Current revision |
Your text |
Line 200: |
Line 200: |
| | | |
| Farmers and miners live in the middle third of Whitewall, | | Farmers and miners live in the middle third of Whitewall, |
- | as do brewers, carpenters and other tradesmen. Many artisans and clerks who work in Foretown prefer the cheaper lodgings | + | as do brewers, carpenters and other tradesmen. Many artisans |
- | of Midtown. The district also holds the Jewelers’ College and
| + | |
- | the College of Agriculture. Many First Age buildings still
| + | |
- | stand in Midtown, albeit remodeled and repurposed. Butcher
| + | |
- | shops and bakeries occupy ancient chantries, while monastic
| + | |
- | cells have become apartments.
| + | |
- | Whitewall’s tallest building is a Solar temple-manse in
| + | |
- | the exact city center. Its gilded spires and friezes remain undefiled,
| + | |
- | still proclaiming the glory of the Unconquered Sun.
| + | |
- | The Dragon-Blooded tried to occupy the heart of Whitewall,
| + | |
- | but the manse fought them off, its defenses adapting to each
| + | |
- | new attack. (The Shogunate could have destroyed the manse
| + | |
- | but realized that doing so would reduce the region’s economic
| + | |
- | value.) The Syndics couldn’t claim the manse either. It accepts
| + | |
- | no one but Lawgivers as residents.
| + | |
- | | + | |
- | AFTON
| + | |
- | The district farthest from the city gate holds the Syndics’
| + | |
- | hall and the upper crust of Whitewall society. Wealthy
| + | |
- | magnates, the most skilled armorers and jewelers and highranking
| + | |
- | officers of Whitewall’s elite military and police
| + | |
- | force, the Guardians, live in Afton. A variety of small gods,
| + | |
- | supernatural half-breeds and a few outcaste Dragon-Blooded
| + | |
- | join them, as do various ambassadors. The district also holds
| + | |
- | the Whitewall College of Architecture and the Lotus Mind
| + | |
- | College of Thaumaturgical Sciences.
| + | |
- | | + | |
- | UNDERTON
| + | |
- | | + | |
- | An orderly system of tunnels and caverns underlies
| + | |
- | Whitewall, forming a district whose name the locals
| + | |
- | pronounce “Unt’n.” Technically, it’s a slum inhabited by
| + | |
- | Whitewall’s poorest folk… but it’s a slum with the warm
| + | |
- | golden glow of an Old Realm lighting system that no longer
| + | |
- | functions in the rest of the city. Underton stays warm, too,
| + | |
- | and residents never need to worry about the weather. Yet,
| + | |
- | Underton really wasn’t designed as a place for people to
| + | |
- | live. Underton folk have jobs such as street sweeper, garbage
| + | |
- | hauler and day laborer (not to mention mugger, pickpocket
| + | |
- | and shoplifter).
| + | |
- | | + | |
- | Underton also holds the city’s public baths, so the district
| + | |
- | sees a steady stream of foot traffic from the surface. The
| + | |
- | Guardians patrol frequently to preserve the peace and order
| + | |
- | for the bathers. Underton folk can use the baths too—at
| + | |
- | night, when they won’t disturb higher-class folk.
| + | |
- | | + | |
- | | + | |
- | BEYOND THE WALLS
| + | |
- | Large, multi-family farmhouses dot the valley around
| + | |
- | Whitewall, with mining and logging camps in the hills and
| + | |
- | mountains beyond. Most of these are seasonally occupied: The
| + | |
- | residents move into the city in winter and return in the spring
| + | |
- | to work the land and the mines. Every habitation is strongly
| + | |
- | fortified and carries every protection against the Fair Folk and
| + | |
- | the dead that Whitewall’s thaumaturges can devise.
| + | |
- | THE TRAVELER’S ROAD
| + | |
- | In the Old Realm, the road from Whitewall to the Inland
| + | |
- | Sea coast was called the Holy Road. Nowadays, people
| + | |
- | call it the Traveler’s Road or the Great Northern Road. At
| + | |
- | 20 yards wide, it remains the largest road in the North. Its
| + | |
- | white granite pavement shows little wear despite centuries
| + | |
- | of use. Bridges cross a few small streams along the way. The
| + | |
- | blessing on the road keeps it relatively warm in the depths
| + | |
- | of winter, as if the sun shone on it all the time, and the road
| + | |
- | stays free of snow, ice and debris despite the fiercest storms
| + | |
- | and blizzards. Every 40 yards, the road runs between pairs
| + | |
- | of stone pillars topped with inward-facing crescents. These
| + | |
- | crescents once lit the roadway, but the enchantment stopped
| + | |
- | working centuries ago.
| + | |
- | The Traveler’s Road carries subtler and stronger enchantments
| + | |
- | as well. The soul of any human who dies on the road
| + | |
- | immediately enters Lethe. Moreover, any mortal traveler
| + | |
- | who attacks anyone else on the road feels an overwhelming
| + | |
- | compulsion thereafter to hang himself from a pillar or
| + | |
- | convenient tree. The dead and the raksha travel the Holy
| + | |
- | Road as well. Ghosts who attack other travelers are cast into
| + | |
- | Lethe, while Fair Folk are hurled into the Deep Wyld. No
| + | |
- | one knows what would happen to a god, elemental, demon or
| + | |
- | Exalt who broke the road’s curse of safe conduct—it’s never
| + | |
- | happened as far as anyone knows—but the consequences
| + | |
- | would surely be dire.
| + | |
- | Whitewallers know the road’s curse as the Thousand-
| + | |
- | Year Pact, negotiated at the start of the Second Age between
| + | |
- | the Syndics, certain fae lords and at least one Deathlord.
| + | |
- | (Ruvia, god of roads and chief minister of the Golden Barque
| + | |
- | of Heaven in the Bureau of Destiny, claims that he actually
| + | |
- | wove this curse into the road’s fate.) The pact has just over
| + | |
- | 200 years to go before the fae and the Deathlords can demand
| + | |
- | a re-negotiation.
| + | |
| | | |
| ==THE PEOPLE OF WHITEWALL== | | ==THE PEOPLE OF WHITEWALL== |
Line 298: |
Line 209: |
| | | |
| ==SOCIETY== | | ==SOCIETY== |
- | Three powerful beings of ice and silver, '''[[the Syndics]]''', took control and hammered out a treaty of nonaggression with the local fae and the dead of the nearby shadowland. They still rule the city with a grip of frozen steel. | + | Three powerful beings of ice and silver, the Syndics, took control and hammered out a treaty of nonaggression with the local fae and the dead of the nearby shadowland. They still rule the city with a grip of frozen steel. |
| | | |
| ==FEAR== | | ==FEAR== |