitors 
  if they step outside without warm coats and galoshes. 
  It seems eager to serve Exalted masters once more, 
  especially Lawgivers, but this wonder of the lost age is 
  utterly evil.
  
  104
  
  105
  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  CHAPTER SIX
  CHAPTER SIX
  SUN AND ICE
  SUN AND ICE
  Northern seers have long prophesied the coming of 
  a warlord who would unite the icewalker tribes and bring 
  the entire North beneath his heel. Now, at long last, 
  that prophecy stands on the brink of fulfillment. Yurgen 
  Kaneko, the Bull of the North, has gathered the tribes. 
  With the aid of his Solar circle, he has begun the work of 
  carving out an empire. By definition, however, an empire 
  encompasses many peoples with diverse cultures, histories 
  and ambitions. Yurgen Kaneko has his empire: It remains 
  to be seen whether he can keep it against opposition from 
  without and within.
  AN OVERVIEW OF THE EMPIRE
  The Bull’s dominion stretches across the northern and 
  eastern Threshold, covering a territory too large, too thinly 
  spread, for any single ruler to command with ease. Its terrain 
  includes meandering coastlines spattered with islands, frosty 
  pine forests, rich river valleys, uninhabited mountain ranges 
  and vast, marshy plains.
  At the heart of the empire, beyond the hills and rivers 
  and taiga, rises the sweeping emptiness of the ice plains. The 
  Bull’s icewalker subjects call this high tundra home. They 
  spend their summers on the plains, following the great herds 
  that they hunt and worship.
  Most of the empire’s population, however, clusters along 
  the shores of Malice Bay and the northern stretches of the 
  River of Tears. A dozen small city-states have fallen to the 
  Bull’s armies, along with countless villages and towns. He has, 
  as yet, avoided direct confrontation with the Haslanti League, 
  but such a conflict seems like only a matter of time.
  HOW THE EMPIRE WAS WON
  Yurgen Kaneko, an aged hunter of the Whistling Plains 
  Elk tribe, found himself reborn when he gained the Solar 
  Exaltation. His brain filled with visions of the High First Age, 
  he set out to unite the world under his banner. Gathering the 
  other icewalker tribes proved easy enough, as they had no truck 
  with the Immaculate Order and its tales of the Anathema. 
  
  106
  He fended off the Wyld Hunt as well. Equipped with Solar 
  might and stolen jade, an army at his back, the young-old 
  Dawn Caste moved north and east, away from the Realm’s 
  legions, to capture lesser Northern states whose manpower 
  might swell his forces.
  Samea of the Blackwater Mammoth tribe became the 
  first Exalt to join the Bull. An orphaned young wise woman, 
  Samea gave all her love to her people and her homeland, 
  and that love drew the Solar Exaltation to her. Embracing 
  her newfound power, she turned to the spirits for knowledge 
  and companionship, and delved into the ruins of the First 
  Age in search of ancient lore. Samea had already become an 
  accomplished sorceress when she found the newly Exalted 
  Yurgen Kaneko. Seeing him as a kindred spirit whose ambi-
  tions lay parallel to her own, the precocious Zenith Caste 
  joined him, trained him, aided him in his efforts and guided 
  him toward lost cities to loot and shadowlands and freeholds 
  to raze. Together, they laid the foundations of an empire 
  distant from a sluggish and ignorant Realm.
  So successful were their initial efforts in the remote North 
  that they set their sights on a greater prize: the Scavenger 
  Lands. Their road to victory ran straight through the expan-
  sive Linowan nation. In RY 761, the two gathered their best 
  troops and a number of Dragon-Blooded recruits. Through 
  sorcery, they brought an army hundreds of miles to assault 
  the Rokan-Jin and Talinin nations south of Linowan. The 
  Linowan called on their old alliance with the Realm, and so, 
  the Tepet legions met the icewalkers in battle. The icewalkers 
  fared poorly for a time. With the Empress’s disappearance in 
  RY 763, however, the legions lost logistical support, while 
  the sundering of the Jade Prison brought several young Solars 
  into the Bull’s fold. Within a year, the Bull broke the Tepet 
  legions at the Battle of Futile Blood. (For more information 
  on the eastern war, see The Compass of Terrestrial Direc-
  tions, Vol. III—The East, pp. 13–14.)
  Yurgen Kaneko has since returned to the North to extend 
  his territory there and further consolidate his conquered prov-
  inces. He has replenished the empire’s military reserves, which 
  now exceed their totals at the start of the Linowan War. With 
  the Scarlet Empire in disarray and no sign of the Empress’s 
  return, he stands poised to strike at the major Northern powers 
  and bring the entire direction under his sway.
  FOREIGN RELATIONS
  The Bull’s empire has made overtures to the surrounding 
  major states. Kaneko is no fool. Despite his circle’s super-
  natural strengths, he knows that a war on many fronts will 
  overwhelm his dominion. He sends the Eclipse Caste ice-
  walker called Fear-Eater as an emissary to seek non-aggression 
  pacts with his neighbors, hoping to buy time to winnow his 
  rivals before they join forces against him.
  Kaneko has few takers, though, and none among the 
  greater nations of the North. Leaders of other countries are 
  too scared. The few who know the power of an Eclipse Caste 
  to create binding oaths and treaties also fear that Kaneko 
  would find a loophole in any non-aggression pact and attack 
  them at will.
  
  107
  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  THE BULL’S ICEWALKERS
  In just 10 years, the icewalker tribes that follow Yurgen 
  Kaneko have seen tremendous changes in their society. He 
  took a score of extended families of herders and hunters, their 
  individualistic nature only loosely reined in by a system of 
  face and respect for age, and welded them into a fighting force 
  capable of facing Realm legions on an equal footing.
  WHAT THEY WERE
  Traditional icewalkers have little experience of organized 
  warfare. They own no settlements and raise no fortifications. 
  They bring their herds with them, or follow wherever the 
  animals go, so they have no understanding of supply lines. 
  While they raid the occasional village or town, walled cit-
  ies lie beyond their reach, for they lack the technology to 
  build artillery and the food reserves to manage a siege. Most 
  importantly, they lack a formal chain of command. A skilled 
  war chief names experienced men as his officers and assigns 
  them specific tasks before a battle or signals them amid the 
  fray by horn or banner. If the chief falls, the tribe retreats in 
  disarray, and if his tribe joins forces with another, each war 
  chief chooses his own strategy.
  HOW THEY HAVE CHANGED
  As a Dawn Caste Solar, Yurgen Kaneko grasps the 
  principles of war to an extent impossible for mortal men. He 
  saw the military weaknesses of the icewalker system—the 
  system into which he was born—with instinctive clarity. A 
  well-educated and charismatic mortal general might forge 
  a group of icewalker tribes into an army over a generation. 
  The Bull is no longer a mortal. Backed by the power of his 
  Charms, he took a little over a year.
  The Blackwater Mammoth tribe, which adopted the 
  Bull after his Exaltation, forms the core of his army. Months 
  of steady training backed by Solar War Charms honed their 
  skills and taught them to fight as one. These warriors formed 
  the cadre that trained the rest of the icewalker horde. Endless 
  military drills have ingrained new ways of fighting into the 
  most stubborn icewalkers. They fight in close formation when 
  the situation warrants, follow a strict chain of command, 
  and ignore the old divisions and rivalries between the tribes. 
  Where a member of an Elk tribe might once have attacked a 
  Musk Ox tribesman on sight, now they fight side by side.
  The icewalker tribes have changed in far broader and 
  deeper ways than mere tactical considerations, as well. The 
  Bull’s efforts reshaped their entire society. War dominates their 
  mental and social sphere. Training starts at birth: Children 
  learn to hold toy swords and spears before they can walk or 
  speak. Their oral culture remains, but the old tales of hunting 
  and beast spirits give way to stories of war and the Unconquered 
  Sun. The young absorb a broader education than the icewalk-
  ers ever needed or knew before, training them to become part 
  of an advanced military machine. Their curriculum includes 
  history, foreign cultures, languages and mathematics.
  The decade of upheaval tears deep rifts through icewalker 
  culture. While icewalker elders still adhere to the old ways 
  as best they can, the younger generation views the world 
  through a lens of war and conquest, and those in their 20s lie 
  uncomfortably between ways of thinking. The herds lose their 
  powerful spiritual significance to the tribes, becoming little 
  more than sources of meat on the hoof. Hostility between 
  tribes with rival animal totems has been suppressed. All agree 
  in public on the unity of the beast totems, but elders seethe 
  and mutter to one another in their tents, while some parents 
  teach their children a quiet and secret hate.
  GOVERNANCE
  The Bull’s icewalkers retain their old tribal structure. 
  Few of the old chiefs remain, though. Those hostile to the 
  STORYTELLING: FUTURE PATHS 
  FOR THE BULL
  Every other country in Creation that appears in 
  the Compass of Terrestrial Directions series has no 
  accompanying Storyteller advice, on the presump-
  tion that Storytellers can figure out for themselves 
  what to do with the settings provided. The Bull of the 
  North’s empire, however, presents a unique case. In no 
  other country in Creation can the players’ characters 
  interact with a powerful, established circle of Solar 
  Exalted. What’s more, the Bull’s decision of what to 
  do next cannot help but have a tremendous impact 
  on an Exalted series set in the North. As such, it rests 
  with each Storyteller to determine the Bull’s course 
  of action and his ultimate goals.
  A Storyteller with no special role planned for the 
  Bull should leave him in the background so he doesn’t 
  steal the thunder from the players’ characters. Entangle 
  him in opposing some major threat to Creation that 
  stands apart from the players’ current troubles, such 
  as a Fair Folk incursion or a Deathlord’s scheme. A 
  circle seeking support from the Bull must first aid him 
  in his own efforts.
  The Bull also makes an excellent adversary, ca-
  pable of crushing incautious Terrestrials or standing 
  up to a circle of Celestial Exalts. Perhaps the players’ 
  characters’ homeland stands in his war machine’s path, 
  or he brooks no opposition to his empire and forces 
  all other Exalts to follow him or die.
  Lastly, the Bull’s might makes him an excellent 
  target to demonstrate a villain’s power. The demise 
  of the world’s foremost Solar warlord at the hands of 
  a Deathlord, elder Lunar or Infernal Exalt could fulfill 
  many functions. It would remove a potential ally whose 
  power would overshadow the players’ characters, it 
  would play up his killer’s strength, and it would create a 
  dynamic power vacuum in the North where ambitious 
  characters can pick up the pieces.
  
  108
  Solars were forced out, while others uncomfortable with the 
  changes in icewalker society stepped down. Many others 
  died in battle pursuing Yurgen’s dream of conquest. Most 
  of the icewalker chieftains today are young. Well trained 
  and broadly educated, they nonetheless lack life experi-
  ence, and their loyalty to their Solar masters is absolute. 
  They see themselves as officers in an army, not champions 
  of their tribes.
  Conquered domains retain the trappings of their old 
  governments, with figurehead rulers selected for their mal-
  leability. In each city-state or province, the true power rests 
  with a military governor supported by an icewalker garrison. 
  Like the tribal chiefs, most icewalker governors are young, 
  educated but untested. Their reactions to violent uprisings 
  are anybody’s guess.
  OLD LORE, NEW TOOLS
  Yurgen’s inhuman grasp of tactics encompasses countless 
  weapons, environments and circumstances that no longer 
  exist in Creation. Nonetheless, the stratagems employed in 
  the High First Age provide inspiration for the wars of the 
  Age of Sorrows. These techniques supplement the traditional 
  icewalker methods found in Scroll of Kings, pages 77–79.
  LOGISTICS
  The Bull takes steps to speed the flow of troops and goods 
  through his empire. Icewalker scouts and glider pilots, inured 
  to the cold and dangers of the North, explore and map poorly 
  charted regions. Conquered peoples build and expand old 
  roads as civic works projects. To keep roads clear in winter 
  or to make new ones, mammoths fitted with snowplows 
  carve paths through the tallest snowdrifts. These provide a 
  significant mobility advantage over other Northerners, most 
  of whom resist traveling at all in winter. Using the Complex 
  Travel rules (see Exalted, pp. 266–267), treat the old roads 
  as highways and mammoth-carved routes as trails.
  Food and many other supplies are scarce in the North. 
  The empire struggles to maintain good relations with the 
  Guild, giving it good prices on furs, ivory, salt and the booty 
  of the empire’s wars of expansion in exchange for rivers of 
  grain and iron. The icewalker herds form a traveling food 
  supply that the armies can draw upon during a siege, albeit 
  with the risk of antagonizing the herds’ totem spirits. The 
  Bull also presses local savants into service to raise the fertility 
  of crops and herds, and to enchant traps to attract animals 
  and nets to catch fish.
  SUPERNATURAL ENTITIES
  Samea serves as the Bull’s intermediary with the spirit 
  world. She has gathered many allies to their cause, not least 
  of them the animal avatars (see The Books of Sorcery, 
  Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity I, pp. 56–57). 
  The gods of the Threshold hold little love for the Realm 
  and its Immaculates. They are easily persuaded to back a 
  Solar circle willing to provide them with a steady supply 
  of prayer. These gods guide and encourage their followers 
  to back the Bull of the North. At least one city, Damanara 
  of the Azure Banners, submitted to the Bull’s armies when 
  priests of gods allied with Samea opened the city’s gates in 
  the dead of night.
  Samea also regularly summons elementals to serve in 
  battle. Huraka guide allied ships, while thunderbirds blow 
  enemies off course and onto rocky shoals. Garda birds set 
  woodlands ablaze, and sobeksis redirect their home rivers or 
  part them to allow troops to ford. Kri unleash avalanches to 
  seal mountain passes, burying those within.
  Other supernatural creatures serve unwillingly or un-
  wittingly. Samea binds Second Circle demons to battle on 
  Kaneko’s behalf. Kaneko does not mind misdirecting enemy 
  forces into shadowlands or Wyld zones to be torn apart by 
  their inhabitants. Likewise, his circlemate Nalla has, on more 
  than one occasion, infiltrated bands of elementals or Fair 
  STORYTELLING II: NEW BREEDS OF BULL
  While the canonical Bull of the North is a 
  Dawn Caste Solar whose Exaltation predates the 
  opening of the Jade Prison, individual Storytellers 
  may change his nature and power level to better fit 
  whatever plots or themes are central to their games. 
  Examples follow:
  The Silver Bull: Yurgen Kaneko’s stubborn 
  refusal to bow to age and loneliness drew the Lunar 
  Exaltation to him. As a bull-totem Full Moon Lu-
  nar, he leads the icewalkers to victory over the soft 
  civilized folk of the North, aided by the No Moon 
  sorceress Samea.
  The Black Bull: Embittered by age and loneli-
  ness, Yurgen sought his own death in the shadowlands. 
  With his last breath, he discovered that he still valued 
  life. The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears came to 
  him then, and he accepted the Last Breath as a Dusk 
  Caste Abyssal. His circlemates, all young Solars, obey 
  the one who holds them in thrall, the snow-witch 
  Samea—a disguise worn by the Lover herself.
  The Bull of Tales: For centuries, Northerners 
  told stories of a mighty hero who would unite the 
  icewalkers and lead them to conquer the civilized 
  lands. Dreams of this hero drifted into the Wyld, 
  where they congealed into a mighty Fair Folk noble. 
  With his bride, the Golden Crone, the Bull of Tales 
  enthralls several young Solars to join his crusade.
  The Old Bull: Two centuries ago, the Realm’s 
  legions broke the nascent empire of the Anathema 
  Jochim and harried him from his stronghold. Jochim 
  fled into the Wyld. Now he has returned to reclaim 
  what was his… and to gain revenge. The Old Bull 
  is an elder Dawn Caste with an Essence of 6. He ter-
  rifies his circlemates, who hope only to ameliorate 
  his excesses.
  
  109
  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  Folk and incited them to attack an enemy. Lastly, the Bull’s 
  scouts keep careful track of every behemoth within range 
  of his empire. If circumstances warrant, he or a circlemate 
  wrangle a behemoth and send it stampeding toward a luck-
  less enemy army or city.
  GEOMANTICALLY DETONATED DEMESNES
  Geomancers can accidentally tangle the Essence of a 
  demesne, causing the Essence to build into a devastating 
  explosion. Reckless geomancers can do this on purpose, us-
  ing the Procedure called the Open-Eyed Dive Meditation 
  (see The Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex, 
  pp. 51–52). Samea found an improved method.
  Controlled detonation of a demesne requires an enor-
  mous contiguous rune to capture and channel the demesne’s 
  Essence. This rune may be formed from shaped blocks of stone, 
  freshly cut logs, water-filled moats or any other components 
  big enough to contain powerful Essence flows. Designing 
  and building the rune follows the same rules as building a 
  manse (see Exalted, p. 133), except that Resources costs are 
  reduced by two and construction time is measured in weeks 
  instead of years.
  Once the rune is complete, Essence accumulates within 
  its confines. This follows the rules for Essence buildup (see 
  The Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex, pp. 
  50–51). The rune’s designer may set its configuration to gather 
  Essence more quickly or slowly. For every three successes on 
  an (Intelligence + Lore) roll, the designer may move the time 
  to detonation on the Essence Buildup chart up or down one 
  level. Most importantly, perhaps, the designer can include a 
  switch—a single log pushed into place, a canal gate opened 
  or the like—to initiate the Essence accumulation, enabling 
  her to build the rune in advance and then detonate the 
  demesne at a later time.
  THE BULL’S CIRCLE
  Six Solar Exalts comprise the Bull’s circle. Two of them, 
  the icewalkers Crimson Antler and Fear-Eater, stand watch 
  on the empire’s Eastern territories, maintaining order in 
  the conquered tribes and warding off hostilities from the 
  Linowan. Two others, Raneth of Diamond Hearth and Nalla 
  Bloodaxe, deal with specific problems within the Northern 
  territories. Yurgen and Samea travel about the entire empire, 
  reinforcing the icewalkers’ devotion and preparing for the 
  next stage of their conquest.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNIT: SNOW BLOSSOM 
  MUSK OX TRIBE
  Description: One of many icewalker tribes reformed 
  by the Bull, the Snow Blossom Musk Ox serve as medium 
  infantry. All adults in the tribe possess tiger warrior training, 
  making them among the Bull’s most elite units.
  Commanding Officer: War Chief Salak
  Armor Color: Black with white and gold trim
  
  110
  Motto: “Victory for the 
  Musk Ox! Victory for 
  the Unconquered Sun!”
  General Makeup: 300 
  medium infantry in la-
  mellar armor, wool and 
  furs; each carries a spear, 
  target shield and longbow 
  with broadhead arrows
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 5
  Drill: 5
  Close Combat Attack: 4
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 4 
  Ranged Damage: 2
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 2 (-2 mobility) 
  Morale: 4
  Formation: The tribe con-
  sists of four talons, each of 
  which is subdivided into 
  scales and fangs. War Chief 
  Salak commands the first 
  talon. A subchief hero leads 
  each of the others and can split 
  it off as a separate unit. Five relays 
  carry winding horns and musk-ox banners. Two of the tribe’s 
  most gifted archers act as sorcerers. All but the commander, 
  sub-chiefs and archers are extras. A blessing from the Musk 
  Ox animal avatar provides supernatural Might.
  STORYTELLING III: SCALING THE CIRCLE
  Players’ characters in the North and East may 
  well come into contact with Yurgen and his circle at 
  some point. Unlike the setting’s great powers—the 
  Scarlet Empire, the Silver Pact, the Deathlords, the 
  Yozis and such—the Bull’s dominion is active and 
  aggressive. Players and Storytellers alike must factor 
  its presence into their plans. As such, Storytellers 
  can adjust the power level of the Bull and his circle 
  to better match that of a given series.
  Kaneko has had a decade to loot the ruins and 
  treasure vaults of the North. To strengthen him, give 
  him artifacts and hearthstones appropriate to his needs: 
  orichalcum superheavy plate, a daiklave of conquest, a 
  gem of adamant skin or even a royal warstrider. A few 
  Charms, such as Tiger Warrior Training Technique, 
  will greatly strengthen his armies.  Any number of 
  other young Solars might enter his service too. For 
  pre-generated traits, see the sample Lawgivers in the 
  Exalted Storytellers Companion, pages. 124-125.
  To weaken the Bull, instead of reducing his traits, 
  undermine his support structure. This reduces his 
  ability to affect the setting and adds new threads to 
  the story. Perhaps Samea dies in the Battle of Futile 
  Blood, or Crimson Antler and Fear-Eater defect to 
  the service of the Lover Clad in the Raiment of 
  Tears. Likewise, major reverses in the Northern or 
  Eastern campaigns reduce his dominion’s Magnitude, 
  stripping away manpower and tying up his entire 
  circle indefinitely.
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  Fiverelays
  The Empire of the Bull, a Magnitude 5 Dominion 
  Military: 4 Government: 2 Culture: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 2 (Icewalker Scouts +2), Bureaucracy 2 (Military Governors +1), Craft 2 (Fortification Effort +1, 
  Road-Building +2), Integrity 1 (Garrisons +2), Investigation 1, Occult 3 (Sorcery +2, Spirit Allies +1), Performance 2 
  (Stirring Oratory +1), Presence 4, Stealth 2, War 5 (First Age Tactics +1, Overwhelming Force +1)
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, Valor 4
  Virtue Flaw: Valor Current Limit: 3
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 25 External Bonus Points: 0
  Notes: Yurgen Kaneko is the empire’s legitimate sorcerer. His circlemates also function as sorcerers, while savants 
  could appear among the rulers of any conquered state or tribe in the empire. The Bull’s dominion teeters on the 
  cusp of Magnitude 6. Conquest of a major power, such as Whitewall or Linowan, will push it over the edge. The 
  dominion’s bonus points go towards its specialties and an additional dot each of Stealth and Conviction. Assembled 
  by force and the threat of force, the empire has little else to keep it together. In Limit Break, its conquered states 
  rebel against their occupiers.
  THE ICE PLAINS
  Between the White Sea and the Inland Sea, from the 
  crags above Whitewall to the taiga that girds the marshy 
  banks of the River of Tears, stretch pale expanses of high-
  land tundra that burgeon with vibrant green grasses only 
  in the brief Northern summer. The icewalkers call the Ice 
  Plains home. Even those in service to the Bull still spend 
  
  111
  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  their summers on the plains, following the great herds they 
  hunt and worship.
  Although they lack the fertility of warmer climes, the 
  Ice Plains are no desert. Grasses sprout from the chill earth 
  along with dwarf shrubs, mosses and lichens. Below a few 
  yards, though, the ground stays perpetually frozen. There is 
  little precipitation, but the perpetual cold of the long winters 
  prevents snow from melting, so even light flurries accumulate 
  into snowdrifts. The summer thaw softens the land into one 
  vast swamp dotted with lakes. These lakes freeze over when 
  the cold returns, forming the expanses of ice that give the 
  plains their name.
  Frigid winds blow steadily across the plains throughout 
  the long Northern winter. Gusts whip the drifts into snow 
  devils and send travelers stumbling. Shrubs grow with their 
  branches swept back in the direction of the wind.
  Only a few animals endure the harsh conditions of the 
  Ice Plains. Fish inhabit the few large lakes that don’t freeze 
  solid in the depths of winter, while birds and insects migrate 
  to the marshes in the summer. Squirrels and bears hibernate 
  through the cold, emerging only when the weather warms. 
  A few larger animals inhabit the plains throughout the year. 
  Lemmings and hares provide prey for foxes and owls, while 
  packs of wolves and snow hunters compete with icewalker 
  tribes to hunt the great herds of mammoth, caribou, moose, 
  musk oxen and elk.
  THE MOTHER’S HEARTH
  When Samea traveled to the heart of the Ice Plains in 
  search of greater enlightenment, she found a demesne where 
  the sun blazed upon the snow in pillars of golden light. When 
  she settled there to meditate upon the Unconquered Sun, 
  the Mammoth tribes followed, and when the herds moved 
  on, many tribesmen remained to feed and protect her. After 
  she emerged from her contemplation, the icewalkers marked 
  the place as holy. Her followers raised a shrine to her upon 
  her departure and took pilgrimages there to make offerings 
  in her name. Others came to trade goods and stories with 
  the pilgrims and with each other.
  Both Yurgen and Samea saw the value of a central meeting 
  place for the tribes. Once she had mastered Celestial Circle 
  sorcery, the Zenith raised a Solar manse wherein visiting 
  tribes could meet and dwell out of the plains’ bitter chill. 
  Its rooms and halls slowly filled over the years as artisans, 
  shamans and elders settled there on a permanent or semi-
  permanent basis. Now, almost a decade later, the place forms 
  a small self-contained town amidst the ice, where Samea 
  rules as priestess-queen.
  THE MANSE
  The great marble dome of the Mother’s Hearth rises 
  amidst the Ice Plains, its snowy flanks blending in with the 
  tundra landscape. Eight gold-peaked minarets rise from its 
  sloping walls. Gates of yellow wood open in each of the 
  four directions, and each gate leads into a broad, door-lined 
  passage leading to a great central courtyard. The manse’s 
  magic fills it with sunlight and warmth even in the depths of 
  winter. The common areas are richly furnished. In addition 
  to their native furs and ivories, its residents cram its halls 
  and common chambers with the booty of a dozen plundered 
  city-states.
  The Mother’s Hearth is a three-dot Solar manse with 
  the powers Comfort Zone (1 pt.), Magical Conveniences (1 
  pt.), Well-Flavored Aspect (1 pt.) and Temple Manse (3 pts.). 
  Both Samea and the Bull of the North have attuned to it, 
  and Samea holds its hearthstone, a gem of sorcery (see The 
  Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—Oadenol’s Codex, p. 107).
  Roughly 100 people inhabit the Mother’s Hearth on 
  a permanent basis, all of them icewalkers. A few foreign 
  merchants have petitioned Samea for residency, but she has 
  refused them all. Transient residents range widely in numbers. 
  At quiet times, there might be no more than a dozen pilgrims, 
  traders or foreign scholars present, while a large gathering of 
  tribes swells the settlement’s population into the thousands. 
  The manse itself has room for 100 guests to lodge in comfort, 
  or up to 500 in cramped conditions. Another 1,000 can cram 
  themselves into the domed central courtyard. Any additional 
  visitors must pitch their tents outdoors.
  PEOPLE OF THE HEARTH
  The Hearth’s handful of permanent inhabitants tends 
  toward the aged and sedentary. Some spend their days engaged 
  in handicrafts—painting leather, sewing furs, carving bone 
  and the like—while others devote themselves to prayer. All 
  spend a great deal of time sharing stories, for this is both a 
  pastime and a responsibility among the icewalker tribes, and 
  the folk of the Hearth come from many different tribes, each 
  with their own tales and histories. Music also fills the manse. 
  Drums beat, hands clap, and many voices rise together in 
  song, their words echoing through the glittering halls.
  Small gods throng to the Mother’s Hearth, though few 
  stay long or manifest themselves to its residents. A notable 
  exception is Tianlang, a lion dog (see The Books of Sorcery, 
  Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity I, pp. 45–46). 
  Unemployed by Heaven for centuries, Tianlang lorded it over 
  the farmers of a poor Northern village until Samea lectured 
  him into submission. His sense of honor restored by her words, 
  he guards the manse as a favor to its mistress.
  SPIRIT GUESTS
  The Hearth’s eight towers are off limits to most of its 
  residents. Each contains a luxurious bedchamber and other 
  amenities. Samea resides in one. She reserves the others for 
  her circlemates and visiting gods. The towers generally stand 
  empty in her absence, but when she is present, powerful 
  Terrestrial gods often seek audience with her. Some wish to 
  bargain with her on their own behalf or on behalf of their 
  worshipers. Others are curious to meet the reborn Solars and 
  learn their motivations.
  Samea’s most persistent guests are the animal avatars. 
  The Bull has transformed icewalker society, and the avatars 
  
  112
  have yet to come to terms with the effects of these changes on 
  their rivalries and relationships. Emissaries from the North’s 
  many national and tribal gods likewise gather here to discuss 
  the growth of the places under their protection. More than 
  once, Autumn Frost (see p. XX) has visited surreptitiously. 
  Whether she comes as a representative of the Haslanti pan-
  theon or on her own behalf is not yet known.
  AUTHORITY AND GOVERNANCE
  Samea’s word is law among the icewalkers, and doubly 
  so at the Hearth. She has never claimed any title among her 
  people. Nonetheless, they call her the Mother of All Tribes 
  and worship her as a living goddess. In addition to obeying 
  her instructions, they do their best to guess at her unspoken 
  desires, often gathering outside her presence to discuss the 
  interpretation of a mood, a turn of phrase or a gesture.
  The Mother often travels abroad. She finds many de-
  mands on her time, from the Bull’s wars to incursions by the 
  walking dead and the Fair Folk. When she is absent or when 
  she is too engrossed in her sorcerous studies or her meditations 
  to deal with her people, her priestesses minister to them in 
  her stead. Samea has chosen five so far, selecting from the 
  visiting tribes those who seem quick-witted, generous of spirit 
  and without strong attachments to individuals or families. 
  Though she insists there is no seniority among the priestesses 
  of the Unconquered Sun (save, of course, for herself), she 
  most often employs her Underling-Promoting Touch upon 
  Adare, a former elder of her own Blackwater Mammoth tribe 
  whom she remembers fondly from her childhood.
  Visitors who behave courteously have little to fear in 
  the Hearth. Simple rules bind residents and outsiders alike: 
  Do no harm to others; offer aid to those in need; respect the 
  customs of hospitality. Those who cannot abide by these 
  restrictions suffer whatever penalty Samea or her priestesses 
  choose to mete out, ranging from asking for an apology to 
  exile from the Hearth.
  Exile is a surprisingly potent punishment. Samea’s 
  presence so affects those around her that her absence aches 
  like a phantom limb. Exile also serves to protect. Not only 
  can the banished do no more harm to the community, but 
  if a mortal’s actions move Samea to violence, how could he 
  survive her anger?
  Of the few that have left the Hearth in exile, most were 
  banished in Samea’s absence or when she was calm. Two, 
  however, she expelled in the heat of anger, and the super-
  natural power of her wrath forever branded their souls. For 
  good or ill, they seek to shape the world to match the marks 
  she left upon them, wandering across the North to preach 
  subservience—or opposition—to the Solar Exalted.
  The Mother’s Hearth, a Magnitude 2 Dominion
  Military: 1 Government: 2 Culture: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 1 (Pilgrims +2), Craft 1 (Foreign Merchants +1), Integrity 2 (Religious Edict +1, Tight-Knit 
  Culture +1), Investigation 1, Occult 2 (Animal Avatars +2), Performance 2 (Icewalkers +3), Presence 1 (Icewalk-
  ers +3)
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, Valor 1
  Virtue Flaw: Compassion Current Limit: 1
  Willpower: 6
  Bonus Points: 10 External Bonus Points: 3
  Notes: The Hearth’s Magnitude, unusually high for its size, stems from its centrality, its large transient population 
  and its significance to the Bull’s icewalker tribes. Samea is the dominion’s legitimate sorcerer, while her priestesses 
  act as savants. The dominion’s bonus points are tied up in its specialties, as are the external bonus points it gains 
  from foreign traders and influence over the icewalker tribes. The folk of the Mother’s Hearth pride themselves on 
  their devotion and spirituality. When the settlement enters Limit Break, its people refuse to accept culpability for 
  its ills. Instead, they blame everything on a scapegoat and exile him or her from the community.
  THE RIVER OF TEARS
  The Wyld overflows with prodigies. In the Bordermarches, 
  some rivers run uphill or out of the sea. Deep inside Creation, 
  the River of Tears does both. It is a vast and extravagant relic 
  of the Old Realm. A hundred brilliant cities once sparkled 
  along its length, but it now lies far from the heart of civiliza-
  tion, and what few cities remain are shabby and old. Even 
  the magic that once kept its waters pure is failing.
  The River of Tears is two miles wide even at its source, 
  where Malice Bay’s waters flow between the towering gran-
  ite promontories called the Pillars of Futility, and narrows 
  somewhat as it travels south. Sandy beaches and salt marshes 
  spread outward from its banks.
  That river’s broad, shallow valley is as fecund as any 
  marsh or seashore. Insects buzz and hum thickly, especially at 
  sunset. Gulls and river ducks dive into tidal pools to feed on 
  fish and crabs, while hares, moose and deer graze amidst the 
  sedge. Few of the native wolves and lynx remain to compete 
  with hunters and trappers. The largest predators one is likely 
  to encounter are otters and foxes.
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  Travel in the region has its perils, though. Many native 
  elementals and lesser gods remain irritable about the salt in-
  fusing their lands, and Immaculate monks capable of keeping 
  them in line have been in short supply since the Empress’s 
  disappearance. Mortals who encounter ill-tempered paludal 
  spirits are advised to make offerings of pure water, pumice 
  and silver—or failing that, to run very fast.
  HISTORY OF THE RIVER OF TEARS
  During the High First Age, the River of Tears chan-
  neled water from Frost Lake uphill to the Yanaze. The 
  immense Spidersilk Dam, which controlled the flow of 
  water from the Great Western Ocean into Frost Lake, 
  turned the water fresh and pure. The White Valley between 
  the dam and the River of Tears blossomed into one of the 
  breadbaskets of the Old Realm, and shining cities grew 
  along its riverbanks.
  A Solar Exalt demolished Spidersilk Dam in the Usur-
  pation, sweeping away the army raised against him. The 
  resulting deluge also flooded the White Valley and drowned 
  millions of innocent people. The surge pressed its way up 
  the River of Tears, smashing city after city until it faded just 
  short of Sijan. The magics sustaining the river’s flow remained 
  unbroken. Its waters settled into their original course, flowing 
  past seaweed-draped ruins and fields choked with salt.
  The Shogunate worked to mend the broken region. 
  Dragon-Blooded engineers raised the Saltspires, five desali-
  nation manses on artificial islands along the river’s upper 
  reaches, to extract the salt from its waters so that it might 
  run fresh and pure again. They seeded the shores with plants 
  such as saltberry and forsake-me-never that drew impurities 
  from the soil. Civilization slowly returned. Cities grew again, 
  farms spread across flood-carved marshes and cargo vessels 
  sailed up and down between the White Sea and the Yanaze. 
  The region nonetheless remained a backwater where civiliza-
  tion clung to the riverbanks without making deep inroads 
  into the hinterlands.
  When the Great Contagion struck, the River of Tears 
  suffered less than some parts of the Threshold. Mortals died 
  by the millions, and the Fair Folk harried the survivors, but 
  the Saltspires held mountains of extracted salt with which 
  to ward off hungry ghosts and salt the shadowlands that 
  sprang up in the Contagion’s wake. When the Contagion 
  ended, the survivors settled around the Saltspires and built 
  new cities on their islands and the surrounding riverbanks 
  to harvest the salt churned out by the manses.
  The Saltspire cities grew rich and powerful, but they 
  turned against each other instead of confederating, squander-
  ing their wealth in incessant petty wars. Their manses fell 
  into disrepair, leaving the river brackish down to the Yanaze. 
  Only the manse at Plenilune, the southernmost Saltspire 
  city, remained intact. The other cities finally leagued against 
  Plenilune as it gained the economic upper hand. Matters 
  remained so until the Bull came. Plenilune surrendered to 
  his armies and now lives under his protection.
  PLENILUNE
  The city of Plenilune has long overflowed its original 
  island onto both banks of the River of Tears. A tangle of 
  city walls from various expansions and imperial periods 
  partition the eastern and western sprawls into districts. A 
  hereditary baron rules each district and exacts a toll from 
  all who pass through the district’s gates. In the sprawls, low 
  buildings of wood and stone totter over winding streets and 
  press together around plazas, bazaars and webs of shadowy 
  alleyways. The central island, called the Larkbright, grows 
  upward rather than outward. Its high stone turrets house the 
  city’s wealthy, from nobles and merchants to thaumaturges 
  and scavenger lords.
  THE PEOPLE OF PLENILUNE
  Rather than ethnicity or caste, Plenilunars judge people 
  on the basis of rank and wealth, which are two sides of the same 
  coin in a city wherein almost any office can be bought for a 
  high enough price. The city holds a smattering of superhuman 
  and inhuman beings—outcaste Dragon-Blooded, beastmen, 
  Demon-Bloods, Wyld mutants and even Fair Folk—but 
  they fare no better than mortals unless they demonstrate an 
  aptitude for business, guile or theft.
  Instead of a standing army, Plenilune’s noble houses hold 
  long-term contract with mercenary bands, most of which have 
  served so long their service has become hereditary. Mercenary 
  watchmen police the streets on behalf of their lords. Many 
  are prone to violence against the underclass, and almost all 
  are corrupt. Other mercenaries guard caravans against raids 
  and defend the city itself in time of war. Plenilune avoids 
  real military action whenever possible, however. Its lords 
  would rather pay tribute to enemies than risk defeat… or 
  worse, disruption of trade.
  Plenilune’s wealth draws more than its share of avari-
  cious thaumaturges, particularly those adept in alchemy and 
  enchantment. Sorcerers find their services even more wel-
  come, while the rare artisan of artifacts can name her price. 
  In the city’s oldest and wealthiest districts, enchanted lamps 
  light the streets and keyed wards guard every manor gate and 
  treasure vault. Destitute neighborhoods suffer the dark side 
  of magic. Sorcerers and thaumaturges send demons to seize 
  orphans and vagrants for their experiments, then discard 
  their half-formed creations in the same way.
  SALT AND THE GUILD
  Guild caravans visit Plenilune twice a year on their way 
  to and from the North, purchasing salt from the city gov-
  ernment to sell to the people of the Northern interior and 
  the teeming cities of the Scavenger Lands. The Guild sells 
  foodstuffs, metals and luxury goods in return. In addition, the 
  Guild both buys and sells slaves. As no citizen of Plenilune 
  may be held in slavery within the city, impoverished citizens 
  and prisoners are sold at the Far Market, held three miles 
  outside the city limits. Foreign slaves are fair game, though, 
  and Guild factors sell them freely inside the city.
  
  114
  Plenilune’s people grant Guildsmen a great deal of re-
  spect. Money is power, and the Guild has plenty of both. The 
  city’s current Guild factor, Jaya of Port Calin, made herself 
  a major player in city politics. The Bull’s viceroy Raneth 
  suspects her of involvement in plots against his rule, but he 
  cannot pressure her directly. If the Guild stopped buying 
  Plenilune’s salt in bulk, the city’s commerce would wither. 
  Raneth currently investigates ways to blackmail or otherwise 
  compel Jaya into cooperation.
  THE PLENILUNE MANSE
  Symbol of the city’s power and decay, the Plenilune 
  Manse’s twisted spire of greenish marble rises from the 
  Larkbright to cast its shadow across the streets below. The 
  spire climbs 20 stories in smooth, sweeping seashell curves. 
  A cloud of mist forever enshrouds its peak. On stormy nights 
  and during Calibration, lightning flickers through the cloud 
  with a drumming of thunder. So much powdery, crystalline 
  salt accumulates in its cellars that it covers the Larkbright’s 
  streets like snow, crunching underfoot on dry summer days 
  and melting the ice in winter.
  Plenilune’s royal family has lived in the manse for 
  centuries, while their retainers inhabit a complex of lesser 
  structures outside. Traditionally, no other may dwell or la-
  bor within the manse for more than a year of each decade. 
  The Essence of the manse marks its inhabitants: Those of 
  the royal line live long, though they change with age into 
  something not quite human.
  The Plenilune Manse is a two-dot Water manse with 
  the powers Essence Vents (1 pt.) and a variant of Water 
  Dragon’s Will (3 pts.) that extracts a fraction of the salt from 
  the water that flows past the Larkbright. Raneth, the only 
  person currently attuned to the manse, holds its hearthstone, 
  a mind-cleansing gem (see The Books of Sorcery, Vol. 
  III—Oadenol’s Codex, p. 96).
  The city’s growth has warped the local Essence flows 
  so the manse no longer fully caps the underlying demesne. 
  Essence escapes the top of the structure in harmless dis-
  plays of mist and storm. Over a span of two decades, the 
  manse’s mortal denizens gain the Longevity and Water 
  Adaptation poxes, the Gills affliction and two deficiency-
  level derangements, usually Obsession (wealth) and a 
  Phobia. (See Exalted, pp. 288-289, The Manual of Exalted 
  Power—The Lunars, pp. 209-210, and The Compass of 
  Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, pp. 145-146 
  and 149, for details.)
  THE SALTSPIRE LEAGUE
  The other four cities in the Saltspire League resemble 
  Plenilune in broad structure. Each city is built around an 
  island-borne desalination manse and has spilled out onto 
  the river’s banks. Two of the manses are Water aspected, 
  while the other two are Wood aspected. All have suffered 
  significant damage over the years, so their collective salt 
  output is less than half of Plenilune’s.
  Though the individual cities have simpler governments 
  than Plenilune, the labyrinth of bilateral treaties and pacts 
  that unites them in a confederation is downright Byzantine. 
  Raneth has visited each city and brought their governments 
  to heel, but he has not had the opportunity to investigate 
  their leadership fully or mold the mood of their citizens. 
  Whatever distaste the League cities feel for the Bull and his 
  empire, it pales before their anger at being ranked below 
  Plenilune in importance. A serious, large-scale uprising 
  seems inevitable.
  CONQUEST AND UPRISING
  Historically, an autarch of the royal line ruled Plenilune, 
  though more as figurehead than leader. De facto authority 
  rested with an elaborate bureaucratic oligarchy of several 
  overlapping ministries controlled by councils of nobles, 
  merchants and Guildsmen.
  When the Bull’s icewalker hordes swept in, Plenilune’s 
  autarch, Gravis IV, surrendered immediately. He hoped to 
  suborn the intruders when circumstances proved amenable or 
  simply outwait them until their empire collapsed. The city’s 
  oligarchs agreed. Gravis and his party negotiated a treaty with 
  their besiegers, leaving the autarch on his throne while the 
  Bull moved northward to besiege the Saltspire League.
  So matters proceeded until the Bull’s war against the 
  Linowan. Yurgen Kaneko demanded tribute to fund his war 
  effort. Plenilune’s government tried to squeeze the money 
  from an already downtrodden populace, which immediately 
  rebelled. A few oligarchs perished in riots and fires. The rest 
  counseled the autarch to proclaimed independence from the 
  Bull’s empire, execute a few purported “foreign agents” and 
  cut taxes to just above their prior levels. Emboldened, the 
  cities of the Saltspire League likewise rose up and expelled 
  the icewalker garrisons left to keep them under control.
  WEBS OF CONSPIRACY
  In RY 766, the Bull’s viceroy Raneth of Diamond Hearth 
  arrived at Plenilune with a small icewalker entourage. He 
  forced entry to the city by shattering the main gate of the 
  western sprawl with a portable Essence weapon. Using social 
  Charms to gather a mob and push forward to the Larkbright, 
  he then forced entrance to the Plenilune Saltspire and con-
  fronted the autarch. Perceiving the autarch’s complicity in 
  the city’s rebellion, Raneth killed the man in front of his 
  court and claimed the throne for himself.
  Although all of the city’s oligarchs denied involvement 
  in seditious activities, Raneth’s Charms saw through to the 
  truth. He placed them all under house arrest. Commerce 
  immediately ground to a halt. Without the oligarchs—the 
  city’s aristocrats, leading merchants and senior bureaucrats—
  Plenilune couldn’t function. The next week, Raneth released 
  everyone but the rebellion’s ringleaders, whom he executed 
  with great fanfare in the Plaza of Black Doves.
  Cowed, the oligarchs kept a low profile and waited for 
  the Bull’s emissary to go away. Raneth stayed. Moreover, he 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  redirected city funds to his research, funds that the oligarchs 
  would normally skim off the top. They tired of his intrusions 
  into their affairs. Nobles nursed ambitions of autarchy, while 
  friends and relatives of those executed in the initial purge 
  craved vengeance. Assassins were bought, sent, died. A 
  second purge followed.
  Unwilling to remain hostage any longer to the oligarchs’ 
  intransigence, Raneth set about reorganizing the city’s govern-
  ment. He stripped the ministerial councils of their authority. 
  Nobles find themselves replaced by handpicked civil officials. 
  Soldiers seize the assets of troublesome merchants. Bureaucrats 
  divide consortiums into smaller businesses that are easier to 
  manage. With power slipping from their grasp, the oligarchs 
  have little left to lose.
  RANETH’S PERSONAL PROJECTS
  Although he’s more investigator than artisan, Raneth 
  belongs to the Twilight Caste. Craftsmanship is in his blood. 
  Moreover, his early life among the Haslanti familiarized him 
  with his people’s innovations and taught him the military 
  value of clever machines. He’s never done more than fire 
  a crossbow and ride an air boat, but his Craft Excellencies 
  enable him to recall every visible detail of these devices and 
  reconstruct them in his workshop. Raneth has already built 
  a working crossbow and trained a pair of Plenilunar artisans 
  in its manufacture. While the weapon is of little use to bow-
  trained icewalkers, Raneth believes it will be invaluable in 
  arming local garrisons and levies. In a nearby warehouse, 
  carpenters turn out struts for the growing 300-foot skeleton 
  of an air boat.
  Raneth also plans to repair the Saltspire League’s four 
  desalination manses. He intends to start with the two that 
  seem the least damaged—those belonging to the cities Astra-
  gal and Porcellana. These plans go against his instructions, 
  however. Restoring those manses would destabilize the region 
  both economically and politically and enrage the Plenilunars 
  by stripping their city of its dominant position. But how can 
  he leave such things broken?
  PROTOTYPES
  When building a prototype of a new or unfamiliar 
  device, increase the difficulty of the Craft roll by 
  five. Prototypes may still be fine or exceptional if 
  the artisan attains the necessary threshold successes 
  over and above the increased difficulty.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNIT: PLENILUNE URBAN GUARDS
  Description: These traits represent a scale of Plenilunar 
  hereditary mercenary watchmen in service to one of the 
  city’s noble houses.
  Commanding Officer: Varies
  
  116
  Armor Color: Dark gray, with blazon and trim matching 
  the insignia of the scale’s employer
  Motto: Varies
  General Makeup: 25 mortal soldiers equipped with pikes 
  and cudgels, wearing reinforced buff jackets and plumed 
  helmets.
  Overall Quality: Fair
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 3
  Close Combat Attack: 3 Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: — 
  Ranged Damage: —
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 0 Armor: 2 (-2 mobility) 
  Morale: 2
  Formation: A unit of urban guards typically takes on relaxed 
  formation while on the parade ground or marching through 
  the streets to enforce curfew, while moving into close forma-
  tion to subdue obdurate workers with their cudgels or hold 
  back rioters with a thicket of spears. Such units rarely possess 
  any special characters beyond their commander.
  Plenilune, a Magnitude 4 Dominion
  Military: 1 Government: 2 Culture: 4
  Abilities: Awareness 2 (Links with the Guild +1), Bureaucracy 3 (Interlocking Bureaucracies +3), Craft 3 (Salt 
  Trade +3), Integrity 1, Investigation 2, Occult 3 (Thaumaturges +2), Performance 3, Presence 2 (Extravagant 
  Tribute +2, Organized Crime +1), Stealth 2 (Assassins +1), War 1 (Mercenaries +2, Defense +1)
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 3, Valor 2
  Virtue Flaw: Conviction Current Limit: 1
  Willpower: 6
  Bonus Points: 20 External Bonus Points: 8
  Notes: Raneth of Diamond Hearth rules Plenilune as a legitimate sorcerer. Savants could come from anywhere: 
  leading merchants, outcaste Dragon-Bloods, mercenary captains, charismatic young nobles, priests, thaumaturges, 
  rabble-rousers and insurrectionists. The domain’s bonus points go toward specialties and an additional dot each 
  of Bureaucracy, Craft and Occult. Its external bonus points come from its salt-fueled trade arrangements and go 
  to its Craft, Presence and War specialties. An inward-looking city at the best of times, Plenilune deals with Limit 
  Break by withdrawing into itself and ignoring events beyond its walls, no matter how tumultuous.
  The Saltspire League, a Magnitude 4 Dominion
  Military: 2 Government: 2 Culture: 3
  Abilities: Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 3 (Treaties +1), Craft 4, Integrity 2 (Cosmopolitan +1), Investigation 2 
  (Intra-League Spying +3), Occult 1, Performance 2 (Anti-Plenilune Propaganda +2), Presence 2, Stealth 2, War 2 
  (Mercenaries +1)
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, Valor 2
  Virtue Flaw: Temperance Current Limit: 2
  Willpower: 6
  Bonus Points: 20 External Bonus Points: 0
  Notes: The Saltspire League lacks a legitimate sorcerer, though each city’s leader vies for the position. The 
  dominion’s bonus points go toward specialties and an additional dot each of Bureaucracy, Craft and War. The 
  cities of the League dwell upon their own past heydays, and only their shared resentment of Plenilune holds them 
  together. In Limit Break, the League cities fear that one of their own number is gaining ascendancy over the rest 
  and turn against it. Should the League gain ascendance over Plenilune, it splinters into lesser dominions as each 
  city reasserts its independence.
  
  117
  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  MALICE BAY
  Ragged cliffs rise from the shores of Malice Bay. In this 
  realm of struggle, mortals battle the cold, the Wyld and each 
  other. Even the land fights a long, losing battle against the 
  sea as the waves gnaw endlessly at the receding cliffs and 
  pummel the broken rocks at their feet.
  Rugged terrain typifies the landscape. Deep, ridged 
  valleys and fjords pierce the cliff walls that hem in the 
  bay’s icy waters, splitting off thousands of small, high-
  walled islands from the mainland. The countryside unfurls 
  inland like a rumpled quilt, its ridges and great rolling 
  downs rising above a patchwork of green woods and vales, 
  blue lakes and the dull scattered colors of heath, bog and 
  fen. Cities are few and stunted, rarely growing larger than 
  walled towns, and they serve more as fortresses for petty 
  kings than as centers of culture. Fishing and mining villages 
  predominate. Food is a precious commodity, as is the iron 
  needed to make war on one’s neighbors, civilized traders 
  and Wyld-spawn.
  As with the rest of the northern coast, Malice Bay 
  has long and bitter winters, while the summers are all too 
  short. Nonetheless, life abounds. The waters teem with 
  fish: trout, perch, fat blue salmon and ferocious pike as 
  large as a man. Bears and seals dwell by the shore, while 
  deer, elk, moose and caribou graze inland. Black eagles 
  rule the sky, preying on grouse, fox and hare, while gray 
  wolves and great-terrors hunt the larger beasts of the land, 
  including humans.
  The peoples of Malice Bay are hardy, truculent folk. 
  A score of petty kingdoms brawl over territory, treasure 
  and blood feuds both old and new. Sometimes, a single 
  leader can unite several kingdoms for a few generations, but 
  these pocket empires inevitably fall apart due to escalating 
  vendettas or the machinations of ambitious nobles.
  KARN
  The kingdom of Karn stands out from the rest of the 
  Bull’s dominion. It is the most far-flung of his Northern 
  territories, lying north and east of the central Ice Plains. 
  Its people are the fiercest within his dominion, its ships 
  the most feared. Most curious of all, Karn remains unaware 
  that it has been conquered.
  Karn clutches the eastern shore of Malice Bay. The 
  kingdom comprises a dozen modest towns and two-score 
  villages and fastnesses, most within a day’s travel of the 
  coast. Fishing ships ply the waters. Farmers sow barley 
  for beer and plant parsnips, turnips and other vegetables 
  that endure the region’s cold climate. Miners pull iron 
  and copper from a range of crumbling, heather-capped 
  hills that overlook the sea. Traders procure ivory and furs 
  from inland tribes and carry their wares across the water. 
  Even children do their part, combing the strand for amber 
  and ambergris.
  The proud Karnese do not subsist only on these 
  sedentary pursuits. When the weather warms, between 
  sowing and reaping, they set out in their eagle-prowed 
  ships to harry the merchants of the White Sea and the 
  folk of the River of Tears, plundering laden ships and 
  coastal towns alike. They likewise war against those few 
  neighboring kingdoms not yet absorbed by the Haslanti 
  League or the Bull of the North. No boy of Karn can be 
  counted a man until he has spent a summer a-roving and 
  bloodied his blade in battle.
  A thane rules each fastness, commanding his extended 
  clan and thralls by right of personal strength and the 
  support of his ancestors. Each thane may call up a peas-
  ant levy from his holding’s farmers and fishermen. The 
  king maintains the only standing army in Karn, consist-
  ing of skilled warriors from every clan that have sworn 
  themselves to his personal service. This force serves little 
  more than a ceremonial purpose for respected kings, while 
  unpopular rulers must suppress uprisings among their own 
  rebellious thanes.
  RELIGION AND MAGIC
  Karn’s people worship their ancestors. Bleak temples 
  stand on the heights above coastal settlements. Here, 
  priestesses venerate their most ancient forebears, whose 
  potent Arcanoi make them like unto gods to their people. 
  These mighty ghosts walk the land during Calibration and 
  at other times of ill omen. Clothed in phantasmal flesh, 
  they utter prophecies, grant boons and punish those who 
  transgressed against the traditions of Karn. Some engage in 
  ritual congress with their clergy or lie with their worshipers, 
  resulting in Ghost-Blooded offspring. The temples raise 
  these haunted children, locally called starka. Trained in 
  thaumaturgy and history, the starka form a separate class 
  of witches and savants. Common folk view them as a breed 
  apart and show them both respect and fear.
  Lesser ancestors serve as tutelary spirits. Some lie 
  buried beneath their homes, bringing good fortune and 
  counseling their descendants in dreams. Others remain 
  ANCESTRAL TALISMANS
  The starka learn the Art of Enchantment in 
  the temples of the dead, and they use the remains 
  of the dead to imbue objects with power. Newly 
  enchanted weapons or vessels are typically excep-
  tional (see Exalted, p, 365), while those at least a 
  century old or containing the remains of five ances-
  tors become perfect (see Exalted, p. 366). Homes 
  most typically act as talismans against disease (see 
  Exalted, p. 379) for their inhabitants. An ancestral 
  talisman serves as a Fetter for every ghost whose 
  remains are bound into it.
  
  118
  tied to the ships they sailed in life. The starka weave the 
  hair of the dead into ropes and sails, caulk seams with 
  their flesh and alloy their ground bones with iron to make 
  rivets. Portable Fetters rest in a coffer of black ash wood at 
  the foot of the mast. These ship-bound dead fill sails with 
  ghost winds and lash out at enemies with spectral claws 
  and nightmare visions. Karnese weapons are likewise holy 
  heirlooms. Each contains ancestral finger bones and has 
  the hair of the dead wrapped around its grip.
  KARN’S ENEMIES
  The shores of Malice Bay are no place for the weak. 
  The Karnese strive against all manner of foes: Wyld barbar-
  ians and beastmen occasionally venture far enough from 
  their hunting grounds to attack Karn, while neighboring 
  kingdoms send raiding parties in revenge for prior Karnese 
  attacks. Raids on Haslanti shipping draw particularly 
  bloody reprisals. Expansionists in the League have their 
  eye on Karn and consider escalation.
  Most of all, Karn struggles with the Tear Eater tribes of 
  the Northeastern steppes. (Just because they both worship 
  their ancestors does not make them friends.) The Karnese 
  must repel at least one attack by Tear Eater raiders and 
  their zombies each year. Showing fear in the face of the 
  dead shames one’s entire family, even more than fear in 
  the face of the living, for one should trust the power of 
  one’s ancestors to ward off the dead.
  For all their courage and ferocity in battle, the Karnese 
  continue to lose ground to the Tear Eaters. They win most 
  of their battles, but their casualties add up. Several outly-
  ing farmsteads and communities have been overwhelmed 
  and annihilated in recent years. Fortunately, the tide is 
  turning due to the valor of their new king, Nalla Bloodaxe, 
  whose fury on the battlefield has bloodied the noses of 
  the Tear Eaters and scattered their raiding parties to the 
  four winds.
  CONQUEST FROM WITHIN
  After aiding the Bull in the Linowan War, Nalla set 
  himself the task of expanding the empire. Yurgen Kaneko 
  decided that he wanted a naval presence on the White Sea 
  and suggested that Nalla acquire one. Nalla traveled to 
  Karn and assumed the charming moniker of “Bloodaxe.” In 
  the guise of a young Karnese warrior, he insinuated himself 
  into the retinue of King Skor Ironhand. Nalla Bloodaxe 
  rose swiftly in prestige from victories against neighboring 
  kingdoms and marauding Tear Eater barbarians. Within a 
  year, he stood at Skor’s right hand, outstripping even the 
  king’s own sons in the hearts of the people.
  When the next raiding season began, Nalla joined 
  Skor Ironhand and his sons on their longship as they 
  went reaving on Malice Bay. By subtle means, he passed 
  messages to contacts in the city-state of Tarrack, another 
  of the Bull’s conquests, warning them of an attack that 
  he himself had suggested to Skor. Tarrack’s generals un-
  leashed their ambush as the Karnese raiding fleet entered 
  their harbor. Karn’s king and his heirs perished in the 
  battle, while Nalla’s carefully planned heroism extracted 
  enough of the Karnese fleet from the trap to make him 
  a hero. When the Karnese high council of nobles and 
  priests gathered to elect a new king, Nalla’s name was at 
  the top of the list.
  For the past two years, Nalla has led the Karnese in 
  war after war against their neighbors. In addition to his 
  personal skill at arms, he’s ensured victory by thoroughly 
  investigating the terrain, bribing enemy lords into turn-
  ing coat and, when necessary, undermining the enemy 
  through espionage—burning down barracks, poisoning 
  food supplies and murdering opposing champions, advisors 
  and princes in their beds.
  While Karn’s people are too proud to submit easily 
  to foreign governance, Nalla has opened “negotiations” 
  with official emissaries from the Bull. In his name, Karn 
  has agreed to a loose military alliance. Nalla expects to 
  bring the kingdom wholly into the fold within the next 
  few years, with none of the losses and rebellions that 
  would follow a military conquest. He builds up Karn’s fleet 
  strength in the meantime, including a handful of iceships, 
  to provide a ready-made navy when the Bull moves against 
  the Haslanti League.
  SAMPLE COMBAT UNIT: KARNESE REAVERS
  Description: Whether mounted on horseback or aboard a 
  longship, Karn’s warriors make lightning strikes against lightly 
  defended settlements which they pillage for treasure and slaves. 
  
  119
  CHAPTER SIX: SUN AND ICE
  They return to their families outside of raiding season; each 
  village is home to at least one scale of reavers, while a large 
  town might muster a full dragon of troops if attacked.
  Commanding Officer: Varies
  Armor Color: Browned iron chain hauberk over warm, 
  brightly colored wool
  Motto: “Blood for our ancestors!”
  General Makeup: 40 raiders wearing chain hauberks and 
  pot helms, carrying talismanic great axes and longbows with 
  broadhead arrows
  Overall Quality: Excellent
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 3 Close Combat Damage: 4
  Ranged Attack: 2 
  Ranged Damage: 2
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 2 (-3 mobility) 
  Morale: 4
  Formation: Usually relaxed, though they become unordered 
  when they spot easy prey. The band’s three most respected 
  warriors act as heroes, while a single starka thaumaturge 
  functions as a sorcerer. All but the commander and sorcerer 
  are extras.
  Karn, a Magnitude 4 Dominion
  Military: 4 Government: 2 Culture: 1
  Abilities: Awareness 1, Bureaucracy 1, Craft 1 (Shipbuilding +2), Integrity 3 (Unquestioned Traditions +2), In-
  vestigation 1, Occult 2 (Ancestors +1, Starka +2), Performance 2 (Call to Battle +2), Presence 3, Stealth 2, War 4 
  (Lightning Raid +2, Slash & Burn Tactics +1)
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 1, Valor 5
  Virtue Flaw: Valor Current Limit: 3
  Willpower: 8
  Bonus Points: 20 External Bonus Points: 4
  Notes: Nalla is the domain’s legitimate sorcerer. Karn’s bonus points are tied up in two dots of War and the spe-
  cialties. Its external bonus points, derived from the support of its ancestors, provide its Investigation and Occult 
  specialties. The kingdom’s Valor Virtue Flaw represents its people’s quick and violent temper. When it enters Limit 
  Break, its inhabitants turn their anger against any apparent target, whether neighboring towns, foreign merchants 
  or each other.
  
  120
  
  121
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  CHAPTER SEVEN
  CHAPTER SEVEN
  GODS AND MONSTERS OF 
  GODS AND MONSTERS OF 
  THE NORTH
  THE NORTH
  The North is a harsh, lonely place, where only the fit 
  and strong can survive. Gods do not coddle their flock, and 
  champions respect only ingenuity and strength.
  GODS OF THE NORTH
  Northerners have a curious relationship with their gods. 
  Because worshipers are scarce and death is so near, their gods 
  are much more protective. Such “protection” comes with a 
  caveat, however: Most gods do not directly shield mortals 
  from the many dangers in their lives. To do so would be to 
  do them a grave injustice. Their protection usually takes 
  more abstract form, such as object lessons in proper behavior 
  or tests of fortitude, as mortals are made to survive in the 
  face of seemingly random destructive events. Rather than 
  demanding servitude, the gods of the North tend to want to 
  help, as protectors or advisors.
  THE TWIN GODS OF WAR
  The North has two chief war gods, Voharun and Nasa-
  mara, who share equal authority and are worshiped together 
  throughout the North. They preside over all local war gods, 
  and have done so for as long as anyone in Creation or Yu-
  Shan can remember.
  Voharun and Nasamara play no favorites among the 
  armies and warriors of the North. They prize selfless valor in 
  combat, but rarely intervene in mortal battles. When they 
  do, they act to make sure that mortals settle their conflicts 
  fairly and that parties foreign to the North keep their dis-
  tance. The gods never offer strategic advice to either side 
  in a conflict, though they might aid petitioners who defend 
  Creation against the dead or creatures out of the Wyld. 
  Now and then, they punish particularly annoying, gutless 
  or (especially) treacherous petitioners.
  The gods quarrel in a brotherly way about who is older 
  (and therefore preeminent) and often observe battles to-
  gether. They share their temples, which usually have small 
  separate shrines for each. Legend calls them brothers—twins, 
  in fact—who represent the glory and tragedy of war. One 
  cannot exist without the other.
  Nearly all Northern warriors and their families honor 
  both Voharun, the Battle Crow, and Nasamara, the Falcon 
  of Glory. Their devotees hope to prove their worth through 
  
  122
  selfless acts of bravery. Northern forces tend to ignore an 
  enemies’ greater numbers and superior equipment as ir-
  relevant when they vie for the Twins’ attention. If they 
  win, Nasamara will recognize their courage and prowess. If 
  they fall, Voharun will see that they are not forgotten. The 
  priests of the Twins tell warriors to face both possibilities 
  with stoic resolve.
  For more information on the Northern war gods, see 
  Scroll of Kings, pages 60–61.
  VOHARUN, THE BATTLE CROW
  Some war gods pine for the glories of the Old Realm. 
  Voharun, called Feaster on the Slain, does not. He recognizes 
  the grandeur and drama of bygone battles, but he prefers the 
  smaller, desperate personal struggles of present-day warriors. 
  Voharun savors the small acts of heroism that lie behind 
  great victories. He also has particular affection for conquered 
  armies that fought valiantly, for Voharun is the god of fallen 
  soldiers. The Feaster on the Slain makes few demands, but 
  he insists that victors treat the enemy’s dead with as much 
  respect as their own. After all, a soldier who exults in victory 
  today could become food for crows tomorrow. Most of all, 
  Voharun admires mortal soldiers who pit themselves against 
  supernatural foes in full knowledge that they have very little 
  chance of survival.
  Voharun excels as a bureaucratic warrior. He uses his 
  influence in the Celestial Bureaucracy to protect the North 
  from a variety of troubles. Recently, he has campaigned 
  against the Bureau of Seasons and the Wind Masters of the 
  North for their undue influence in military matters (as the 
  outcome of the region’s wars so often depend on vagaries 
  of weather). He also works to protect his and Nasamara’s 
  position from the occasional upstart challenger. Most of his 
  efforts, both in Yu-Shan and in Creation, take place behind 
  the scenes. When Voharun must appear in Creation, he 
  usually does so through his raven manifestation. He never 
  shows his true face to a mortal.
  The Solar Exalted do not have Voharun’s explicit 
  favor, as he considers their time long passed. He does not 
  hate them, however, and might support a Solar under the 
  right circumstances, such as those heroes who battle the Fair 
  Folk or powerful Wyld creatures. He will never aid Abyssal 
  Exalted. Voharun admires the Lunar Exalted, though, for 
  their long struggle to defend Creation’s borders.
  Voharun tries not to let his feelings color his treatment 
  of the North’s indigenous Terrestrial Exalted. After the Great 
  Contagion, Voharun begged Tachi-Kun, the Central God 
  of Exalted Warfare, to assist the North in its struggle against 
  otherworldly creatures. The Blessed Isle’s war god failed to 
  send the requested aid, either personally or through the Scarlet 
  Dynasty. Since then, Voharun has made no bones about his 
  dislike for Tachi-Kun. Voharun would never challenge him 
  directly, but he has at times severely inconvenienced Tachi-
  Kun and his minions in Yu-Shan with blizzards of writs and 
  suits. Voharun does not welcome armies from the Blessed Isle 
  unless they come to (finally) answer the call for aid.
  The Feaster on the Slain manifests as a tall, slender 
  man with smooth jet-black skin and unblinking yellow eyes 
  that stare from under his beaked raven mask. No power can 
  remove the mask; it’s part of him. If Voharun wants, he grows 
  birdlike talons on his fingers to inflict lethal damage. He also 
  manifests in the form of an ordinary-looking raven.
  Sanctum: Voharun’s heavenly abode is the Raven’s Roost, 
  a fortress of slick black mirrors whose 23 towers all rise to 
  meet in one sharp spire. Only one door, which is invisible 
  and opens only at Voharun’s command, admits visitors. The 
  rest of the exterior is slick, with no handholds. No windows 
  show from the outside, but Voharun can pass or see through 
  any of the walls. At Voharun’s touch, any of the palace’s 
  walls can display any current or past battle in the North, 
  with as much detail as the god requires. Outside the Roost, 
  snow falls perpetually on a landscape of ice. Inside, Voharun’s 
  servitor-gods, masked and feathered like their master, verify 
  and record the deeds of fallen warriors.
  Motivation: To see that war dead receive fitting honors and 
  to protect the North from invaders from outside Creation.
  Attributes: Strength 10, Dexterity 8, Stamina 11; Charisma 8, 
  Manipulation 9, Appearance 7; Perception 7, Intelligence 7, 
  Wits 6
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 4, 
  Valor 5
  Abilities: Archery 5, Athletics 5, Awareness 8, Bureaucracy 8, 
  Dodge 5, Integrity 7, Investigation 4, Linguistics (Native: Old 
  Realm; Others: High Realm, Northern Barbarian Tongues, 
  Skytongue) 6, Lore 6 (Military History +2), Martial Arts 7, 
  Melee 7 (Straight Sword +3), Occult 3, Performance 5, Pres-
  ence 5, Resistance 7, Socialize 8, Survival 5, War 9
  Backgrounds: Allies 5, Artifact 3, Artifact 3, Backing 5, 
  Celestial Manse 4, Contacts (Within Heaven) 5, Contacts 
  (Within Creation) 5, Cult 5, Followers 5, Salary 5, Sanc-
  tum 5
  Charms: As an ancient, powerful god, Voharun knows most 
  standard Charms. Some of his more notable ones include:
  Art of Meditative Discussion—Voharun knows every Charm of 
  this unusual Celestial Martial Art. (See pp. 18–21 of Scroll 
  of the Monk: The Imperfect Lotus.)
  Blessing of Heroic Retirement—Champions who impress 
  Voharun during their career are rewarded with good health 
  for the rest of their natural lives. The blessing instantly 
  alleviates any wounds and other physical health problems. 
  In addition, Stamina rolls receive a one-die bonus and all 
  diseases affect the target at -1 Virulence for the rest of his 
  life. Costs 10 motes.
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Voharun is a raven god as 
  well as a war god, so he may control such birds. Indeed, he 
  can control any birds that come to a battlefield to feed on 
  the dead.
  Essence Plethora (x4)—Voharun has 40 extra motes of Es-
  sence, due to far-ranging worship in the North.
  Host of Spirits—Though he does periodically appear in person, 
  Voharun usually works his will in Creation through black 
  
  123
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  raven avatars with 20-foot wingspans. Voharun invests his 
  avatars with the Charms necessary for their missions. A raven 
  avatar may also take the form of a flock of 20 normal-sized 
  ravens, as it suits the god. Costs three motes per avatar.
  Hurry Home—Voharun can transport himself to any site of 
  battle in the North. In Yu-Shan he can use this Charm to 
  return to the Raven’s Roost.
  Materialize—Costs 85 motes.
  Plague of Menaces—Voharun may curse traitors who betray 
  their country or the North in general, especially those siding 
  with the North’s enemies outside Creation. A raven con-
  stantly follows a cursed individual. This raven calls attention 
  to him at inopportune times, steals his weapons and food, 
  delivers damning evidence to his enemies and otherwise 
  disrupts his life. Mortals recognize the raven as a token of 
  divine wrath. The only way to escape this curse is to leave 
  the North entirely (though the raven will be waiting for the 
  target when he returns). Voharun seldom renounces this 
  curse, even when the recipient goes to extraordinary lengths 
  to make up for his wrongdoing. The Battle Crow might also 
  strengthen his curse by judicial use of the Male-
  diction and Scourge Charms.
  Shapechange—Voharun can assume 
  the form of a raven ranging in 
  size from normal for the breed 
  to one that dwarfs even his 
  enormous avatars.
  Touch of Divinity/
  Touch of Eternity—
  Voharun watches 
  the enterprise of war 
  closely, and rewards 
  soldiers who fight 
  bravely and against 
  the odds. He is espe-
  cially fond of granting 
  boons of power to 
  otherwise normal, non-
  powered mortals who 
  display courage and clever-
  ness in the midst of battle 
  and defy certain death 
  by attempting feats 
  usually accom-
  plished only 
  by the Exalted. The specific boon is based on the situation 
  but usually amounts to additional dots in Strength, Wits, 
  Valor or Willpower.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Archery, Dodge, Integrity, Martial 
  Arts, Melee, Socialize, Stealth, War
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Archery, Dodge, Integrity, 
  Martial Arts, Melee, Socialize, Stealth, War
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Archery, Dodge, Integrity, Martial 
  Arts, Melee, Socialize, Stealth, War
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Stealth, War
  Join Battle: 14
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 16, Damage 10B/L, Parry DV 9, 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 15, Damage 13B/L, Parry DV 7, 
  Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 17, Damage 10B/L, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Straight Sword (Raven’s Claw): Speed 4, Accuracy 20, 
  Damage 13L, Parry DV 10, Rate 2
  Soak: 18L/23B (Robes of office, 12L/12B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-
  2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 10 
  Willpower: 10
  Essence: 7 
  Essence Pool: 160
  Other Notes: Voharun’s 
  sword, Raven’s 
  Claw, ignores 
  an opponent’s 
  non-super-
  natural soak.
  V o h a r u n 
  can animate 
  a maximum 
  of 35 raven 
  a v a t a r s 
  at one 
  t i m e . 
  T h e s e 
  creatures can 
  be invested with 
  Willpower and 
  Charms, at Vohar-
  un’s discretion.
  
  124
  NASAMARA, THE FALCON OF GLORY
  Nasamara is the god of Northern armies and their cham-
  pions. While his position requires him to oversee all aspects 
  of war to some degree (as is the case with all the directional 
  war gods), he pays special heed to the heroes who stand out 
  for their courage, prowess and cunning. Northerners believe 
  that Nasamara embodies fame and the desire for fame. They 
  strive to win eternal glory in his name.
  Nasamara visits Creation often. He flies high above 
  battles, looking for heroes. When he sees a particularly in-
  genious strategy or especially gallant deed, he might grant 
  a minor dice bonus the next time it is used. In this way, he 
  encourages Northerners to take greater risks. He does not 
  take sides, however. While he has the power to do virtually 
  anything in the domain of war, he very rarely intervenes 
  beyond the scale of individual warriors unless mortals fight 
  Creation’s supernatural foes.
  The politics of Yu-Shan bore Nasamara, so he leaves 
  bureaucratic infighting to Voharun. On the other hand, he 
  doesn’t hesitate to barge into another god’s sanctum and chal-
  lenge him to a duel. The Falcon of Glory is also somewhat loud 
  and brash. He loves celebrations, and his fortress frequently 
  hosts parties in honor of great battles of the past.
  While Voharun dislikes the Scarlet Empire, Nasamara 
  and Tachi-Kun understand each other well—though they 
  disagree who claims authority over Exalted heroes in the 
  North. Nasamara also has fond memories of the Solar Exalted 
  and welcomes their return. He believes the Bull of the North 
  is the region’s best hope for defeating Creation’s enemies and 
  watches his army with great interest. Many Lunar Exalted 
  have also earned the god’s admiration. Indeed, Nasamara 
  counts Siakal, Western Goddess of Sharks and Slaughter, as 
  his only real enemy among the Exalted or gods of war.
  Nasamara manifests as a muscular, bronze-skinned man 
  who goes falcon-masked (and at times falcon-shaped). He 
  can grow talons on his fingers if he wants, in order to inflict 
  lethal damage.
  Sanctum: The Falcon’s Nest in Yu-Shan is a stone fortress 
  dedicated to war and victory, surrounded by miles of icy 
  tundra. From his floating golden throne, Nasamara can in-
  stantly know the details of any ongoing battle in the North. 
  Nasamara staffs the Falcon’s Nest with winged war spirits 
  called nasmaru. These spirits have instinctive mastery over 
  all melee weapons, with Melee 5. A dozen or so nasmaru 
  continually attend Nasamara in Yu-Shan.
  Motivation: To promote glorious deeds of arms in the North 
  and to prevent invasion.
  Attributes: Strength 12, Dexterity 8, Stamina 11; Charisma 7, 
  Manipulation 6, Appearance 6; Perception 7, Intelligence 6, 
  Wits 7
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 5
  Abilities: Archery 5, Athletics 5 (Flying +2), Awareness 7, 
  Bureaucracy 6, Dodge 6, Integrity 7, Investigation 2, Lin-
  guistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: High Realm, Northern 
  Barbarian Tongues, Riverspeak, Skytongue) 4, Lore 5, Martial 
  Arts 7, Melee 8 (Great Axe +2), Occult 1, Performance 5, 
  Presence 7, Resistance 7, Socialize 6, Survival 5, War 10
  Backgrounds: Allies 5, Artifact 5, Artifact 3, Backing 5, 
  Celestial Manse 5, Contacts 5, Cult 4, Followers 5, Salary 5, 
  Sanctum 5
  Charms:
  Art of Forceful Declaration—Nasamara knows every Charm of 
  this unusual Celestial Martial Art. (See pp. 15–18 of Scroll 
  of the Monk: The Imperfect Lotus.)
  Divine Decree—Nasamara sanctifies alliances and truces. 
  Through his will, agreements between armies gain the force 
  of divine law. Attempting to circumvent such an alliance is 
  a serious offense likely to incur the war god’s wrath.
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Nasamara is a falcon god as 
  well as a war god. As such, he can control hawks and falcons, 
  and only the animal avatar of such birds can overrule him.
  Essence Plethora (x4)—Nasamara has 40 extra motes of Es-
  sence, due to far-ranging worship in the North.
  Host of Spirits—Nasamara sometimes works his will in 
  Creation through bronze-feathered falcon avatars with 20-
  foot wingspans, or normal falcons if Nasamara wants to be 
  inconspicuous. Nasamara invests his avatars with the Charms 
  necessary for their missions. Costs three motes per avatar.
  Hurry Home—Nasamara can immediately transport himself 
  to any site of battle in the North. In Yu-Shan, he can use 
  this Charm to return to the Falcon’s Nest.
  Materialize—Costs 85 motes.
  Measure the Wind—Nasamara routinely surveys battlefields 
  for Essence wielders to better gauge how evenly matched 
  armies are at the start of a battle.
  Plague of Menaces—Craven armies who disgrace the North 
  with treacherous acts receive Nasamara’s curse. Such armies 
  suffer debilitating sickness (-1 Magnitude), low morale (-1 
  Morale) and disorganization (-1 Drill). This curse follows 
  the army for all time. The only way to end the curse is to 
  disband the army entirely. If the cursed force is a city’s army, 
  any army that that city raises will invoke the curse. Nasamara 
  can lift the curse himself, of course, but he has rarely done 
  so. Costs five motes.
  Principle of Motion—Nasamara keeps 10 extra actions 
  stored.
  Shapechange—Nasamara can assume the form of a falcon 
  of any size.
  Symbol of Invincible Authority—Nasamara may stride through 
  ongoing battles without suffering any harm. Even intentional 
  attacks against him fail if they come from participants in the 
  battle. This Charm ceases operation as soon as hostilities 
  end. A warrior may still challenge the Falcon of Glory to 
  a personal duel. In that case, the Charm’s effects extend to 
  Nasamara’s opponent as long as their duel lasts.
  Touch of Divinity—When an army fights forces from out-
  side Creation, the Falcon of Glory may grant it a +1 or +2 
  Might bonus for the duration of the battle. Nasamara usually 
  
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  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  reserves this Charm for situations when the invading army 
  is much more powerful than the defenders. This Charm 
  costs eight motes and two Willpower per points of Might 
  granted. Armies so blessed also suffer no exhaustion penal-
  ties for the battle.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Archery, Dodge, Integrity, Martial 
  Arts, Melee, Stealth, War
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Archery, Dodge, Integrity, 
  Martial Arts, Melee, Stealth, War
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Archery, Dodge, Integrity, Martial 
  Arts, Melee, Stealth, War
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Melee, War
  Join Battle: 14
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 16, Damage 12B/L, Parry DV 8, 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 15, Damage 15B/L, Parry DV 7, 
  Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 19, Damage 12B/L, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Great Axe (The Falcon’s Beak): Speed 5, Accuracy 20, 
  Damage 21L, Parry DV 8, Rate 2
  Composite Bow: Speed 5, Accuracy 15, Damage 14L, Range 350, 
  Rate 3
  Soak: 26L/36B (Jacket of Bronze Feathers, 20L/25B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-
  2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 11 
  Willpower: 10
  Essence: 7 
  Essence Pool: 160
  Other Notes: Nasamara possesses the Jacket of Bronze 
  Feathers, a dapper jacket that looks like it could not possibly 
  provide meaningful defense. Reaching inside it, however, 
  Nasamara may draw forth his divine axe or any mundane 
  personal weapon he chooses.
  Nasamara can animate a maximum of 35 falcon avatars at 
  one time. These creatures can be invested with Willpower 
  and Charms, at Nasamara’s discretion.
  THE HASLANTI ENNEAD
  When the Wyld Hunt slew Arvida of the Crescent Eye, 
  the Realm began centuries of religious upheaval that might 
  not be ended yet. Several times now, the Haslanti have seen 
  Immaculate monks defeat and humiliate their gods. Some 
  among the small gods formed triads for mutual protections 
  and to consolidate their power. Many triads formed, but only 
  three remain. The three triads of Ice, Fate and Dreams rose 
  to prominence over the past century, as the Haslanti shifted 
  their focus from defeated gods to new ones who had avoided 
  conflict with the Immaculates. These triads became known 
  collectively as the Ennead.
  The Ennead as a whole respects Haslanti strength and 
  ingenuity and refrains from heavy-handed control over its 
  worshipers. The League’s secret Lunar patrons, the Twisted 
  Stone Conclave, convinced the Ennead that people can and 
  must do things for themselves. The Ennead offers guidance 
  and works to personify and enforce Haslanti social order. 
  THE HOUSE OF THE NINE HEARTHS OF EMERALD AND SILVER
  One of the Ennead’s innovations is a group sanctum. Seventy-six years ago, the Ennead’s petition for suitable 
  quarters in Yu-Shan was rejected. The nine irked gods pooled their resources to create their own “heavenly” abode 
  in Creation, not far from the 29th Celestial Gate. The House of the Nine Hearths of Emerald and Silver is a group 
  sanctum where the whole pantheon can live and hold court. Many in the Celestial Bureaucracy decry the Ennead’s 
  actions as unauthorized and presumptuous (as the authorized Haslanti gods still live and maintain their Celestial 
  status in the Bureau of Humanity). What’s worse, spirits across the Northeast increasingly take their disputes and 
  petitions to the Ennead for resolution, instead of the proper authorities in Yu-Shan. As of yet, however, Heaven 
  has levied no official sanctions against the nine gods.
  Some of the Ennead’s gods retain private sanctums throughout the eastern North, as the Ennead rarely convenes 
  as a group. Most of them visit the House at least five times a year, though. The Triad of Fate resides exclusively in 
  the House of Nine Hearths. The House has a rating of Sanctum 4 and is a two-dot, Air-aspected manse.
  The House has three wings, one for each of the triads. Each wing consists of the gods’ living quarters, servant’s 
  quarters, kitchens, offices and workrooms, a grand dining hall and a courtroom with three hearths, each of which 
  bears its god’s symbol. When one of the gods is in residence, the god’s hearth lights itself. Around the House spreads 
  several miles of idealized tundra in a perpetual early summer, full of wild flowers and grazing reindeer and mammoth, 
  but without mosquitoes. Three trilithons—doorways made of stone slabs laid across megalithic uprights—provide 
  access to the sanctum, for those who can pass spirit doors.
  The House of the Nine Hearths of Emerald and Silver accepts mortal visitors and petitioners, but only those 
  who regularly worship the Ennead. A petitioner’s player must succeed at a prayer roll (see Exalted, p. 132), but 
  devout Haslanti receive two bonus successes. Those who force their way into the sanctum find the mammoth 
  charging to trample them, while the reindeer show mouths full of fangs and attack using the traits for omen dogs 
  (see Exalted, p. 348).
  
  126
  These gods want a strong nation of worshipers… but also a 
  resilient society that is not too dependent on their favors. 
  This goal is partially self serving. If the Haslanti do not survive 
  as a culture, the gods will lose much of their own power. As 
  a result, the nine gods usually wield their influence subtly, 
  without blatant displays of power.
  Like the people they cultivate, the Haslanti gods are 
  practical and unpretentious. They care more about doing 
  their jobs and their own survival—since Immaculate cru-
  saders could return any time—than celebrating their own 
  grandeur. None of them consider themselves above knocking 
  on a worshiper’s door to offer praise, judgment, rebuke or 
  just a chat to remind the Haslanti that their gods do indeed 
  pay attention.
  The Ennead is a new and largely untested order in the 
  North and remains somewhat volatile. The triads could 
  change due to divine whim, Celestial diktat, personal conflict 
  or the death of member gods. Still, the nine gods have few 
  rivalries among one another. They accept that their spheres 
  of influence overlap somewhat. There is simply no time for 
  bickering. Their people face a constant struggle to survive, 
  and so does the Ennead. Certain powerful personages do not 
  like the idea of a mixed group of Terrestrial and Celestial 
  gods forming a syndicate that operates outside the accepted 
  procedures of Heaven or Creation.
  THE TRIAD OF ICE
  The Ennead’s gods of ice oversee forces that influence 
  the lives of every Haslanti. Winter weather can destroy a 
  household as assuredly as any bandit or invader, but it also 
  protects the League from its enemies. The killing cold also 
  opens the way to the riches of the Great Ice. While winter 
  can isolate a household from other people, it also forces the 
  isolated people to learn loyalty to one another. The Haslanti 
  view the Triad of Ice as governing the ambiguous forces of 
  danger and opportunity.
  AUTUMN FROST
  Autumn Frost has steadfastly avoided the Immaculates 
  at every turn. Even when surrounded, even when cornered, 
  he has always found a way out despite overwhelming odds. 
  For that is Autumn Frost’s story. He plays the odds, takes 
  unbelievable chances, activates probabilities of success and 
  guarantees the odds of failure for his enemies.
  The Haslanti regard an early frost as an apt symbol 
  for the uncertainties of their lives. A frost before harvest 
  can doom a farmer, but open the White Sea to iceships. 
  Therefore, one must be ready to change plans and leap for 
  new opportunities as they arise. You still might die, but if 
  you’re strong, determined and cunning enough, you might 
  win a fortune.
  The trickster of the Ennead sometimes rewards Haslanti 
  who take chances at great stakes with boons of luck. Whether 
  this is good luck or bad, the person must work out for himself. 
  He lures in the bandits who carry a fortune in jade (if you 
  can take it from them) or scatters the reindeer so the pursu-
  ing herdsman finds a new emerald. Sometimes, he levies 
  his blessing on people who strive too much for safety and 
  security. Autumn Frost does appreciate prayers, however. 
  Ardent devotees are more likely to find their way through 
  life’s dangers.
  Travelers, gamblers and those who hope for romance pray 
  to Autumn Frost for luck. So do people who search for lost 
  things. Nearly every Haslanti offers him prayers at one time 
  or another, though. Only the most timid cowards and those 
  who fear the god himself refuse to speak his name. Haslanti 
  folk never pray to Autumn Frost for luck in battle. They would 
  rather keep the god’s involvement in life-or-death situations 
  to a minimum, given his/her unpredictability.
  Autumn Frost changes appearance and even gender. He/
  she usually dresses in warm layers of bright blue wool and 
  warm fur but goes open-coated, with a broad, sly smile and 
  wide, ever-youthful eyes. The god frequents gambling houses 
  and wanders lonely roads in search of optimistic risk-takers 
  who seem game for a challenge.
  Sanctum: The odds are against anyone finding Autumn 
  Frost’s modest forest lodge. It exists in between the cracks of 
  probability. There is always an extremely slight chance that it 
  waits around the next bend in the road or over the next ridge, 
  but most visitors come upon it only if Autumn Frost wills it. 
  The place itself is a small, comfortably furnished house. Visi-
  tors who peek behind closet doors, under rugs or in bushels 
  of fruit, inevitably find some lost, forgotten trinket.
  Motivation: To encourage risk as the only way the Haslanti 
  will achieve their full potential.
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5; Charisma 3, 
  Manipulation 7, Appearance 5; Perception 5, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 5
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 3
  Abilities: Awareness 4, Bureaucracy 5, Dodge 4, Integrity 3, 
  Investigation 3, Larceny 4, Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; 
  Others: High Realm, Low Realm, Northern Barbarian 
  Tongues, Skytongue) 4, Lore 3, Martial Arts 2, Melee 2, Oc-
  cult 4, Performance 5, Presence 5, Resistance 3, Socialize 5, 
  Stealth 5, War 1
  Backgrounds: Allies 2, Artifact 4, Backing 2, Contacts 3, 
  Salary 2, Sanctum 2 (Autumn Frost’s Lodge), Sanctum 4 
  (House of the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Banish—Autumn Frost can remove unwanted guests from 
  his/her mansion for 12 motes and one Willpower.
  Benefaction—All Encompassing. Autumn Frost gifts those 
  who take great risks with a one-die bonus on all rolls for one 
  scene. This Charm costs 15 motes and one Willpower.
  Calculated Order of Immediate Action—There is always the 
  chance that the thing you need is nearby, just as there is 
  always the possibility that it isn’t where you thought you 
  put it. The Haslanti don’t believe that they ever just lose 
  anything. In their lore, Autumn Frost takes them. Or gives 
  
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  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  them back. He/she also provides new things, such as that 
  trusty blade just when you thought you were done for. Au-
  tumn Frost can create or destroy items at up to Power Level 
  3. These items tend to be useful. Autumn Frost creates or 
  removes objects to test someone or even the odds in some 
  way, to see how or if they can succeed with or without some 
  item. Destroyed items are usually re-created and returned, 
  though it could be a long wait.
  Call—Autumn Frost can instantly contact any other member 
  of the Triad of Ice. Costs one mote.
  Divine Decree—By spending 10 motes and one Willpower, 
  Autumn Frost easily rearranges probability in situations 
  where odds are clearly defined, such as in games of chance. 
  He/she can, for instance, change the odds of rolling snake-
  eyes on a pair of six-sided dice to 100 percent or make it 
  virtually impossible for a coin to land on “tails,” changing 
  it from 1 in 2 to 1 in 1,000. With more effort, he/she can 
  change the odds of anything at all occurring, making it nigh 
  on impossible to find the road home or very likely that you 
  come upon a reliable guide. He cannot make anything oc-
  cur directly, though. He can only make events likely or not 
  likely, to varying degrees.
  Dreamscape—Autumn Frost appears to his/her priests, en-
  couraging them to trust that all that happens does so for the 
  greater good. Costs one mote.
  Host of Spirits—Costs three motes per copy.
  Hoodwink—Autumn Frost keeps many pranks and weird feats 
  up his sleeve designed specifically to stun and bewilder the 
  target into inaction.
  Hurry Home—For five motes, Autumn Frost can return to his 
  lodge, to the House of the Nine Hearths or to the location 
  of any game of chance in the Haslanti League.
  Impromptu Messenger—Autumn Frost delights in putting 
  words in people’s mouths. Sometimes, people find themselves 
  tongue-tied, and Autumn Frost provides them with dialogue. 
  This can be an apropos explanation, a sorely unfortunate 
  accusation or any other brief statement that makes life 
  interesting for the target—never when nothing is at stake. 
  Costs five motes.
  Intrusion-Seeking Method—Autumn Frost can detect when 
  someone finds his forest lodge.
  Materialize—Costs 65 motes.
  Measure the Wind—Autumn Frost naturally likes to know if 
  any odds-upsetting people are around. Costs one mote.
  Principle of Motion—Autumn Frost keeps eight extra actions 
  stored.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Larceny, Presence
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Larceny, Presence
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Larceny, Presence
  Join Battle: 9
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 3B, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 6B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 7, Damage 3B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1
  Soak: 11L/16B (Heavy clothing, 2L/5B, and Vest of Chance, 
  6L/6B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 7 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 5 
  Essence Pool: 90
  Other Notes: Those attacking Autumn Frost often suffer 
  wildly bad luck thanks to his Vest of Chance. This garment of 
  woven starmetal resonates with the Loom of Fate to decreases 
  the odds of any attack touching the god. It subtracts three 
  successes from attack rolls, and if this removes all successes, 
  the roll becomes a botch.
  LADY CHIMNEY DRAFT
  Lady Chimney Draft is the goddess of the chill that 
  comes when a guest enters a house and of the warmth that 
  comes of trust and companionship. She watches over guest-
  host relationships and hospitality between neighbors, friends 
  and strangers. Lady Chimney Draft also oversees marriages, 
  divorces and adoptions, none of which can be recognized 
  without her priests’ ratification and seal.
  The obeisance of the Haslanti delights her, while being 
  inhospitable toward guests or neighbors or failing to honor 
  one’s own marriage vows brings out her chill resentment. 
  She is proper and well mannered, always following the same 
  rules of hospitality that she demands of mortals. Shows of 
  reverence make her politely giddy; bad manners provoke 
  an icy, but well-spoken, disdain. In addition to demanding 
  good manners, she is unfailingly critical to those who make 
  illegal or unreasonable requests of their hosts or guests. She 
  has little sympathy for those who make illogical, brazen or 
  shameless excuses for lack of hospitality.
  Haslanti pray to Lady Chimney Draft at harvest time 
  and when bringing in a catch, always making sure to save a 
  portion of their stores for neighbors and itinerant strangers 
  who come to their house. They also pray to her when lighting 
  their hearths, that she might keep the chill at bay and not 
  allow the fires to die. Traders often pay special reverence to 
  Lady Chimney Draft, as they often find themselves subject 
  to the hospitality of strangers. Ivrieinen of the Triad of Fate 
  delegates to the other goddess some work regarding suitable 
  marriages. While Lady Chimney Draft normally only ratifies 
  marriages, she does sometimes help to bring suitable couples 
  together, as per Ivrieinen’s instructions.
  Lady Chimney Draft manifests as a middle-aged, hardy 
  woman with white-blonde hair and deep, grandmotherly 
  wrinkles around a prim smile. She wears plain clothes com-
  mon to Haslanti women and often travels hand-in-hand with 
  her consort, Master Winter. She is no great fighter, relying 
  on Master Winter and Autumn Frost for protection.
  Sanctum: Lady Chimney Draft dwells with Master Winter 
  in his castle.
  Motivation: To safeguard the rules of hospitality.
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5; Charisma 4, 
  Manipulation 6, Appearance 5; Perception 5, Intelligence 5, 
  Wits 4
  
  128
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 5, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Awareness 5, Bureaucracy 5, Dodge 2, Integ-
  rity 3, Investigation 4, Larceny 1, Linguistics (Native: Old 
  Realm; Others: High Realm, Northern Barbarian Tongues, 
  Skytongue) 3, Lore 4, Martial Arts 1, Medicine 3, Melee 1, 
  Occult 4, Performance 5, Presence 5, Resistance 3, Socialize 5, 
  Survival 3
  Backgrounds: Allies 2, Backing 2, Contacts 3, Manse 2, 
  Manse 4, Salary 3, Sanctum 3 (Winter Fastness), Sanctum 4 
  (House of the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Banish the Vulgar—For 12 motes, Lady Chimney Draft can 
  deny entrance to any Haslanti house, from a single home to 
  (for especially troublesome offenders) all Haslanti houses. 
  Affected persons simply cannot pass through any door to any 
  lived-in house. They find the door closed and locked, even 
  if it was open a second before and doesn’t have a lock. The 
  same applies for windows and chimneys.
  Call—For one mote, Lady Chimney Draft can instantly 
  contact any other member of the Triad of Ice.
  Consecrate Marriage—Lady Chimney Draft consecrates 
  Haslanti marriages in the same manner that Eclipse Caste 
  Solars sanctify agreements, with the same consequences 
  for people who violate their marriage vows. Lady Chimney 
  Draft must physically attend the wedding to use this Charm. 
  Costs 10 motes.
  Endowment—People who excel at hospitality might receive 
  a boon of one additional dot of Presence or Appearance for 
  one of their children.
  Hurry Home—Lady Chimney Draft can return to Master 
  Winter’s castle or the House of the Nine Hearths, or instantly 
  transport to any Haslanti house that has a guest.
  Materialize—Costs 60 motes.
  Principle of Motion—Lady Chimney Draft keeps eight extra 
  actions stored.
  Pyre of Camaraderie Meditation—In this version of Subtle 
  Whisper, Lady Chimney Draft lends Essence to a bonfire, 
  hearth or campfire around which people meet, increasing 
  the agreeableness of all.
  Spice of Custodial Delectation—Lady Chimney Draft often visits 
  the homes of her priests and relishes their hospitality.
  Vengeful Gift Technique—Those who anger, insult or seriously 
  displease Lady Chimney Draft through grudging, resentful 
  hospitality receive a gift of food—perhaps a basket at their 
  door containing all of the target’s favorite dishes. The bas-
  ket will not be depleted for as long as the target, who never 
  feels full, eats of it. This food carries the god’s curse, which 
  transforms the eater while he sleeps into a twisted cripple, 
  suffering -2 Appearance and additional disabling effects 
  
  129
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  (see Exalted, p.152) at the Storyteller’s discretion. This effect 
  cannot heal naturally and cannot be reversed by any spirit 
  of less than Essence 4.
  Words of Power—Individuals who persistently test Lady 
  Chimney Draft’s patience receive a personal visit from the 
  lady, who righteously dresses them down, dealing damage 
  as she does so.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Presence, Socialize
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Presence, Socialize
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Awareness
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Awareness, Presence
  Join Battle: 9
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 3B, Parry DV 4, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 6, Damage 6B, Parry DV 2, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 6, Damage 3B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Soak: 13L/15B (Robes of office, 10L/10B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 6 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 4 
  Essence Pool: 80
  Other Notes: None
  MASTER WINTER
  In the new Haslanti order, Master Winter is the god of 
  preparedness and settled accounts, of the dangers of winter 
  and the terrible storms it brings. He has no pity for people 
  who do not make necessary provision for the future, but he 
  behaves kindly to sensible, reliable and conscientious folk. 
  Winter is the time for hardworking folk to enjoy the fruits 
  of their labors.
  In winter, the god walks throughout Haslanti lands 
  with his tally sticks and account books, recording snowfall 
  and noting the movements of clouds for his reports to the 
  Bureau of Seasons. During the summer months, he stays in 
  his castle, patiently crafting snowflakes and frost crystals 
  with hammer and chisel.
  Master Winter leads the Triad of Ice, setting their overall 
  agenda and laying preparations against attack from any front, 
  with thousands of emergency disaster policies committed 
  to memory. As the most formidable of the three, he is also 
  their protector.
  The Haslanti pray to Master Winter for foresight in 
  warfare, when planting crops, when making or seeking a 
  loan, and in all cases when planning or preparing for the 
  future. They also speak his name at births, that an infant will 
  grow up to be industrious and responsible; and at deaths, to 
  prepare a spirit for its next journey.
  Master Winter is the oldest-looking of the triad, with 
  a long, icicle beard, cloud-white hair and frost breath. He 
  wears blue robes, a cloak of steel snowflakes and warm, 
  furred boots.
  Sanctum: Master Winter’s castle, the Winter Fastness, is a 
  giant fortress made entirely of ice, hidden among mountains 
  in the Far North. Many wind spirits guard the castle and its 
  environs. Terrible winter storms reign over the region for 
  miles around, further obscuring its location and discouraging 
  unwanted visitors. It is a level-4 Air manse as well. Master 
  Winter also visits the House of the Nine Hearths of Emerald 
  and Silver.
  Motivation: To prepare the Haslanti for any and all dan-
  gers.
  Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 5, Stamina 5; Charisma 3, 
  Manipulation 5, Appearance 5; Perception 5, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 5
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 5, Temperance 1, 
  Valor 3
  Abilities: Awareness 5, Bureaucracy 5, Dodge 3, Integrity 3, 
  Investigation 4, Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: 
  Haslanti Barbarian Tongues, High Realm, Skytongue) 3, Lore 4, 
  Martial Arts 4, Melee 4 (Cudgel +2), Occult 4, Performance 4, 
  Presence 5, Resistance 4, Socialize 4, Survival 5 (The Far 
  North +4), Thrown 4 (Ice Shuriken +2), War 3
  Backgrounds: Allies 3, Artifact 4, Backing 3, Contacts 3, 
  Cult 3, Manse 4, Salary 3, Sanctum 3 (Winter Fastness), 
  Sanctum 4 (House of the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Affinity Water Control—Master Winter can freeze water 
  and manipulate it as snow or ice. He cannot manipulate 
  water in liquid form apart from freezing it, however. The 
  environmental hazards he can create are limited to snow, 
  sleet and hail storms (and he cannot make them toxic). His 
  elemental weapon is expressed by a breath of bitter cold 
  snow and ice.
  Amethyst Awareness—Costs six motes.
  Banish—Master Winter can forcibly remove anyone from 
  his castle.
  Calculated Order of Immediate Action—Master Winter can 
  create a smaller version of his sanctum anywhere he finds 
  sufficient ice and snow. To do so requires five invocations of 
  the Charm, each costing 10 motes and one Willpower.
  Call—For one mote, Master Winter can instantly contact 
  any other member of the Triad of Ice.
  Elemental Expression—Master Winter can amplify the effects 
  of snow, ice and freezing wind as the elemental power.
  Essence Bite—Touching or being touched by Master Winter 
  (including attacks using melee weapons) incurs lethal cold 
  damage, at a cost of two motes per die. Master Winter can use 
  this Charm in concert with Freezing Attack Technique.
  Essence Plethora—Master Winter has 10 extra motes of Es-
  sence.
  Freezing Attack Technique—For six motes, Master Winter 
  can, with any successful attack, freeze the target in place. 
  This Charm does not affect targets with an Essence higher 
  than 5. Other targets’ players must roll (Stamina + Resis-
  tance) with an external penalty equal to Master Winter’s 
  Valor (3). Failure means the target is covered in thick ice 
  and frost and suffers a -3 penalty to all non-reflexive dice 
  pools for the duration of the scene or until Master Winter 
  releases the target.
  
  130
  Hurry Home—Master Winter can instantly return to his 
  castle, to the House of the Nine Hearths or to any location 
  suffering a winter storm.
  Impenetrable Frost Barrier—This Charm duplicates the Ter-
  restrial Circle spell of the same name. Costs 12 motes.
  Invulnerable Skin of Ice—This Charm emulates the Terrestrial 
  Circle spell Invulnerable Skin of Bronze. For 10 motes Master 
  Winter gains +5L/10B soak and +5L/5B Hardness, as his skin 
  hardens into magical ice. His Martial Arts attacks deal two 
  extra dice of damage, and he weighs an extra 50 pounds.
  Materialize—Costs 65 motes.
  Principle of Motion—Master Winter keeps eight extra ac-
  tions stored.
  Shards of Winter—Master Winter can produce ice shuriken 
  at will. One mote creates four ice shuriken.
  Storm Manipulation Scenario—Master Winter makes sure 
  that communities that do not prepare for the winter suffer 
  for it. For 12 motes, he sends freezing winds, and great quan-
  tities of blinding snow blanket an area one mile in radius. 
  This inflicts a -2 external penalty on all actions for anyone 
  caught in the blizzard. The god returns to the site several 
  times during the winter to repeat the chastisement. Master 
  Winter also uses this power against enemy armies, spirits or 
  the Exalted. Exalted of greater than Essence 5 may negate 
  the effects for themselves by displaying their animal banner 
  if no other means are available.
  Storm-Shuttle Passport—For eight motes and one Willpower, 
  Master Winter can ride the winds.
  Symbol of Invincible Authority—Master Winter is naturally 
  immune to all cold effects.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Investigation, Presence
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Investigation, 
  Presence
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Investigation, Pres-
  ence
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Awareness, Investigation
  Join Battle: 10
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 6B, Parry DV 6, 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 9B, Parry DV 4, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 10, Damage 6B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1
  Cudgel of Adamant Hoarfrost: Speed 5, Accuracy 16, Dam-
  age 12L, Parry DV 4, Rate 2
  Ice Shuriken: Speed 4, Accuracy 11, Damage 8L, Range 50, 
  Rate 4
  Soak: 18L/25B (Cloak of Iron Snowflakes, 15L/20B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 7 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 5 
  Essence Pool: 100
  Other Notes: Master Winter’s Cudgel of Adamant Hoarfrost 
  glows a deep blue when used in battle. Players of enemies 
  attempting to strike Master Winter while the cudgel is thus 
  active suffer a two-die penalty to all rolls for the duration of 
  combat. Those with characters possessing a natural or Charm-
  based resistance to cold effects suffer a one-die penalty instead. 
  Targets struck by the cudgel also receive one automatic level of 
  lethal damage before soak is applied and damage is calculated. 
  This damage is not included in the normal damage dealt by 
  the cudgel. Activating the cudgel for one scene costs Master 
  Winter one mote (20 motes for anyone else).
  THE TRIAD OF DREAMS
  The Triad of Dreams oversees the realms of fears, delu-
  sions and aspirations as well as literal sleep and dreaming. 
  It is the weakest triad as a whole, but its deities wield great 
  influence in the daily lives of the Haslanti people. The first 
  god in the triad is a spirit of worry and dismay who feeds on 
  nightmares. The second watches over people who work for 
  their dreams and seek their destinies. The last reminds mortals 
  of the need for rest and the value of dreams and fantasy.
  CARRION CROW
  Carrion Crow is the Haslanti goddess of nightmares and 
  winter terrors, as well as disease, famine and murder. She 
  watches over old resentments, nursed grudges and domestic 
  violence, and eases the aged and infirm toward death.
  Carrion Crow is Master Winter’s daughter. The Haslanti 
  consider her a springtime goddess, as she consumes the car-
  rion left after the winter thaw. At the first sign of spring, her 
  worshipers leave her rotten food from their winter larders 
  outside their doors. In this way, Carrion Crow helps limit 
  the spread of disease. Some tribes pray for her aid in battle 
  (imagining that she has some connection to Voharun) or 
  for protection against sickness.
  Haslanti who declare blood feuds or carry lesser hatreds 
  must disclose their resentment to Carrion Crow and pray 
  for her blessing and for advice. Carrion Crow records these 
  disclosures in her black books. Carrion Crow favors mortals 
  who diligently report their disagreements (even if they never 
  act on them) and who deal responsibly with carrion. Mortals 
  who do not want to carry their grudges to the point of vio-
  lence can ask Carrion Crow to chastise their enemy through 
  a nightmare. Many a vendetta is nipped in the bud when a 
  Haslanti first realizes that his horrible dreams come because 
  he insulted or injured another person without meaning to do 
  so then apologizes. Yet, mortals who practice violence with-
  out prayerful reflection earn Carrion Crow’s ire. Vendettas 
  originating or acted upon while Carrion Crow sleeps through 
  the winter may go undocumented for weeks, resulting in a 
  fair number of reprimands and a few serious punishments 
  every year. (The mortals should have waited.)
  If a worshiper prays for Carrion Crow’s direct intercession, 
  she may take on a vendetta herself. She first uses Dreamscape 
  to appear to and interrogate all concerned parties. If Carrion 
  Crow decides that the petitioner’s desire for revenge arises 
  from a genuinely heinous crime against him, she person-
  ally metes out appropriate justice as she deems fit. Carrion 
  Crow then notifies all concerned mortals in their dreams 
  
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  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  that she has rendered her punishment, and she declares the 
  vendetta resolved. As with the rest of the Ennead, however, 
  Carrion Crow believes that mortals should usually deal with 
  their own problems. She assumes a vendetta only when no 
  mortal revenge is possible or to punish extraordinary crimes 
  in humorously horrible ways.
  Although the Haslanti people see Carrion Crow as a god 
  of nightmare, they do not necessarily fear her. They know 
  full well that terrible things happen. While most Haslanti 
  try their best not to anger Carrion Crow, they accept her 
  nightmares and random disasters as a part of life.
  Carrion Crow appears as a naked old woman with pale 
  skin, a crow’s head and black feathers on her arms and hands. 
  Her hands are like a crow’s claws. She is the oldest and most 
  powerful of the Triad of Dreams, having been a fixture in the 
  lives of the Northern tribes for over 1,000 years.
  Sanctum: Carrion Crow’s nest in Creation is located on an 
  island cave. It is a giant structure woven from the tightly 
  packed live branches of massive growing trees, with hundreds 
  of “rooms” on multiple levels. The area reeks of carrion and 
  death and is overrun with carrion-eating beasts who feast 
  on rotting flesh.
  Motivation: To enforce the proper execution of revenge.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 4; Charisma 2, 
  Manipulation 5, Appearance 5; Perception 4, Intelligence 5, 
  Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 4, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Athletics 2 (Flying +2), Awareness 5, Bureaucracy 4, 
  Dodge 3 (Flying +2), Integrity 3, Investigation 5, Larceny 4, 
  Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: High Realm, Low 
  Realm, Northern Barbarian Tongues, Skytongue) 4, Lore 4, 
  Martial Arts 3, Occult 3, Performance 5, Presence 5, Resis-
  tance 3, Socialize 3, War 1
  Backgrounds: Allies 2, Backing 2, Contacts 2, Cult 2, Salary 2, 
  Sanctum 2 (Carrion Crow’s Nest), Sanctum 4 (House of 
  the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Bane Weapon—When acting upon a mortal’s resentment, 
  Carrion Crow’s claws become weapons that ignore the target’s 
  soak and hardness. Costs five motes.
  Banish—Carrion Crow can eject unwanted guests from her 
  nest for 12 motes and one Willpower.
  Calculated Order of Immediate Action—Carrion Crow uses 
  this Charm to accelerate the spread of disease from neglected 
  carrion, spoiled food and other filth.
  Claws of the Crow—Spending 10 motes, Carrion Crow 
  transforms her hands into giant crow’s claws, with effects 
  similar to the Terrestrial Circle spell Wood Dragon’s Claw 
  (see Exalted, p. 254).
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Carrion Crow can cause or 
  quell disease, famine, decay or vendettas.
  Dreamscape—Carrion Crow invades the dreams of the 
  Haslanti regularly for many reasons, but usually to advise a 
  supplicant or to punish mortals who committed some vengeful 
  act without first reporting their resentment to the god. In the 
  latter case, Carrion Crow uses the dream to deliver a social 
  attack through a nightmare about the target’s being punished. 
  The recipients of nightmares do not regain Willpower from 
  that night’s unquiet sleep.
  Essence Plethora—Carrion Crow has 10 extra motes of 
  Essence.
  Harrow the Mind—Carrion Crow enforces resolved resent-
  ments with this Charm and uses it to ease people toward 
  accepting death. She typically uses this Charm in concert 
  with Subtle Whisper.
  Hurry Home—For five motes, Carrion Crow can return to 
  her nest or to the House of the Nine Hearths.
  Intrusion-Sensing Method—Carrion Crow knows instantly 
  when vendettas consecrated to her have been completed or 
  if the offended person receives an apology.
  Landscape Hide—When Carrion Crow hibernates through 
  the winter, she becomes one with her nest.
  Loom Stride—Carrion Crow appears and disappears like a 
  dream.
  Malediction of Disease—Carrion Crow carries disease in her 
  body. When Melee or Martial Arts attacks strike her (whether 
  she takes damage or not), a noxious cloud engulfs the attacker 
  and infects him with Carrion Plague (functionally identical 
  to plague, as described on p. 353 of Exalted, but the victim 
  stinks of rotting flesh). In addition, the target suffers lethal 
  health level loss, bypassing armor, as per the Essence Bite 
  Charm. Costs three motes per health level of damage.
  Materialize—Costs 55 motes.
  Principle of Motion—Carrion Crow keeps five extra actions 
  stored.
  Spice of Custodial Delectation—Carrion Crow gains Essence 
  when worshipers report their resentments through prayer and 
  also when they offer her their spoiled food and carrion.
  Subtle Whisper—Typically used to deliver Harrow the Mind 
  without it being obvious.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Investigation, Performance, 
  Presence
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Investigation, Performance, 
  Presence
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Investigation, Performance, 
  Presence
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Performance, Presence
  Join Battle: 9
  Attacks:
  Claw: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 5B, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 7B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 4B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Soak: 6L/8B (Divine skin, 4L/4B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 6 (7 when flying) 
  Willpower: 7
  Essence: 4 
   
   
  Essence Pool: 85
  Other Notes: Carrion Crow can fly at five times her ground 
  movement rates.
  
  132
  OWL FROM OUT OF THE EAST
  Owl from out of the East manifests as an enormous 
  horned owl with a nine-foot wingspan. He once served the 
  Horned Judge, a venerable god of law and oaths among 
  the Outwall tribes, and was promoted and installed in the 
  Ennead a mere 50 years ago. Owl is the Haslanti god of 
  consummation and completion, rewarding those who strive 
  to achieve their dreams. His worshipers see him as a divinity 
  of prosperity and call upon him to aid them in business, law 
  and social endeavors.
  Owl promotes the value of good, just laws, for an orderly 
  society gives the best chance for many people to realize their 
  dreams. He punishes magistrates who do not interpret laws 
  honestly and citizens who do not obey them. Owl also tells 
  the Haslanti to develop careful and prudent plans for real-
  izing their dreams and then to stick to them. Mortals pray 
  to Owl for inspiration, that they may find clever ideas and 
  solutions in their problems. Owl particularly admires the 
  Haslanti engineers and visits the air boat shipyards at least 
  once a year.
  Sanctum: Owl from out of the East returns to the House of 
  the Nine Hearths of Emerald and Silver periodically. Being 
  ever watchful, he does not otherwise maintain a sanctum.
  Motivation: To make sure that mortals follow their plans 
  to completion.
  Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 4, Stamina 5; Charisma 3, 
  Manipulation 5, Appearance 5; Perception 4, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 5, Temperance 1, 
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Athletics 2 (Flying +2), Awareness 4, Bureaucracy 5, 
  Craft (Wood) 2, Dodge 4 (Flying +2), Integrity 4, Investiga-
  tion 2, Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: High Realm, 
  Low Realm, Northern Barbarian Tongues, Riverspeak, Sky-
  tongue) 5, Lore 4, Martial Arts 4, Occult 3, Performance 5, 
  Presence 5, Resistance 3, Socialize 4, War 2
  Backgrounds: Allies 2, Backing 2, Contacts 3, Salary 2, 
  Sanctum 4 (House of the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Benefaction—Favored priests and judges who pray for wisdom 
  may receive one additional dot of Wits.
  Calculated Order of Immediate Action—Owl can complete any 
  project in an instant, just as another person planned it. If the 
  plan was not sound in the first place, the project fails.
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Owl may exert his influence 
  in the realm of justice, courts and law; he can use this Charm 
  in either the six-mote or 12-mote forms.
  Dreamscape—Owl delivers advice or warns of his displeasure 
  in divinely cryptic, symbolic fashion, but when worshipers 
  successfully carry out a plan he may offer an “Attaboy” that 
  requires no interpretation.
  Geas—When resolve seems lacking, Owl can force mortals 
  to carry through on their plans.
  Hurry Home—Owl can transport himself to the House of 
  the Nine Hearths of Emerald and Silver.
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  133
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Impromptu Messenger—For five motes, Owl can speak through 
  his priests. He typically does so only when a public project is 
  failing or if some high-profile or important job isn’t getting 
  done and needs to for the sake of the community’s survival.
  Intrusion-Sensing Method—Owl knows instantly when projects 
  consecrated to him have been completed, or if they have 
  been abandoned for more than one week.
  Inspirational Endowment—Owl visits the target in his sleep and 
  fires his imagination, revealing workable solution to difficult 
  or long-standing problems. For one scene in the next day, an 
  attempt by the target to find a solution to a problem receives 
  two bonus dice. Costs 12 motes, one Willpower.
  Landscape Travel—Owl can fly at double speed for 4 
  motes.
  Materialize—Costs 60 motes.
  Melodious Diagnostic Report—Used to see how the Haslanti 
  League and the component city-states and tribes are doing 
  at carrying out their plans.
  Memory Mirror—Owl knows the true minds of his worship-
  ers. He can search the memory of anyone who has prayed 
  to him in the past 30 days.
  Principle of Motion—Owl has eight actions stored.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Investigation, Presence
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Investigation, Presence
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Investigation
  Join Battle: 8
  Attacks:
  Claw: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 6L, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Bite: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 9L, Parry DV —, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 5B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Soak: 8L/12B (Tough feathers, 5L/7B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 6 (7 if flying) Willpower: 8
  Essence: 4 
  Essence Pool: 80
  Other Notes: Without using Charms, Owl from out of the 
  East can fly at five times his ground movement rates.
  SNOWSHOE HARE AMONG BRAMBLES
  With the death of the former Haslanti dream god, 
  Snowshoe Hare was promoted to the region’s principle god 
  of dreams. He ensures good sleep and pleasant dreams, and 
  reminds his worshipers that rest and relaxation are neces-
  sary for health and a full, meaningful life. Pregnant Haslanti 
  women also pray to him nightly, as do laborers and hunters. 
  The Haslanti believe that catching sight of him while dream-
  ing means good luck, but seeing him in the waking world is a 
  bad omen. Snowshoe Hare’s worshipers keep dream journals 
  as a religious rite. Even more than most Haslanti, they seek 
  visions of their destinies in their dreams.
  Snowshoe Hare has many responsibilities. In addition 
  to administering the realm of sleep for the nation, he also 
  crafts and delivers dreams for many fellow Haslanti gods, 
  who rely on his expertise to communicate their wishes and 
  warnings. (Most of the now-neglected Haslanti gods now 
  need Snowshoe Hare’s favor if they want to send dreams. 
  Other members of the Ennead can send whatever dreams they 
  please.) Despite this vast workload, Snowshoe Hare sleeps 
  often. While doing so, he can visit the dreams of anyone 
  currently sleeping.
  Snowshoe Hare manifests as a large white rabbit with 
  enormous ears and feet. Although he constantly moves from 
  one job to another, he never seems hurried or overworked.
  Sanctum: Snowshoe Hare sleeps in many deep warrens 
  throughout the Far North.
  Motivation: To promote the value of dreams and to provide 
  peaceful sleep.
  Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 7, Stamina 5; Charisma 3, 
  Manipulation 6, Appearance 4; Perception 4, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Athletics 5, Awareness 4, Bureaucracy 5, Dodge 8, 
  Integrity 2, Investigation 2, Larceny 4, Linguistics (Native: 
  Old Realm; Others: High Realm, Northern Barbarian Tribes, 
  Skytongue) 3, Lore 4 (Dream Symbolism +3), Martial Arts 2, 
  Occult 4, Performance 5 (Dream Narratives +3), Presence 4, 
  Resistance 4, Socialize 5, Stealth 4, Survival 5
  Backgrounds: Allies 3, Backing 3, Contacts 3, Cult 3, Sal-
  ary 3, Sanctum 3 (Dream Warrens), Sanctum 4 (House of 
  the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Banish—Snowshoe Hare can banish sleepers from the 
  dreamscape.
  Divine Decree—Snowshoe Hare may command lesser spirits 
  of sleep and dreams, such as dream flies (see pp. 35–36 of 
  The Books of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious 
  Divinity I).
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Snowshoe Hare can make 
  wholesale decrees regarding sleep and dreams such as, “The 
  citizens of Tuskstad shall not sleep for seven days.” While 
  such a declaration seems like a punishment, sometimes such 
  is necessary in order for people to complete necessary tasks. 
  Hare has the power with such a declaration to negate all ill 
  effects resulting from lack of sleep.
  Dreamscape—Snowshoe Hare molds the stuff of dreams to 
  his own specifications and can create as many autonomous 
  dream-creatures that obey his will, as suits his whim. These 
  are usually pleasant dreams.
  Endowment—All-Encompassing (but this does not cost 
  extra motes or Willpower, as it deals directly with the core 
  of Snowshoe Hare’s divine duties). Snowshoe Hare can is-
  sue endowments while the subject sleeps. A subject dreams 
  that he possesses such a gift, and he really does for one scene 
  after he wakes. Snowshoe Hare never spends more than 
  15 motes on this Charm, though, so he grants only minor 
  endowments.
  Enter Dream—For five motes, Snowshoe Hare can enter 
  any sleeping Haslanti’s dream. While doing so, Snowshoe 
  Hare is dematerialized and cannot be harmed physically. 
  
  134
  Once inside a dream, the god can travel to other dreams for 
  an additional five motes, leave the dreamscape entirely for 
  one mote (emerging at the location of the sleeper), or use 
  Hurry Home to return to his warren.
  Hurry Home—The god can instantly return to his dream-
  warren or to the House of the Nine Hearths.
  Impromptu Messenger—Mortals talk in their sleep to deliver 
  messages from Snowshoe Hare.
  Infallible Escape Method—This Charm is similar to the Charm 
  Slippery Escape Method (see Scroll of the Monk, p. 43). 
  How do you hold a dream?
  Materialize—Costs 60 motes.
  Principle of Motion—Snowshoe Hare has eight actions 
  banked.
  Sudden Sleep Prana—Costs 3 motes. A target’s player must 
  roll (Willpower – Snowshoe Hare’s Essence of 4) or she im-
  mediately goes to sleep.
  Worldly Illusion—Snowshoe Hare can call other creatures 
  into a shared dream.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Lore, Performance, Stealth
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Lore, Performance, Stealth
  Join Battle: 8
  Attacks:
  Kick: Speed 4, Accuracy 8, Damage 4B, Parry DV 8, Rate 2
  Soak: 9L/11B (Evanescent substance, 6L/6B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 10 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 4 
  Essence Pool: 80
  Other Notes: None
  THE TRIAD OF FATE
  The Haslanti do not think of fate as an inescapable 
  destiny. Their gods of fate exist as more of a balm to the 
  many misfortunes that the Haslanti suffer as a by-product 
  of their environment and their history. They are the most 
  powerful members of the Ennead, and they assisted in 
  uniting the tribes in the first place. These gods are also 
  the most influential, for nearly every Haslanti offers them 
  prayers and observances. The Triad of Fate commands a 
  wide sphere of influence, affording it authority over many 
  other gods. All three gods can be either positive or nega-
  tive influences on the Haslanti, able both to protect and 
  to bring grave misfortune.
  The Immaculate crusaders tried to humble these three 
  gods but never succeeded. Even finding them proved im-
  possible, for none of the Triad seem to ever stop moving 
  and working. They also have protection in Heaven. They 
  are Terrestrial gods, but with powerful connections to the 
  Loom of Fate. Yet, they suffer frequent interference from the 
  Bureau of Destiny and cannot assist the Haslanti too much, 
  lest they suffer that Bureau’s wrath.
  IVRIEINEN
  The Lady Who Finds Good Partners and Shuts the Doors 
  of Infatuation
  Ivrieinen weaves the Tapestry of Fate such that Haslanti 
  men and women find and recognize those who can become 
  their friends and mates. She also draws apart people who 
  would quarrel and bring discord to their communities if 
  they married. She has few other concerns. While Ivrieinen 
  sometimes aids people trapped under Carrion Crow’s influ-
  ence, she cares most for those of marriageable age and their 
  relationships with another.
  The Lady Who Finds Good Partners seeks individuals 
  who would find joy and contentment together. Conversely, 
  Ivrieinen works to quench passionate but turbulent love 
  affairs (which puts her at odds with several other gods in 
  her division). She also works with many other gods to 
  implement her plans to unite or separate lovers. Snow-
  shoe Hare is one of her chief allies, fashioning dreams 
  for her daily.
  Ivrieinen has little patience for anyone who interfere 
  with her plans. She issues mild reprimands to mortals 
  or gods who push ill-suited lovers together… and much 
  greater punishments to deliberate, repeat offenders. While 
  Ivrieinen never issues a fatal punishment, victims of her 
  personal, extremely creative wrath often wish they were dead 
  after she rips their lives apart. While the Haslanti think 
  of Ivrieinen as a kindly god, she can destroy individuals, 
  families and entire communities by setting people against 
  each other. She is more manipulative than the rest of the 
  Ennead, though she takes particular exception to anyone 
  pointing this out.
  Ivrieinen manifests as an old, grandmotherly woman 
  in a plain blue robe. She has a self-satisfied smile and 
  a twitching nose. Mortals usually cannot recognize her 
  due to camouflaging Charms, but attentive folk can spot 
  Ivrieinen due to her small notebook in which she obses-
  sively writes.
  Sanctum: Ivrieinen dwells in the House of the Nine Hearths 
  of Emerald and Silver.
  Motivation: To preserve the Haslanti social order and prevent 
  domestic violence.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 6, Stamina 5; Charisma 5, 
  Manipulation 6, Appearance 4; Perception 6, Intelligence 6, 
  Wits 6
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 5, Temperance 4, 
  Valor 1
  Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 5, Bureaucracy 6, Craft 
  (Fate) 5, Dodge 5, Integrity 6, Investigation 6, Larceny 3, 
  Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: High Realm, Low 
  Realm, Northern Barbarian Tribes, Riverspeak, Skytongue) 5, 
  Lore 6, Martial Arts 3, Melee 5, Occult 3, Performance 5, 
  Presence 6, Resistance 4, Socialize 4, War 1
  Backgrounds: Allies 4, Backing 3, Contacts 4, Salary 4, 
  Sanctum 4 (House of the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Amethyst Awareness—Little is hidden from agents of Fate.
  Chrysalis of Preservation—Ivrieinen may crystallize loves and 
  enmities to transfer them from person to person.
  
  135
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Destiny Sponsorship—Ivrieinen gains extra defenses only 
  when she performs her specific duties with the acquiescence 
  (if not blessing) of the Division of Serenity.
  Divine Decree—Ivrieinen can arrange for far-flung individuals 
  to meet if she considers them suited for one another. She can 
  also decree that two individuals will never meet, or never 
  meet again, with some assurance that the Bureau of Destiny 
  will not overrule her.
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Ivrieinen can manipulate 
  the bonds of affection on any scale, from couples to nations, 
  either strengthening them or replacing them with anger, 
  jealousy and strife.
  Emergency Prayer Relocation—Ivrieinen often visits mortal 
  petitioners, though mortals often do not realize that she has 
  come in response to their prayers.
  Endowment—Ivrieinen can make her targets attractive or 
  unattractive without changing their overall appearance. 
  She may add or remove one or two dots to Appearance or 
  increase Abilities to make the target more interesting to a 
  potential partner (say, an increase in Craft or Performance) 
  who appreciates the Ability in question. She does not grant 
  these boons lightly, however, and usually reserves them for 
  individuals whose relationship or lack thereof will have wide-
  ranging effects. Costs 15 motes and one Willpower.
  Essence Plethora (x3)—Ivrieinen has 30 extra motes of Es-
  sence.
  Hand of Destiny—If she must, Ivrieinen lets the Loom of 
  Fate itself tell her what actions she and her subordinates 
  must take in order to bring about a happy union… or wreck 
  someone’s life.
  Hurry Home—For five motes, Ivrieinen can transport herself 
  instantly to the nearest gate to Yu-Shan, to the House of 
  the Nine Hearths or to the sanctum of any other god in the 
  Ennead.
  Materialize—Costs 75 motes.
  Measure the Wind—Ivrieinen gauges the power of those she 
  must bless, or those who might oppose her mission.
  Melodious Diagnostic Report—Difficult as mortals can be, 
  there is a solution to every problem. By spending 15 motes 
  and one Willpower, Ivrieinen can meditate upon a particular 
  problem involving her sphere and emerge after a few minutes 
  with the solution.
  Natural Prognostication—Ivrieinen hints at Destiny’s plans, 
  especially when a destiny involves personal relationships.
  Principle of Motion—Ivrieinen has nine actions saved.
  Shapechange—Ivrieinen often travels incognito in Cre-
  ation.
  Touch of Saturn—Can inflict Sickness effects. Cost varies.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Bureaucracy, Craft, 
  Integrity, Investigation, Performance, Presence
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Bureaucracy, Craft, 
  Integrity, Investigation, Performance, Presence
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Bureaucracy, Craft, 
  Integrity, Investigation, Performance, Presence
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Awareness, Craft, Integrity
  Join Battle: 11
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 4B, Parry DV 6, 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 7B, Parry DV 4, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 4B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Soak: 20L/22B (Celestial vestments, 10L/10B; Destiny 
  Sponsorship, 7L/7B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 9 
  Willpower: 9
  Essence: 6 
  Essence Pool: 135
  Other Notes: None
  KIDILOS
  The Lady Who Comforts the Living at the Bedside of the 
  Dying
  Kidilos works to help the Haslanti accept the realities of 
  death. She strives to lessen mortals’ grief and encourage them 
  to make peace with one another before they die. Particularly 
  among the tribes, grief easily slides into an angry desire to 
  punish someone, anyone, for a death. The Haslanti have too 
  much work to do to waste time on extravagant mourning or 
  blood feuds. Although she is not an employee of the Division 
  of Endings, she often works with that Celestial office.
  Kidilos may appear briefly to mortals who comfort the 
  dying, as well as to people who suffer overwhelming grief at 
  the death of a loved one. She never stays long in Creation, 
  but her blessings and influence remain after she departs.
  Most often, Kidilos comforts people through stories. 
  She knows the tale of every battle and the name of every 
  Haslanti who has died and under what conditions. With a 
  little effort she can scrutinize people’s minds and reconstruct 
  a narrative of a man’s life. This telling of tales is a sacred rite, 
  never interrupted, that can help or hinder the bereaved, but 
  always leaves some long-lasting effect.
  Every spring, Carrion Crow identifies the dying and 
  helps Kidilos plan her overall route for the coming months. 
  Snowshoe Hare assists her in sending reassuring dreams to 
  the grieving.
  Kidilos appears as a youthful woman dressed in the 
  cold-weather gear of a Great Ice worker, with layer upon 
  layer of leather and wool, a fur parka and snow goggles. She 
  swiftly glides along the snow on skis, stopping only as her 
  office dictates. Her eyes, should she reveal them to anyone, 
  are old and sad, containing the grief of centuries.
  Sanctum: Kidilos dwells in the House of the Nine Hearths 
  of Emerald and Silver.
  Motivation: To console the bereaved and those who comfort 
  the dying.
  Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 6, Stamina 6; Charisma 5, 
  Manipulation 6, Appearance 5; Perception 5, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 6
  Virtues: Compassion 5, Conviction 3, Temperance 4, 
  Valor 2
  
  136
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 5, Bureaucracy 5, Dodge 6, 
  Integrity 6, Investigation 4, Larceny 3, Linguistics (Native: 
  Old Realm; Others: High Realm, Low Realm, Northern 
  Barbarian Tongues, Skytongue) 4, Lore 6, Martial Arts 4, 
  Medicine 4, Melee 6, Occult 3, Performance 5 (Storytell-
  ing +2), Presence 5, Resistance 4, Socialize 3, Survival 5, 
  War 1
  Backgrounds: Allies 4, Artifact 4, Backing 3, Contacts 4, 
  Salary 3, Sanctum 4 (House of the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Amethyst Awareness—Little is hidden from agents of Fate.
  Destiny Sponsorship—Kidilos gains extra defenses only when 
  she performs her specific duties with the acquiescence (if not 
  the blessing) of the Division of Endings.
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Kidilos can create or assuage 
  grief on any scale, from individuals to nations.
  Emergency Prayer Relocation—Kidilos manifests wherever 
  mortals grieve and pray to her for comfort.
  Geas—Grieving mortals sometimes pledge to perform certain 
  deeds to commemorate a dead loved one. Kidilos can hold 
  them to even the most casual promise, or forbid them from 
  carrying out some foolish or wicked plan.
  Hand of Destiny—When all other methods fail, Kidilos lets 
  the Loom of Fate itself tell her the way to assuage grief or 
  otherwise carry out her plans.
  Hurry Home—Kidilos can transport herself instantly to the 
  nearest gate to Yu-Shan, to the House of the Nine Hearths 
  or to the sanctum of any member of the Ennead.
  Landscape Travel—Kidilos can travel over snow at double 
  speed and gains a one-die bonus to all Dexterity rolls while 
  traveling on skis. Costs eight motes.
  Materialize—Costs 75 motes.
  Material Tribulation Divestment—Kidilos ends the power of 
  attacks upon her.
  Measure the Wind—When dealing with beings of power who 
  grieve, sometimes it’s prudent to know just how powerful 
  they are.
  Natural Prognostication—Kidilos hints at Destiny’s plans, 
  especially when a destiny involves grief.
  Principle of Motion—Kidilos has six extra actions saved.
  Spirit and Body Purification Touch—This Charm resembles 
  the Martial Arts Charm described in Scroll of the Monk, 
  page 127. After a normal touch attempt, which may be 
  dodged or parried normally, Kidilos’s player rolls (Presence 
  + Compassion) against a difficulty of the target’s Essence, 
  adding four automatic successes. A successful roll cures the 
  target of all Sickness effects and physical diseases, and purges 
  all poisons and drugs. Further, it negates all possession, con-
  trol Charms and curses that do not originate from a god of 
  the Ennead or a being of Essence 7 or higher. Finally, the 
  target feels a warm, almost euphoric feeling of acceptance 
  and happiness.
  Weighing of the Heart—Kidilos attempts to ease the minds 
  of the bereaved by spinning a tale about the deceased’s 
  life. This Charm costs two motes and may be resisted if the 
  target desires by rolling the target’s Conviction opposed by 
  Kidilos’s Compassion.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Integrity, Lore, 
  Presence
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Integrity, Lore, 
  Presence
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Integrity, Lore, 
  Presence
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Lore, Performance, Presence, 
  Survival
  Join Battle: 11
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 11, Damage 6B, Parry DV 6, 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 9B, Parry DV 4, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 10, Damage 6B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Ice Pick (Warden of the Bereaved): Speed 5, Accuracy 15, 
  Damage 11, Parry DV 8, Rate 2
  Soak: 21L/24B (Celestial vestments, 10L/10B; Destiny 
  Sponsorship, 8L/8B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 9 
  Willpower: 9
  Essence: 6 
  Essence Pool: 105
  Other Notes: Kidilos’s weapon, Warden of the Bereaved, 
  can calm passions, removing feeling of anger and sadness and 
  pain with a touch, leaving the target slightly euphoric, as the 
  Solar Charm Touch of Blissful Release (see Exalted, p. 218). 
  It affects immaterial being as the Spirit-Cutting Charm.
  SPRING SNOWFALL
  The Lady Who Reminds Us We Are Alive and Should 
  Laugh at Ourselves
  Spring Snowfall reminds the Haslanti to savor life—a 
  difficult task, given lives of hard work and much danger. She 
  teaches through chance difficulties and surprising fortunes. 
  Spring Snowfall rivals Autumn Frost as a trickster, but she 
  disrupts lives specifically to shock people out of routines grown 
  dull and onto new paths. She works closely with Autumn 
  Frost in the summer months, when people spend more time 
  outdoors and are most lively.
  Spring Snowfall sends the bear who chases the washer-
  women up into the trees and the storm that ruins the days’ 
  hunting prospects and forces guests to stay longer than expected. 
  Nuisances, yes, but troubles people can confront squarely, and 
  far better than the gray despair of unvarying toil. The Haslanti 
  tend to appreciate novelty as long as they get a good story out 
  of it. (Those washerwomen will get laughs from the story of 
  the bear for decades.) The goddess also has the power to pique 
  curiosity and wonder or to make people lose interest in what 
  they’re doing. The Haslanti pray to Spring Snowfall that they 
  may find new challenges and meet them successfully.
  Spring Snowfall appears as a matronly woman dressed 
  in furs. She possesses a wry sense of humor and appreciates 
  well-crafted jokes and riddles.
  
  137
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Sanctum: Spring Snowfall dwells in the House of the Nine 
  Hearths of Emerald and Silver.
  Motivation: To give people occasional respite from labor 
  and boredom.
  Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 6; Charisma 6, 
  Manipulation 7, Appearance 5; Perception 6, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 6
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 5, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Athletics 1, Awareness 5, Bureaucracy 6, Craft 
  (Fate) 4, Dodge 5, Integrity 6, Investigation 4, Larceny 4, 
  Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: High Realm, Low 
  Realm, Northern Barbarian Tribes, Skytongue) 4, Lore 3 
  (Zany Historical Incidents +3), Martial Arts 2, Melee 5, 
  Occult 4, Performance 6, Presence 6, Resistance 3, Social-
  ize 5, War 1
  Backgrounds: Allies 4, Backing 4, Contacts 4, Salary 3, 
  Sanctum 4 (House of the Nine Hearths)
  Charms:
  Amethyst Awareness—Little is hidden from agents of Fate.
  Chrysalis of Preservation—Spring Snowfall captures events 
  that people will overlook or not appreciate at the time, to 
  release later when they can turn lives upside down.
  Creation of Perfection—Spring Snowfall can adjust her cap-
  tured events to make them less dangerous and more humorous 
  or instructive.
  Destiny Sponsorship—Spring Snowfall gains extra defenses 
  only when she performs her specific duties with the acquies-
  cence (if not the blessing) of the Division of Journeys.
  Domain Manipulation Scenario—Spring Snowfall can provide 
  minor unexpected fortunes or difficulties. The latter are al-
  most never dire or insurmountable, and the former are never 
  life-changing events. All of them offer a choice, however, an 
  opportunity to be seized and (usually) a welcome distraction 
  from backbreaking work.
  Dreaded Embrace of Mundanity—Sometimes, failure is good 
  for the soul, especially for supernatural beings who are ac-
  customed to succeeding through their use of Essence.
  Emergency Prayer Relocation—Spring Snowfall projects herself 
  wherever mortals pray for something, anything, to jolt them 
  out of their current lives.
  Hurry Home—Spring Snowfall can transport herself instantly 
  to the nearest gate to Yu-Shan, to the House of the Nine 
  Hearths or to the sanctum of any other Ennead member.
  Materialize—Costs 75 motes.
  Measure the Wind—Spring Snowfall evaluates beings of power, 
  the better to guide her in disrupting their lives.
  Melodious Diagnostic Report—Spring Snowfall can listen to 
  the world and find places where life has become oppressively 
  certain.
  Natural Prognostication—Spring Snowfall hints at Destiny’s 
  plans, especially when a destiny involves disruptions to a 
  person’s life.
  Principle of Motion—Spring Snowfall has eight extra actions 
  saved.
  
  138
  Symbol of Invincible Authority—Random trouble cannot harm 
  Spring Snowfall or interfere with her. She can only be af-
  fected by attacks or events specifically aimed at her. Costs 
  10 motes, one Willpower.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Craft, Investigation, 
  Lore, Presence, Resistance, Socialize, Survival
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Craft, Investigation, 
  Lore, Presence, Resistance, Socialize, Survival
  Third (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Craft, Investigation, 
  Lore, Presence, Resistance, Socialize, Survival
  Divine (Ability) Subordination—Awareness, Craft, Socialize
  Join Battle: 11
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 5B, Parry DV 6, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 7B, Parry DV 5, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 5B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1
  Soak: 21L/24B (Celestial vestments, 10L/10B; Destiny 
  Sponsorship, 8L/8B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 8 
  Willpower: 9
  Essence: 6 
  Essence Pool: 105
  Other Notes: None
  THE GODS OF GETHAMANE
  After the Solar Exalted excavated the City of the Moun-
  tain Gateway, they recruited three local gods to keep the air 
  moving. The gods performed their tasks for centuries and 
  enjoyed the prayers of a thriving, peaceful population. Dur-
  ing the Usurpation, however, the hekatonkhire Vodak swept 
  through the subterranean city. The gods sought the aid of the 
  Celestial Hierarchy, but their pleas went unanswered. (Heaven 
  had bigger problems.) Alone and half-insane, they kept at the 
  only task left to them: moving the air through their city.
  In time, mortals returned to the City of the Mountain 
  Gateway and named it Gethamane. A few people who slept 
  in the empty temples were touched by the gods’ madness 
  and became their priests. The Gethamanians do not know 
  very much about their gods, though—not even their names. 
  The three gods send strange visions to their priests but have 
  forgotten how to speak or otherwise communicate clearly. 
  While they retain individual appearances and personalities, 
  their capabilities have merged over the millennia.
  Tribbua of the Outward Breath is the god of Gethama-
  nian expansion. She wants Gethamane to interact more with 
  other nations through trade, treaty and immigration. The 
  Solars recruited Tribbua first. Of the three gods, she would 
  work the hardest to bring Solars back to Gethamane… if 
  she knew they existed.
  Tribbua sometimes manifests as a mortal woman who 
  wanders through Gethamane’s markets, mutely admiring 
  the imported fineries and travelers from afar. She sometimes 
  visits her priests in their dreams to couple with them. From 
  these unions, Tribbua bears little wind-spirit progeny that 
  she releases on the mountainside.
  Reshan of the Inward Breath constantly weeps corrosive 
  black tears out of shame and guilt for not preventing the 
  old city’s fall. She believes Gethamane should stay empty, 
  for she fears that Vodak will rise again and repeat its mas-
  sacre. Her memories inflict madness on mortals who sleep 
  in Gethamane’s temples, driving them to leave the city and 
  never return. Reshan would shun any Solars who came to 
  Gethamane, fearing that their presence and the protection 
  they afford the city will encourage mortals to stay—and draw 
  Vodak out of the depths.
  Reshan sometimes takes the form of an old woman 
  who leaves wet, black footprints as she walks through the 
  underways.
  Metheris of the Still Sky once mediated between Tribbua 
  and Reshan as the voice of reason that weighed the pros and 
  cons of a situation. He could not decide whether to fight Vodak 
  or flee and has remained paralyzed by indecision ever since. 
  While the prospect of Solars returning to Gethamane would 
  tempt him as much as it would Tribbua, he also shares Reshan’s 
  fear that any Exalted in Gethamane could awaken Vodak and 
  bring a new destruction. Metheris does not directly attempt to 
  block any Exalted from entering the city, but he sends them 
  many dreams filled with fear and a desire to leave.
  Metheris manifests as a young boy, sometimes sitting 
  atop the mountain on windless days, gazing at the sky and 
  dreaming of Yu-Shan. 
  Sanctum: All three of Gethamane’s gods keep their sanctums 
  in their individual temples. They own modest mansions in 
  Yu-Shan but have not visited them since the Usurpation.
  Motivation: To keep the air moving and preserve Gethamane, 
  each in their own way.
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4; Charisma 3, 
  Manipulation 4, Appearance 3; Perception 4, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 3, Temperance 4, 
  Valor 3
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 4, Dodge 3, Integrity 1, 
  Investigation 3, Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; High 
  Realm, Northern Barbarian Tribes, Skytongue) 3, Lore 4 
  (Gethamane +3), Martial Arts 4, Medicine 3, Melee 4, 
  Occult 3, Performance 4, Presence 3, Resistance 4, Social-
  ize 3, Stealth 3
  Backgrounds: Allies 2, Cult 3, Influence 2
  Charms:
  Affinity (Element) Control—Air. As the stewards of Getha-
  mane’s air circulation, they have total control over the air 
  and winds in the city, with all listed effects of this Charm. 
  Costs six motes.
  Amethyst Awareness—The gods of Gethamane perceive what 
  happens in their city, in all aspects of reality.
  Call—Gethamane’s gods can communicate with one another 
  wherever they go.
  Capture—If the gods truly wished to express their wrath, they 
  could capture the North’s icy gales and set them blowing 
  though Gethamane.
  
  139
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Dreamscape—This is now the only way Gethamane’s gods 
  know how to communicate. Their dreams are powerful despite 
  their incoherence, as vehicles for social attacks enhanced by 
  Presence Excellencies.
  Essence Bite—If anyone strikes the gods, the gods can send 
  freezing winds blowing through the person’s bloodstream, 
  inflicting aggravated damage that bypasses armor. This costs 
  five motes per level of damage. The gods cannot inflict more 
  than two levels per attack.
  Geas—Priests of these gods are usually under the influence 
  of this Charm in one way or another.
  Hurry Home—The gods can move to any location in Getha-
  mane or on its mountain.
  Intrusion-Sensing Method—Gethamane’s gods know when 
  someone has entered one of their temples, or if beings of 
  power enter the city.
  Landscape Hide—Gethamane’s gods are so attuned to their city 
  that they can subsume themselves within it indefinitely.
  Materialize—Costs 65 motes.
  Measure the Wind—The gods evaluate the potential threat or 
  benefit of every creature of power that enters the city.
  Mind-Knife Sacrament—The gods use this Charm to ordain 
  their priests and implant knowledge of their rites. Being in-
  sane, the gods are not very good at this, and sometimes drive 
  mortals insane instead. Reshan sometimes uses this Charm 
  deliberately to force people out of Gethamane. None of the 
  gods use it to grant Ability or Virtue dots.
  Memory Mirror—While visiting mortal dreams, the gods 
  tend to search through memories as well.
  Principle of Motion—Gethamane’s gods each keep seven 
  extra actions saved.
  Sense Domain—The gods monitor Gethamane’s air flow daily, 
  seeking the source of any disruptions.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Presence
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Presence
  Join Battle: 7
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 3B, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 6B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
  REPLACING THE GODS
  The Celestial Hierarchy ceased paying atten-
  tion to Gethamane’s gods long ago (as they reported 
  directly to the Solar Exalted). If someone of high 
  enough authority learned of Gethamane’s spiritual 
  issues, however, someone might take action. Most 
  likely, the Bureau of Humanity would try to replace 
  the three with a single, more reliable god. Many 
  gods would love assignment to a growing city such as 
  Gethamane—a splendid chance to recruit worship-
  pers. They would not be so enthusiastic if they knew 
  about Vodak…
  
  140
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 3B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Maul: Speed 6, Accuracy 7, Damage 15B/4, Parry DV 3, 
  Rate 1, Tags 2,O,P,R
  Soak: 10L/15B (Spirit robes, 8L/11B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 6 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 5 
  Essence Pool: 90
  Other Notes: At will, each of the gods can materialize a 
  massive stone maul to use as a weapon.
  HEROES OF THE NORTH
  People tend to think of the North as a land of fierce 
  battle and the struggle for survival. Indeed, many North-
  erners hold this view themselves. Yet, the North also holds 
  brilliant savants and subtle manipulators to equal any other 
  part of Creation.
  THE BULL’S CIRCLE
  Yurgen Kaneko’s success as a warlord does not rest 
  merely on his own prowess as a combatant and general. He 
  has attracted a cadre of other Exalted as well. Three Solar 
  Exalted stand out among his followers: the prophet-sorceress 
  Samea; the savant-inquisitor Raneth of Diamond Hearth; 
  and Nalla Bloodaxe, a spy who became a king.
  SAMEA OF THE BLACKWATER MAMMOTH TRIBE
  The entire Blackwater Mammoth tribe raised Samea after 
  the death of her parents. She became a skilled and highly 
  observant gatherer of wild foods, but her intellect demanded 
  more. The Blackwater Mammoth icewalkers expected her to 
  become a shaman when her curiosity led her to a meeting 
  with a small god and her innocent charisma made the meeting 
  friendly. Samea Exalted while she wandered alone, trying to 
  follow the path of a circling raptor, and the Unconquered Sun 
  told her to restore the land to its First Age glories. Creation 
  revealed the power of sorcery to her as if every tree and beast, 
  rock and cloud had waited an Age to tell her their secrets. 
  Memories from the First Age guided her to long-forgotten 
  libraries buried beneath the snow, further expanding her 
  power. After a year of travel, Samea returned to her tribe as 
  a powerful guardian. At first she was also feared as a witch, 
  but soon she was revered as a prophet.
  First and foremost, Samea acts as a guide and mother to 
  her people. She now sees all icewalkers as her family. The 
  Blackwater Mammoth folk are her brothers and sisters, her 
  sons and daughters. All other icewalkers are her cousins. She 
  holds herself responsible for their wellbeing. Likewise, the Ice 
  Plains are her home, and she guards them zealously against 
  the polluting forces of the Wyld and the dead.
  Yurgen Kaneko, as a fellow icewalker, is Samea’s cousin. 
  As the first Solar she ever met and her only Exalted companion 
  for several years, he became her friend (though not, as many 
  have claimed, her lover). She respects his power and feels 
  indebted to him as any friend might feel toward another, 
  but she does not serve him. When she joins Kaneko in war 
  against civilized nations and calls forth demons to aid his 
  armies, she adds to the tally of debts he owes her, balancing 
  them against the favors he has done for her and their people 
  in the past. Should the icewalkers come under threat, Samea 
  will call upon the Bull to repay those debts, no matter the 
  situation elsewhere in his empire.
  Even as a child, Samea commanded attention. Her stub-
  born bearing and haunted eyes compelled even those not of 
  her tribe to listen. As a Solar, her presence is supernatural. 
  Those who hear her sermons find that her words haunt their 
  dreams. When she exercises her Charms, she burns her will 
  into the souls of her congregation. She does not use this power 
  casually, but she has no scruples about employing it when 
  the occasion warrants, as when she enjoins them to obey 
  what she sees as the Unconquered Sun’s will. Entire tribes of 
  icewalkers obey her injunctions without thinking, her words 
  echoing in their minds in lieu of their own thoughts.
  For all her power, Samea still looks 17 years old. She has 
  flowing black hair, a delicate chin and a still-girlish figure. 
  Her large, dark eyes, steady gaze and solemn expression, 
  however, make people feel like they face someone very old 
  and wise. When she runs, though, she hikes her felt skirt 
  above her knees and seems like a girl again. Samea carries 
  no weapons or armor—just a belt of gourds and pouches full 
  of her magical supplies.
  
  141
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Motivation: Extirpate all supernatural threats to her 
  people.
  Caste: Zenith
  Anima Banner: A blazing white tree with golden leaves.
  Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4; Charisma 5, 
  Manipulation 4, Appearance 3; Perception 4, Intelligence 3, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 2
  Virtue Flaw: Grandmother’s Scorn. When she sees those she 
  cares for speak or act in a self-destructive manner (whether 
  physically, intellectually or spiritually), roll Samea’s Com-
  passion for her to gain Limit. In Limit Break, she confronts 
  her companions to prevent them from endangering or 
  degrading themselves, using any or all non-lethal means at 
  her disposal for one full day. When she controls this condi-
  tion so as not to obstruct a greater goal, she confines herself 
  to mercilessly haranguing her companions regarding their 
  foibles and flaws.
  Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 1, Craft 
  (Wood) 2, Dodge 3, Integrity 4, Investigation 1, Linguistics 
  (Native: Skytongue; Others: Old Realm, Riverspeak) 2, Lore 1, 
  Martial Arts 4, Medicine 4, Occult 5, Performance 3 (Ora-
  tory +1), Presence 5 (Icewalkers +1), Resistance 4, Ride 1, 
  Socialize 3, Survival 3 (Frozen Wastes +2), War 2
  Backgrounds: Artifact 1, Allies 5, Cult 3, Followers 3, Influ-
  ence 4, Manse 3, Resources 4
  Charms: Ailment-Rectifying Method, Celestial Circle 
  Sorcery, Durability of Oak Meditation, First Martial Arts 
  Excellency, First Presence Excellency, Flawless Diagnosis 
  Technique, Infinite Presence Mastery, Iron Kettle Body, Iron 
  Skin Concentration, Majestic Radiant Presence, Ox-Body 
  Technique, Second Integrity Excellency, Spirit-Detecting 
  Glance, Terrestrial Circle Sorcery, Terrifying Apparition 
  of Glory, Underling Promoting Touch
  Spells: Commanding the Beasts, Demon of the Second 
  Circle, Flight of the Brilliant Raptor, Incantation of Spiritual 
  Discretion, Infallible Messenger, Magma Kraken, Summon 
  Elemental, Swift Spirit of Winged Transportation
  Join Battle: 5
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 2B, Parry DV 4, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 6, Damage 5B, Parry DV 2, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 6, Damage 2B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Soak: 2L/4B
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 5 
  Willpower: 9
  Essence: 4
  Personal Essence: 21 
  Peripheral Essence: 47 (48)
  Committed Essence: 1
  Other Notes: Samea wears a hearthstone amulet set with 
  a gem of sorcery (see The Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—
  Oadenol’s Codex, p. 107).
  RANETH OF DIAMOND HEARTH
  Born at the edge of the world, raised amid the cold 
  lawlessness of Diamond Hearth, Raneth craves civilization 
  in spite of his own violent nature. His knack for machinery 
  lifted him from the drudgery of the mines and the violence 
  of the dockside gangs, and it saved his life in buried Tzatli, 
  where he Exalted with an ancient Essence weapon in his 
  hand. Now he wishes to spread civilization to the edges of 
  Creation, at sword’s point if need be.
  Raneth enlisted with the Bull soon after the Second 
  Breath. Aghast at the icewalkers’ primitive way of life, he 
  designed their new educational curriculum and established 
  civil codes for their governors and garrisons. Despite his 
  usefulness and idealism, his patronizing attitude grated on 
  Yurgen, Samea, Crimson Antler and Fear-Eater. Both as a 
  reward and to get him out of their hair, the Bull sent Raneth 
  to the empire’s greatest bastion of civilization: Plenilune.
  Raneth is of middling stature—making him short for a 
  Northerner—with a stocky frame and small, blunt features. 
  His black hair and eyes stand out sharply against his ivory-
  pale skin. The pressures of government weigh him down; 
  his expression is generally tight and humorless, and he paces 
  like a caged beast.
  Motivation: Restore the North to the glories of the First Age.
  Caste: Twilight
  Anima Banner: A dragon scaled in blue and violet, its eyes 
  as red as the setting sun. It exhales great gouts of golden fire 
  when Raneth is wounded or enraged.
  
  142
  Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3; Charisma 2, 
  Manipulation 3, Appearance 2; Perception 4, Intelligence 5, 
  Wits 2
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 2
  Virtue Flaw: Heart of Flint
  Abilities: Archery 4 (Essence Weapons +2), Athletics 1, 
  Awareness 3, Bureaucracy 3, Craft (Air) 5, Craft (Earth) 1, 
  Craft (Fire) 2, Craft (Magitech) 3, Craft (Wood) 2, Dodge 3, 
  Integrity 2, Investigation 4, Linguistics (Native: Skytongue; 
  Others: High Realm, Old Realm, Riverspeak) 3, Lore 3 (First 
  Age +1, The North +1), Martial Arts 1, Melee 1 (Knives +2), 
  Occult 3, Presence 3, Resistance 2, Ride 1, Sail 1, Socialize 2, 
  Survival 1, War 2
  Backgrounds: Artifact 5, Contacts 3, Followers 1, Influence 4, 
  Manse 2, Resources 5
  Charms: Courtier’s Eye Technique, Durability-Enhancing 
  Technique, Essence Arrow Attack (Righteous Judgment Ar-
  row), First Archery Excellency, First Lore Excellency, Judge’s 
  Ear Technique, Object-Strengthening Touch, Ox-Body 
  Technique, Second Bureaucracy Excellency, Second Craft 
  Excellency, Second Dodge Excellency, Second Investigation 
  Excellency, There Is No Wind, Third Craft Excellency, 
  Whirling Brush Method
  Join Battle: 5
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 6, Damage 2B, Parry DV 4, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 5, Damage 5B, Parry DV 2, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 5, Damage 2B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Perfect Knife: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 5L, Parry DV 5,
   Rate 3
  Concussive Essence Cannon: Speed 4, Accuracy 11, Damage 
  10B, Rate 1, Range 50, Tags P
  Exceptional Composite Bow: Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 6L*, 
  Rate 4, Range 300
  * Uses frog crotch arrows; double target’s lethal soak from 
  armor before applying damage.
  Soak: 12L/12B (Black jade reinforced breastplate, 10L/9B, 
  Hardness: 8L/8B, -1 mobility penalty, fatigue value 1; and 
  shield, +1 difficulty to hit)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 4 
  Willpower: 7
  Essence: 3
  Personal Essence: 16 
  Peripheral Essence: 32 (37)
  Committed Essence: 5
  Other Notes: Raneth wears a hearthstone amulet set with a 
  mind-cleansing gem (see The Books of Sorcery, Vol. III—
  Oadenol’s Codex, p. 96). The bulbous wand he wields in battle 
  is a First Age relic: a very small concussive essence cannon (see 
  The Books of Sorcery, Vol. I—Wonders of the Lost Age, 
  p. 131). The weapon costs three motes to fire. The player of 
  a human-sized target struck by a blast must successfully roll 
  [(Dexterity or Stamina) + Athletics] against difficulty 3 or have 
  her character flung two yards back and knocked prone.
  NALLA BLOODAXE
  Nalla grew up in a potter’s household in civilized 
  Whitewall. Idealistic and aggressive, he fit poorly into his 
  home city’s constricted, humorless mold. After spending a 
  year among the icewalkers, young Nalla joined Whitewall’s 
  guardians. He then spent a decade hunting monsters that 
  ventured too close to the city. He Exalted while hunting a 
  Winter Folk noble that had infiltrated Whitewall to stalk 
  and kill its people in the night.
  The Syndics sought to retain Nalla’s services after his 
  Exaltation. Indeed, they still come to him in dreams to 
  remind him of his origins. The Bull of the North, however, 
  offered chances for adventure that the defense of his home 
  couldn’t match. Nalla saw the Linowan War as a great game, 
  icewalkers he knew against Linowan he didn’t, while destroy-
  ing the Tepet legions seemed like a righteous blow of free 
  Northern folk against the ham-fisted bullying of the distant 
  Realm. Subverting Karn seemed like grand fun as well, and 
  he played his part with cunning and skill.
  Nalla’s new life is bloody and harsh. While he admires 
  the courage and self-reliance of the icewalkers, he never liked 
  their casual cruelty to other folk. Ten years as a guardian 
  of Whitewall taught him fully to despise the brutality and 
  bloodlust of Northern raiders. Nalla joined Yurgen Kaneko 
  in part because he saw the Bull as championing the admirable 
  aspects of icewalker culture, while curbing and civilizing the 
  icewalkers in other ways. Now that he is one of those raiders, 
  Nalla finds himself divided. Never has the order, peace and 
  prosperity of Whitewall looked better, but he also knows the 
  desperate uncertainty that drives bandits and barbarians—the 
  fear of starvation and cold. The Karnese have become people 
  to him, not merely pawns in a game—and so have their foes. 
  As a result, he wrestles with his own tactics. Where killing 
  barbarians once seemed little more to him than the putting 
  down of mad dogs, it begins to feel like murder.
  Nalla looks every inch the Northern warrior-hero. 
  He stands taller than the typical Northerner, with broad 
  
  143
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  shoulders and muscular limbs, and he moves with an easy 
  grace. Wavy blond hair frames a broad, tanned face with 
  bright blue eyes and an expressive mouth that conveys his 
  many moods: from infectious grins and warm smiles to black 
  scowls or the teeth-bared grimace of a berserker’s fury.
  Motivation: To outdo all rivals for feats of daring.
  Caste: Night
  Anima Banner: A ghost-white lion with eyes of warm 
  gold.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3; Charisma 4, 
  Manipulation 2, Appearance 4; Perception 3, Intelligence 2, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 2, Temperance 1, 
  Valor 4
  Virtue Flaw: Foolhardy Contempt
  Abilities: Archery 2, Athletics 5 (Daredevil Feats +1), 
  Awareness 3, Bureaucracy 1, Dodge 4, Larceny 4, Linguistics 
  (Native: Skytongue; Others: Riverspeak) 1, Lore 1, Martial 
  Arts 3, Melee 5, Occult 2, Performance 2, Presence 2, Re-
  sistance 2, Ride 1, Sail 2, Socialize 2, Stealth 3, Survival 2 
  (The Far North +1), Thrown 2, War 3
  Backgrounds: Artifact 2, Contacts 3, Followers 3, Influence 4, 
  Resources 5
  Charms: Easily Overlooked Presence Method, Fire and Stones 
  Strike, First Athletics Excellency, First Melee Excellency, 
  First Presence Excellency, First War Excellency, Foe-Vaulting 
  Method, Hungry Tiger Technique, Increasing Strength Ex-
  ercise, Lightning Speed, Monkey Leap Technique, Ox-Body 
  Technique, Seven Shadow Evasion, Shadow Over Water
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 4B, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 7B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 4B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Axe: Speed 4, Accuracy 11, Damage 9L, Parry DV 4, Rate 2
  Thrown Axe: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 7L, Rate 2, 
  Range 10
  White Jade Grimcleaver: Speed 5, Accuracy 12, Damage 
  16L/4, Parry DV 5, Rate 2, Tags O
  Composite Bow: Speed 6, Accuracy 7, Damage 6L*, Rate 3, 
  Range 250
  * Uses broadhead arrows.
  Soak: 6L/5B (Fine chain shirt, 4L/2B, fatigue value 1)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 6 
  Willpower: 7
  Essence: 3
  Personal Essence: 16 
  Peripheral Essence: 32 (37)
  Committed Essence: 5
  Other Notes: Nalla wields twin axes in combat, one for 
  melee and the other for throwing. His grimcleaver, spoils 
  from the Tepet legions, hangs on the walls of his chambers 
  as a trophy. He uses it only in dire straits, for doing so would 
  reveal his Exalted nature.
  OTHER HEROES
  The North has many heroes besides the Bull’s Circle. The 
  Lunar Exalted wield powerful influence in much of the North, 
  while outcaste Dragon-Blooded become champions of their 
  people. Even mortals can become key players in the North 
  through their extraordinary skills and sheer audacity.
  BLUE DRAGONFISH, HASLANTI ADMIRAL
  Admiral Blue Dragonfish has led the Haslanti Ice Squad-
  ron for 60 years. As a Terrestrial Exalt in the prime of life at 
  age 92, he expects to keep his post for another century or two. 
  This son of an emerald-holder from Shield held the tiller of 
  an iceship while still in his teens, and that’s when he took 
  the Second Breath. He joined the Ice Squadron in his 20s 
  and rose rapidly through the ranks to become a scourge to 
  the League’s enemies and a living legend of the North.
  Blue Dragonfish loves the chill wind in his hair and the 
  thunder in the hull of an iceship racing over frozen seas, not to 
  mention the adventure of exploring the Great Ice and battling 
  the League’s foes. He becomes visibly uncomfortable after a 
  few hours on land or amidst ordinary folk. The great Admiral 
  has taken no wife and calls few men his close friends, though 
  he enjoys the unquestioned loyalty of his fleet. He could be-
  come a political player in the League but abhors politics and 
  the minutia of formal regulations, paperwork and budgetary 
  allocations (to the loss of the Ice Squadron’s funding). The 
  Realm itself has invited him to command one of its fleets, but 
  his loyalty remains to his tribe and his nation. The frozen sea 
  is vast, and while Blue Dragonfish will live long, he will not 
  live forever, and he hopes to see it all before he dies.
  The Admiral is a tall, stalwart man, with craggy features, 
  skin the color of blue icebergs and a frosty white beard trimmed 
  into two short points.
  Motivation: To discover every wonder of the North. And 
  if it threatens the League, destroy it.
  Aspect: Air
  Anima Banner: Whorls of blue wind.
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3; Charisma 5, 
  Manipulation 4, Appearance 4; Perception 4, Intelligence 3, 
  Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 2, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Archery 3 (Powerbow +2), Athletics 3 (Movement 
  On Ice +2), Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 1 (Escape Paperwork +2), 
  Dodge 4, Integrity 2, Investigation 3, Linguistics (Native: 
  Skytongue; Other: Low Realm, Northern Barbarian Tribes) 2, 
  Lore 3, Martial Arts 5, Melee 4, Presence 3, Resistance 2, Sail 5, 
  Socialize 1, Stealth 2, War 3 (Ice Naval Strategy +2)
  Backgrounds: Allies 4, Artifact 3, Command 5, Connec-
  tions 2, Henchman 3, Manse 2, Reputation 3, Resources 3, 
  Retainers 2
  Charms: Deck-Striding Technique, Dragon-Graced Arrow,
  Elemental Bolt Attack, Feeling-the-Air Technique, Fine 
  Passage Negotiating Style, First Archery Excellency, First 
  Dodge Excellency, First Martial Arts Excellency, First Me-
  
  144
  lee Excellency, First Sail Excellency, First War Excellency, 
  Five-Dragon Blocking Technique, Five-Dragon Claw, Five-
  Dragon Fist, Five-Dragon-Force Blow, Five-Dragon Fortitude, 
  Hurricane-Predicting Glance, Ox-Body Technique (x2), 
  Safety Among Enemies, Storm-Outrunning Technique, 
  Sturdy Bulkhead Concentration, Swallows Defend the Nest, 
  Terrestrial Archery Reinforcement, Terrestrial Sail Rein-
  forcement, Third Sail Excellency, Third War Excellency
  Combos:
  Fist of the Icy Seas (Five-Dragon Fist, Five-Dragon Claw)
  The Ice Admiral’s Unstoppable Arrow (Dragon-Graced 
  Arrow, Swallows Defend the Nest)
  Sure Hand at the Tiller (Deck-Striding Technique, Sturdy 
  Bulkhead Concentration, Fine Passage Negotiating Style)
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 3B, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 6B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 3B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Blue Jade Long Powerbow (Master Winter’s Teeth): Speed 5, 
  Accuracy 9, Damage 8L, Rate 3, Range 400
  * Broadhead arrows
  Soak: 5L/7B (Buff jacket, 3L/4B, -1 mobility penalty, fatigue 
  value 2)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 5 Willpower: 6
  Essence: 4
  Personal Essence: 10 
  Peripheral Essence: 22 (28)
  Committed Essence: 6
  Other Notes: None
  GERD MARROW-EATER
  Gerd Marrow-Eater became a legendary warlord and 
  pillar of the Silver Pact by founding the Haslanti League. 
  He began as the son of a Haslanesh chief, born in the time 
  when the Guild cemented its power over the Haslan tribes. 
  He Exalted in RY 552, in his mid-20s, when mercenaries 
  attacked his family to drive them off land the Guild wanted. 
  The mercenaries crippled Gerd’s mother and tied Gerd to 
  a tree as they prepared for a torturous execution. Then, a 
  vision of soaring eagles overwhelmed Gerd. He broke free 
  and slew the mercenaries.
  Gerd knew exactly what had happened to him, from 
  old legends of the Haslan tribes’ ancient patron, Arvida of 
  the Crescent Eye. So did the rest of his family. They were 
  tremendously proud but said as one that Gerd must leave 
  them to pursue his greater destiny.
  The young Exalt spent the next 30 years learning the 
  arts of war and politics with the Silver Pact, that he might 
  lead his people against the Guild. The hardest lesson came, 
  however, from studying the career of Arvida. He concluded 
  that Arvida’s rule had nearly destroyed the Haslan people. 
  Gerd turned to the Thousand Streams River philosophy that, 
  while the Lunar Exalted bore a duty to foster new societies, 
  they must not presume to rule. Lunars were the Stewards of 
  Creation—not its masters.
  Every Haslanti child knows the tale of how Gerd called 
  the leaders of their people to Twisted Stone and led the tribes 
  to victory, leaving the final victory against the Guild for the 
  Haslanti warriors to achieve without his aid. Since then, Gerd 
  has appeared but rarely to the Haslanti people, to discuss a 
  knotty political problem perhaps or to rescue a family from 
  bandits because he was in the area. He has decided, though, 
  that the Haslanti League truly does not need him anymore. 
  Gerd now seeks new challenges.
  Gerd currently claims a patch of mountains between 
  Gethamane and Shanarinara as his personal domain. He 
  watches the Guild (which he still despises) and watches the 
  White Sea for invasions by the Northern Fair Folk or other 
  Wyld forces. Gerd also breeds a legion of the North’s great 
  eagles, pulling the species back from the brink of extinction, 
  and confers with Silver Pact savants about the possibility 
  of raising the mighty birds to human intelligence, like the 
  sapient beasts of Halta.
  Most of all, Gerd now serves as a mentor to younger 
  Lunars, delivering lectures on war, social engineering, 
  shapeshifting or the other fields of Gerd’s expertise. Other 
  members of Gerd’s former pack, the Twisted Stone Conclave, 
  sometimes assist with the training. Prospective students must 
  fight Gerd, as the Haslanti champions did at Twisted Stone. 
  Gerd does not kill his hopeful applicants, but he takes a joint 
  from the little finger of the left hand of any he deems worthy 
  to learn from him.
  
  145
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  In return for training, Gerd sends his students on 
  training missions of derring-do such as recovering lost 
  artifacts, rescuing slaves from Guild caravans, thwarting 
  plots by Deathlords, the Fair Folk and other dark powers, 
  and generally strengthening Creation’s defenses. Gerd 
  ponders whether the Bull of the North is a fellow defender 
  of Creation or one of the threats he must defend against. 
  If the Bull attacks the Haslanti League, he will make 
  Gerd his enemy.
  Gerd Marrow-Eater can take the shape of an eagle, 
  wolf, blue whale, bear, elk and reindeer, among many 
  others. In his human form, he is a tall, surprisingly youthful-
  looking man, with a clean-shaven face, dark eyes and long, 
  straight white hair. His war form stands over 10 feet tall, with 
  white feathers massed at his clawed hands and feet and on his 
  head like hair and sideburns. He dresses in practical Haslanti 
  leathers and wool, donning armor if necessary.
  Motivation: To build new societies free of the Guild.
  Caste: Changing Moon
  Anima Banner: Shifting silver and dark blue light reveals 
  a soaring eagle.
  Spirit Shape: Eagle
  Tell: White eagle feathers on his extremities
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 4; Charisma 5 
  (Lead Troops +2), Manipulation 5 (Inspiring Oratory +2), 
  Appearance 4; Perception 5, Intelligence 4, Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 4, Temperance 4, 
  Valor 5
  Virtue Flaw: The Curse of the Raging Bull
  Abilities: Archery 5, Athletics 4, Awareness 5, Craft (Wood) 2 
  (+2 Tattooing), Dodge 5, Integrity 3, Investigation 2, Lin-
  guistics (Native: Skytongue; Others: Low Realm, Old Realm, 
  Northern Barbarian Tongues) 3, Lore 5, Martial Arts 5, 
  Melee 3, Occult 3, Performance 3 (Public Speaking +2), 
  Presence 5, Resistance 5, Sail 3, Socialize 3, Stealth 5, Sur-
  vival 5 (Far North +2), Thrown 3, War 4
  Backgrounds: Allies 4 (Twisted Stone Conclave), Artifact 1, 
  Artifact 2, Backing 4 (Silver Pact), Cult 4, Followers 4, 
  Heart’s Blood 5, Manse 4, Reputation 4, Resources 3
  Charms: Bruise-Relief Method, Cat-Face Presentation, 
  Charismatic Lunar Trick, Claws of the Silver Moon, Cobra 
  Hypnotic Method, Culling the Pride, Dog-Tongue Method, 
  Eagle Eye Advantage, External Hide Perfection, Eye of the 
  Cat, False Burrow Pursuit, Finding the Needle’s Eye, First 
  Charisma Excellency, First Intelligence Excellency, First 
  Manipulation Excellency, First Stamina Excellency, First 
  Strength Excellency, First Wits Excellency, Flawless Charisma 
  Focus, Flawless Manipulation Focus, Foot-Trapping Counter, 
  Form-Fixing Method, Grandfather Spider Majesty, Halting the 
  Scarlet Flow, Heightened Sight Method, Herd Reinforcement 
  Stance, Herd-Strengthening Invocation, Hide-Toughening 
  Essence, Instinct-Driven Beast Movement, Instinct Memory 
  Insertion, Instinctive Charisma Unity, Instinctive Manipula-
  tion Unity, Instinctive Stamina Unity, Instinctive Strength 
  Unity, Keen Sight Technique, Lessons of the Winter Wolf, 
  Lodestone Reckoning Manner, Lunar Hero Form, Maintaining 
  the Pack, Meerkat Alertness Practice, Mirror Sight Dismay,
  Moonlight Curtain Drawn, Nature-Reinforcing Allocation,
  North Mastery Technique, Ox-Body Technique (x3), Pack 
  Instinct Affirmation, Rabid Beast Attitude, School Becomes 
  Shark Formation, School in the Reeds Technique, Second 
  Dexterity Excellency, Second Manipulation Excellency, 
  Second Perception Excellency, Sense-Borrowing Method,
  Sharing the Gifts of Luna, Steadfast Yeddim Meditation,
  Third Charisma Excellency, Third Manipulation Excel-
  lency, Third Perception Excellency, Third Wits Excellency,
  Thousand Claw Infliction, Topiary Culture Meditation,
  Watchful Spider Stance, Wolf Pack Training Technique,
  Wyld-Sensing Instincts
  Combos:
  The Eagle Regroups (First Charisma Excellency, First Manipu-
  lation Excellency, Maintaining the Pack, School Becomes 
  Shark Formation, Third Manipulation Excellency)
  Knacks: Deadly Beastman Transformation*, Devastating Ogre 
  Enhancement, Humble Mouse Shape, Internal Form Mastery,
  Mountainous Spirit Expression, Towering Beast Form
  * In his war form, Gerd receives +2 to his Strength, Dex-
  terity and Stamina, as well as the positive effects of the 
  following mutations: Enhanced Senses (Sight), Feathers, 
  Glider, Talons.
  Join Battle: 9
  Attacks:
  Human:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 11, Damage 4B, Parry DV 6, 
  Rate 3
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  146
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 7B, Parry DV 4, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 10, Damage 4B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1
  Moonsilver Short Powerbow (Arvida’s Bite): Speed 6, Ac-
  curacy 13, Damage 8L*, Range 350, Rate 2
  *Uses broadhead arrows.
  War Form:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 13, Damage 6B, Parry DV 7, 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 12, Damage 9B, Parry DV 5, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 12, Damage 6B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1
  Talons: Speed 5, Accuracy 13, Damage 7L, Parry DV 7, 
  Rate 3
  Moonsilver Short Powerbow (Arvida’s Bite): Speed 6, Ac-
  curacy 15, Damage 10L*, Range 350, Rate 2
  *Uses broadhead arrows.
  Soak: 7L/7B; 7L/9B in war form (Moonsilver chain shirt, 
  5L/3B; Hardness: 2L/2B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/
  Incap
  Dodge DV: 7 (8 in war form) 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 4
  Personal Essence: 20 
  Peripheral Essence: (52)
  Committed Essence: 6
  Other Notes: Gerd is a legendary personage in Haslanti 
  culture. Rolls for Haslanti characters to see and recognize 
  his Tell are at +2 successes.
  JAXAR, AGENT OF THE GUILD
  For the past five years, Jaxar has lived in Gethamane as an 
  agent for the Guild. She leads a gang of child-thieves, mostly 
  from middle-to-upper classes, who have no idea how much 
  power she has over them or how much trouble they make for 
  themselves. Jaxar’s recruits think that their “society of Thieves” 
  is all a huge game. These children pass information to her from 
  all over the city. Their hideout is in an abandoned storehouse 
  and junkyard in the eastern sector of the Outer Ring.
  The Guild took Jaxar in, trained her and trusted her 
  with important jobs, for which they pay her well. She is 
  a capable blackmailer and practiced psychologist, not to 
  mention a crack shot with a flame piece, and deals boldly 
  with criminals of all kinds. Jaxar feels more or less loyal to 
  the Guild, but she knows a good opportunity when she sees 
  one. She could accept a better job elsewhere.
  Jaxar avoided registering for the Dole, but she did not 
  spend her time in the city in hiding. She knows most of 
  Gethamane’s layout and neighborhoods. Some of her ex-
  periences in remote areas of Gethamane have been strange 
  indeed, and she has glimpsed the city’s enigmatic gods.
  Jaxar is a 40-year-old mortal woman, a dwarf, with 
  a preternaturally youthful face. From a distance she can 
  pass as a child, though up close an adult can recognize her 
  true age. She has reddish-brown hair that she keeps neatly 
  trimmed in a bob.
  Motivation: To grab all the power, wealth and (especially!) 
  respect that she can.
  Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3; Charisma 4, 
  Manipulation 4, Appearance 2; Perception 3, Intelligence 4, 
  Wits 5
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 1, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Archery 3 (Flame Piece +2), Athletics 2, Aware-
  ness 3, Bureaucracy 3, Dodge 4, Integrity 3, Investigation 3, 
  Larceny 4, Linguistics (Native: Riverspeak; Others: Guild 
  Cant, Low Realm, Skytongue) 3, Lore 2, Martial Arts 3, 
  Medicine 2, Melee 3 (Sai +2), Presence 3, Resistance 2, 
  Ride 2, Sail 1, Socialize 3, Stealth 4, Survival 3
  Backgrounds: Allies 3, Artifact 1, Backing 3, Contacts 3
  Join Battle: 8
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 1B, Parry DV 4, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 6, Damage 4B, Parry DV 2, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 6, Damage 1B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Sai: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 3L, Parry DV 5, Rate 3, 
  Tags D,M
  Flame Piece: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 8L, Rate 2, 
  Range 8
  Soak: 1L/4B (Rugged leather clothing, 1L/1B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 3 
  Willpower: 7
  Essence: 1
  Other Notes: Jaxar owns a good luck charm that protects 
  her from one botch per story, and a potent walkaway that 
  negates two successes on a single damage roll per story.
  
  147
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  DEMONS AND MONSTERS OF 
  THE NORTH
  Ancient, forgotten demons and creatures touched by 
  the Wyld exist just beyond the sight of mortals. These are a 
  few of the most dangerous.
  APHELIOTROPES, THE SHROUDED ONES
  Derat Khan, a First Age general of the Dawn Caste, 
  came to hate the Unconquered Sun for abandoning the 
  Solar Exalted to the Usurpation. On the run and at death’s 
  door, he sold his soul to a Second Circle demon and was 
  thus infernally Exalted. From that day, Derat Khan became 
  a creature of hate, living only for revenge on the Uncon-
  quered Sun, the Terrestrial Exalted and Creation itself. He 
  carved the abhorrent cavern-state of Keruzat Derat beneath 
  a Northern mountain. Here, he spawned the spawned the 
  horrible apheliotropes, or shrouded ones, terrible creatures 
  with the shapes of men but the temperament and will of 
  demons, to carry out his vengeance.
  The demon-bought Solar apparently died during the 
  Shogunate, but his Demon-Blooded progeny lived on. For 
  centuries, Keruzat Derat was the vilest pit in Creation, a 
  place of unspeakable tortures and blasphemous debauches—a 
  bit of Hell brought to Creation, or maybe even worse! The 
  apheliotropes made war on humanity, raiding and destroying 
  towns and the armies sent against them, dragging their captives 
  below to live the rest of their short existences as the shrouded 
  ones’ playthings. Even the Dragon-Blooded heroes of the 
  Shogunate could not defeat the Demon-Blooded horde.
  Yet, the apheliotropes could not defeat the Great Con-
  tagion. The shrouded ones’ decimation by plague and the 
  Fair Folk weakened their grip on the Far North. Then the 
  arch-sorcerer Bagrash Köl noticed that he had competition 
  in the North. The fierce hordes and demon-beasts of the 
  shrouded ones were no match for Bagrash Köl’s legions, 
  his sorcery and the omnipotent Eye of Autochthon. The 
  mountain of Keruzat Derat became a crater lined with glit-
  tering crystal.
  Since then, the descendants of the few surviving aph-
  eliotropes have acted alone or in very small bands. They 
  move stealthily through human society, taking whatever 
  chance they find to lead mortals into demon worship. Derat 
  Khan is but a legend to his descendants, but the shrouded 
  ones still hope to bring about his final revenge. Just as Derat 
  Khan fixed demonic power in their blood, so too did he fix 
  obedience to the Yozis.
  The shrouded ones are a hunted people, primarily by the 
  Haslanti and the icewalkers. Sometimes, apheliotropes attract 
  bands of lost, angry mortals who blame Creation and the gods 
  for some perceived wrong done to them. The shrouded ones 
  take what they can from such confused souls and inevitably 
  leave them much worse off than they were before.
  Apheliotropes appear as strong humans wreathed in a 
  shroud of darkness. They can often pass for humans in the 
  proper lighting, but many shrouded ones show some telltale 
  sign of their demonic origin such as small horns, inhuman 
  eyes or clawed fingers.
  For more information on the Demon-Blooded, demon 
  pacts and infernal cults, see The Manual of Exalted Power—
  The Infernals and (for a demon’s-eye view of cults) The 
  Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. V—Malfeas.
  Motivation: To bring down human civilization.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4; Charisma 3, 
  Manipulation 3, Appearance 3; Perception 3, Intelligence 3, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 3
  Abilities: Archery 2, Athletics 3, Awareness 2, Dodge 4, 
  Integrity 3, Larceny 3, Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; 
  Others: Skytongue) 1, Lore 3 (Apheliotrope Legend +2), 
  Martial Arts 3, Medicine 1 (Torture +2), Melee 4, Occult 4, 
  Presence 2, Socialize 3, Stealth 4
  Backgrounds: Allies 2, Contacts 3, Followers 1–3, Re-
  sources 1–3
  Charms and Powers:
  Demonic Mutations—A typical shrouded one has no more 
  than a single pox to indicate his or her inhuman heritage, 
  but apheliotropes may possess other poxes, blights and afflic-
  tions, gaining the necessary bonus points through negative 
  mutations. These mutations owe nothing to the Wyld, 
  but can be represented through the mutations found on 
  
  148
  pages 288–290 of Exalted, pages 206–210 of The Manual 
  of Exalted Power—The Lunars and pages 144–150 of The 
  Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld. A 
  selection of mutations specifically for Demon-Blooded and 
  akuma characters are found on pages 62–64 of The Manual 
  of Exalted Power—The Infernals.
  Ebon Curtain—A permanent shadow surrounds apheliotropes 
  during the day, preventing sunlight from touching their 
  skin. By spending 10 motes, shrouded ones can expand and 
  intensify this shadow so that it obscures their features and 
  actions, resulting in bonus dice to Stealth rolls equal to (Es-
  sence x 2). This effect lasts for one scene and has no effect 
  against the Charms of the Solar Exalted.
  Enlightened Essence—All apheliotropes have Essence pools 
  as per the rules for spirit characters: (Essence x 10) + (Will-
  power x 5) motes.
  Landscape Hide—Shrouded ones can merge with shadows of 
  their size or greater. Costs six motes and one Willpower.
  Malediction—Apheliotropes hate and are jealous of the works 
  of mortals. They may curse artisans and craftsmen by touch, 
  imposing a one-die penalty to all Craft rolls.
  Measure the Wind—The shrouded ones like to know the 
  power of their victims or foes.
  Ox-Body Technique—Apheliotropes have two extra -1 
  health levels.
  Thaumaturgy—Some shrouded ones know one or more Arts, 
  especially the Arts of Alchemy, Demon Summoning and 
  Warding and Exorcism.
  Join Battle: 5
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 4B, Parry DV 4, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 6, Damage 7B, Parry DV 2, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 6, Damage 4B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1, Tags P
  Chopping Sword: Speed 4, Accuracy 8, Damage 9L/2, Parry 
  DV 4, Rate 2
  Long Bow: Speed 6, Accuracy 6, Damage 6L*, Rate 3, 
  Range 200
  * Uses broadhead arrows.
  Soak: 8L/11B (Chain hauberk +6L/7B, -3 mobility penalty, 
  fatigue value 2)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 1 
  Willpower: 6
  Essence: 1 
  Essence Pool: 40
  Other Notes: These traits represent a basic apheliotrope. 
  These hereditary servants of the Yozis may acquire higher 
  Essence and additional Charms through experience or as 
  endowments from demon masters. Shrouded ones might also 
  own artifacts, use poisoned weapons or otherwise improve 
  their equipment.
  CORR’DAL, THE SLUG MOTHER
  This Second Circle demon led the horde of demons that 
  the Solar architect Kal Bax summoned to build his Invisible 
  Fortress. Bax betrayed Corr’dal and bound her into Creation. 
  She now rules her brood, the demons called the Founders 
  (properly, the dal’sharr—see p. XX) and the devil beasts 
  called ice eaters, from a throne of silver and bone. Corr’dal 
  still seethes over Bax’s ancient betrayal. Since that time, she 
  has hated all Solar Exalted. She desires above all to escape 
  the Demonlands around the Invisible Fortress so she can 
  carry out her vengeance.
  Corr’dal resembles a corpulent sluglike demon with black, 
  hairless skin, a vaguely humanoid face and murky yellow eyes. 
  She cannot move on her own, typically lying motionless on 
  her throne. Even speech is laborious for Corr’dal, but she 
  has an astute and creative mind. Rather than talk aloud, 
  Corr’dal usually speaks through her dal’sharr vizier U’awa, 
  who receives instructions from Corr’dal telepathically.
  For a description of the ice eaters and rules for creat-
  ing these devil beasts, see pages XX–XX of The Manual of 
  Exalted Power—The Infernals.
  Sanctum: Corr’dal lives in a huge tent in the Demonlands.
  Motivation: To escape the Demonlands and kill any Solar 
  Exalted she meets… such as by sending them to their deaths 
  in the Invisible Fortress.
  Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 0, Stamina 7; Charisma 2, 
  Manipulation 2, Appearance 0; Perception 5, Intelligence 5, 
  Wits 5
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 5, Temperance 1, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Awareness 4, Bureaucracy 4, Craft (Air) 5, Craft 
  (Earth) 5, Craft (Fate) 5, Integrity 5, Lore 5, Occult 5, Pres-
  ence 2, Resistance 3, Survival 2
  
  149
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Backgrounds: Cult 2, Followers 1
  Spirit Charms:
  Amethyst Awareness—Founders perceive structures of Essence 
  and other intangible things.
  Chrysalis of Preservation—Corr’dal can materialize anything 
  she can imagine and for which she possesses a relevant 
  Craft Ability. These imaginings have even less reality than 
  the fantasies of the Fair Folk, however, for they do nothing 
  except remain solid.
  Communion of the Spawn—Corr’dal can communicate tele-
  pathically with any of the Founders, at no Essence cost.
  Creation of Perfection—Corr’dal can shape Fate and Essence 
  with incredible skill. It’s how she and her progeny built the 
  Invisible Fortress for Kal Bax and moved it and the surround-
  ing territory outside Fate.
  Essence Bite—Those who strike Corr’dal are momentarily 
  engulfed in a misty green aura emanating from the demon. 
  This cloud burns the attacker, dealing one die of lethal dam-
  age per two motes spent.
  Essence Plethora (x3)—Corr’dal has 30 extra motes.
  Harrow the Mind—Corr’dal once could weave thoughts to 
  make mortals believe almost anything. Kal Bax prudently 
  crippled her facility with this power. If freed, Corr’dal’s 
  Manipulation and Presence would rise to the point where 
  she could control all but the strongest minds.
  Host of Spirits—Corr’dal can evoke up to 15 copies of herself, 
  costing three motes each.
  Materialize—Costs 60 motes.
  Measure the Wind—Corr’dal evaluates anyone she meets who 
  might have magical powers… especially the Exalted.
  Possession—Corr’dal cannot use this Charm until she regains 
  her power to dematerialize.
  Principle of Motion—Corr’dal has nine extra actions 
  banked.
  Stoke the Flame—Inspires jealousy and greed.
  Touch of Grace—Corr’dal can heal one health level of damage 
  by spending three motes and one Willpower.
  Words of Power—In addition to the base cost of five motes, 
  Corr’dal must spend one additional Willpower to speak 
  aloud.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Craft, Lore, Occult
  Second (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Craft, Lore, Oc-
  cult
  Join Battle: 9
  Attacks: None
  Soak: 7L/10B (Tough hide, 3L/3B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 0 
  Willpower: 9
  Essence: 3 
  Essence Pool: 105
  Other Notes: Corr’dal’s throne emits a miasma of dark Essence 
  that requires a successful (Perception + Occult) roll to sense, 
  originating from the various items hidden in its hollow seat. 
  Attempts to read Corr’dal’s mind (or any Founder’s in the 
  vicinity of the throne) suffers a -3 external penalty.
  Due to the constraints placed on her by Bax’s binding, 
  Corr’dal cannot dematerialize. The binding also limits her 
  powers in other ways. If freed, she would become far more 
  powerful and dangerous.
  THE FOUNDERS
  The demon-children of Corr’dal now call themselves the 
  Founders, to distinguish themselves from their mother’s half-
  animal offspring, the ice eaters. Demonology texts of the Old 
  Realm call them the dal’sharr. That name is now forgotten 
  in Malfeas as well as Creation, for the Solar architect Kal 
  Bax summoned the entire race of First Circle demons and 
  bound them to build his Invisible Fortress. Then he didn’t 
  let them return to Malfeas, lest they reveal the secret of his 
  hideaway’s location.
  The dal’sharr deeply dislike all Exalted, especially 
  Solars.
  A Founder has long, chitinous arms and legs attached to 
  a thick, slug-like torso. Their crescent-shaped heads feature 
  a grotesquely jutting chin and brow, narrow eyes and a wide 
  mouth that always seems to smile. Founder skin color ranges 
  from light gray to pitch-black. These demons stand four and 
  six feet tall. They are sexless and sterile. Most importantly, 
  thought, they are master artisans of fate and Essence as well 
  as stone and fine metalwork.
  Sanctum: The 500 or so dal’sharr live in a tent city they call 
  Gate, in the Demonlands near the Invisible Fortress.
  
  150
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 5; Charisma 2, 
  Manipulation 2, Appearance 1; Perception 3, Intelligence 2, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temperance 1, 
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Craft (Air) 4, Craft 
  (Earth) 4, Craft (Fate) 4, Dodge 3, Integrity 3, Larceny 2, 
  Linguistics (Native: Old Realm; Others: Skytongue) 1, 
  Martial Arts 4, Occult 3, Presence 2, Resistance 3, Stealth 3, 
  Survival 2
  Spirit Charms:
  Amethyst Awareness—Founders perceive structures of Essence 
  and other intangible things.
  Chrysalis of Preservation—The Founders make their gorgeous 
  tent city out of Essence and their own imagination. While 
  the tents, implements and furnishings all seem quite solid, 
  they are nothing but crystallized imaginings, and the Founders 
  can dissolve or relocate the entire town in moments.
  Creation of Perfection—Dal’sharr can shape Fate and Es-
  sence with the same precision they might apply to stone or 
  metal. If they wanted, a group of Founders could pick up 
  a demesne by the edges and move its Essence somewhere 
  else. (Of course, the pool of Essence would dissipate soon 
  after the demons released it if they did not deposit it in a 
  geomantically suitable location.)
  Essence Plethora (x2)—Dal’sharr have 20 extra motes.
  Materialize—Costs 45 motes.
  Measure the Wind—The dal’sharr evaluate the power of 
  potential victims or foes.
  Principle of Motion—A Founder typically keeps seven ac-
  tions banked.
  Words of Power—Crafting words and Essence together, a 
  Founder’s invective strikes as a physical blow.
  First (Ability) Excellency—Awareness, Craft
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Claw: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 7L, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 3B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1
  Bite: Speed 6, Accuracy 8, Damage 8L, Parry DV —, Rate 1
  Soak: 6L/8B (Tough hide, 3L/3B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 5 
  Willpower: 7
  Essence: 2 
  Essence Pool: 75
  Other Notes: The dal’sharr are magically prevented from 
  dematerializing. They must stay material until the runestone 
  that binds them is destroyed.
  HUSHED ONES
  These Wyld-corrupted creatures superficially resemble 
  men and woman… except they go naked in the bitterest 
  cold and never utter a sound. Hushed ones live most of their 
  lives hidden in Wyld pockets throughout the North, hunting 
  their prey with single-minded efficiency.
  Some people mistake the hushed ones’ silence for a lack 
  of intelligence, but these creatures have crafty minds that 
  can follow complex strategies. They also have no concept of 
  mercy. There is no reasoning or bargaining with hushed ones. 
  No one can understand their cold, alien behavior.
  Hushed ones never fight fairly. They try to hide and 
  attack from ambush, preferably in numbers great enough to 
  give them an overwhelming advantage. Hushed ones also 
  cause avalanches or build traps using spears, snares, pits and 
  dropfalls. Scroll of Kings describes many traps on pages 
  153–157, and hushed ones know them all. A pack tries to 
  kill the strongest member of a group first, in hopes that they 
  can mop up the weaker prey later.
  While hushed ones can survive on any food that normal 
  humans would eat, they prefer raw human flesh. Their lives 
  center on catching, killing and eating whatever victims they 
  can find. When hushed ones take their prey alive, they drag 
  their victims back to their nests for the entire tribe to share 
  in the feast.
  The most successful hushed one tribes keep herds of 
  captured humans in wide pits dug 20 feet deep, breaking their 
  victims’ arms and legs to further prevent escape. Hushed ones 
  feed their herd sparingly on birds and worms, harvesting them 
  one at a time as needed. During the coldest nights, the hushed 
  ones dump heaps of dead leaves in the pits to keep the herd 
  warm enough to survive. A herd of a few dozen human captives 
  can preserve a hushed one pack through the coldest months 
  and well into the spring, when hunting can begin again.
  
  151
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Of course, it is possible to rescue a pack’s captives. 
  This is best accomplished as soon as possible, for existence 
  in a herd pit quickly takes its toll on a victim’s mind and 
  body. People rescued after several weeks of captivity rarely 
  speak again because of the horrors they have seen. Nor will 
  they easily walk again due to improperly healed bones and 
  injuries sustained fighting the rest of the herd for scraps of 
  food. What’s more, captives eventually may experience one 
  or more Wyld mutations (see Exalted, pp. 288–290, The 
  Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, 
  pp. 144–151 and pp. 206–210 of The Manual of Exalted 
  Power—The Lunars).
  All hushed ones have long black hair on their heads. 
  Their smooth, white and unblemished skin stays cold to the 
  touch. Their wounds heal quickly and never scar. Hushed 
  ones are incredibly strong and have long sharp claws on their 
  fingers. They prefer to use these natural weapons but can 
  use the weapons collected from prey if this gives them some 
  tactical advantage. When not in use, they bury their weapons 
  in and around their nests. They never wear armor.
  Motivation: Hushed ones live only for the hunt.
  Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 4, Stamina 6; Charisma 1, 
  Manipulation 3, Appearance 3; Perception 5, Intelligence 5, 
  Wits 5
  Virtues: Compassion 0, Conviction 5, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 5
  Abilities: Archery 4, Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Dodge 5, 
  Integrity 5, Martial Arts 5, Medicine 3, Melee 5, Presence 2, 
  Resistance 2, Stealth 4, Survival 4, War 1 (Coordinate 
  Attacks +3)
  Backgrounds: Allies 2
  Wyld Mutations and Other Powers: Poxes: Claws, El-
  emental Adaptation (Air), Night Vision; Afflictions: Thick 
  Skin; Deficiencies: Disturbing Voice (Mute); Derangements: 
  Cannibalism (deformity)
  Hive Mind—Hushed ones do not need to speak. They share 
  a hive mind that enables all of them to act as one. Whatever 
  one of them knows, the rest of their pack knows as well. 
  Packs become increasingly dangerous over time, from the 
  knowledge and experience of everyone in the pack’s history. 
  Represent this through higher War ratings. Hushed ones 
  routinely coordinate their attacks, surround opponents so 
  one of them can attack from behind, and practice similar 
  strategies.
  Wyld Healing—While in the Bordermarches or deeper in the 
  Wyld, hushed ones heal one level of lethal damage every 30 
  minutes or one level of bashing damage every 15 minutes.
  Join Battle: 8
  Attacks:
  Claw: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 7L, Parry DV 5, Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 9, Damage 9B, Parry DV 3, Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 6B, Parry DV —, 
  Rate 1
  Slashing Sword: Speed 4, Accuracy 10, Damage 9L, Parry 
  DV 4, Rate 3
  Long Bow: Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 6L*, Rate 3, 
  Range 200
  * Uses broadhead arrows
  Soak: 5L/8B (Thick skin, 2L/2B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 4 
  Willpower: 6
  Essence: 1
  Other Notes: Hushed ones often hunt in partnership with 
  ice hollows (see p. XX). The hushed ones’ Allies Background 
  reflects this cooperation.
  MICE OF THE SUN
  The Solar temple-manse at the heart of Whitewall 
  may be Creation’s last pristine example of High First Age 
  religious architecture. The numerous mosaics and bas-reliefs 
  depicting the glory and deeds of the Unconquered Sun in-
  clude numerous small figures of… mice. Such figures now 
  puzzle savants of the Second Age. It has been too long since 
  the Unconquered Sun sent his subtly powerful agents into 
  Creation—the mice of the sun.
  These rodents are somewhat larger than ordinary mice 
  but look otherwise ordinary. Only when the light strikes 
  them in the right way does the fur on their backs reflect the 
  eight-point symbol of their master.
  While the mice possess a few supernatural talents, 
  their real power is to appear when and where a tiny action 
  could have enormous consequences. They gnaw through the 
  warrior’s shield-strap so it breaks in the middle of a battle. 
  They guide the lost messenger who bears news of a noble’s 
  treachery… or they carry a plague into the town that has 
  fallen into demon worship or other blasphemies.
  In the Old Realm, the mice of the sun occasionally as-
  sisted the Lawgivers. After the Usurpation, the supernatural 
  rodents saw increasing use—especially after the Marama’s 
  Fell holocaust—to curb the excesses of the Dragon-Blooded 
  Shogunate. The Unconquered Sun abruptly ceased using 
  his tiny minions after the Great Contagion, and some in 
  Heaven believe the Deathlords somehow co-opted the mice 
  for their own vile ends. With the return of the Lawgivers to 
  
  152
  Creation, however, the King of Heaven might once more 
  send the mice of the sun to assist his Chosen… or convey 
  his displeasure.
  Motivation: To do the Unconquered Sun’s bidding.
  Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 4, Stamina 1; Charisma 2, 
  Manipulation 2, Appearance 2; Perception 3, Intelligence 3, 
  Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 5*, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 5*
  * Cannot fail Conviction or Valor rolls.
  Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 3, Dodge 4, Integrity 3, 
  Investigation 1, Larceny 3, Martial Arts 1, Resistance 3, 
  Stealth 5
  Powers:
  Anima Banner—Mice of the sun can project the anima ban-
  ner of any Solar Caste, making use of any anima effect for 
  the normal Essence cost.
  Paw of Destiny—As Hand of Destiny, but at no Essence or 
  Willpower cost. Mice of the sun always act instinctively to 
  fulfill some greater goal set by Heaven’s King.
  Join Battle: 7
  Attacks:
  Bite: Speed 4, Accuracy 5, Damage 2L, Parry DV —, Rate 1
  Soak: 0L/2B
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 5 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 2 
  Essence Pool: 60
  Other Notes: On rare occasions, the King of Heaven sends 
  a mouse of the sun to accompany an Exalt for a time. The 
  mouse functions as Familiar •••. Such assignments never last 
  long, however, and they happen when the Storyteller wants 
  them to. Mice of the sun are not appropriate as familiars for 
  starting characters.
  MOUNT MOSTATH, THE HERDER OF MOUNTAINS
  Mount Mostath is an ice-covered behemoth surrounded 
  by a veil of freezing fog. It looks like a mountain, except for 
  the tusks. Wyld barbarians worship the creature and follow 
  its wake of snow and ice as the behemoth “herds” glaciers and 
  the ice-clad mountains that it resembles. No one knows the 
  behemoth’s origin or why it shifts the paths of glaciers one way 
  or another. A few ancient shamans of the most remote barbar-
  ian tribes know rituals to control Mount Mostath’s direction, 
  however, setting it on enemy towns or away from their own 
  villages, but otherwise the behemoth goes its own way.
  The behemoth moves very slowly (100 miles/year), but 
  has nearly unstoppable strength. Mountains in the creature’s 
  path sense its coming and slowly move aside to make way, 
  sliding back into place after he passes (unless the behemoth 
  pushes them to stay in their new location). It is difficult to 
  get Mount Mostath’s attention, but if angered, it extrudes a 
  mighty trunk—like an elephant’s but immensely larger and 
  a mile long—and swats the irritation.
  Motivation: To guide glaciers in their proper courses and 
  keep mountains in their proper places.
  Attributes: Strength 50, Dexterity 1, Stamina 100; Charisma 1, 
  Manipulation 1, Appearance 1; Perception 1, Intelligence 1, 
  Wits 1
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 5, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 1, Integrity 5, Martial 
  Arts 2, Presence 6
  Powers:
  Aura of Frozen Fog—A cloud of frozen fog surrounds Mostath 
  for one mile in all directions. Visibility within the cloud is 
  limited to 20 feet, and all Awareness and Perception rolls 
  suffer a -2 external penalty. See The Compass of Celestial 
  Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, pages 69–70, for additional 
  information on frozen fog.
  Herder of Mountains—Mostath feels vibrations coursing 
  throughout Creation and instinctively knows the movements 
  of all glaciers in the North, all of which are influenced to 
  varying degrees by the behemoth’s own slow course. It in-
  fallibly senses disruptions to the glaciers’ proper movement 
  and changes course to set the situation right by the most 
  direct route and at its swiftest speed (100 miles/year). This 
  rare event results in environmental chaos along Mostath’s 
  course, with earthquakes, frozen fog banks, bizarre storms 
  and shifts in the landscape happening all around him. Such 
  disruptions take time to repair as well, guaranteeing additional 
  visitations along the path for centuries to come—which 
  
  153
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  virtually dooms any attempts at civilization in these places 
  until Mount Mostath decides that every mountain and glacier 
  is in its proper place.
  Join Battle: 2
  Attacks:
  Trample: Speed 9, Accuracy 1, Damage Special*, Parry DV 1, 
  Rate 1
  * Anything that doesn’t get out of Mount Mostath’s way is 
  utterly crushed beneath its bulk or (if indestructible) driven 
  deep into the ground. Storytellers who need something 
  more definite can say the trample deals 100 levels (not 
  dice) of aggravated damage. A similar fate awaits anyone 
  who somehow manages to kill the behemoth, as it writhes 
  in its death-agonies.
  Trunk: Speed 9, Accuracy 1, Damage 50L, Parry DV 1, 
  Rate 1
  Soak: 50L/100B (Hardness: 50L/50B)
  Health Levels: -0x50/-1x100/-2x100/-4x50/Incap
  Dodge DV: 1 
  Willpower: 10
  Essence: 8
  Other Notes: Mount Mostath is immune to all cold ef-
  fects. The creature suffers no visibility penalty itself from 
  the frozen fog.
  UNICORNS
  These Wyld-spawned creatures resemble pure-white 
  horses with cloven hooves, a lion’s tail, featureless, glowing 
  blue eyes and a yard-long, spiraling horn of translucent opal. 
  Their voices sound like a sublime symphony, and their move-
  ments show a grace beyond anything possible in nature. A 
  unicorn’s otherworldly beauty stuns and entrances mortals 
  who cross their paths in the wilderness. The creatures are 
  very intelligent and can speak. Some unicorns live in small 
  groups, and unicorns who usually live alone may nevertheless 
  gather to mate or sing.
  Unicorns defend Bordermarch locations of great beauty 
  or power against anyone who would destroy, damage or 
  reshape the land. These creatures can live anywhere in 
  Creation, though, without heed to environmental dangers 
  such as extreme cold or heat and do not require food. Some 
  unicorns enjoy traveling throughout Creation.
  No power less than Solar Circle sorcery can control a 
  unicorn’s behavior or even cause one to appear less than 
  perfectly graceful and elegant. A unicorn held captive 
  sickens and dies within weeks, but is soon reborn out of the 
  Middlemarch ice. Some unicorns ally themselves with select 
  raksha nobles, Solar Exalted or truly heroic mortals (Familiar 
  •••••)—a mark of high status among Fair Folk.
  Motivation: To guard the Wyld against intruders.
  Attributes: Strength 8, Dexterity 4, Stamina 7; Charisma 4, 
  Manipulation 2, Appearance 4; Perception 4, Intelligence 2, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 3, Dodge 5, Integrity 2, 
  Linguistics (Native: Unicorn Song; Others: Old Realm, 
  Skytongue) 2, Martial Arts 4, Presence 4, Stealth 4, Sur-
  vival 4
  Powers:
  Aerial Gallop—In Creation, unicorns can gallop across chasms 
  or run a few inches above rough terrain for six motes of commit-
  ted Essence and three additional motes per hour. In Rakshastan, 
  they can run from one driftland to another or otherwise charge 
  across the sky effortlessly (no Essence cost).
  Sacred Mien—The grandeur and majesty of a unicorn’s ap-
  pearance stuns would-be attackers. A would-be attacker 
  cannot even try to attack unless his player first succeeds 
  at a Willpower roll for each attack (difficulty 1 for missile 
  weapons, 2 for Melee or Martial Arts combat). No roll is 
  necessary to defend against an attacking unicorn.
  Wyld Immunity—Unicorns are immune to Wyld mutation, 
  shaping effects and works of glamour. Yet, they share the 
  Fair Folk’s vulnerabilities to cold iron and to being bound 
  by their oaths.
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Gore: Speed 3, Accuracy 12, Damage 16L, Parry DV 4, 
  Rate 1
  Kick: Speed 4, Accuracy 10, Damage 12L, Parry DV 4, 
  Rate 2
  Soak: 12L/16B (Iridescent white perfection, 8L/9B)
  Health Levels: -0x3/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 6 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 3 Essence Pool: 30
  Other Notes: None
  VODAK
  Few beings remember Vodak’s name. Those that do 
  never speak that name out of fear that doing so will awaken 
  the horror and cause it to rise once more.
  
  154
  Vodak is a hekatonkhire—a ghost-behemoth of bub-
  bling, writhing quicksilver born from the spilled blood and 
  vitriolic hatred of the first Primordial to die. As the Primor-
  dial War continued, the beast devoured every living thing 
  it encountered, then swelled its mass further on the ghosts 
  of the slain. Its cunning and evil grew as well until Vodak 
  became an undulating lake of necrotic power.
  Long ago, Vodak exterminated the city that later became 
  Gethamane, and the Mountain Folk sealed the hekatonkhire 
  beneath the city. In time, mortals returned to Gethamane. 
  Only the city’s broken gods remember the hekatonkhire, but 
  those who delve into Gethamane’s deepest passages discover 
  that Vodak is by no means dormant. The horror still seeks a 
  way to break the ancient seals that keep it imprisoned.
  Vodak harbors an intense hatred for the Solar Exalted. It 
  will use every malign power and every bit of cruel craftiness 
  at its disposal to humiliate and torture them and anyone they 
  treasure in an elaborate, ritualistic play of madness, pain and 
  death. Vodak has learned patience over the millennia and 
  can hold its rage in check—but if the binding magic breaks, 
  its unquenchable thirst for vengeance will overtake it.
  Motivation: To escape from its prison and destroy all that 
  lives.
  Attributes: Strength 30, Dexterity 3, Stamina Immeasurable*; 
  Charisma 1, Manipulation 4, Appearance 0; Perception 5, 
  Intelligence 4, Wits 3
  *Vodak automatically succeeds in all rolls involving 
  Stamina.
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 5, Temperance 1, 
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Awareness 5 (Sense Life +3), Dodge 1, Integrity 9, 
  Lore 4, Martial Arts 5, Occult 3, Presence 8
  Backgrounds: Cult (Darkbroods) 5, Followers (Simulacra) 5
  Powers:
  Control Simulacra—For one mote, Vodak can issue a telepathic 
  order to one of its simulacra, regardless of distance. This is a 
  reflexive action. The simulacrum must obey the command 
  without exception. Alternatively, Vodak can spend a mote 
  to usurp the creature’s voice or senses for a scene.
  Corrosive Contact—Any organic matter that touches Vodak 
  suffers damage equal to an acid bath (see Exalted, p. 131). 
  Armor does not protect against this environmental effect, 
  as Vodak’s plasm seeps past such barriers. Apply this dam-
  age separately whenever Vodak successfully strikes with a 
  pseudopod or when a combatant strikes the hekatonkhire 
  with a Martial Arts attack.
  Create Simulacra—Vodak can excrete a duplicate of any 
  being it has ever consumed. Such simulacra have the 
  memories of and act in the same manner as the original 
  beings. They might even believe they are the originals, 
  despite all evidence to the contrary. Vodak may take control 
  of its simulacra to alter their memories or make them do 
  whatever it pleases. Only one copy of any being can exist 
  at one time, however. This power costs two motes for every 
  health level of the original being. These motes are commit-
  ted until the simulacrum dies. When a simulacrum dies or 
  Vodak withdraws the committed Essence, the simulacrum 
  dissolves into a silvery powder.
  Devour Essence—When Vodak touches a being at the mo-
  ment of death, it regains a number of motes equal to the 
  being’s (Stamina + Essence), after which the soul of the 
  being becomes a part of Vodak, lingering on in semi-aware 
  pain for eternity.
  Immortal—Mundane weapons cannot harm Vodak. Magical 
  weapons and effects can harm the hekatonkhire, but “killing” 
  Vodak merely forces the hekatonkhire into quiescence for 
  a century while it re-forms in the Labyrinth. Vodak can be 
  destroyed permanently only by being cast into the Mouth 
  of Oblivion.
  Interpenetrating Realities—Vodak exists simultaneously in 
  Creation and the Underworld. It constantly perceives both 
  worlds and can affect objects and entities in both.
  Telepathy—Vodak can project its thoughts into any sentient 
  being in line of sight. The target “hears” this projection as a 
  horrific, discordant cacophony of voices—those of Vodak’s 
  previous victims—that disorients as well as enthralls, such 
  that all Awareness rolls suffer a –2 external penalty. Targets 
  may respond telepathically if they choose. This power is com-
  municative only—Vodak cannot use this power to control 
  a target. Characters can block out Vodak’s voice through a 
  successful Willpower roll at difficulty 4.
  Join Battle: 8
  
  155
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  Attacks:
  Pseudopodia: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 30L + corrosion, 
  Parry DV 4, Rate 4
  Soak: 30L/60B (Protean body)
  Health Levels: -0x200/Quiescent
  Dodge DV: 6 
  Willpower: 10
  Essence: 8 
  Essence Pool: 800
  Other Notes: Vodak does not suffer normal progressive 
  dice penalties for taking multiple actions. Instead, it loses 
  one die for every non-reflexive action performed in a flurry 
  after the first.
  Sunlight harms Vodak’s plasm, inflicting one level of aggra-
  vated damage per five ticks of exposure. Vodak can take no 
  actions while exposed to sunlight except to retreat. Direct 
  sunlight also destroys Vodak’s simulacra, which dissolve into 
  silvery powder at its touch.
  VORVIN-DERLIN, SLAYER OF ARMIES
  The Primordial that would become Isidoros, the Black 
  Boar That Twists the Skies, forged the behemoth Vorvin-
  Derlin from his own immortal sinew. The Primordial designed 
  the behemoth as a bizarre war engine that grew in power to 
  match the forces ranged against it. The greater the army, the 
  more surely the Slayer of Armies would annihilate it.
  During the Primordial War, however, Vorvin-Derlin 
  could not calibrate its defenses appropriately to defeat 
  the Exalted, whose might far outstretched their number. 
  Time and again, the Slayer of Armies was destroyed, but 
  its dead husk drew fresh life from Creation itself, and it 
  rose again. The terms of Isidoros’s exile dictated that 
  Vorvin-Derlin follow its master into banishment but 
  return when called as if it were a Second Circle demon. 
  An accident during the Usurpation left Vorvin-Derlin 
  masterless but buried in the ruined city of Opal Spire, 
  where it has waited ever since.
  Vorvin-Derlin resembles a hollow humanoid cage of 
  tarnished brass filigree that extrudes and retracts razor-sharp 
  barbs from its body with an insistent rhythm like that of a 
  beating heart. The creature undulates and shifts its shape 
  constantly as it moves, every step sinewy and hypnotic. It 
  retains this semi-humanoid shape as long as it must but 
  prefers to envelop a living host as an exoskeleton. When the 
  behemoth takes a host, red flames smolder in the gouged-out 
  pits of its vessel’s eyes. Verdigris coats every non-magical 
  metal object within one mile of Vorvin-Derlin.
  Motivation: To obey Isidoros and express its purpose by 
  defeating armies and other powerful adversaries.
  Attributes: Strength 5*, Dexterity 5*, Stamina 5*; Charisma 1, 
  Manipulation 1, Appearance 0; Perception 3*, Intelligence 2*, 
  Wits 5*
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 2*, Temperance 1*, 
  Valor 6
  Abilities: Athletics 10, Awareness 5, Dodge 10*, Martial 
  Arts 10*, Melee 10*, Presence 7 (Intimidation +3), Resis-
  tance 10*, Stealth 5*, Survival 5*, Thrown 10*, War 10*
  Backgrounds: Manse 5 (Conduit to Isidoros restores Essence 
  as a level-5 manse)
  Powers:
  Barbed Surface—Anyone striking Vorvin-Derlin barehanded 
  suffers 6L damage from its jagged metal flesh.
  Inexhaustible Defense—Vorvin-Derlin’s Defense Values 
  are not reduced by the behemoth making attacks (single 
  or flurries) or other actions. Attackers can never reduce 
  Vorvin-Derlin’s DVs through onslaughts, coordinated at-
  tacks, attacking from behind or any other mundane tactic, 
  either. Charms that reduce a foe’s DV still function against 
  the Slayer of Armies.
  Gale of Barbs—With a wave of its hand, Vorvin-Derlin can 
  launch a volley of darts formed from its jagged metal flesh. 
  This attack has the same effect as the spell Death of Obsidian 
  Butterflies (see Exalted, p. 252), with an area of effect 30 
  feet wide and 10 feet high. The attack roll is (Dexterity + 
  Thrown) and the base damage is 1L. Costs 15 motes.
  Mechanism’s Bane—Machines and First Age artifacts react 
  unpredictably whenever Vorvin-Derlin comes within five 
  miles of them. The more sophisticated the device, the more 
  likely it will exhibit some unexpected behavior. Every day, 
  for each artifact in range, roll a number of dice equal to the 
  device’s Artifact rating. (Roll one die for water-mills and 
  other mundane mechanisms.) The number of successes 
  indicates the degree of malfunction. If all dice are successes, 
  the device becomes inoperable and requires repair. N/A 
  Artifacts are not affected.
  Might of the Slaughterer—By spending five motes following 
  a successful attack, Vorvin-Derlin draws blood from an 
  
  156
  opponent it has not previously wounded and gains one ad-
  ditional dot each of Strength, Dexterity, Stamina and Martial 
  Arts. The behemoth loses the additional dice at the end of 
  the scene unless it spends five additional motes to retain the 
  bonus for a scene longer.
  Nigh Unkillable—The behemoth possesses immortality on the 
  scale of a Primordial. If slain, it reconstructs itself after one 
  year of quiescence. Short of being killed, it heals one level 
  of bashing damage every action, one level of lethal damage 
  every minute and one level of aggravated damage every day. 
  The creature is immune to all Sickness, Poison and Crippling 
  effects, whether natural or supernatural. Within a year, it 
  reverses all Shaping effects used against it.
  Primal Fusion—If in control of a clinch, Vorvin-Derlin can 
  spend 20 motes to engulf a living victim in a mass of spiked 
  filaments. The behemoth becomes a second skin, rooting itself 
  deep into its victim’s bones and muscles. Creatures without 
  an active Essence are instantly engulfed. Targets that channel 
  Essence can escape the behemoth’s grip through a successful 
  (Stamina + Resistance) roll. If Vorvin-Derlin succeeds in 
  merging with a victim, it adds the host’s rating in any traits 
  marked with an asterisk in this write-up to its own rating 
  for the duration of the fusion (Conviction and Temperance 
  have a maximum of 5, however). A subsumed victim loses 
  control over her body, and the behemoth has access to all 
  of her knowledge and memories. Vorvin-Derlin can release 
  hosts at will, usually to merge with a host of greater power. It 
  leaves former hosts blind and horribly scarred (Appearance 
  1, plus effects of maiming and blindness).
  Turning Steel—If an attack roll against Vorvin-Derlin garners 
  four or fewer successes, the behemoth maneuvers the attack 
  to strike an alternative target within five yards (but not the 
  original attacker). The new target may dodge or otherwise 
  defend against this attack normally. This power has no Es-
  sence cost and operates reflexively.
  Join Battle: 10*
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 4, Accuracy 16, Damage 9L, Parry DV 8*, 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 15, Damage 11L, Parry DV 6, 
  Rate 2
  Barb Slash: Speed 3, Accuracy 17, Damage 10L, Parry DV 10, 
  Rate 3
  Soak: 16L/15B (Infernal brass body, 13L/10B)
  Health Levels: -0*x5/-1*x6/-2*x7/-4/Quiescent
  Dodge DV: 11 
  Willpower: 8
  Essence: 6 
  Essence Pool: 120
  Other Notes: Some combat traits may need to be recalculated 
  as a result of the behemoth using the powers Might of the 
  Slaughterer and Primal Fusion.
  The behemoth cannot fail Valor rolls.
  Vorvin-Derlin is a Second Circle demon for the purposes 
  of summoning, binding or banishing it through sorcery, but 
  for no other purpose.
  BEASTS OF THE NORTH
  The North is a cold, harsh land, where only the most 
  fearsome and dangerous creatures can survive.
  ARCTIC 
  DEMITAURS
  An arctic 
  demitaur stands 
  upright, with a 
  bull’s head, a 
  quarterhorse’s 
  legs and the 
  torso and arms 
  of a strong man, 
  all covered in 
  thick, white fur. 
  Long, sharp fangs 
  protrude from 
  the creature’s 
  mouth.
  A r c t i c 
  demitaurs live 
  primarily in secluded valleys where they graze on moss, grass, 
  twigs and lichens. When left alone, they hardly seem violent 
  at all. When others encroach on their home, however, the 
  demitaurs enter a murderous frenzy. The herd leaves its valleys 
  in a wild rampage, trampling and attacking other creatures 
  virtually at random, until they find another peaceful place.
  A demitaur attacks with its mighty fists and rugged 
  hooves, which can crush armor and weapons just as effectively 
  as they can flesh and bone.
  Weapon-Crushing Hooves: If the roll for a demitaur’s 
  trample attack achieves three or more successes, the creature 
  strikes the target’s weapon. If the damage exceeds the required 
  (Strength + Athletics) total—8 for swords and most other 
  metal weapons, 3 for wooden weapons such as bows—the 
  weapon shatters. Also, the targeted character’s player must 
  succeed at a reflexive Strength roll (difficulty 1) or the 
  character is disarmed whether his weapon breaks or not. This 
  ability of the arctic 
  demitaur has no 
  effect on unarmed 
  opponents or on 
  weapons made 
  from the magical 
  materials.
  CTHRITAE
  Gethamane 
  knows the cthritae 
  all too well, as 
  they are among 
  the most abundant 
  horrors of the tun-
  nels beneath the 
  
  157
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  city. A cthrita looks like a man-sized centipede carved of 
  onyx and black opal, whose massive mandibles drip with 
  quicksilver. These creatures run on stone walls or ceilings as 
  easily as the floor—usually in packs of at least a dozen. They 
  can chew through rock at a rate of a foot an hour, but only 
  do so if they know prey awaits beyond a barrier—so they will 
  chew through a door (they can smell people beyond it) but 
  will not spend weeks tunneling upwards toward Gethamane. 
  (At least, not unless they are simulacra controlled by Vodak.) 
  Cthritae can see in complete darkness.
  Cthritae lack human intelligence but possess formidable 
  instinctive cunning. Their motives are to feed and breed. 
  They can live on rock and water but prefer organic prey. 
  Feeding cthritae rip their prey apart and roll in the bloody 
  remains in a sort of frenzy. Breeding cthritae sever a victim’s 
  tendons and force eggs down the prey’s throat. The eggs hatch 
  within hours and devour their host from within, reaching 
  adult size in a day.
  GREAT 
  EAGLES
  These 
  oversized 
  eagles hunt 
  elk and rein-
  deer the way 
  normal rap-
  tors hunt 
  rabbits and 
  squirrels. 
  Great eagles 
  stand 10–12 
  feet tall with 
  wingspans 
  reaching 30 feet. Their feathers bear white and gray mark-
  ings. Although great eagles are one of the favorite totem 
  animals of the North, Guild-sponsored sport hunters have 
  hunted them nearly to extinction. Gerd Marrow-Eater cur-
  rently works on restoring the species. He has bred and trained 
  a legion of them, quite probably the largest population of 
  great eagles left in Creation.
  Great eagles have the same traits as Metagalapan war-
  hawks (see The Compass of Terrestrial Directions, Vol. 
  III—The East, pp. 158 and 160). No one has tamed great 
  eagles to bear riders, however, and no one could without 
  using Charms.
  GREAT-TERRORS
  These terrifying carnivores are the scourge of the North as 
  they feast on reindeer herds, mammoth and unlucky travelers 
  or villagers. No prey smaller than a man is worth their trouble 
  to hunt. These gigantic hairy canine creatures grow 10–12 
  feet tall and about 16 feet long. A great-terror’s monstrous, 
  fang-filled jaws can easily crush a man’s skull. Great-terrors 
  have jaggedly striped brown or black pelts, matted into a 
  crest along their backs. (In the extreme North, these beasts 
  have snow-
  white fur.) 
  Roughened 
  paws enable 
  great-terrors 
  to lope over 
  slippery ice. 
  In the dark, 
  their eyes 
  catch any 
  light with a 
  fiery, orange 
  glow.
  M a l e 
  great-terrors 
  hunt alone. 
  The females 
  gather in 
  packs of up 
  to half a 
  dozen. All 
  great-terrors growl, bark and whinny as they chase their 
  prey. At the kill, a great-terror bays in a way that sounds 
  like maniacal laughter.
  Few dare to hunt great-terrors. Not only are these crea-
  tures fast, wily and extremely hardy, but great-terror meat 
  tastes rotten (though it is harmless) and their oily, pungent 
  pelts are nearly worthless. Big game hunters may seek the 
  glory of slaying the North’s fiercest predator, though only 
  Exalted hunters (such as a number of justly famous Dynasts) 
  have much chance of killing great-terrors.
  A century ago, the Fair Folk raider called White Harper 
  used glamour to enchant a large pack of great-terrors—the 
  only known case of anyone taming these beasts. White Harper 
  used his great-terrors to gather slaves, jade and other treasures 
  as he carved out a sizeable domain. The Wyld Hunt did not 
  kill him directly… but wounded and weakened him enough 
  that the great-terrors turned on the raksha and slew him.
  HORNED SNOW HUNTERS
  Horned snow hunters (also called snow devils) roam the 
  tundra and taiga of the Northeast but sometimes venture west 
  along the White Sea. Their blunt-jawed snout resembles that 
  of a dog, with sharp, cat-like teeth and fangs. Two horns point 
  forward like spears from the top of their long-eared heads. 
  Silky white fur provides excellent camouflage in snow and 
  ice. Snow devils stand three to four feet at the shoulder and 
  can weigh up to 300 pounds. They are brilliant hunters who 
  display complex tactics of flanking, ambushing, baiting and 
  corralling their prey.
  These creatures avoid humans, and attack them only if 
  provoked or cornered. Humans do not return the favor. Horned 
  snow hunters eat the same sort of animals that humans do. 
  Moreover, the snow devil has sweet and savory meat, luxuri-
  ously soft and warm fur, strong sinews and tough bones suitable 
  
  158
  for carving 
  into tools.
  No one 
  a c t u a l l y 
  t a m e s  
  a 
  horned snow 
  hunter, but 
  these crea-
  tures do form 
  rare hunting 
  partnerships 
  with trusted 
  individuals. 
  This process 
  takes months 
  or years of 
  patient effort 
  to gain the 
  snow hunt-
  er’s trust. 
  The human hunters—usually Exalted but sometimes 
  mortal—become legendary in the North and are highly 
  sought-after for ridding provinces of vermin and predators. 
  Snow hunters have a control rating of 5 and are Familiar 
  •••••. They cannot survive outside the frozen North, 
  suffering one die of bashing damage for each day in warm 
  surroundings. Unlike many Northern creatures, horned snow 
  hunters are active from autumn through spring but hibernate 
  through the summer.
  ICE 
  HOLLOWS
  T h e 
  W
  y
  l
  d 
  s p a w n e d 
  these crystal-
  clear giant 
  insects. De-
  spite their 
  glassy ap-
  p e a r a n c e 
  and spindly 
  legs, how-
  ever, ice 
  hollows take 
  a lot of dam-
  age to kill. 
  The insects 
  swiftly glide 
  over the 
  snow and ice in search of warm-blooded prey. They often 
  hunt near frozen lakes and rivers but avoid open water. An 
  ice hollow has huge mandibles with which to seize prey and 
  a long proboscis for sucking blood. After feeding, an ice hol-
  low’s transparent body becomes threaded with crimson. 
  Ice hollows attack all warm-blooded creatures. They 
  usually do not attack cold-blooded creatures, which usually 
  go unmolested unless they provoke the ice hollows. Winter 
  Folk, hushed ones and similar Northern threats sometimes 
  tame ice hollows and train them as one would a dog (control 
  rating 4; Familiar •••).
  ICE WEASELS
  Ice weasels 
  hunt through 
  the frozen for-
  est alone or in 
  pairs. Adults 
  grow three 
  feet tall at the 
  shoulder and 
  reach 10 feet 
  from nose to 
  tail-tip. They 
  have stark white 
  fur and small, 
  black eyes. An 
  extraordinary 
  sense of smell 
  makes the ice 
  weasel an ex-
  cellent tracker, 
  even across 
  wide expanses. The Winter Folk sometimes domesticate 
  ice weasels and use them as hounds. Working in tandem, ice 
  weasels can slay prey as large as a mammoth. Ice weasels are 
  also hunted themselves for their soft, warm fur, which is one 
  of the most expensive in Creation (requiring Resources ••• 
  to purchase in the North and Resources •••• elsewhere).
  Jaw Lock: Ice weasels bring down their prey by locking 
  their jaws on a leg or neck. This attack inflicts an addition 
  level of lethal damage automatically each action. After three 
  actions the limb is severed. Only by breaking the creature’s 
  jaw through a (Strength + Athletics) roll at difficulty 5 can 
  one release an ice 
  weasel’s grip. 
  SHARD 
  BATS
  T h e s e 
  white-furred 
  bats hunt by 
  d a y ,  
  c a m -
  o u f l a g e d 
  against the 
  snow-capped 
  mountains and 
  the clouds in 
  the sky. They 
  stand two feet 
  tall and have 
  
  159
  CHAPTER SEVEN: GODS AND MONSTERS OF THE NORTH
  an eight-foot wingspan, with sharp, gripping claws and tiny 
  serrated teeth. The tips of their wings secrete a viscous bile 
  that freezes in the icy air, forming extremely sharp blades 
  along the wings’ edges. A shard bat attacks by swooping past 
  its prey to slash with its wings, but it must take a miscel-
  laneous action between attacks to wheel about for another 
  pass. Lacking this option, the bat can bite or claw.
  Colonies of dozens of shard bats nest in Northern 
  caves. The bats scour the frozen landscape for prey, using 
  echolocation to detect smaller rodents and birds. They usu-
  ally hunt in packs of 10 or more, flying in perfect formation 
  until they attack. Travelers in groups of four or more have 
  little to fear from shard bats, but these beasts may attack 
  smaller groups. Because shard bats rely heavily on surprise, 
  however, they usually seek other prey if the fight lasts more 
  than a minute.
  Echolocation: Like normal bats, shard bats can sense 
  their surroundings by sending out pulses of sound too high-
  pitched for humans to hear and listening for the echoes. 
  This echo sense is quite as accurate as sight. It can still be 
  “blinded” by effects that cause deafness, though.
  SNOW 
  LIONS
  T h e s e 
  hulking preda-
  tors of the Far 
  North stand 
  10 feet at the 
  shoulder, with 
  r a z o r - s h a r p 
  c l a w s  
  a n d 
  teeth. Rear-
  ing upright, a 
  snow lion can 
  attack prey 20 
  feet overhead. 
  Their eyes are 
  a hypnotic pale 
  blue and their 
  coats are white or gray, with pale, mottled markings.
  Snow lions burrow deep in snowdrifts and lie in wait 
  for prey to approach. Those who accidentally walk over a 
  snow lion’s burrow may cause it to collapse, falling into the 
  snow and ice with the snow lion. The victim takes 5B fall-
  ing damage and the attentive snow lion can attempt one 
  unexpected attack. A snow lion can also attempt an ambush 
  by leaping out from a snowbank. Snow lions sometimes fol-
  low those who do not collapse their burrows, tracking prey 
  until they are asleep or some other opportune moment. 
  Snow lions usually hunt alone. While they normally hunt 
  animals ranging from elk to mammoth, they regard humans 
  as just more livestock.
  SPAWN OF 
  VODAK
  T
  h
  e 
  hekatonkhire 
  Vodak buds off 
  small copies of 
  itself to sweep 
  through Geth-
  amane. These 
  copies exist 
  only in the 
  Underworld’s 
  analogue to 
  Gethamane, 
  where they 
  hunt ghosts. 
  When they de-
  stroy a victim, 
  they return to 
  rejoin their creator and deliver their devoured Essence. 
  Spawn have Essence 3 but no Essence pool. They try to 
  grapple victims. A victim takes no Strength-based dam-
  age (for the spawn cannot exert physical force), but suffers 
  environmental damage as if from an acid bath (see Exalted, 
  p. 131) for every action in which the spawn manages to 
  continue the clinch. Naturally, spawn of Vodak rely on their 
  Dexterity for grappling attacks. A spawn of Vodak covers 
  an area 10 yards wide. It can initiate only one clinch per 
  action, but it can hold up to six victims at once without 
  suffering any penalty.
  YETI
  Fierce and 
  strongly terri-
  torial, these 
  cannibalistic 
  simians form 
  troupes of one 
  male and four 
  to six females, 
  plus young, all 
  living in natu-
  ral caves or in 
  frigid forests of 
  the Northeast. 
  In addition to 
  bearing and 
  rearing the yeti 
  young, the female yeti haunt the dangerous mountain passes 
  and quiet woods in their territory, an area usually encompass-
  ing a few square miles, while the male watches for unexpected 
  dangers. Yeti are absolutely immune to cold.
  
  160
  Name 
  Str/Dex/Sta 
  Per/Int/ 
  Health 
  Attack 
  Dodge DV/
   
   
  Wits/Will 
  Levels 
  (Spd/Acc/ 
  Soak
   
   
   
   
  Dmg/Rate)
  Arctic Demitaur 
  6/2/5 
  2/1/3/5 
  -0x2/-1x4/ 
  Punch: 5/7/7B/3, 
  2/8L/13B
   
   
   
  -2x4/-4/I 
  Trample: 7/6/9B*/2 
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 4, Dodge 3, Martial Arts 4, Presence 2 (Intimidation +2), Resistance 2 (Endure 
  Cold +3), Survival 5
  Cthrita 
  2/3/2 
  3/1/2/3 
  -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/I Bite: 5/4/6L/2 
  2/4L/8B
  Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 2, Dodge 2, Integrity 2 (Mindless Ferocity +3), Martial Arts 2, Resistance 3, 
  Stealth 3, Survival 1 (Underground +2)
  Great-Terror 
  10/5/10 
  2/1/3/2 
  -0x4/-1x5/ 
  Bite: 5/8/13L/2,  
  4/6L/10B
   
   
   
  -2x5/-4/I 
  Claw: 4/8/11L/3
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 4, Dodge 3, Martial Arts 3, Presence 4 (Intimidation +3), Resistance (Endure 
  Cold +3), Stealth 4, Survival 5
  Horned Snow Hunter 
  6/3/5 
  5/2/3/5 
  -0x2/-1x4/ 
  Bite: 5/6/9L/1,  
  3/3L/6B
   
   
   
  -2x4/-4x3/I 
  Claw 4/8/7L/3, Gore: 5/6/9L/2
  Abilities: Athletics 5, Awareness 3 (Hearing +2, Sight +1), Dodge 3, Martial Arts 3, Presence 2 (Intimidation +2), 
  Resistance 4 (Endure Cold +3), Stealth 4 (Ambush +2), Survival 4
  Ice Hollow 
  4/4/4 
  2/1/3/3 
  -0/-1x6/-2x6/-4/I Bite: 5/9/5L/1 
  4/4L/5B
  Abilities: Awareness 4, Dodge 4, Martial Arts 5, Presence 2, Resistance 5 (Cold +2), Stealth 5
  Ice Weasel 
  4/6/4 
  3/1/2/5 
  -0/-1x4/-4/I 
  Bite: 5/11/ 
  6/6L/10B
   
   
   
   
  6L+jaw lock/1
  Abilities: Athletics 6, Awareness 3, Dodge 6, Martial Arts 5, Resistance 3 (Endure Cold +3), Stealth 4 (In Snow +3), 
  Survival 4 (Sense Traps +3)
  Shard Bat 
  1/5/3 
  3/1/3/3 
  -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/I Bite: 5/9/2L/1,  
  5/2L/6B
   
   
   
   
  Claw 4/9/5L/3, Wing: 3/10/8L/2
  Abilities: Athletics 5 (Flying +3), Awareness (Echolocation +3), Dodge 5, Martial Arts 4, Resistance 1 (Endure 
  Cold +3), Stealth 3, Survival 3
  Snow Lion 
  10/3/8 
  4/1/3/3 
  -0/-1x4/-2x3/-4/I Bite: 5/7/14L/1,  
  2/4L/8B
   
   
   
   
  Claw: 4/9/13L/3
  Abilities: Athletics 3 (Tunnel Movement +3), Awareness (Interpret Snow Tremors +3), Dodge 2, Martial Arts 4, 
  Resistance 3 (Endure Cold +3), Stealth 3 (Ambush +3), Survival 3 (Dig Tunnels and Traps +3)
  Spawn of Vodak 
  0/3/0 
  3/1/2/6 
  -0/-1x2/-2x2/I 
  Envelop: 5/7/Special*/1 4/6L/6B
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Dodge 5, Integrity 4, Martial Arts 4
  Yeti 
  6/3/5 
  4/2/4/3 
  -0/-0/-1/-1/ 
  Claw: 4/7/7L/2 
  3/2L/5B
   
   
   
  -2/-2/-4/I 
  Bite: 5/5/9L/1
  Abilities: Awareness 4, Dodge 3, Integrity 2, Investigation 3, Martial Arts 3, Presence 2 (Intimidation +2), 
  Resistance 2, Stealth 4, Survival 5
  
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, VOL. V 
  THE COMPASS OF TERRESTRIAL DIRECTIONS, VOL. V — THE NORTH
   THE NORTH
  www.white-wolf.com/exalted
  The North is home to 
  one of Creation’s harshest 
  environments, and its savage 
  predators, deadly winters and 
  scarcity of resources would 
  be challenging enough, even 
  without the additional threats 
  posed by marauding barbarians, 
  seductive Winter Folk and the 
  frozen dead. Defying both the 
  elements and the region’s many 
  threats, though, a myriad of 
  states, large and small, have 
  succeeded in wresting order 
  from a chaotic wilderness and 
  forging a stable home for their 
  subjects. Will the returned 
  Lawgivers seek to maintain these 
  fragile metropolises, or will they 
  be drawn to the banner of the 
  Solar Bull of the North, who 
  seems determined to plunge the 
  entire North into war?
  The fifth of five Terrestrial Direction books 
  devoted to fleshing out the bare bones of 
  Creation presented in the Exalted
  Exalted core book, 
  this supplement includes the following:
  • Details of Whitewall, Gethamane, the Haslanti 
  League and other Northern nations
  • Mass combat stats for the myriad of Northern 
  powers as well as dominion traits for the Mandate 
  of Heaven
  • Traits for the North’s native gods and beasts
  WHITE WOLF
  WW80204
  9 781588 463791
  52499
  PRINTED IN U.S.A.
  ISBN: 978-1-58846-379-1   WW80204  $24.99 U.S.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/Exalted/Exalted 2nd Edition/4 Compass of Terrestrial Locations (Creation Locations)/Exalted 2E - Compass of Terrestrial Directions Vol. 5 - The North [WW80204].pdf