A horde of monsters and devils advances on civilization. Everyone you know is dead by plague. Your village is an echoing shell of empty homes, some still warm with rot. Whole cities are abandoned, familiar trade routes drying up like the rivers blocked by disease-ridden dead. The sky itself seems infected, bruised by falling stars. The few who pass through litter bad news in their wake.
On the day you finish digging your husband's grave, the sky erupts. The horizon dances with lurid signal fires, and for one long moment your ears are battered by the war-trumpet of the gods. Silence follows, and as days become weeks, life releases a long-held breath.
The first wanderers bear news of ogre brigades whipped from the world by a divine scourge. The plague loosens its strangling grip, and hollow houses are cleared of the dead. A legion musters on a nearby hill, clamoring around campfires. Priests speak of a new bodhisattva, one who cleansed Creation of fiend and flux. The sky burns once more, fires thundering out, and you cheer with a voice you'd forgotten you possessed.
And then Her image stands in your village, voice ringing like a gong. You sink to your knees in the dirt. She is a mighty and beautiful tower of scarlet fire, wrought as a woman in robes of blood. She is destruction. She is salvation.
She is, now and forever, your Empress.
-/-
The year is 768, and no one has seen the Scarlet Empress in over five years. Such absences are not unusual, but previous incidents lasted weeks or months at the most, certainly never more than a season, and by now it seems impossible to deny that something has gone truly and irrevocably wrong.
The Realm was not meant to survive without the Empress; the entire structure of its law and culture depends on a single autocratic figure at the very peak of the mountain, and by its nature the Scarlet Throne will bear only one ruler. Already the cracks are beginning to show. Already, people whisper of the necessity of an heir, and speculate on who it might be. The Matriarchs of the Great Houses have returned to their dominions and begun to plot and scheme, to reach out with tentative whispers and half-serious suggestions to their friends and rivals, to prepare themselves for the world to come. They have divided the great Legions among themselves, and now set their eyes on greater prizes still.
The woman who successfully claims the throne will become the most powerful and important person in all Creation at a stroke. Those who helped her in her ascent will be rewarded with wealth and power beyond all measure… and those who opposed her may count themselves lucky if they live long enough to regret it.
Come, then, Dragon's Child. The Time of Tumult awaits...
Welcome to my newest Grand Strategy Roleplaying Game, as we once again return to Creation, the setting of the Exalted roleplaying game. Players will take control of the Great Houses of the Scarlet Dynasty - and, if necessary, the various cadet houses and patrician families that make up the remainder of the Realm's aristocracy - and compete to have a hand in shaping the future of the Realm.
This is not the first time I have run this concept - the last time was For a Dragon's Throne, and that ended with the Realm ruinously divided between a series of bitterly divided successor states, with a Cynis-Sesus coalition backed by the Ragara holding the throne and whole swathes of the Blessed Isle reduced to haunted wasteland.
If you are a returning player, you cannot claim the same House as you lead the first time around.
Otherwise, I invite people to submit claims on up to three of the Great Houses. There is no requirement to specify why you like a given house or how you intend to play them, but it will help me figure out who gets which one when I assign the roles.
Only once the Great Houses all have players will I assign minor powers to players; should the player for a Great House drop from the game I will prioritise getting them replaced as soon as possible.
A Crown of Scarlet will take place over a series of turns, each covering one year (with its five seasons) in the world of Creation. Each turn is broken down into a series of sub-phases, as follows:
Planning. This is a freeform period, during which players may roleplay out specific scenes or exchange correspondence, ask questions about the world and otherwise workshop plans and agendas with one another.
Declaration. Players will submit a first draft of orders to the GM, explaining any projectsthey wish to start. Great House players may start up to THREE projects per turn. Lesser House players may start up to ONE project per turn. See the project rules for details.
During this stage, players must also inform the GM of any resource exchanges they are making, such as hiring mercenaries (trading wealth for might) or using unique House mechanics.
Publication. The GM will compile a list of all active projects, both ongoing and newly started, and post them publicly in the IC thread. For the sake of convenience this will likely be divided up into a series of thematically linked groups - all war projects, then all political projects etc etc
Allocation. Players will review the list of public projects, and then submit a second set of orders to the GM indicating where they wish to assign their resources for the turn. They may assign resources to their own projects, to those started by NPCs, or to those begun by other players under certain conditions. See the resource and project rules for further details.
Resolution. The GM will judge each project in sequence, identify whether it has succeeded or failed, and write a report (either personally or by briefing one of the Diligent Scribes who have selflessly volunteered to help out) to that effect.
Consolidation. A final pass is made through the various projects, and the relevant mechanical effects are calculated and implemented. Projects are advanced or completed, resource totals adjusted etc etc.
All orders must be submitted via private message on Sufficient Velocity to me and any co-GMs. There will be a deadline for each Declaration and Allocation phase, after which point orders will no longer be accepted and some manner of plot contrivance will be devised to explain why your House stalls out in some critical but temporary fashion. Extensions to the deadline can be offered, either for the game as a whole or for individual players, but must be specifically requested in advance.
Reports will be written by me and a group of volunteer report writers, whose work will also be double-checked and approved by me. If you wish to volunteer to help write reports please let me know, but understand I will be expecting you to write at least one reasonably sized report per turn and that I will be keeping a close eye on things to make sure you don't abuse the OoC knowledge your position may obtain.
Projects
Projects are the core mechanical system of A Crown of Scarlet; every significant action, agenda and plot event will be represented via a Project and its success, failure or abandonment. Both players and NPCs can begin Projects, but only players may contribute resources towards completing or sabotaging them.
Every project is described according to the following template:
Name: The Project's name, either descriptive or dramatic e.g "Project Keystone" or "Rebellion in Jiara".
Type: Is the Project a War, a Political Initiative, a Development etc etc. Certain types of Projects have additional special rules associated with them, see below for details.
Description: A short piece of text describing what the Project actually is, generally 100 words or less.
For example "Concerned by reports of instability in the manses powering the Realm Defence Grid, the Deliberative has authorised a program of repair, reinforcement and expedited maintenance works" or "The Satrapy of Jiara has risen up in rebellion and declared independence from the Realm. Rumour has it that the crown princess of the nation has become one of the feared Solar Anathema."
Initiator: Which player or NPC is responsible for beginning the project. Many projects contain additional boni or penalties for the initiating player on success or failure.
Duration: Many projects extend over more than one turn; this section will specify the turn they began and the turn they will end, assuming no outside factors intervene.
Difficulty: How many resources, and of what type, will need to be invested for a project to count as successful for this turn?
Success: Assuming the difficulty is met, what will be the result and who will benefit?
Failure: If the difficulty is not met, what will be the consequences and who will suffer them?
When players submit a project in the declaration phase, they provide the name, type and description. All other details are calculated by the GM. It is entirely possible for a player to begin an undertaking that proves to be far more difficult or resource intensive than they expected - such things are both dramatically appropriate and historically common for great polities and the ambitious souls that lead them!
That said, all difficulties will be assigned according to the following scale:
Minor - 5
Routine - 10
Major - 15
Heroic - 20
Legendary - 25
A Project can and typically will have a "compound" difficulty, where it requires more than one type of resource to complete. As a general rule of thumb, a project will have a primary difficulty that can only be met by a specific kind of resource, and then a secondary difficulty that requires some mix of other resource types.
For example, a military project launched to crush the secession in Jiara might be estimated as a Major military undertaking (or worse, if the Anathema are left to their own devices for too long!). The relevant project will therefore note that successful completion of the project requires 15 Might and then 10 points of either wealth or manpower (or some combination thereof).
Difficulty will always be declared up front and will always be accurate. While in-universe characters may underestimate how difficult something is, you the player will always be perfectly aware.
Types of Project
A Project can be one of several types, most of which obey the same basic ruleset but may be affected differently by House special rules or other developments.
The following types of Project can be started by players:
Military- Covers everything from wars of conquest to a vigorous bout of border skirmishing. Anything which hinges on violence and coercion by threat of harm is a military project.
Military projects will always require Mightas their primary resource, and will typically require some blend of WealthorManpoweras a secondary.
The difficulty of a Military project is generally set by the scope of the attacker's goals; it is a lot easier, and a lot safer, to carve off a few border territories than to conquer and raze a national capital. Factors such as terrain and the quality of available enemy forces are also considered.
The duration of Military projects is infamously prone to expanding far beyond initial projections, but as a broad guideline it takes one turn to conquer a city-state, two to conquer an average threshold nation, and three to enforce a claim over a regional alliance or swathe of territory. Anything larger would require multiple projects.
Success in Military projects typically rewards Wealthand Influence. The Initiator will usually receive a free asset as well, depending on the terms of victory, representing their trophies, captives or other spoils of victory.
Failure in Military projects inflicts additional damage on all committed assets and reduces the available Mightof involved Houses. The Initiator will also typically lose Influence.
Security - Encompasses all manner of internal security, policing and suppression activities. Distinguished from military projects primarily by the uncertain nature of the foe, or by political and social restrictions on how much force can be used to quell them.
Security projects will always require Insightas their primary resources, and will typically require Might, Wealthor Influenceas a secondary, depending on the nature of and how exactly they intend to pacify their targets.
The difficulty of a Security project depends upon how widespread and popular the target group is. Corrupt bureaucrats are rarely popular but may be deeply entrenched, while forest bandits can be swept away if only the local peasants can be convinced to inform on their positions.
Security projects will typically only have a duration of one turn. However, suppressed issues may flare up again in future turns unless thoroughly suppressed over time.
Success in Security projects typically awards Wealthor Influence. It may also damage hostile assets and reduce your rival's resources, if they were involved in fuelling the unrest (or happened to be conveniently nearby).
Failure in Security projects generally reduces your available WealthorManpoweras corruption spreads and the apparatus of state is degraded.
Development - Repairing damaged infrastructure, constructing new public works and expanding or improving existing capabilities in some way. Projects are only required for larger scale undertakings that have a measurable impact upon affairs of state - commissioning a new daiklaive or putting up some houses is below the level of resolution this system is intended to model.
Development projects will always require Manpoweras their primary resource. They will always require Wealth as a secondary, and depending on the level of control you have over the construction site may also require Influence.
The difficulty of a Development project is determined by the scope of it. As a general guideline, family-scale is Minor, city-scale is Routine, province scale is Major and regional is Heroic, though this can be bumped up by a stage if it requires particularly specialised expertise or the like.
Development projects generally have a fixed duration. Anything affecting a city takes one turn, a province two turns, and a region three turns.
Success in Development projects will generally create an asset, as well as increasing your Might, Wealth, Manpoweror Influence depending on its nature.
Failing a development project once generally has no cost; the project will be repeated next turn. Failing more than once, or abandoning it entirely, may cost you Wealth or Influenceas investments sour and your reputation suffers.
Political - Passing legislation, swaying public opinion and building a groundswell of support for your claim to the throne. Projects such as this become increasingly more difficult and limited as the Realm grinds towards collapse.
Political projects will always require Influenceas a primary resource. Most require some blend of Wealth and Insightas their secondary resource.
The difficulty of a Political project is determined by the affected scale and the existing political infrastructure. Working with and alongside existing Realm institutions is always easier than doing a project alone.
Political projects are almost always a single turn in duration. They can be potentially repeated in later turns at modified costs as momentum builds or cynicism sets in.
Success in a political project typically has an impact not measured in direct resources, but rather in the state of the world, the level of Realm Divide and other broad-scale consequences. It may create a new asset.
Failing a political project may cost you Influenceor Insightas people stop finding it worthwhile to talk to you.
NPCs can also start Projects, which generally follow the same rules as player-launched Projects, save that success on such a project typically represents defeating the NPC in question. To help distinguish between them, NPC projects have distinct names.
Unrest- NPC Security projects. Banditry, corruption and all manner of civil disobedience falls under the Unrest project type. Success on an Unrest project will negate some hidden threat or scheme, while failure will often result in lost resources or worse Projects started in future turns.
Note that success on an Unrest project may well treat the symptoms and not the cause of brewing social malaise. Stopping them for good may require a separate Security or Development project.
Incursion - NPC Military projects. Success on an Incursion means defeating the threshold barbarians and/or otherworldly spirits in a campaign, while failure means they achieve their strategic objective (which may even be to the benefit of certain Houses).
Opportunity - NPC Political projects. Success on an Opportunity generally garners support from a Faction, a change in a law or a windfall of resources, while failing it means the status quo prevails and those who sought to change it suffer in some way.
Opportunities may have varying levels of reward and failure depending on the quantity of resources and/or assets invested. It is much more damaging to throw the full might of your House behind a new initiative and see it fail than it is to be denied a minor whim.
Disaster - NPC Development projects. Not typically launched by an actual character (though certain gods are quite capable of widespread devastation), success on a disaster project mitigates the damage and weathers the storm, while failure is most likely to inflict damage on assets.
Disaster projects may have several different difficulty levels, representing varying degrees of fallout and relief work. The worst will still inflict damage on a total success, just less.
Meeting The Difficulty
In order to succeed at a project, players must invest a suitable quantity of resources and assets. After the allocation phase is completed, the GM will calculate the total value of all invested assets and resources and compare them to the stated difficulty.
Resources and assets can be contributed in support of a project, in which case their value is added to the total, or they can be contributed in opposition to it (also referred to as 'sabotaging' it), in which case they will subtract from it.
Who contributed how much to a project, and whether they did so in support or opposition, will typically be public knowledge after the resolution phase.
There is no benefit to investing more than the difficulty, however it may be worth doing so as insurance against your rivals being able to spike your efforts for a relatively minor investment in opposition.
Where relevant, any increases to allocated resources or assets - from House traits etc - will apply before any penalties, surcharges or reductions.
Resources
Resources are the sinews of the Empire - the numbers on a budget sheet, the tallies on a census, the raw variables that women of power spend so freely to secure their ambitions. Every House generates a certain quantity of each type of resource each turn, which does not accumulate across turns - unlike previous games, you cannot 'stockpile' your surplus points across multiple turns.
There are five kinds of resource points, each of which is best applied to a different kind of project. They are:
Might- Covering both official legions and the myriad security, paramilitary and enforcement agents available to a House, Might is your ability to leverage force and the threat thereof to achieve your aims.
Insight- Trained spies, folios of blackmail and off-the-books kill squads are all represented by Insight, which in turn reflects your ability to act without being seen to act.
Insight allocated to a given project is not public knowledge unless you wish it to be so, allowing you to protect an investment or sabotage a rival without tipping your hand.
Wealth - From stacks of jade talents to legal shares in commercial projects across Creation, Wealth represents the sheer financial power at your command.
During the declaration phase, Wealth can be traded on a 1-1 basis for points of Might, Influence or Manpower.
Influence- Charismatic orators, slick political operators and heroes with a reputation all contribute to your House's influence score, which loosely represents your soft power and ability to leverage it.
Manpower- Conscripted peasants, hired workers and slave labour all contribute towards Manpower, which represents your ability to levy and direct warm bodies in pursuit of your ambitions.
Increasing your House's available resources requires that you successfully complete certain projects.
Assets
Assets are what make your House a force to be reckoned with in the eyes of its peers and enemies. Nobody cares if you mark a hundred talents of jade on some balance sheet somewhere, but if you can stake a convincing claim to the finest orchards on the Blessed Isle or boast the services of the legendary swordswoman Falling Petals Sunder Steel… well, that's a different story.
Each Asset is assigned a Value between 1 and 5, plus a primary and secondary resource. They can be allocated to a project in the same way you can allocate resources, and will generally contribute (Value) points of their primary resource and (Value/2, round up) points of their secondary resource to the project.
For example, a renowned war hero might be represented as "Cathak Kaiya - 4 - Might/Influence". If you assign her to support a project, she will contribute four Might and two Influence towards the total, though depending on the type of project one or even both of these resources might be effectively wasted.
Additionally, each asset may have a number of tags, which help to distinguish it from its peers. A tag might represent a personality trait, a unique relic, a particular skill set or any number of other things under the sun, but each modifies their value by one point in appropriate situations. A character with the 'pious' tag will be more effective at swaying the monks of the Immaculate Order, but if you wanted to use them to make contact with the Heretic's Court that piety would be working against them.
Committing an asset to a Project requires that you explain how they will be of some use in the undertaking. Unlike A Dragon's Throne, there is no requirement that assets remain in a single location or track their movement across the map - this is an abstraction for the sake of ease of play, rather than a statement that jade mines are capable of getting up and moving.
Creating Assets
Creating a new asset requires a project (typically development or political) with a difficulty equal to twice the total value of the desired asset, without tags. By default, an asset is generated with three tags, two positive and one negative. Certain projects may be able to generate more than one asset at a time - in this case, the difficulty is equal to the sum total of all created assets.
Remember, resources cannot be stockpiled across turns. Creating and maintaining assets is by far the easiest and most reliable way to increase your effective resource total.
Destroying Assets
Every asset has a Health score; at the start of the game, or upon being created, this is equal to their Value. Every time they are allocated to a Project, their Health decreases by one. If the project fails, their health is decreased by an additional one. Certain types of ventures may reduce this further - losing a war against a dread Anathema warlord is likely to reap a bloody toll among your armies and heroes, for example, but is less likely to impact your financial investments.
Assets can be restored to full health by not allocating them to any project for a turn.
Asset Types
At game start, all assets fall into one of the below types:
Characters are the heroes and villains that represent the public face of your House, the movers and shakers who will inevitably appear in the blood-soaked pages of history. Their value can be derived from any combination of resources, except Manpower.
Investments are what make you rich, typically representing controlling stakes in major operations and unique resources. Their primary value is Wealthand their secondary is Influence.
Armies represent trained soldiers and doers of violence, from the professional ranks of the Imperial Legions to the useful barbarism of hired mercenaries. Their primary value is Mightand their secondary is Manpower.
Fleets are a special kind of army which can act on ocean and coastal provinces, but not inland.
Symbols are works of art and politics, public institutions and cultural touchstones. Their primary resource is Influenceand their secondary is Insight.
Cohorts represent skilled professionals, master architects and experts in all manner of practical trades. Their primary resource is Manpowerand their secondary is Wealth.
Agents represent the various elite and unconventional options that every major power wishes to have, from commando cadres to loyal sorcerers. Their primary resource is Insightand their secondary is Might.
New types of assets may be introduced as the game progresses - in particular, Institutions and Territory will become available should Realm Divide reach a high enough score that Houses begin openly staking exclusive claims to parts of the Realm's body politic or physical landmass.
Cooperation is the great virtue of the Dragon-Blooded, from the sacred oaths of the Sworn Hearth to the extended familial ties of the Scarlet Dynasty. These bonds transcend the borders of House and at times even nation, binding the Terrestrial Host together in common interest. To track the myriad branching strands of such a web in whole would be an act of futile madness, but for most purposes it is possible to distill the morass down into a mostly predictable series of philosophies, political ideologies and interest groups - in short, Factions.
Alongside their resources and assets, each House maintains a court - a list of the Factions with whom they have dealings. Each faction in the court is associated with a numerical value between 0 and 20, hereafter referred to as their Power.
All Factions have three Policies, which represent their desires and goals. Every time the House acts in a way consistent with one or more policies, the Faction gains a point of Power, to a maximum of 3 points per turn (for supporting all three policies). Factions may also begin Projects of their own - if successful, these projects will generally also reward the contributing House with an increase in the relevant faction's power.
Acting directly against a Faction's policies imposes a surcharge on any relevant Project of (Power) resources - typically, this may be paid in Influence, Wealthor Might. After this action is completed, the relevant Faction's power decreases by one. A faction cannot gain and lose power in one turn - losing power takes precedence.
So long as a Faction's power is equal or greater than a specific rating, the House receives certain passive benefits. In addition, the Faction which has the highest value in your court is considered the Dominant Faction, conveying a specific additional bonus unique to that faction. If you have two factions with the same power, neither is considered dominant.
The Custodians
Though the Realm is shaken and times are troubled, this is not the first crisis it has faced and overcome, and it is a Dynast's duty to ensure that peace and stability return to the land as soon as possible. So say the Custodians, who draw their membership from those who feel genuine loyalty to the Realm as an institution and will fight to preserve it. Who becomes Empress is less important to them than how she gets there; in the absence of an acknowledged successor or mechanism for choosing them, ascent via acclamation of one's fellow Dynasts is judged the most appropriate.
Policies:
Work through the Deliberative and the Thousand Scales to achieve your goals.
Oppose any Project that would raise the Realm Divide score, and support those that would lower it.
Subdue any Unrest and repair the damage caused by such disruptive projects as soon as possible.
Boons:
Friends at Court (5+): You gain an additional pool of (Power) Insight that may only be spent on projects related to or working through the Deliberative and Thousand Scales.
Under the Table (10+): Once per turn you may disguise one of your projects; the initiator will be listed as the Custodians or some Imperial organisation. This is most relevant for Realm Divide restrictions.
Ten Thousand Dragons: (15+): Any attempts to turn imperial bodies or law against you suffer a (Power) resource surcharge. NPC Institutions will never take action against you.
First Among Equals (Dominant): You will be forewarned of any action intended by the Custodians or imperial institutions. Should Realm Divide advance far enough to bring Institutions into play as Assets, at least half of them will automatically join your House.
The Inheritors
The Scarlet Throne is empty, and it must be filled; next to this singular issue all others fade in importance, and the Inheritors will move heaven and earth to ensure it is their candidate that ascends to the throne as Empress. They might be motivated by a hunger for power, or a genuine belief in the worthiness of their chosen candidate, or they might simply fear the consequences of someone else beating them to it.
Unlike other factions, the Inheritors are tied to a specific Claimant. Should their claimant perish, all Inheritor factions supporting them are reduced immediately to zero power.
Policies:
Declare your loyalty to the new Empress, and sway others to her banner.
Undermine the legitimacy of rival claimants and oppose their imperial ambitions
Preserve the Realm's territorial integrity and preeminent position among nations
Boons:
Claim the Scarlet! (5+): Designate a single character asset as your Claimant. If this is one of your assets, double their effective value when applied to a Project. If this is another player's asset, every point of resources you spend on projects aimed at strengthening their claim or shoring up their legitimacy counts as two points.
Lead by Example (10+): Every asset you control is assumed to have the same tags as your Claimant where that would be an advantage.
A New Empress (15+): You may begin an additional Project each turn, provided it is in line with the Inheritor agenda or personally supported by your Claimant.
Do It For Her! (Dominant): You gain (power) additional points of your Claimant's primary resource, and (power/2, round down) additional points of her secondary resource.
The Immaculates
There is a place for everything and everyone under the heavens, and a proper path for all souls to walk. These truths are contained within the scriptures of the Immaculate Philosophy and born in the souls of the pious, and as Exalted it is the duty of every true Dynast to live their life as an example to their lessers. To the Immaculate, who takes the throne matters less than what kind of person she is, for an impious Empress is no Empress at all…
Policies:
Uphold the Perfected Hierarchy; oppose those who would undermine the social and religious order of the Realm.
Shepherd the mortal populace of the Realm. Protect them from harm and rule them justly and with wisdom.
Oppose the Anathema. Destroy them when they arise and resist their malign plots.
Boons:
Five Dragon Fist (5+): You gain a pool of (power) Might that may be spent on Projects aimed at combating the Anathema, suppressing heresy and defending the mortals of the Blessed Isle.
Popular Support (10+): You will never be targeted by popular unrest or peasant rebellions. If you support successful rebellions in the territory of other, less pious Houses, the victorious rebels will join your House.
Vision of Bronze (15+): You will be forewarned of any projects led by Anathema, rogue gods and foreign polities hostile to the Realm. Once per turn in the planning phase you may request a briefing on a single topic; this will provide a full and accurate assessment of the topic in line with Heaven's current understanding of the situation.
Do Not Blaspheme (Dominant): Public actions taken against your House will incur retaliation by the Immaculate Order, typically in the form of Incursions or Unrest with a difficulty equal to (Power).
The Separatists
The Realm is already dead, and to fight for the fate of a corpse is to join it in the grave. The Separatists believe that the future of their House lies beyond the Realm, either in foreign lands or their current territory shorn of any greater imperial structure to bow before. Most bear no ill-will for those too blind to see the truth, but the Realm was never meant to survive without the Empress, and they will not waste time or lives pretending otherwise.
Policies:
Actively work to further the progress of Realm Divide and otherwise weaken the Realm's integrity.
Oppose the claims of any would-be-Inheritor, unless they accede to our independence
Develop the infrastructure, territory and legitimacy required to sustain an independent existence.
Boons:
Foreign Backers (5+): You gain a pool of (power) Wealth that may be spent on Projects in line with Separatist policies.
Fervent Patriots (10+): Any attempts to turn your people against you, subvert your commands or undermine your authority at home suffer a (power) resource surcharge.
The Devil You Know (15+): You are immune to foreign incursions triggered by Realm Divide. Every point of resources you spend on projects aimed at establishing friendly ties with foreign nations and traditional enemies of the Realm counts as two points.
The New Regime (Dominant): You are immune to most negative effects of Realm Divide, and should it reach the stage where Territory assets enter play, you will automatically take possession of all regions where your House holds sway (Peleps would secure the Silk-and-Pearl Peninsula, for example).
The Supremacists
The Realm is the greatest nation on the face of Creation; the richest, most powerful and most influential polity in existence. To the Supremacists, that makes dynasts like themselves the greatest people in Creation, and they will not quietly surrender that honour to another. Creation will not wait for the Dynasty to get its house in order, and though the idealistic image of the Realm that the Supremacists hold dear bears precious little resemblance to reality, they are quite willing to fight for it all the same... and, ideally, make others die for it as well.
Policies:
Keep our boot upon the throat of the world, permit no rival power to arise in the Threshold.
Hold galas, festivals, military triumphs and other grand celebrations of our might and magnificence whenever possible.
Oppose any attempt to significantly change the laws, customs and culture of the Realm, and punish those who dare to try.
Boons:
The Right People (5+): You gain a pool of (power) Influence that can be allocated towards projects in line with Supremacist policy.
Scarlet Paragons (10+): Your assets do not lose health if allocated to Projects, so long as those Projects are successful.
Princes of the Earth (15+): You gain double the normal reward for any successful project that you initiate or contribute a plurality of resources to. Every resource point spent on projects to conquer, coerce or exploit the Threshold and its people counts as two points.
Assaulting Mount Meru (Dominant): Any Project that is hostile to your immediate interests increases its difficulty by (Power), unless it fully conforms to Dynastic traditions, morals and social norms in every respect.
The Scarlet Realm has stood unbroken for seven hundred years, forged in the fires of the Twin Calamities and enduring every horror and upset Creation has thrown at it since. The institutions, legitimacy and cultural legacy of such a triumph will not fade easily... but without an Empress to keep the Houses in check and the spectre of civil war looming, each day brings the greatest nation on Creation one step closer to oblivion.
Realm Divide is a mechanic used for tracking the progressive breakdown of law, order and legitimacy within the Realm as a whole. It is represented by a single score, which is raised and lowered by the actions of all players in the game each turn; it matters little if your faction is determined to be law abiding and pious if your neighbour is setting fire to everything in the next room over.
The precise mechanical effects of Realm Divide change depending on its current score, which subdivides into a series of tiers listed below. Actions that are listed as restricted are allowed, but will increase Realm Divide by one point each for every House that commits them. Actions which are listed as forbidden cannot be done; your own subordinates baulk at what you ask of them.
Realm Divide can be reduced, generally by actions involving doing one's civic duty, recognising the authority of imperial institutions and supporting their work, and doing what you can to make this a period of transition as opposed to collapse. It is always easier to break something than to repair it.
At game start in RY768, the Realm Divide score is 30, leading to a tier of Unsteady.
Stage One: Steady <25 Realm Divide
The Empress is absent, but most assume she is simply attending to some important duty or ruling at some distant remove and will reappear any day now. Even those who know better see the virtue in pretending otherwise, disguising their early maneuvers as jockeying for favour.
Military action in the Threshold is forbidden unless legitimised by an associated (and successful) political project in the Deliberative.
Security and enforcement actions are permitted in Threshold, but forbidden upon the Blessed Isle unless legitimised by the Deliberative.
Refusal to comply with Deliberative or Thousand Scales directives is forbidden.
Stage Two: Unsteady 25-49 Realm Divide
The Empress is gone, and she isn't coming back. Such is the public consensus, grudging though it be, and now thought turns to the matter of succession. Uncertainty grips the Realm, along with the dawning realisation that there is no plan or precedent for something like this, but the public maintains faith in its leadership and expects a peaceful outcome. Perhaps some manner of council will anoint a successor?
Military action in the Threshold is restricted, unless legitimised by the Deliberative. Military action on the Blessed Isle is forbidden.
Diplomatic interactions with Threshold powers are forbidden unless legitimised by the Deliberative.
Security actions on the Isle are restricted unless legitimised by the Deliberative.
Refusal to comply with the Deliberative is forbidden, defying the Thousand Scales is restricted.
Civic bodies begin to decay. Increased chance of banditry, corruption and natural disaster across the Blessed Isle.
The Wyld Hunt is weakened. Anathema will begin arising in the Threshold. Cooperating with Anathema is forbidden.
Satrapies and client states grow restive. Unrest projects may be started in the Threshold.
Stage Three: Fractured 50-74 Realm Divide
The Throne is empty, and increasingly regarded as a prize to be taken rather than a duty to be granted. Claimants have gathered factions around themselves and begun vying directly against one another - bloodshed is expected and increasingly acceptable, and mobs supporting one side or another clash in the streets. The general expectation is that one side will emerge victorious and the others will bow their heads and serve.
Military action in the Threshold is permitted. Military action on the Blessed Isle is restricted, unless legitimised by the Deliberative.
Diplomatic interactions with Threshold powers are restricted unless legitimised by the Deliberative.
Deliberately harming the civilian populace or civic infrastructure of the Blessed Isle through military action is forbidden.
Refusal to comply with the Deliberative is restricted.
The Thousand Scales loses its independence. Institution assets become possible to secure, and projects will be begun to determine who secures the various ministries.
The Wyld Hunt begins to falter. Anathema may begin arising in the Satrapies.
Rebellions begin in the Satrapies, and the bolder foreign powers begin Incursions to pry the Realm's grip from its colonial holdings.
Stage Four: Broken 75-99 Realm Divide
Civil War is open and undeniable. People no longer talk in terms of support and legitimacy but in territory and alliance, and support for a rival claimant is perceived as treachery and punished as such. For many, this has become a fight for survival, as few expect the new Empress to show any kind of mercy to those who stood against her in bloody conflict. What bodies and institutions of the Realm remain are openly taking sides, or else retreating into hiding in hopes of enduring through the storm of conflict.
Military action on the Blessed Isle is permitted. Deliberately harming the civilian populace or civic infrastructure is restricted.
The Deliberative loses all power and may be freely ignored, if indeed it still exists.
The Wyld Hunt has collapsed. Anathema may arise on the Blessed Isle, and cooperating with Anathema is restricted.
Territorial assets become available to claim. Satrapies are either owned by a specific House or become independent. Foreign powers may begin Incursions into the Blessed Isle.
Stage Five: Shattered 100+ Realm Divide
The Realm no longer exists in any meaningful form - there are only competing factions, each striving to see their successor-state triumph over all the rest. Law and social order exists within reach of a blade and no further, and many have begun to doubt that there will ever be peace, that the Throne means anything worth fighting for. The game ends.
A continental landmass at the very heart of Creation, crowned by the Imperial Mountain and perfectly balanced between the five elements, the Blessed Isle has played a pivotal role in world history since long before any existed to record it. It was home to the gods before Heaven existed, headquarters of the deific forces in the Titanomachy and host to the capital of every Creation-spanning empire since. Tradition and cultural cachet play a major role in this importance, but so too does simple geography; the Pole of Earth that lies buried within the heart of the Imperial Mountain blesses the entire Isle with abundant mineral resources, while its perfect harmony of elements allow farmers to harvest their fields three or four times a year without fail. Minor towns on the Isle frequently boast population numbers to match the capitals of Threshold kingdoms, and the rewards of the Realm's imperial exploits has only exaggerated this disparity.
Encompassing a great swath of the northeastern Blessed Isle, the downlands of the Dragon's Blanket consist of grassy ridges like the sinuous bodies of dragons curled beneath a blanket of endless green. Rustic herding and mining villages pepper the landscape, their populace wary of strangers. The hills are riddled with mines and caves. Hermits, the dispossessed, and bandits make their homes within. Others serve as lairs for wild beasts and weird spirits. Rumors tell of bandit hoards or First Age treasures hidden deep within the caves.
Chanos (Sesus Homeland) - Harsh northern winds lead to long winters, and infertile hills and scrubland make Chanos good for little more than mining. Cities of stone burrow into the earth, while Chanos city serves as a gateway to the north and home base of the Air Fleet.
Mavinyos - Ships crash with unsettling frequency on Mavinyos' coast, and many of the small villages, enclaves and rough-and-tumble ports were pirate coves once upon a time. Some still are.
Six Vines - Ruled by a collection of patrician families for centuries, this province is a cosmopolitan riot of ethnicities, cultures and mercantile concerns from all across the threshold.
Imperial River Basin
The Imperial River's headwaters begin upon the eastern slopes of the Imperial Mountain, and make their way east to the sea. Folk have been immigrating to the Imperial River basin since the Empress' accession, making this the most heavily populated region on the Blessed Isle. The plains here are thickly settled, long since stripped of old-growth forest and purged of dangerous wildlife. Rice and other crops stream from numberless villages into towns and cities clustered along the Imperial River's many tributaries. Dynastic households maintain the Basin's many manses, their geomancy tuned over the centuries to moderate the weather and enhance the growing season.
Pangu (Cynis Homeland) - An extremely fertile 'breadbasket' province, Pangu's landscape has been sculpted by its Cynis masters into a living artwork. Every glade is beautiful, every river crystal clean, every town and city a den of vice and sensory delight.
Hawk - A small prefecture largely focused on farming, Hawk is proud of its austere, traditional scions, many of whom go on to positions in government.
Numinous Rolling Wave (Imperial) - Overflowing with powerful essence-winds and dragon lines, the geomancy of this province is of paramount concern to the Realm. Every town, road and village is placed with exacting precision so as not to disrupt the geomancy, and death is the punishment for unapproved construction.
Scarlet (Imperial) - The Isle's most densely populated province plays host to every family of note, and only specific nature reserves remain free of development; the rest have benefitted richly indeed from all the spoils of Empire. Here sits the Imperial City, capital of the Realm, as well as the headquarters of virtually every notable Imperial institution.
Luo-Han Plains
This warm and pleasant region of the southeastern Isle, thick with farming villages, prospers under the Immaculate Order's eye. New itinerant monks often take their first rounds here, in the Palace Sublime's shadow, while personal agents of high-ranking Immaculate elders pass through on their way to and from meetings with their superiors. Prefects, governors, and ministers know better than to abuse the peasantry under such close attention, nor can peasants conceal large portions of the harvest from tax collectors. Venerable mortal monks often request burial in quiet places in the Luo-Han countryside, or in villages that they had pleasant memories of from their rounds. Though not as often visited as such great religious sites as Myion or Juche, these scattered cenotaph-shrines receive a steady trickle of pilgrims.
Aru-Thistle - A patchwork of isolated farming hamlets and idyllic valleys, Aru-Thistle is most notable for the extremely high spirit population, with minor deities drawn from leagues around. The populace are piously Immaculate to the point of zealotry as a result.
Sdoia - Home base of the Wood Fleet, Sdoia prefecture is divided between the highly militarised coastal regions, and the seemingly endless profusion of lodges, summer getaways and private residences that fill the wooded inlands.
Bucolic Hymn - Filial loyalty and a preference for plain speaking characterise the inhabitants of this land, often leading to clan-wars and protracted vendettas rooted in freely spoken insults. Some of the Realm's most notorious fortress-prisons can be found here.
Turu - League upon league of farms and plantations make this strategically important breadbasket a source of endless frustration to the Realm, because for centuries anyone appointed from outside to administer the place has resigned in disgrace less than a year later.
Incas - Dairy ranches and orchards make Incas a modest breadbasket province, but it is the silk farms and the weavers and artisans who use it that put this place on the map, along with the stark influence of the Palace Sublime - high temple of the Immaculate Order.
Kizuna - Hillside villages and densely populated valleys mark a land both rich in minerals and dangerously prone to destructive earthquakes. The spirits of the land flock here in great numbers, and there is wealth and danger both to be found in abundance.
Vane - Descendents of a Shogunate splinter-state dominate the isolated mountain valleys and terraced hills, groaning with fertile crops and rich mineral veins. Meanwhile the lowland cities swell with the profits of trade and live in blissful ignorance of their neighbour's revanchist ambitions.
Corin (Ragara Homeland) - Rough and rocky hillside roads lined with the bodies of crucified criminals serve to connect Corin's myriad mining towns and great centres of industry, while mountainside vaults and manses protect House Ragara's ancient wealth and darkest secrets.
Dragonwrath Desert
The Dragonswrath Desert is a sun-blasted expanse of sandy dunes whose inhabitants, largely dispossessed folk hiding from the Realm's eye, eke out a desperate existence. Myriad shattered marble and gold remnants lie scattered like glacial boulders across the sands — according to local legend, remnants of an ancient battle between the dragons Dhoresh and Mhaltin, who sleep beneath the encircling mountain ranges that share their names. These irregularly shaped stones protrude here and there from the sands, surrounded by sacred ropes festooned with Immaculate wards.
Halcyon - Precision geomancy has turned this land into a picturesque paradise of emerald hills and shining silver beaches, and it makes for a favoured vacation spot for much of the Dynasty's more contemplative scions, who in turn have cultivated a rich artistic tradition in the locals.
Dragonwrath - Separated from most of the Realm by a desert, shielded from the ocean by Radimel's Seat, Dragonwrath province is almost shockingly peaceful and inevitability isolationist, home to the Idigi peoples who have farmed and fished here for time immemorial.
Radimel's Seat - Once an idyllic paradise, Lunar geomantic sabotage has rendered the eastern half of the island a scorched wasteland. The western regions groan under the weight of immigrants and refugees, cruelly exploited by their more fortunate neighbours.
Dhorash - Isolated and mountainous, the mining towns and hillside farms of Dhorash have always been a hotbed of seditious sentiment. The capital of Empress' Mercy is named for what she did to the last major rebellion that boiled up from this isolated backwater.
Arjuf and the Tarpan Wastes
This was once among the Blessed Isle's lushest regions. Orchards speckled fertile farmland along the Tarpan River's course and across the shores of Iris Lake. But the land's verdancy was the fruit of Solar magic, and early in the Empress' reign that magic began to wither. Offers of Imperial assistance and geomantic repair work brought many of the local regions under the Scarlet banner; those that consented prospered, while those who refused or sought their own solutions are largely desert. Soil blows away to reveal plains of bare rock. Thornbushes cling to life among stands of dead trees. The retreating lakeshore has left behind acres of salt flats and bone-dry reeds, and what remains of the lake is too brackish to drink.
Arjuf (Ledaal Homeland) - Rich farmland, winding rivers and low, dry hills produce a bounty of crops that feeds much of the southern isle; every inch meticulously regimented by Ledaal hand, every family kept strictly in line by Ledaal honour and unflinching law. Home to both a major port and the famed House of Bells military academy, Arjuf's peace and prosperity has always been brittle.
Caracal - All life and fortune in Caracal comes from the river which shares its name, or one of the many tributaries, all of which groan under the weight of grain barges and ore transports throughout the year, the wealth of its neighbours funnelled down to the sea.
Bizen - A famed rural retreat, the majority of dynasts who settle in Bizen are retirees or wounded veterans, seeking only to live in peace among the rivers and islets. By strong social convention, rivalry and ambition are left behind when one arrives; unannounced visitors are held to be an excellent chance to demonstrate one's personal hospitality.
Juche (Nellens Homeland) - Ancient birthplace of the Immaculate faith, mountainous Juche is a land of piety and civic pride stretching back to the First Age, every town and village carefully developed by its Nellens masters over centuries. The lowliest peasant here dreams herself a queen among women, much to her neighbour's resentment. (+Improved Road Network)
Damson - The rocky fields and scrub-covered hills of this province make an ideal lair for bandits. The dynasty counters this by settling retired veterans here in great numbers, with myriad tiny farms and homesteads built on the legion-earned land grants.
Nine Envies - The humid conditions and fertile soil make this land ideal for cash crops, and slave-worked plantations cover virtually all land not rendered unusable by rough hillsides or shale valleys, which tend to host decadent mansions or small bands of rebellious slaves.
Willow's Edge - Places of great sorcerous power can be found in the wasteland's depths, their study forbidden by the Empress and more practically by the veritable legions of unquiet dead that rest below the desert sands.
Seven Stars - Spirit courts of light and fire coexist uneasily with Immaculate hermits and isolated temples in this barren and blasted land, which is otherwise almost entirely abandoned.
Ashara - Life clings stubbornly to the rivers and isolated oasis here, where the people laugh freely and ask no questions about one's past. All else is sand and dust.
Plains of Rusted Iron
In the lands west of Arjuf, the soil remains red-orange with rust, centuries after the Empress invoked a storm of iron thistledown amid the Contagion to shatter a Fair Folk incursion. The area remains a backwater, its prairies and tangled scrubland haunted by a dwindling handful of hobgoblins, gryphons, and other faerie servitors. Peasants in the Plains' few towns and villages remain superstitious about what might dwell in the wilderness. They're distrustful of strangers and loath to offer hospitality. And when a shepherd or traveller disappears, they blame Fair Folk who survived the Empress' wrath in havens beneath the earth.
Justicar - Heresy blooms in this idyllic land with shocking ease, hiding among farms handed down from mother to daughter for a hundred generations or in the shadow of untamed woodlands and mountains that have known no footsteps for centuries unbroken.
Last Breath - Once the capital of an empire that dominated the Blessed Isle, Last Breath remains home to the Kashkassu people. They are migratory herders for the most part, still practicing their ancestral arts of swordplay and mysticism despite regular Immaculate purges, and they dream of reclaiming lost glories.
Red Sky - The fields of this province have long had a problem with salt build-up from both negligent irrigation practice and the storms that roll in from the south west during the Season of Fire. The land is so low-lying that storm surges can flood fields for miles in land. Those few peasants who have been permitted to stay are forced to work in levies to build levees, while the remaining farms are watched over by hard-eyed imperial officials. Old ruins half-sunken in the soft soil dot the landscape.
Daoshin Peninsula
A warm, wet region beset by seemingly constant rains, the Daoshin Peninsula is a patchwork of plains, marshlands, and wooded hills. Though there's much fertile soil to be had, the marshes are mazy and treacherous, and most of the region is but lightly inhabited. Aside from a few cities like Myion, the Daoshin is seen as a rustic backwater.
Falling Rain - A quirk of geomancy extends the rainy season in these lands to cover the majority of the year, and everything is either built on elevated plateaus or surrenders to the marsh. Rumours abound of sunken palaces and rotting temples deep in the marshland, but Falling Rain guards its secrets well.
Wading Crane Rookery - A wedge of coastal wetlands and scattered islands make up this backwater province, where insular fishing villages carry on millennia-old traditions and ruins from the Time Before jut periodically up from beneath the roiling waves. The island of Iora lies just offshore, lashed by rains and forgotten by most.
Iora: [Properly fortified] [Extensive Excavations]
Myion (Cathak Homeland) - Now consecrated by the Immaculate Faith, Myion's soil still turns up blasphemous relics, monoliths and artifacts with shocking regularity. Heavily fortified port-cities and fertile farmlands produce, feed and supply much of the Realm's holdings in the south-west, the logistics managed with signature Cathak diligence and skill.
Brilliant Autumn Shades - Shielded from the vicious winds of the Great Western Ocean, the fields of this prefecture grow samphire and long-grained sal-rice. The normalcy cannot hide the dark rumours about the aristocracy and whispers of blood-rites and cannibalism chill the hearts of the peasants when they are deep in their cups of rice wine.
Silk-and-Pearl Peninsula
This westernmost reach of the Blessed Isle has always brought wealth to the Realm. Mulberry-grove villages on the southern coast produce masses of raw silk alongside their rice crop, while folk from the north coast and adjacent Tongma Archipelago dive for pearls and byssus. The peninsula's ports, once comfortable from the silk and pearl trades, now grow richer still through commerce with Wu-Jian and the distant West. The Silk-and-Pearl Peninsula's native folk descend in large part from Western Contagion refugees. Rural areas remain culturally distinct; the cities are more cosmopolitan.
Voice-of-the-Tides (Peleps Homeland) - A dozen different ethnic groups make this land their home, brought here by the sea and unified in their cosmopolitan diversity by Peleps discipline. Western plunder and imports have made the land very rich, and the Water Fleet guards its home port with zealous fury.
Steel Wind - Once a rich agricultural hub, the Empress deliberately ruined the province with taxation and fines in punishment for its dynastic master's disloyalty. Now home to ghost-towns, infertile farms and played out mineral veins, Steel Wind burns with resentment that will take generations to calm.
Golden Sun - The myriad inlets, islands and cliffs along Golden Sun's coast make a wonderful Dynastic getaway, with sumptuous palaces and expensive yachts hosting decadent parties every summer and falling vacant each winter.
Blossoming Flower - Host to a surprising range of climates and elevations, this land has been deliberately cultivated as an open-air zoo, with imported wildlife living side-by-side with 'authentic recreations' of threshold villages staffed by ethnic slaves.
Skyhewn Shade - The Serpentine's many tributaries fall from the mountains in an array of stunning vistas, winding their way past rumpled hillsides, terraced wheat farms, pear orchids and isolated monasteries. The province is held to be blessed, for ancient sorcery means that it is all but impossible to feel sad or discontent within sight of the capital Bright Obelisk.
Fields of Rue
A patchwork of plains, hills, and woodlands in the northwestern Isle, the Fields of Rue suffer from erratic weather that tends toward cool, wet, and windy. The region encompasses many ancient battlefields, from First Age and Shogunate struggles to some of the last major resistance to the Empress' ascension. Many villages and towns are built around Immaculate temples raised over tombs and burial grounds.
Ayreon - Often swathed in mists that roll in off the shore and only lightly populated, Ayreon's backwoods inhabitants pride themselves on their self-sufficiency and pious mastery of the sea. Superstition is rife here, but only rarely evolves into outright heresy thanks to diligent Immaculate supervision.
Rue - Attempts to maintain external authority over the villages, hamlets and isolated hideaways of Rue's fertile valleys and open plains have historically failed more often than not. The populace send their taxes in promptly and expect in turn to be left alone by their nominal imperial overlords.
Eagle (V'Neef Homeland) - Once a timeworn backwater known only for its vineyards, Eagle Prefecture has risen with its new lords, and now overflows with money and talent as it competes for the title of 'gateway to the west'. The culture clash between V'Neef's radical and cosmopolitan house and the staid conservatives who lived here originally has only grown more pronounced with time.
Tempest - Lashed by storms and a favourite target for north-western raiders, Tempest province is in the middle of an economic boom after the discovery of massive deposits of black jade all along the coast… which imperial surveyors insist were not there half a century ago.
Ventus - Wild and pristine, mineral-rich hills of Ventus breed a stubborn, self-reliant people, while the prisons and mines hidden beneath the snow-capped mountains speak to the Dynastic soul - the artistry of suffering concealed behind natural beauty is a popular one among the artistic class.
Howling Heart - A sprawling mountainous region named for the sound of the wind through its mineshafts and valleys, rich in Jade and home to myriad cabals of occultists studying the forbidden arts with Imperial sanction.
Nuwa - Peaceful, prosperous and pious, Nuwa has not known heresy or civil disturbance for over five centuries, and is the homeland of a shocking proportion of the Order's senior hierarchy.
Imperial Mountain
Broader at its base than many nations, miles high and taller than any other point in Creation, the Imperial Mountain is a landmark visible from every point on the Blessed Isle, albeit as no more than a dim blue shape on the horizon to coastal folk. It's the center of Creation. Countless dragon lines flow from it, flooding the world with Earth Essence. Some say the Earth Dragon dwells at the mountain's heart, others that it's home to weird Mountain Folk cities, or cradles sorcerous engines driving the Realm Defense Grid. None know the truth. The Empress, with the Immaculates' approval, forbade her people from mining the sacred mountain — a stricture that jade-hungry houses may soon flout.
Legend speaks of a great city — perhaps first of all cities — at the mountain's crown. Called Meru, it was home to gods and Exalted before the Anathema arose, and was a place of marvels, ringed by similarly wondrous cities along the highest slopes. No living Dynast claims to have visited Meru. The higher one climbs, the colder and thinner the air, the more chaotic the power that grounds itself in demesnes and broken manses, and the more dangerous the creatures that stalk the slopes — wrathful elementals, bound demons, mad gods, and unnatural beasts spawned by unraveling sorceries of the Anathema.
Dejis (Mnemon Homeland) - Rugged country inhabited by rugged folk, the hills and valleys of Dejis feature a great many mines, quarries and hillside terraces. Long rule by House Mnemon has made the land beautifully sculpted and the people surprisingly cosmopolitan.
Endless - Highest and least populated of those provinces which border the Imperial Mountain, Endless Prefecture is a primarily rocky region dotted with temples, shrines and pilgrimage routes.
Lord's Crossing (Tepet Homeland) - At the centre of the Blessed Isle, one might almost think the Shogunate never fell. Millennia-old cities border moss-covered tombs and imposing statues of heroes centuries dead, while bustling markets compete for attention with open-air theatres and the workshops of famed artisans.
Serpentine - At the behest of the Ministry of Renewal, over half the population of the wetlands and river valleys of Serpentine province have been relocated. Those peasants who remain have been housed in new, purpose-built villages built at well-spaced intervals, and are being taught to farm with new and much more efficient methods which will no doubt soon bring their productivity up to the rest of the Isle.
Winter Blossom - Cool dry uplands and fertile river valleys disguise what used to be a major shadowland. Death comes easily here, and the dead rise readily, which inclines the populace towards iron discipline and an unyielding sense of martial piety.
Across the Eight Directions
Though the Dynasts of the Blessed Isle have traditionally regarded themselves as the most advanced and civilised people in Creation, the truth is that the world is a vast and beautiful place, filled with stunning vistas and fascinating cultures. There are nations, religions and cultural traditions out there fit to fill a thousand libraries to bursting, many of them with histories stretching back over centuries and adherents numbered in the tens of thousands, but as the Scarlet Throne falls empty and the spectre of civil war looms, all of that ceases to matter. All that truly concerns the scions of the Realm about the land beyond their shores is this - what threats yet exist that cannot possibly be ignored, and how much blood is there to be carefully squeezed from the stone?
The North - Glittering Jewels and Hungry Ice
From the temperate southern coast's pine scrub and prairie, the land grows ever more bitter as one travels northward. Outside of city walls and village palisades, untamed wilderness stretches beyond the horizon. Ghosts lure the living into trackless mires to steal their warmth and claim their company in death, while the alluring Winter Folk ride to the hunt on steeds whose hooves never break the snow-crust. Wolves and tigers haunt vast boreal forests beneath curtains of rain, fog, and snow, while on the shores of the White Sea whole cities migrate on wind-driven sledges between mineral veins at the foot of endless frozen mountains.
Fortitude was once the prison-city of an long-lost Empire, where condemned souls toiled in the lightless depths for treasures to pay their debts. Now it is a place where the darkness is worshiped, the winter is hated, and every man believes he is cursed. It is a place where people are born believing that only their deaths can atone for their lives, and that the only way to erase the stain of darkness on one's soul is to lead a heroic life and to die an immortal death.
Medo's swift-riding death commandos were once the terror of the north, striking out from their mountain fortresses and walled valleys. Now their finest youths are tithed in service to the Realm as jannissaries, and the loyal ghosts of their ancestors stand guard on cyclopean walls to shield their people from all the horrors of the night. The world is thin here, and the underworld perilously close to the surface in a hundred different places.
Whitewall is a holy city, ruled by triplet gods of silver and ice and protected by sacred pacts with Fae and Dead alike. By the terms of the pact are spirits forbidden from laying hand on any that travel the great road, making the city a natural hub of trade and cultural exchange, but the price in blood and souls demanded is not always so easily met. It is rumoured that darker things still take advantage of Whitewall's famed neutrality, a charge the Syndic-Gods are famously loathe to answer.
The Icewalkers were never a nation in any real sense, instead a lose grouping of nomadic tribes bound in service to individual totem spirits, but with the coming of the Solar Anathema that changed. What was once a scattered people became a tribal army a hundred thousand strong, blessed with daemonic allies and fed by the tribute of a hundred terrified lands. The Bull of the North held the strength to break the Tepet legions... but in the process lost several of his circle and was wounded to the threshold of death. Now the world waits to see if he will perish or recover.
The North-East - Cold Shadows and Untouched Splendour
The tundra gives way to great boreal forests of pine, spruce, and larch, broken by bogs, rich river valleys, and swaths of prairie. Hunter-gatherer tribes make camp in the sheltering shadows of the ancestor-trees beneath whose roots they bury their dead, while tree-city dwellers throw prisoners of war to hungry Fair Folk who haunt the forest floor. Loggers, miners, and farmers have established colonies throughout the area over the last century or so, and while some native peoples trade peacefully with the newcomers, others regularly raid settlements and caravans. All contest the region with wolves and feathered lizards, soul-thieves and savage gods, and all manner of monsters born of the Wyld.
The Linowan Tribes dwell in fortified island-cities and ply the great rivers in canoes large enough to hold entire war-bands or merchant caravans. They regard excellence as the highest virtue, no matter what form it takes, and have mastered the sorcerous art of binding spirits to ornate masks that lend their wearers great power and mystical abilities.
The Kingdom of Halta rests among the treetops, it's safety bought by human sacrifice delivered regularly to the Fae Folk that haunt the forest floor. The Oracle Tree stands at their heart of their capital, and from its spore-granted visions do the Kingdom's high priests determine the course of their people's future.
The Haslanti League is a coalition of city-states scattered around the inland sea of Mela's Fangs that sprang up after the citadel of Bagrash Kol fell from the sky. Forced together by the sorcerer-king's mad ambition and fuelled by the secret treasures of his fallen Empire, the League dominates trade and transport across much of the north-east. They know more of the lost secrets of old than most, and rumour has it their fleets of airships are being joined by vessels capable of powered flight.
The East - Vibrant Cradle of Riotous Life
Carts laden with lumber, crops, and ore—escorted by soldiers to ward off bandits, wild beasts, elementals, and foraging enemy troops—trundle past vine-draped ruins and haunted woodlands to converge on the gaily-painted gates of market towns. Brown-water ships haul cargoes down labyrinthine tributaries of the Yanaze River to the crowded cities of the Scavenger Lands. The bustling alchemy of urban life turns grain to bread, lumber to houses, and ore to cups, statues, horseshoes, and ploughshares—and spears to fuel the
endless wars of the East's numberless principalities. This rich, populous realm has been a cradle of civilization since humanity's dawn, and First Age ruins still yield wealth to scavengers canny enough to master their perils.
Great Forks is a city of gods, a little slice of heaven on earth, where the bureaucracy of a thousand temples holds sway over thronging orgies and reverent sermons to myriad divinities. Founded at the intersection of the Rolling and Yellow rivers, Great Forks is supported by vast plantations of marijuana and qat, harvested by divinely bonded slaves that make the city one of the richest in Creation.
Lookshy still counts itself as the Seventh Legion of the Shogunate, and its Dragon-Blooded rulers remain staunchly traditional and highly militarised to this day. The pre-eminent military power of the East, it was coalitions led by Lookshy that thwarted the Realm's last two great attempts at eastern conquest, and their centuries of mercenary work have kept the skills required for such bloody independence well honed.
Thorns was one of Creation's greatest cities, a hub of learning and culture to put all others to shame. Its bazaars bustled with merchants and glittered with goods from across Creation; poets in basement teashops and aristocratic boudoirs sang of love both shared and unrequited; philosophers addressed their disciples beneath vine-drenched pergolas. Then came the Mask of Winters and his Deathknights, conquering the city in a brutal and terrifying siege. What remains is a blighted, shadowed place, ruled by the dead.
Nexus sprawls at the juncture of the Yellow and Gray Rivers where they feed the swollen Yanaze. Built on, around and under the ruins of a First Age metropolis, the modern and ancient cities intertwine to create one of Creation's foremost trade hubs. Irimoya-roofed shrines and teahouses with elegant rice paper doors stand cheek-by-jowl with brick warehouses and shantytown shacks, while strings of paper lanterns blaze over the brightly colored awnings of the city's bazaars and blast furnaces roar with the sun's own fury. The city is infamously lawless, a libertarian paradise where everything is for sale and only the passage of armies and the obstruction of trade are forbidden.
Ixcoatli is known as the Empire of the Winged Serpent, a land of pyramid-temples and great libraries beneath the canopy of the great eastern jungles. Here serpentfolk warriors and raiton-winged scholars come together in a grand system of divinely ordained castes and honour-codes, trading the jungle's most potent treasures in exchange for the slaves needed to keep their theo-militaristic culture secure.
The South-East - Seething Cauldron of Civilisation
The lands beyond the Summer Mountains are a realm of tangled trees and wild beasts, girded by ape-ruled jungles and savannas lorded over by lions. Empires burgeon around the coasts of the Dreaming Sea—an ocean extending from the edge of the world, its depths teeming with life and its waves reived by ships of glass and gossamer. The land is equally abundant, yielding a great wealth of crops, spices, precious metals, ivory and gems to bedeck the temples of Southeastern gods and the palaces of rajahs and ranis.
Prasad's ruling dragon-blooded are technically drawn from Cadet Houses pledged in service to the Realm, but those loyalties have always been tenuous. The Immaculate Faith has grown astray here, and now the princes of the Dragon Caste in their silks and jade-steel plate consider themselves to be gods in the flesh, bearers of a divine mandate to conquer the world and indulge in all its earthly pleasures.
Ysyr was built atop the ruins of the mountaintop ruins of Pinnacle, a First Age city whose great essence-engines have long since gone astray. Now the radiation twists nine in every ten Ysyrian children into stunted mutants... and blesses the tenth with physical perfection and the gift of sorcery, which elevates them to the ruling caste. In Ysyr one is either a sorcerer or a slave, and their hunger would see such rules applied to the rest of Creation in their turn.
Volivat sits a hundred fathoms below the surface of the Dreaming Sea, kept dry by a colossal dam whose engines power their civilisation. Master alchemists and gene-smiths, the Yennin of Volivat name themselves the 'children of ten fathers', combining the essence of eleven parents into each newborn child to create champions the equal of any Exalted hero.
Dis is a cyclopean city of black basalt and crimson glass, squatting on the slopes of an ancient chain of dormant volcanos. The Gigantes who inhabit it wield strange sorcery and experience time in a different way to mortals, but their immortal Empire has long since been broken by the vigour of the younger races, and it is only a matter of time before their last bastions fall in turn. Desperation is rapidly driving them to strange plans and unwise bargains...
The South - Regal Kingdoms of Endless Summer
In the cool Southern night, lighthouses shine like suns from city harbours to guide ships home. With the dawn, hillsides smoulder like jewels—amethyst vineyards; ruby fields of opium poppies; emerald orchards aflame with orange and lemon, pomegranate and persimmon. Workers labour in the noonday heat, the fruits of their toil brought to gilded treasury-temples for their gods to select the choicest portions. Caravans carry the surplus past brooding necropolis and looming ziggurats to cities grown like termites' nests, their
mud-brick abodes climbing toward the sun. In their shadow, forges blaze with new-minted metal and glass while bazaars glow with the rich hues of spices and fire opals. The land grows hotter and water scarcer inland. Hill tribes engage in brutal wars amid the maquis. Horse-archers ride across the sweltering steppes, alert for game beasts or the dreaded Lion Folk. Nomads and merchants meet under oaths of hospitality in towns along the green banks of rivers and the shores of inland seas. Farther south, the last vegetation gives way to the many faces of the desert: barren ridges, stony plains and salt flats encircling a vast central sea of sand speckled with emerald and sapphire oases.
Harborhead is among the most troublesome of the Realm's satrapies, for here every adult is a trained warrior and to go unarmed is to be a slave. The Brides of Ahlat lead the Five Peoples in rituals of battle-prayer to their bull-headed warrior god, and the periodic rebellions have bloodied some of the Realm's finest legions. With the Empress gone, local chieftains select the finest of their cattle for sacrifice, and prepare to try their luck once more.
The Varang Confederacy are obsessed with the perfection of the celestial order, arranging their cities in perfect mandalas and assigning each newborn to a caste based on immediate horoscope readings. One would have to go far indeed to find better architects, glassworkers or astronomers, but the Varang offer their services selectively, and only to those whose work favours the Perfected Hierarchy.
Chiaroscuro was once a First Age acropolis - even shattered and broken its crystalline spires and half-functioning generators make for a magnificent palace, and it is here that the Tri-Khan of the Dehlzan rules. His people are seasonal nomads, and with their warlike migrations they offer safety and security to travellers and merchants, making the city one of the most cosmopolitan and prosperous settlements in the South.
Gem is built into and under the husk of a dead volcano, and with the mineral wealth from its depths paid for swords and bows to create a great mercantile empire across much of the South. One deals in precious stones with Gem's approval or not at all, and its noble houses guard their monopolies on trades and services with bloodthirsty zeal. A hundred lords have tried to lay claim to Gem; ninety nine graves now litter the sands for miles around, and the Despot Rankar VII laughs as he invites others to try their luck.
The South-West - Fragrant Flowers and Bitter Smiles
Realms west of the Firepeaks are as rich as the South and prostrate as the West. Foreign powers, whether Dynasts or Lunars, mortal princes or corrupt gods, subjugate the peoples of these humid lands—jungles and forests, marshes and savannahs—to claim their wealth and resources. Buccaneer fleets ravage shipping lanes while slavers and Fair Folk prey upon impoverished villages. Near the centre of things, the folk of wealthy satrapies hide their hatred behind adoring smiles, then kneel in secret before forbidden gods to call curses on their suzerains. Closer to the world's edge, towns and tribes lie scattered across coastal islands or encircled by monster-haunted marshlands and smouldering volcanoes.
An Teng is the Scarlet Dynasty's favour pleasure resort, where the vistas are beautiful and the locals so wonderfully accommodating. The Tengese surrender their wealth and their bodies to their colonial overlords with servile smiles, for they learned the cost of rebellion long ago. Few among the Dynasty have the slightest idea how fierce the hatred hidden in their hearts truly is. As the Realm weakens, they may soon be given a chance to find out...
The Lintha are equal parts family, demon cult and criminal syndicate, and from their mobile island-base of Bluehaven they reave the south and west with merciless abandon. Their coming is feared by all save the Realm, and even admirals of the Water Fleet regard Lintha pirates with a wary edge to their disgust. Yet it is also rumoured that one can hire the Family to strike at ones enemies, and that they keep careful records of all such deals - certainly no attempt to form a coalition against them has yet born worthwhile fruit.
Lathe is a city-state built into the monstrous husk of an ancient primordial beast, miles high at the shoulder and slain by some forgotten hero a handful of miles off-shore from the Cinder Coast. It's endlessly regenerating flesh and organs fuel a vibrant alchemical tradition, its skull plays host to a great Orrery, and around its feet rests one of the greatest docks and shipyards to be found in this corner of Creation. Its just a shame how often the locals seem to go mad and start worshipping demons.
The West - Dreams of a Distant Horizon
Cut off by thousands of miles of open water, the West is a world unto itself, isolated from the rest of Creation and only recently developing trade and cultural ties with the Realm. Most civilization in the West is to be found dispersed across the great chain that dominates maps of the Direction. The isles lie so near to one another that even primitive vessels can sail between them, and ships of a hundred styles cling close to fishing villages or glide from port to distant port. On the larger islands, among wooded hills and alpine meadows, farmers, miners, and loggers work the land without ever seeing the ocean that circumscribes their homes, knowing it only through dealings with coastal folk and from the depredations of seaborne raiders and maddened pelagic spirits. Each island is unique, with its own peoples and princes, gods and monsters, traditions and treasures. Taken as a whole, they form a great cultural tapestry woven together by merchant ships and divided by hostile navies, pirates and privateers, typhoons, jealous storm spirits and marauding Fair Folk
Wu-Jian is the most heavily populated bluewater port in the world, having abandoned horizontal expansion for vertical centuries ago. Midway between the majority of the West and the Blessed Isle, it plays host to millions in a teetering mountain of skyscraper-slums and sprawling dockyards. That such a place functions at all is miracle none can quite explain, but function it does, and prosperously at that.
The Wavecrest Archipelago is dominated by volcanoes whose hungry gods must be constantly appeased with human sacrifice; when the tradition is observed, they bless the lands with fertility and wealth, making the local city-states fantastically prosperous and well-populated. Bound by common culture if not by law, the Archipelago plays a decisive role in most western political decisions.
The Denzik City-Ship is a vast flotilla of thousands of junks, galleys and barges lashed together by myriad ropes and chains of divinely-blessed iron. It is a city on the move, complete with temples and forges and market squares, and the slow path of its annual migration feeds much of the international diplomacy and trade that the West feeds on; attempts to halt or divert the flotilla have always come to nothing for no reason anyone can rightly discern.
Makelo is a rising imperialist power in the mid-west, prospering under the direct protection and tutelage of the Forge-Goddess Ninegala. Those who study under her learn to make exquisite works of stone and metal, weapons and armour of surpassing quality that has allowed the city-state to subjugate its neighbours and from their enslaved labour profit immensely. Ninegala offers her divine wares to any willing to meet her price, but so strange and exacting are her requirements that few are willing to strike her bargains.
The North-West - Lashed by Storm and Steel
Between the White Sea and the Great Western Ocean, the coastal nations and island-states of the North West are frequently beset by foul weather and fouler predators. Villages of wood and peat crowd close against gloomy cities whose rooftops are thick with chimneys to keep out the chill. Folk huddle within damp, crumbling walls for warmth and for protection from mortal raiders, hungry ghosts, and Fair Folk. Out on the moors, the clangor of sword and shield echoes amid cold rain and fog, raitons circling by the hundreds overhead. Across the long winter months, aristocrats intrigue while serfs drink, brawl, and pray for spring. But spring is also for war, and aside from force of arms the only thing a warrior of the North-West respects is holy ground, be it sacred to god or ancestor; angering either could spell the doom of an entire kin-band or settlement.
Gethamane existed long before man came to the Groaning Mountains; a subterranean city built by unknown hands, etched with prayers to unknown gods, it none the less made for a much-needed redoubt for the refugees that made it their home. Fungal gardens and hidden springs offer food and water, while underways of slick black stone seem to spit forth monsters and treasure with equal regularity.
Grieve was a stagnant backwater for many years, until its savants at last devised the White Elixir, by which one might be frozen at the very moment of death and thereby attain a macabre kind of immortality. Now carefully preserved nobles and scholars walk the city's gardens under parasols to keep away the burning sun, while merchants and workers flock to the city by the thousand in desperate hope of being found worthy of addition to the city's deathly elite.
The Principality of Skullstone resides within a Shadowland, partway into the underworld, and here the dead rule and life is but a preparation for one's eternal station. All manual labour is undertaken by mindless and inexhaustible zombies, leaving the citizenry free to pursue lives of leisure and self-improvement. It's reigning Deathlord, the Bodhisattva Anointed by Dark Waters, is a proud patron of the arts and utterly convinced that all of Creation will prosper under his enlightened rule. With the Realm weakening, he may soon have the chance to put his ideas to the test...
This game is set in Creation, the setting of the rpg Exalted; for those players unfamiliar with the setting, the following guide has been provided. Note that this is written from the perspective of your player characters, the Dynasts of the Scarlet Realm - bias, inaccuracies and propaganda are to be expected, but relatively few outright lies.
The Exalted
In the Time Before, when the fires of creation had not yet faded and the world was still new, the Gods chose from among the assembled ranks of mankind their champions. These warriors would be imbued with great power and with it wisdom and responsibility, that they might protect Creation from any danger even as they ruled it with foresight and grace. Having thus created the Exalted, the Gods withdrew into Heaven and beyond the veil of corporeal form, leaving the world to its new custodians.
Greatest among the Exalted were the Dragon-Blooded, who born in their veins the immortal power of their progenitor-patrons, the Elemental Dragons from whose form all of Creation was formed. They were strong as the mountains, fast as the northern wind, as furiously passionate as wildfire. More than that, they alone could pass their great power down to their children, preserving Creation for future generations even as they fell in battle or retired into meditative contemplation of the elements.
To be Exalted is to be more than human. It is to be faster, stronger, smarter and longer-lived, beyond the frailties of sickness and old age. The Dragon-Blooded command the elements themselves, bear great relic-weapons forged of sacred jade, and wield world-shaking martial arts that would kill a mortal to learn. It is to stand as the rightful heir to the Creation-Ruling Mandate, the divine right of rule passed down to your ancestors by the mightiest of the gods, to take for your own the title Prince of the Earth.
Spirits
Creation is an animist setting; every rock and tree harbours its own patron spirit, and they vary immensely in power, nature and personality. The God of the local river might flood his banks if not given a jug of rice wine every new moon, while the Goddess of the Imperial Mountain only rarely concerns herself with the doings of those mortal ants upon her mighty back. Some gods are tied intimately to their domains and exist as part of them, while others are celestial bureaucrats shuffling papers in their heavenly manses; all are proud, powerful and capable of bestowing great blessings or curses upon those who please or antagonise them.
Beneath Creation lurks the underworld, where the drifting shades of the departed play out fantasies of memory before succumbing to the call of Lethe and entering the cycle of reincarnation. Bloody-clawed murder victims, charismatic priests of oblivion and the magnificent Death Lords can all be found by those who know where to look; necromancy is a forbidden art in much of Creation, and those who practice it are feared and hated in equal measure, for their blasphemy grants them great power.
Hell is a real place, a cityscape of brass and obsidian the size of the world, but the demons imprisoned within have nothing to do with mortal sin. Their crimes were made against Heaven and the Gods; as chosen champions of the latter, the Exalted possess both the ability and moral authority to bind their vanquished foes into service. Strange fusions of flesh and spirit, every breed of demon was created by the Lords of Hell to fulfil a specific purpose; the Jade Lions are warriors and missionaries, while the Faceless Priests hunt lawbreakers with immortal tenacity. Sorcerers can bind such things to their own purposes, but often find themselves held at a cautious distance by wider society for their strange knowledge and occult pursuits.
The Immaculate Order
It is the right and duty of all Exalted to act as intermediaries between spirits and mortal-kind, but for the monks of the Immaculate Order such pursuits are their life's work. When a demon slips into the world through the end of twilight or a dead monstrosity claws its way out of the grave, it is the Immaculate Order that stands ready to repel them with fist and blade; when the local god demands more prayer on pain of drought, it is the Order that negotiates with him on the peasantry's behalf… and slays him if he steps out of line.
Within the Realm, the Order plays the role of mediator, guardian and watchdog. They lead the mortal population in prayer and caution them not to step outside the role that heaven and their Exalted masters have set out for them, but so too do they enforce morality and legal diligence among the dynasts who rule the Realm. The Dragon-Blooded are divinely appointed rulers, yes, but those who fail in their duties or display excessive cruelty to their subjects can expect to find themselves replaced in short order, be it through religiously-motivated rebellions or a furious monk breaking down their palace gate.
The truest enemy of the Immaculate Order are the Anathema - ancient monsters who have stolen the power of the gods for their own, wicked Dragon-Blooded who have fallen from grace, and all manner of other threats to Creation are counted among their benighted ranks. Against such threat the Order maintains the institution and cultural tradition that is the Wyld Hunt; when an Anathaema is discovered, it is the holy duty of all Dragon-Blood to declare truce and band together against this threat, to hunt them to the ends of the world if that is what it takes. There are monks who spend their entire lives hunting such monsters, and centuries of experience have made them supremely skilled at the arts of cold-hearted murder.
Technology
The majority of Creation can be thought of roughly equivalent in technology and development to the late iron or early post-classical age. Woodblock printing is widespread, as is literacy and knowledge of the natural sciences, while the Realm's economy is based on a class-divided version of fiat currency (peasants use paper scrip, aristocrats used jade coinage). Magic naturally distorts this expectation somewhat, with gods and sorcerers playing a major role in the development of medicine, engineering and the material sciences. More notably, however, Creation is also a post-apocalyptic setting, with specific areas and organisations retaining fragments of a world far more advanced than the current one.
The current Age of Sorrows, born from the twin calamities of the Great Contagion and Balor's Crusade, was preceded by the Second Age. The Shogunate ruled Creation then, and possessed the knowledge and resources to deploy whole legions of power-armoured troops backed up by sorcerer-engineers and supplied via continent-scale mag-lev train networks. The Realm maintains a significant portion of this knowledge, most notably in the form of the multi-story Warstriders that accompany its legions into battle, but generally lacks the tools to make the tools to put the theory into practice.
It is said that before the Shogunate came the High First Age, where the daemonic Anathema ruled and crystal spires pierced the dome of heaven... but such stories are blasphemous nonsense, of course, and impossible to verify anyway.
The Wyld
Creation is flat, or perhaps simply sits atop an infinitely tall spire of rock. Travel far enough from the Imperial Mountain and the comforting embrace of conscious civilisation and one will find once iron-clad rules growing weak and twisted - gravity changes with the moon, impossible creatures hoot and scream, and one's own body begins to mutate in accordance with the mad whims of the elements unbound. Travel further from the beaten path, with naught but courage to guide your way, and you will find there is only the Wyld; a fathomless abyss of chaos and creativity, where narrative and convention hold sway in place of physical law and mortal order. Here can be found the glittering palaces of the Fae.
The Fae, also known as the Raksha and the Princes of Chaos, are a strange and alien breed. They are less living beings and more stories come to life, and they hunger endlessly for the vital essences and fragile beauty of Creation: those who fall into their grasp are called the Dream-Eaten, mind and soul scoured away to leave an empty husk behind. Iron burns them like acid and Creation's rigid order displeases them; held at bay by ancient oaths they cannot break, they search endlessly for a way to make the world their plaything, stealing away children or leading great armies of nightmare creatures against the world's defenders. It was in breaking one such invasion, known to history as the Balorian Crusade, that the Scarlet Empress earned her title and her throne - an insult that the Fae have never forgiven.
In the earliest days of the Realm, the Empress stood alone as supreme and only ruler, but as the years passed and she began consolidating power, the need for subordinate powers became apparent. Thus were the Great Houses formed, each led by a mighty Dragon-Blooded hero of proven strength and loyalty - supporters, former rivals and her own children among them. They were granted the right to a family name, swathes of territory, powerful legal rights and commensurate duties, all of which would come together to form the building blocks of the Empress' new Realm. Today, there are ten Great Houses recognised by the Imperial Bureaucracy; at least a dozen more have fallen to disaster or misadventure in the preceding centuries, or been stripped of power by the Empress herself for some unthinkable crime.
The houses are more than mere families. Each has spent centuries amassing not just glory and jade, but also relationships, traditions, and vendettas. Likewise, their numbers have grown; even the smallest house counts hundreds of Dragon-Blooded in its ranks, and most have well over a thousand. Each house's scions fight side by side in house legions and garrisons, join forces in the intrigues of the Thousand Scales and the Deliberative, and cooperate in business ventures throughout the Blessed Isle and across the Threshold.
Each Great House forms a nation unto itself, embedded into the Realm's body politic. And while many deem themselves patriots, others — perhaps most — are members of a Great House first and Dynasts second. While the Great Houses have ever vied against each other for power, influence, and wealth, the stern hand of the Scarlet Empress bent their conflicts to serve her will. With her disappearance, their ambition is unchecked, and all eyes turn to the empty throne.
House Cathak
Fire That Marches Against The Tide
All Dynasts are trained as soldiers, learning tactics and strategy alongside art and culture, but it is in House Cathak that the martial traditions of the Dynasty flourish in full. They learn strategy at their mother's knee, are raised as generals and dragonlords from the cradle, and temper their fiery passions with a soldier's unflinching discipline. Politically blunt, a Cathak scion can still charm her way through a salon with tales of war and service in exotic, far-off lands, and many have a reputation as dashing heartbreakers and closeted romantics.
By Other Means: In the Declaration phase, you may exchange Might for either Wealth or Influence at a 1:1 ratio. At the end of the turn, your Wealthincreases by one for every military asset you committed in support of another House's project.
Forged for War: Your characters get one free martial tag each (such as 'veteran officer' or 'fearsome duellist'). Both your Armies and Characters count their value as two points higher when committed to military projects, and you are always assumed to have Deliberative backing for any military actions in the Threshold.
Hesiesh's Restraint. Bound by a code of honour, you treat restricted actions as forbidden.
House Cynis
Wood Nourished on Fallen Tears
Everyone likes House Cynis. They throw the best parties, make the best lovers, and are always willing to help their friends out with whatever they might need. Yes, everyone likes them… well, every Dynast does, at any rate. Other people tend to take issue with the House's sprawling drug trade and underworld ties, its legal monopoly on the slave trade and its habit of using blackmail to turn enemies and rivals into quietly compliant pawns. Every Empire in history prospers by the suffering of others, but Cynis has made exploitation into an art form.
Flowers of the Court: When engaging in a project that falls into one of the following categories - dynastic politicking, salons, gala balls, orgies or other sins of the elite - the following benefits apply:
Assets double their effective value.
Rewards from success are doubled.
Human Resources: In the declaration phase, you may exchange Manpower on a 1:1 for Wealth, Influence or Might. Every successful military or security project completed by any player in the Threshold, or against rebels and other undesirables on the Blessed Isle, increases your Manpowerby (difficulty/5).
Rusting Chains: Unsuccessful projects that you either initiated or provided a plurality of the resources for will trigger Unrest. You will be a priority target for foreign Incursions and the depredations of the Anathema.
House Ledaal
Air that Raised the Bones of Giants
No one questions Ledaal's competence, loyalty or pious zeal. Everyone acknowledges that when the monsters come for blood, Ledaal spears will be there to force the darkness back. They just wish that the House would loosen up a little and stop being quite so bloody self-righteous about everything. The House itself cares little for such opinions; founded by a woman who turned her own mother in for heresy, it cares only for duty, and views the infighting sure to result from an empty throne with a growing sense of looming dread.
Shadow Crusade: When you succeed in a hostile project against enemies of Creation and the Realm - including but not limited to Anathema, agents of Hell, the Underworld and the Wyld - the following benefits apply:
Rewards from success are doubled
You generate a Symbol or Agent Asset with value (difficulty/5).
The Empress' Hound: Whenever you participate in a project that lowers Realm Divide, you increase your Wealth by one. Whenever the Realm Divide score is lower at the start of a turn than it was the turn before, you increase your Influence by an amount equal to the difference.
Divided Leadership: You cannot initiate or contribute to more than one Project aimed at a specific House or kind of enemy per turn. You are, however, allowed to defend against Projects initiated by such foes without restriction.
For example, if you committed to hunting Lunar Anathema on the Caul, you could not also launch an offensive against Ma-Ha-Suchi in the East, as he is also a Lunar Anathema. However, you could still defend against an Incursion launched by the Bronze Tide in the West, even though its leaders are also Lunars.
House Mnemon
Earth Carved in the Image of One
Priests and poets, lovers and scholars, House Mnemon are by far the most pious and devout of all the Great Houses, their identity indelibly shaped by the centuries old sorcerer-matriarch at their head. Centuries of support for the Immaculate Order has bought the House respect and obedience from all levels of society, even as they dabble in exotic foreign philosophies and aesthetics that border on the heretical, and with the right of first refusal on all imperial construction work their architectural skills are much in demand across the Blessed Isle and beyond.
Inviolable Piety: Every time another House increases the power of its Immaculate faction, your Wealthincreases by one. Whenever you undertake a Political or Development project in line with the policies of the Immaculate faction, you gain double the normal rewards for success.
Heir Apparent: You possess a unique type of resource, Legitimacy, with a value equal to the sum total of all resource points invested by other Houses last turn in projects that you initiated. In turn one, you have ten points of Legitimacy. In the declaration phase, Legitimacy can be converted to Influence, Wealthor Manpower on a 1:1 basis.
A Dragon's Pride: You cannot contribute assets or resources to projects if the Initiator supports a non-Mnemon Claimant (as per the Inheritor faction mechanic), nor can you accept the aid of their assets or resources on Projects that you initiated.
House Nellens
Dragons of the Blood Resurgent
Named for a mortal politician who died centuries before their House was founded, the scions of House Nellens are derided by their dynastic peers as weak-blooded dilettantes that insult the very idea of what it means to be Dragon-Blooded. They compensate for this social handicap by diversifying their assets and making the best possible use out of every single scion, Exalted or mortal. Nellens alone can challenge Ragara in the mercantile arena, and has learned to be extremely resilient in the face of displeasure from its so-called betters.
Diverse Portfolio: You possess a unique type of resource, Myriad, with a value equal to (sum of all other resources)/5. Myriad cannot be spent on projects directly, but in the Declaration phase may be exchanged on a 1:1 basis for any other type of Resource.
Most August Conclave: Whenever you act in line with a faction's policies, increase their power by two points, to a maximum of five per turn. The two factions with the highest power in your court are both considered Dominant, granting the appropriate bonuses.
Dilettantes: Your assets can never have a value of higher than 3. When other Great Houses spend Influence to sabotage or oppose your Projects, each point spent counts as two.
House Peleps
Water that Wreathes the Crown of Centuries
Daring, romantic and adventurous, the scions of House Peleps often seem to have just stepped out of a theatrical epic. While their heroism and valour is unquestionably larger than life, the psychological toll of the House's relentless perfectionism and internal rivalries is a powerful burden to bear. House Peleps is a naval house, commanding the Imperial Fleets in the name of the Empress and projecting Imperial power all across the threshold… but with the Merchant Fleet and its funds stripped away by imperial edict, they find their military behemoth increasingly difficult to support.
Scions of Daana'd: You are the Imperial Navy. When you or another House are engaging in a Project that falls into one of the following categories - Naval warfare, trade, transport, exploration or any undertaking that relies on crossing the Inner Sea - you receive the following benefits:
The value of committed assets is doubled.
Mightexpenditure is always valid, and is only public if you wish it to be.
Each point of resources spent to sabotage another House's Project counts as two.
Twice as Bright: Whenever you commit an asset to a Project, you may reduce its health, to a minimum of zero, to raise its value by an equal amount for that turn. Should you reduce an asset's health to zero with this trait, up to (value) points of resources spent by your opponent(s) on that project are negated.
Starving Giant: You cannot trade Wealth for other resources in the Declaration phase, and you cannot commit your Wealth to any non-military Project.
House Ragara
Earth Slaked on the Blood of Dragons
Nominally a family of investment bankers and jade moguls, House Ragara's hunger for wealth and power goes further than sensible observers could possibly imagine. Already the richest of the Great Houses, leveraging debt and investment into a standard of living that would turn a guildsman to stone from envy, Ragara's gaze has turned of late to occult secrets and blasphemous lore. The family vaults groan with profane power, enough to condemn them a hundred times over, and still the family hungers for more. There will never be enough to slake their appetite.
The Imperial Bank: When you exchange Wealthfor other resources in the Declaration phase, you get two points for every one exchanged. Every time you contribute at least five resource points or any one asset to a successful Project initiated by another House, your Wealthincreases by one. Should you commit more resources than any other single contributor, you gain a unique Debt asset:
Debt assets begin with a value equal to (difficulty/5) of the project that you supported to create them. They will typically have tags related to the Initiator and type of project.
Debt assets do not regain lost health by remaining unused for a turn.
Debt assets have a primary resource of Insight and a secondary resource of Influence.
Hidden Depths: Once per turn in the Planning stage, you may ask a single question of the GM; if anything in Hell, the Underworld or the strange and forgotten reaches of Creation would know the answer, you learn what it is. You may also spend points of Insight, Manpoweror Influencein the Declaration phase in order to create an Unrest, Incursion or Disaster project of your design. The difficulty of this project will be equal to the resources expanded, and the initiator will appear to be a supernatural force or known enemy of the Realm.
Looming Default: At the start of each turn, if the Realm Divide score is higher than the turn before, your Wealthis reduced by an equal amount.
House Sesus
Fire that Makes the Shadows Strong
A legion is the ultimate argument, wealth grants power, but knowledge is the finest weapon, and House Sesus guards its knowledge closely. One of the Realm's three military houses, Sesus makes its mark in the practice of asymmetrical warfare; poison, sabotage and terror tactics are their hallmarks, and the dark reputation and sinister allure of its scions tends to elevate them in the eyes of their peers. Always underestimated by their rivals, House Sesus is perfectly content to let others have the first word, just so long as they get the last.
Warfare is Deception: You can convert Might into Insightin the Declaration phase, on a 1:1 basis. When engaging in a project that falls into one of the following categories - espionage, blackmail, terrorism and irregular warfare, or any other pursuit that might be considered 'fighting dirty' - the following effects apply:
The value of committed assets is doubled.
On success, you distribute (difficulty/5) extra points between your Wealth, Influenceor Manpoweras you desire, in addition to any other rewards.
Smoke without Flame: Once per turn, you may disguise one of your Projects, making it appear as if the initiator is a faction or foreign power. The false initiator must be somewhat plausible. You cannot disguise a series of brutal pirate attacks on coastal settlements as the work of the Custodians, for example.
Where appropriate, you will be privately informed of the benefits and penalties for success and failure on this project, which may not be visible to other players.
You cannot disguise a project as the work of another House.
Parable of the Scorpion: The first three points of resources that another House provides to a Sesus initiated project are lost, as are the first three points of Wealth, Influence or Manpower that you contribute to a Project initiated by another House.
House Tepet
Air that Carries the Prayers of Tomorrow
Once the third part of the Realm's military triumvirate, alongside Cathak and Sesus, House Tepet lost its legions and three generations of its most promising Exalted in a disastrous campaign against the Anathema warlord known as the Bull of the North. Now the ancient lineage, once known for its unbreakable honour and unconventional excellence, teeters on the brink of extinction. Raised from childhood expecting to attain positions of power and martial glory, House Tepet's scions now belong to a house that might not exist tomorrow. They face this perpetual doomsday as their bloodline always has: as warriors.
Ride the Winds: In the Resolution phase, the GM will inform you which of your projects - defined as those you either initiated or have invested 5+ resources and/or an asset into - have succeeded or failed and by what margin. You may then reallocate assets and resources as desired. Reallocated assets lose one additional point of health.
Unbroken Honour: You double all rewards of success from Heroic or Legendary projects (those with difficulty of 20+). Resources invested by other Houses in sabotaging projects count towards the difficulty for this purpose.
For example, if you undertake a Difficulty 15 project, this trait does not trigger. If another House invests five points of resources in sabotaging you, and you succeed anyway (perhaps through reallocation via Ride the Winds), it does.
Futile Blood: You can only begin two projects per turn, and you may only gain new assets through Projects started by another House.
House V'Neef
Wood that Tenders the Garden's Grace
Founded less than fifty years ago, the dynasty's youngest Great House is still laying down roots. V'Neef was planning on another few decades of favouritism and patronage from the Scarlet Empress; in her absence, the young Matriarch will need to exercise every scrap of social skill and treasure every ally to remain standing. Fortunately, V'Neef is well served in this matter, for her House was pulled together from hundreds of different outcastes, houseless legends and ambitious patricians, and has no shortage of talented scions to secure its future with.
The Merchant Fleet: At the end of every turn, you gain (difficulty/5) Wealthfor every successful project carried out by any other House in the Threshold. Additionally, every point of resource you commit in support of such projects counts as two points.
Youthful Vigour: When another House wishes to sabotage or oppose one of your projects, they halve the effective value of expended resources or committed assets, rounding down. When committing a character asset to support a Project, you may decide to swap its primary and secondary resources.
Shallow Roots: You suffer double the consequences for any failed project that you initiate, or a successful yet hostile project which names you as a primary target.
The Lesser Houses
While the Great Houses are the public face of the Realm and maintain a death-grip on the dragon's share of its power and wealth, the Empress was always careful to never allow them complete dominion of the Dynasty that served in her name. There are enough cadet branches, patrician families and formally recognised bloodlines in the Realm to fill a library, each lesser in every way than the Ten Houses but still elevated far above the peasantry and their supposed rivals beyond the Dynasty's borders. Some guard their independence jealously, others cultivate patron-client relationships with one or more Great Houses, and all find themselves faced with hard decisions to make in this Time of Tumult. Certainly no Lesser House has the strength, wealth or prestige to make a claim on the Throne directly, but they could most certainly help one of the Great Houses solidify their claim... or, perhaps, work together to achieve greater ends still…
All Lesser Houses have the same drawback - they can only initiate one Project per turn (but may support any number, as with the Great Houses) and they begin with fewer resources and assets.
All Lesser Houses have a single positive trait, as follows:
Ten Thousand Fangs: Choose a single, narrow area of speciality, such as "Merchant Liaisons" or "Prestigious Arms Dealers". When participating in Projects related to your speciality, you double the effective value of all committed assets and allocated resources.
If you wish to apply as a Lesser House, you need to give me a name, a general description of your background, and choose a speciality. A cool epithet or sobriquet is encouraged but not strictly mandatory.
I will not be starting the actual game for another week and change, as that is when the school I work at breaks up for easter, but I figured getting the player roster etc sorted in advance was a good idea.
1. Cynis (Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue.)
I want to play a House Cynis with a strong Immaculate faction and a real urge to protect the status quo for better or worse. I want to play a supremacist House Cynis who is the life of the best party on earth and wants no one to ever forget it. I want to play House Cynis like you play the Crane. I want to play a House Cynis that people hate that they love.
2. Ledaal (Who you are in the dark.)
I want to play Ledaal because I like playing security service-y spy heavy factions but it's been ages since I played one of true believers. I want to play Ledaal because I've been reading a lot about the cold war in the third world and I like the idea of Ledaal as the imperial meddler fighting a war on (anathema) terror while working through their allies of the year. I want to play Ledaal because I am a sucker for fighting the villainous NPC factions in GSRPs even at the expense of my self interest so why not turn that into a feature rather than a bug.
I want to play Ledaal to explore the way that for all their stiffness, they tap into more forbidden lore than anybody save Ragara. I want to see them pushed to the edge and figure out what they can do about it. And I like the drawback of "actually three different Ledaals in a trenchcoat."
3. Peleps (A navy with a state.)
I want to play Peleps as conflicted about their separatism arc. I wanna wrestle with that duality of them as the Realm's dashing heroes and a starving imperialist leviathan eyeing the door and have neither part feel false. I want to argue about what the Realm means and the argument has teeth. I want to make that part of their trait about burning out bright feel only natural in the face of their sacrifices and ambition and conflicted loyalties.
1. Ledaal ('ate Anathema, 'ate splitters, luv' Immaculates, simple as)
2. Nellens (Its just good business, getting the respect you deserve)
3. Peleps (the military: unsustainable, the brake-lines: pre-cut, the expected casualties: acceptable)
1. House Cathak - a house of unparalleled military might and loyalty; they may prove to be die-hards who refuse to let the Empire crumble without a fight - or perhaps they'll birth the warlord who will finally rip it asunder.
I'm a fan of straightforward (sort of) military types who will get their hands very dirty. Interested in exploring it.
Arima, Matriarch of House Cathak, still bears signs of vigor, despite being well over a century old. She is hearty, full of energy, with a gregarious laugh, and keen eye, even if her hair has started to gray and she is not quite as fast, perhaps, as she once was. Not that anyone has wanted to try and find out recently. Her tongue - and blade - are still sharp. Still, the face of a smiling warrior is only one of her faces. While she is not given to skullduggery and prefers the blazing assault to shadowy lies, she knows the value of not tipping one's hand until one is ready to strike. It is a lesson well-learned over her long years of service to the House and to the Realm.
She was not the first in the line of succession when she first entered the service of one of the House Legions, but she was close. Someone to keep an eye on, so it was said, who seemed to have a long career in front of her, if she didn't die chasing bandits in the Threshold. She was the niece of the reigning matriarch - who herself had a daughter - and so there was not the expectation of ever achieving that lofty position. The thought had crossed her mind though.
She was burning herself upward still when it happened; she was approaching comfortable middle age with a daughter of her own, a career full of companions and battle and favors behind her (and still ahead; she had the youthful vigor of a Prince of the Earth) and her command had just returned from a punitive expedition in the Threshold and then... an accident at sea - a shipwreck that killed her cousin and her heir - and so Arima was suddenly thrust to the front of the line, recalled to the Isle, and jockeying with her other cousins for the position while the matriarch mourned. The Cathak are not given to wars in the shadows, but the battle inside the court of the House was still a war - one fought with as much skill as every participant could muster.
And Arima, it seemed, would be named the heir. She was not a schemer, but the sheer force of her personality, her ability to convince others to follow, her gleaming, shining star, was too much for her competitors to overcome. Those who could not be persuaded were browbeat or even (so the stories say) bribed. There were no deaths. None that could be attributed to anything but accident. But several careers ended ignominiously or ended up shunted off to backwaters - or to the Threshold, usually alongside or under officers that Arima had had a hand in raising to their positions.
Since ascending to the head of household, she has done everything in her power to ensure that House Cathak was prepared to face the enemies of the realm - to go where they were needed, to extract tribute and taxes and plunder. To provide armies when other houses need them. Let them squabble over their mercantile interests; true power comes from soldiers and those who can feed and pay them. Something she has grown to think ever more true since the disappearance of the Empress. The Realm creaks.
She continues to be the boisterous soldier; the burning beacon at the heart of the party and the beating heart of her House, with a cunning, soldier's mind. She has children and grandchildren and the youths who come of age are eager to serve. Whatever happens, she will not allow House Cathak to crumble. Not while she still draws breath.
2. House V'neef - Youth before old age or something like that; if the Empress is gone, perhaps they can find a new one. Hang together or hang separately.
Young and ambitious? It'll be fun to explore that and see where they can go.
3. House Tepet - On the backfoot and struggling to survive - they will find a way to turn this to their advantage or die in the attempt. There's no other choice, is there?
Hard mode! Sounds like fun honestly.
4. House Amanthi - "Grasp the Wheel of Truth"
Ten Thousand Fangs: Sorcerers and Secrets - although a minor house, Amanthi continues to produce an effective (if small) contingent of scholars, magicians, and other magitek practitioners who serve the Realm (and other houses). They are skilled at what they do and closely guard what few secrets they can grasp onto for themselves. Still; if someone wants magical support for a fee, they're one house to turn to, whether one needs them for making war, ferreting out internal enemies, or securing that excellent trade deal.
The Amanthi were originally cadet house of Mnemnon, although centuries of drift have left them much more independent. They eke out their wealth and scrabble for position, as scholars and sorcerers, unable to truly compete with the larger houses, but making themselves useful where they can and looking for strategic alliances - especially now in times of trouble and uncertainty. They cannot conquer alone, but with the aid of others they may become something more - or help another to their proper place.
Politically, the House is split between supporting the efforts of various Custodians or trying to find someone to Inherit the throne - and still others, although a minority, see this as a chance to forge their own way...
If I may toss my hat into the ring, then pray look with favour upon my preferences and give them due consideration:
Tepet: The romance of House Tepet, bearers of a legacy older than the Realm, proudest and most puissant of the Great Houses brought low, is hard to resist. To navigate and guide them through the present crisis to reclaim their glory or at least snatch life from the jaws of death is incredibly appealing. They are charmingly distinct from the other Great Houses for all that I've listed, and I think playing around with that is a lot of fun as well.
Kenzho: House Calin is no more, so if we want Calin content in this GSRP this is the next-best thing.
1. House Ragara interests me from a professional level - my area of focus is medieval economic history and modes of exchange, and the Great House richer than most gods is a good place to work with that. Also, 'tired old man grappling with the weight of his sins' is one of my favorite character archetypes.
2. One of my favorite parts of Exalted is the Immaculate faith, its tenets, its adherents, and its use as a tool of the state, and there's no better faction to explore it with than House Ledaal. The Hounds of the Empress have a clear focus and strong goal, and I also enjoy the idea of checking my tea cups for Lunar assassins.
3. Sometimes, you've just got to ball out. House Peleps seems in need of that mindset. A House with an incredibly potent military and little else (Isn't that right, V'neef?), they embody a playstyle in GSRPGs that I enjoy a lot - the dog on a train desperately laying tracks in front of himself.
Give me House Cynis and I will give you a bunch of Democratic constitutionalists (well elite parliamentarians) on meth. We're auguring the will of the Empress in the guts of her institutions. We're channeling the most nefarious lib energy you can imagine. With the dragons as our witness we will save Creation from the horrors of a future without us.
(Also I just adore Cynis's like- three part thematic association with narcotics, medicines, and poisons. And what it means to embody all three.)
1. House Nellens
Flexibility is a virtue in a multifaceted situation like the Realm's succession crisis, and there's RP appeal in playing the least "noble" of the nobles as well.
2. House Tepet
I think the challenge of playing a near-extinct House and trying to struggle back to prominence could be really interesting.
3. House Mnemon
There's a curious contradiction in the House most famous for supporting the Immaculate Order also having a reputation for entertaining potentially heretical ideas. I'd like to explore that a little.
I have never in a GSRP before, but this seems fun and I am willing to learn. Let's see:
1. House Mnemon is in a lot of ways a very intimidating choice, but it's also a very interesting position to occupy in a Realm Civil War game, and I just kind of love Mnemon as a character. She's genuinely talented and a skillful leader, her house loves her, she is devoutly Immaculate... and at the same time she's scary and uncompromising and like, overly proud enough that she can't always bring that to bear in her favour.
2. House Sesus is my favourite great house, they are such absolute bastards and it has been going to great for them so far -- this puts them in a position where it's both cool to watch them win, and kind of satisfying to watch them get their comeuppance.
3. House Ledaal. I love these freaks, they are the subject of my favourite line from What Fire Has Wrought.
Article:
Dynasts and patricians alike do business with Ledaal, and trust its spears at their backs against what lies beyond the Realm's borders. At the same time, its relentless obsession with hunting in dark places leaves a sour taste in others' mouths. Delving fearlessly into forbidden texts and mentored by enigmatic mystics from far-off shores, Ledaal scions often seem to care more for distant threats than homegrown politics. While others trust in Ledaal's competence, marrying one sounds like someone else's job.
1. House Cathak - I am already very committed to being straightforward and forthright in my dealings, so this is an efficient way to inform everyone of my personal weakness and incorporate it into the game mechanics. Also I like to fight.
Cathak Merede Uriza
Granddaughter of Cathak, Uriza is, perhaps, the unlikeliest House matriarch. Youngest of Cathak Merede's four Exalted daughters, Uriza fully expected to live a life of semi-autonomy, and she took to her freedom with gusto. Many of the romantic tales currently on the market about a dashing take-charge Cathak officer sweeping a young soft-handed patrician boy or girl off their feet owe their roots to her very real exploits. In her time, she fought dozens of duels, led far-off campaigns at the head of her beloved 4th Legion, earned her sobriquet as the "Raging Dragon," and slept, drank, and partied her way through Dynastic society.
And then her eldest sister perished in an ill-conceived campaign in the Scavenger Lands, and Uriza found herself in a very much unwanted three-way power struggle for the title of heir-apparent. Her elder sisters boasted marriage connections to House Mnemon and House Ragara, and fought viciously over the position that she herself scarcely could conceive of wanting. Unfortunately, this made her an ideal consensus candidate; neither sister saw her as a true threat, and therefore perceived her as more of a caretaker, while only her ailing mother saw her well-hidden qualities.
Centuries later, her mother and both of her sisters are gone, but Matriarch Uriza remains. No longer a swashbuckling young Dynast, she is instead a veritable pillar of Realm society, with her many sordid misdeeds consigned to legend or rumor. She is now in the unenviable position of having to oversee a multitude of energetic, privileged youths, all making the same mistakes she did, while their parents beseech their House's beloved grand-matron for some kind of wisdom that would deter their children from their errors. If only she had any to offer.
Uriza may not have the all-encompassing vision of Mnemon or the philosophical disposition of Ledaal, much less her own mother's strategic cunning, but what she does possess in spades is a keenly honed survival instinct, as well as a knack for when to apply the use of force. She's going to need both to survive the coming years.
2. House Ledaal - I wanted to spend the last game running around the Threshold doing a bunch of wild adventures and didn't get much opportunity because everyone was busy killing each other, but hopefully this time will be different! (It won't be)
3. House Ragara - I love Ragara's secretive, furtive take on Earth Aspects, in sharp contrast to Mnemon's more blunt-instrument approach.
