The Lost Primarch Quest

The Pataliputra is larger than most principalities, it contains Pataliputra and its satellite cities in the center of its southeast quadrant. The rest is reserved for such Space Marine pastimes as hunting, warfare, and solitary spiritual contemplation. The Magnificent Grounds of Pataliputra is kept a pristine wilderness for the savage enjoyment of its masters. Tropical trees grow thick, and the canopy blocks out much light. The Pataliputra border the Grey River on the west, the River Province on the north, the Vaniwayan on the south and reaches east enough to include the Ever-Rippling Sky Mirror Lake. Wild beasts stalk the jungle and are a threat to mortals traveling on foot. Most travelers move by airship to and from Pataliputra, and those who cannot accompany the shipments of raw goods taken from the region to the Artisan Fields Prefecture or the Grave Silk Lake Prefecture for processing.

Pataliputra is a perfect circle, divided into eight radial and equal slices. Six of these divisions fit the city's circular nature, with streets parallel to the outer wall, and feature the Valhallan style of construction. The seventh section is laid out in squares and right angles, unlike the gentle curves and 60- and 90-degree angles of the rest of the city. The last slice is the Imperial District, home to the city's 50,000 or so Officials and full of deep artificial ponds and canals. Nearby Lake Therak keeps the Pataliputra flooded and fed.

A dome of polished starmetal gleams atop a bluff just outside Pataliputra. This is the Great Observatory, a peerless aid for astrology that incorporates theoretical constellations into its readers' predictions. It contains the Ornery of Surya, a flawless model of the heavens that makes it possible to discern even the position of a specific fly's descendants a century from now. Mathura sits 300 miles southeast of Pataliputra, one of 10 satellite cities evenly spaced around the First City. These 10 cities support Pataliputra, growing the crops necessary to feed its millions and stocking the surrounding jungle with prey designed to give the Marines a good hunt. Half the cities maintain reality engines able to quell the Warp and strengthen the fabric of reality, all tied into manses that broadcast their protection over a hundred-mile radius. In an emergency, the five equipped cities are designed to usurp power from all manses and protect a Pataliputra-centred pentagon from Warp ravages.

Located in the Far Southeast, Udayagiri has a poor standard of living compared to the Valhalla's prefectures, but its people are hardworking and appear content. Udayagiri supplies a full tenth of Valhalla's adamant production and winning the supply contract for Hastinapur's construction imbued the tributary with inexhaustible cash reserves. Its lands are hot grass plains with sparse woodlands. Small rivers flow out of the hills to the west and Drawn of Hesiesh Prefecture. Birds' nests are everywhere, from a size that fits in a child's hand to one larger than most single-family homes. Orioles of different breeds and colors build all of them, and the birds themselves are common sights in the tributary's skies, cities, and towns. The region boasts over 10000 different species of oriole, some with fantastic properties.

Eccentric Kalpataru is an entire city cut into the living wood of a bonsai tree. Primarchs now-famous experiment made the bonsai the center of spatial and perceptual distortion. Although the road to the small bonsai looks no longer than a mile, travelers cross 100 miles to get there. Each step covers less space than the last, and the travelers themselves become smaller. The bonsai appears the same relative size until the last few perceived miles, where it grows to tower over the human form.

The Shakambhari Gate is two iridescent convex doors, each 800 feet in height, which never appears the same twice. Within, thousands of tunnels and chambers make up the city's homes, streets, public "buildings" and workplaces. Limited space dictates that the administration manage the allocation of homes and shops carefully. The existing system places Geomancers and Seekers orders above the working inhabitants. The bonsai's needles contain chambers that serve as workshops for the curious experiments that give Kalpataru its reputation as a city of unpredictably creative artificers and theoreticians. A tenth of the long-term inhabitants are devoted researchers; another four-tenths are the researchers' retinues.

The Flowing Grasp Province meets the River Province to the south, just level with the main body of the Avarice River. Its north-western border runs parallel to the Silver River exactly 200 miles west and demarcates the official transition from East to North. Flowing Grasp's land includes expanses of redwoods in its center, fertile plains in its south and west along the Silver and stretches of deciduous forests in its south and east. Verdant Sash is the first slash of the North-eastern forest, separating the fertile grasslands of Cookery Paradise, Faithful Shores Nation and the Thousand Hooves Plains Prefecture from the deep evergreen forests farther north and east. Its northern edge follows Maron's Finger and the Little Finger where it branches. Verdant Sash is also the only place in the near Northeast with access to the rich-hued redwoods and other softwoods besides the Water Roots Triumvirate.

So-named for the half-dozen rivers that intermingle to become the Silver River at its southwest end, the Water Root Triumvirate is most famous within the Flowing Grasp Province. Any apprentice savant knows of it and can recite its history. The size of the tributary and its control over much of the near Northeast made it an instant powerhouse in its province and in neighboring principalities. The tributary's border lies just 80 miles from the edge of the Great Northeast Forest. Conifers grow tall from there until they tower over the waters of Maron's Little Finger. Forts dot the southern and northern borders, a natural precaution for any principality surrounded by tributaries. The greater forts are complexes inside many massive living trees in the north and are connected through the ground, ready to stave off any trespassers. Small rivers flow through the region, impeding foot travel but enriching the soil for farming.

Khandagiri's 11 towers are its signature. They stand in a row, forming the northeast edge of the city and rising from 800 feet tall at either end to 1500 feet at the top of the centremost tower. The height of each but the middle tower is also the distance to the base of the next taller tower. Khandagiri's Eleven Towers laws are subsidiary to those governing the towers' care and regulation. Wealthy inhabitants and government buildings sit at the towers' feet, always to the southwest. Nothing is built northeast of the Eleven Towers between them and the near forest.