TEXT: AN ICY FRONTIER FOR
  AN ICY FRONTIER FOR
  AN ICY FRONTIER FOR
  TM
  
  1
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  BY KRAIG BLACKWELDER, GENEVIEVE COGMAN,
  GEOFFREY C. GRABOWSKI AND ANDREW WATT
  TM
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  2
  CREDITS
  Authors: Kraig Blackwelder, Genevieve Cogman, Geoffrey
  C. Grabowski and Andrew Watt
  Storyteller Game System Design: Mark Rein•Hagen
  Developer: John Chambers
  Editor: Scribendi Editorial Services
  Art Direction: Brian Glass
  Artists: Newton Ewell, Craig Grant, Andrew Hepworth,
  Aaron Nakahara, Melissa Uran, Team Cold FuZion, Andie
  Tong and UDON with Eric Kim and Chris Stevens
  Cover Art: UDON with Chris Stevens and Espen Grundetjern
  Book Design: Brian Glass
  © 2005 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights re-
  served. Reproduction without the written permission of
  the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes
  of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be
  reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf and Exalted
  are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
  All rights reserved. Bastions of the North, the Age of
  Sorrows, the Second Age of Man, Exalted the Dragon-
  Blooded, Exalted the Lunars, Exalted the Abyssals, Exalted
  the Sidereals, Exalted Players Guide, Houses of the Bull
  God, Games of Divinity, Creatures of the Wyld, Exalted Storyteller’s Companion, Savant and Sorcerer, Scavenger
  Sons, Savage Seas and Manacle and Coin are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All
  characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
  The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark
  or copyright concerned.
  This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements
  are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion
  is advised.
  For a free White Wolf catalog call 1-800-454-WOLF.
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  3
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  INTRODUCTION
  4
  CHAPTER ONE: WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  10
  CHAPTER TWO: GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  44
  CHAPTER THREE: THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  78
  APPENDIX: SWAR, THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED,
  WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  116
  TM
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  4
  
  5
  INTRODUCTION
  INTRODUCTION
  Day after day, throughout the winter,
  We hardened ourselves to live by bluest reason
  In a world of wind and frost . . .
  —Wallace Stevens, “Meditation Celestial & Terrestrial”
  Creation is a fantastic place, full of wonders
  untold, but it is a world often as dangerous as it is
  fabulous. And there is no place where this truism is
  better illustrated than in the Far North. The North-
  ern reaches of the Exalted world feature
  breathtaking vistas of white stretching as far as the
  eye can see, broken only by ranges of snow-capped
  peaks jutting high into the air like gnarled frozen
  fingers reaching desperately for the ever-distant
  sun. And within the uniform Northern white, dan-
  gers loom, both the natural hazards of avalanche,
  blizzard and frozen fog and the more insidious
  threat of the Winter Folk, the Varajtul cannibals
  and the living dead.
  Against these myriad dangers stand the Bas-
  tions of the North, strongholds of civilization
  standing firm against the forces of nature, the
  inhuman menaces and the culture of barbarity that
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  6
  pervades the North. Of all the Northern states,
  three in particular stand as shining examples of the
  Northlanders’ ingenuity, independence and in-
  domitable will to make the best of what little their
  harsh land offers: Whitewall, Gethamane and the
  Haslanti League.
  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
  Bastions of the North offers players and Sto-
  rytellers alike a trio of Northern nations in which
  to base a series. Each nation is a power worthy of
  Exalted interest (no matter what type of Exalt one
  might be), and, given the nature of the region,
  each nation’s existence is a precarious one. It
  would not take much effort for a Circle of Exalts
  to make itself invaluable to any of these states —
  or to upset the delicate balance of forces that
  allow each state to survive in the Northern wastes.
  Will your characters play heroes or villains on the
  savage stage that is the Northern Threshold? And
  will being a hero to one state necessarily mean
  being a villain in another? Answering such ques-
  tions may well be the heart of a Northern game.
  The book is broken down as follows:
  The Introduction is what you’re currently pe-
  rusing. It explains the book’s contents and suggests
  how best to make use of the material within.
  Chapter One: Whitewall, the Once-Holy City
  features the first of the North’s bulwarks of civili-
  zation. Located squarely center in the Northern
  Threshold, the city is threatened on one side by
  the dead and on the other by the Winter Folk.
  However, the rulers of Whitewall, a triumvirate
  of powerful spirits known as the Syndics, have
  successfully negotiated a treaty that protects both
  the city proper and the road of imperishable stone
  that leads from the city’s gates to the distant
  Inland Sea. However, it is a fragile peace. The
  people of Whitewall are safe only within the city’s
  eponymous walls; an invitation made to the wrong
  stranger might well invite the denizens of the
  Underworld or the Wyld in to wreak havoc, so
  visitors are viewed with suspicion and no small
  amount of dread as harbingers of all the evil that
  lies just beyond the city walls.
  Chapter Two: Gethamane, the City Under
  the Mountain, whose name means “sanctuary” in
  the ancient tongue of the Old Realm, is the
  THE BULL OF THE NORTH
  The threat of the Yurgen Kaneko, the so-called Bull of the North, and his icewalker army
  hangs above the Northern nations like a sword of Damocles, always threatening to fall.
  Though the Bull of the North’s army makes no appearance in these pages, the prospect of
  invasion by an army of savages, supported by gods and demons and led by an entire Circle of
  Solar Anathema preys upon the hearts and minds of all the peoples of the region.
  Until quite recently, the Bull of the North was considered a fairly minor threat, the latest
  in a long line of barbarian warlords attempting to unite the disparate icewalker tribes under
  one banner. There were rumors of his divine powers, to be sure, but it was believed by most
  that he was simply a God-Blood or perhaps even an outcaste Terrestrial Exalt who’d impressed
  a few tribal chieftains and thereby forged an underequipped, untrained “army” of sorts. It was
  assumed that this ragtag army would fold when it met its first real resistance, and the status
  quo would be restored.
  Even after the Bull’s first few victories, the Northern states’ confidence was hardly
  shaken. Popular opinion still held that this barbarian rabble and its charismatic leader would
  be unceremoniously put down, especially when it became clear that the Realm had taken an
  interest.
  Then came the Battle of Futile Blood, and the threat posed by Kaneko became clear. The
  Bull of the North was more than some petty God-Blood, more than even one of the Dragon-
  Bloods. He was an Anathema, one of The Forsaken, and he and his cohorts had laid waste to
  the military forces of Creation’s greatest power and decimated the ranks of one of the Realm’s
  Great Houses.
  Now, fear grips the whole of the North. Though the Bull now concerns himself with
  conquering the Linowan with the aid of his new Haltan allies, there is no doubt that, at some
  point, Kaneko will lead his army of savages, gods and demons and Anathema back to the lands
  of his birth. And if the Bull wants to conquer them, it is feared by many that there is not one
  Northern state that can stand against him.
  
  7
  INTRODUCTION
  second of the North’s great cities focused on in
  this supplement. Hewn from the living rock of a
  mountain at the height of the First Age, the so-
  called City of Temples is as mysterious as it is
  intriguing. None know the origin of the city —
  and none suspect the true magnitude of the hor-
  ror that lies beneath it. Within Gethamane,
  farmers tend the city’s fungi gardens, priests pla-
  cate its inscrutable gods and guards patrol its
  well-lit corridors; while beneath it all lies the
  key to Gethamane’s true origins — and possibly
  to its ultimate downfall.
  Chapter Three: The Haslanti League, Na-
  scent Empire The third great state of the North
  is, in fact, a confederation of nine city-states,
  the Haslanti League. Individually, none of the
  nine is powerful enough to match the other pow-
  ers of the region, but, combined, these city-states
  are a force with which to be reckoned. The up-
  and-coming power of the North, the Haslanti are
  a people desperate to balance the benefits of
  civilization with their tribal roots. Whether this
  great experiment will succeed and become the
  true power of the region or fail and fall back to
  barbarity remains to be seen. Beneath the
  Haslanti city-state of Crystal, what is perhaps
  the greatest threat to the young League remains
  buried beneath a frozen glacier. Soon, this clever
  young nation’s mettle will be tested, and it re-
  mains to be seen if the forerunners of Second
  Age innovation can stand against a threat dating
  back to the time of the Shogunate.
  Appendix: Swar, the City of Formlessness
  Constrained, Which Men Call Old Crystal, and
  What Lies Within is an adventure that reveals
  the secret of what lies beneath the Haslanti city of
  Crystal. Suitable for all Exalted types, the mystery
  of Old Crystal presented here is a ready-made
  game that may be played as anything from a one-
  off adventure to an ongoing series.
  LEXICON
  What follows is a brief glossary of terms impor-
  tant to the three Northern metropoli covered in
  this book. It is included to provide readers with a
  handy resource to reference when reading the fol-
  lowing chapters.
  air boat: These Haslanti inventions are hot-air
  dirigibles powered by specially constructed sails
  and large pedal-driven propellers.
  Archon: The Archon is the ceremonial head
  of state of the Haslanti, a roving goodwill ambassa-
  dor who serves for a term of six years.
  Bull of the North, the: Yurgen Kaneko, the so-
  called Bull of the North, is a Dawn Caste Solar
  Exalt who has forged many of the North’s disparate
  icewalker tribes into an army capable of defeating
  even well-trained and -equipped Realm legions.
  His rather grandiose ambition is to overthrow the
  Scarlet Dynasty and found a new Solar empire in its
  place with him at the head.
  Council of Oligarchs, the: The Council is an
  elected body of 12 Haslanti that acts as the na-
  tional government of the League. Though it
  controls the military in times of war, it is chiefly
  a legislative body responsible for interpreting the
  League’s laws and acting as the nation’s high
  court, and does not wield executive power.
  cthritae: This Darkbrood is common to the
  underways beneath Gethamane. Cthritae are man-
  sized centipedes seemingly made of black rock,
  whose clicking mandibles drip mercury. Their re-
  productive cycle demands they lay their eggs
  within the flesh of living warm-blooded prey, so
  the cthritae often maim those who wander into
  their clutches and deposit eggs within them that
  hatch within a few hours to devour the hosts.
  Darkbrood: A Darkbrood is any species of
  inhuman monster native to Creation’s underways.
  Deft Hands: This political party of the Haslanti
  represents the interests of the Haslanti tribes and
  tribal rights.
  Dole, the: The Dole is the ration of food from
  the fungus gardens a citizen of Gethamane receives
  for providing some form of service to the city.
  Dreamseer: A Dreamseer is one of the na-
  tional shamans of the Haslanti League. Storytellers
  and dream interpreters, Dreamseers are easily rec-
  ognizable with their red conical hats and the tattoo
  of the rune for “dream” under the right eye.
  emerald: An emerald is any area in the
  Haslanti League where arable land has been blown
  by the wind from a greenfield to be deposited
  elsewhere. Such fertile areas are actively pre-
  served by the Haslanti and used as additional
  farmland.
  Ennead: The Ennead are the nine gods of ice,
  dreams and fate worshiped by the Haslanti people.
  Great Ice, the: The Great Ice is the Haslanti
  term for the ever-frozen region of ice that runs from
  Diamond Hearth in the Far North to Icehome and
  almost to the city of Gethamane that the League
  claims as its own.
  Great Northern Road: see Holy Road
  greenfield: A greenfield is an area of fertile
  land sheltered by high cliffs that was literally carved
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  8
  from the granite of the frozen North by the power-
  ful mechanisms of the First Age. Though many
  have been lost in the centuries since, the Haslanti
  League holds and maintains a number of them, the
  largest of which shelters its capital Icehome.
  Holy City, the: see Ondar Shambal
  Holy Road: Also known as the Traveler’s Road
  and the Great Northern Road, this imperishable
  white-stone highway dates from the First Age and
  connects the city of Whitewall to the far distant
  Inland Sea to the south.
  iceship: These are sailing ships built on steel
  runners so they may travel across the frozen ice of
  the White Sea as easily normal vessels traverse
  open water.
  ice weasel: An enormous relative of the com-
  mon weasel, the ice weasel is a fierce Northern
  predator famed for its cunning and tenacity. Ice
  weasels are sometimes domesticated by the
  Northlands’ cruel fae and used as hunting hounds
  by them.
  Janissary Vault, the: The Janissary Vault is
  the premier provider of hired muscle in the city of
  Gethamane. Though often employed by Guilds-
  men, the thugs of the Janissary Vault are not
  affiliated with the Guild and their services may be
  acquired by anyone for the right price.
  kyzvoi: The kyzvoi were a race of creatures
  artificially created by First Age Solar sorcerers to
  pit against one another in gladiatorial matches.
  Kyyvoi combined features of both arachnid and
  mammalian predators and were bred to be more
  deadly with each generation.
  Landless Party: This political party of the
  Haslanti represents those displaced by the League’s
  Wyldfog Wars, who wish to go to war with the
  nearby icewalker and Tear Eater tribes in order to
  secure new farmland and hunting grounds.
  Marama’s Fell: This shadowland, located
  near Whitewall, grew out of a massive Shogunate-
  era death camp built to exterminate the remnants
  of the Solar Exalted’s sorcerously created artifi-
  cial servitor races. Today, Marama’s Fell is
  overrun with savage, inhuman ghosts and has
  thwarted even attempts by the Deathlords to
  tame it.
  Master of Gethamane: This title is given to
  the hereditary ruler of Gethamane, a descendent of
  the city’s God-Blooded founder Bethan Redeye.
  Nine, the: see Ennead
  Ondar Shambal: In the First Age, the city now
  known as Whitewall was known as Ondar Shambal,
  the Holy City. It was renown across Creation for as
  a center of religious study and contemplation, a
  monastery-city dedicated to the worship of the
  Unconquered Sun.
  Opal Spire: A First Age city founded in the Far
  North for the purpose of expanding the boundaries
  of Creation, Opal Spire fell during the Usurpation
  and was lost to history.
  Outwall, the: The Outwall is the region of
  barren tundra inhabited by the Haslanti Hundred
  Tribes.
  Profitable Men: This political party of the
  Haslanti represents those within the league who
  wish to accumulate more wealth and build a more
  civilized society.
  resplendent chrysanthemum shrines: These
  shrines along the Holy Road are dedicated to vari-
  ous little gods dedicated to life, joy, springtime and
  renewal, and are used by the Syndics as a means of
  pushing back the edges of Marama’s Fell.
  summer exile: This is the more lenient of the
  two types of exile a criminal of Whitewall may
  suffer. Lesser crimes are punished with exile in
  either late spring or early summer, and those exiled
  are allowed to assemble a pack of food, clothes and
  money before they are sent away.
  Syndics, the: These three identical spirits of
  ice and silver rule the city of Whitewall and have
  done so for the last 700 years.
  Three Rules, the: These rules are the main
  source of Gethamane’s law, forbidding “trespass on
  person, property or domain.”
  Traveler’s Road: see Holy Road
  underways, the: These are the myriad of tun-
  nels that crisscross beneath the skin of Creation.
  Many First Age cities possess entrances to the
  underways, but none are so infamous — or so active
  — as those beneath Gethamane.
  Vodak: Vodak is a hekatonkhire birthed from
  the blood of the first Primordial slain in the Pri-
  mordial War. He now rests miles below Gethamane,
  though it is possible that the return of the hated
  Solar Exalted might coax him to rise again from the
  depths to bring quicksilver death to those who
  would give the Solars sanctuary.
  Vorvin-Derlin: This brazen behemoth is a con-
  struct of the Primordial Isidiros, who designed it to
  defeat entire armies. After the Primordial War, the
  Solar Exalted defeated Vorvin-Derlin and ban-
  ished him to Malfeas with his creator under the
  caveat that the creature might be summoned and
  commanded by the Exalted as if he were a Second
  Circle demon.
  Wallport: The Holy Road running from White-
  wall ends at the coast of the Inland Sea at this
  decrepit port town. Almost all cargo going to or
  
  9
  INTRODUCTION
  coming from Whitewall passes through the sea
  town of Wallport.
  winter exile: This is the more severe of the
  two types of exile a criminal of Whitewall may
  suffer. Serious crimes are punished with exile at
  the height of the Northern winter., and those
  exiled forfeit everything they possess except the
  clothes on their backs. Given the circumstances,
  this verdict is a veritable death penalty, as very
  few individuals can survive even a single night
  outside in such harsh conditions.
  Winter Folk: The terrible Fair Folk of the
  North who prey upon those mortals unfortunate
  enough to fall into their ice-cold hands.
  Zedakha: This tome is a compendium of dream
  symbols often consulted by Dreamseers.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  10
  
  11
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  CHAPTER ONE
  WHITEWALL, THE
  ONCE-HOLY CITY
  In the dark Second Age, a city with high white walls
  stands in the North, a beacon of stability and civilization
  in an increasingly savage region. The city stands proud, the
  largest city in that direction and one of a handful of
  bastions that choose, for whatever reasons, to endure the
  North’s harsh climate, incursions by the Fair Folk and
  close proximity to shadowlands. The city’s history, once
  glorious and inspirational, is now a curiosity known only to
  lore-masters and savants. While the city’s modern inhab-
  itants are thankful for the walls that surround them and the
  Traveler’s Road that safely leads to the Inland Sea, the
  inhabitants have no idea where the walls or the road came
  from or whose effort built them or any hint of the true
  purpose of these structures.
  HISTORICAL GLORY
  Understanding the true significance of the great white
  walls that surround the city of Whitewall means under-
  standing their origin. What the city is now is a far cry from
  what it was intended to be when it was created, but no one
  in the Second Age has cause to know that; though, if the
  history were discovered, the Chosen of the Sun might
  have a compelling new reason to take interest in the city
  — more, perhaps, than its current, comfort-driven resi-
  dents would like.
  ONDAR SHAMBAL
  There has been a settlement of some sort in the place
  where Whitewall now stands since the end of the Primordial
  War. For most of the First Age, the area was a hermitage for
  the most pious adherents of the Unconquered Sun, monks
  and nuns who devoted their lives to service to their god.
  Between prayers, these faithful tilled the rich soil and grew
  food to nourish themselves for more prayer.
  The foremost of these great monks was the Supreme
  Hierophant, Righteous Guide, an extraordinarily dedi-
  cated and powerful Solar priest of the Zenith Caste.
  Righteous Guide established the monastery-city of Ondar
  Shambal as an enormous community of agrarian monks
  toiling for the betterment of Creation and the glory of the
  Unconquered Sun.
  Warrior nuns and monks who had dedicated their
  lives to the service of the Unconquered Sun built the Holy
  City as a place of meditation and retreat. They erected the
  city according to the most rigorous and exacting architec-
  ture and geomancy principles of the First Age. The city’s
  buildings were constructed from a rare and beautiful snowy
  white granite found exclusively in the mountains to the
  north of the city, and, under the touch of the sun, the
  buildings seemed almost to glow. Most of these sturdy
  granite blocks were hand-carved by mortal stoneworkers
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  12
  and then made perfect by the sanctifying touch of a Zenith
  Caste Solar Exalt, who then determined the most auspi-
  cious location for that particular block and placed it there
  personally. Construction was, clearly, very slow, but the
  city took shape around a Solar Manse in the center of a
  symmetrical design that extended radially.
  Though the elegant arrangement of the city itself was
  intended to be a delight to the eye of the Unconquered
  Sun as he passed overhead, the architecture was dazzling
  when seen both from the ground and from above. From
  overhead, the city was an intricate mandala that appeared
  to coruscate and change as the nuns and monks went about
  their business in the streets, buildings and green spaces of
  the nascent city.
  Once the monastery-city’s buildings were complete,
  Righteous Guide directed the faithful to start work on a
  great circular wall. The yards-thick walls from which the
  modern city derives its name weren’t intended to be
  massive, defensive structures for their own sake (although
  they definitely are that). Rather, they were built as a
  powerful symbol representing the separation of secular
  space (the fields outside the city where the monks worked
  and practiced martial arts) and sacred space (the conse-
  crated city within the walls where the residents fasted,
  prayed and meditated).
  Three thousand faithful labored for 12 years to com-
  plete the Holy City, eschewing the use of most First Age
  technology in order to make a gift of their work to their
  god. It was, by far, the largest monastery in Creation,
  capable of housing over a million faithful within its shin-
  ing walls. This sacred place was christened “Ondar
  Shambal,” or “City of the Sun,” and it was one of the
  spiritual wonders of the First Age. Prayer wheels dedicated
  to the Unconquered Sun spun day and night. Chants and
  hymns to the god, accompanied by flutes, bells and gongs,
  were amplified and focused toward the heavens by the
  city’s spiritually active architecture. Any one of the city’s
  three spiritual advantages — the geomantically innova-
  
  13
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  tive and spiritually resonant architecture, the block-by-
  block blessing of the buildings or the mandala layout of the
  city — by itself would have enhanced the city’s prayers
  significantly, thereby making them inherently more plea-
  surable to any deity to whom they were addressed. All
  three of these factors in concert resulted in a gestalt effect
  that amplified the power of prayers by orders of magnitude,
  and these potent entreaties could be heard throughout the
  city (and, sometimes, for miles beyond the massive walls)
  as a constant, comforting murmur.
  Because Ondar Shambal had been dedicated to the
  Unconquered Sun from the laying of the city’s first block
  and because the city was dedicated to this deity utterly,
  the Unconquered Sun was, and, technically speaking,
  still is, what savants of the Second Age have come to call
  the city father, or local god, of the city. This was widely
  known and celebrated in the First Age, although the
  powerful Zenith Caste Solars took care of all such busi-
  ness on the god’s behalf.
  For centuries, the fields outside were tended by a city
  of priests, monks and nuns. The faithful used the proceeds
  from their farming to maintain and fortify the monastery-
  city and to provide food and clothing for the monks
  within. When revenues exceeded expenditures, as often
  happened, the extra money was put away to prepare for less
  fortuitous days. All who felt called to the service of the
  Unconquered Sun, Exalted or otherwise, were welcome to
  take up residence in Ondar Shambal, so long as they were
  willing to tend the fields or otherwise make their lives a
  mission of service to the Unconquered Sun.
  As a temple city dedicated to the mightiest of the
  gods, Ondar Shambal also benefited a great deal from the
  divine largesse of gods who sought the favor of the Uncon-
  quered Sun. In the First Age, Ondar Shambal was blessed
  with temperate weather. The fields around the city were
  green year-round, soft rains came mostly at night and
  snowfall was a rare occurrence.
  The community as a whole was gifted by a number of
  gods and spirits. An earth elemental lord created an
  extensive series of safe, orderly caverns beneath the city for
  the storage of tools and foodstuffs, a god of architecture
  blessed the enormous white walls with strength and endur-
  ance, a goddess of hot springs established a pure and
  fragrant spring in the center of the city to provide hot water
  to the pious — and so it went. Various ministers in the
  Bureau of Seasons even ensured that the weather was as
  optimal as possible for farming the rich fields around
  Ondar Shambal. Unfortunately, while a certain degree of
  asceticism was practiced by Ondar Shambal’s faithful, true
  asceticism became a challenge in the presence of all the
  divine gifts heaped upon the city.
  Ancient crystal codices, now long lost or hidden,
  claim that the Unconquered Sun himself strode the halls
  of Whitewall on at least two occasions as he gave the
  monastery-city and its Exalted priests his personal bless-
  ing. Such favor was largely due to the prayers of Righteous
  Guide, the foremost Zenith Caste Solar of his day. The
  Solar Exalted of Ondar Shambal called the Calibration
  Gate to the city regularly, and the city’s Zenith priests were
  frequent visitors to the Celestial City of Yu-Shan. The
  white granite spires of Ondar Shambal became synony-
  mous across Creation with devotion, piety and rightness of
  action. Even when things began going awry elsewhere in
  the Old Realm, a protective mantle of humility and
  stability appeared to protect the faithful of the Holy City.
  THINGS FALL APART
  After several centuries of serving as the monastery-
  city’s chief priest, Righteous Guide left to create the Holy
  Road south to the sea as a private mission of service to the
  city and the Unconquered Sun. The other priests and
  many of the faithful begged to join Righteous Guide, but
  he refused them, claiming that his spiritual quest was to be
  a private devotion.
  And, sometime shortly thereafter, things began to
  break down.
  With Righteous Guide’s departure, the hierarchy
  slowly, subtly began to stray from the founder’s mission,
  nudged, unbeknownst to them, by the Primordial Curse.
  Doctrinal disputes soon arose and created factions within
  the governing body of priests. Initially, all factions went
  out to the road to ask Righteous Guide what they should
  do. His only answer — “Pray” — never seemed to provide
  the kind of guidance they were seeking. Some of the other
  priests, feeling that Righteous Guide was the favorite of
  the Unconquered Sun, grew bitter and resentful of the
  chief priest’s status.
  Over the decades that followed, the character of
  Ondar Shambal’s religious community changed. Though
  the walls remained as stalwart as ever, they failed to
  maintain the boundaries between secular and sacred
  space. As Righteous Guide was consumed with the cre-
  ation of the Holy Road, the culture of Ondar Shambal,
  slowly and in fits and starts, grew more worldly and less
  monastic. Lengthy prayers and fasting gave way to shorter
  prayers and small meals, and then gave way to sumptuous
  meals and no prayers at all. The prayer wheels fell silent.
  The hymns and chanted sutras grew faint before fading
  away entirely.
  This change was due, in part, to the incredible wealth
  that flowed into the city — not only in revenues earned
  from the sale of produce but also in the form of donations
  from the pious who wanted to be mentioned in the prayers
  of Creation’s holiest city. Money poured into the Holy
  City’s coffers from across Creation. Solar kings and queens,
  too busy themselves to pray for their cities, sought the
  intercession of the faithful by making vast donations of
  wealth to Ondar Shambal. Those prayers were never
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  14
  performed, but the residents of the Holy City were happy
  to grow fat on the tithe money anyway.
  Finally, after 300 years of meditative labor, Righ-
  teous Guide completed the Holy Road to the south port;
  he returned to find, not a monastery, but a decadent farm
  city where the fields were haphazardly tended and fat,
  undisciplined citizens lived primarily on the donations of
  the gullible.
  Righteous Guide snapped. In a state of deep spiritual
  despair, he assumed sole responsibility for the behavior of
  the wayward monks. In an attempt to atone — on their
  behalf — to the Unconquered Sun, he fell into a binge of
  penance that would have killed any mortal and many
  younger Exalts. In the city’s central plaza, in front of
  horrified onlookers (who dared not approach him in his
  unstable state) the powerful Zenith flayed himself repeat-
  edly with a barbed whip; such was his zeal that his blood
  spattered the walls of buildings 40 feet away. He wept his
  prayers to the Solar god, and his blood baptized the streets
  of the city. When he had lain bare the gleaming white
  bone of his ribcage, he would heal himself with Essence,
  only to begin the process all over again. After three weeks
  of this, Righteous Guide crawled into the Solar Manse to
  pray for guidance from the Unconquered Sun. A pall of
  shame hung over the city and its mortified residents.
  When he emerged a week later, Righteous Guide was
  physically healed, but deeply bitter. He personally drove
  the most errant “monks” and “nuns” from the city with
  blows of his mighty orichalcum staff.
  And then, Righteous Guide left the city for Meru.
  Through the use of his mighty powers of oration and
  persuasion, he made an impassioned, condemnatory speech
  to the Solar Deliberative proclaiming Ondar Shambal to
  be a city of the wayward, the weak and the venal. He
  enumerated the monastery-city’s every fault and failing,
  named the sins of each apostate nun and monk and
  vituperatively mocked the city’s pious reputation. Such
  was the power of his speech that many of the false faithful
  killed themselves out of shame before the oration was even
  complete. The news of Ondar Shambal’s apostasy spread
  through the Old Realm like wildfire, and the (formerly)
  Holy City’s mystique was shattered. Donations dried up
  instantly. The free ride for the falsely pious was over.
  A NEW DAY DAWNS
  For nearly two decades following Righteous Guide’s
  devastating denunciation, Ondar Shambal was a shell of a
  city. Its architecture was still powerful and beautiful and
  spiritually attuned, but it was a temple without a congre-
  gation. The parasites had slunk away, leaving a few poor
  farmers and a handful of legitimate, if despondent, nuns
  and monks. A number of the fields were only tended some
  of the time. Squatters took up residence in the old cloisters.
  As a response to the deep sense of shame that permeated
  the city, much of the old religious iconography was changed,
  removed or sold to collectors as the city slumped into its
  new, secular identity. It looked for a time as if Ondar
  Shambal was destined to become one enormous slum.
  And then, a new Solar arrived.
  Tenrae was a Twilight Caste sorceress of the Solar
  Circle, and her sworn husband was a powerful Lunar Exalt
  named Den’Rahin. Both were relatively young — neither
  had even been born yet when the war with the Primordials
  took place — but both were optimistic and ambitious, and
  they saw the plummeting fortunes of Ondar Shambal as an
  opportunity unparalleled anywhere else in Creation.
  The reputation of Ondar Shambal had been so utterly
  ruined by Righteous Guide’s oration that no one of any
  standing cared to have his name associated with the place;
  so when Tenrae and Den’Rahin proclaimed themselves
  rulers of the sparsely populated city, no one argued.
  Tenrae and Den’Rahin reestablished the city as a
  successful farming community. Those who refused to work
  were forcefully invited to leave. Those who showed dili-
  gence and integrity were given more fields and, therefore,
  the opportunity to make more money.
  Around this time, the city was renamed. The old
  name was held to be overly burdened with connotations of
  failure and decadence. The city was rechristened “White-
  wall” after its most visible feature.
  Tenrae and Den’Rahin also expanded the city’s revenue
  sources by overseeing the creation of mines in the nearby
  mountains, which they had learned contained a myriad of
  rare ores and minerals (most notably blue and white jade)
  useful for various sorts of sorcery and engineering.
  It was this last discovery that completed Whitewall’s
  economic recovery. The additional money brought in by
  mining operations made the city unusually wealthy relative
  to the size of its population. Whitewall was a city of modest
  size by Old Realm standards; the city’s population never did
  exceed a million, as most of the larger cities’ did in the First
  Age, but Whitewall was considered a fortunate city — one
  where the quality of life was unusually high, and with good
  cause. The blessings the city had received when it was
  Ondar Shambal had never been revoked, and these sacred
  gifts contributed enormously to its quick recovery.
  Tenrae and Den’Rahin, though young for Exalted
  rulers, were compassionate in their leadership and popular
  with the residents of their city. Their reputation and
  popularity were almost enough to gain them a reprieve
  from what was to follow.
  THE SOLAR PURGE
  The Solar Purge very nearly did not take place in
  Whitewall, and, without extraordinary effort on the part
  of the Sidereal Exalted, it wouldn’t even have come close.
  Queen Tenrae, being far younger than most other Solar
  monarchs, had not fallen prey to the Primordials’ Curse to
  
  15
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  the extent that many of the older Solars had, and the
  people of the city, Dragon-Blooded and unExalted alike,
  did not feel unduly burdened by the rule of the queen or her
  consort Prince Den’Rahin. The worst that could be said of
  their reign was that they were, on occasion, benignly
  neglectful of their people as they went about their highly
  glamorous lives, but such was their charisma that the city’s
  residents didn’t care. The residents ran the city themselves
  without issue, perhaps out of some sense of redeeming the
  city from its past failure. If something truly pressing arose,
  the people knew they could petition their queen and
  expect her, or her consort, to act.
  This left the Sidereal Exalted with a bit of a problem
  when it came time to purge Creation of the Solars. The
  Chosen of the Maidens lacked a base of support in White-
  wall, as not even the Dragon-Blooded particularly wanted
  their rulers dead.
  Another problem tied the hands of the Sidereals:
  Prince Den’Rahin refused to abandon his wife. He made it
  clear to early messengers that he, as her consort and battle-
  master, would die in her defense should any sort of action
  be taken against her. Prince Den’Rahin truly felt a bond of
  love with Tenrae, and he had no intention of selling her
  out to the Maidens’ perfidious Chosen. While the Sidereals
  thought about twisting his love into something that more
  closely matched their goals, they were thinly stretched as
  it was, and Den’Rahin was clever and perceptive enough
  that he might well have sensed what they were doing.
  As it happened, the Sidereals themselves were split in
  this instance — Queen Tenrae truly was leading in the way
  that the Solars were meant to lead — but the nascent
  Bronze Faction would not allow its decision (and, indi-
  rectly, its judgment) to be questioned: all of the Solars had
  to meet with destruction. A single countervailing instance
  could not be allowed to undermine the course chosen for
  the world by the Sidereals. And, they argued, whatever
  Tenrae might have been then had no bearing on the
  monster she was likely to become over time. (When they
  looked to the stars to get proof of this point, however, they
  weren’t able to find it, but, as that didn’t support their
  agenda, the Bronze Faction Sidereals glossed over the fact
  and moved ahead anyway.)
  When Whitewall’s Dragon-Blooded refused to abet
  the Sidereals, a group of 10 Chosen of Battles, Endings and
  Secrets were sent in to carry out the assassination of both
  Tenrae and Den’Rahin on the night of the Usurpation.
  Though the Sidereals were older and more experienced,
  several of them found their deaths in the sorcery of Tenrae
  and the claws of Den’Rahin. Only three of the Maidens’ 10
  Chosen survived the night. It was an unprecedented loss
  for the Sidereal Exalted.
  By morning, the queen and her consort were dead.
  The battle and its consequences represented an enormous
  loss for the city. The ultimate tactics employed by both the
  rulers and their assassins leveled large sections of the city,
  mostly in the vicinity of the city’s enormous gate. Strong
  as the old buildings were, they could not withstand the
  stresses of such a battle. Whole neighborhoods were ground
  to dust, streets collapsed and the city’s elegant and auspi-
  cious mandala pattern was effectively disrupted.
  Over a span of many months, the structural damage
  suffered by the city was repaired, though the hasty rebuild
  never approached the structural or aesthetic perfection of
  the original.
  Less amenable to repair was the spirit of the people.
  The citizens of Whitewall were plunged into shock by the
  death of their monarchs. The horror of what had happened
  — the fall of Queen Tenrae, the destruction of the presum-
  ably invulnerable Den’Rahin, the death of the Solars
  throughout Creation — was all almost more than the city
  could bear. There was a three-month period of mourning,
  but even as the period of mourning was observed, the city’s
  elder Terrestrial Exalted were in meetings with the surviv-
  ing Sidereals seeking rapprochement.
  The Chosen of the Maidens were furious with the
  outcome in Whitewall. They had not foreseen the deaths
  of so many of their own, and they were enraged at the
  upstart Terrestrials for not following orders blindly. The
  Chosen of the Maidens dictated a severe — some alleged
  punitive — course of action for the Dragon-Blooded in
  Whitewall, demanding, under threat of death, that a smear
  campaign against the city’s old rulers be started immedi-
  ately. This path was to be the only one to reconciliation
  with the irate Sidereals — and the Terrestrials no longer
  had any recourse to a higher power. It was the Sidereals’
  wish that even if the queen and her consort were not seen
  as villains before their deaths, they most certainly would be
  after their deaths.
  The Dragon-Blooded capitulated. Through the use of
  a broad range of propaganda tactics reinforced with Charms,
  the Terrestrial Exalted spread horrible, unfounded rumors
  about the secret behavior of the dead “Anathema” mon-
  archs — the demonic worship, the human sacrifices, the
  sexual perversions — and the people of Whitewall slowly
  and grudgingly bought it. The change wasn’t instanta-
  neous, of course, but the Dragon-Blooded stayed rigorously
  on message, slandering the old rulers with lies that were
  too deliciously scandalous not to repeat and discuss.
  It took nearly the first five years of the Shogunate
  before popular opinion finally, subtly, shifted against Queen
  Tenrae and Prince Den’Rahin, but it happened. Even
  then, however, a solid third of the city refused to believe
  the rumors and trusted their own memories of their rulers
  over the lies spread by the Dragon-Blooded.
  THE SHOGUNATE
  Whitewall was a nervous city during the Shogunate.
  The fall of Whitewall’s popular monarchs, followed by
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  16
  relentless slandering of their memory left the citizens of
  the city unsettled. They knew something was wrong with
  the events that had transpired; they just had no idea what
  it was. Over the years this sense of disease became perma-
  nent, evolving into what is now seen as the city’s insular,
  paranoid character. The Shogunate was not a good time
  for Whitewall. Much of the city’s standing in the Old
  Realm and many of the benefits of living there came
  directly from the presence of its Celestial Exalted rulers.
  Disillusionment with the Dragon-Blooded came to White-
  wall much more quickly than elsewhere.
  Whether the monarchs had been noble or vile (and
  everyone had their own opinions on the matter), daily life
  took a turn for the worse in Whitewall. The powerful
  spirits that had once blessed the fields surrounding White-
  wall no longer felt obligated to serve the farmers of the
  city. Key pieces of equipment that kept the mines safe
  failed and could not be repaired or replaced. The first year
  after the death of Tenrae and her consort, nearly a
  quarter of the crops planted by Whitewall farmers failed,
  and one of the more lucrative blue jade mines suffered an
  explosion and a cave-in.
  Resentment of the Dragon-Blooded was exacerbated
  when they began taking down or covering up works of art
  portraying the Unconquered Sun. Many of these remained
  from the days when Whitewall was Ondar Shambal, and
  the greatest of the art was seen as public treasure. In
  deference to a new religion sweeping the Shogunate that
  emphasized the Five Elemental Dragons, the Dragon-
  Blooded minimized the iconography of the Unconquered
  Sun as much as possible, even covering over architectural
  details with flags, banners, curtains and plaques. Still, even
  the Terrestrials were nervous about doing so — memory of
  the Celestial gods was not yet that distant — and the
  Dragon-Blooded opted to hide and cover such works
  rather than destroy them outright. Clay was used to fill in
  the carved symbols of the Unconquered Sun on the city’s
  outside walls, which were then whitewashed to look like
  the white granite from which the city was built. (Although
  the whitewash never quite glowed in the sun the way the
  snowy white granite did.) Many ancient works of art
  remain immured in the most distant caverns beneath
  Whitewall, waiting to be rediscovered and viewed by the
  eyes of a new Age.
  Unlike many First Age cities, Whitewall was not
  bound to the latest developments in Essence technology.
  The city’s role as a farming and mining center made it
  comfortably wealthy but not as dependent on the grand
  works of the Solar priest-engineers as some cities. Conse-
  quently, the slow decay of the First Age’s Essence technology
  took longer to hit Whitewall than many other more
  sophisticated or metropolitan cities. For Whitewall’s citi-
  zens, the real disappointments of the Shogunate came not
  
  17
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  in the form of failing technology but in disappointment
  with the Dragon-Blooded leadership.
  While Tenrae and Den’Rahin were rigorously fair in
  their judgments, the biases of the Dragon-Blooded magis-
  trates, on the other hand, were relatively blatant. The
  previous monarchs had brought glamour and charm to
  what was otherwise a simple farming city; the Dragon-
  Blooded seemed to embody banal corruption in all ways.
  Tensions with the so-called Princes of the Earth grew,
  though at a glacial pace. Whitewall’s citizens resented the
  Dragon-Blooded though the residents had never resented
  their Celestial Exalted leaders. The more the Terrestrials
  tightened their grip on the city, the more the city’s resi-
  dents acted out and undermined the efforts of the
  Dragon-Blooded. Had the Shogunate lasted longer, there’s
  little doubt that Whitewall would have been the setting
  for an enormous rebellion. Every year that passed saw
  relations between Exalted and mortal worsen.
  Making the situation worse was the steady growth of
  the shadowland southeast of the city. While the area had
  been declared off limits since immediately after the Usur-
  pation, the shadowland’s presence and, eventually, its
  sheer size became a serious nuisance and hazard to those
  living nearby and to anyone traveling through the area.
  The road to Cherak became totally impassable, and the
  ministers of the Shogunate appeared unable or unwilling
  to do anything about the problem.
  When the rumors regarding what was creating the
  shadowland made their way back to Whitewall (see
  “Marama’s Fell,” below), public support for the Shogunate
  government eroded even further.
  The Shogunate, as it turns out, did not last long
  enough for Whitewall’s citizens to rebel, and the city’s
  mortal populace remained under the thumb of the Terres-
  trial Exalted until the collapse of the First Age.
  Although the Shogunate period was awful for the city
  of Whitewall, what followed was to be much worse.
  THE FIRST AGE ENDS
  The Great Contagion was slow to get to Whitewall —
  the disease did not fare well along the Holy Road leading
  to the city — but the Contagion did make it eventually.
  Whitewall was among the last cities to fall to the Great
  Contagion. Refugees from the countryside flocked to the
  perceived safety of the city’s walls only to find that walls
  provided no protection against the Contagion.
  One by one, the mines grew derelict, the fields were
  left weedy and untended and the city became a spectre-
  haunted husk surrounded by a haze of greasy corpse smoke.
  THE ARRIVAL OF THE SYNDICS
  The dazzling white walls surrounding the city pro-
  vided Whitewall with at least the appearance of security in
  the chaos that followed the Great Contagion. Anyone
  familiar with the city could hardly help but see Whitewall
  as the ideal place for the remnants of humanity to regroup.
  In this case, “anyone” included three gods, all of whom
  arrived separately and all of whom had intended to claim the
  city’s spiritually resonant architecture for themselves. Even-
  tually, due to Yo-Ping’s (see below) skill at negotiation, the
  three agreed to rule the city together. Although the motives
  of these gods were vaguely noble, they were also self-serving.
  None of the three wanted to see the Bureau of Humanity get
  folded wholesale into the Bureau of Heaven, which is
  exactly what would have happened had humanity disap-
  peared from Creation. Those in the Bureau of Humanity
  didn’t want the loss of seniority, and those in the Bureau of
  Heaven didn’t want the competition.
  Then there was the appeal of the walled city itself.
  Whitewall was a key piece of spiritual architecture and a
  great asset for any god residing there. The geomantic
  configuration and spiritually functional architecture of
  Whitewall (those portions of the city that survived the end
  of the First Age, anyway) amplified prayers significantly
  and produced a sense of euphoria in the deities to whom
  those prayers were addressed.
  Three powerful spirits, then, nobly volunteered to
  help humankind regroup in the city of Whitewall. None
  wanted to share the position of authority with the other
  two, but they were clearly far more powerful together
  than separately, so they formulated a unified front for the
  mortal population.
  After besting a handful of challengers, the gods an-
  nounced their control of the city, and the citizens accepted
  them, eager to have at least the illusion of order and
  security once more. When the new rulers granted audi-
  ences to the demanding, faithful masses of Whitewall,
  these powerful gods assumed the group identity of “the
  Syndics” — three tall, identical entities made of scintillat-
  ing ice crystal arranged over beautiful silver bones and
  wrapped in flowing white gossamer — as a means of hiding
  their violation of Celestial codes from the Censors.
  WHITEWALL IN THE PRESENT
  Whitewall is the largest city in the North, and with
  good reason. The city offers a quality of life that is missing
  from most of Creation. Whitewall is a polite, industrious
  and clean city. Whitewall was built around the concept of
  order, and order is emphasized in the daily life of the city’s
  citizens. Sober, somber and strict are three words frequently
  applied to Whitewall, but these words fail to convey the
  city’s appeal. Residents of Whitewall willingly — nay,
  happily — trade a modicum of freedom for great gains in
  comfort and security. In Whitewall, a woman can walk
  alone from one side of the city to another with no need to
  fear for her safety, which is more than can be said for nearly
  all others of Creation’s cities in the Age of Sorrows.
  Whitewall’s laws are put forth in a civil charter that all
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  18
  residents are expected to memorize by age 12; failure to do
  so results in a substantial fine for the child’s parents.
  Whitewall’s middle class vastly outnumbers the rich
  and the poor combined by a factor of several to one, but
  even the city’s middle class enjoys a standard of living that
  the rich of many other cities would envy.
  All this industry, all this order is the result of several
  centuries of effective social engineering by the city’s pow-
  erful spirit patrons, the entities that brought Whitewall
  back from the brink of abandonment seven centuries ago,
  and that still guide Whitewall still today.
  THE SYNDICS
  The city of Whitewall is firmly, but compassionately,
  ruled by a strange trio of spirits called the Syndics: their
  identity is among Whitewall’s most intriguing mysteries.
  While it is clear that the rulers are gods of extraordinary
  puissance, they have not been forthcoming about their
  specific identities or their respective spheres of influence,
  for a myriad of reasons, most of which have to do with
  diplomacy in Yu-Shan and staying beneath the notice of
  the Celestial Censors.
  In their past, all three of these remarkable spirits were
  highly placed and well-connected gods in one of the major
  Celestial Bureaus. The gods’ individual names remain
  unusually abstract for spirits who interact with the mortal
  population. This is a standard situation; as highly abstract
  entities, the spirits’ personal names are especially closely
  connected to their pattern in the fabric of Creation and
  have less to do with euphony than natural spiritual laws.
  The three Syndics did not originally resemble one
  another as they do now: they had to assume a new appear-
  ance when they began their alliance as “the Syndics.” In
  the several centuries since the Syndics began their mas-
  querade, more worshipers have come to know these gods in
  their new roles than in their old. The gods’ shapes as “the
  Syndics” are now easier for them to hold than any other,
  even the ones they wore in the First Age.
  This is useful for the gods, as they can appear together
  (as they usually do) or singly (if the others are attending to
  Celestial business outside of Whitewall), and no one takes
  much notice. Over the 700-plus years of sharing an iden-
  tity as rulers of Whitewall, the Syndics have developed a
  shared consciousness. All three know what’s happening in
  the others’ minds at all times. If they continue on as they
  are now, there’s a strong possibility that the Syndics will
  fuse into a single god: the guardian of Whitewall. Only
  their attention to their individual duties beyond the city
  walls has prevented this from happening already. As an
  extra measure of protection against this fate, thaumaturges
  in the Syndics’ service summoned one of the angyalka
  from Malfeas. Bound in chains of orichalcum, this demon
  of the First Circle plays its haunting music in the chambers
  of the Syndics 24 hours a day. Contrary to common
  wisdom, the angyalka isn’t there to protect the Syndics (as
  the angyalkae really aren’t especially fit combatants).
  She’s there to remind them of their individual natures with
  her music, thereby enabling the Syndics to avoid merging
  into a single entity. (This is what the angyalkae do, see
  Games of Divinity, page 110.)
  While the Syndics may be the city’s guardians, they
  refuse to be called Whitewall’s city fathers. In fact, doing
  so is a minor crime, though no one in Whitewall under-
  stands why. The Syndics understand their reasons acutely.
  The title of city father, even in the Second Age, rightfully
  belongs to another, whom they would not want to offend:
  the Unconquered Sun. As the Syndics see it, they are
  simply maintaining his temple city in his absence. Allow-
  ing themselves to be called the city fathers of Whitewall
  would be a political minefield were the greatest of gods
  ever to notice their effrontery.
  The Syndics are gods who each took pity, for his own
  reasons, on the mortal world in the wake of the Great
  Contagion. More mercenarily, the Syndics realized that if
  they did not actively represent and bolster the concepts
  they represented, at least for the city they adopted, they
  might well end up as gods without worshipers. The Syndics
  never intended to become city fathers; the gods only
  wanted to fan the guttering flame of humanity temporarily
  after the Great Contagion. The spiritually resonant archi-
  tecture of Whitewall provided the Syndics with such a
  strong surge from the city’s assembled worshipers that all
  three of the gods have found excuses to stay and shepherd
  Whitewall, though they would never dream of calling the
  city their own.
  Theirs or not, the Syndics receive prayers — en-
  hanced by the spiritually resonant First Age architecture
  of the city — from nearly every resident of Whitewall.
  That gives the Syndics an automatic worshiper base of
  700,000. They also receive prayers from those across
  Creation addressing them in their original Celestial posi-
  tions. Technically, this is a Severity 3 offense in Yu-Shan,
  but the three gods composing the Syndics are popular in
  the Celestial City, especially with the gods in the Bureau
  of Humanity who tend to see the Syndics as paragons of
  their cause. Only Ruvia, the Captain of the Golden Barque
  (see Exalted: The Sidereals, page 57), truly dislikes the
  Syndics, and he’s waiting until he can gain allies in his
  cause before he takes action.
  The Syndics have not entirely abandoned their wider
  duties to their respective Celestial Bureaus, which is more
  than can be said for most gods in the Second Age, but it’s
  clear that the rulers of Whitewall are putting in more time
  as “the Syndics” than they ought to be and their other
  functions could be suffering. While the Syndics keenly
  aware of this fact, the prayers they receive from Whitewall
  alone are far more satisfying than the prayers they get from
  the rest of Creation combined.
  
  19
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  The presence of the Syndics has served the people of
  Whitewall more than they even realize. The Syndics are
  entities with a particularly long view of events, and they play
  games in which a single move takes longer to complete than
  the average mortal lifespan. The Syndics have spent the last
  seven centuries pitting their enemies against one another,
  particularly the Fair Folk and the dead of Marama’s Fell.
  Both of these enemies of Whitewall are fierce, but, in recent
  years, the ghosts and the fae have made more strikes against
  each other than against Whitewall. The Syndics expend a
  great deal of subtle effort to see that this remains the case but,
  since the disappearance of the Empress and the subsequent
  arrival of the Bull of the North, maintaining that balance
  has grown vastly more difficult.
  Minister of Harmony, a god of negotiation, political stabil-
  ity, diplomacy and harmony. As might be presumed,
  Yo-Ping is a quiet spirit with no tendency toward the
  bombast of Creation’s assorted war gods. As the hierarchi-
  cal equal (and spiritual antithesis) of E-Naluna, Creation’s
  war queen (see Houses of the Bull God, pages 89–90), Yo-
  Ping often has much to discuss with both E-Naluna and the
  assorted regional gods of war, but this he does in his own
  mild (though direct) fashion.
  In the First Age, Yo-Ping — a high ranking figure in
  the Bureau of Humanity — reported directly to the Un-
  conquered Sun himself and enjoyed the privilege of being
  one of his favored advisors. Yo-Ping’s duties changed after
  the Great Contagion, and in the Second Age, he reports
  to Taru-Han, the Shogun of the Department of Abstract
  Matters (see Exalted: The Sidereals, pages 41–42), and, to
  a lesser degree, to the Maiden of Serenity (see Exalted:
  The Sidereals, page 53). Given Taru-Han’s minimal de-
  gree of involvement with Creation these days, Yo-Ping is
  inclined to comport himself as he feels the Unconquered
  Sun would wish him to and tune out Taru-Han altogether.
  Yo-Ping’s relationship with Venus is cordial, if cool, al-
  though they work together well when circumstances dictate.
  At the height of the First Age, Yo-Ping was a cher-
  ished and powerful god who worked to ensure the overall
  stability of the Old Realm. Once the Primordial War was
  over, most of humanity sent him prayers for the kind of
  stability over which he presides, and his name, as well as
  the shrines dedicated to him, was ubiquitous. Yo-Ping was
  a familiar figure in Yu-Shan, often meeting with the great
  Solar monarchs, and he was courted, flattered and occa-
  sionally bribed by those seeking his blessings upon their
  kingdoms. Yo-Ping was familiar with the Holy City of
  Ondar Shambal, as all gods were, and he envied the
  powerful prayers generated by the city’s spiritually active
  architecture. In the wake of the Great Contagion, it was
  this covetous urge that made him settle in Whitewall.
  Yo-Ping was placed highly enough before the Usurpa-
  tion that he did not hesitate to quarrel with the Five
  Maidens about the mistake their Chosen were about to
  make in eliminating the Solar Exalted. While this quarrel
  incensed four of the Maidens, the Maiden of Serenity
  hesitantly broke ranks and supported Yo-Ping, as she was
  obligated to do by certain old agreements that defined both
  her core nature and his. While Venus could go along with
  a plot to destroy the Solars based on the promise of a more
  serene future, she could not take Yo-Ping to task for support-
  ing the status quo, which, though not entirely pleasant, was
  stable until the Sidereals began hatching their plots.
  Yo-Ping lost some strength in the transition to the
  Second Age, but not as much as many gods. Where there
  is war, there are those who pray for peace and stability. The
  wives, parents and children of those who fight in wars pray
  to Yo-Ping to prevent wars, to end wars once they’ve begun
  and, at the very least, to keep the surge of battle from
  YO-PING, THE CELESTIAL MINISTER OF HARMONY
  Just as there are five gods of war, one for each of
  Creation’s poles, there are five gods of political stability
  who generally tend to the continuance of peace, justice
  and public contentment in the political domain. Oversee-
  ing all five of these powerful spirits is Yo-Ping, the Celestial
  THE BULL
  The greatest threat to the Syndics’ carefully
  cultivated web of countervailing forces is easily
  Yurgen Kaneko, the Bull of the North, whose
  meteoric rise to power has destabilized large por-
  tions of the North and the Northeast. From the
  Syndics’ perspective, this famed Exalt represents
  not one but two egregious failures by the rulers of
  the walled city to attract Solar Exalted to
  Whitewall’s service: Yurgen himself, who once
  camped outside the city’s walls with the rest of his
  icewalker tribe, and Nalla Bloodaxe, a Solar of the
  Night Caste and one of the city’s guardians until
  the Bull appealed to Nalla Bloodaxe’s ego and sense
  of adventure and pulled him into his enormous
  military crusade. Though the Bull currently seems
  intent on conquest of the Scavenger Lands more
  than the North, the Syndics have informed their
  Solar diplomat and envoy that he will be their
  liaison to the Bull should Nalla Bloodaxe ever
  return to the land of his origin. The Syndics occa-
  sionally visit Nalla Bloodaxe in his dreams to remind
  him of the comfortable childhood and adolescence
  he enjoyed in Whitewall and to remind him how
  proud they are of his Exaltation. Even if these
  oneiric visitations don’t persuade him to come back
  and join the city’s guardians, the dreams might
  suffice to get him to use his influence with Yurgen
  to ignore or spare Whitewall (should it ever come
  down to that).
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  20
  visiting them. All of these are duties that Yo-Ping negoti-
  ates with E-Naluna, the Queen of War.
  In the Age of Sorrows, and, especially since the
  disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, prayers for peace
  and stability are growing more common by the week; Yo-
  Ping’s power and ability to enhance stability within an
  area increasingly reflect that shift.
  In Whitewall, Yo-Ping oversees the stability of the city
  and peace in the region. At the local level, he guards the
  stability of the city by fostering harmony within the commu-
  nity and by seeing that those with unrestrained violence in
  their natures are exiled or traded to the Fair Folk or the dead.
  It was Yo-Ping himself who negotiated the deal with both of
  those parties as a means of ridding the city of its more
  destabilizing citizens and lessening the danger from the city’s
  foes. On a regional level, Yo-Ping has allowed the local war
  gods to ignite war in previously peaceful locales (Halta, for
  example) in exchange for steering clear of Whitewall (which
  has narrowly avoided a handful of enormous battles thanks
  to his subtle intervention).
  LURANUME, THE MASTER OF FIVEFOLD LUCK,
  LORD OF AUSPICIOUS SURPRISES
  Known as “the pattern that exists behind and be-
  tween patterns,” Luranume is the God of Luck, overseeing
  coincidence and unforeseen events. He is the most myste-
  rious of the Syndics, a god of things that happen unexpect-
  edly or of their own accord, the events that fall between
  the strands of fate. As a god of the numinous and unpre-
  dictable facets of Creation, Luranume is one of Luna’s
  lieutenants in the Celestial Hierarchy and the only god
  working for the Bureau of Destiny who does not report to
  one of the Maidens. Some (like the Maidens and a number
  of Sidereals) see Luranume as a chaotic force. Others see
  him as the deity who keeps Creation from becoming
  stagnant or overly bound to the will of the gods. Luna asked
  the Primordial Autochthon to create Luranume as a check
  on the power of the Maidens; he is a countervailing force
  to the stasis represented by the Loom of Fate, a random
  chance for anything to happen at any time. Accidents,
  coincidence and instances of pure serendipity are
  Luranume’s purview.
  Since joining the Syndics, he has regularly reassigned
  fortuitous events from elsewhere in Creation (mostly from
  the Blessed Isle) to Whitewall to improve the city’s stand-
  ing in the chaotic North.
  UVANAVU, THE CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOGUN
  A god of health, longevity and well-being who lost a
  great deal of standing (or at least credibility) during the
  Great Contagion, Uvanavu bears a deep grudge against
  the Deathlords. As a god of health, he knows full well
  where the Great Contagion came from, and he fervently
  
  21
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  resents the Deathlords’ tampering with Creation. Though
  he is the god of health and wellness in Creation, Uvanavu’s
  best efforts were barely enough to prevent the eradication
  of the human race (and a few other races besides). Uvanavu
  would love to make some kind of strike, any kind of strike,
  against the Deathlords or any of their minions, but he’s
  wise enough to know that direct action against them
  would only bring pain to the city. Instead, he’s taking a
  deep delight in helping to shrink Marama’s Fell through
  mortal agents; it was Uvanavu who instigated the practice
  of making pilgrimages to the resplendent chrysanthemum
  shrines (see pp.37-38), and he sees to it that everyone who
  participates in that tradition benefits from a year and a day
  of exceptional health (+2 dice to all rolls for resisting
  disease). Still, he yearns to be entirely free of the influence
  of the Deathlords. Should a Solar Circle sorcerer ever visit
  Whitewall, Uvanavu will personally request that Marama’s
  Fell be purged of its taint and reclaimed as healthy land. He
  possesses ancient texts containing both of the spells ca-
  pable of revitalizing shadowlands, and he will gladly give
  the spells to any sorcerer able and willing to use them in
  exchange for having the deed done.
  Because most mortals pray for health and well-being
  at some point, Uvanavu is individually the most powerful
  of the Syndics. It is Uvanavu who sees that disease is kept
  from Whitewall, and it is he who is responsible for many of
  the more stringent civil charter laws dealing with cleanli-
  ness and the management of garbage and waste.
  AGENDA
  The Syndics’ short-term goal is the defense and stabil-
  ity of Whitewall. They’ve managed this much for centuries
  at this point, and the city’s standing as the largest and most
  stable in the North attests to the Syndics’ remarkable
  success in this regard. The stability they’ve provided the
  city thus far has been astonishing, particularly given
  Whitewall’s precarious positioning near both a Wyld zone
  and a major shadowland. Whatever may take place outside
  the city’s walls, however, the city itself is a place of
  surprising calm. While some of the arrangements the
  Syndics have made to protect the city (with the Scarlet
  Empress, the Deathlords and the Fair Folk, for example)
  are bitter pills for the Whitewall’s rulers, the arrangements
  are necessary if the city is going to become what it has the
  potential to become.
  In the longer term, the Syndics seek to return the city
  to its glorious past as the Holy City, Ondar Shambal. The
  rationale behind this agenda is relatively simple: they
  either want to be the ones to benefit from repairing the
  city’s geomantic pattern (the mandala configuration and
  the First Age architecture), or they want to be the ones to
  turn the restored city over to the Unconquered Sun.
  To accomplish this goal, the Syndics intend to repair
  the city’s First Age buildings and restore the auspicious
  mandala pattern once formed by Whitewall’s streets and
  open spaces. While much of the spiritually attuned archi-
  tecture of the old city was destroyed in the Usurpation, the
  portion that remains still works, and every repair optimizes
  the city’s spiritual functionality that much more.
  The Syndics have located the white granite quarry in
  the mountains north of the city from which the building
  blocks of Whitewall were first obtained, and the individual
  blocks have already been carved and are waiting. All the
  Syndics need now is a Zenith Caste Solar to bless each
  block and put it in place according to the ancient geomantic
  diagrams possessed by the Syndics.
  When in Whitewall, the Syndics reside in the single
  largest block of the old city for a reason: it acts like a prayer
  lens. Entreaties made to the city’s rulers there are more
  focused and resonate more pleasingly to them there than
  the prayers would anywhere else.
  Like many of the gods associated with the Bureau of
  Humanity, the Syndics generally support the return of the
  Solar Exalted, but, given the Syndics’ relationship with
  the Unconquered Sun and their hopes for Whitewall, the
  Syndics tend to be even more eager to support Solar Exalts
  than many other gods from that Bureau. With the Empress
  gone and the Realm in disarray, Whitewall is being rela-
  tively brazen in opening its doors to Solar Exalted, some of
  whom live and work openly as guardians. This doesn’t
  endear them to Sidereals of the Bronze Faction, but the
  Gold Faction has identified Whitewall as an excellent site
  to establish a future base for the Cult of the Illuminated.
  Within Whitewall, the Syndics are the ultimate power.
  They wrote the city’s civil code, and they alone have the
  right to amend it. They appoint judges, guardians and
  inspectors, act as heads of state and champion the order for
  which Whitewall is known.
  GOVERNMENT
  The Syndics, and the civil charter they established,
  are the ordering principle around which the rest of
  Whitewall’s government has oriented itself. The day isn’t
  long enough for the Syndics to handle every aspect of city
  governance, so they delegate many of the responsibilities
  of rulership to other positions, most notably the city’s
  judges (who oversee breaches of the civil charter and mete
  out justice), the guardians (who form the city’s law en-
  forcement forces) and the inspectors (who maintain the
  integrity of the civil charter by ferreting out corruption
  and more subtle violations of the civil charter). There is
  some overlap between the duties of the judges and the
  inspectors, but whereas judges administer justice when
  actual crimes have been committed, inspectors guard civil
  order and administer municipal policies in subtler areas
  (like making sure streets are kept clean, seeing that citizens
  maintain their homes in good repair and checking to see
  that trade agreements are honored).
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  22
  JUDGES
  Appointed by the Syndics themselves, judges are tasked
  with administering Whitewall’s civil code. Judges hear
  cases, impose fines for lesser crimes, banish those deemed
  guilty of greater offenses and generally defend the public
  order for which Whitewall is known. Judges have a great
  deal of latitude to administer justice, but in difficult or
  unusual cases (usually those dealing with disputes between
  two guardians or spirits or Exalts of any kind), the judges may
  send the cases to the Syndics for their judgment.
  All citizens are given ample training in basic melee combat
  starting at the age of 12. The Whitewall philosophy of civil
  defense is simple: “If you can use a hoe or a pick, you can
  use a sword and a shield.” The city’s guardians teach
  martial arts that emphasize the use of farming and mining
  implements as melee weapons.
  GUARDIANS
  Other than the Syndics, the guardians are the most
  personally powerful citizens in Whitewall. The ranks of
  the guardians are drawn from the city’s combat elite, and
  if the city could be considered to have an army, the
  guardians are it. The least of their number are (in game
  terms) accomplished heroic mortals outfitted with a
  myriad of talismans of luck and perfect enchanted weap-
  ons. Many guardians are outcaste Terrestrial Exalted,
  lesser gods, God-Blooded and so on. At least one guard-
  ian is a Solar Exalt; the Syndics would very much like to
  recruit more.
  It is the task of the guardians to keep the citizens of
  Whitewall safe and secure, whether from Fair Folk incur-
  sion or crimes of passion committed by residents. Whitewall
  is an orderly city, and the guardians have little tolerance
  for thievery, dishonesty or predatory or malicious behav-
  ior. The city’s reputation for stern justice was established
  by the guardians.
  INSPECTORS
  Those members of the city’s government who check
  buildings for structural integrity, monitor accounts to see
  that proper taxes were paid and test enchanted items to see
  that they are truly enchanted are called inspectors. They
  consider themselves guardians of public safety, and they
  take their duties seriously. Attempting to bribe an inspec-
  tor is grounds for a summer exile.
  DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS
  Whitewall is exceptionally diplomatic in its dealings
  with everyone, from Deathlords and Fair Folk to the Realm
  and Gethamane. A great deal of the stability and high
  quality of life for which Whitewall is known is a direct
  result of the walled city’s cherished neutrality and the
  exceptional diplomacy of the Syndics (and their envoys).
  Less obviously, the Syndics are highly skilled at playing
  enemies against each other to Whitewall’s advantage.
  THE REALM
  The Syndics never particularly took the Scarlet Em-
  press seriously. While Whitewall made a few noises about
  loyalty to the Realm, the Syndics made it clear in pleasant,
  non-confrontational personal correspondence to the Em-
  press that they were unwilling to pay tribute to the Realm
  and that, if she forced the issue, she would be biting off
  more than she could chew. (Uvanavu was prepared to
  reassign all health from the Realm to the Threshold if he
  SUMMER AND WINTER EXILE
  Exile is the standard punishment for those who
  break the city’s weightier laws, but there are degrees
  of banishment that color the gravity of the banish-
  ment considerably. Truly serious crimes — murder,
  rape, ownership of slaves or allowing dangerous
  entities into the city — are just cause for a winter
  exile, meaning that the criminal forfeits everything
  he owns except the clothes on his back and is sent
  from the city during the month of Ascending Wa-
  ter. Under nearly all circumstances, this verdict is a
  death penalty, as very few individuals can survive
  even a single night outside in the coldest month.
  Less malicious but still serious crimes — selling fake
  enchanted goods, lying to the Syndics, armed rob-
  bery or chronic theft of substantial goods or services
  — are punished with summer exile in either the
  month of Ascending or Resplendent Fire (late spring
  or early summer); those exiled are allowed to as-
  semble a pack of food, clothes and money before
  they are sent away.
  Individuals convicted of crimes punishable by
  exile are kept imprisoned in the caverns beneath
  the city until the month of their exile. Winter exiles
  are sent from the city at dusk, while summer exiles
  leave at dawn.
  The worst of the city’s criminals are not just
  exiled, but actually given away to the Fair Folk and
  representatives of the Deathlords. Twelve criminals
  a year are given to each of these forces. What
  happens to the criminals then is unknown except
  for one thing: not one of them has ever come back.
  MILITIA
  Whitewall has no standing army. There’s no place to
  house an army within the walls, and the Syndics have ruled
  that a standing army is an unacceptable drain on the city’s
  resources and a potential threat to public order. However,
  the city does have a large and well-trained militia, whose
  function is to defend the city should the need ever arise.
  
  23
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  had to, although that would have been grounds for a
  Celestial audit and, very likely, a substantial fine). Ulti-
  mately, it was Yo-Ping’s divine negotiation skills that once
  again won out. The Empress conveyed that she was con-
  tent with the appearance of fealty so long as trade with
  Whitewall was preserved, which it was.
  The Realm and Whitewall both benefit from the cool
  neutrality between the two powers. The Realm pays hand-
  somely for the high-quality blue and white jade from
  Whitewall’s mines, and Whitewall imports food and some
  raw materials from the Realm.
  GETHAMANE
  Relations with Gethamane are cordial and, at
  times, quite amicable, but the two cities have little in
  common and interact far less often than their proxim-
  ity might suggest.
  As Whitewall’s closest neighbor, Gethamane should be
  one of the walled city’s biggest trading partners, but it’s not.
  Popular wisdom in Whitewall holds Gethamane to be a
  cursed place, although that may have more to do with the ill-
  fortune that seems to plague trade convoys traveling between
  the two cities. Attacks by Fair Folk, the undead and less
  understood horrors are common threats to those traveling
  the road between Whitewall and Gethamane, and the cost
  of providing security to the caravans going between the two
  cities eats away the profits of the endeavor, making goods
  prohibitively expensive. Nevertheless, Gethamane imports
  grain from Whitewall in exchange for some of the strange
  ores and gemstones produced in Gethamane, but the resi-
  dents of Whitewall consider even these materials to be
  unlucky and usually trade them away to other trading
  partners. (The Realm, in particular, pays handsomely for
  Gethamane’s violet diamonds). Importing anything grown
  in the fungus gardens of Gethamane is expressly forbidden
  and grounds for a summer exile.
  CHERAK
  Whitewall has only minimal dealings with Cherak,
  which Whitewall sees as little more than an extension of
  the Realm. For its part, Cherak sees trade with Whitewall
  as too much effort for too little payoff, especially when it’s
  functioning as the trade nexus between the Realm and the
  Haslanti League.
  Of more concern to the Syndics is the placement of
  the Pinnacle of the Eye of the Hunt, an old fortress
  northeast of Cherak that is home to the foremost outpost
  of the Wyld Hunt in the North and East. The fortress’
  leader is known as a raging zealot, and it is unknown what
  actions he might take should he hear that Whitewall is
  guided by three powerful spirits — or that it is a veritable
  sanctuary for the Anathema.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  24
  THE ICEWALKERS
  Of all the cities the icewalkers visit, Whitewall is their
  favorite, much to the dismay of the city’s inhabitants, who
  see the nomads as a vaguely exotic nuisance. The kindest
  of Whitewall’s citizens see the nomads as “rustic” or “noble
  savages,” while most citizens commonly respond with
  thinly veiled disgust and contempt. Whitewall’s entire
  view of the world is built on the pillars of comfort and
  order, and to residents of the walled city, the life of an
  icewalker seems unthinkably, and pointlessly, barbaric.
  On the other hand, the icewalkers find the residents
  of Whitewall pampered and soft. Still, the nomads have no
  choice but to approach all dealings with the city from a
  position of weakness, as the nomads have little that the
  city needs; there’s little they can do against the city in light
  of its enormous walls and superior numbers.
  The icewalkers covet the high-quality metal weapons
  and gear produced in Whitewall, and at certain times of
  year (usually late spring, early fall and midwinter), they set
  up camp just beyond the city’s fields (or just outside the
  walls in winter) to trade with the city. Unfortunately,
  except for meat, which they can only supply in modest
  quantities, and mammoth ivory, which gets used in jewelry
  and talismans, there’s little that the icewalkers have that
  Whitewall’s citizens need or want. The icewalkers have
  been known to act out of desperation at times, offering
  even First Age artifacts that they’ve found (or stolen or
  killed for) in exchange for enough grain (of even the worst
  quality) to last out the winter. Although such occurrences
  are rare, some farmers have taken to setting aside a portion
  of their winter crops with this in mind, as even a single
  artifact of orichalcum or moonsilver can help them retire
  in luxury in the city’s Afton district (see below).
  At times, the Syndics subsidize the citizens of White-
  wall to trade goods to the icewalkers in exchange for the
  latter launching raids on either the undead or the Fair Folk
  (whichever group the Syndics feel is growing too power-
  ful). The icewalkers hate this, as they are not interested in
  being the city’s soldiers-for-hire — and such attacks inevi-
  tably result in reprisals. But there are times when the
  nomads desperately need something produced by White-
  wall (usually grain for the winter or well-crafted metal
  weapons), and their desperation results in their doing
  nearly anything the city asks of them.
  Some young Whitewallers see the icewalkers as
  “exotic” or at least see their existence as a sharp and
  intriguing contrast to the safe, boring life the young
  residents have in the city. Some Whitewallers grow
  bored with the safe life and actually leave the city
  voluntarily to travel with the icewalkers. The life expect-
  ancy of such adventure-prone souls is not usually very
  long, but some have made it back to the city once again
  to describe the myriad wonders, horrors and dangers of
  the icewalker life, after which the adventurers happily
  return to their “boring” existence. This practice inspired
  the phrase “to run off with the icewalkers,” which means
  to abandon one’s proper responsibilities in order to do
  something wholly irresponsible or irrational.
  The stories told by the icewalkers (and those who
  have traveled with them, however briefly) give the no-
  mads a pronounced mystique, especially among the city’s
  adolescents and young adults; it is these impressionable
  young citizens who are most likely to give in to the
  temptation to run off. The icewalkers would rather not
  take on a liability like a soft, spoiled Whitewall kid, but
  they let it happen, especially if the runaway comes well-
  equipped with nice armor, exceptional weapons and warm
  furs. It would, of course, be a shame if the kid died within
  the first year he was with the tribe (which happens about
  half the time), but at least he would leave the tribe with a
  respectable legacy.
  LOOKSHY
  Whitewall recognizes Lookshy as the last remaining
  vestige of the Shogunate and aggressively seeks out ways
  to improve relations with the city. Relations are cordial,
  but the distance between the two powers, both physically
  and philosophically, prevents the two from being more
  closely linked.
  Lookshy is Whitewall’s most distant regular trading
  partner. Every spring when the thaw facilitates travel,
  well-educated savant-traders arrive in Whitewall to look
  over the exotic ores pulled from the old mines and bid on
  those needed to maintain the Seventh Legion’s aging
  military forces.
  Lookshy pays handsomely for the resources traded by
  Whitewall. The miners and artisans of Whitewall would
  love to do an even greater volume of trade with the
  Seventh Legion, perhaps even importing some Shogunate
  Essence technology, but it is likely to take more diplomacy,
  and a lot more available ore and blue jade, before that
  comes to pass.
  LIFE BEHIND THE WALL
  At its core, Whitewall is a city that values comfort and
  stability, both of which it has managed to find a bit of and
  guards jealously. The burghers of Whitewall create within
  the city the kind of stability that the city itself, surrounded
  as it is by enemies and ice, lacks.
  Public disorderliness, poor hygiene and blatant rude-
  ness are all misdemeanors under Whitewall’s civil charter,
  lumped together as “offenses against public civility,”; the
  city has gained a reputation for being stern and humorless
  for its aggressive enforcement of these laws. Residents of
  the city itself don’t see these laws as either stern or
  humorless and appreciate the order and civility these
  laws provide.
  
  25
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  The use of intoxicants is legal, but the substances
  themselves, especially alcohol, are taxed so heavily that
  their use is quite rare. Public intoxication is also heavily
  fined, so those who indulge had best do so in the privacy
  of their own homes.
  It is expected that public life be highly formal and
  polite. All citizens are expected to be at least civil with one
  another, and anything less is grounds for a stiff fine.
  Hostile, strange or eccentric behavior in public is a short
  path to bankruptcy (from fines) and social ostracism.
  Further strengthening the separation of the private
  and public worlds is the absolute discretion that White-
  wall residents exhibit with regard to everything that
  happens in the privacy of the home. Nothing that takes
  place behind closed doors is discussed outside those
  doors, and there are no laws or social expectations
  whatsoever with regard to what takes place within the
  walls of one’s home, unless an injured party makes a
  claim to the guardians or judges. The privacy of one’s
  home is absolute so long as the city’s defenses against its
  enemies are not compromised.
  This lends a sense of gravity to any invitation to a
  private home. One neither goes to the home of anyone
  one does not trust implicitly nor does one invite others to
  one’s home without knowing them very well beforehand.
  Much of the social life of Whitewall’s residents, conse-
  quently, plays out in the city’s many large teahouses.
  Business, shared meals and social functions alike can take
  place in the teahouses (while trysts typically take place in
  the adult sections of the public baths). In fact, tea with
  milk and butter is the traditional drink of Whitewall.
  Those not from the city often find these additions some-
  what unorthodox, and their surprise is one way to discern
  a native from a visitor, something every Whitewaller is
  very attentive to.
  THE PUBLIC BATHS
  The public baths of Whitewall are one of the city’s
  noted treasures. A hot spring provides the city with a
  regular flow of both hot water and steam. This water is
  diverted into a large complex of bathing pools, where
  the city’s residents gather to socialize and bathe them-
  selves. Cleanliness is held in high esteem by residents of
  Whitewall, and frequent bathing is held to be a sign of
  good citizenship.
  Though private, the baths fall under Whitewall’s
  definition of public space. Children bathe in one section,
  adults of marrying age in another and elders in a third.
  While residents of Whitewall are quite proper (some
  might say prudish) in what is seen as public space, nudity
  in the baths is expected. Friends, neighbors, co-workers
  and others, male and female, are accustomed to seeing one
  another without clothes, and the residents of the city
  accept that as a matter of fact.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  26
  Distant steam-drenched alcoves of the baths are often
  used as trysting spots for adolescents or young adults, but
  that is considered part of the standard courtship rituals of
  the city rather than acts of indecency. Though adults may
  wag their fingers, cluck their tongues and complain about
  the moral turpitude of the young, Whitewall’s civil charter
  is concerned with maintaining civility and stability, not
  the prudish constraints of its self-appointed moral guard-
  ians. Truth be told, most of them likely had their first
  liaisons in those very same alcoves.
  Adults often visit the public baths to steam, to bathe
  and to be anointed with perfumed oils. For a fee, a visitor
  to the baths can be scrubbed, shaved (if necessary), groomed
  and tended to in other ways.
  POPULATION
  The population of Whitewall varies, as so many
  things in the city do, according to the season. The popu-
  lation reaches its nadir of 700,000 citizens each winter,
  usually around Resplendent Water, after the winter’s ex-
  iles have been sent out and the season has taken its toll on
  the infirm. Starting around Resplendent Earth and going
  until Resplendent Fire, caravans of traders begin showing
  up to bid on the best of the winter’s accumulation of gems,
  ore, minerals, arms, armor, jewelry and talismans.
  Usually sometime around Descending Earth or As-
  cending Wood, the first of the “Calibration babies” are
  born (so called because of the popular belief that making
  love during Calibration wards off evil forces), thereby
  launching the next cycle of births as children conceived in
  the long, cold months of winter finally make an appear-
  ance. At the peak of summer, the population of Whitewall
  is usually somewhere around 900,000 citizens.
  KNOWLEDGE
  Education is taken very seriously in Whitewall, and
  graduating from even the least of Whitewall’s academies
  instills an ample understanding of language, mathematics
  and basic crafts that allows an individual to make her way
  in Creation quite handily. The literacy rate in Whitewall
  is just over 90 percent, which is unheard of in the Second
  Age. The city is also known for its five colleges, dedicated,
  respectively, to the study of mining and metallurgy, lapi-
  dary, architecture, agriculture and, at the Lotus Mind
  College of Thaumaturgical Sciences, thaumaturgy. This
  last institution is as close to the Heptagram as most mortals
  are likely to get.
  COMMERCE
  Whitewall is still known for its produce — what little
  the city can part with these days — but most of the city’s
  financial clout comes from the mines, which are both more
  dangerous to work than the fields and more distant from the
  city. The city’s output of blue and white jade alone eclipses
  the revenues brought in through the sale of produce — and
  that’s ignoring the money brought in by the odd ores sought
  after by the Lookshy and the Heptagram and the large
  quantities of iron and silver the city’s mines produce.
  In exchange for the goods it exports, Whitewall has to
  import tea, textiles, rice and most fruits and vegetables
  (except cherries and apples).
  The city conducts trade on two major roads: the
  rocky, mountainous pass to Gethamane and the Traveler’s
  Road due south. The Traveler’s Road leads due south from
  the gates of Whitewall, where goods are either loaded onto
  ships or sent east along the coastal trade route to bypass
  Marama’s Fell. Ninety percent of traffic to or from White-
  wall goes via the Traveler’s Road.
  FARMERS
  Farming was Whitewall’s raison d’être in the late First
  Age; the topsoil shed by the nearby mountains, not to
  mention some moderately potent Wood- and Earth-
  aspected Manses in the region and some Essence effects
  from the Solar Manse at the center of the city, made for
  uncommonly fertile fields.
  In the Age of Sorrows, those fields remain uncom-
  monly fertile — in fact, they’re more fertile now that they
  have to lie fallow for six months of the year than they
  were when they were farmed all year round — but the
  climate prevents them from being worked over half the
  year. Furthermore, the amount of work required to tend
  the fields is much greater than it was in the First Age
  when automata and spirits could be bound on a regular
  basis to help farmers; farmers now tend about half the
  acreage that their First Age predecessors did. Conse-
  quently, the fields that used to provide food for Whitewall
  and communities within a radius of nearly 500 miles now
  produce just enough for the citizens of Whitewall with a
  little left over for export.
  Rice no longer grows around Whitewall. Wheat, rye,
  barley and oats account for half of the crops raised in the
  fields nearest the city, with potatoes, radishes, sugar beets,
  apples and cherries accounting for most of the rest. Alfalfa
  (hay) for animals is grown in the outer fields.
  Cherries are the only produce Whitewall exports in
  quantity anymore, and they are held to be the sweetest in
  Creation and prized on the Blessed Isle.
  MINERS
  Mining is the hardest and most dangerous of the trades
  practiced in Whitewall. It is also the most lucrative. The
  demand for the ores in the mountains around Whitewall,
  especially blue and white jade, is rising slowly and steadily
  as demand for sturdy and more advanced weapons increases
  with the growing instability in the Time of Tumult.
  Two kinds of mines are found outside the city: the old
  mines and the new mines.
  
  27
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  The old mines were dug during the First Age under the
  direction of Queen Tenrae, and, to this day, they’re safe,
  incredibly deep, sensibly laid out and well lighted. Owing
  to reconnaissance performed by earth elementals serving
  Whitewall’s First Age rulers, most of these mines benefit
  from comprehensive three-dimensional subterranean maps
  showing all the ore within reach of each mine tunnel as
  well as the direction of veins of ore that haven’t even been
  tapped yet. The problem with the old mines is that many
  of the exotic substances mined back when the mines were
  dug (with the exception of blue and white jade and a tiny
  amount of orichalcum) have no widespread use in the Age
  of Sorrows. Certain minerals held to be extremely valuable
  during the First Age have no widely known (or useful)
  properties in the current Age — or at least none that are
  understood by any but the greatest sorcerers of the
  Heptagram, the sorcerer-engineers of Lookshy or the
  Mountain Folk. Those three groups, however, have been
  known to pay truly astonishing fees to get some of those
  rare ores — enough, in fact, to make it worth the time to
  enter the old mines. While Lookshy pays more for these
  ores and minerals, the Heptagram is much closer, being just
  across the Inland Sea, and, therefore, is a much more
  reliable trading partner.
  The new mines, on the other hand, are wholly a
  product of the Second Age. They are shallower and poorly
  lit, many of them seem unusually prone to cave-ins (aided,
  no doubt, by the efforts of the Fair Folk) and a handful have
  shown a tendency to explode. These are the mines from
  which iron, zinc, quartz and silver — as well as a myriad of
  semi-precious gems and a small quantity of exotic metals
  and jades — are extracted. These are the more common
  fruits of the earth that have established Whitewall as one
  of the key metallurgical cities in Creation. The enormous
  quantity of iron, in particular, is a boon to Whitewall
  because the iron supplies the city’s armorers with crucial
  raw materials for making the iron weapons with which
  Whitewall defends itself against the Fair Folk.
  The miners work through the winter, daring the
  dangers of the mines in anticipation of the long line of
  buyers that shows up every spring and into the fall to buy
  their ores, metals, minerals and gems. In some cases,
  getting to the mines, not working in the mines, presents
  miners with the greatest difficulty. The Fair Folk resent
  Whitewall’s unending supply of iron and routinely target
  miners on their way to or from the mines for the fae’s most
  devastating assaults.
  ARTISANS AND ENCHANTERS
  During the last century, Whitewall has become known
  for its finished goods as well as its raw ores. With ready
  access to many rare metals and minerals and with a notable
  discount on raw components, many artisans have found
  that buyers would rather leave Whitewall with a few
  panniers full of finished goods than a wagonload of ore.
  The artisans of Whitewall are known for both the
  spectacular weapons and armor produced there. The city’s
  denizens take pride in their work and produce uncommonly
  sturdy armor and blades. The prevalence of thaumaturges
  allows the best goods to be made even better through
  Enchantment, which also benefits the city, since an artisan
  selling an enchanted blade is going to bring in more money
  to the city than a vendor of mundane weapons.
  Jewelry is the last of the exports for which Whitewall is
  famed. Meticulous jewelers work in well-lighted shops for
  hours to create astonishingly detailed and beautiful items,
  many of which are subsequently enchanted with an array of
  protective and lucky properties (see the “Lucky Functions”
  sidebar on page 147 of the Exalted Players Guide for some
  typical enchantments). Air- and Earth-aspected Dragon-
  Blooded are known to pay exorbitant sums for jewelry made
  from Whitewall’s blue and white jade.
  LAYOUT
  Whitewall is a round city ringed by tall stone walls.
  When it was first constructed, it was a radially symmetrical
  symbol of the Unconquered Sun. In the Second Age, the
  great circular wall still dazzles the eye with its brightness,
  but its associations with the Unconquered Sun have long
  since faded from memory.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded,
  God-Blooded, Heroic Mortals, Solars
  Miners in the new mines are disappearing in
  record numbers and turning up horribly mutilated
  just as winter, the busy mining season, is coming on.
  All iron mining comes to a complete halt, and some
  residents of the city fear that the old mines will be
  the next to close down.
  They needn’t worry, as the old mines are per-
  fectly safe. This might be the first clue to lead the
  characters to the truth of the matter: in their never-
  ending quest to destroy Whitewall’s iron mines, the
  Fair Folk have brought in a behemoth composed of
  one part shadow and one part serpent, and set it free
  in the iron mines. This is not a fae creature suscep-
  tible to iron weapons, but a true behemoth captured
  in the undercity beneath Gethamane and brought
  down to disrupt Whitewall’s iron production.
  The characters may be guardians, or they
  may be mercenaries hired by the Syndics to rid
  the city of the beast that haunts the new mines.
  Either way, the characters are forced to fight a
  creature that no mortal should ever have to know
  about, much less combat.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  28
  Whitewall’s inhabitants casually break down the city
  into four large generalized wards: Foretown, Midtown,
  Afton and Underton.
  FORETOWN
  Whitewall’s most industrious neighborhood, Foretown
  is the section of the city nearest the city gates (i.e., the
  farthest south, since the gates of Whitewall open in that
  direction). This section of town has the fewest remnants of
  the old First Age architecture; most of the shops here have
  been built within the last five centuries. This is where the
  city’s famed artisans, jewelers and craftspeople live and
  work, making the neighborhood relatively wealthy. The
  college of mining and metallurgy is also located in this
  section of town. The city’s stables as well as most of its inns
  and many teahouses are located in Foretown, as this is the
  section of town where traders lodge when they’re in
  Whitewall. Therefore, Foretown is the most cosmopolitan
  and “multicultural” district of the city.
  During the summer, Foretown is a bustling, crowded
  bazaar full of stalls from which dealers buy, sell and trade all
  manner of weapons, armor, enchanted goods and other mer-
  chandise. From dawn to well past dusk, the streets are packed
  to capacity all summer long, and the aromas from the food
  kiosks mix with the earthier smells of livestock as the citizens
  of Whitewall trade what they have for what they need.
  At the peak of the summer trading season, the White-
  wall bazaar may even spill out beyond the city’s gates, in
  which case a large contingent of armed guardians (and
  innumerable torches) keep the area relatively safe from
  the depredations of the Fair Folk and the dead once night
  falls and the gates are shut.
  For obvious reasons, Foretown is also the section of
  the city most heavily patrolled by Whitewall’s guardians.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR FORETOWN
  Warrior: Monster Hunter, Veteran Guardian
  Holy Man: Icewalker Shaman, Immaculate Missionary
  Savant: Enchanter-for-Hire, Visiting Sorcerer-Engineer
  Criminal: Enchantment Counterfeiter, Thief
  Entertainer: Icewalker Skald, Street Performer
  Bureaucrat: Guild Representative, Incorruptible Cus-
  toms Inspector
  MIDTOWN
  Midtown is the largest and most populous section of
  Whitewall and home to the city’s burgeoning middle class.
  Farmers, teachers, bakers, mid-level merchants and younger
  miners make their homes here, as do many of those who
  make their money trading in Foretown but don’t want to
  live there. The Jewelers College of Whitewall and the
  Whitewall College of Agriculture are located in this section
  
  29
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  of town. Except for small areas that show minimal damage,
  Midtown’s First Age architecture is still intact here.
  The tallest building in Whitewall, the large Solar
  Manse that sits at the exact center of the city, is located in
  Midtown, but the Manse plays little part, if any, in the day-
  to-day lives of Midtown’s residents.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR MIDTOWN
  Warrior: Reserve Militiaman, Rookie Guardian
  Holy Man: Illuminated Itinerant, Syndic Worshiper
  Savant: Agricultural Geomancer, Lapidary
  Criminal: Fence, Second-Story Man
  Entertainer: Storyteller, Unemployed Actor
  Bureaucrat: Ambassador to the Fair Folk or the Dead,
  Town Crier
  AFTON
  Afton is the section of town farthest from the gates. It
  is home to the Syndics’ hall as well as the richest of
  Whitewall’s citizens, those who can afford the luxury of
  space and privacy. Non-Dynastic Dragon-Blooded and
  most of the city’s “special” guardians (i.e., the God-Blooded
  and minor gods) live here in tranquil splendor. Successful
  miners live in Afton, as do Whitewall’s most skilled
  jewelers and armorers. Afton is also the site of the White-
  wall College of Architecture and the Lotus Mind College
  of Thaumaturgical Sciences. Whitewall’s First Age archi-
  tecture is entirely intact throughout all of Afton. Therefore,
  the difficulty of all prayers made from this district of the
  city is dropped by 2.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR AFTON
  Warrior: Bodyguard, God-Blooded Guardian
  Holy Man: Ancestor Cultist, Yozi Worshiper
  Savant: First Age Scholar, Thaumaturgy Instructor
  Criminal: Con Artist, Tea Drunkard
  Entertainer: Tea Boy, Teahouse Musician
  Bureaucrat: Corrupt Judge, Wealthy Burgher
  UNDERTON
  Pronounced “Unt’n,” Underton is the city’s smallest
  district, comprising the portion of Whitewall that lies
  underground. This is where a small system of orderly
  tunnels and caverns creates a modest undercity. A First
  Age lighting system keeps the area well lit with a warm,
  golden glow. While Underton is where Whitewall’s small
  underclass lives, it’s also where the public baths are, so it’s
  constantly busy with foot traffic. Guardians patrol down
  here regularly to safeguard order and proper conduct.
  Being destitute in the Second Age is never easy, but as such
  things go, it’s far better to be among the poor in Whitewall
  than in any other city in Creation: there’s always a roof
  overhead, it’s always warm because of the proximity to the
  hot spring and there’s no reason not to bathe because the
  public baths are in the center of Underton and open to
  everyone. (Although the poor are expected to visit the
  baths late at night, after the residents of Foretown, Mid-
  town and Afton have already bathed.)
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR UNDERTON
  Warrior: Guardian on Furlough, Maimed Veteran
  Holy Man: Crazed Prophet, Fortune Teller
  Savant: Alchemist of Intoxicants, Scavenger Lord
  Criminal: Drug Dealer, Mugger
  Entertainer: Geisha of the Baths, Wyld Oddity
  Bureaucrat: Inspector of the Baths, Slumming Official
  THE SOLAR MANSE
  At the center of Midtown in Whitewall is a grand Solar
  Manse. For centuries, the Manse was closed off; those living
  in the city were more comfortable ignoring it, despite the
  fact that it was the single largest building in the city.
  During the Shogunate, the Dragon-Blooded forced
  their way into the Manse to check for any “threats planted
  by the Anathema.” The Manse’s defenses were initially
  overwhelmed, but the adaptive system quickly evolved to
  be able to keep the Terrestrials out. The first several years
  THAUMATURGY IN WHITEWALL
  Per capita, more people practice the various
  forms of thaumaturgy in Whitewall than in most
  cities in Creation. In part, this is due to the city’s
  extravagant literacy rate. Some of the thaumaturgical
  sciences, in fact, are taught in Whitewall’s schools,
  most famously in the Lotus Mind College of
  Thaumaturgical Sciences.
  The title of the college is somewhat mislead-
  ing, as it teaches some Arts as well as Sciences, with
  a heavy emphasis on Warding, which is practiced
  nigh incessantly to ward the city’s walls, fields and
  mines against incursion by ghosts and Fair Folk.
  Enchantment is also widely practiced, and the
  artisans and armorers of Whitewall produce some of
  the finest and most sought-after enchanted items in
  Creation. Because of this auspicious renown (and
  the money it brings into the city) the Syndics take
  a particularly dim view of fraud where enchanted
  objects are concerned. Whitewall’s inspectors per-
  form regular Enchantment audits to make sure
  objects sold as enchanted really are enchanted.
  Those purchasing such items frequently rely on
  enchanted objects for their safety and livelihood.
  Passing off even the fanciest normal item as en-
  chanted will, depending on the item, either earn
  the con artist a hefty fine (equal to a year’s annual
  income), if there is no chance anyone could be hurt
  by the deception, or a summer exile, if the decep-
  tion may result in injury or death.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  30
  of the Shogunate saw a string of battles between the
  Dragon-Blooded and Whitewall’s Solar Manse. The Manse
  ultimately won, as no more Dragon Blooded were willing
  to die in the effort to wrest the building’s secrets from it. To
  minimize the embarrassment of the Dragon-Blooded, the
  Manse was declared illegal and off-limits to everyone in
  the city and then was effectively abandoned, even though
  it stood in the center of the city’s busiest district.
  When the Syndics took possession of Whitewall, they
  wanted to preside over the city from its tallest building,
  which was the Manse. The three gods made a couple of
  tentative attempts to enter, but when the Manse rebuffed
  their efforts, they were perfectly willing to let the Manse
  remain abandoned, another sign that they are attempting
  to steward the city rather than take it over. Recently, the
  city’s official diplomat, a Solar Exalted of the Eclipse Caste
  named Rune, entered the Manse with no difficulty what-
  soever, and he has since taken possession of the building.
  Anyone looking closely at the Essence flow around this
  Manse (Perception + Occult, difficulty 5) will realize that
  it’s focusing some of the ambient Essence out from the Manse
  instead of directing the Essence into the Hearthstone cham-
  ber. This is the source of the extreme fertility of Whitewall’s
  fields. Were all of the power of the local dragon lines
  channeled into the Manse, it would be a rating •••••
  structure. As it is, two dots of that rating have been given up
  and carefully shunted into the fields surrounding the city
  through sophisticated Essence engineering techniques that
  are beyond anything understood in Creation today except
  by the most skilled sorcerer-engineers.
  BEYOND THE WALL
  However orderly and comfortable Whitewall may be
  on the inside, the cold world outside the wall is a night-
  mare of the prowling dead and rapacious Fair Folk, especially
  between dusk and dawn. The constant depredations of
  these foes of the city only reinforce the paranoia and
  insularity of Whitewallers. Some of them opt never to
  leave the city for any reason. Others, like the city’s traders
  and miners, don’t have that luxury.
  THE HOLY ROAD
  While now most commonly called either “the Traveler’s
  Road” or “the Great Northern Road,” the road that links
  Whitewall to its distant port on the Inland Sea was called
  “the Holy Road” during the First Age. Built single-handedly
  by Righteous Guide as a private devotion to the Uncon-
  quered Sun, the road represents three centuries’ spiritual
  labor on the part of that legendary Solar monk. As with the
  buildings of Whitewall, each paving stone was individually
  hand-carved from white granite, blessed by the builder and
  consecrated to the Unconquered Sun.
  The Traveler’s Road is almost bizarrely wide by the
  standards of the Second Age, almost 20 yards from edge to
  edge. The road has weathered the passing of the centuries
  well. Only the slight rounding of the road stones suggests
  that the road wasn’t built longer than a year or two ago.
  Because of the road’s enchantments, it stays warm, as
  though the sun were shining on it constantly, all day, all
  night, all year round. Neither snow nor ice ever builds up
  on the road, even during the fiercest blizzards.
  One aspect of the Traveler’s Road that is not common
  knowledge is that the souls of those who die along the road
  immediately fall into Lethe. No one who dies along the
  Holy Road need worry about becoming a ghost of any sort,
  even along the stretch that passes through shadowland.
  More recently, the Syndics negotiated “the Thousand
  Year Pact” with the Fair Folk and the Deathlords at the
  beginning of the Second Age. This agreement was possible
  only because of the relative strength of the Syndics at the
  time, the inexperience of the Deathlords and the terrible
  defeat that the Fair Folk had just suffered. This agreement
  stipulates that no violence is allowed on the road by any
  party, mortal, fae or otherwise. Once all three parties agreed
  to it, the Syndics performed god magic to make fate itself
  enforce the pact. Those breaching the pact suffer each
  according to their natures. Mortals hang themselves from
  the columns of the road (or keep trying until they succeed),
  ghosts fall instantly into Lethe and Fair Folk are shunted
  into the Deep Wyld and barred from entering Creation ever
  OTHER MANSES
  The Solar Manse in the center of the city is not
  the only Manse in the vicinity of Whitewall, though
  this Manse is the most powerful. Just to the east of
  the city, on the far edge of the easternmost cherry
  orchard is a Wood-aspected Manse (rating ••) on
  the side of a heavily wooded hill. The Syndics know
  about this Manse and have its Hearthstone, al-
  though the structure itself is carefully sealed with
  magic to keep the dead from tampering with it. The
  Syndics aren’t currently using the Manse, and they
  could conceivably give the Manse as a gift (or a
  bribe) under the proper circumstances (i.e., in
  order to recruit a Solar Exalt to the city’s guardians
  or to get a Solar Circle sorcerer to destroy the
  shadowland of Marama’s Fell).
  There is another Manse near the city that the
  Syndics do not know about. Twenty-five miles to
  the north is an underground Earth-aspected Manse
  (rating •••) that has no current owner, though the
  Fair Folk are particularly thick in the area. The
  entirety of the Manse is underground, and its en-
  trance is covered with brambles and snow. It would
  take a skilled geomancer (or other Essence wielder)
  a fair amount of effort to locate this Manse.
  
  31
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  again. It is unknown what would happen to a spirit, a god or
  an Exalt were one to break the Thousand Year Pact. Some
  have suggested that the violator would be sent to Malfeas,
  but it has never yet happened and, with luck, will not.
  With just over 200 years left in the Pact, the Syndics
  are wondering whether they’ll be able to negotiate as
  strong an agreement when it comes up for renewal. They
  can only hope that Creation, or at least Whitewall, will be
  stronger then than it is now. Their city’s trade (and,
  therefore, future) depends on it.
  In the First Age, and even into the first centuries of
  the Age of Sorrows, the stone pillars that rise from the road
  in pairs every 40 yards used to glow with a warm, golden
  light that kept away the undead as per the spell Light of
  Solar Cleansing (see The Book of Three Circles, page
  72). Although the lights on these columns haven’t worked
  for over 500 years, the lights  could be made to do so again
  by any Solar wishing to take the time and effort to repair
  them. (Even realizing that the columns used to illuminate
  the road requires three successes on an Intelligence + Lore
  roll, while repairing the lights along the road requires 10
  successes and may be performed with an extended Intelli-
  gence + Lore or Intelligence + Craft roll.)
  WALLPORT
  At the southern terminus of the Traveler’s Road is the
  town of Wallport. This port town is surrounded by walls
  exactly like Whitewall’s, only smaller. Also founded in the
  First Age, Wallport’s sole function is to provide a place for
  the loading and unloading of ships conducting business
  with Whitewall.
  Wallport is the filthy, stunted twin of Whitewall,
  lacking any of Whitewall’s stability and seeming at least as
  dirty and chaotic as any other city in the Threshold and
  worse than most.
  The population of Wallport is just under 2,000 people.
  Of these, about 1,800 are men making a living by loading
  and unloading the ships that come here to trade with
  Whitewall, though some are smugglers, port officials or
  prostitutes. The few women citizens of Wallport are offi-
  cials, prostitutes, physicians, appraisers and a few hardened
  dock workers. It is a hive more than a city, a place where
  the lowest common denominator is well represented and
  vice is the favorite pastime.
  The town of Wallport is located atop a long stretch of
  black basalt cliffs. Goods are brought up from the docks
  along the steep (and often slippery) stone stairs or via an
  elaborate block and tackle system to the warehouses in
  Wallport. In the First Age, even through the end of the
  Shogunate, goods were raised and lowered using Essence-
  fueled Artifacts. Though those Artifacts are still in place,
  they don’t work, and no one in Wallport currently knows
  how to power, operate or repair them.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  32
  Wallport is largely populated by those who have fled
  Whitewall (or been exiled). They are the outcastes, the
  dropouts and the rejects who have fled the affluence of
  Whitewall for any number of reasons. Though Wallport
  has been a town in its own right since the First Age, this
  town perpetually has the feel of a frontier town. For its
  younger citizens, Wallport is a place for immaturity and
  excess, a place of lawlessness and criminal misadventures
  and, often, a place for those who can’t imagine a future for
  themselves. For its older citizens, Wallport is a place of
  nihilism, despair and bottoming out. The population shrinks
  by several suicides every year as dock workers get too old
  and too tired to keep doing what they’ve spent their life
  doing but don’t have anything to show for the scars, the
  fatigue and the interminable ache in their backs and
  shoulders. Life in Wallport is frequently made tolerable
  only through heavy use of alcohol and other intoxicants.
  The local constabulary, while technically a garrison
  of Whitewall’s guardians, tends to be so lazy (or “forgiv-
  ing” as they put it) that all but the most extreme crimes
  go uninvestigated and unpunished. The one exception to
  this rule is theft. Anything that impairs, impedes or
  threatens trade with Whitewall is dealt with quickly and
  harshly by a garrison of five dissolute Dragon-Blooded
  guardians. Though they’re lazy, they’re well-trained, and
  they work together as a team. None of these Terrestrial
  Exalts is Fire-aspected, as the danger to the warehouses is
  considered too serious.
  Much of the space within Wallport’s walls is taken up
  with sturdy stone warehouses but built between, on top of
  and behind the warehouse buildings are wooden shacks
  that operate as bordellos, saloons, opium dens, flophouses
  and similar establishments.
  Wallport would have grown more, and probably would
  have outstripped Whitewall long ago, if Wallport had a
  better harbor. The entire stretch of coastline located south
  of Whitewall is relatively hostile to any sort of large-scale
  port community. The harbor in Wallport is large enough
  for four good-sized boats to dock at any one time, or more
  vessels of a smaller size. During the busy spring and summer
  months, ships may have to anchor in the choppy, siaka-
  infested seas outside the harbor while boats are loaded and
  unloaded, and, depending on the cargo, that can take
  between two and 12 hours. Wallporters long ago stopped
  keeping track of the number of vessels that have sunk
  under such circumstances. As part of the trade agreement
  with Whitewall, the Realm navy sends in a contingent of
  Water-aspected Dragon-Blooded once or twice a year to
  bring up anything of value from these rotting hulks and cut
  down masts that could pose a threat to navigation.
  There is one more reason Wallport hasn’t grown
  larger than it has: it stinks. Enormous pipes run under the
  Traveler’s Road from Whitewall to Wallport carrying
  away excess water from the hot spring and wastewater from
  the city’s public baths, as well as all of Whitewall’s sewage,
  and spits them into the ocean in a noisome outpouring of
  filth just half a mile west of the harbor. When the wind
  blows in off the ocean (as it often does), the entire town of
  Wallport is awash with the stench of sewage. During the
  summer months in particular, the smell is overpowering.
  In the First Age, this outflow was transformed by Essence
  effects into pure, fragrant water over the course of its 700-
  mile journey south; where the water plunged into the
  ocean, the water resembled nothing so much as a beautiful
  waterfall. That hasn’t been the case since the Great
  Contagion, unfortunately, and unless some crafty savant
  stumbles on a way to fix the filtration system, Wallport is
  destined to smell like a sewer for the rest of its days.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR WALLPORT
  Warrior: Imperial Marine, Mercenary
  Holy Man: Ghost-Hunter, Wyld Hunt Advance Scout
  Savant: Ship’s Surgeon, Translator
  Criminal: Gambler, Smuggler
  Entertainer: Male Prostitute, Opium Dealer
  Bureaucrat: Guild Member, Port Authority Commissioner
  MARAMA’S FELL
  Among the greatest dangers the citizens of Whitewall
  face is the shadowland called Marama’s Fell, located not
  even 100 miles southeast of the walled city. The Fell is a
  haunted wasteland that teems with sickly cannibals by day
  and strange, twisted ghosts by night.
  The presence of the shadowland complicates travel to
  the rest of the Threshold, forcing all traffic to pass north
  through Gethamane or south to Wallport and then east
  along the coast. The shadowland even extends over a short
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded,
  God-Blooded, Heroic Mortal
  Many ships entering Wallport mention seeing
  either strange ships or figures moving under the
  water just outside the town’s harbor.
  When the characters investigate, it turns out
  that the Lintha family has learned that one of the
  vessels that went down in that graveyard of ships was
  carrying an imperishable First Age copy of The Bro-
  ken-Winged Crane, a tome of demonic lore of
  incomparable value. The characters will have to
  catch up to the pirates by finding out what they know
  and somehow recover the book before the pirates do.
  If the Lintha obtain the text, their understand-
  ing of (and alliance with) the Yozis will advance
  considerably. Should anyone else (i.e., the charac-
  ters) get the tome first, however, they will
  unquestionably be stalked by the Lintha.
  
  33
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  segment of the Traveler’s Road leading south to Wallport,
  and, while the road itself is safe, it presents a danger,
  especially for traders unfamiliar with the local terrain and
  the natural laws of shadowlands.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR MARAMA’S FELL
  Warrior: Nemissary Scout, Struggling Heroic Ghost
  Holy Man: Disciple of the Shining Path, Ghost-Hunter
  Savant: First Age Ghost, Foolhardy Scholar of First
  Age Lore
  Criminal: Exile from Whitewall, Mortal Cannibal
  Entertainer: Emaciated Innkeeper, Ghostly Chanteuse
  Bureaucrat: Ambassador of Gradafes, Mayor of Be-
  sieged Town
  THE DANGERS OF PASSING THROUGH
  As is true of any shadowland, leaving Marama’s Fell at
  night takes the traveler into the Underworld. The dock
  workers in Wallport are supposed to warn those heading to
  Whitewall not to leave (or even enter) the shadowland at
  night, but this is hardly proof against calamity. On occasion,
  the dock workers may get distracted and forget to mention
  the shadowland at all, or they may do so intentionally if a
  traveler is abusive or ill-tempered. Likewise, some travelers
  may be too distracted to listen or too ignorant to recognize
  the tell-tale signs of being in a shadowland in the first place.
  Signs are posted along the Traveler’s Road indicating where
  the road passes into and out of the shadowland, but from
  time to time ghosts, vandals and other malicious types have
  been known to steal the signs.
  As the Traveler’s Road has been deemed a truly public
  thoroughfare, the practice of salting the side of the road to
  bar the dead is illegal (and will elicit repercussions from the
  inhabitants of the shadowland).The Traveler’s Road itself
  is safe, however, even in the shadowland and the Under-
  world due to the agreement negotiated by the Syndics, but
  anyone leaving the shadowland by night will find herself
  in the Underworld and may not know how to find her way
  back to living Creation (by going back to the shadowland
  and leaving during the day).
  Truly careless travelers may even find themselves
  entering the Underworld’s dark reflection of Whitewall, a
  fate they’re not likely to survive (as entering that city
  constitutes leaving the safety of the Traveler’s Road).
  These poor souls’ goods are often taken back to living
  Creation and traded — outside the city’s walls, of course —
  to the party who was waiting for them, for money, favors,
  prayers or other goods and services.
  MORTALS IN THE FELL
  Not every danger that comes out of the shadowland is
  dead, undead or pledged to the powers of the Deathlords.
  The mortals living in Marama’s Fell, plagued with cold
  weather, a short growing season and the effects of the
  shadowland upon their crops, have a well-deserved repu-
  tation for cannibalism. It’s not that the people want to seek
  out other people for food, it’s just that they don’t have the
  luxury of seeing the distinction between other people and
  food animals.
  Some of these blighted souls may even give the
  appearance of being pleasant, harmless individuals — a
  kindly old innkeeper, a beautiful woman beset by attackers
  and so on — in order to lure their prospective meals to
  their doom.
  While some shadowlands are relatively hospitable
  toward the living, Marama’s Fell is not one of them. The
  feral, vicious ghosts that haunt the region are particularly
  rapacious and do not hesitate to attack the living when the
  opportunity presents itself.
  Under the aggressive predation of the vicious ghosts
  of Marama’s Fell, mortal settlements are particularly rare,
  and those that remain are populated with a motley array of
  stunted, disfigured and mentally defective humanity. Any
  human with a lick of sense has long fled the Fell for
  Whitewall or one of the other bastions of the North. (For
  more on the lives of mortals living in shadowlands, see
  page 24 of Exalted: The Abyssals.)
  USING THE ENEMY
  As much as the Syndics resent the dangers
  inherent in Whitewall’s close proximity to a
  shadowland, the rulers are not blind to the strategic
  benefits the shadowland provides the city. The
  shadowland effectively protects the city from attack
  by the larger of the two Fair Folk tribes in the area
  and makes any sort of invasion from the east or
  southeast much less likely. During the reign of the
  Scarlet Empress, the Syndics had contingency plans
  in place to expand the portion of the shadowland
  that falls across the Traveler’s Road and to exempt
  Realm troops from the road’s protection. Now that
  the Empress is gone and the Realm appears to be
  imploding, the shadowland is no longer being treated
  as a potentially necessary evil or defensive barrier,
  and efforts to purge the road of all taint from the
  shadowland have been stepped up accordingly.
  That said, the Syndics have long discussed the
  possibility of “sculpting” the shadowland, to gain more
  control over its defensive properties, through public-
  works projects and strategically placed executions (of
  serious criminals, of course). While the Syndics have
  long been implementing the public-works portion of
  that plan, the Syndics can’t bring themselves to take
  any action that would expand the shadowland, and,
  barring any drastic unforeseen reversals to the city’s
  fortunes, that is how the situation will remain.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  34
  HISTORY
  The shadowland known as Marama’s Fell blossomed
  slowly in the years following the Usurpation. At the Fell’s
  center is a murder camp established by Shogunate officials
  for the eradication of sorcerously created races, servants,
  slaves, beastmen, demon servitors and the like spawned or
  summoned by the Solar and Lunar Exalted in the centuries
  leading up to the Usurpation. The Dragon-Blooded were
  so paranoid about the loyalties and possible capabilities of
  these races that the Terrestrials preferred to destroy these
  races wholesale rather than risk letting them live.
  Named after Anjei Marama, the camp’s comman-
  dant, “Marama’s Fell” originally referred solely to the
  murder camp at the center of what became the shadowland.
  It was here that a forest of sorcerously enhanced singing
  trees was cut down to make room for the camp. (A fell is
  a section of forest that has been razed.) The trees were only
  the first to be put into the camp’s enormous ovens. During
  the years following the Usurpation, entire races created by
  the Solar Exalted and any number of summoned entities
  (including a number of demons of the First Circle) were
  sent to Marama’s Fell for destruction, decommissioning or
  banishment. Other allies of the Solar Exalted, including
  other “Anathema,” were also sent here to die secretly if it
  was deemed likely that their public execution would cause
  problems. The ruins of the camp are still there, should
  anyone be so rash as to go looking for them, but they’re
  located in the center of the shadowland where the strange,
  old and powerful ghosts swarm most thickly.
  By the time the Great Contagion struck, the camp
  had long been silent, but the plague stirred up the Under-
  world and all its denizens and roused the twisted ghosts
  that haunted the place.
  The ghosts of artificially created races aren’t always
  the same as the ghosts of common mortals. Some ghosts,
  being imperfect and artificial, have only the barest wisps of
  souls and make pale ghosts. Others, such as the ghosts of
  the Lunars’ beastmen, are at least as fearsome as hungry
  ghosts and sometimes more powerful.
  The tainted core of Marama’s Fell is part necropolis,
  part menagerie — and all chaotic. There is little order
  here. The ghost villages and mirrors of living civilization
  do not exist in the Underworld near Marama’s Fell, except
  perhaps in small enclaves.
  INHUMAN GHOSTS
  Many of the ghosts found in Marama’s Fell are all that
  remain of several races known in the First Age. Some were
  twisted from the moment of their creation and kept by
  Solars as curiosities (albeit dangerous ones). Other ghosts
  have been twisted by centuries of death in the cold
  wasteland of the Fell.
  The Storyteller is free to generate these creatures as
  she would any other ghost, then add additional exotic
  features as she sees fit. The list of Wyld mutations from
  Exalted: The Lunars (pages 212–222) provides a good
  base from which to work, but many of the races created in
  the First Age could be stranger still. Lastly, remember that
  a millennium is a long time to learn Arcanoi and that those
  ghosts that remain from the shadowland’s inception are
  likely to be extraordinarily powerful.
  When designing the ghost of such a creature, the
  Storyteller should keep in mind what it was created for:
  Was it a beast of burden? A courtesan? A fighting animal
  on which to wager? The Solars may have been decadent,
  but creating new creatures — or entirely new races — was
  often the result of a life’s work (and a Solar’s life at that).
  SAMPLE FELL GHOST: THRICE-DREAD ACHIBA
  Description: Among the other excesses of the First
  Age, some powerful Solar sorcerers created new forms of
  life solely to pit against one another in gladiatorial combat.
  Because the victorious combatant would win its creator
  great fame and prizes, competition to build the most
  fearsome beast was quite fierce. The kyzvoi were one such
  experimentally constructed race. Combining the most
  dangerous elements of several other species, including
  spiders and certain mammalian predators, the kyzvoi were
  bred to become more lethal with each passing generation.
  After the Usurpation, Shogunate functionaries deemed
  the kyzvoi to be dangerous and lacking any legitimate use
  (their short attention span and largely absent impulse
  control made them unusable as soldiers); they were among
  the first creatures eliminated in the great purges. Hundreds
  “CREATURES”
  Some of the “creatures” sent to Marama’s Fell for
  death weren’t creatures at all, but golems or other
  automata of such sophisticated craftsmanship as to be
  indistinguishable from living (albeit artificial) be-
  ings. When such devices were discovered, they were
  deactivated, placed in stone containers and buried.
  Given the exquisite Solar workmanship of these
  devices, many might still be serviceable after the
  application of appropriate Charms or other magic.
  Although Shogunate officials were perfectly aware
  that the area was becoming a shadowland, they fully
  intended to deal with the problem later through public-
  works projects. But, as the shadowland grew increasingly
  vast, and, in the absence of Solar Circle sorcery, the
  necessary public-works effort would have been enormous
  and costly. The Shogun and his government had more
  pressing things to deal with, and so, Marama’s Fell, located
  in a distant wilderness area, was forgotten, a hazard marked
  on the maps of the day with an unexplained black smear.
  
  35
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  of kyzvoi were taken from their holding pens and destroyed
  in the “cleansing center” of Marama’s Fell, but their
  strange artificial souls did not readily fall into Lethe,
  instead lingering in the nascent shadowland, one of many
  strange races that still haunt Marama’s Fell as ghosts in the
  Age of Sorrows.
  Thrice-Dread Achiba is one of these ghostly kyzvoi.
  An accomplished gladiatorial combatant in life, he became
  a warlord among the ghosts of the Fell after his execution.
  A figure of fear even before the camp was closed,
  Thrice-Dread Achiba has used the subse-
  quent centuries to hone his skills, warp
  his corpus and make himself a far more
  dangerous adversary than he ever
  was in the arenas of the First
  Age. Making him more dan-
  gerous yet is the fact that
  other ghosts, and even a
  few mortals who live in the
  Fell, direct prayers to him,
  elevating him yet further.
  Worse, in recent
  years, Thrice-Dread
  Achiba has killed a
  number of well-
  armed war ghosts sent
  by the Lover Clad in
  the Raiment of Tears
  and taken their weapons
  and armor for his favored
  lieutenants while keeping
  the best for himself.
  Thrice-Dread Achiba
  commands a force just over
  100 strong, including a large
  force of powerful human ghosts,
  a handful of other kyzvoi and
  several phantoms of even
  stranger nature. Some of
  the mortals in Marama’s
  Fell make offerings to Thrice-
  Dread Achiba, and these offerings
  have been known to include grave
  goods as well as information that has
  come from Whitewall.
  Though quite massive (eight feet tall and solidly
  built, with a thick carapace over which his armor barely
  fits), Thrice-Dread Achiba otherwise looks like a regular
  human ghost, except for three characteristics: his lus-
  trous black exoskeleton, his compound eyes and his
  arachnid mouthparts.
  His great age alone makes Thrice-Dread Achiba a
  powerful ghost (though that’s true of many of the ancient,
  twisted ghosts who stalk this shadowland), but he has used
  his position in this most chaotic of shadowlands to estab-
  lish cults among both the living and the dead. Whole
  villages within Marama’s Fell (small as they are) believe
  Thrice-Dread Achiba to be their founding patriarch and
  pay him homage. These mortals guard this powerful ghost’s
  main Fetters, the enormous hooked swords he fought with
  in the arenas of the First Age.
  Thrice-Dread Achiba is only one of many such war-
  lords who rule the dead of Marama’s Fell, and he epitomizes
  not only what the denizens of Whitewall have to defend
  against, but the kind of rebels with
  which the Deathlords will have
  to contend should they ever
  decide to use Marama’s Fell
  with any regularity.
  E q u i p m e n t :
  Ghost-strengthening
  links with soulfire crys-
  tal 
  (4 
  motes),
  reinforced soulsteel
  breastplate, repeating
  maggot-caster* with
  soulfire crystal (6 motes)
  * Thrice-Dread
  Achiba can get more
  maggots for his caster, but
  since it involves dealing
  with a nephwrack who re-
  sides far to the north whom Thrice-Dead
  Achiba hates, he uses this weapon only
  when absolutely necessary.
  Concept: Ancient ghostly warlord
  Nature: Leader
  ATTRIBUTES
  Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina
  6, Charisma 4, Manipulation 4,
  Appearance 1, Perception 4, In-
  telligence 3, Wits 6
  VIRTUES
  Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Tem-
  perance 3, Valor 5
  ABILITIES
  Athletics 4, Awareness 5 (Detect
  Ambushes +1), Brawl 5 (Natural Weap-
  onry +3), Dodge 6, Endurance 3, Lore 2
  (First Age +1), Martial Arts 5, Medicine 1, Melee 5,
  Occult 2, Perception 4, Presence 4, Resistance 4, Socialize
  1, Survival 4 (Shadowlands +3), Thrown 3
  BACKGROUNDS
  Ancestor Cult 3, Artifact 5+, Followers 5, Influence 4,
  Underworld Cult 3
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  36
  PASSIONS
  Compassion: Guard those who protect his swords 2
  Conviction: Defeat all other ghostly warlords in the Fell 4
  Temperance: Gain knowledge of the world of the living 1,
  Understand the war techniques of the Deathlords’ war
  ghosts 1
  Valor: Defend Marama’s Fell from all outsiders 5
  FETTERS
  The mass grave where his body was dumped 3; the swords he
  used in arena combat (now guarded by mortal tribesmen) 4
  SPIRIT CHARMS
  Details, Form Match, Hurry Home, Memory Mirror, Paralyze
  ARCANOI
  Common Arcanoi: Assassin’s Subtle Escape, Scent of
  Sweet Blood, Two World Vision, Whispers of the Living
  Essence-Measuring Thief Arts: Aura-Reading Technique,
  Blood-Drinking Thirst, Delicious Essence Scent, Essence-
  Devouring Ghost Touch, Ravening Life-Force Hunger
  Savage Ghost Tamer Arts: All
  Shifting Ghost-Clay Path: All
  The Stringless Puppeteer Art: Spirit-Catching Eye Tech-
  nique, Soul-Whispering Empathy Discipline
  Terror-Spreading Art: All
  Honored Ancestor Ways: Courier in Dreams
  OTHER POWERS
  Thrice-Dread Achiba’s arachnid muscle structure
  grants him incredible speed (as Gazelle’s Stride, see Ex-
  alted: The Lunars, page 213) and toughness (as per Body
  of Stone, see Exalted: The Lunars, page 218) that make
  him a fierce opponent even without his soulsteel artifacts.
  He is both poisonous like a spider and has the ability to spin
  webs (see “Toxin and Webbing,” Exalted: The Lunars,
  page 214–215)
  COMBAT STATISTICS
  Base Initiative: 11
  Attack:
  Poisonous Bite: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 5L +
  poison* Defense 12
  Chitinous Fist: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 6L Defense 15
  Kick: Speed 8 Accuracy 12 Damage 6B Defense 10
  Ghost-Strengthening Links: Speed 14 Accuracy 10 Dam-
  age 13B Defense 14
  Repeating Maggot-Caster: Speed 1 Accuracy 7 Damage
  Special (Rate 2/turn, Range 50**)
  * Poison is Difficulty 2, Success 2L, Failure 4L, Duration/
  Penalty 2 hours/-3.
  ** The maggot-caster has no range increments. This is its
  maximum range.
  Dodge Pool:
  11/10 Soak: 24L/26B (Reinforced
  soulsteel breastplate, 12L/11B; Body of Stone, 6L/6B;
  ghost-strengthening links, 3L/3B, -1 mobility penalty, +1
  difficulty to hit)
  Willpower: 8
  Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-
  2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/I
  Essence: 5
  Essence Pool: 93 (102)
  Committed Essence: 9
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Poisonous Bite: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 5L +
  poison* Defense 12 Rate 4
  Chitinous Fist: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 6L Defense
  15 Rate 5
  Kick: Speed 8 Accuracy 14 Damage 7B Defense 10 Rate 3
  Ghost-Strengthening Links: Speed 14 Accuracy 10 Dam-
  age 13B Defense 14 Rate 6
  * Poison is Difficulty 2, Success 2L, Failure 4L, Duration/
  Penalty 2 hours/-3.
  Dodge Pool: 16/15
  Hardness: 3
  UNDERWORLD DÉTENTE
  Two Deathlords technically lay claim to Marama’s
  Fell, though neither one values it as highly as might be
  expected. There’s a reason for this: as shadowlands go,
  Marama’s Fell is a pit. Due to the means of its origins, the
  Fell is a place of constant violence and predation. The
  stately ancestor cults of elsewhere have yet to show any
  lasting power here — or even be capable of defending
  themselves against the predations of the bizarre ghosts that
  populate the Fell. No heroic ghost has yet shown the
  wherewithal to tame the hungry ghosts of this shadowland
  and make an opportunity out of what is currently a big,
  chaotic challenge.
  Whitewall already views the shadowland as a key
  threat, although it’s likely Whitewall would be forced to
  upgrade that threat were the shadowland to become an
  active, as opposed to a passive, threat. While Marama’s Fell
  is a danger to every citizen of Whitewall, the Fell could be
  much, much worse if a Deathlord or a powerful deathknight
  were to take it over and begin launching strategic raids on
  those who follow the Traveler’s Road or begin luring those
  on the road into the Underworld at night.
  Whitewall benefits more than it realizes from the
  relative disinterest toward Marama’s Fell taken by the two
  relevant Deathlords. While both make occasional use of
  the Fell, neither particularly values it.
  The closer of the two Deathlords, Bishop of the
  Chalcedony Thurible, is so introspective and preoccupied
  with his own conspiratorial plotting that he has no interest
  in the Fell — nearly a thousand miles from the Hidden
  Tabernacle — at all. This is extraordinarily good news for
  Whitewall, because the Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible
  has claimed that he knows Whitewall better than even the
  Syndics do for reasons that are now long lost to history.
  
  37
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  The Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears, on the other
  hand, is modestly interested in Marama’s Fell, as she is
  interested in all of Creation, and she would be more
  interested were Marama’s Fell nearer to her Fortress of Red
  Ice or more governable. She has already made two at-
  tempts at establishing a military colony in the Fell, but
  both times the colony was been wiped out by the
  shadowland’s native marauding ghosts. The next time she
  plans on dispensing with nemissaries and sending in an
  Abyssal Exalt to lead the effort. As it stands now, one of her
  deathknights, Mournful Aria, is particularly interested in
  Whitewall, and therefore in Marama’s Fell — as it’s the
  easiest way for her to get to the city.
  Road and observe these vital events at one of the resplen-
  dent chrysanthemum shrines.
  The net effect is to push back the boundaries of the
  shadowland, and that has done at a respectable rate. When
  the resplendent chrysanthemum shrines were first built,
  the shadowland lay across more than 50 miles of the
  Traveler’s Road and extended past the road nearly 100
  miles to the west. Now, years later, only 20 miles of the
  Traveler’s Road pass through the shadowland, which also
  pushes only 10 miles west of the road.
  Since the initial establishment of the resplendent
  chrysanthemum shrines, they’ve had to be moved a num-
  ber of times to keep grinding away at the shadowland’s
  edges. Still, the shrines have moved neither as far nor as
  quickly as the Syndics and the
  people of Whitewall would
  like. That said, these pil-
  grimages have become
  some of the most popu-
  lar traditions in the
  culture of Whitewall,
  an excuse to leave the
  fields, the mines and
  the walls around the
  city for a few days
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Abyssals, Heroic Ghost
  One of the Deathlords has finally taken suffi-
  cient interest in the strategic uses of Marama’s Fell
  and has decided to move aggressively to take con-
  trol of the entire shadowland, or at least its chaotic
  center. Unfortunately, this is not as simple as it may
  seem. Several talons of nemissaries have been sent
  under the command of two deathknights, but none
  of them sent any word back. The deathknights
  dispatched to bring order to the Fell disappeared
  without a trace. The Deathlord has now decided to
  send in a crack force to bring the fractious ghosts of
  the Fell under her thumb. If she is unwilling to
  endanger more deathknights, she may send in expe-
  rienced and well-outfitted nemissaries, or she may
  decide that a real show of force is necessary and send
  in an entire Circle of Abyssals.
  Whatever the case, the reinforcements had
  better be good. The twisted ghosts of Marama’s Fell
  are a far cry from the restless dead the characters
  may have encountered before . . .
  THE RESPLENDENT CHRYSANTHEMUM SHRINES
  Marama’s Fell, particularly that section of it that
  overlaps the Traveler’s Road, is a thorn in the side of the
  city of Whitewall, and one the city would dearly love to rid
  itself of. To that end, the Syndics called for the establish-
  ment of shrines just outside the shadowland. These shrines
  are dedicated to various gods and spirits of life, joy, spring-
  time and so on, and the shrines are repeatedly reconsecrated
  at the beginning of every spring. These shrines are the
  preferred settings for weddings, conceptions, births and
  birthdays. Throughout the spring, beginning on the first
  day of Ascending Earth, and going through summer, right
  up to the day before Calibration, the Syndics bestow
  blessings upon families that go south on the Traveler’s
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  38
  when the weather is nice — and to get blessed with good
  health for doing so. With the last vestiges of the shadowland
  west of the road now forming a “peninsula,” the Syndics
  expect to be able to push the shadowland off the Traveler’s
  Road entirely within a few years, ending for good the
  threat of wandering into the Underworld inadvertently
  during the night.
  When the shrines were initially built, they were des-
  ecrated and torn down by ghosts either every night or, at
  worst, by the end of the winter. Now, the citizens of White-
  wall have taken to warding the shrines extensively against
  ghosts every spring when the wooden structures are rebuilt
  and reconsecrated, and they easily last through the summer
  (although they still rarely make it through the winter).
  Neither of the Deathlords of the North, the Lover
  Clad in the Raiment of Tears nor the Bishop of the
  Chalcedony Thurible, have noticed the changes to the far
  western boundary of Marama’s Fell. That shadowland is
  largely held to be a violent, ungovernable mess, and
  neither Deathlord has taken a personal interest in it. It’s
  unlikely that the shrinking shadowland would elicit much
  of a response from either Deathlord, as there is so much of
  Marama’s Fell that it’s hardly going to disappear any time
  soon. Should it even get close to that point, either Deathlord
  could easily stage a strategic massacre there to cause the
  shadowland to expand once again.
  If the Syndics were to find a Solar Exalt capable of
  performing either Benediction of Archgenesis (see Savant
  and Sorcerer, page 139) or Cleansing Solar Flames (see
  The Book of Bone and Ebony, page 139), the city would
  pay an exorbitant fee to have the Traveler’s Road freed of
  the shadowland and even more if Marama’s Fell could be
  done away with entirely. There are few concerns weighing
  more heavily on the Syndics and the city’s guardians than
  the vulnerability associated with being so close to such a
  large shadowland.
  THE WINTER FOLK
  Technically speaking, Whitewall is within striking
  distance of two tribes of Fair Folk. Marama’s Fell, ironi-
  cally, protects the city from direct strikes from the so-called
  Lions of the Snow, the larger of the two tribes of fae.
  Attacking Whitewall in a direct strike from their Freehold
  would require the Lions of the Snow to venture through
  the core of the shadowland, a feat they tried once and are
  unlikely to attempt again.
  The closer, and by far the more dangerous, fae operate
  out of a Freehold only 50 miles west by northwest of
  Whitewall. They call themselves “The Winter Folk,” per-
  haps intending to sow confusion or else finding it amusing
  to refer to themselves by the name given them by mortals.
  The Winter Folk do not amuse the mortals who know
  of them in any way. The Winter Folk are utterly alien, and
  the legends of their guile and cruelty are well-known
  throughout the North, especially in Whitewall. The bar-
  gain struck in regard to the Traveler’s Road allows the Fair
  Folk to travel on the road, but the fact of the matter is that
  the Fair Folk don’t especially care to go anywhere the road
  goes. If they’re on the road, they’re unquestionably there
  to lure travelers away.
  Three types of Winter Folk swarm out of the Wyld
  zone when they hunt: the coldly beautiful cataphractoi
  and two types of hobgoblins, those with wolfish features
  and those that look like jagged sculptures of misshapen
  children hammered out of ice. Their favorite hunting
  grounds are the road leading to Gethamane and the roads
  leading to the mines outside Whitewall. The Fair Folk
  would love nothing so much as to disrupt the flow of iron
  from those mines, but the citizens of Whitewall have
  seeded both sides of the road with iron caltrops and a
  number of other, even more ingenious, traps devised by
  Whitewall’s engineers.
  The Winter Folk have domesticated two animals,
  reindeer and ice weasels, both of which allow the fae to hunt
  mortals with devastating efficiency. The reindeer allow the
  Fair Folk to travel without tiring, and they use ice weasels as
  malevolent hunting hounds. The Fair Folk themselves are
  perfectly dangerous enemies even without their beasts,
  however. The fae can walk across even freshly drifted snow
  as though it were solid ground, giving them a pronounced
  advantage when pursuing mortals through the Northlands.
  Fortunately for the city of Whitewall, it is the source
  of much of the iron in the North. All of the arrows used by
  the guards atop the wall are iron-tipped, as are their melee
  weapons, armor and the shoes of their war horses.
  HUNTING MONSTERS
  Whitewall’s proximity to Marama’s Fell is hardly the
  only threat Whitewall faces. While few mortal armies
  would be able to successfully lay siege to the city, the
  Realm’s legions or other armies led by Exalts could poten-
  tially do so. The greatest risk of all, however, the one the
  Syndics fret about in their private moments, is an attack by
  a behemoth from the nearby Wyld zone. As creatures of
  chaos, often shaped by the will of Fair Folk, behemoths at
  times possess abilities that make them threats even to a city
  like Whitewall. (See Exalted: The Fair Folk, pages 209–
  211, for more on how the fae create these terrible beasts.)
  The wall of Whitewall, though ancient and supernaturally
  sturdy, could potentially fall before a substantial enough
  attack, and the First Age techniques that built the wall are
  not practical in the Second Age. Without the great wall to
  protect Whitewall, the city would be doomed.
  The Fair Folk regularly launch new, strange behemoths
  against Creation’s cities. Whitewall, as one of the best
  protected and nearest to a significant Freehold, often gets
  the brunt of these bizarre attacks. To deal with the threat of
  behemoths, then, Whitewall keeps constant vigil against
  approaching monstrosities and sends its most powerful
  guardians out to intercept such beasts before they can even
  
  39
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  reach the city. These parties are almost always composed of
  the Exalted. In recent years, they’ve been bands of outcaste
  Terrestrials led by the Solar Macha Pethisdotter, and they’ve
  slain over 10 behemoths, the closest only 100 yards from the
  city’s gates. Most such attacks take place in the winter when
  patrolling is more difficult and the Fair Folk have a greater
  chance to catch the monster hunters once they’ve become
  bogged down in the snow.
  In recent months, the Fair Folk’s most accomplished
  sculptor of behemoths has been promising his people
  something truly spectacular, although he has yet to un-
  leash it against Creation.
  In Whitewall, monitoring the lands around the city
  are among the most serious duties a citizen can undertake.
  Guards mounted atop the city’s wall scan the horizon in all
  directions watching for approaching enemies, particularly
  behemoths. An array of anti-siege weapons sits atop the
  city’s wall, constantly maintained in a state of perfect
  readiness in case the alarm is ever sounded.
  The ranks of the guardians change from time to time,
  and, at times, the city doesn’t have enough sufficiently
  powerful guardians to protect the city from behemoths, at
  which point Whitewall resorts to hiring mercenaries,
  usually Terrestrial Exalted from Lookshy but, sometimes,
  even from the Realm (in which case, they keep Pethisdotter
  as far from the Dragon-Bloods as possible).
  ICE WEASEL
  Starkly white (except for the eyes, which are small, black and full of feral cunning) and as vicious as their
  Fair Folk masters, full-grown ice weasels are three feet tall at the shoulder and nearly 10 feet long from nose to
  tail-tip. The creatures possess a malicious cunning, and they are extraordinary trackers even across vast expanses
  of snow. They are lethally quick and make powerful hunters. Two ice weasels working in tandem can take down
  a full-grown yeddim in under a minute. Once an ice weasel locks its jaws on a target, not even the creature’s death
  will release the weasel’s bite if it doesn’t choose to let go. Only by breaking the jawbone (Strength + Athletics,
  difficulty 5, to break the jaw bare-handed) can an ice weasel’s victim escape the bite.
  On their own, ice weasels hunt alone or in pairs. The Winter Folk use them as hunting hounds. A pack may
  contain as many as 10 ice weasels, and a single Fair Folk hunting party may have as many as three packs.
  The furs taken from ice weasels are particularly soft and warm and very effective at repelling water. For this
  reason, and because of their scarcity, ice weasel furs are among the most expensive in Creation (requiring
  Resources ••• to purchase in the North and Resources •••• elsewhere).
  Creature
  Physical Att.
  Will.
  Health Levels
  Attack
  Dodge/Soak
  Abilities
  Str/Dex/Sta
  Spd/Acc/Dmg
  Ice Weasel
  4/6/4
  5
  -0/-1x4/-4/I
  Bite: 6/9/6L
  12/6L/10B
  Athletics 6,
  (+ jaw lock*)
  Awareness 3,
  Brawl 5 (Bite +2),
  Dodge 6, Stealth 4
  (Snow +3),
  Survival 4
  (Sense Traps +3)
  * When an ice weasel locks its jaw on an unarmored limb, the ice weasel automatically inflicts an additional level
  of lethal damage each turn until the creature accrues three health levels in this way, at which point it severs the limb.
  In the summer, Whitewall deploys guardian scouts
  around the perimeter of the city’s farmland to repel attacks
  by Fair Folk, though summer is traditionally the season of
  fewest Fair Folk attacks.
  THE GREAT LOST CITY
  Far to the north of Whitewall, north of the White
  Sea, north and west even of the farthest flung cities known
  in the Age of Sorrows, lie the ruins of a vast Old Realm city.
  Half of this enormous city remains intact beneath 700
  years of accumulated snow and ice, while the other half has
  been consumed — or catastrophically changed — by the
  Wyld bordermarch that marks the terminus of Creation.
  In the First Age, the name of this city was Opal Spire
  — and those capable of reading Old Realm will be able to
  surmise that much with only a little effort.
  At the very dawn of the First Age, immediately after
  the fall of the Primordials, Opal Spire was a terraforming
  outpost at the northern edge of Creation, the point from
  which artifact ships launched themselves into the Wyld to
  solidify the chaos and expand the world.
  Centuries later, when hundreds of miles of new land had
  been annexed to Creation and the Pole of Air and Creation’s
  edge had been pushed far to the north, Opal Spire was no
  longer the most efficient launch point for such operations in
  the Wyld. However, Opal Spire continued to be a powerful
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  40
  MEANWHILE, UP NORTH . . .
  The city of Opal Spire is presented here as a
  dangerous and exciting setting for experienced Ex-
  alted characters. It lies far to the north of any of the
  habitable cities detailed in this book and has been
  largely forgotten for centuries — for good reason.
  Characters should not even attempt to find Opal
  Spire if they don’t have potent Charms that will
  allow them to survive the intense cold.
  To find Opal Spire, an individual would have
  to trek over some of the highest mountains in
  Creation (or cross deadly Wyld-tinged ice shelves),
  brave the most bone-chilling cold known to man or
  Exalt and survive the freezing fog, ice hollows, ice
  weasels, Lunar barbarians and assorted other dan-
  gers. It’s extremely unlikely anyone could ever learn
  of the existence of Opal Spire, but characters are
  unlikely individuals. Storytellers have a number of
  options for introducing the doomed city to charac-
  ters. Solar characters might have a flashback to the
  First Age, Lunars could hear about the city through
  rumors as a place to seek fame (or death), a Sidereal
  could learn of Opal Spire from a mentor, Abyssals
  could learn about it from a Deathlord (who may
  have been there at its demise) and so on.
  What you see here is the basic core of an
  adventure. Storytellers are invited to flesh out these
  bones, or not, as they see fit.
  Additional elements that the Storyteller could
  add to this basic setting include the following:
  • Two Lunar Exalted at war over the contents
  of the fallen city
  • A mountaintop aerie of civilized Dragon
  Kings living much as they did in the First Age and
  taking what artifacts they can
  • A remote access node for the Realm’s defense grid
  • A tomb built for a great Solar or Lunar ruler in
  the early First Age, carefully sealed against would-
  be plunderers
  • A Fair Folk army massing in hopes of killing
  Vorvin-Derlin
  • An enormous Manse in the shape of a pagoda
  built of ice located on the ice shelf nearly a mile out
  from land — and its guardian
  •A complex full of large crystals that hold
  sleeping First Age citizens (though no Exalted)
  from the First Age
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Fair Folk, Lunars,
  Sidereals, Solars
  Many of the great terraforming engines of the
  First Age lie buried beneath the snow of Opal Spire,
  frozen but in perfect condition otherwise. A sor-
  cerer with a sufficient understanding of the lore of
  the First Age could conceivably use the machines to
  drive back the Wyld and expand Creation. On one
  hand, this would push back the Wyld and move the
  Pole of Air farther north; characters could thereby
  create a kingdom all their own. On the other hand,
  the fae have no interest in Creation getting any
  bigger; such a move would certainly lead to renewed
  hostilities between Creation and the Fair Folk, with
  far-ranging repercussions on both sides.
  node in the integrated military force of the First Age. The city
  remained networked to the Realm’s defense grid, and its
  enormous skyports and harbor were ready at a moment’s
  notice to engage the Yozis or any other foe of the gods or
  Exalted. The city’s vast war libraries contain more knowledge
  on the Primordials and the world of the First Age than any war
  libraries now extant, and, unlike any library elsewhere in
  Creation, none of the crystal codices of the Opal Spire library
  have been censored or touched in any way by Shogunate
  forces. Were the sorcerers of the Heptagram or Lookshy to
  learn of the existence of Opal Spire, they would spare no
  expense to plunder its secrets — and they would probably fall
  before its terrible guardian.
  Older Sidereals know about Opal Spire. They may
  remember its libraries, its beautiful ports — or its terrifying last
  night. Those who know how the city met its end may also
  remember the horror that laid the city low, and they will likely
  believe that the incredible risks associated with entering the
  city far outweigh any good that might come from plundering
  Opal Spire. If the old city’s dread destroyer, the behemoth/
  demon known as Vorvin-Derlin, Slayer of Armies, ever
  becomes active again and enters more populated regions of
  Creation, precious few forces could stop the demon. One
  phrase is uttered more often than any other when the Sidereals
  speak of Opal Spire: “What is forgotten is best left forgotten.”
  Unlike any other known First Age city, Opal Spire
  never experienced the slow deterioration of the Shogunate.
  Opal Spire’s history came to an end on the night of the
  Usurpation when a Solar sorcerer unleashed something far
  larger than the Dragon-Blooded or their Sidereal masters
  could handle. The city, a vast trove of First Age knowledge
  and artifacts, was evacuated on the night the Solars were
  systematically assassinated. Had the Shogunate’s govern-
  ment ever been able to address the difficulties of the
  deteriorating First Age, perhaps Opal Spire would have
  been a destination for enormous war parties and then,
  perhaps, archeologists. As it was, active attention to the city
  and the horror that lurked there was postponed indefinitely
  while more pressing matters were attended to, and with the
  
  41
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  VORVIN-DERLIN, SLAYER OF ARMIES
  Description: Vorvin-Derlin manifests in Creation as
  a hollow humanoid cage of tarnished brass filigree. Its
  metal form extrudes and retracts razor-sharp barbs from
  every surface like the palpi of an insect with the rhythms
  of a beating heart. The creature’s hollow form moves in
  rhythmic, sinewy, almost hypnotic, undulation, and the
  pattern of its barbed filigree shifts constantly.
  Although the behemoth can sculpt its protean form into
  a rough semblance of a humanoid body at will, the behemoth
  prefers to envelop a living host that it can use as a skeleton and
  a defense. While riding a host, Vorvin-Derlin looks like a
  cartilaginous brass exoskeleton constantly shifting the align-
  ment of its barbed filigree segments. Baleful red flames
  smolder over the gouged abscesses of the vessel’s eyes, their
  brightness proportional to the behemoth’s anger. Wherever
  the behemoth goes in Creation, a fine patina of verdigris
  forms over every non-magical metal object within a mile.
  Isidiros, the Black Boar That Twists the Skies, forged
  Vorvin-Derlin from severed clippings of his own immortal
  sinews and clotted veins in the primeval epoch of the world.
  The behemoth served its master as a policing weapon, de-
  signed to grow in accordance with the forces massed against
  it. The greater the army, the more surely Vorvin-Derlin would
  massacre it. In times of peace, the behemoth shriveled away
  in boredom until the bellow of Isidiros awoke its wrath anew.
  During the Primordial War, Vorvin-Derlin fought
  savagely against the Exalted, but their singular might
  overwhelmed its strength as numbers alone could not.
  Time and again, the Chosen slew the behemoth, but its
  spilt blood sucked ore from the land like marrow and
  restored the behemoth to life. By the terms of Isidiros’ exile
  within Malfeas, the Chosen demanded that Vorvin-Derlin
  follow its master into banishment, returning as if it were a
  Demon of the Second Circle to obey the Solar Exalted.
  During the First Age, the sorcerer Oa-Té developed an
  Adamant Circle spell that allowed him to summon Vorvin-
  Derlin, bind it and then fuse it with his body for the span of
  a month. When the Usurpation came, the sorcerer brought
  forth the behemoth to enact this fusion, but the Dragon-
  Blooded and their retinues broke into the sorcerer’s sanctum
  and interrupted the ritual. Drawing strength from the un-
  bound behemoth’s adversaries, it decimated the
  Dragon-Blooded, slew the weakened Oa-Té and necessitated
  the evacuation and abandonment of Opal Spire. Starved of
  battle as the rebellion raged elsewhere in Creation, Vorvin-
  Derlin lingered in the ruins of Opal Spire, waiting for the
  commands of Isidiros or the challenge of adversaries to give its
  existence power and purpose once more. It has waited ever
  since, lost when the borders of Creation collapsed back to
  their original size and buried the city in glacial cold.
  Nature: Bravo
  Attributes: Strength 5*, Dexterity 5*, Stamina 5*, Cha-
  risma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 0, Perception 3*,
  Intelligence 2*, Wits 5*
  coming of the Great Contagion, Opal Spire was forgotten
  entirely as the edges of Creation collapsed back, leaving the
  proud, ancient city slumbering under its hoar blanket.
  Opal Spire is now effectively synonymous with the
  Elemental Pole of Air. Creation goes no further north from
  here. The bordermarches of the Wyld begin almost at the
  old city’s heart, and Creation itself fades away as one goes
  north. Only the southern half of the city remains intact.
  Anything north of that has been changed by centuries of
  Wyld corruption so as to be unrecognizable, although cer-
  tain artifacts created from the Five Magical Materials have
  remained largely unchanged. This far north, the frozen fog
  does not creep or even roil. It lunges from place to place on
  violent, howling gusts. The snow and winds blast across the
  land with the force of an explosion. Sudden updrafts can
  instantly pluck a man from the surface, blow him hundreds
  of feet into the air and then, like a bored child, drop him.
  Those without powerful protective magic to defend
  them from the elements (e.g., Hardship-Surviving Mendi-
  cant Spirit or its equivalent) had best not even cross the
  White Sea, much less come to this most northerly point in
  Creation. The average temperature, in the absence of the
  frozen fog (which makes it colder), is -80° Fahrenheit (-65°
  Celsius). At such low temperatures, spit freezes solid before it
  can hit the ground, and all exposed skin suffers from frostbite
  within a few seconds. Without Essence-enhanced outerwear
  or many, many layers of high-quality mundane furs, an
  individual will take environmental damage every turn as if
  trapped in a supernatural ice storm (see Exalted, page 244).
  At Opal Spire’s peak in the First Age, the city was one of
  the largest of the Old Realm’s vast cities with a population of
  nearly six million. In the Second Age, it is the biggest, coldest
  ghost town in Creation. In the First Age, Opal Spire’s climate
  was very like that of Whitewall now. The skyport was on the
  northern edge of the city and now lost, the harbor was on the
  city’s southern edge; while most of the ancient ships were
  taken in the evacuation of the city, two remain.
  THE HARBOR
  Now frozen over, Opal Spire’s harbor was one of the largest
  of the First Age. Over two miles in diameter, the harbor
  accommodate even the largest First Age ships. In the center of
  the harbor is an island with a 40-foot-tall gold statue of the
  Unconquered Sun in all his glory, staring off toward the west.
  In the intense cold, the harbor is covered with snow as
  thick as any other part of the city. Nothing breaks the smooth
  expanse of drifted snow. Beneath the ice, however, are the
  hulks of two First Age vessels, one flooded and beyond repair,
  the other watertight and waiting for a Solar captain.
  A STALKER IN THE DRIFTS
  Asleep in its icy tomb in the abandoned city lies a
  creature that has slain entire armies and waits only to be
  awakened from its slumber.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  42
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 2*, Temperance 1*,
  Valor 6
  Abilities: Athletics 10, Awareness 5, Brawl 10*, Dodge
  10*, Endurance 10*, Melee 10*, Presence 5 (Intimidation
  +5), Resistance 10*, Stealth 5*, Survival 5*, Thrown 10*
  Backgrounds: Manse 5 (Conduit to Isidiros restores Es-
  sence like a level-5 Manse)
  Charms: Gale of Barbs, Might of the Slaughterer, Primal
  Fusion, Turning Steel (see below)
  Base Initiative: 10
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 10 Accuracy 16 Damage 9L Defense 16
  Kick: Speed 8 Accuracy 15 Damage 11L Defense 14
  Barb Slash: Speed 16 Accuracy 17 Damage 10L Defense 15
  Dodge Pool: 15
  Soak: 15L*/15B* (Infernal brass
  body, 13L/10B)
  Willpower: 8
  Health Levels: -0*x5/-1*x6/-2*x7/-
  4/Quiescent
  Essence: 6
  Essence Pool: 120
  Other Notes: Vorvin-Derlin’s Valor is effectively perfect;
  the behemoth cannot ever fail Valor rolls, regardless of the
  difficulty. It often increases Traits marked with an asterisk
  by fusing with a host and can increase its Physical At-
  tributes through the
  unique 
  Charm
  Might 
  of 
  the
  Slaughterer, requir-
  ing recalculation of
  derived statistics
  such as Dodge Pool
  and Initiative. Any-
  one striking the
  behemoth barehanded
  suffers 6L damage from the
  razor edges of its jagged body.
  As a behemoth, Vorvin-
  Derlin 
  possesses
  immortality on the scale
  of the Primordials
  and 
  rises
  anew from
  any demise af-
  ter a period of
  quiescence
  lasting 
  one
  year. The behe-
  moth has a
  unique set of cir-
  cumstances that can
  rip its soul into the
  Underworld as a
  hekatonkhire, but
  these are unknown
  and left to the Story-
  teller to devise. The creature also heals preternaturally
  fast, mending one level of bashing damage every turn, one
  level of lethal damage every minute and one level of
  aggravated damage every day. The behemoth has perfect
  immunity to all disease and resists poison like an Exalt.
  Vorvin-Derlin is considered a Second Circle demon for
  the purposes of summoning, binding or banishing it through
  sorcery but not for any other purpose. The behemoth is a
  creature of darkness for purposes of magic.
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 10 Accuracy 16 Damage 10L Defense 16
  Rate 6
  Kick: Speed 8 Accuracy 16 Damage 11L Defense 15 Rate 3
  Barb Slash: Speed 22 Accuracy 17 Damage 14L Defense 18
  Rate 3
  Dodge Pool: 21
  Hardness: 4
  UNIQUE CHARMS
  The following three Charms are unique expressions of
  Vorvin-Derlin’s Primordial construction and may not be
  learned by Eclipse or Moonshadow Caste Exalted.
  GALE OF BARBS
  Cost: 15 motes
  Duration: Instant
  Type: Simple
  With a contemp-
  tuous wave of a
  hand, 
  Vorvin-
  Derlin can hurl a
  barrage 
  of
  darts formed
  of 
  the
  behemoth’s
  own jagged
  flesh at its
  enemies. This
  attack dupli-
  cates 
  the
  effects of the
  spell Death of Ob-
  sidian Butterflies
  (see Exalted, page
  217), but the area
  of effect is only 30
  feet wide and 10 feet
  high, the attack roll
  is 
  Dexterity 
  +
  Thrown and the base dam-
  age is only 1L.
  
  43
  CHAPTER ONE • WHITEWALL, THE ONCE-HOLY CITY
  MIGHT OF THE SLAUGHTERER
  Cost: 5 motes
  Duration: One scene
  Type: Simple
  Once this Charm has been activated, every time
  Vorvin-Derlin draws blood from an unwounded opponent
  (i.e., one whom the behemoth has not wounded in this
  scene), it gains an additional die each to Strength, Dexter-
  ity, Stamina and Brawl. At the end of the scene,
  Vorvin-Derlin must spend Essence to renew the Charm, or
  all additional dice are lost. Through the immense power of
  this Charm, the behemoth crushes armies, though indi-
  vidual Solar and Lunar Exalted are known to have defeated
  Vorvin-Derlin in single battle.
  PRIMAL FUSION
  Cost: 20 motes
  Duration: Instant
  Type: Reflexive
  After winning control of a clinch, Vorvin-Derlin can
  choose to activate this Charm to engulf a living victim in
  a mass of spiked filaments. Over the remainder of the turn,
  the body of the behemoth stretches and shapes itself into
  a second skin for the victim, rooting deep into bone and
  muscle. Essence 1 beings with no Essence pool have no way
  to resist this attack. Players of entities that have access to
  their Essence pool may make a Stamina + Resistance roll,
  with only a single success needed for their characters to
  resist the behemoth’s attempts to merge. The behemoth
  adds the host’s rating in any Traits listed with an asterisk
  to its own for the duration of the fusion (Conviction and
  Temperance cap at 5; other Traits have no limits), but the
  victim is otherwise subsumed entirely into the creature’s
  body and its other Traits no longer matter. Vorvin-Derlin
  can remember any facts or events that a current host knows
  but loses access to these experiences when the behemoth
  moves to a new host or abandons the current host (both
  requiring reapplication of this Charm). Former hosts of
  Vorvin-Derlin are blind and horribly scarred (Appearance
  1, plus effects of maiming-induced blindness) but can live
  on unless the behemoth kills them (which it often does).
  TURNING STEEL
  Cost: None
  Duration: Permanent
  Type: Special
  Whenever Vorvin-Derlin obtains four or more net
  successes on a dodge roll over the attack roll of an oppo-
  nent, the behemoth’s inhuman agility maneuvers the
  attack to strike a desired target within five yards. Treat the
  attack as if it were aimed at the new target all along, though
  it may be dodged in turn or otherwise defended against
  normally. The behemoth cannot maneuver opponents
  into attacking themselves.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  44
  
  45
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  CHAPTER TWO
  GETHAMANE,
  THE CITY UNDER
  THE MOUNTAIN
  Gethamane was one of the jewels of the North in the
  First Age, a self-supporting city buried within one of the
  great Northern mountains, with a gate to Yu-Shan set
  beneath it. The Exalted would come to Gethamane to deal
  with the underdwellers and the mysterious Mountain Folk
  and to pass through the gate to consult with the gods. Now,
  Gethamane is in the possession of humans alone, a hub
  city for the Guild; the Mountain Folk are long fled, but an
  ancient evil haunts the deep tunnels below the city.
  Gethamane is an enclosed society. Even though the
  Guild’s presence ensures a constant stream of merchants
  passing through and even though hunters and gatherers go
  out during the short summer season to lay in stocks of any
  food that they can obtain, most of the city’s inhabitants are
  born there, live there and die there. The shut-in corridors,
  the lit crystals, even the taste of the mushrooms that grow
  in the sunken Gardens, are things that become familiar to
  Gethamane’s children; the outside wind and sky and sun are
  strange to them. There are many people inside the city who
  fear to leave it and who regard outsiders with a tolerant but
  indulgent eye, as strangers who cannot understand the
  proper way to live. Other inhabitants take strange drugs or
  torture and shed blood in private, in order to exercise
  tendencies that they cannot vent in any other way.
  Inside the city, the gracious stone corridors and high-
  domed halls with their crystal lights that were once examples
  of First Age architecture have been furred over by the
  detritus of human living. Tanned-leather partitions sepa-
  rate spacious halls into living spaces, and hammered-timber
  stalls stretch the length of wide corridors; byres and laun-
  dries and other petty necessities of normal living fill
  ancient rooms that might once have been meditation
  chambers or sorcerous workrooms.
  The sunken Gardens that feed the city are its jewel
  and its most closely guarded treasure, and are as closely
  watched as the mysterious tunnels that lead below the city.
  While many seek treasure and lost secrets down below,
  only a few return. Meanwhile, the hereditary Master of
  Gethamane attempts to balance the needs of the city, the
  thinly veiled requirements of the Guild and the peril from
  the icewalkers outside and the darkness below. Gethamane
  is a society that stands on four pillars: the administration,
  the farmers, the Guard and the Guild trade. It may seem
  monolithic, but sufficient damage could bring the city
  down and shatter the structure that keeps it functioning.
  HISTORY
  THE BEGINNINGS
  In the First Age, the City of the Mountain Gateway
  was founded by the Solar Exalted in order to stand above
  and guard one of the gates to Yu-Shan and to act as a
  convenient meeting-point for the Mountain Folk who
  dwelt by that gate. The Solars hollowed out the mountain
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  46
  above the gate, created the sunken Gardens and set the
  crystal lights throughout the tunnels and rooms of the city
  so that humans could live there amid the frozen North in
  peace and comfort. While Gethamane was never one of
  the Solars’ greatest or most beautiful feats of magic, it was
  nevertheless a lasting and permanent monument to the
  Solars’ ability to create structure and transform inhospi-
  table, uninhabitable lands into stable places in which to
  dwell. However, Gethamane was not a trade city or a
  tourist destination. It was a place for dealings with the
  Mountain Folk and a passage to Heaven, and as such, while
  the Celestial Exalted and some Dragon-Blooded knew of
  it, Gethamane was not a place that was discussed among
  humans or was featured in public records. The Mountain
  Folk walked in its underways, and the Dragon Kings nested
  in its high places.
  When the Usurpation struck Creation, there were no
  Solars currently present in the City of the Mountain
  Gateway and only a few Dragon-Blooded. It was easy for
  the Terrestrial Exalted to keep the city peaceful and to
  issue general orders that the population should remain
  calm until matters were sorted out, while suppressing news
  from elsewhere about the bloody massacres and wars
  taking place. Unfortunately, this lack of news worked
  against the city in a more dangerous way.
  At this time, an ancient hekatonkhire named Vodak
  had woken from its temporary somnolence. Vodak (see
  Exalted: The Fair Folk, pages 287–288) is a behemoth of
  Malfean Essence, created when the dying blood of the first
  Primordial to perish at the hands of the Exalted struck the
  Earth. The titan’s last breath animated the flowing ichors
  with its own vitriolic hatred, transforming the mass into a
  nightmare of bubbling and writhing quicksilver. Now that
  the Dragon-Blooded have slaughtered their superiors and
  Solar blood has fallen on the thirsty soil like rain, Vodak
  moved in the depths of Creation and became hungry.
  The Mountain Folk who dwelled beneath Creation
  were troubled by this, knowing that they would be among
  Vodak’s earliest prey. They resolved to lure the
  hekatonkhire to a convenient location and trap it there.
  The City of the Mountain Gateway was perfect. It was near
  Vodak’s current lair, and it was an enclosed area, with a
  population that would not be able to defend itself; the city
  was currently unobserved by any Celestial Exalted who
  might disapprove of the Mountain Folk sacrificing a whole
  city full of humans to save themselves. (While the Sidereal
  Exalted had grown aware that Vodak was stirring and were
  debating how to handle the matter, they were at that time
  too busy coordinating the massacre of the Solars to be able
  to spare any attention to Vodak itself.)
  
  47
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  With a combination of tactics and using several
  kidnapped Golden Children as suitable bait, the Moun-
  tain Folk led Vodak to the City of the Mountain Gateway.
  The hekatonkhire’s hunger awakened by the blood of the
  Solars’ children, Vodak swelled up through the mountain
  in a great wave of bubbling famine and insanity, devouring
  everything organic it could find. The Dragon-Blooded led
  the humans in resistance for as long as they could, but
  ultimately, they had no chance. They were swallowed up,
  one and all, and Vodak washed through the chambers of
  the city like an insane silver ocean.
  While Vodak was occupied, the Mountain Folk in the
  tunnels beneath set great wards around the mountain to
  prevent Vodak from escaping through the deeps of the
  earth, however far down it might go. Then, they fled,
  leaving the mountain to Vodak and the ghosts of the dead.
  The hekatonkhire raged when it found it was trapped but
  could not escape. In the end, it sank as deeply as it could
  go and brooded there, digesting its huge meal. And the
  City of the Mountain Gateway stood empty in the middle
  of the Northern wilds.
  THE NEWCOMERS
  A hundred years after the Contagion, a group of
  humans, beset by hordes of furred, semi-human raiders,
  fled north from plague and starvation. Led by Bethan
  Redeye, a God-Blooded woman who was marked by her
  scarlet eyes and nails, the humans sought shelter but had
  already been driven away from the more habitable parts of
  the North and the villages there. Amid the snow and
  tundra, where no human habitation had ever existed, the
  group stumbled onto one of the ancient entrances into the
  mountain. Afraid of what might be inside, yet driven by
  the perils outside, the humans entered the mountain city
  and found that it was empty. They named it Gethamane,
  which was “Sanctuary” in the tongue of the Old Realm.
  While the newcomers were able to sustain themselves
  for a while on the supplies that they had brought with them
  and the game that they trapped outside, it soon became
  evident that they would need more food. Bethan Redeye
  organized exploration of the city, and the people discovered
  the sunken Gardens at the base of the mountain. Fortu-
  nately for the travelers, the Solars who created the Gardens
  had had a low opinion of their human servants’ intelligence
  and had carved pictoglyphs on the wall detailing how to
  work and harvest the Gardens. Within a few months, the
  Gardens were functioning again and producing mosses and
  fungi that were nourishing, if bland. Within a year, Bethan
  Redeye’s people were comfortably established and able to
  think of things beside the pure necessities of life.
  It quickly became obvious that adventuring into the
  lower tunnels was dangerous and frequently fatal. It was
  also obvious that the Gardens were vital to life inside the
  city. Bethan established a system whereby all inhabitants
  of Gethamane had an automatic right to a daily share of
  the food from the Gardens. This right became known as
  the Dole. In the absence of money or trade, she also
  established a tithe from the hunters and food-gatherers
  who went outside and distributed it to the Guards and
  farmers who worked directly for the city. Everything else
  was a barter economy, and though the inhabited parts of
  the city were soon roughly furnished with leather and
  wood, the people simply lacked the resources to make
  anything better.
  THE GUILD’S ARRIVAL
  Matters changed again five years later when a wander-
  ing caravan from the Guild met some of the city’s hunters
  and was invited back to Gethamane to trade and bring
  news. The Guild factor who led the caravan was instantly
  struck by the place’s potential as a hub city, small as
  Gethamane currently was. He also recognized the inhab-
  itants’ urgent need for outside sources of food, clothing and
  luxury items. Bethan Redeye, still firmly established as the
  city’s  leader despite being in her 70s, kept the sunken
  Gardens a secret from the visitors but was able to trade
  immediate food supplies in return for cloth, spices, metal
  and other things. Thus began Gethamane’s association
  with the Guild.
  Seeing the potential problems ahead, and fearing that
  her few thousand people would be entirely absorbed by the
  Guild, Bethan established a social system that has contin-
  ued to this day. Every inhabitant of Gethamane is registered
  in a set of records that are kept by the farmers, and every
  inhabitant receives a daily measure of the Dole in return for
  labor of some sort for the city. Anyone staying in Gethamane
  longer than a month must be temporarily adopted into a
  native family, must live in that family’s district of the
  mountain and must be entered on the Dole/labor register on
  pain of being expelled from Gethamane. However, Bethan
  also made a law that adopted citizens could pay in goods or
  jade rather than in work. This informal tax system, com-
  bined with the fact that the inhabitants of Gethamane held
  the defenses and controlled the food supply, allowed
  Gethamane to remain moderately independent.
  LANGUAGE IN GETHAMANE
  Bethan Redeye’s people spoke Skytongue when
  they first came to Gethamane; this is still the most
  common language of the city. However, Bethan
  herself was one of the more educated of the group
  and carried hidden knowledge from her divine par-
  ent. She named Gethamane in the language of the
  Old Realm, hoping that calling the city “Sanctuary”
  would be a good omen for the future and a propitia-
  tion to any gods that might be listening.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  48
  When Bethan died, at the age of 93, she was survived
  by two husbands and a dozen children. She had been the
  accepted Mistress of Gethamane for 48 years and had
  raised her children to assume her responsibilities as admin-
  istrator and leader. She named her secondborn son Gerath,
  as her heir, thus establishing the tradition that the Master
  or Mistress of Gethamane choose an heir from among his
  or her assembled descendants, rather than automatically
  passing his or her position to the firstborn.
  TO THE PRESENT DAY
  Gethamane grew in importance as Guild traffic
  through the city increased. While the Masters of the city
  retained its social structure and customs, new traditions
  developed to handle the growing amount of jade and goods
  and the rising demand for food by travelers passing through.
  The Dole laws were strengthened so that only permanent
  residents (or adoptees into their families) had any right to
  the fungi produced in the sunken Gardens, and the City
  Guard was similarly improved in order to protect the
  Gardens and the food stores.
  Relationships with other city-states in the North
  have varied from good to difficult, somewhat dependent
  on the Guild’s relationships with those states. Gethamane’s
  lack of a standing army or the ability to fund and furnish
  one means that the city pursues a generally pacifist line and
  has no inclination to invade other city-states or take over
  their resources. However, in cases such as the Guild’s trade
  war with the Haslanti League in Realm Year 586,
  Gethamane found itself being drawn in and pressured by
  the Guild to refuse shelter to traders from that area or at
  least to tax them prohibitively. While Gethamane at-
  tempts to walk a middle path in such cases, the city
  frequently sides with the Guild and takes the extra tax
  money, then has to renegotiate trade pacts with the
  relevant city-states later.
  Gethamane has never paid tribute to the Realm. This
  is, in part, because it would be an uneconomic conquest —
  the place is too easily defended and can support itself from
  the inside Gardens for decades, while besieging armies are
  left without food or shelter. It’s simply not worth the
  Realm’s time and trouble to conquer the city and impose
  a satrap. On the other hand, the Realm is aware that
  Gethamane is an individualistic self-supporting city with
  a strong interest in neutrality and stability. Although
  Gethamane could potentially serve as a base for a small
  strike force, the sunken Gardens couldn’t support a full
  army. Bearing all these factors in mind, the Scarlet Em-
  press left the city in peace, though she seeded Gethamane
  with the usual complement of spies in order to ensure that
  it didn’t become a problem later.
  With the recent disappearance of the Scarlet Empress
  and the rise of the Bull of the North, Gethamane has
  become nervous. The current Mistress of Gethamane, Katrin
  Jadehand, has drawn up several plans for possible disaster
  scenarios, ranging from a serious assault by the Bull on
  Gethamane to an attempt by the Guild to take over. In the
  worst case, her planned strategy is to expel all foreigners
  while closing the city gates, place all adoptees under the
  direct guard of their adoptive families and sit tight and wait.
  While the people of Gethamane are aware that dark
  creatures roam the tunnels below the city and devour
  anything that they can catch, the people are ignorant of
  the true horror that lies below. Those elders of the Moun-
  tain Folk who know that Vodak is bound beneath
  Gethamane are not going to reveal the matter. The Moun-
  tain Folk are aware that Vodak may rise and devour again
  but consider this comparatively unimportant, given that
  the hekatonkhire can’t escape. The people of Gethamane
  are sitting on a potential disaster and have no idea how bad
  it is. They are also unaware of the Yu-Shan gate below the
  city, as the secret has been lost to antiquity. Only the
  Sidereals and a scattering of others are aware of the
  location of the gate.
  SOCIAL STRUCTURE
  Gethamane is a structure shaped by the necessity of
  organizing food distribution and defenses against the
  underways. Like much of the North, Gethamane is not a
  place where dissent against the established order can be
  tolerated. People either conform or leave. However,
  Gethamane accepts and even, to an extent, encourages a
  culture of leisure. Those people of the city who have done
  enough work to warrant their share of the Dole are wel-
  come to do what they want with their spare time,
  experimenting with drugs or art or other, stranger things.
  While the more regular citizens disapprove of these past
  times, they are a recognized part of life in Gethamane,
  dating back to the days when Bethan Redeye realized that
  she needed to keep a viable breeding population in the
  city. She recognized that there would always be those who
  disliked the system she had established, and she felt it was
  better to offer a cultural escape for them, rather than
  simply drive them out of the mountain.
  The four rough tiers of society are the Council, the
  moderately wealthy and respected (who mostly dwell in the
  Outer Ring), the poor (who dwell in the Upper Ring) and
  the truly homeless, poverty-stricken and family-less outcastes
  (who live anywhere they can). The upper classes adopt an
  attitude of generously appreciating the work of their lower-
  graded fellow citizens, while the lower classes openly scheme
  to raise their families’ status, secure dwellings in the Outer
  Ring (or even near the Gardens) and, some day, possibly
  gain seats on the Council. These attitudes are viewed as
  perfectly normal in Gethamane, and many popular com-
  edies showcase witty servants or lower-class Guards or
  artisans manipulating circumstances so that they come out
  ahead of the game — or even get formally adopted by the
  Master of Gethamane as a possible heir.
  
  49
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  THE MASTER OF GETHAMANE
  The Master (or Mistress) of Gethamane is the city’s
  hereditary ruler, a descendant of Bethan Redeye. Each
  Master chooses his heir from among the ranks of the
  Bethanites and must always have an heir formally named,
  though the Master is at liberty to choose a different heir at
  any time if he so desires. In the event of no other members
  of the family being alive (which has happened once,
  during a poisoning attempt by Mineko Threebrand of the
  Guard, 270 years ago), the Master must formally adopt at
  least three adults, who are then entered in the records as
  his own offspring, and name one of them as heir.
  The members of the Bethanite family are administra-
  tors, scribes, accountants and historians. While they are
  expected to be capable of using weapons and working on
  the farms, those are not their primary roles in life. The need
  to manage the Dole and work with the Guild forces
  Gethamane to have a capable administrator at the helm.
  While some of the family have been notable artists, swords-
  men or sorcerers, all of them start off with slate and chalk,
  doing arithmetic at their tutors’ knee.
  THE MASTER’S INTELLIGENCERS
  Unofficially, the Bethanites in general gather infor-
  mation for whomever is the current Master or Mistress. In
  practice, everyone in Gethamane knows about this —
  only the rawest and most ignorant newcomers from out-
  side the mountain would be unaware. This means that,
  while the Bethanites make excellent analysts, they are
  generally poor agents. People know who they are. It’s
  difficult even to be a “little-known” member of the family,
  as gossip is as common in Gethamane as it is in other cities,
  and the Master’s family is always a popular topic for
  dissection and scandal.
  This means that the Mistress of Gethamane has to look
  outside her family for operatives. Outsiders have potential,
  being theoretically unconnected to any goings-on inside
  Gethamane, but they have difficulty going about unnoticed.
  (While a Night Caste Solar would be the ideal answer to
  Mistress Katrin’s wishes, none have as yet shown up, let alone
  been willing to take the position.) The Gethamane tradition
  of loyalty to family also makes it hard to recruit anyone as an
  unbiased agent who will be primarily loyal to the Mistress.
  Shakan, the current Head Intelligencer — not that he
  holds such a rank openly, but anyone comparatively well-
  informed about the power structure in Gethamane is
  aware of his position — compensates with one of the oldest
  tricks in the book: blackmail. All of his agents are con-
  stantly on the watch for criminal behavior, and he uses
  that information to recruit new operatives, using their
  loyalty to their family by inspiring fear that their families
  will suffer for the agents’ acts. And, of course, once the
  agents have been working for him for long enough, that in
  itself is another reason to fear exposure . . . .
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  50
  Shakan has agents throughout society, except in the
  temples, as the priests are generally too preoccupied with
  their rituals to do anything significantly illegal. Although
  he has agents among the foreign merchants, he distrusts
  them and cannot be totally certain of their loyalty. He
  currently has no agents who are also Guild members but
  would like to gather some.
  THE COUNCIL
  The Council was established by Bethan Redeye in the
  second year of her rule, formalizing an arrangement that already
  existed. Originally, the Council consisted of 12 members: three
  from the City Guard, three farmers, three hunters and gatherers
  and three artisans. Shortly after the Guild’s arrival, Bethan
  added three more from the nascent class of merchants who
  dealt with the Guild representatives, raising the total to 15, and
  it has remained at that number ever since.
  The Council members are strictly advisors to the
  Master of Gethamane and have no direct power in their
  own right. However, being the recognized spokesmen for
  their particular factions gives them a great deal of influ-
  ence. The Council meets regularly three times a month,
  and emergency meetings may be called at any time. While
  the situation of Master and Council could seem a possible
  recipe for tyranny, the actual realities of life mean that the
  Master usually pays attention to what the Council has to
  say and acts more as a mediator than as an autocrat.
  A Council member holds her post until she dies,
  chooses to resign (often as a result of pressure by family or
  faction) or is relieved of her post by the Master of
  Gethamane. When a vacancy comes up on the Council,
  the other faction members present a list of possible candi-
  dates to the Master, who chooses the new Council member
  from that list. If all three faction posts fall vacant, the
  Master is free to choose new members from that faction as
  he wishes. Any Council post falling vacant is an excuse for
  urgent politicking behind the scenes, by the faction in
  question, by the other factions and by the Guild.
  Current notable Council members include Mienna of
  the Dulsheft family, of the farmers, a notable isolationist
  who wants to shut the whole of Gethamane away and seal
  all the entrances if the Bull of the North comes anywhere
  near the city; Hanzyon of the Loshan family, of the City
  Guard, who wants to increase the Guard’s numbers and
  forcibly conscript the Janissary Vault under military disci-
  pline; Solace of the Genthrax family (adopted from
  traveling merchants at the age of four), of the merchant
  faction, who wants to promote increased Guild ties and
  the establishment of a Guild mercenary outpost to aid in
  Gethamane’s defense; Luthin of the Doment family, of the
  hunters and gatherers, who wants to bring in sorcerers and
  engineers to establish farms and orchards on the slopes
  outside the city; and Tammeth of the Sochire family, of the
  artisan faction, who wants to have a tax on Guild imports
  in order to protect his family’s interests.
  THE UNDERCLASS
  People who don’t belong to Gethamane’s families and
  who, thus, aren’t citizens of the city form the underclass,
  however well-born or rich or gifted they are. They simply
  aren’t given the same consideration and respect that locals
  get. Shops overcharge them, the Guard treats them with
  distant curtness, they aren’t allowed anywhere near the
  Gardens and, when found outside the Guild quarter or the
  temples, they are politely encouraged to go back there and
  reminded none-too-subtly of the laws prohibiting a stay of
  more than a month.
  Most of the time, foreigners are fairly obvious. They
  don’t wear the clothes of Gethamane, they don’t have
  Gethamane accents and they don’t have the dark eyes and
  pale skin of the inhabitants of Gethamane. Hunters and
  gatherers may have sun-touched skin and the carriage of
  those who go outside, but they have a native accent, and
  they give the proper nonverbal cues to other citizens. The
  people who really suffer are those outsiders who have been
  adopted and who should be treated like normal citizens but
  don’t yet look or behave properly. To be fair, once local
  citizens are aware that the apparent foreigner they’re
  talking to or dealing with has been properly adopted, they
  will give him fair and civil treatment.
  Of course, the citizens of Gethamane have more sense
  than to overcharge or snub obviously dangerous foreigners
  or those who have the potential to be valuable contacts. The
  citizens will be polite, even flattering, and save their amuse-
  ment and sneering jokes for when they are in private with
  their families. As one of the earlier Masters said, “Be like the
  mountain: snow and ice outside, so that none can take
  offence, but life within, where families can share the joke.”
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Any
  A serial killer is targeting Council members,
  killing them in a way that fits their faction and
  occupation: a merchant is found with his stomach
  slit open and stuffed full of jade, while a farmer has
  been saturated with fungi and is blossoming in
  different varieties of mushroom. While overt evi-
  dence points at an unidentified Guild agent (and
  the Guild is certainly trying to seize the moment to
  gain concessions), the actual killer is a high-rank-
  ing Guard member whose mind has snapped and
  who worships the “Lord of the Underways.” While
  the killer has no actual contact with the underways,
  the creatures there will certainly take the opportu-
  nity to launch sneak attacks if Guard patrols slack
  off. The killer’s ultimate aim is to create widespread
  chaos — and his ultimate target is Mistress Katrin.
  
  51
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  THE PEOPLE OF GETHAMANE
  More than half the population of Gethamane never
  has to leave the city — and they don’t. They live away from
  natural sunlight and wind, protected from the snow and
  storms of the North, in tunnels where it is never truly dark,
  where food will always be provided to those who behave
  “properly” and do their duty to the city and where true fear
  is unnamed and comes from below.
  It is easy to differentiate between those members of
  the Guard and the hunters and gatherers who go outside
  and the rest of Gethamane. Those who go outside have
  genuine color in their cheeks or windburn and are capable
  of enduring the sun and natural weather without flinching,
  trembling or breaking down into fits of hysterics. Tasks
  often run in families, and the first time that a child from
  one of these families goes outside the walls of Gethamane
  is a major rite of passage for that child. Those citizens who
  never leave Gethamane have pale skins never touched by
  the sun and eyes adapted to shadows. They are used to
  listening for scrapes and whispers from dark corners and
  dress in deep colors or grays and blacks, rather than the
  bright shades that look attractive in sunlight.
  Naturally, this has grown into a division in society,
  but it is more one of fashion than a genuine social rift. The
  Council knows that it needs members of the city who can
  function outside its walls and that the food brought in by
  the hunters and gatherers is a vital precaution against
  trade-blackmail by the Guild. The Guard treats the divi-
  sion as a matter of specialty: some of its members work
  better outside, and some work better in the deep tunnels.
  The farmers are the only major faction to genuinely look
  down on those who go outside, and that is mostly because
  they themselves count few travelers among their numbers.
  The farmers’ tasks, by necessity, keep them working in the
  heart of the mountain throughout their lives.
  Clothing worn inside Gethamane is lightweight, as
  opposed to the heavy furs and wool needed outside. Mem-
  bers of the Guard wear tunics and trousers of plain linen or
  cotton, with boiled leather or steel armor. Farmers wear
  simple robes of brown. Hunters and gatherers wear clothes
  adapted for the outside when they venture out there. All
  other citizens wear plain cotton or silk robes or tunics and
  trousers in shades of gray, black and white. Status and
  wealth are conveyed by the quality of the cloth and the
  elegance of the clothing, rather than by color or patterns.
  Brightly colored clothing is reserved for the bedchamber.
  GENDER ROLES IN GETHAMANE
  The relative social positions of men and women in
  Gethamane were permanently shaped by the fact that
  Bethan Redeye, their first leader, was female and that,
  during the refugees’ travels through the wild North, they
  were in such danger and hardship that there was no room
  left for gender distinctions. Even today, Gethamane is
  mostly gender-neutral, and women and men occupy a
  more or less equal social position. However, there are
  certain areas of society into which each gender tends to get
  shunted, barring particular talents or inclinations.
  The Guard is approximately three-quarters male, while
  the farmers are approximately four-fifths female. While
  both social groups will take members of the other gender,
  girls are generally directed away from martial occupations,
  and boys are not encouraged to help tend the fungus trays.
  Both genders can freely work as craftsmen, as gatherers
  outside (though hunters are more usually male) and as
  merchants or negotiators. Formal marriage is between men
  and women, but lovers of the same gender are common.
  Quite often, a married couple will have a publicly ac-
  knowledged lover who shares both their beds.
  FAMILIES AND DESCENT
  Inside families, descent is matrilineal, but a woman’s
  current husband is considered to be the father of all her
  children, whether or not she was married to him or to
  someone else at the time she bore the children. However,
  inter-family adoption is common, and, once adopted into a
  new family, the adoptee formally breaks all links with the old
  one. A woman can, therefore, bear a child to a man in another
  family, then give the child to be adopted by parents inside the
  other family (if she is married, this requires her husband’s
  permission as well), at which point the child becomes, for all
  intents and purposes, a child of that family. It is considered
  very rude to pry into someone’s past about something like this
  or to suggest that he might feel loyalty to any family other than
  his own, even if he is the physical child of that family.
  The only incest taboo in Gethamane is against mar-
  rying one’s own siblings, whether blood-kin or adoptive.
  The constant shuffling round of adoptions means that new
  blood gets into most of the families; there are few serious
  cases of inbreeding. Situations in which a youth falls in
  love with his adoptive sibling but is unable to marry her
  have inspired a number of tragic plays, which usually end
  with a socially improving moral about incestuous passions
  leading to murderous rampages and suicide or with a heroic
  choice of exile and virtuous separation.
  A person is known either by his personal name and
  then his family name or by his personal name and “of the
  such-and-such family.” The first usage is more common
  these days, but the second usage is more old-fashioned and
  is still adhered to among the more important families.
  LAW AND ORDER
  Crime, in Gethamane, was defined by Bethan Redeye
  as “trespass on person, property or domain.” This was
  further codified by her grandson Senet into the Three
  Rules, which are the main source of Gethamane’s law and
  have been clarified over the years by other Masters and
  Mistresses of Gethamane.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  52
  THE PROCESS OF ADOPTION
  Inter-family adoption inside Gethamane is a comparatively simple thing, done to cement ties between
  families, to provide for orphans or children with uncertain parentage or, occasionally, to introduce new blood
  into excessively inbred families. The legal process of adopting outsiders into Gethamane families and making
  them citizens is rather more complex and carries more social difficulties.
  Firstly, any given family can only adopt one outsider per year. (This law was codified by the second Master,
  Gerath, to prevent any family adopting large numbers of outsiders.) Secondly, important families don’t necessarily
  want to adopt outsiders. These families have a strong civil position and don’t want to adopt strangers who may bring
  disrepute on their position; in any case, the potential for adoption is a annual prize that the families don’t necessarily
  want to use up. There are many middle-class or lower-class families in Gethamane who would be willing to adopt
  an outsider, particularly if a large payment in jade or goods was involved, but, again, they would want to be sure that
  their family wouldn’t be at risk from the outsider’s actions. Thirdly, while the only people who formally need to give
  assent to the adoption are the “father” and “mother” of the new adoptee, if the rest of the family is strongly opposed
  to this course of action, then pressure may be put on the married pair not to perform the adoption. Fatal accidents,
  such as falling into the underways never to be heard from again or tragic overdoses of common sleeping drugs have
  been known to occur in particularly awkward cases (especially ones involving Guild members being adopted.)
  Sometimes, an outsider will do a Gethamane family such a definite favor that adoption in return is not only
  a feasible course of action, but the only commensurate favor that the family can provide in return. (After all, it
  is a high honor for someone from inside Gethamane to consent to bring an outsider into such a closed society.)
  In that case, adoption will be offered willingly, and the outsider is expected to understand exactly how large a
  favor is being done for him. If the outsider truly doesn’t want to be adopted, then an accepted solution is for him
  to have a child of his blood (or, at worst, a deserving orphan) adopted by the family in his place.
  It’s impossible to perform an adoption without it going on the civil lists, the city records and, most
  importantly, the Dole. The Guild and the Realm can’t smuggle in full agents this way without those agents being
  closely observed — while the members of the Council aren’t going to go against the accepted law, they aren’t
  stupid. The best that outside forces wanting to influence Gethamane can do is to arrange for future agents to be
  adopted as children and then to attempt to influence them once they reach the age of usefulness. Alternatively,
  it is possible to get an innocuous outsider adopted and then later substitute an agent for the adoptee, but this runs
  the risk of high embarrassment and social disgrace for the family concerned if it is discovered.
  
  53
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  THE THREE RULES
  1. Blood pays for blood, but it must serve the city: all crimes
  of personal assault shall be paid as debts to Gethamane,
  and Gethamane shall reimburse the victim in turn.
  2. Jade pays for jade: all crimes of theft or other trespass on
  another’s goods shall be repaid twofold, once to the victim
  and once to the city.
  3. What we have, we hold: all crimes of trespass on
  another’s domain shall be paid for by a gift of land in turn,
  or the Dole shall be remitted and the trespasser cast forth
  to starve.
  The First Rule covers all cases of assault, from petty
  fights to rape or murder. Minor assault (up to the loss of an
  extremity) carries a fine of goods or service, of which
  Gethamane takes half and the victim takes half. Major
  assault or rape carries a penalty of a major fine, permanent
  hard labor, exile or a combination of the three. Actual
  murder is penalized by permanent hard labor, exile or
  execution. In all the above cases, if the victim is dead or
  incapable of receiving reimbursement, then her share is paid
  to her family. If self-defense or justifiable provocation can be
  proven, then the penalty is reduced but never totally remit-
  ted. Gethamane is a working society, and permanently
  depriving it of part of its workforce cannot be tolerated.
  The Second Rule is straightforward and carried out
  precisely to the last grain of jade that can be measured.
  This law covers theft, fraud, giving short weight, charging
  outsiders less than citizens of Gethamane (this clause is
  extremely unpopular among outsiders) and damaging goods
  (including slaves).
  The Third Rule is the most difficult to administer but
  is vitally necessary in an enclosed city such as Gethamane,
  where questions of trespass and personal privacy become
  important enough to lead to murder. In cases in which the
  two disputing parties share a boundary, the penalty usually
  consists of moving the boundary line by a foot or two in the
  appropriate direction. This can result in rooms being shared
  between two families, with screens set up to give both sides
  some semblance of privacy. (Citizens of Gethamane do not
  find this sort of situation amusing, and outsiders are advised
  not to make jokes about it publicly.) If the two parties don’t
  share a boundary, then a complicated legal fiction arises.
  The city officially confiscates a part of the first family’s
  territory, allows the family to “buy it back” and then pays the
  resulting jade to the second family.
  Simply running through someone else’s territory
  doesn’t qualify for full punishment under the Third Rule,
  but is usually settled by a simple fine of jade or services.
  Children doing this aren’t generally brought up in front
  of the court for it, as it is expected that a hint to their
  family will settle the problem. However, in the event of
  persistent misbehavior by older children, it has been
  known to occur. This is considered a significant disgrace
  for the family in question.
  Trials take place weekly in front of three judges: one
  a Bethanite, one a senior member of the Guard and one a
  senior member of the farmers. (Lately, there has been a
  movement among the artisans, the merchants and the
  hunters and gatherers to permit other judges from their
  ranks, but it lacks support among the Guards and farmers.)
  Complainant and criminal must both state their cases in
  front of the judges. (If the complainant is unable to speak
  or otherwise present her case, then a family member or
  Guard may do so in her place.) The judges consider all the
  evidence, deliberate and then pronounce sentence. Infor-
  mation obtained through spells or bound demons are
  permissible evidence, though attempting to sorcerously
  influence a judge is considered a serious case of personal
  assault and garners the appropriate penalty.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Abyssal, Dragon-
  Blooded, God-Blooded, Heroic Mortal, Solar
  Nellens Avanthe has long-term ambitions to
  bring Gethamane into the Realm. She sees the mer-
  chants of Gethamane as her most convenient tool in
  doing this, as they are the ones with the biggest interest
  in outside commerce and connections to other coun-
  tries. Getting a merchant among the judges would
  establish a powerful precedent and serve to swing the
  axis of power in the merchants’ direction. Several
  merchants would be even better. The only person with
  the authority to order this is the current Mistress,
  Katrin Jadehand. Avanthe has some hidden supplies of
  ghost-flower tea, and she knows about Katrin’s fre-
  quent visits to the temples. All she needs to do is to dose
  Katrin’s drinks with the tea on those occasions and
  then have someone who can command ghosts sum-
  mon up a few of Katrin’s ancestors and force them to
  command her to change the law.
  A problem with this plan is that there aren’t any
  local ghosts. Avanthe has assumed that this is simply
  because nobody’s managed to summon them success-
  fully, not that they just aren’t there (see pp. 64-65 for
  why they aren’t around). She has also failed to consider
  that she is making herself ridiculously vulnerable to
  blackmail or that a thaumaturge or Fair Folk could use
  illusions or glamours to produce fake ghosts. Worst of
  all, she is careless enough that it might be possible to
  trace all this back to her and to her Great House. This
  could be the wedge that causes Katrin to bar Gethamane
  to all Realm influence. If a Solar or Abyssal found out
  about this, would they take the opportunity to influ-
  ence Katrin, or would they use Avanthe as a tool
  instead? And how would the priests react, if they found
  out how she planned to profane their temple?
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  54
  Although execution is the ultimate sanction, the Coun-
  cil prefers a more demonstrative penalty for the most serious
  crimes. Those found guilty of violent murder, serious fraud
  or conspiracy to give outsiders access to Gethamane’s Gar-
  dens are blinded, branded and set to labor for the rest of their
  lives in the fungus gardens. There, while doing heavy work
  that doesn’t require sight or freedom, the criminals provide
  a salutary example for other citizens.
  Exile is actually one of the milder penalties inflicted
  on criminals and is often inflicted by the judges in a spirit
  of mercy on those who clearly cannot live inside Gethamane
  and whose crimes are more byproducts of natural vigor or
  inclination than genuine malice. Exile may be for a set
  period of time (though usually at least five years) or
  perpetual. If it is for a given period, then the criminal may
  return to Gethamane after his time of exile has passed and
  reassume all privileges and duties as a member of his family
  and citizen of the city.
  have particularly urgent concerns or if they hope for
  prophetic dreams. While they would not deny any deity’s
  powers, the gods of Gethamane seem to have made their
  demands quite simple, and the people of Gethamane
  acquiesce and leave well enough alone. Similarly, most
  people don’t bother with luck charms or amulets. Citizens
  who have frequent commerce with outsiders sometimes
  buy luck charms from them, but this is often more of a
  political statement than an actual serious petition to
  external deities.
  All temples to gods other than those of Gethamane
  must, by law, lie within the Guild District, and no Immacu-
  late temples are permitted. Small portable travelers’ shrines
  are politely ignored but can be used as an excuse for arrest if
  the Guard has some reason to harass the people involved.
  There are very few permanent temples in the Guild District,
  but there are several rooms that are available to passing
  caravans who want to arrange set worship for several days.
  Gethamane has no objection to travelers worshiping the
  Unconquered Sun, any more than the city would object to
  any other god. The only prohibition is against breaking any
  of the laws of Gethamane while so worshiping.
  There is a small mystery cult among the farmers to the
  gods of fungus and mushrooms, but the worship is some-
  thing that stays strictly within the Gardens and is only
  practiced among the more senior farmers. While the
  Mistress and a number of other powerful citizens are aware
  of the cult’s existence, they refrain from getting involved
  and don’t ask too many questions about the odd “acciden-
  tal death” of a condemned convict who somehow gets bled
  dry and emasculated before his body is discovered.
  The hot springs located throughout Gethamane are
  used as public baths and are considered social as well as
  hygienic locations. The hot springs were all declared to be
  city property in the early days of the city and remain such.
  Even the wealthiest families must either come to the
  public baths or heat basins of water in their own homes.
  The hot springs were clearly used by the previous inhabit-
  ants, as the caves in which the springs are situated were laid
  out for bathing, with some small pools to one side for
  private use and other large pools for general use.
  DEATH IN GETHAMANE
  The dead of Gethamane are cremated in the three
  temples by the priesthood, and their ashes are either kept
  by the families or scattered outside on the mountain slopes.
  It is illegal to dispose of dead bodies in any other way.
  However, there are some inhabitants of the city (most
  notably Ellewan Dassen of the Outer Circle) who have
  training in embalming — and even taxidermy. There are
  families throughout Gethamane, not wishing to be parted
  from those they love, who manage to conceal the pre-
  served corpses of their ancestors in hidden rooms and
  private quarters. The occasional discovery of an embalmed
  body provokes an immediate search of the area by the
  SLAVERY IN GETHAMANE
  Slavery is not a legal punishment in Gethamane.
  Permanent hard labor is not considered by the inhab-
  itants to be slavery, even if it does involve spending
  the rest of your life working, branded and blind, in the
  fungus gardens. Similarly, it is illegal for any perma-
  nent inhabitant of Gethamane to own slaves. Labor
  must be hired from within the city. (This was insti-
  tuted by the second Master, Gerath, in order to
  prevent slave labor from causing rising unemploy-
  ment inside Gethamane.) Some of the merchant
  class are currently agitating to change the law, but
  they have little support. However, not wanting to
  lose the associated Guild trade, Gethamane permits
  slave caravans to pass through the city.
  Inside Gethamane, slaves are considered prop-
  erty, and are covered by the Second Rule. This
  means that the Guard can (and does) enforce some
  standards in slave-handling. If the Guards witness
  particularly unpleasant treatment of slaves, the
  Guards can arrest everyone in sight on charges of
  “damaging another person’s property” until the ac-
  tual legal owner of the slaves chooses to testify that
  he deliberately gave orders for the slave to be mis-
  treated. In such a case, nobody gets penalized by law,
  but the general confusion and delay engendered by
  such charges does nothing for the slave caravan’s
  smooth running or reputation.
  RELIGION IN GETHAMANE
  Most citizens of Gethamane are quite happy to leave
  the actual business of worship and propitiation to the
  chosen priests and only go to the three temples when they
  
  55
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  People who revolt at such rigid ideas of pleasure
  indulge themselves in more creative ways. Scarification —
  undertaken under drugs that amplify each sensation — is
  in vogue at the moment, but general use of drugs, casual
  sex, private sessions of torture between consenting indi-
  viduals (or ones who are well paid to endure or inflict it)
  and vicious sessions of gossip and destroying reputations
  are all common. The important thing is that the hobby
  shouldn’t be visible afterward. People never have scars or
  marks from torture where it will show — even the young
  who want to shock their parents. It’s important to be able
  to maintain a placid, pale, untouched face to the rest of
  Gethamane before vanishing again into the private rooms
  to do those things that are only done in private.
  This is all in accordance with tradition. People don’t
  make a fuss or get noticed or disturb the quiet functioning
  of the city. If they must do strange things in order to release
  their tensions in private, that’s their own business, and it’s
  the height of bad manners to suggest that your next-door
  neighbor copulates with imported goats in his silk-hung
  bedroom. Unless, of course, it should be audible through
  the walls — in which case, it becomes a matter for public
  discussion, and the general condemnation of your neigh-
  bor will be on the grounds of his incompetence for not
  keeping the sound down.
  FEAR IN GETHAMANE
  Gethamane has food, shelter, warmth, a working
  economy, a functioning social system with room for up-
  ward mobility, viable trade links and heavy defenses. The
  people who dwell there can enjoy sophisticated leisure
  pursuits, lenient deities and the knowledge that, even if
  the world outside the mountain should collapse, they can
  just close their doors and be safe. At a casual glance, they
  have everything they could reasonably ask for.
  But what they also have is permanent, constant fear.
  Everyone in Gethamane knows someone (or knows
  someone who has a friend who knows someone) who’s
  seen the things that come up from the underways. Everyone’s
  heard the stories. Everyone’s walked near an underways
  entrance and felt the cold touch of damp air against skin.
  Everyone in Gethamane, even the babies in cribs listening
  to cradle songs, is aware that they are living above the
  caves of monsters. It’s the price they pay for living inside
  the mountain, in the beautiful carven city with so many
  amenities and such convenient food and warmth.
  It’s not quite comparable to living in a constant state
  of siege. After all, the Guard has always managed to beat
  back any incursions from below, sooner or later. It’s not
  even an overmastering threat. Centuries of living here
  undisturbed have convinced the citizens that the creatures
  below are never going to stage a really major attack. It’s just
  the knowledge that beneath your feet, separated from you
  by only a layer of stone, are inhuman creatures who want
  to drag you into the darkness and kill you.
  ANATHEMA IN GETHAMANE
  While the current citizens of Gethamane are
  descended from those who fled there during the
  Usurpation, the lack of constant Realm influence or
  Immaculate presence has left them with no particular
  hatred toward Solars, Lunars or any other Exalted.
  The citizens’ attitude toward beings of great power
  who command mighty Charms and spells and wield
  ancient weapons is merely one of sensible distrust and
  caution. Any obvious Solar who enters the city will
  be noted at the gates, directed to the Guild District as
  a visitor and watched by the Guard (within reason);
  a sigh of relief will be generally breathed when she
  leaves the city. She will not be unduly persecuted,
  however, or have people trying to lead mobs against
  her. Individual action by visiting Dragon-Blooded or
  Immaculates is possible, but in that case, the Guard
  will primarily blame the aggressors rather than the
  Solar and will appreciate any attempts made to avoid
  significant property damage.
  The Mistress of Gethamane is interested in
  employing Exalted to try to clear out portions of the
  underways but otherwise has no real need for them
  — that she knows of. She is also very much aware of
  the power of the Solars and Abyssals and knows that
  a number of them are currently looking for defen-
  sible bases. (The Bull of the North is a powerful
  reminder to the whole North that the Solars are
  dangerous.) While the Mistress of Gethamane has
  no wish to anger any of the Celestial Exalted, she
  would really rather they stay out of Gethamane —
  and that, while in Gethamane, they behave accord-
  ing to the city’s laws.
  Guard and the arrest of everyone involved. However,
  nobody realizes the full scale of this practice, especially
  among the rich families, who have the space to hide
  preserved corpses and the jade to pay for the process.
  LEISURE IN GETHAMANE
  Pastimes in Gethamane range from the sedately virtu-
  ous to the quietly degenerate. Proper-thinking citizens (as
  they describe themselves) like to fill their leisure hours
  with uplifting, self-improving pursuits, ranging from quiet
  exercise and productive crafts (carving imported drift-
  wood is currently very fashionable) to watching morality
  plays and writing epic poetry modeled on barbarian sagas
  that celebrates honor and virtue. Music is also popular, but
  wind instruments are more generally used than string
  instruments, and drums are never played for recreation, as
  they are reserved for the Guard’s use.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  56
  GEOGRAPHY
  In Gethamane, social rank goes along with depth in
  the mountain. The closer a person is to ground level, where
  the sunken Gardens are, the higher-ranked she is. There
  are two great gates to the city, one on either side of the
  mountain at north and south, and a number of higher
  passages that lead to the outside, all well-concealed and
  easily closed, that the gatherers and hunters use when
  going out to collect food and hunt.
  Near the top of the mountain are the city’s three
  temples, large open rooms decorated with jewel-encrusted
  carvings of mountains and enormous flying creatures. At
  the base of the mountain, in its heart, lie the long sunken
  Gardens. Next to them are important civic buildings such
  as the Courthouse, the Dole distribution center, the Master’s
  quarters and the Guardhall. Roughly above these, but far
  lower down than the temples, are the large rooms that
  have been given over for Guild and market use, where the
  Guild may stable and house its caravans, trade with the
  people of the city and maintain a permanent market.
  Farther out, toward the sides of the mountain, lie the
  tunnels and rooms that have been claimed as territory by
  the various families, and are used for accommodation,
  crafting and storage.
  THE STRUCTURE
  The passages of Gethamane are square shaped, their walls and ceilings dark gray and slightly rough. While
  the smaller rooms are generally plain and of much the same structure as the passageways, the larger rooms and
  halls are covered in intricate and beautiful carvings. Some rooms have stone doors, while others have newer
  doors of timber or stretched hide. Timber and hide are also frequently used to erect partitions across rooms or
  passageways or to mark the limits of a family’s territory. The older or wealthier families have heavier, metal-
  nailed bulwarks or elaborately painted screens, while poorer families must make do with roughly tanned leather,
  pieces of wood cannibalized from merchants’ carts and other temporary makeshifts.
  Pale crystals set in the ceiling and walls glow bright during the day and more gently during the night. There
  is little true darkness in the city of Gethamane, unless the crystals in a room or passage are deliberately covered
  or broken. This results in an increased fear of the underways and their total darkness. Many of Gethamane’s
  citizens are mildly phobic about true darkness, since they so rarely have to experience it, and, as a result, the
  tunnels beneath the city are given yet another reason to be a place of nightmare.
  The underways themselves are quite different in structure from the upper city. The stone from which the
  underways are carved is black, rounded and faintly slick to the touch. There are several dozen known entrances
  to the lower tunnels from the city, and the Guard watches them all and keeps records of all activity passing
  through the entrances in either direction.
  It is a crime against the Second Law of Gethamane (trespass on another’s goods) to damage the structure
  of the city or to damage or break one of the glowing crystals that illuminate it. (It requires three levels of
  aggravated damage to weaken a crystal and reduce the light by half and six levels of aggravated damage to break
  one.) The usual penalty is a heavy fine in jade or goods and enforced service to the city in a menial capacity.
  The Masters of Gethamane have always wanted to discourage such behavior by example.
  There are wells sunk throughout the city, though far more on the lower levels than the upper ones. The laws
  of Gethamane forbid anyone to restrict or bar the use of a well “save at the will of the City in time of trouble”
  and consider any damage or pollution to a well to be another crime against the Second Law, garnering similar
  penalties as damage to the light crystals.
  DAY AND NIGHT
  The light crystals set into Gethamane’s ceilings and
  walls fluctuate with the time of day, being brighter during
  what is day in the outside world and darker during the
  night. However, even in the crystals’ subdued state, they
  are still bright enough to enable craftsmen to work at all
  but the most demanding tasks, farmers to labor, Guards to
  patrol and merchants to bargain. Gethamane is alive and
  busy all round the clock, with citizens working during the
  “day” or “night” depending on their personal preferences.
  Outsiders quickly learn to adjust their sleep cycles in order
  to take advantage of this.
  THE OUTER SLOPES
  Gethamane’s hunters and gatherers travel the slopes
  of the mountain and the surrounding tundra under all
  conditions short of howling blizzards. The appalling win-
  ter weather and marauding icewalkers makes it impossible
  to maintain stable farms during the winter, but hardy
  orchards and perennial crops mean that there is some
  cultivated food to harvest in the brief summer and autumn.
  Otherwise, there are mosses and ferns to gather and local
  wildlife to hunt down.
  
  57
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  The dozen exits that the hunters and gatherers use are
  all positioned high up on the mountain, spaced in a loose
  circle around the peak, nearly a day’s downhill travel from
  the main entrances. The hunters’ exits are stone gateways
  sufficiently wide for five men to walk abreast through them
  and 10 feet high. Stone passages (trapped by the Guard to
  enable collapse if necessary) 20 feet long lead back inside to
  large rooms that the hunters and gatherers use to store their
  equipment and hunting weapons. These entrances were
  originally built to allow the flying race of Dragon Kings to
  enter and leave Gethamane easily, during the First Age and
  the days of their greatness. Nobody in Gethamane now
  realizes this or can translate the ancient script carved in the
  tongue of the Dragon Kings around the entrances.
  The hunters and gatherers also act as scouts, bringing
  information on local movements back to Gethamane. The
  Guard even pays a small bounty for useful reports. In
  general, the Mistress of Gethamane is aware of what’s
  going on for a couple of days’ journey around the mountain
  — farther if good weather allows for farther observation
  from the mountain’s heights.
  THE ENTRANCES
  The two great gates of Gethamane are carved from
  stone and reinforced with jade and have heavy enchant-
  ments of warding and defense laid on them. The First Age
  Twilight Caste who raised the gates intended for the
  mountain to be a possible refuge against the Fair Folk as
  well as the barbarians of the North, and, so, made the gates
  firm and strong. A tunnel 50 yards long and 10 yards high
  and wide leads from each gate to a large antechamber,
  which has heavy crystal portcullises at each end and serves
  as a Guard post. Each antechamber also holds the keys to
  a set of explosives and sorceries set into the 50-yard tunnel
  leading to it, which should (it has never been tested)
  collapse the tunnel when activated. This is a last-ditch
  defense, to be used if the outer gate falls.
  The Commander of the Northern Gate is Gavne
  Wheelwright, who was trained by his family as a craftsman.
  He went into the City Guard after the death of his wife at
  the age of 25 at the hands of underdwellers and rose
  through the ranks on a tidal wave of driven purpose and
  natural talent. His drive to be revenged on the underdwellers
  is obvious to anyone who brings up the subject with him.
  Golden Stag, the Captain of the Guard, has placed Gavne
  in this position to prevent his obsession from causing his
  own death or resulting in unacceptable Guard losses. For
  the moment, Gavne makes no complaint.
  The Commander of the Southern Gate is Mindros
  Yarni, a career soldier who’s been in the Guard since his teens.
  He is practical, competent and uninspired, but he does an
  excellent and reliable job of commanding and organizing his
  men. He is also notorious not only for refusing bribes from
  merchants or the Guild but for actively reporting the attempts
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  58
  a standard fee of one dinar of silver for every person who
  enters Gethamane (half an dinar per slave, by special
  concession of the Council) that is paid by the leader of the
  group. In the case of a cash shortage, the Guard is willing to
  take down the character’s name and details and either take
  the payment in goods or allow the character to make the
  payment later by doing civic work for Gethamane, with the
  amount to be adjudicated by one of the Bethanites. (While
  this work is usually menial but necessary, particularly dan-
  gerous but penniless adventurers may be asked to undertake
  an expedition into the underways, with promises of signifi-
  cant extra recompense if they succeed.) Masters of slave
  caravans often arrange for their slaves to work off the fee in
  labor while staying in the city, rather than pay.
  THE OUTER RING
  Farther in from the antechamber, the tunnels branch
  out and become more complex, going up and down as well
  as to left and right. Traveling upward but directly ahead
  leads to the Guild area. The direct passage is well-marked,
  with Guard posts along the way, officially to prevent
  merchants from getting lost but unofficially to keep an eye
  on anyone leaving the main passages. Farther out to the
  side lie the dwellings of the middle classes of Gethamane
  — long-established Guard and farming families, respected
  artisans and hunters and prospectors who have done well
  from expeditions into the underways.
  These sets of rooms have usually been in the hands of
  a single family for generations. The rooms grow cluttered
  with the family’s heirlooms and detritus and are frequently
  crowded, if the family has grown and not married or
  adopted its children out to another family. Rooms in this
  area are seldom free and only become so if an entire family
  should perish without willing its property to anyone else or
  if some crime against the city should result in a family being
  exiled, slain or enslaved. In such a case, ownership of the
  rooms reverts to the Council, and the Master of Gethamane
  chooses to whom they are awarded. (The Guild has been
  trying to get its hands on some of these rooms for centuries
  now, but previous Masters have avoided deeding these
  rooms to anyone connected with the Guild, however high
  a bribe is offered.)
  This is also the area that contains public buildings
  that aren’t important enough to be in the central area with
  the Gardens and the Council buildings, but are useful to
  Gethamane as a whole. Craft halls, minor associations,
  schools and similar establishments can be found in this
  area. Either they are set up in rooms that are rented to them
  by particular families, or a major family from the organiza-
  tion owns the rooms and charges a small fee to all the other
  members. It is very difficult indeed for a new organization
  to get itself territory in this area. To do so would require a
  debt of gratitude by, or the major blackmail of, one of the
  families who could rent the organization a room.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Abyssal, God-
  Blooded, Heroic Dead, Heroic Mortal
  Gavne’s obsession leaves the Northern Gate in
  danger. He’s begun reading the works of the Bishop
  of the Chalcedony Thurible, dreaming of saving the
  bodies of Gethamane’s dead (Gavne fails to realize
  how many are already illegally embalmed), raising
  them as zombies and marching them down into the
  underways to destroy every living creature there. If
  one of the Bishop’s deathknights learns (from the
  merchant who sold Gavne the books, for instance)
  that a commander of Gethamane’s Guard is vulner-
  able to his master’s words, then Gavne will certainly
  be sought out and offered a bargain of some sort.
  Equally, a deathknight serving another master might
  want to prevent such a coup by the Bishop’s forces.
  At the moment, this can still be stopped by heroic
  mortals or ghosts who can discover Gavne’s pain
  and clear his troubled mind. It won’t remain so for
  much longer.
  at bribery and getting the merchants in question fined.
  Having been converted by a traveling Immaculate monk,
  Mindros is actually a devotee of the Immaculate Order and is
  quietly gathering support to have an Immaculate temple set
  up in one of the upper rooms of the mountain. This is being
  resisted on religious grounds by the current priests of
  Gethamane’s temples and by Mistress Katrin and other
  Bethanites who have enough political savvy to realize the
  opening that such a temple would give to the Realm.
  Gavne and Mindros each command a squadron of 60 of
  the Guard, who serve in eight-hour shifts, 20 of them on
  duty at any time at each gate. While bribery of the Guard is
  forbidden by Gethamane’s law, it is generally understood
  that small presents (such as food, cloth or cheap items)
  given to the Guard in return for an explanation of local
  geography and laws don’t count as bribes but are considered
  tokens of gratitude for assistance beyond the call of duty.
  In the event of serious trouble, a runner is always on
  duty to contact the Guardhall, and more Guards can be
  mobilized at a moment’s notice. The Guard tends toward
  firmness and severity. The constant awareness of the horrors
  lurking in Gethamane’s underways leaves the Guard on
  edge. Any minor brawl or scuffle in the gate passages or
  antechambers will be dealt with brusquely and effectively.
  All those entering Gethamane have their names taken
  down, together with a brief physical description, usually no
  more than “black-haired woman” or “man with limp.”
  Particularly noticeable characters, such as Solars traveling
  openly, are likely to have more details noted down. There is
  
  59
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  Naturally, not every single room is occupied or claimed.
  However, the few rooms that are left are far to the edges of
  the Outer Ring and have often been used as dumping
  grounds for rubbish for centuries or are close enough to a
  family’s territory that the family could make a plausible
  case before Gethamane’s judges for owning the room.
  Some thieves in the area use such rooms as lairs, building
  nests in the years of collected litter and detritus.
  While the beauty of Gethamane’s structure is evi-
  dent, so is the clutter of centuries of inhabitation. Families
  react to the buildup of their own rubbish by shifting it into
  other people’s areas or dumping it in public places — while
  trying not to get caught doing so, of course. The people
  who own property in this area consider themselves the
  pillars of Gethamane, the ones who actually get the work
  of the city done. While they are courteous to visitors
  (especially wealthy ones), they will call the Guard to chase
  away beggars, lowlifes, bravos or other undesirables.
  Several acting and entertainer families own proper-
  ties in this area and use them to present performances.
  While these families are not considered high society, or
  even upper middle class, the Gardens and the Outer Ring
  both tolerate them rather than drive them into the Upper
  Ring. After all, if these families should be based there
  among the poor, it would be that much harder for the rich
  to visit them and enjoy their performances.
  Some of the more notable locations in this area follow.
  THE JANISSARY VAULT
  Not all of Gethamane’s fighters go into the Guard —
  or manage to stay there. Those who were expelled from the
  Guard or were unable to endure its discipline or those who
  have entered Gethamane from outside and been adopted
  by a local family are all welcome to join the Janissary Vault.
  This organization has been operating for 50 years now
  (previous Masters discouraged the formation of any such
  organization) and provides hired bodyguards, warriors and
  general thugs.
  While the Janissary Vault publicly proclaims that it
  abides by the laws of Gethamane and would never even
  consider doing anything remotely illegal, in practice, a
  sufficiently intelligent and discreet hirer can buy services
  up to — though usually not including — murder. (The
  current Vaultmaster doesn’t want to give the Council any
  excuse for a crackdown.) Being in the Janissary Vault is not
  considered genuine service to the City, so members only
  get the basic Dole. As a result, they are constantly on the
  lookout for potential work.
  Despite the close similarity of functions, the Janissary
  Vault has no actual connection with the Guild itself,
  though the Guild would be delighted to absorb it as an
  affiliate. Should this happen, Mistress Katrin would have
  to take urgent action of some sort, ranging from declaring
  the Janissary Vault illegal to requiring close observation
  and registration of all the Vault’s jobs and actions.
  THE PHILOSOPHY CELL
  The Philosophy Cell is a haven for would-be sorcer-
  ers, religious ascetics, devotees of self-created religions,
  drug addicts and amateur historians attempting to discover
  the true history of Gethamane. Members are generally
  young people from the middle and upper classes, possessed
  of more money and spare time than sense and with ambi-
  tions that soar beyond the mundane matters of fungus
  farming and guarding the entrances to the underways. The
  Philosophy Cell has spread from a single-room debating
  society to encompass several rooms that are officially listed
  as public meeting places. The current occupants aren’t
  actually breaking any laws, but the Guard could easily
  move in and clear the place out if they wanted to.
  Even though this is a hangout for the young and
  frivolous, serious research does take place here, and a
  number of the regulars are professional and capable in their
  respective fields. Notable members include Damaithe Yarni
  (a thaumaturge and secret demonologist), Serret of the
  Bethanites (a painstaking but reliable historian — who is,
  of course, reporting everything that he observes) Tazar
  Pellan (a cold-blooded alchemist testing out some of his
  concoctions on those wanting mystical experiences) and
  Arik Varken, who is willing to try anything that will shock
  his family.
  THE RATS’ NEST
  This abandoned storehouse and junkyard far to the
  east of the Outer Ring serves as home to Jaxar, a Guild
  agent, and her group of child-thieves. Jaxar is 40 years old,
  HIDDEN FIRE MANSE
  The Janissary Vault doesn’t realize that there is
  an old Fire-aspected Manse (Manse ••) located
  directly above the set of caves in which they’re
  based. Concealed by hidden doors and by careful
  design of the surrounding passages, the Manse was
  originally used as a private laboratory by a Twilight
  Caste Solar who visited Gethamane frequently
  before the Usurpation. The fact that the Manse is
  safely capped has stopped random flares of Essence
  or other possibly dangerous manifestations, but
  even so, something of the temperament and nature
  of fire leaks out into the vicinity, fanning local
  flames of aggression and igniting passions. The
  Manse itself is a small set of rooms, furnished with
  expensive but old wooden furniture and with a few
  sorcerous texts (mostly standard reference works)
  left behind by the previous owner. The Manse was
  sealed and empty of human life when Vodak struck,
  and the hekatonkhire never entered it.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  60
  but she is a dwarf with a preternaturally young face and,
  from a distance, can easily pass as a child. She was dropped
  off here by the Guild five years ago to build up a base for
  action and to pass on regular reports on Gethamane. Since
  then, she has deftly managed to avoid registration for the
  Dole. She is a simultaneous den mother, admired leader
  and scary outsider to her agents.
  Jaxar’s agents are all children of 14 years or less, mostly
  from the middle or upper classes, who regard the whole
  “Society of Thieves” as a huge game. The children regu-
  larly execute pranks or petty thefts for her or pass on gossip
  that she can send in to the Guild. As of yet, considering
  what might happen if she chooses to pass information
  about the children’s crimes to the Guard, none of the
  children have realized how deeply they are in her power.
  Jaxar is a capable blackmailer and good practical psycholo-
  gist. Once those children grow to maturity, they will sink
  all the deeper into her power and, quite possibly, become
  permanent agents for the Guild.
  TIMBER HALL
  This large room is surrounded by several small ones
  and is the center of work for most of the local carpenters,
  woodcarvers, furniture makers and other woodworkers.
  Wood collected by the gatherers outside or brought in by
  the Guild and purchased by local merchants is carried here
  to be crafted by its owners or resold. The actual owners of
  the rooms, the Ragith family, make a handsome profit out
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Any
  While engaging in a game of “go near the underways
  gate and then run away,” one of Jaxar’s child-agents is
  attacked by dark creatures from the depths and Exalts
  as a Dawn Caste Solar to defend himself and his friends.
  Jaxar knows the signs of Solar Exaltation and is cur-
  rently “sheltering” the child, while sending an urgent
  message for Guild help to smuggle him out and indoc-
  trinate him properly to serve Guild interests. The boy’s
  parents (well-off artisans) and family suspect that the
  child was killed by the monsters, but there is no proof
  of his death, and the other children who were there are
  traumatized and refuse to talk about it. (Jaxar has also
  sent round word that nobody is to talk about the fight
  or “bad things will happen.”)
  While a Guild caravan is scheduled to arrive
  here within a week, the caravan master won’t want
  to leave immediately with the boy, as the master
  wants to do his usual trading. Equally, the boy
  doesn’t want to leave. Jaxar is working to convince
  him that his parents will hate him now that he’s
  become Anathema and that only “her friends” can
  help, but he’s only 12 years old and wants to try out
  his new powers. Finally, the Guard has increased its
  vigilance and is making life unpleasant for all the
  local lowlife scum and the Janissary Vault.
  
  61
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  of charging a very low toll fee to everyone who enters and
  a higher fee to those who want to rent one of the small
  rooms for a long-term project or a private meeting.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR THE OUTER RING
  Warrior: Janissary Vault Member, Guard
  Holy Man: Temple Priest, Philosophy Cell Member
  Savant: Philosophy Cell Member, Historian
  Criminal: Petty Thief, Merchant Preying On Newcomers
  Entertainer: Actor, Flautist
  Bureaucrat: Dole Checker, Gate Clerk, Timber Hall
  Accountant
  THE UPPER RING
  This section is where the poorer citizens of Gethamane
  dwell. It covers the area from above the Outer Ring and
  over the Guild District, up to and around the temples.
  While the main thoroughfares are kept clear and patrolled
  by the Guard, the back passages can go unseen by official
  eyes for months. The area as a whole ranges from clean-
  but-shabby, in the better and more aspiring parts of the
  district and along the main passages, to filthy, cramped and
  utter squalor. A lot of the inhabitants keep livestock
  (goats, chickens or pigs) and can’t be bothered to drag
  dung and waste all the way to one of the small gatherers’
  gates to dump it or even to sell it to one of the dung
  collectors who cart it down for fertilizer in the Gardens.
  The trip to collect the Dole can take one to three
  hours just to reach the Gardens, not to mention the wait
  at the Gardens to sign off on the Registers. In the remoter
  parts of the Upper Ring, it’s common for family represen-
  tatives to be ambushed for the food they’re carrying while
  on their way back. As a result, groups from a particular set
  of caves often travel together, for mutual security. There
  are a number of gangs in the area, ranging from just a few
  members to several dozen in size. The Guard cracks down
  on any large gang that it can find and press criminal
  charges against, but a few gangs slip through the nets.
  Such an environment breeds disease and encourages
  scavengers. Despite the use of small charms and the burning
  of certain poisonous herbs, rats lurk in the garbage, lice and
  worms infest the poorest inhabitants and it is rumored that
  certain dark creatures from the underways have escaped the
  Guard and now hide in the remotest passageways and caves,
  emerging to prey on those citizens nearby. Disease is also
  common, most commonly pneumonia or influenza or minor
  diarrhea and vomiting. Another breed of scavenger found in
  the Upper Circle is the amateur treasure-hunter and scroll-
  searcher, who believe that the accumulated trash of
  generations and the unexplored nature of some of the less
  pleasant passages may hide the secrets of Gethamane.
  (Occasional interesting finds have happened, but purse-
  slitting, unpleasant diseases and general social condemnation
  are more common.) Tunnel preachers also wander these
  corridors, talking wildly about apocalyptic “end times” or
  claiming to represent the true gods, as opposed to the “false
  gods” worshiped in the temples.
  Ten of the 12 small portals used by hunters and
  gatherers to collect food outside of Gethamane branch off
  the Upper Circle. These portals are kept well clear and
  guarded, and the families who live nearby and who prac-
  tice this as their occupation are among the better-off
  dwellers in the area. These families are prosperous and so
  well-regarded that they even manage to adopt or marry
  into Outer Circle or Garden District families from time to
  time. The best known of these families, the Otist family,
  even holds a seat on the Council.
  Few in this district can afford expensive instruments
  or other gear for entertaining. Singing, however, is com-
  mon, and some paupers with truly incredible voices have
  been adopted into better families or have made careers for
  themselves in the Outer Circle or the Guild District.
  Another major leisure activity here is cooking. Even the
  poorest family has a set of recipes for preparing Dole fungi
  and any scrapings that they can get their hands on, and
  small stalls offering to season and cook a meal on the spot
  line some of the better thoroughfares.
  THE JADE HOSPICE
  Founded near the temples in the early days of
  Gethamane, this hospice is the biggest and most over-
  worked in the city. The hospice is staffed partly by priests,
  partly by trained healers and partly by citizens who are
  working off legal penalties or have chosen this way of
  repaying their Dole. While it is not necessarily the best-
  staffed or most highly skilled hospice in Gethamane, the
  Jade Hospice is kept busy dealing with the Upper Circle’s
  constant stream of injuries, illnesses and assault victims.
  The courts regularly sentence mild offenders to serve as
  unskilled labor or nursing staff here, and the staff is
  constantly coming and going. The Director of the Hos-
  pice, matronly Enath Daur of a prosperous farmer family,
  holds one of the farmer seats on the Council. She was
  elected at the time because the faction couldn’t agree on
  any other candidate, and she has since used her position to
  make sure that the Upper Ring is not further marginalized.
  SEVENTH HALL
  This set of caves toward the outer edge of the Upper
  Ring is officially owned by the Rasri family, whose mem-
  bers have a long history of jobs such as dung-carriers,
  garbage-pickers, cleaners and general menial work. Sev-
  enth Hall has lately become the gathering-spot for a
  conspiracy of lower-class citizens of Gethamane who are
  angry with the current administration and see the Guild as
  the solution to all Gethamane’s problems. These conspira-
  tors believe that unlicensed free trade and the introduction
  of slavery will not only free them from the current burden
  of drudgery, but will also make Gethamane the mightiest
  city in the North. Yftar Rasri, the bitter but cowardly
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  62
  patriarch of the family, is also the de facto leader of the
  conspiracy. While the conspirators haven’t yet managed
  to make credible contact with a Guild representative — a
  previous attempt was rejected by the Guildsman in ques-
  tion as “an obvious case of entrapment to give the Mistress
  more ammunition against us” — it’s only a matter of time.
  THE WAREHOUSES
  When the hunters and gatherers bring in game and food
  from outside, they can’t necessarily haul it down to the main
  food stocks in the Garden District, nor do they want to keep
  the game in their own homes — it’s too great an invitation to
  thievery. So, they bring the food and game here.
  These large sets of caves are owned by the city and may
  be used by citizens to store food on payment of a tithe of
  approximately one-twentieth of the food’s value (or of the
  food itself) to the city. There are five of these warehouses,
  set roughly in a circle round the district and each one close
  to two of the gathering entrances. The warehouses are
  heavily patrolled by the Guard and are manned by junior
  Bethanites who are judged by their elders to need season-
  ing. The corridors around the warehouses are constantly
  hustling with merchants, beggars, hunters and gatherers
  and people trying to strike a quick bargain over suspi-
  ciously overripe deer haunches or similar dubious goods.
  Incidentally, the poorer caves near here have some of
  the worst rates of dysentery in all Gethamane. The families
  buy their food cheap, and, sadly for them, they get what
  they pay for.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR THE OUTER RING
  Warrior: Gang Member, Guard
  Holy Man: Temple Priest, Apocalyptic Tunnel
  Preacher
  Savant: Archaeologist, Unethical Experimenter
  Criminal: Con Artist, Dole Fraud, Food Hijacker, Rebel
  Entertainer: Cook, Street Singer
  Bureaucrat: Hospital Staff, Warehouse Manager
  THE TEMPLES
  The city’s three temples are all large, open rooms
  located near the top of the mountain and distinguished
  from other chambers by jewel-encrusted carvings of moun-
  tains and enormous flying creatures. (The decorations also
  include traces of orichalcum, moonsilver, starmetal and
  jade, though in such small quantities that it would take
  days of very public work to extract a useful amount.)
  Almost everyone entering these rooms is struck by an eerie
  sense of presence and watchfulness.
  Those who spend the night sleeping in a temple report
  being haunted by vivid, confusing dreams. Most dreamers
  remember only fragments of these dreams, though memo-
  ries of frantic searching or desperate flight are common.
  Many dreamers then spend the next few nights in sleepless
  dread or eager anticipation, and some find new answers to
  problems that were troubling them. A very few who sleep
  in a temple feel called to serve as priests afterward.
  In the first days of the city, several loners who chose
  the temples as their base were the first to be called to serve
  as priests and respectfully informed Bethan Redeye that
  they could no longer work in any other capacity, as they
  felt it was their duty to tend the temples and perform rites
  of propitiation. Bethan and her people were not particu-
  larly surprised to find that the unknown gods of the city
  demanded some form of worship and were, in fact, quite
  relieved to find it was something so minor and easily
  performed. The Mistress not only gave leave for the few
  chosen ones to remain as priests, but established that any
  citizen choosing to become a priest, and accepted by the
  other acolytes as such, should receive a portion of the Dole
  similar to medium-level Guards or farmers, as the priests
  were doing vital work for Gethamane.
  Priests who have been called to service leave their
  previous lives behind and work at the temple. They keep
  the temples clean and well polished and make offerings of
  flowers and animal blood upon the altars. Late at night, the
  priests also perform odd ceremonies during which they
  cover the floors of the temples with elaborate patterns
  drawn in ink, colored sand and, sometimes, their own
  blood. Chanting in unknown tongues, the acolytes some-
  times disturb the sleep of those who live nearby. The
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded,
  Heroic Mortal, Sidereal, Solar
  A serious disease has struck the Upper Circle.
  Symptoms consist of bluish blotches on the skin, a
  high fever, headaches and severe weakness. While
  not always fatal, this “blue pox” has caused over 100
  deaths already and is spreading through human
  contact and shared water supplies.
  Blue pox was actually caused by the magical
  experiments of a thaumaturge in the Outer Circle
  below, who was testing his work on some garbage-
  pickers from the Upper Circle whom he thought
  would not be missed. He has realized that his experi-
  ments caused the pox and is now lying low, but his
  notes and work may provide vital information in
  creating a cure for the disease.
  In the meantime, the Council and the Mistress
  of Gethamane are discussing possible remedies. The
  most drastic solution proposed so far is to wall off
  particularly hard-hit neighborhoods of the Upper
  Circle and leave the people shut away to die or
  recover, as the gods will. The sudden influx of
  ghosts has also begun to draw Vodak’s attention and
  may even serve to attract him upward.
  
  63
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  priests assiduously clean up the patterns afterward, and, if
  interrupted during this cleaning, they become extremely
  agitated and beg leave to finish their task.
  Occasionally, someone who sleeps in a temple is
  driven mad and flees from Gethamane, never to return.
  Attempts to restrain these unfortunates have proven ex-
  tremely difficult. If bound or locked up within Gethamane,
  they invariably injure themselves in their raving attempts
  to escape. They are unable to give details of why they are
  so terrified or why they must leave, but struggle in an
  inarticulate frenzy, screaming and thrashing as they at-
  tempt to break their restraints. Those lunatics who do not
  perish in the wastes outside quickly return to sanity once
  out of sight of the mountain city but consistently refuse to
  return to or speak of Gethamane again.
  Savants and wise men alike have come to study the
  patterns that the priests make on the floor, but the re-
  searchers have been unable to deduce anything from the
  patterns. One visiting scavenger lord suggested that the
  markings bore some resemblance to certain diagrams that
  he’d seen on a scroll that came from the Mountain Folk
  within the Realm, but, unfortunately, he was unable to
  THE GODS OF GETHAMANE
  When Gethamane was first hollowed out from the depths of the mountain, the Solars realized that they
  would need some way to circulate air throughout the mountain. They called on three small gods who were
  worshiped by local tribes, gods of air and sky and flight: Tribbua of the Outward Breath, Reshan of the Inward
  Breath and Metheris of the Still Sky. The Solars promised these three gods temples and worship inside
  Gethamane, if only the gods would ensure that air kept circulating throughout the mountain. The gods agreed,
  and even when the petty barbarian tribes who had worshiped them previously died, the gods themselves survived
  and grew stronger, supported by constant prayers and ritual.
  When Vodak swept through Gethamane and devoured everything and everyone within, the three little
  gods were not strong enough to stop him. They could only watch, aghast, as their worshipers were swallowed
  up before their eyes, screaming for help. The gods sought assistance in Yu-Shan, but all the other gods were
  preoccupied by the Great Usurpation or the peril of their own worshipers, and nobody would help them. Left
  alone and half-insane in an empty mountain, they sat in their empty temples and kept the winds moving through
  Gethamane, still ensuring that there was fresh air, even if there was nobody left alive to breathe it.
  When humans returned to Gethamane, some of them slept in the empty temples, and the three gods
  attempted to contact them in their dreams. A few of these mortals were touched by the deities’ insanity (and
  still are when they are chosen to this day), and became their priests, tending the temples and worshiping as best
  they could. A very few are seized with memories of Vodak’s attack on Gethamane and relive it in their minds
  constantly. They become desperate to escape the city, screaming in terror while lost in panic, and, if restrained,
  often injure themselves in their desperate attempts to flee. If they manage to leave the city, the memories slip
  from their minds together with the touch of the gods, leaving the sufferers with nothing more than nightmares
  and a deeply rooted terror of Gethamane.
  The three gods’ mansions in Yu-Shan have stood empty since the Usurpation. Few have bothered to
  investigate, however, since those gods had reported directly to the Solars after the building of Gethamane and
  all those Solars died in the Usurpation. Indeed, those deities whose portfolios were related to Tribbua, Reshan
  and Metheris were all too happy to ignore their absence, as it allowed those deities more scope in which to
  expand. It would take a significant audit in Yu-Shan’s bureaucracy to discover the existence of these small gods
  in Gethamane and to trace what happened to them.
  pursue his theories further, as he went to investigate the
  underways and never returned.
  There is no clear hierarchy among the acolytes. While
  there is technically a High Priest, the title goes to a priest
  chosen by the Mistress of Gethamane, so that the Council
  will have someone with whom it can interact and who can
  discuss matters such as organization, provision of the Dole
  and exorcisms or warding prayers. The current High Priest
  is Chilitos, who belonged to the Varenne family (notable
  for its poverty, bad hunters and worse gatherers) before
  leaving to join the priesthood. All other priests are referred
  to as Father or Mother, however old they may be.
  In cases of demonic activity, strange phenomena or
  anything that might be seen as requiring divine interven-
  tion, the priests are willing to come to any part of
  Gethamane and perform rites and services to banish evil
  influences. While the gods of Gethamane are little help,
  the priesthood does contain a few genuine thaumaturges
  trained in the Arts of Warding and in rituals (see the
  Exalted Players Guide, pages 130–135 and pages 148–
  150), which have been passed down through the centuries.
  The most expert of these priests is Mother Sansen, a gentle
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  64
  old woman always willing to believe the best of everyone,
  whose skill at warding is far more a matter of natural talent
  than an urge to battle evil influences.
  The three temples themselves are surrounded by a net
  of smaller rooms and passages. These are used by the priests
  for accommodation, for private confession and counseling
  and for storing items for their ceremonies. The passages
  from the temples through the Upper Ring and down to the
  Outer Ring and the Garden and Guild Districts are kept
  well clear by the Guards and are regularly patrolled, as
  there have been times when particularly poor or desperate
  Upper Ring inhabitants have assaulted or robbed rich
  citizens on their way to the temples. A ceremonial 15-
  Guard group (three for each temple) is always in attendance,
  though this is correctly viewed as a soft assignment and is
  used as a minor reward for Guards who need a restful job for
  a few weeks.
  GHOSTS IN GETHAMANE
  The religion of Gethamane leaves few of its citizens
  rising as ghosts. Some inhabitants say that this is due to the
  profoundly materialistic outlook of most of the citizens —
  they leave the religion to the priests, who are vastly
  divorced from the practical world around them and spend
  their time being rationally afraid of the monsters beneath
  their feet. Those citizens who do rise as ghosts do not
  survive to flee the city.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Abyssal, Solar
  A Solar or Abyssal Exalt passing through hap-
  pens to possess the shard of one of the Exalted who
  raised Gethamane and bargained with the city’s
  three gods. The three deities are roused from their
  half-insane slumber and order their priests (through
  dreams and hallucinatory visions) to bring the Exalt
  to their temples so that they can speak with him. The
  gods also begin to neglect their usual duties, resulting
  in areas of bad air rising in the farther parts of
  Gethamane and people dying or crowding into
  other areas (and causing major legal disruptions over
  the Second Rule) in order to find breathable air. The
  deities must be reassured and persuaded to continue
  in their function if Gethamane is to remain habit-
  able. However, the gods are embittered by the loss of
  their prestige and power in Yu-Shan and wish to
  have this issue addressed. They can also warn the
  Exalt about Vodak — and explain that the
  hekatonkhire is still there.
  
  65
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  Vodak is a hekatonkhire, a creature of death, and it
  and its spawn hunt the Gethamane of the Underworld.
  There are no patrols or Guards there to drive the monsters
  back into the deeper passages, and they raven freely in the
  lightless tunnels. Rumors of treasure or a shadowland
  within the hollow mountain draw the occasional foolish
  ghost from outside, but very few of them, no matter how
  well prepared, return.
  THE GUILD DISTRICT
  This district is one of the busiest parts of Gethamane.
  Guild caravans and other merchants move in and out,
  citizens of Gethamane visit to do business and the Guard
  is always checking for any breaches of the city’s laws. There
  are Guard checkpoints at each of the 20 passageways
  leading to this area, although some of the checkpoints are
  only manned by a couple of the Guard at any given time.
  The central three large chambers of this district hold
  the main markets. One is the Food Market, one is the Metal
  Market and one is the Wood Market. Surrounding rooms
  serve as storage, while rooms farther out are used for accom-
  modation, both for travelers, merchants and slaves. Slave
  caravans passing through Gethamane are required to regis-
  ter every single slave when they enter the city. All the stalls
  are made from wood, though some have been in their
  current location for decades, passed between allied trading
  groups when one leaves the city and another enters. Truly
  old stalls are a sign of prestige, and the stallholders can
  command respect from all the nearby merchants.
  Instead of trying to regulate stall space and locations,
  the government of Gethamane allows the merchants
  themselves — and primarily the Guild — to sort things
  out. Naturally, this means that Guild members get prefer-
  ence, while non-Guild merchants get shunted to any small
  leftover areas. Naturally, this also means that bribery is
  frequent and heavy. The Guard move in if a situation
  descends into open brawling or destruction of property,
  but stay out of things otherwise.
  The current ranking Guildmaster in the district is
  Master Tengis the Vintner, a specialist in trading alcohol
  of all kinds but also well-versed in drugs and exotic foods.
  He has visited Gethamane a dozen times in the past and
  has a good working relationship with the Mistress and the
  Council. At the moment, he presides over several ambi-
  tious juniors who are longing for a chance to prove
  themselves to the Guild. These include Master Samirel of
  Gem (who trades in gemstones and ornamental carvings
  and who is trying to get adopted by an upper-class
  Gethamane family), the journeyman Gentris from the
  Haslanti League, with a good eye for furs and hides, (who
  deserted family and home to join the Guild but still has
  many contacts there) and the journeyman Alathea from
  distant An-Teng in the West (who is well-informed about
  all sorts of cloth and fabric but is also a secret Yozi-
  worshiper and has plans to form a cult inside Gethamane).
  THE THREE MARKETS
  The Food Market is used for selling all sorts of food,
  raw or prepared, and some enterprising citizens from the
  Upper Circle have cooking stalls there too. The room has
  a pungent tang to the air, from centuries of food being
  exposed and sold here. Experts can even sniff the air from
  100 yards down the corridors and recognize that new
  shipments of cheese or pork or other foodstuffs have
  arrived. The large stalls selling raw or preserved foods are
  at the center of the cave, while the smaller ones farther out
  or around the edge provide luxury foods or cooking ser-
  vices. This cave is also the venue for those selling drugs and
  medicaments, which can be found at the northern end of
  the room. These merchants often hire local citizens to
  serve as security and prevent petty theft from their stalls.
  The biggest stall in the Food Market, however, is owned by
  the city of Gethamane itself and sells food from the fungal
  gardens at a standard low price, undercutting most of the
  other food stalls present.
  The Metal Market provides metal and stone goods.
  The primary trade is, unsurprisingly, in weapons and in
  the iron and steel necessary to produce them. This
  market is the noisiest of the three, as perhaps a quarter of
  the stallholders offer smithing services and have brought
  in their own anvils and other equipment in order to be
  able to work onsite. As with the Food Market, some
  smithy stalls are passed between traders as one group
  enters and another leaves. This practice is more common
  here, as it allows merchants to avoid having to move all
  the equipment. Many merchants here are very willing to
  buy anything that can be recovered from the underways,
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded,
  Heroic Mortal, Lunar, Sidereal, Solar
  Rathven, an ambitious and ruthless Guild jour-
  neyman, for the last few months has been arranging
  to import stocks of chemicals into the city (hidden
  inside casks of wine or bales of food) that, when
  mixed in the proper quantities, form explosive com-
  pounds. He arranged for his own arrival into the city
  to coincide with the last shipment of chemicals and
  is now producing the explosives and preparing to set
  them. He intends to cause enough physical damage
  and general uproar that it will become impossible for
  the Guard to be able to keep outsiders confined to the
  Guild District and the city will need to ask the Guild
  for help. What he doesn’t realize is that some of his
  plotting is known to agents of Samea, the ally of the
  Bull of the North, who is prepared to have the Bull’s
  armies move against Gethamane if the city is consid-
  erably weakened.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  66
  and treasure-seekers who proclaim their discoveries too
  loudly are likely to be besieged by Guildsmen and other
  traders offering them prices for whatever found.
  The Wood Market also handles trade in cloth and
  services, as well as in all forms of wood. This market
  something of a catchall, as this room handles everything
  that isn’t covered in the other two markets. Space is at a
  premium, and the Guard is frequently called to break up
  squabbles or stop brawls. Petty thaumaturges and charm-
  makers as well as diviners, exorcists and others who claim
  to possess occult knowledge or hidden wisdom come here
  to sell their services. This market also covers the buying
  and selling of books, maps and information, and there are
  always at least a dozen people offering to sell “true and
  verifiable” maps to the underways. The Guard doesn’t
  bother cracking down on the sellers, as the common
  wisdom is that anyone stupid enough to buy such a thing
  deserves whatever happens to him.
  TRIBUNAL CAVE
  This room is reserved for high-level consultation
  among visiting Guildmasters and merchants who are
  wealthy or powerful enough to have earned the Guild’s
  respect. Tribunal Cave is located directly above the Court-
  house, though there are several layers of rock and
  passageways in between. By far the best-appointed room in
  the Guild section, Tribunal Cave has chairs and divans
  made from wood imported from the distant South, silks
  brought from the Far East and West, jade that could grace
  the Blessed Isle itself . . . . Tribunal Cave is, in short,
  designed and decorated to impress. One cabinet holds a
  selection of alcohol and drugs that, though not actually
  illegal, would certainly draw the Guard’s attention.
  Guildmasters and high-ranking merchants hold meetings
  here every five days to discuss the current trade situation
  in the North.
  This room is also where Guildmasters receive any local
  visitors who want to discuss matters of law or trade. These
  receptions can be in a formal setting or in the context of a
  wild, abandoned party, with alcohol, courtesans and other
  suitable adjuncts to favorable business dealings.
  Guild mercenaries always stand guard outside Tribu-
  nal Cave. The Guild doesn’t trust the Guard anywhere
  near the room. There have been several occasions when
  Guard representatives took advantage of criminal charges
  and evidence of lawbreaking elsewhere to search the place
  for incriminating documents; indeed, the Guard will take
  any opportunity to investigate private Guild quarters, on
  the “guilty till proven innocent” principle.
  THE DWELLINGS
  In principle, accommodation in the Guild District is
  available for whoever wants it. In practice, people who’ve
  arrived move into any rooms that are vacant, often squat-
  ting in warehouse space or even the corridors if nothing
  better is available. The Guild itself partitions and arranges
  the caves it controls so that any visiting members have
  somewhere to sleep and put their goods, even if it’s just a
  corner of a shared cave or a small pocket of a room near the
  edge of the district. Other merchants can either pay the
  Guild or owe the Guild members a significant favor or
  scrabble for space in the area that’s left, often forming
  temporary coalitions to secure themselves some room. If
  this degenerates to open fighting, the Guard moves in to
  restore order, arresting everyone. (A few of the Guard take
  bribes, but not many.)
  High-ranking Guild members and rich merchants
  get dwelling areas close to the markets, while poorer
  Guild members and merchants are situated nearer to the
  passageways coming up from the gates. Truly poor mer-
  chants or travelers find themselves left to struggle for
  living space in the areas to the far east and west, distant
  from both the gate passages and the markets. Of course,
  the one-month residency rule keeps people rotating in
  and out at a fairly rapid pace, but the basic principles of
  who lives where remain constant.
  The Guard uses its records at each gate to keep track
  of who are due to leave Gethamane at the end of their
  RIOTS IN THE GUILD DISTRICT
  There are many possible causes for riots in this
  area: arguments over space, accusations of theft,
  claustrophobia and culture shock from the sur-
  roundings . . . . It’s very easy for a crowded group of
  people to become a screaming mob. When this
  happens, any important merchants present barri-
  cade themselves in, and the Guildmasters
  themselves retreat to Tribunal Cave, while send-
  ing in mercenaries to crack heads and disperse the
  crowd. The Guard may intervene if it thinks it’ll be
  easy to break the riot up in the early stages, or the
  Guard may just close off the Guild District and wait
  for things to die down. Any surviving rioters are
  liable to be tried on charges of breaking all three of
  the Rules and are likely to be fined for everything
  they possess.
  The citizens of Gethamane don’t care if most
  of the foreigners in the Guild District kill each
  other. There will always be more outsiders, coming
  to trade or to explore the underways in the hopes of
  finding treasure. However, locals flee the Guild
  District themselves if they know a riot’s starting
  and are (from experience) quite good at spotting
  the tell-tale signs of rising aggression. This gener-
  ally alerts the Guard, which moves to break things
  up or shut the district down.
  
  67
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  month’s stay. Guard patrols make daily sweeps through the
  Guild District to locate and remove people who have
  outstayed their month and to remind those who only have
  a day or two left that they should be preparing to leave the
  city. There are always a few fugitives hiding in the Guild
  District, overdue to leave and trying to avoid the Guard.
  Guild mercenaries (unless ordered otherwise) cooperate
  with the Guard in locating these targets — particularly if
  the person in question is an independent merchant or
  otherwise antithetical to Guild interests.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR THE GUILD DISTRICT
  Warrior: Cheap Thug, Guild Mercenary, Traveling
  Weaponsmaster
  Holy Man: Devout Missionary, Visiting Immaculate
  Savant: Archaeologist, Realm Dilettante, Scavenging
  Treasure-Hunter
  Criminal: Con Man, Map-Seller, Pickpocket, Scam
  Merchant
  Entertainer: Actor, Courtesan, Minstrel
  Bureaucrat: Administrator, Guard Clerk, Guild Ac-
  countant
  THE GARDEN DISTRICT
  This area is the heart of Gethamane, containing its
  food sources, its government, its records and its laws. The
  truly rich families have small cave complexes here, and the
  Guardhall is located next to the Gardens themselves. Any
  outsiders seen in this area are likely to be questioned by
  passing Guards as to where they’re going and what they’re
  doing — doubly so if they seem poor or shabby. The
  Gardens themselves are the most heavily guarded area in
  all Gethamane, even more so than the Council Chambers.
  The Garden District lies directly below the Guild
  District, with the Outer Ring equidistant from the pair.
  This district also holds most of the known entrances down
  into the underways. These are all protected by groups of six
  to ten Guards, and each group carries a drum to signal the
  alarm in the event of any incursions from below.
  THE ADMINISTRATION
  The Council Chambers, the Courthouse, the Hall of
  Records, the Hall of Maps and the City Library are all
  clustered into one large cave complex, which backs onto
  Guardhall. This area is where the courts try cases, where
  citizens can come to check on property records and maps
  of Gethamane (outsiders must pay a small fee to check
  the maps), where the city keeps the Dole lists and records
  of visiting outsiders and where children go to receive any
  education beyond the most basic reading and writing.
  Bethanites provide much of the staffing and organization
  here, but there is a healthy leavening of citizens from
  other families.
  These caves are incredibly busy round the clock, with
  clerical and administrative staff taking advantage of
  Gethamane’s lighting system to keep on working through-
  out the day, simply changing desks with their replacements
  when the next shift comes in. Likewise, children are
  schooled and drilled in shifts, resulting in mobs pelting
  through the tunnels at each shift change. The only group
  that doesn’t work round the clock is the Council, though
  it may spend several days in constant session debating a
  particularly knotty problem.
  Katrin Jadehand, Mistress of Gethamane, has her
  rooms and offices at the heart of this group of caves. These
  rooms are the hereditary quarters and workrooms of the
  Master of Gethamane, and it is a matter of pride to change
  as little as possible from Bethan Redeye’s original sparse
  furniture and belongings (or at least to rebuild and replace
  in the same style). Katrin is in her 50s and has been
  Mistress for 10 years now, having been both the previous
  Master’s choice and a popular favorite. Her primary con-
  cern is Gethamane’s survival and stability, and she is
  prepared to ally with a stronger force if absolutely neces-
  sary. Katrin is a tall, statuesque woman, who served in the
  Guard in her youth before going into the administration;
  she frequently uses that fact in the Council to help get the
  Guard on her side for votes. She is a good politician and a
  very pragmatic woman, recently widowed due to her
  husband’s death by a creature from the underways, and has
  a 15-year-old son currently training with the Guard.
  THE GARDENS
  This complex of long, dark caves lacks the lighting of
  the rest of the city. A few light crystals burn in the
  entrances, enough to make it easy for people to enter and
  leave, but most of the space is shadowy, lit only by faint
  glimmers of luminescence from particular fungi that mark
  the boundaries of the caves or the edges of growing fields.
  Long trays of black obsidian set along the floor brim with
  varieties of fungi in varying shades, but the Gardens are
  otherwise spotlessly clean, scrubbed and swept daily with
  ritual precision.
  Some of the obsidian trays have been cracked or
  damaged, but most are still whole, great dark mirrors
  blotched by the fungi growing across them. Narrow paths
  between the fungi allow the farmers to care for and collect
  the vegetation, piling it into barrows as they pass. The
  rooms themselves are quiet, with the farmers only breaking
  their silence to make necessary conversation and the
  distant seeping of water from the springs that feed the
  caves whispering in the background. The walls are com-
  posed of the same substance as the rest of Gethamane but
  traced with ancient writings and diagrams. Centuries ago,
  Bethan Redeye’s people managed to deduce the basic
  functioning of the Gardens from these diagrams and, with
  a lot of trial and error, first grew the fungi that now feed the
  city. These days, no farmer would dare tamper with the
  ancient procedures or do anything that might risk the
  regular crops.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  68
  At the opening of this set of caves is a side passage to
  a set of warehouses that store most of the city’s fungus
  supplies. (Small caves elsewhere in Gethamane hold sepa-
  rate emergency caches, in case of sabotage or disaster.)
  This is where the Dole is issued, and a detachment of the
  Guard is always on duty there together with several of the
  administration to check the identity of each citizen and
  issue her with the supplies for herself and her family. This
  area and the corridors leading to it are always busy and
  often full of citizens queuing and entertainers (flautists or
  actors) and cooks diverting the citizens’ attention.
  The current acknowledged leader of the farmers is
  Mienna of the Dulsheft family, a stiff-backed woman in her
  60s who needs a cane to walk and requires regular medical
  treatment for her arthritis. She is an isolationist, and any
  hints of trouble cause her to vote to close Gethamane to all
  outsiders until matters calm down. Her acknowledged heir
  is her niece Lessa from the same family, a young woman who
  is apparently all that could be desired in terms of ability,
  manners and respect for her elders. However, Lessa is also a
  member of a secretive farmer cult that slaughters living
  creatures (animals or even sentenced convicts) in order to
  bring fertility to the Gardens, and recently, she has been
  contacted by a whispering voice that offers her sorcery and
  power in return for more blood and more human sacrifices.
  THE GUARDHALL
  This set of caves is the central headquarters for the City
  Guard of Gethamane, combining the functions of training
  area, staging depot, holding cells and emergency marshal-
  ling point. Although much of the rest of the city lacks color,
  the entrances to the Guardhall are clearly marked by bright
  OTHER FOOD
  The previous inhabitants of Gethamane man-
  aged to grow a wide variety of vegetables in the
  Gardens. However, this process required specific
  spells, treatments, densities of light, particular han-
  dling and other things that Bethan’s people could
  not possibly translate from the instructions on the
  walls. Bethan’s people were lucky to be able to grow
  mushrooms from the pitiful stock of food that they
  had left. Fortunately, mushrooms were some of the
  easiest foodstuffs for the Gardens to reproduce. A
  Twilight Caste with appropriate lore in sorcerous
  bioengineering and First Age architecture might be
  able to translate the inscriptions, understand the
  instructions and arrange the Gardens so that other
  vegetables and fruits could be produced. However, it
  would take a miracle for the citizens of Gethamane
  to allow anyone other than the farmers or other
  highly trusted citizens inside the Gardens.
  red pennants and the doors are all high-quality iron or iron-
  studded wood. Driven by the need to combat the creatures
  from the underways, Guards are much better physically
  trained than most of the rest of the city and have the
  statistics of elite troops (see Exalted, page 278).
  The Guard always wants to recruit thaumaturges. They
  are not necessarily trusted, but their use in combating the
  creatures of the underways is undeniable. However, few in
  Gethamane have the talent, and fewer of those have the
  education. If any thaumaturge from outside Gethamane
  shows an interest in joining the Guard and seems of reason-
  able character — or at least, doesn’t sacrifice small animals in
  public — then a rapid adoption into one of the more Guard-
  centric families of Gethamane can be arranged to make him
  a citizen. Dragon-Blooded outcastes are similarly welcome.
  Deathknights and necromancers are not, however, as even
  the most enlightened member of the Guard finds them too
  uncomfortably close to the creatures of the underways.
  There are approximately 5,000 Guards in Gethamane.
  Despite the high death rate in times of incursion from
  below, a career in the Guard is considered very prestigious,
  and a Guard gets a high ration of the Dole. However, the
  main temptation that lures children into training for the
  Guard is the chance to interact with (and get bribes from)
  outsiders. Although Guards don’t accept large bribes —
  and are arrested if they do, on a charge of “injury to the
  city” — small gifts or tokens of appreciation from outsiders
  are common. The Captain of the Guard, Golden Stag, is
  aware of this and takes care to rotate his soldiers between
  duties regularly so that everyone gets a fair share.
  THE FUNGUS DEMESNE
  Hidden in a knot of caves at the center of the
  Gardens is a field of undulating fungi, ivory sheets
  of mushrooms and yellow tendrils that curve in-
  ward toward a dark pedestal at the center. This is
  where the cultist farmers come to sacrifice their
  victims, unaware that it is actually the center of a
  broken Manse (Earth-aspected, currently Demesne
  ••••). It was shattered by Vodak’s emergence and
  has never been repaired, but the energies that the
  Demesne emits have made it easier for the farmers
  to keep the Gardens flourishing. This Demesne is
  one of the greatest secrets of Gethamane: only the
  inner circle of farmers, the Mistress and her Head
  Intelligencer know. Even though they don’t know
  that it is a Demesne, they do know that it is a place
  of power. A restoration program costing Resources
  ••••, organized by an expert of Lore •••• or
  higher, could recap the Demesne, restoring it to
  Manse ••••.
  
  69
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  Golden Stag himself is a child from an icewalker tribe
  (and clearly recognizable as such by his facial features),
  abandoned when very young due to ill omens, who was
  picked up by a passing caravan and then adopted by a poor
  Gethamane family. He has worked his way up from the
  ranks and mentions this every second sentence. Although
  he is in his 50s, he views this as the prime of his life and is
  unsympathetic to any suggestions that he should be train-
  ing a successor. Golden Stag is a good leader of men, and
  the Guard respects him. He has a high level of sympathy
  with the hunters and gatherers, owing to his ancestry, and,
  often, the Guard and the hunters and gatherers form a
  voting bloc in the Council.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR THE GARDEN DISTRICT
  Warrior: Council Bodyguard, Guard, Guild Assassin
  Holy Man: Cultist Farmer, Priest Adopted Into Guard
  Savant: Librarian, Mapmaker, Teacher
  Criminal: Dole Thief, Garden Saboteur, Spy
  Entertainer: Actor, Flautist, Poet
  Bureaucrat: Administrator, Court Assistant, Records
  Savant
  RELATIONSHIPS WITH OUTSIDERS
  Gethamane has built enough links with the world
  outside that the city has to pay attention to what’s going
  on in the North. Even the most insular farmer will ac-
  knowledge that it’s useful to be able to obtain trade goods,
  and the Guard who are so busy keeping outsiders out still
  appreciate the steel that is brought in for their weapons.
  Previous Masters have fluctuated in how much they try to
  interact with regional politics or deal with icewalkers and
  the like, but only the most isolationist of Masters have
  totally ignored the outside world.
  Currently, under Mistress Katrin, Gethamane is pur-
  suing a policy of cautious but proactive friendship with
  almost everyone. The Mistress can see the threat of the
  Bull of the North looming on the horizon, and she doesn’t
  want to be an isolated target if — or when — he arrives
  with his army. The only faction not receiving this friendly
  treatment is the Realm. Mistress Katrin has consistently
  refused to consider its requests to use Gethamane as a
  staging-post for the legions and doesn’t want to ally with
  any one Great House at the moment, given the potential
  for civil war.
  THE REALM
  Gethamane doesn’t want to be part of the Realm (and
  certainly doesn’t want to pay it tribute), but the city has
  never wanted to be a Targeted Example of Stamped-Out
  Rebellion either. While Gethamane’s defenses and self-
  supply are legendary, the city has never actually had to
  stand up to a sustained assault by Terrestrial Exalted, let
  alone Celestial ones, and would rather not find out any
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  70
  weaknesses the hard way. The city, and its previous Mas-
  ters and Mistresses, have preferred to maintain a dignified
  independence while at the same time not attacking any of
  the Realm’s tributaries, or, indeed, attracting the Realm’s
  notice. Noble declarations of never having paid tribute
  sound very well to similarly independent powers and help
  to increase Gethamane’s reputation, but, all in all,
  Gethamane would prefer not to ever be in the position in
  which the Realm asks for tribute.
  The Scarlet Empress viewed Gethamane with a
  lenient eye. As far as she was concerned, while it would
  have been preferable to have the city as yet another
  satrapy for the Realm, Gethamane wasn’t harboring
  rebels or fostering anti-Realm sentiments and would
  have been more trouble to take than it was worth.
  Besides, the Guild’s constant commerce with Gethamane
  left the city vulnerable. If she had wanted to attack it, she
  could have found a way to cut off Guild supplies to
  weaken the place or smuggled in spies and agents under
  the cover of merchant caravans.
  In the last few years, with the Scarlet Empress van-
  ished and the Great Houses contending for power, a
  number of Dragon-Blooded have planned to boost their
  houses’ prestige and their own fame by conquering or
  otherwise controlling Gethamane and making it a tribu-
  tary of the Realm. So far, their plans have ranged from the
  wild and woolly to the ineffective, but a couple of the
  better planners are prepared to spend decades building up
  spy networks, agents and influence. Like the Guild, these
  Dragon-Blooded have realized that Gethamane depends
  on its sunken Gardens, and, like the Guild, these Dragon-
  Blooded are faced with the problem of how to enfeeble
  Gethamane without destroying the Gardens and causing
  the city’s ruin.
  THE GUILD
  The Guild wants Gethamane. Having it as a hub city
  is all very well, but actively controlling it would be far more
  profitable. There might even be ways to replicate the
  fungus gardens elsewhere in the North, not to mention the
  raised tariffs for all non-Guild traffic passing through
  Gethamane . . . . It’s the sort of thing that any Guildsman
  with half a mind can daydream about. Unfortunately for
  the Guild, Gethamane is very much aware of what the
  Guild wants.
  As a result, the Guild and Gethamane have a cordial
  but extremely guarded relationship. Gethamane can, if
  necessary, throw the Guild out and keep it out for years —
  the city produces the bare necessities of life and has enough
  luxuries now (cloth, wood, metal) to be able to hold out for
  decades, if not very comfortably. Similarly, the Guild
  could completely stop supplying Gethamane but would
  suffer from the loss of the convenient point on the trade
  routes, especially the slave trade. For the moment, both
  parties continue cooperating, and they are both aware that
  the other could enact sanctions if matters go too far.
  The Guild, therefore, watches and takes any opportu-
  nities it can to sink its tentacles deeper into Gethamane,
  while refraining from trying anything too obvious. Cara-
  van masters helpfully try to make slave-owning legal inside
  Gethamane, in order to destabilize the labor economy.
  Luxury goods are imported in the hopes of establishing a
  need that can later be used to exert pressure. Spies attempt
  to penetrate the fungus gardens to find out how they work
  — and to sabotage them so the Guild can establish
  economic dominance through food imports. And citizens
  of Gethamane are cultivated or blackmailed to serve as
  Guild agents. A quiet, bitter war goes on in the shadows,
  with Gethamane struggling to maintain its independence.
  WHITEWALL
  While Gethamane is glad of the trade from White-
  wall, particularly the minerals and ores for which Whitewall
  is famous, there is little in the way of diplomacy between
  the two cities. Both have adopted a strategy of remaining
  snug within their walls and barring themselves against the
  world outside, and both are content with the current state
  of affairs. Some in Gethamane hold Whitewall up as an
  example of weak-minded feebleness (alliances with the
  Realm, the fey and the undead) and praise Gethamane’s
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded
  One of Gethamane’s secrets is that a nest of
  Iselsi hides there. Their progenitors took shelter in
  Gethamane when the Empress destroyed their Great
  House, entering as part of a group of merchants and
  being adopted by the Loshan family. The Iselsi hold
  a degree of influence in the Guard and sent regular
  reports to the All-Seeing Eye and, thus, to the
  Empress herself — which was one of the reasons she
  didn’t consider Gethamane to be a serious concern.
  A couple of the bloodline have Exalted and were
  hastily smuggled out of the city and into formal
  training elsewhere, but most of the bloodline is
  patrician. Unfortunately, Mnemon has managed
  to trace the bloodline while investigating the All-
  Seeing Eye elsewhere in Creation and intends to
  blackmail the Iselsi into helping her gain control of
  Gethamane. A young but trusted representative of
  House Mnemon will be arriving at the city shortly,
  seemingly part of a trading caravan. He is a trained
  sorcerer and warrior. Should the Iselsi be revealed,
  the revelation will shake public confidence in the
  Loshan family and in the Guard as a whole.
  
  71
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  Bull will want Gethamane, either as an ally or a tributary
  — or to serve as a public example. The easiest option is
  to close off the mountain and maintain a state of siege.
  While Gethamane could probably sustain this longer
  than the Bull could, all trade would be disrupted (or
  worse, the Guild might ally with the Bull) and there is
  always the dire possibility that the Anathematic powers
  that the Bull and his allies command could crack
  Gethamane open like an egg.
  The second option is to ally formally with the Bull
  and pay tribute, in the time-honored tradition of cities,
  to icewalkers. Given recent events in Halta, more
  Council members are inclining to this point of view.
  While this course of action would compromise
  Gethamane’s independence, paying tribute would pre-
  serve the city and its inhabitants.
  Nobody even considers suggesting outright defying
  the Bull and attacking him or allying with anyone else who
  has such plans. Gethamane as a whole is biased toward
  survival, not suicide.
  THE UNDERWAYS
  The delvings that extend deep underground are black,
  rounded and faintly slick to the touch. To those who know
  of the Mountain Folk, the delvings bear the unmistakable
  stamp of Mountain Folk work. There are no regular light
  sources in the underways: while occasional troves of jewels
  down here include such rarities as glowstones (and random
  patches of luminous moss or burning pockets of gas may
  offer light to the passing traveler), these cannot be de-
  pended upon.
  There is no actual law in Gethamane forbidding
  people to go down into the underways. However, all the
  inhabitants know that dangerous horrors emerge from the
  tunnels, and the citizens are not so blatantly and recklessly
  stupid as to go throwing themselves down a monster’s
  gullet. Early Masters of Gethamane realized that it was
  impractical to prevent outsiders from trying to go below,
  however. It was simpler to warn them of the dangers and
  then collect a share of any findings if they should actually
  emerge alive.
  INCURSION PROCEDURE
  There is a specific Guard alarm, given by drumbeat (or
  thumped out on the side of the wall or on the floor) —
  which everyone in Gethamane knows from childhood —
  that signals an incursion from the underways. Any citizens
  of Gethamane who hear the signal will retire to the nearest
  defensible spot, taking all noncombatants or those who
  cannot defend themselves with them, and arm themselves
  for battle. Any Guard who hears the drumbeat will imme-
  diately head for the area, forming up into squads there and
  preparing for battle. Those Guards who carry drums will
  repeat the drumbeat, adding the signifier, which makes it
  own independence, but most citizens of Gethamane are
  willing to acknowledge that Whitewall gets along as best
  it can and does better than most. Whitewall miners have
  prospected the mountains around Gethamane more than
  once but have yet to find any significant mineral deposits.
  DRUGS IN GETHAMANE
  One of the Guild’s classic ways of exerting pres-
  sure on a potential target is to introduce a drug into
  the area and then use the need for the drug as
  leverage, once a sufficiently high proportion of the
  population is addicted. Previous Masters of
  Gethamane have made it clear to Guild representa-
  tives that anything stronger than marijuana or mild
  narcotics sold in Gethamane will cause the city to
  take severe anti-Guild reprisals. Of course, there have
  been Guildsmen who’ve tried, followed by Gethamane
  refusing to accept slave caravans for several months,
  followed by the Guild cutting off other items of trade
  in reprisal — but eventually, the matter usually
  settles down, and trade resumes its normal course. It’s
  been about seven decades since the last attempt to
  introduce crack cocaine to the population. Any year
  now, the Guild is due to try again.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Any
  During a recent prospecting attempt, a miner
  from Whitewall discovered deposits of jade and
  silver a couple of days’ journey from Gethamane. If
  word of this discovery gets out, there will be a rush
  to exploit the deposits. Gethamane doesn’t have
  the mining equipment on hand, but it’s the nearest
  city, and it has the food sources that any significant
  mining camp will need. Whitewall or the Haslanti
  could theoretically send a strike force the site to set
  up a camp and mine as much as they can, if those
  cities could conceal the mining from Gethamane.
  Even the Bull himself might encamp the area and
  obtain miners to harvest the jade, should he find
  out. The deposits could, in fact, be the flashpoint
  that touches off a general war in the region.
  THE BULL OF THE NORTH
  Gethamane is not blind or dead, even if it is buried
  underground. The Mistress and Council know about the
  Bull’s rise and are debating on which course of action to
  take if he approaches Gethamane. Sooner or later, the
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  72
  past in which citizens who were wounded by creatures from
  the underways later turned out to be under the creatures’
  mental control and tried to sabotage areas of the city,
  assault Guards watching the entrances or just go on killing
  sprees.) The Guard on that particular entrance is doubled
  for the next half-month, in case of more incursions. All
  dead human bodies are taken to the temples for immediate
  funeral rites and incineration by the priests in order to
  prevent them possibly rising as undead. The procedures
  have been honed by practice, and both Guards and citizens
  alike know what they are expected to do.
  THE YU-SHAN GATE
  In the underways, perhaps half an hour’s journey from
  the entrances into Gethamane, lies a gate to Yu-Shan. The
  gate has no guardian on the Gethamane side, but is
  watched on the other side by three Celestial lions. The
  Sidereals know about the gate, as do some of the Lunars
  and Deathlords. While the elders of the Mountain Folk
  know of the gate’s location, they also know that Vodak is
  down there, so no Mountain Folk would ever go near
  Gethamane — unless, of course, the situation was desper-
  ate. Anyone investigating the gate’s location would find it
  surprisingly clean and well-tended, showing the marks of
  occasional use.
  CREATURES OF THE UNDERWAYS
  The primary denizen of the Gethamane underways is
  Vodak and his simulacra. Other creatures enter the dark
  passages from time to time, and some even last long
  enough to establish small societies or develop plans to prey
  on the dwellers above. Sooner or later, however, the
  creatures end up as food for Vodak’s endless hunger or flee
  the tunnels for safer territory. Those beings that burst up
  from the underways into Gethamane proper are sometimes
  attempting to escape being food rather than seeking the
  city out — not that they would discuss the situation with
  the Guard.
  As Vodak may produce simulacra of any creature he
  has devoured, and as he has by now devoured creatures
  from many different underground races, any sort of crea-
  ture or race may appear in the caves beneath Gethamane
  — whether genuinely alive or merely a simulacra created
  by Vodak that does not realize its true nature. Vodak
  sometimes amuses itself by creating small tribes of such
  creatures without letting them realize what they are and
  then allowing them to play out dramas of life and death,
  to interact with each other, to attack visiting humans
  and so on. Eventually, however, Vodak absorbs them
  again. Combined with the other creatures living in the
  underways at any given time, this produces a constantly
  changing society and struggle for territory, resulting in
  frequent irruptions into upper Gethamane in search of
  food and living space.
  GETHAMANE’S SHARE
  Certainly, Gethamane doesn’t impose an out-
  right tax on anything brought out of the underways.
  That would simply cause the searchers to find new
  ways to hide their findings or to kill any Guards who
  saw them carrying treasure, not to mention sullying
  the good name of the city. Besides, anyone who’s
  capable of going down into the underways and
  surviving will certainly be capable of bilking any
  tax collectors sitting at the entrance.
  What does happen is that the Guard is in-
  structed to take careful note of any valuables (or
  mysterious large sacks, for instance) being carried
  by treasure-seekers who come out of the underways
  alive. A high-ranking Bethanite (with a Guard
  escort) then visits the treasure-seekers later, after
  they’ve had the chance to relax, and suggests po-
  litely that a contribution toward Gethamane’s
  upkeep would be wise. Failure to make a generous
  donation of some sort can lead to the individuals in
  question being escorted out of Gethamane, without
  the chance to collect supplies — whatever the
  current weather conditions outside may be — with
  a permanent prohibition against returning. This
  reasonable approach usually results in Gethamane
  getting some sort of contribution — especially if the
  treasure-seekers want to dare the tunnels again in
  the future.
  Citizens of Gethamane who bring treasure up
  from the underways are expected to contribute a
  third (or an equal value in goods or service) to the
  city’s treasury. Failure to pay results in their Dole
  being cancelled in forfeit. The valuation on the
  artifacts brought up from below is as fair and as well-
  judged as possible. Citizens capable of surviving the
  underways are a resource that the government of
  Gethamane likes to cultivate.
  clear which underways’ entrance the alarm refers to. The
  Guardhall goes on full alert, the Gardens and Council are
  shut off and the wards raised and any outsider combatants
  in the vicinity who owe service to Gethamane — par-
  ticularly thaumaturges or Exalted — are asked to lend
  their assistance. This is never treated as a drill or taken
  lightly; the people of Gethamane are terrified of the
  things that live beneath.
  Once the incursion has been dealt with, the all clear
  is given, again by drum signal. Any monster corpses are
  taken to the Courthouse for investigation, while wounded
  Guards and civilians alike are taken to the Guardhall for
  treatment and observation. (There have been cases in the
  
  73
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  then force their eggs down their prey’s throat. The eggs
  hatch within a few hours, and the infant cthritae grow to
  full size within a day. If entering an area with plentiful
  breeding stock (human or animal), cthritae automatically
  enter into a breed-and-hatch cycle that continues until
  they have used up all available hosts in the vicinity. The
  resulting packs then split up to hunt in different directions.
  Cthritae can actively chew through normal rock at a speed
  of one foot per hour but would need to know that there was
  a reason to do so, such as breeding hosts. (So, they would
  not start suddenly digging up toward Gethamane but
  might start chewing through a door if they had seen prey
  vanish behind it and close it in their faces.)
  Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2, Charisma
  1, Manipulation 2, Appearance 1, Perception 3, Intelli-
  gence 1, Wits 2
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 2, Temperance 2,
  Valor 1
  Abilities: Athletics 2, Awareness 2, Brawl 1, Dodge 2,
  Melee 2, Survival 1 (Underground +2)
  CTHRITAE
  Description: This Darkbrood is mostly ignored by
  Vodak, as they were the creations of the Primordial whose
  blood formed Vodak, and while the hekatonkhire has no
  such thing as empathy or affection, some deep note
  in its personality is satisfied by leaving the
  cthritae alone. They are man-sized cen-
  tipedes apparently chiseled out of onyx
  and black opal, with grinding man-
  dibles that drip mercury when they
  salivate. They run in packs of at
  least a dozen and are hermaphro-
  ditic, being able to mate with each
  other and leave their eggs inside
  suitable food sources to hatch later.
  While the cthritae only require rock
  and water to live on, they physi-
  cally enjoy ripping living flesh apart,
  rolling themselves in blood and tear-
  ing open human guts.
  The cthritae exude a natu-
  ral adhesive from their insectoid
  legs that allows them to run up
  vertical surfaces or cling to the
  ceiling for up to an hour. They
  lack human intelligence but
  are successful carnivores and
  proficient in the art of stalking
  prey. Normally, they only hunt
  to kill, but if they wish to breed,
  they will seek out warm-blooded
  creatures, sever the tendons in their
  arms and legs, mate and lay eggs and
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Any
  In a chamber in the underways of Gethamane
  lie several ancient Dragon Kings, sealed in centu-
  ries-long slumber. Spells of concealment and warding
  protect the entrance to their chamber, which is why
  Vodak and others have never yet discovered them.
  However, the ancient sorcery is weakening, and
  soon, the Dragon Kings will awake to emerge into
  the underways and possibly even ascend into
  Gethamane itself. They have no knowledge of the
  modern world, however, and the current citizens of
  Gethamane will assume that they are the worst sort
  of monster from below. The Dragon Kings know a
  great deal about Gethamane and also know about
  the Yu-Shan gate in the underways. They do not,
  however, know about Vodak.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  74
  Backgrounds: Allies 5 (other Cthritae)
  Powers: Night Vision (can see in pitch darkness)
  Base Initiative: 5
  Attack:
  Bite: Speed 5 Accuracy 4 Damage 6L Defense 4
  Dodge Pool: 5
  Soak: 4L/8B (Stony chitinous hide,
  3L, 6B)
  Willpower: 3
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 1
  Other Notes: While cthritae are not killed by sunlight,
  they dislike it and also dislike unroofed spaces such as the
  open air. They are considered creatures of darkness for the
  purposes of Solar Charms and anima powers, fleeing from
  the anima powers of both the Zenith and the Dawn Caste.
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Bite: Speed 5 Accuracy 4 Damage 5L Defense 4 Rate 4
  Dodge Pool: 6
  VODAK
  Description: A force of incal-
  culable malice and insatiable hunger
  dwells in the silent crevices under
  Gethamane. The Mountain Folk call
  it Vodak in the language of a long-
  extinct race, a name they dare only
  whisper in dread and hushed awe.
  Every utterance of its name is a warn-
  ing and a horrified prayer. Few know
  its nature or appearance, as all Moun-
  tain Folk flee before ever Vodak
  could come into sight, but they know
  it is inescapable death to all who
  behold it.
  Vodak is a hekatonkhire, a be-
  hemoth of Malfean Essence. When
  the first Primordial perished at the
  hands of the Exalted, its dying blood
  seeped into the earth. The titan’s
  last breath animated the flowing
  ichors with its own vitriolic hatred,
  transforming the mass into a night-
  mare of bubbling and writhing
  quicksilver. At first, it flowed mind-
  lessly, devouring all life it could
  find. The tortured and half-digested
  ghosts of its absorbed prey swelled
  its mass and cunning, gradually ex-
  panding Vodak into an undulating
  lake of necrotic power. In addition
  to its nearly indestructible form,
  the hekatonkhire can extrude con-
  gealed masses of its Essence to
  replicate any living being it has
  ever absorbed. These simulacra are corporeal beings
  with the semblance, the Traits and even the memories
  of their former selves up to their deaths. They almost
  indistinguishably mimic the original beings, save that
  they remain helplessly enthralled to their hideous maker
  and instantly dissolve into silver ash if they are slain or
  touched by sunlight (or if Vodak withdraws the com-
  mitted Essence sustaining their existence). These copies
  have no Essence pool and none of the replicated beings’
  non-physical supernatural powers (if any), but the cop-
  ies can easily mistake themselves for the beings they
  emulate if Vodak gives them that illusion. The
  hekatonkhire uses its slaves as bait and hunters, luring
  prey into its glittering depths. It is possible that other
  Primordials spawned similar monsters throughout Cre-
  ation when they died, though no such beings have ever
  made themselves known in the Ages since.
  
  75
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  Storytellers should keep in mind that a being of
  Vodak’s age and power does not necessarily need statis-
  tics, nor should the following information provide
  anything more than a rough guideline. In most cases, this
  being will function as an alien evil in the background,
  never entering scenes except through enslaved proxies.
  Vodak is currently mostly inert beneath Gethamane,
  choosing to merely lure prey with its proxies or devour
  other creatures wandering the underways. If the
  hekatonkhire rises, or if the wards that keep it under
  Gethamane are broken, it may mean the destruction of
  all Gethamane for a second time or the freeing of Vodak
  to travel throughout the depths of Creation.
  Attributes: Strength 30, Dexterity 3, Stamina Immeasur-
  able, Charisma 1, Manipulation 4, Appearance 0,
  Perception 5, Intelligence 4, Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 5, Temperance 1,
  Valor 2
  Abilities: Awareness 5 (Sense Life +3), Brawl 5, Lore 4,
  Occult 3, Presence 8
  Backgrounds: Cult 5 (Darkbroods), Followers 5+
  (Simulacra)
  Powers: Control Simulacra (For a reflexive cost of 1
  mote, Vodak can issue a telepathic order to one of its
  simulacra, regardless of distance. Such commands are
  absolute, dictating orders or memories without the possi-
  bility of resistance. Alternately, Vodak can spend a mote
  to usurp the voice of its slave and/or undetectably share
  the simulacrum’s senses for a minute.), Create Simulacra
  (With an Essence roll at standard difficulty, Vodak can
  excrete a copy of any being it has previously consumed.
  Only one copy of the same being can exist at one time.
  This costs 2 motes for every health level the original
  being had. These motes are committed till the simulacrum
  dies.), Devour Essence (Whenever Vodak touches a
  living being at the moment of death, Vodak regains a
  number of motes equal to the prey’s Stamina + Essence.
  The souls of the departed become part of Vodak, linger-
  ing in half-aware pain for eternity.), Immortal (Vodak
  takes no damage from non-magical sources and can only
  be destroyed if cast into the Mouth of Oblivion. Any
  lesser “demise” merely forces Vodak into quiescence for
  a century until the hetakonkhire can reform in the
  Labyrinth. This would be one way of freeing Vodak from
  beneath Gethamane, but Vodak has not realized this.),
  Telepathy (Vodak can project its thoughts to any sen-
  tient being in line of sight as a discordant cacophony of
  Vodak’s previous victims’ voices. Targets can respond
  telepathically or not, as they choose, but the hekatonkhire
  cannot forcibly read thoughts or control minds. Blocking
  out Vodak’s voice for a scene requires a successful Will-
  power roll at difficulty 4.)
  Base Initiative: 6
  Attack:
  Pseudopods: Speed 6 Accuracy 8 Damage 30L*
  * Any organic matter touching Vodak suffers damage as if
  exposed to an acid bath (see Exalted, page 244). This
  corrosion bypasses all non-magical armor and occurs when-
  ever a being comes in contact with the hekatonkhire.
  Apply this damage separately following impact trauma
  from a successful pseudopod attack.
  Dodge Pool: None Soak: 30L/60B (Protean body)
  Willpower: 10
  Health Levels: -0 x 200/Quiescent
  Essence: 8
  Essence Pool: 800
  Other Notes: Vodak does not suffer the usual progres-
  sion of dice penalties for taking multiple actions. Instead,
  it cumulatively loses one die for every non-reflexive
  action performed in a turn after the first. Sunlight inflicts
  one level of aggravated damage every turn to Vodak,
  vaporizing its tainted plasm. Vodak can take no actions
  under sunlight except to retreat from the charring rays.
  The hekatonkhire and its simulacra are creatures of
  darkness.
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Pseudopods: Speed 6 Accuracy 8 Damage 30L* Rate
  unlimited
  * Any organic matter touching Vodak suffers damage as if
  exposed to an acid bath (see Exalted, page 244). This
  corrosion bypasses all non-magical armor and occurs when-
  ever a being comes in contact with the hekatonkhire.
  Apply this damage separately following impact trauma
  from a successful pseudopod attack.
  Dodge Pool: None
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Any
  A particular Deathlord has decided to slay
  Vodak in order to forge the hekatonkhire into the
  plating known as Oblivion’s Panoply (see The
  Book of Bone and Ebony, page 101), and sends his
  trusted agents into the tunnels below Gethamane
  in order to assault Vodak. Unless they are stopped,
  Gethamane itself will be dragged into the battle,
  and soon . . .
  THE GODS OF GETHAMANE
  Description: The three little gods of Gethamane are
  Tribbua of the Outward Breath, Reshan of the Inward
  Breath and Metheris of the Still Sky. While their man-
  sions in Yu-Shan stand empty, the gods themselves are still
  present in Gethamane and continue their daily work of
  moving air through the mountain. Their statistics are
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  76
  effectively the same, but their personalities differ. They
  hold their priests in common and are worshiped equally by
  the priesthood, though the mortals don’t know their true
  names or the differences between them.
  Tribbua is expansionist, wanting to spread outward,
  to fill Gethamane with life and to have a constant stream
  of trade flowing through it. She was the first to take the
  Solars’ bargain in the distant past and is the most eager to
  make contact with Solars again and restore the glories of
  the past. From time to time, she takes mortal form as a
  female human and copulates with her priests in their
  dreams, bearing little elemental wind spirits that she
  releases on the mountainside.
  Reshan is full of guilt, blaming herself for the deaths
  of the citizens of Gethamane in Vodak’s massacre. She
  constantly weeps as she sucks in the air around Gethamane,
  and her tears are black with corruption. It is her memories
  that drive some of those who sleep in the temples from
  Gethamane, never to return. Sometimes, she takes the
  form of an old woman and walks through the underways,
  leaving wet footprints on the dark stone. She fears that
  Vodak will rise again but has abandoned all hope of
  stopping it and would rather see all humans leave
  Gethamane while they still can.
  Metheris is paralyzed by indecision. Once the middle
  point who held the balance between the other two, he is
  now the one who is terrified to do anything in either
  direction, for fear of bringing further disaster down on
  Gethamane. He would rather arrange for Exalted to be
  kept out of the city than risk them entering it, in case they
  somehow provoke Vodak into rising again. Metheris mani-
  fests as a young boy and sometimes sits at the top of the
  mountain on windless days, looking up at the sky and
  dreaming of Yu-Shan.
  Sanctum: The three gods’ sanctums all exist within
  the bejeweled carvings in their individual temples.
  Nature: Paragon (Tribbua), Caregiver (Reshan), Critic
  (Metheris)
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4, Charisma
  3, Manipulation 4, Appearance 3, Perception 4, Intelli-
  gence 4, Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 3, Temperance 4,
  Valor 3
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 4, Brawl 5, Dodge 3,
  Endurance 4, Investigation 3, Lore 4 (Gethamane +3),
  Medicine 3, Melee 4, Occult 3, Performance 4, Presence 3,
  Resistance 4, Socialize 3, Stealth 3
  Backgrounds: Allies 3 (The Other Gods of Gethamane),
  Cult 3, Influence 2
  Charms: All listed Charms
  Cost To Materialize: 40
  Base Initiative: 7
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 7 Accuracy 9 Damage 3B Defense 9
  Kick: Speed 4 Accuracy 8 Damage 5B Defense 8
  Maul: Speed 10 Accuracy 10 Damage 15L Defense 12
  Dodge Pool: 7
  Soak: 10L/15B (Spirit robes, 8L/11B)
  Willpower: 8
  Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-
  0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 5
  Essence Pool: 80
  Other Notes: Each of the gods can, at will, summon a large
  stone maul out of thin air and use it to defend him- or
  herself.
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 7 Accuracy 10 Damage 3B Defense 11 Rate 5
  Kick: Speed 4 Accuracy 10 Damage 6B Defense 6 Rate 3
  Maul: Speed 10 Accuracy 10 Damage 15L Defense 2 Rate 4
  Dodge Pool: 12
  
  77
  CHAPTER TWO • GETHAMANE, THE CITY UNDER THE MOUNTAIN
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  78
  
  79
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  CHAPTER THREE
  THE HASLANTI
  LEAGUE,
  NASCENT EMPIRE
  The Haslanti League is a loose confederacy of nine
  city-states and approximately 150 semi-nomadic tribes.
  Each city-state runs its own affairs, but League members
  cooperate on matters of economic development, foreign
  policy and military operations. In the North’s harsh envi-
  ronment, where wind and cold are constant presences, to
  live independently is to die. Yet, to live one’s life in service
  to a nation is to be a slave, a death sentence in itself. A
  necessary balance exists between cooperation and inde-
  pendence, between personal rights and responsibility to
  society. In essence, the Haslanti seek a balance between
  civilized society and tribal ways. It is not an easy balancing
  act, yet for almost 200 years now the League has tottered,
  crawled and limped along. Finally, the Haslanti seem to be
  getting to their feet.
  ENVIRONMENT
  The Haslanti confront some of the worst weather in
  all Creation. In winter, breath freezes in beards, and
  snowfall in the high country piles up drifts 50 feet high. In
  summer, labor in dry air can cause people to sweat to death,
  and landslides and flash floods bury the unwary.
  The natural fauna of the region also threaten human
  activities. In summer, pestilent black-fly swarms represent
  a deadly threat when they bear sunken cheeks plague into
  sheep flocks. Stinging locusts can actually bite a man to
  death. Wheat mites can devour a year’s worth of food
  supplies in just a few hours. Frost bears attack reindeer and
  even well-armed humans.
  And life is not any safer at sea or in the air. Whales
  break ships, and the ice opens beneath travelers’ feet.
  Northern gales are a constant companion: whether roaring
  or whispering, the wind speaks in the ears of the Haslanti.
  Given such a harsh environment, it is not surprising
  that the residents live in a variety of conditions and
  landscapes, which affect their thinking and experiences.
  The Haslanti name their four distinct regions greenfields,
  emeralds, the Outwall and the Great Ice.
  THE GREENFIELDS
  In the First Age, titanic engines and powerful Charms
  were deployed in the North to increase agricultural pro-
  ductivity and enlarge herds, but the land rarely gave forth
  abundance. Thus, the region’s underlying granite was cleft
  with powerful tools — weapons, almost — and the broad
  valleys created were sown with soil, seed and trees below
  their steep granite cliffs. Lakes fed miniature rivers flowing
  through each vale, and mines and quarries pierced the rock
  walls. Thirty-two such vales survive in the Age of Sorrows.
  The largest is Icehome Greenfield, which runs for not
  quite 100 miles inland and holds the League’s capital, the
  city of Icehome itself. The smallest, Sunset Greenfield, is
  only two and a half miles long, cutting inland 70 miles from
  the foothills around Gethamane.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  80
  For modern inhabitants, these steep-walled and shel-
  tered greenfields along the White Sea are peaceful islands
  in a hostile world. Narrow at the sea and wide toward the
  south or east, the valleys collect heat in summer and
  disperse it over the coldest months. Trees, grain crops,
  cattle, sheep and reindeer flourish. Sixteen vales lie be-
  tween Icehome and Gethamane, another nine lie between
  Icehome and Malice Bay and seven dig into the coast
  between Malice Bay and Crystal.
  Greenfields tend to be five to 10 degrees warmer than
  the surrounding high country and tundra. Hemmed in by
  high cliffs, greenfields stay sheltered from the worst North-
  ern winds. Most greenfields are farm and pasture land,
  though orchards and vineyards are common. The wealthy
  keep gardens. Large stands of cultivated trees help to hold
  down soil in more exposed areas and provide wood for
  building iceships and air boats. Through hard experience,
  the Haslanti have learned that the wind is capable of
  blowing away soil and leaving bare rock behind.
  The Haslanti who live in greenfields tend to view the
  outside world with more tenderness and less suspicion
  than others. While the lives of those who dwell in
  greenfields are not exactly soft, these Haslanti have access
  to more luxuries and foreign goods, and they live closer to
  their neighbors. As a result, these Haslanti view foreigners
  with greater goodwill. Sheltered within both city walls and
  the greenfields’ natural boundaries, the inhabitants view
  outside threats with equanimity.
  Most greenfields hold only a town or two and a few
  villages. The town is usually situated on a hill or a cliff
  overlooking both the valley and the main beach that also
  serves as the local shipyard and port. Few towns have
  elaborate harbor facilities. The town is walled in stone;
  sometimes, as in the case of the town of Kaet’s Landing,
  east of Icehome, the town is actually cut into the rockface
  of one of the valley cliffs. Town populations tend to swell
  in wintertime, as villagers crowd into winter quarters for
  protection against barbarian raids and the Wyld.
  The five largest greenfields together support six of the
  major city-states of the League. Icehome Greenfield, the
  largest greenfield and home to the largest city, is 96 miles
  long and usually about 35 miles wide. Two hundred miles
  to the east is Ironfall Greenfield, 68 miles long and eight
  miles wide. In the northeast, Windcreche Greenfield lies
  almost exactly on the line between Crystal and Icehome,
  driving 43 miles inland and 10 miles wide for most of its
  length. Three hundred miles south of Windcreche is
  Shield Greenfield. Fort Bear Greenfield cleaves the earth
  another 200 miles south of Shield. Finally, Tuskstad
  Greenfield, the principal port for mammoth hunters, lies
  150 miles west of Icehome. The greenfield runs 38 miles
  inland and averages 11 miles wide.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded, Fair
  Folk, Heroic Dead, Heroic Mortal, Sidereal, Solar
  Something or someone has shifted the wind
  early in autumn, so the prevailing gales are now
  blowing sand, grit and storms right into a greenfield
  at a swift rate. Fragile soil is being swept away, crops
  are being damaged or destroyed and farms are being
  buried under early snows before their inhabitants
  have a chance to bring in their animals or harvest.
  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people will starve
  this winter if the wind does not change.
  The cause of the change in the wind could be a
  strong Abyssal and his minions who are trying to
  increase the extent of a nearby shadowland. The
  cause could be a pack of Lunars who are trying to
  recover territory from the grasp of encroaching civi-
  lization. The cause could be a group of Fair Folk
  playing with their intended victims or simply experi-
  menting with a nearby pocket of the Wyld. The
  cause could also be a shaman or two from a roving
  barbarian tribe. And, of course, the cause could be a
  god who has been offended by the local population.
  A solution could include killing or negotiating
  with the power responsible, who, in most cases, is
  doing what she is doing for good reasons. Other
  possibilities involve searching out First Age arti-
  facts to shift the wind or to erect a wind-shield,
  reshaping the cliffs around the greenfield to defend
  against the wind-shift or trying to evacuate the
  population to another location.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR GREENFIELDS
  Warrior: Cliffguard Sentry, Road Patrolwoman, Box-
  ing Champion, Harpoon-Man, Reindeer Rider
  Holy Man: Dream Interpreter, Fate-Speaker, Master
  Embalmer
  Savant: Orchard Caretaker, Soil Manager, Mine Engi-
  neer, Weather Watcher
  Criminal: House-Breaker, Dice-Tosser, Highwaywoman
  Entertainer: Skald, Tumbler, Juggler, Courtesan,
  Two-Bit Boy
  Bureaucrat: City Magistrate, Town Councilor, Gene-
  alogist, Arbitrator
  Agricultural: Farmer, Shepherd, Arborist, Orchard
  Man, Migrant Laborer
  Mercantile: Woolens Merchant, Pack Trader, Banker,
  Shopkeeper
  
  81
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  SCATTERED EMERALDS
  The wreckage of dozens of greenfields lie scattered all
  over the North. When wind blows away soil from a
  greenfield, that fertile earth sometimes lands in a pocket or
  sheltered place in the outlying countryside, creating what
  the Haslanti call an emerald. Many of the emeralds are
  quite small, capable of supporting only one or two small
  homesteads. Other emeralds are much larger, supporting a
  small walled village and, in a few cases, a town. An emerald
  is a fleeting thing, however. Many last just a few decades,
  though a few have been carefully managed for 100 years.
  Without husbandry, gales pick up the soil and dump it
  somewhere else, leaving behind bare rock.
  When an emerald is discovered, the first order of
  business is to transplant a number of trees from a greenfield
  to the emerald and establish a windbreak before winter
  arrives. This is delicate work, but it must be done speed-
  ily, and it must be followed with the construction of a
  house and a protective wall for the inhabitants. New
  homesteads must be defended from animals, barbarians
  and even Fair Folk, so that crops and a small herd of sheep
  or reindeer can be introduced. Settling an emerald is
  precarious: too many people and animals can overuse the
  plot; then the wind will blow away the unanchored soil.
  Too few animals and people, and the plot cannot be
  protected against incursions.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded, Lu-
  nar, Heroic Dead, Heroic Mortal, Sidereal, Solar
  A “lucky” wind has deposited a vast band of soil
  in the hollows along one side of a ridge of hills, and the
  characters have a chance to establish several hundred
  families in these pockets, which would relieve the
  population pressures on a nearby greenfield. Several
  hurdles must be overcome, however: The people must
  be convinced to leave the shelter of the greenfield and
  its relative luxury. Enough trees must be found to
  secure the emerald’s soil in place. The emerald must
  be seeded with proper grasses and plants. The emerald
  must be held against bandits, barbarians, Fair Folk
  and Lunars. Finally, a community must be built from
  a group of people used to doing things their own way.
  Obstacles to these goals could include a local
  Lunar-led tribe desirous of putting their own stamp
  on this little paradise. Part of the emeralds might lie
  within a shadowland. A god might come looking for
  the soil that was robbed from his own stretch of
  territory and seek to become the new master of the
  land. Critical resources such as fresh water, building
  stone and metal would need to be located. Danger-
  ous animals might have lairs in the area.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  82
  Most emeralds support a dozen families; a particularly
  large one feeds the city of Fair Isle. This greenery in the
  tundra serves much the same purpose as oases in the deep
  South: the emeralds form stopping points on trade routes,
  fortresses against nomadic barbarians and places of retreat
  from the bustle of the League’s towns and cities.
  Life in the emeralds is hardscrabble. Gales may pick up
  your father and grandfather’s work and hurl it a thousand
  miles away. Changes in weather can dry out the land. Spring
  thaws replace fertile soil with mud. Taxes paid to the League
  for protection can leave your family with almost nothing.
  And, in winter, residents are largely isolated.
  And yet, emeralds are critical to the League’s survival.
  Greenfields contain limited land and resources — foodstuffs
  and property cannot be endlessly divided in each succeeding
  generation. Emeralds provide an escape valve for restless
  younger sons and daughters who want land and wealth.
  Two unusual professions exist in the emeralds. Green
  men are professional ecosystem managers. Traveling be-
  tween different communities, they collect and distribute
  insects, mosses, lichens, plants and small animals to help
  each emerald become a more complete and biologically
  diverse world. Soil-stealers make a living out of raiding
  smaller emeralds to enslave people and cart away fertile
  earth and useful animals. Tales of large emeralds used as
  bandit camps abound in Haslanti stories and literature.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR EMERALDS
  Warrior: Reindeer Rider, League Militia Captain,
  Wolf or Bear Hunter
  Holy Man: Dream Interpreter, Fate-Speaker, Hermit
  Savant: Weather Watcher, Green Man
  Criminal: Bandit, Soil-Stealer
  Entertainer: Skald, Drum-Singer
  Bureaucrat: Tax Collector, Census Woman, Arbitrator
  THE OUTWALL
  Beyond greenfields and emeralds is the region called
  the Outwall by the Haslanti. At least, those Haslanti who
  are primarily sedentary and agricultural call it the Outwall.
  Pastoralists who herd reindeer on the steppes and tundra
  know enough to divide it a little more carefully.
  To town-dwellers, the Outwall seems an inhospitable
  and uninhabited place. Beyond an emerald or greenfield’s
  tight confines, few trees grow taller than 10 feet. Instead,
  thick brambles and hardy grass are the norm, stunted by
  wind and short growing seasons. And what’s soft, muddy
  ground in summer becomes hard and frozen in winter.
  To the herdfolk who move with the reindeer and elk
  herds, the Outwall is alive with possibility. Sedge grass is
  very nearly the perfect food for their herds, and the wilder
  mammoths do not eat it. Predators have a hard time
  stalking on the treeless tundra, and, therefore, the herdfolk’s
  falcons and hawks have an easier time hunting small game.
  Muddy ground is easy on their animals’ feet, and the
  herdfolk believe strong wind to be purifying.
  Some wonder why the Hundred Tribes joined the
  League. Dwelling in no fixed place but moving with their
  herds, they live in round tents of reindeer bone and hides
  called aghar. Herdfolk seem as unlike their town-dwelling
  kin as possible. Yet, without an alliance between
  greenfielders, emerald-dwellers and herdfolk, the Haslanti
  League would wither. If the sedentary Haslanti are the
  nation’s body, then the roving herdfolk are its blood.
  READING THE OUTWALL
  To the herdfolk, the lands of the Outwall are not
  all alike. While town-dwellers would have a hard
  time telling the difference, the herdfolk are capable of
  telling at a glance what sort of place they are in.
  Herd grounds are the best land in the Outwall.
  Here, sedge grass is more plentiful than other grasses
  or inedible brambles. Such land may feed hundreds of
  elk or reindeer for several weeks. The bear-men and
  wolf-men of the tribes of the Outwall decide which
  tribes use which ground each year and wander the
  tundra examining herd grounds to decide use rights.
  Herd grounds must be watched carefully, for they are
  easily depleted. If a herd ground is used more than two
  or three times in five years, it usually becomes a
  fellfield or even spoil-ground. Sedge grass becomes
  depleted. Larger animals such as wild yeddim and
  mammoth must be chased away to ensure enough
  fodder for elk and reindeer. About two-twelfths of the
  Outwall is considered herd ground.
  Fellfields are the next best grazing grounds for
  herdfolk. Enough sedge and secondary grass exists to
  feed large herds, but the land is second-rate. Nearby
  stands of trees hide predators, Wyld lands shelter
  Lunars or Fair Folk and glacier-covered hills are
  home to icewalker tribes. Some fellfields lie on the
  borders of Haslanti territory where independent
  tribes raid the herds. About four-twelfths of the
  Outwall is considered fellfield.
  Once a region is overgrazed, it becomes spoil-
  ground. Bramble replaces sedge grass, and the more
  inedible grasses flourish. Some plants here are poi-
  sonous and can kill whole herds. Also, mammoths
  eat edible spoil-ground plants, so these fields are
  often lost to other large animals herded by more
  independent tribes or by icewalkers. More spoil-
  grounds mean that icewalkers and other barbarians
  get closer to emeralds and greenfields, risking the
  heartland of the League. Six-twelfths of the Haslanti
  Outwall is now spoil-ground, yet it must still be
  patrolled and guarded against icewalker incursions.
  
  83
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  Simple economics dictate union. The sheep, goats
  and cattle of the greenfields, combined with the fish and
  whale from the White Sea, do not provide enough protein
  to feed everyone. Outwall herds make up the difference:
  they provide another source of milk, cheese and butter
  essential to the good health of the Haslanti. Thus, the
  reindeer is a universal symbol of prosperity. Herdfolk also
  act as the League’s transport network, moving bulk goods,
  which cannot be easily moved by air boat or iceship, back
  and forth between the emeralds and the greenfields.
  Moreover, herdfolk serve as a barrier against the other
  Northern barbarians. Roaming in both winter and summer
  looking for food for their animals, the Hundred Tribes are
  the League’s early warning system and first line of defense.
  In return for the food that herdfolk put on Haslanti tables,
  greenfielders provide them with iron tools, weapons, fish,
  whale oil, ivory, honey, bread, wool and linen.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR THE OUTWALL
  Warrior: Elk Rider, League Militia Scout, Bear-Seeker
  Holy Man: Fate-Speaker, Reindeer Shaman, Elk Sha-
  man, Mammoth Shaman
  Savant: Elk-Healer, Reindeer-Healer, Ivory Shaker
  Criminal: Heat-Thief, Elk-Bleeder, Bone Gnawer
  Entertainer: Drum-Singer, Ancestor Voice
  Bureaucrat: Wolf-Man, Bear-Man, Arbitrator
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded,
  Heroic Dead, Heroic Mortal, Sidereal, Solar
  A new disease appears among the elk herds of the
  Outwall. Numerous animals die, more have to be
  killed and the disease keeps spreading despite the
  precautions of Outwall tribes. Without meat, milk and
  cheese to offer to town-dwellers, trade slows down, and
  some militia and scouting teams from the League are
  withdrawing to emeralds and greenfields. There is talk
  among the Hundred Tribes of withdrawing from the
  Haslanti and going over to the icewalkers — perhaps
  even joining the Bull of the North and his armies.
  Possible causes of the disease include an angry
  or insulted god, an Abyssal spreading death and
  destruction or an icewalker shaman eager to purify
  the herdfolk and remove the taint of their associa-
  tion with soft city-folk. It is even possible that
  Samea of the Blackwater Mammoth Tribe herself is
  the source of the plague — whether knowingly or
  unknowingly is up to the Storyteller.
  and snow ranging from a few feet to more than 50 feet
  thick lies over mountains, coastline, islands and open
  sea. Outsiders are amazed that anyone bothers to claim
  the area at all, thinking it must be barren and useless.
  They are not far wrong, for the Great Ice has little of
  value to anyone not prepared to work extremely hard.
  And yet, wealth can be gained from the Great Ice for
  those prepared to labor exhaustively. Beneath the White
  Sea’s frozen surface are schools of fish and pods of whales.
  Ice crews set massive cracking machines built of strong
  timbers and tension bands of mammoth guts on the open
  ice, to open broad crevasses in the surface. The light and
  air draws walruses, seals, whales and fish to sudden plank-
  ton blooms exposed to the Unconquered Sun. Even treeless
  rocks hold colonies of shellfish that can be harvested for
  oysters and mussels. Shipped farther south in brine barrels,
  they are a delicacy in the East and South. Some oyster beds
  hold fabulous riches in pearls, as well, and where the Wyld
  has touched, miners sometimes discover abalone growing
  diamonds and opals instead of pearls.
  LIFE ON THE ICE
  For iceship captains, the Great Ice is constantly in
  flux. Crevasses and sinkholes appear and disappear in the
  ice with great frequency; places frozen for a thousand
  years open suddenly in warm weather. Tidal forces and
  mortal hands shatter icebergs out of the Great Ice, and,
  when these ice boulders turn over, mountains and hills
  appear that must be avoided as if they were islands.
  Charts must be constantly updated.
  Crevasses in the ice can catch silt and wind-blown
  seeds, forming an emerald. These oases become refuges
  for those working on the snow plains. Green men find
  and cultivate these plots and hollow house-caves out of
  the snow for hunters tracking frost bears, ice cats, black
  walruses and snowy seals, as well as for prospectors.
  Mining and fishing are the major occupations on the
  Great Ice. Rocky islets in the White Sea yield amethyst,
  topaz, amber, turquoise and diamond. The largest dia-
  mond deposits are near Diamond Hearth, where miners
  risk their lives by going 20 feet below the snowcap and
  half a mile beneath the earth to dig for the brilliant
  crystals. Sometimes these mines connect with the
  shadowland surrounding the First Age city of Tzatli,
  which adds to the risk but also to the fabulous prices
  commanded by these stones.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR THE GREAT ICE
  Warrior: Iceship Captain, Whale Hunter, Walrus-Man
  Holy Man: Half-Mad Hermit, Ship’s Chaplain
  Savant: Gemologist, Ice-Cracker, Mine Engineer
  Criminal: Heat-Thief, Claim-Jumper
  Entertainer: Flute-Man, Ancestor Voice, Dinar Girl
  Bureaucrat: League Excise Woman, Revenue Man,
  Ivory Counter, Arbitrator
  THE GREAT ICE
  The League’s territorial claims include the Great
  Ice. From Diamond Hearth in the Far North and south-
  ward to Icehome’s shores and Gethamane, a coat of ice
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  84
  ADVENTURE SEED: ADRIFT ON THE GREAT ICE
  Target Character Type: Dragon-Blooded, Heroic Dead, Heroic Mortal, Solar
  At a series of locations on the White Sea, several ice-cracking engines are set off simultaneously, fissuring the
  ice and shattering several sections into giant icebergs. Dozens of iceholts and hundreds of persons are missing and
  presumed lost, while numerous fishing stations are stranded and perhaps damaged or destroyed. Thousands of talents
  worth of valuable iceships and their more valuable cargoes are in peril. Vital trade routes are disrupted for several
  months while the ice refreezes and new paths are found.
  Causes could range from a particularly tragic industrial accident to deliberate sabotage by agents from Gethamane,
  Whitewall or the armies of the Bull of the North. A Wyld taint, either from the Fair Folk or from Lunars who wish to
  see the use of the White Sea restricted, could also be at fault. The accident could also be the work of an Abyssal who
  wished to form a shadowsea, the oceanic equivalent of a shadowland.
  Characters will have to investigate the accident, determine the causes and see if it is likely to occur again.
  The characters will also have to engage in a series of rescue missions to find and recover missing iceships and
  iceholts. They may have to defeat or negotiate with the originator of the event, to prevent it from occurring again.
  THE HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE
  About 400 years ago, the southern and eastern shores
  of the White Sea were home to perhaps 200 tribes of loosely
  linked herding peoples. In the extreme northeast, the
  Haslanesh were hunter-gatherers following wild mammoth
  herds. In the south, the tribes were divided between the
  Haslanahsa, who herded domesticated reindeer, and the
  Haslanosha, who herded domesticated elk. The three peoples
  spoke a common language, and they shared many cultural
  norms including shamanistic practices, several common
  songlines and, of course, several important totems.
  The Haslanesh, the Haslanahsa and the Haslanosha
  also shared a common story. They were exiles from one of
  the northernmost cities of the First Age — Tzatli — and
  the territories around it. When the city fell, people who
  were able marched out into the wilderness. Thousands
  upon thousands died in the snow, from the attacks of
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  predatory animals, from exposure and from simple despair.
  Only the strongest survived the horrors of those frozen
  marches. Yet, among the many soft-bodied and soft-hearted
  First Age citizens were some who challenged themselves
  physically and mentally against the cold, on skis and
  snowshoes, with rock-climbing gear and gliders. These few
  taught survival skills to the others, and so, the native
  ingenuity of the tribes came to be.
  BEAR WOMAN
  Among the most powerful of their gods was a Lunar
  Exalt of the First Age, Arvida of the Crescent Eye. From the
  time of exile onward, Arvida acted as a terrible, wild patron
  to all three Haslan tribes and claimed all their territory as her
  own. Ascribed in their legends with 99 forms, the Haslan
  called her Bear Woman and regarded her with terrified awe;
  they acceded to her requests not to build cities or town, but
  to live in harmony with the wilderness.
  Immaculate monks killed Arvida in the spring of RY
  412 after a long hunt lasting almost eight years. The tribes
  were traumatized. News of her passing spread swiftly,
  coupled with disbelief. Many of the tribes refused to accept
  the truth, while others despaired and fell into compacts
  with the Fair Folk or succumbed to the Wyld, which was
  terrible and strong in those days. Madness gripped the
  Haslan peoples for more than 100 years. The shamans
  went through a long period of obsession with the Wyld,
  with spirits and with other Exalts. Chiefs and whole tribes
  went through berserk phases in which they attacked and
  raided each other for decades. Whole families and kinship
  lines were wiped out to the last man.
  THE FOUR CAMPS
  Over the next 150 years, many of the tribes began to
  slip back and forth over the line dividing hunter-gatherers
  from settled peoples. The climate grew warmer, and it was
  possible to camp in one place for extended periods of time,
  even with thousands of elk or reindeer to tend. While
  those tribes who depended upon mammoths for food and
  other necessities continued to move about following their
  herds, the Haslanosha and the Haslanahsa were able to
  settle down to some degree. The artisans among these
  tribes — makers of tents and tools, shapers of bone and
  stone and ivory, weavers and shamans — began to settle in
  the greenfields where food was plentiful and relatively easy
  to collect. Others colonized the emeralds, and acted as go-
  betweens for their roving kinsfolk.
  Four of these semi-permanent camps became particu-
  larly important as trade centers, religious precincts and
  meeting places for chiefs. The Four Camps, as they were
  known in order to avoid the stigmas associated with towns
  in tribal culture, eventually grew into Tuskstad,
  Windcreche, Icehome and Fort Bear. These centers be-
  came important trade posts for the Haslan tribes and
  became meeting places for foreign traders. The Guild first
  approached the tribes around RY 500.
  GUILD DOMINANCE
  For about the next 50 years, the Guild dominated the
  tribes. By providing iron tools, weapons and other luxury
  goods, while maintaining a strong military presence, the
  Guild proceeded to strip the Haslan tribes of a substantial
  variety of resources and wealth. The Four Camps became
  larger, more prosperous and more permanent, and the
  lands around them were colonized for agriculture and
  pastureland. As a further insult, the Guild introduced
  slaves to the region as miners and began demanding tribute
  in ivory, amber, woolen cloth and leather.
  The tribes resented both the presence and the arro-
  gance of the Guild merchant princes. For their part, Guild
  officials bribed and corrupted tribal leaders to advance their
  own agendas and tried to wrangle concessions from whole
  regions simultaneously. The Guild officials also encouraged
  intertribal warfare as a way to increase the slave population.
  Increasingly, the tribes felt limited in their choices.
  At the same time, the Guild’s expeditions delved
  deeply into the Great Ice in search of the First Age city
  from which the Haslan had come. In doing so, the Guild
  encountered a harsh and dangerous environment but one
  that contained potentially great rewards. Although the
  Guild did not find the First Age wealth it sought, their
  Haslan porters and guides discovered a world they had only
  imagined. The Great Ice was so dangerous and devoid of
  wealth that civilization could never come to it. But, at the
  same time, the harsh environment offered numerous op-
  portunities for mortals to prove their valor in the face of
  the worst weather in Creation.
  Some of the Haslan tribes chose to head north when they
  were pushed out of the best lands along the southern coasts of
  the White Sea — venturing out onto the Great Ice rather
  than turning south — in search of valor and new opportuni-
  ties. Guild officials would show up at a summer encampment
  in search of tribute to find the tribe gone, the reindeer
  scattered or given to other herds and no tribute to be had.
  A traditional Haslan tale of this time period sheds
  some light on how the tribes turned to the White Sea:
  a shaman came back from a dream quest with the news
  that a formerly forbidden cave on the shores of the sea
  was now open to the tribe. Upon visiting it, the elders
  discovered the funeral ship of a great chief from hun-
  dreds of years before. Instead of being laid out in a
  traditional boat, the dead chief lay in a ship built of First
  Age materials, with outriggers fitted with steel blades
  for skating over the ice. Taking this find as a sign of
  destiny, the tribe copied the ship’s designs and left their
  herds behind. A similar version of this story is told
  about the building of the first air boats, but few outsiders
  credit these tales.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  86
  MEETING AT TWISTED STONE
  Active and passive resistance to Guild arrogance and
  heavy taxation increased, until, by RY 580, the Guild was
  confined to the Four Camps and a few minor trading centers
  along the coast. The whole Haslan nation was in revolt, and
  it was not safe for a Guildsman to go anywhere unescorted.
  Matters came to a head when chiefs and shamans of 40
  different tribes were summoned to a lonely point east of
  Icehome, where an ancient and broken beacon of the First Age
  stood overlooking the White Sea. Tribal leaders came on horses
  and reindeer and elk and by iceship, wondering at their sum-
  mons, but eager to learn what might be done. To their surprise,
  a god awaited them at the Lighthouse of Twisted Stone.
  The Lunar Exalt called Gerd Marrow-Eater, who be-
  longed to the No Moon Caste, had summoned them all.
  Youthful but strong, he seemed to them as Arvida reborn, able
  to take the shape of the eagle, the wolf, the whale, the bear, the
  elk and the reindeer. All day, he fought the bravest champions
  of the gathered Haslans; yet, he killed none of them, though he
  took the smallest finger of each warrior’s left hand.
  Gerd Marrow-Eater demanded the tribes take council
  together. The Guild was pushing them too hard, making
  them take on civilized ways — it enslaved people who ought
  to be free. Yet, the Haslanahsa and the Haslanosha were 100
  times more numerous than the Guild: the land was theirs.
  Once the tribes were united, neither Guild nor Realm nor any
  power of the Inland Sea would be able to take the North from
  them. A covenant of mortals, merging the best of civilization
  and barbarism, might well hold the North forever.
  The chiefs appealed to Gerd to lead them to victory
  over the Guild and its mercenaries. The Lunar consented
  to lead them three times. After that, he would advise and
  guide them and send them others to help them. Yet, Gerd
  said the best victory would be that triumph that the Haslan
  tribes won for themselves. For three days, the two Haslan
  peoples argued amongst themselves, setting out a cov-
  enant between them that might endure for ages. Haslanahsa
  and Haslanosha merged to form the Haslanti League.
  THE LEAGUE
  The new-formed Haslanti immediately went to war.
  In RY 583, Gerd did as he promised. With greater and
  greater audacity, he led them three times against targets the
  chiefs chose. Each campaign ended with the taking of one of
  the Four Camps. Tuskstad fell first, followed by Fort Bear and
  Windcreche. Chiefs and shamans begged Gerd to stay by
  them, but the Lunar refused. He had other matters with which
  to deal, and if a god helped the Haslanti to victory, then the
  Haslanti territory would not be a land suited to mortals.
  Instead, he gave direction to the horde he had assembled on
  how to take Icehome and set three chiefs, one from each
  region where the Haslanti lived, to direct the attack.
  After 12 days of fighting, the tribes took the city. The
  chiefs who had led the first assault had died. Others had
  taken their places and were slain in turn. Three more
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  chiefs fell in the battles for the streets. Other tribes might
  have given up at this point, but a god had commanded
  them, so the Haslanti pressed on. The fourth set of succes-
  sors ascended to the Citadel at dawn on the 12th day:
  Sunning Walrus led the tribes from the White Sea, Blooded
  Antlers led the tribes from the tundra and Halgun led the
  tribes who had become farmers and herdsmen near the
  Four Camps. Gerd awaited them atop the hill. The Lunar
  stretched out a hand, pointing out the White Sea, the
  green farmland and the tundra beyond.
  “You lost 12 chiefs, so your nation will always have 12
  chiefs to sit in council and judgment. As long as you talk
  your difficulties out first, before you fight, everything you
  can see from here, and more, shall belong to the League of
  the Haslanti forever.”
  The Lunar then vanished. Few claim to have seen him
  since then, though a secret society exists within the League
  whose members have all seen the Exalt. Gerd’s speech gave
  shape to the Council of Oligarchs and governs arbitration
  in the League to this day.
  WAR AND PEACE
  The League’s powerful emergence in the North greatly
  alarmed Gethamane, Whitewall and even the Realm’s
  client nations all the way south to the Inland Sea. Rightly
  judging that the landscape and people would be hostile to
  the legions and difficult to conquer, the Scarlet Empress
  sent a large delegation of the Immaculate Order north. She
  believed the League’s appearance was the result of the
  manipulations of gods or spirits and that it would be best
  to put down the divinities responsible.
  For its part, the Guild responded by pressuring
  Gethamane to close itself to products from the League or
  shipped by native merchants. In this way, the Guild hoped
  to force the Haslanti into accepting them as middlemen
  for Northern trade. Sijan and Cherak were also enlisted in
  the boycott of Northern goods.
  Both efforts met with difficulties, however. The Im-
  maculate Order never succeeded in hunting down Gerd, but
  it did succeed in humbling a number of predatory spirits and
  small gods, as well as Fair Folk. Many tribes, suddenly
  released from difficult chiminage, petitioned to join the
  League, thus actually strengthening the confederacy. The
  Haslanti, for their part, could not crack the fortress of
  Gethamane, but they could interdict the Guild from trans-
  porting any goods through the warehouses there. The League
  developed its modern military during the Gethamane War
  and copied First Age gliders and air boats using human-
  powered Second Age technology. Eventually, Gethamane
  relented, and the Guild was forced to accept limited trading
  privileges in Haslanti lands in exchange for acknowledging
  the League’s political and economic independence.
  THE WYLDFOG
  In RY 674, Wyldfog began to blow through Haslanti
  territory, continuing on and off for the next 50 years.
  Whether by the action of the Fair Folk or simply the
  weakening of Creation’s borders, several large and once-
  stable pockets of the Wyld drifted around Haslanti territory,
  driven by the wind. Everything changed where they passed:
  Small islands appeared in the White Sea. Wind lifted the
  farmlands of the North and dropped them hundreds of
  miles away. Tundra bloomed with trees and plants not
  seen in centuries. New predators suddenly stalked the
  land. Dozens of tribes simply vanished.
  A pack of the Lunar Exalted came to the League’s aid.
  The Lunars hated Wyldfog and the Fair Folk as much as
  the League did. Wyldfog was as capable of destroying the
  Lunars’ hunting grounds as those of the Haslanti. The
  Lunars also felt the Haslanti made decent neighbors. They
  were worth protecting and guarding, if only so that there
  might be friends to hand in the future.
  So, Lunars entered several large Wyldfogs and dissi-
  pated them; two more Wyldfogs ceased moving shortly
  afterward, perhaps because of a truce. Several other pock-
  ets of the Wyld stayed the same size or grew smaller. The
  Lunar called Flintbeak Nightingale dispersed one such
  cloud in RY 726, only five miles from Icehome.
  RECENT EVENTS
  Since the close of the Wyldfog War, the League has
  lived a very human-centered existence. The songlines
  began to lose some of their traditional dread; following
  ancient songlines backward led explorers to the buried city
  of Tzatli in RY 731. Similar adventurers recently uncov-
  ered another such First Age city near Crystal.
  A new spirit of innovation and personal success is
  taking hold among the Haslanti. Unlike other peoples, the
  majority of the Haslanti’s First Age equipment are not
  weapons or mighty engines, but toys and tools that are
  easily copied or adapted to Second Age technology. The
  League has few God-Bloods or Exalts among its leaders
  because it has little need for the wielders of Essence. The
  laws of the land forbid enslavement of the Haslanti them-
  selves (though other peoples can be bought and sold) and
  insist on at least a modicum of conversation and mediation
  before an honor duel. Thus, it is possible to work things out
  before having to face a sharp knife in the gut or an axe to
  the skull. In addition, both isolation and the relative
  poverty of the land help to guard it from outsiders.
  At the same time, the Haslanti are deeply aware of their
  barbarian roots. Even fourth-generation farmers are likely to
  close up their houses and give their fields into another’s care for
  a few weeks each year to go live in tents on the tundra or to walk
  the songlines across the Great Ice or the greenfields. When red-
  hatted Dreamseers walk through the marketplaces, people fall
  silent and watch them pass. The Haslanti — alternately pulled
  between civilized and savage life — are deeply aware of the
  tensions of their existence. The Bull of the North, with his talk
  of pulling down every city and overthrowing every nation,
  makes the League uneasily consider its own fate.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  88
  HASLANTI GOVERNMENT
  The government of the Haslanti League owes its
  inception to the Twisted Stone Covenant formed under
  the direction of Gerd Marrow-Eater. In form, the League
  is a confederacy nominally led by a ceremonial head of
  state, the Archon. Real power lies with the elected Coun-
  cil of Oligarchs. The Archon, a retired Oligarch who
  serves for six years, acts as a roving goodwill ambassador,
  traveling around the League for much of the year, visiting
  towns, Outwall tribes and iceholts alike. She also presides
  over many of the annual assemblies and carries legislation
  affecting the whole League from assembly to assembly for
  consideration and approval. She is not permitted to speak
  in favor of or in opposition to any proposed laws, but she
  is able to call attention to various items by choosing the
  time and place when presenting the proposed law for
  consideration. The current Archon, Whispering Gale, is
  nearing the end of her six-year term.
  THE CITY-STATES
  The League’s power and territory is subdivided into nine
  “city-states”: Icehome, Ironfall, Windcreche, Crystal, Dia-
  mond Hearth, Fort Bear, Tuskstad, Fair Isle and Shield.
  Outsiders think the notion of city-states ridiculous, since the
  territories of each of the city-states are outsized and only
  vaguely defined, and in fact, the oversized town at the heart
  of each state is hardly worth calling a city. However, each city-
  state is, in fact, a carefully managed region, containing within
  itself a collection of resources and peoples necessary to
  survival. Every city oversees some greenfields, some emeralds,
  some of the Outwall and some of the Great Ice. Each city thus
  retains access and rights to agriculture, metal ores and herding
  grounds — and so retains a connection to the other parts of
  the League. The territories of each state are also usually close
  to one another but not geographically unified. The borders
  between one city-state and another are wavy lines, carving up
  strange parcels to ensure everyone gets some access to various
  resources as diverse as mussel beds and diamond mines.
  Each city-state makes its own laws and elects its own
  tribal leaders. The degree of power these local leaders has
  is considerable within their territories, and these individu-
  als command great prestige throughout the League.
  However, they are not obeyed outside their own regions,
  though their opinions may be sought and considered.
  The most critical part of each city-state’s duty to the
  League is to sponsor four district assemblies within their
  territory. “One for the city, one for the sea and two for the
  Outwall” is the traditional formula, meaning one assembly
  meets in the city, one is held among the communities of
  the Great Ice and two are held for the emerald-dwellers
  and the herdfolk. The traditional formula is not followed
  everywhere, however. It is these assemblies that form the
  consultative and legislative body of the Haslanti.
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  THE ASSEMBLIES
  The 36 district assemblies conduct all legislative
  business for the League as a whole. When present at a
  specific assembly, the Archon acts as the presider and
  moderator; she usually attends 18 to 20 a year. The other
  assemblies choose presidents from their own number. All
  citizens of the district are entitled to attend and to speak.
  The first two days of each assembly are devoted to League
  matters, while the remaining days are given over to local
  matters, unless there are pressing issues.
  Consensus is the standard rule at an assembly. New
  laws wind up affecting both iceholts and herdfolk so the
  League moves very slowly in adding new laws. What is
  good for a greenfield is often not so good for a roving
  iceholt in search of whales. Majority vote remains the rule
  on local matters, and the League’s districts act as a vast
  laboratory for new laws. If a law works for several years in
  one district, it may be forwarded to other districts of the
  same type or to the League as a whole.
  THE COUNCIL OF OLIGARCHS
  The Council of Oligarchs acts as the interpreter of the
  League’s laws and functions as the high court for all the
  districts, towns and tribes of the Haslanti. Many outsiders
  mistake the Council as an executive body, since the
  military is under its control in times of war. Yet, from a
  constitutional stance, the Council’s duty is merely to
  record and interpret the laws of the League. Again, con-
  sensus is supposed to drive the decisions of the Council,
  leading to a degree of deadlock in debates.
  To be an Oligarch, one must be over the age of 45,
  native-born to the League and have served as an arbitrator
  in a minimum of 10 disputes, each worth at least one talent
  of silver. An Oligarch candidate must then be nominated
  by her home district to a council seat and elected by
  acclaim at the relevant assemblies. Oligarchs serve for 18
  years or until they retire, and no one may serve two terms
  as an Oligarch. The number of Oligarchs from the city-
  states is based on population. Icehome and Ironfall each
  have two seats, and Fair Isle, Diamond Hearth, Crystal,
  Tuskstad, Windcreche, Shield and Fort Bear each get one.
  The last of the 12 Oligarchs serves as the President of
  the Council. He or she comes from a list of seven nominees
  submitted to a meeting of Dreamseers who gather at
  Twisted Stone. The Dreamseers give the names to the
  gods, who then select the President of the Council. Few
  mortals know that the gods in this instance are a conclave
  of Lunar Exalted, the Haslanti Ennead and a number of
  totem animal avatars.
  THE OLIGARCHS
  The present membership of the Council is strangely
  divided three ways between the faction called the Deft
  Hands, their one-time allies the Profitable Men and the
  vocal and obstinate Landless Party.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  90
  The Deft Hands represent the interests of the tribes
  and tribal rights. This faction stands for community and
  collective responsibility and the nurturing of peace within
  the League. In opposition is the Landless Party, which
  believes that the League should go to war with the icewalker
  and Tear Eater tribes — as well as the Haslanti’s cousins,
  the Haslanesh — in order to secure new farming and
  hunting grounds. Between them are the Profitable Men,
  who seek a broader role for individuals seeking to accumu-
  late wealth and build a more civilized society in the North.
  Until recently, the Profitable Men have stood against war,
  but changes in Council membership have shifted the
  balance of power.
  The members of the Council of Oligarchs are as follows:
  Ivory Smile, an elderly woman of 86, is the current
  President of the Council, chosen by the gods. With bright,
  black eyes shining from a wrinkled brown face framed by
  straight dark hair, she smells of seal meat and cinnamon.
  The leader of the Deft Hands, she was chosen two years ago
  after her own people rejected her. Ivory Smile’s policy has
  been to avoid war with the outside world while persuading
  the richest landholders in the League to share their wealth
  with the descendants of the refugees from the Wyldfog
  Wars. Since she is a cunning judge of character and a
  strong mediator, many on the Council wish she were gone.
  Representing Icehome, Jurgan Einersson was a suc-
  cessful merchant when he was elected 10 years ago. The
  leader of the Profitable Men is trying to make sure the rich
  stay rich and the League stays out of war. He dislikes Ivory
  Smile, but he fears Greya Thold’s fanaticism even more.
  Jurgan has pale skin and thin, balding hair.
  Silvered Antler comes from Icehome’s Outwall dis-
  trict. About 50, she has the same skin and hair as Ivory
  Smile, but her eyes are green, betraying a greenfield
  ancestor in her past. She subscribes to the Landless Party’s
  position and, alone of the present Oligarchs, has actually
  fought the Tear Eaters in battle.
  Chosen from Ironfall is Glittering Pyrite, of the Deft
  Hands. Elected eight years ago on the strength of a miners’
  strike, he is a rough-hewn man with a bald pate and a
  stubbled chin. He is in awe of Ivory Smile and follows her
  lead in most matters.
  Greya Thold, age 46, represents Crystal, where the
  refugee problem is most severe, and leads the Landless
  Party. Her glittering eyes miss little, and while her short
  hair and lean face are not attractive, she has a soft and
  persuasive voice. She wants the League to turn its military
  forces on the Tear Eater tribes and to clear land to the East
  for the landless Haslanti to settle.
  Yidigal’s salt-thickened hands and numerous scars
  mark him as a former whaler and walrus hunter. He was
  elected from Fort Bear on the strength of his working-class
  origins and stands with the Deft Hands.
  Huredath represents Fair Isle, where he was a pros-
  perous salt-fish merchant. Despite his upper-class
  background, he supports the Deft Hands, believing that
  only the division of wealth can prevent the collapse of
  Haslanti society. To that end, he brought a number of
  landless families in as shareholders in his business. In his
  late 40s, he smiles often and has lost considerable weight
  since he gave up most of his fortune.
  Magada, a woman in her 50s with one blind eye and
  a withered hand, is a Dreamseer from the iceholts of
  Shield. She champions the Deft Hand position and regards
  Yidigal as a personal friend for his positions on the rights
  of roving fisherfolk. She nominated Ivory Smile to the
  Twelfth Seat.
  Snowy Elk comes from the Outwall near Tuskstad. A
  young-looking 45, he has short black hair, dark skin and blue
  eyes. Having lost a leg in a mammoth hunt, he was nomi-
  nated by his tribe to join the council. Though he publicly
  supports the Deft Hands, from time to time he votes with the
  Profitable Men or the Landless Party. He does not support
  their views, but he is somewhat weak-minded and easily
  persuaded by honeyed words and strong drink.
  Leaping Doe is the junior Oligarch from Ironfall. In
  her early 70s, she finds Snowy Elk’s weakness exasperating
  and berates him regularly for siding with the Profitable
  Men. She votes the Deft Hands line consistently.
  Shimmering Snowflake represents Diamond Hearth,
  and everyone knows her uncle bought the election for her.
  A widow four times, she is one of the wealthiest women in
  the North and votes mostly with the Profitable Men but
  sometimes with the Landless Party. Barely past the age
  requirement for the council, she is fair-haired and cruel,
  and her arbitrations have renewed the penalty of enslave-
  ment for debt on the Great Ice, which has brought huge
  profits to her family.
  Ilgadai Fraljofsdotter comes from Windcreche and
  sides with the Landless Party. In her late 50s, she has a lean,
  hard face and long blond hair streaked with gray. From her
  perspective, war for expansion suits the League. It would
  solve the incursions of Gethamane, give warning to the
  Bull of the North not to trifle with the Haslanti and push
  back the Tear Eaters in the East. When the reports of the
  Night Caste Solar, Elias Tremalion, make her courage
  falter, she votes with the Deft Hands.
  HASLANTI RELIGION AND
  CULTURE
  Most outsiders think of the Haslanti religion as heresy,
  when they bother to think of it at all. Described as small
  divinities of fate, ice and dreams, the League’s gods are
  mocked in other nations and their worship regarded as a
  variant on the Hundred Gods Heresy that the Immaculate
  Order has successfully wiped out elsewhere. The League’s
  turn for this treatment, they believe, will come as well.
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  This all-too-common opinion is wrong. In fact,
  the Immaculate Order has visited Haslanti territo-
  ries four times in the last 100 years in order to stamp
  out worship of these small gods, most recently in RY
  721. Part of the reason for the Immaculate Order’s
  failure has to do with native suspicion of the Realm’s
  interference in Haslanti affairs (and the Order’s
  heavy-handed approach did not help).
  However, the greater reason has to do with
  the gods themselves. When the Immaculate Or-
  der first appeared to the Haslanti, its methods
  were somewhat rough and ill-considered. Its
  monks would burn the temple or sacred grove,
  wait for the small god to appear and then beat the
  local divinity up until it surrendered and prom-
  ised to follow the Immaculate Philosophy. The
  Haslanti lost most of their major gods to this
  purge — gods of war and agriculture, gods of elk
  herding and ice fishing — all gave way and bowed
  before the Order’s carefully directed violence.
  The gods did not disappear from people’s lives,
  but it is nearly impossible to respect a divinity’s
  demands for worship and sacrifice, after all, when
  the eldest in a tribe still remember him begging
  and pleading on the ground at the feet of an Exalt.
  In the face of this, Haslanti continued to
  honor the old gods in a genial but disappointed
  fashion, as if they were old, deaf uncles who had
  done great things in youth but now sat around
  bragging about Ages-old victories. Instead, the
  Haslanti’s thoughts turned to other gods who had
  once been unimportant and yet had avoided the
  strife and turmoil of the Immaculate purges —
  either by being unimportant and unassuming or by
  cleverly avoiding combat with the monks. An
  Ennead of respected small gods has thus emerged
  who remain the principal gods of the Haslanti for
  the moment.
  GODS OF ICE
  The Triad of Ice is in fact, not obsessively concerned
  with ice and snow, as many outsiders believe. Instead, the
  three gods of the Triad of Ice oversee three major forces
  that are part of the lives of every Haslanti. The first of these
  forces is winter and storm, which are capable of burying
  and destroying the League far more assuredly than any
  foreign rival. The second of these forces is community,
  which draws people together even as winter pulls them
  apart. The third force is unexpected opportunity or luck,
  which gives mortals chances to change their lives suddenly
  and without warning.
  Master Winter is the oldest-looking of the Triad.
  With a beard of icicles and breath of frost, he walks over
  the land with his tally-sticks and record-books, laying
  down ice and snow. In the summer, he labors at the
  cold-forge, making snowflakes with hammer and chisel.
  In the revived Haslanti pantheon, he is the stern,
  unforgiving master who completes his labors on time
  and does not forgive those who shirk their duties.
  Master Winter is the god of preparedness and settled
  accounts. If you are not ready by his coming, he will
  exact the price of your failure to your sorrow. The
  Haslanti seek his aid at harvests and plantings, and
  speak his name at births and deaths and in wartime.
  Lady Chimney Draft is somewhat younger, with white-
  blond hair and a grandmother’s wrinkles. She is usually shown
  hand in hand with Master Winter, but winking and showing
  a kindly eye to her supplicants. As the goddess of the slight
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  92
  chill when guests enter a house, she watches over host-guest
  relationships, friendship between neighbors and rules of
  hospitality. Haslanti pray to her for aid at harvest time, when
  bringing in a catch, when starting a new fire or when
  celebrating a marriage.
  Autumn Frost is the trickster of the Haslanti pan-
  theon. A young person of varying gender, dressed in warm
  layers but with coat open and gloves off, he/she is shown
  dashing off on some adventure. The spirit represents risks
  with great rewards but also the costly dangers of bad luck.
  Autumn Frost represents luck and opportunity but also
  missed chances and risky gambles. The Haslanti pray for
  his/her help during dice games, travel and romantic adven-
  tures but also name him/her as the cause of much mischief.
  GODS OF DREAMS
  The Triad of Dreams is also not well understood by
  outsiders. To the Haslanti, the three dream-spirits are not
  exclusively gods of sleep and daydreams, but watch over
  both fears and aspirations. The first of these divinities
  watches over those willing to work for their dreams and
  seek out their destinies. The second is a god of worry and
  dismay, who feeds on the worst nightmares. The third is a
  wild creature who reminds the dreamers that they have a
  part to play in fulfilling or avoiding both their dreams and
  their nightmares.
  Owl From Out of the East is a great horned owl of
  enormous size, with a wingspan of eight or nine feet. In
  ancient times, Owl was an attendant upon a god of law
  among the Outwall tribes. Now, he is a power in his own
  right, as the spirit who watches over following through. He
  rewards individuals who take it upon themselves to heed
  their dreams, committing time and effort to achieve them.
  The Haslanti see him as a divinity of prosperity and call on
  him to aid them in business, in law and in their social life.
  Carrion Crow is an old, pale, naked woman with the
  head of a crow and black feathers sprouting from her wrists.
  She is often found feasting on dead elk or reindeer crawling
  with maggots. She is charged with the sending of night-
  mares and winter terrors, and both disease and famine are
  in her charge. As Master Winter’s daughter, she is
  regarded as a spring goddess, when the winter is
  over but when new food is not yet available and
  stored food becomes old. She watches over old
  resentments, nursed grudges and domestic vio-
  lence. Some soldiers seek her protection in battle.
  Snowshoe Hare Among Brambles is a large,
  white rabbit with enormous feet and gigantic ears,
  standing alone in a thicket. Though once re-
  garded as only an Outwall spirit of very minor
  ability, he is now thought of as the principal
  dream-god of the Haslanti. His very form repre-
  sents a desirable thing in a difficult place, yet one
  that can hear your approach and slip away without
  difficulty. The keeping of a dream journal is a
  sacred act for worshipers of Snowshoe Hare, and
  the discussion of dreams over breakfast are like
  prayers to him. The spirit is a god of good sleep,
  sweet dreams and flights of fancy. Thus, while not
  exactly a trickster, Snowshoe Hare Among
  Brambles is a god of possibility separate from
  reality. The dreams he sends can come true, but
  they cannot be counted upon.
  GODDESSES OF FATE
  The Haslanti usually have the hardest time
  explaining their three fate goddesses to foreigners.
  Fate, to outsiders, suggests both an inescapable
  destiny that must come to pass and a terrible
  ending that has been foreseen from some prede-
  termined beginning. Both the Haslanti and the
  goddesses themselves (those who are in a position
  to ask the three ladies their opinion) insist this is
  not the case. For one, such claims would contra-
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  dict the policies of the Bureau of Destiny in Yu-Shan. For
  another, the three divinities serve a much different pur-
  pose in Haslanti culture than expected. Instead of
  functioning as arbiters, the Triad of Fate work as mediators
  to help the Haslanti understand the sometimes-harsh
  workings of fate.
  Kidilos is often named the Lady Who Comforts the Living
  at the Bedside of the Dying, and this is the essence of her
  function. Rather than deciding where and when a
  given person is going to die, Kidilos works upon the
  hearts and minds of those at the bedside and helps
  them to understand the process of cause and effect
  that brought their loved ones to this point. By
  helping open the living to the processes of fate,
  Kidilos lessens grief and suffering and helps indi-
  viduals to make peace with each other before death,
  so that there need be no unnecessary mourning or
  tremendous displays of grief. Kidilos wears the foul-
  weather gear of a worker on the Great Ice, dressed
  in layers and layers of leather and greased wool, with
  a furred parka and snow goggles covering her face. In
  a harsh environment where free time is a luxury,
  Kidilos works to make sure that suffering and grief
  do not waste much time or labor. Haslanti have
  things to do, and Kidilos makes sure they get to that
  work without bemoaning the fate of their loved
  ones and friends too much.
  Ivrieinen is the Lady Who Finds Good Partners
  and Shuts the Door of Infatuation. In a harsh land
  with much to do to ensure survival, Ivrieinen is the
  grandmotherly matchmaker from the greenfields
  in a long blue robe. Just as the Haslanti have little
  time to grieve, so too do they have little time to
  find partners, marry and bear children. Winter is
  long, and every farm, iceholt and herd needs extra
  hands. The Lady Who Finds Good Partners helps
  weave the Tapestry of Fate in such a way that men
  and women who are productive and work well
  together find each other and recognize each other’s
  good qualities early. She also finds ways to draw
  apart young people who are attracted to each other
  yet would be no good either for themselves or their
  community. Given that she works solely on poten-
  tials near the start of life, Ivrieinen sometimes
  helps women trapped beneath the influence of
  Carrion Crow later in life. Most of her work,
  however, is concerned with men and women of
  marriageable age.
  Spring Snowfall is the Lady Who Reminds Us
  We Are Alive and Should Laugh at Ourselves. Life in
  the League is harsh and unforgiving, and it is easy
  to become caught in the rote routine of rising in
  the dark of winter, feeding the elk, riding patrol,
  huddling over a fire in a cold tent and sleeping in
  damp furs while the wind howls. Such a life can drive men
  to suicide or sink women into the cold and lonely sorrow
  of abandonment and ruin. The Lady Who Reminds Us We
  Are Alive appears as a motherly woman dressed in the furs
  and leathers of the Outwall, and she sends the mouse
  eating all the best cheese in the pantry, the frost bear who
  almost kills a good man but doesn’t quite, the hailstorm
  that shatters every third tree in the orchard and the guest
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  94
  who overstays his welcome yet saves his best stories for the
  night before he leaves. Spring Snowfall reminds the men
  and women of the League to wake up! Life is passing and
  will not come this way again, she warns them. This is your
  chance to live as you never have before.
  SHRINES AND RELIGIOUS LIFE
  Most communities in the League have a shrine or a
  full-sized temple. This contains an outer porch to keep
  snow out, an inner porch for dropping boots and coats, a
  hearth room for warming up and speaking to the spirits and
  a godhome, which can be anything from a small niche in
  the wall to a full-sized room containing statues or tokens of
  the Ennead and the community’s ancestral spirits. In the
  greenfields, temples are constructed of stone and wood,
  while in the emeralds the shrine is usually a cupboard in
  the main room of the largest house. On an iceholt, the
  shrine is usually located near the middle of the main deck,
  making it the warmest chamber on the vessel. In the
  Outwall, the temple is usually a large tent of elk or reindeer
  bones put up near an unusual natural feature.
  Greenfielders gather for religious ceremonies at speci-
  fied times, usually at the quarters of the moon, to give
  thanks to all the Nine. These temple celebrations are
  usually formal, with the same words repeated over and over
  from week to week, and, except for special celebrations in
  honor of Spring Snowfall, are not particularly inspiring.
  These ceremonies are usually followed by community
  feasts or celebrations, though, which are full of laughter
  and conversation.
  Religious ceremonies on the Great Ice and in the
  emeralds are both shorter and more fluid, with each god of
  the Ennead named in turn and members of the community
  speaking their personal prayers silently or aloud. The feasts
  are usually separated from the ceremonies in some way,
  since workers on the Great Ice prefer to eat their largest
  meal after the day’s labors are over.
  The Outwall practices the most fluid and least for-
  mal rituals of all, and the tribes of the Outwall tend to
  note the presence of the gods most often, recognizing
  them and thanking them for their presence wherever
  they should happen to make themselves known in truth
  or through omens.
  RELATIONS WITH YU-SHAN
  There is a significant bit of turmoil in Heaven
  between the numerous old Haslanti small gods and the
  relatively new Ennead of ice, dreams and fate. The
  core of the dispute lies in the tremendous quantities of
  Essence that the new spirits are collecting from wor-
  ship by the League. Old gods have brought lawsuits
  against the Ennead in the Courts of Yu-Shan for
  failure to pay tribute to them or to honor the old gods’
  promises to the Immaculate monks. The Ennead, for
  THE DREAMSEERS
  The Dreamseers are the national shamans of the
  Haslanti League. Though not exactly an organized
  priesthood with a formal collection of doctrine,
  neither are they exclusively tribal shamans. In ser-
  vice to the League as a whole, as well as to its
  individual tribes, they are storytellers and interpret-
  ers of dreams. The mark of membership in this very
  public secret society is the rune for “dream” tattooed
  under the right eye and a tall, conical red hat that
  resembles certain mushrooms from the tundra.
  The Dreamseers are chiminage-type shamans
  who all follow the same basic set of taboos, which
  are as follows: They may not eat milk, fish and meat
  together at the same meal. They may not wear
  leather, wool and silk together. They may not ride
  an animal, sail in a boat and fly in a glider all on the
  same day. They may not bury the dead, bless the
  newborn and fight with weapons on the same day.
  Many of the taboos of the higher-ranked Dreamseers
  are of the same type, and their requirements always
  involve triads — giving honor to the divinities of
  ice, dreams and fate simultaneously.
  its part, insists that the old gods depart Yu-Shan and
  give the district reserved to the Haslanti spirits to
  them, since they clearly command the attention and
  loyalty of the people at this time.
  The matter came to the courts’ attention approxi-
  mately 80 years ago, after the first purge of the region by the
  Immaculate Order, and it has continued in fits and starts
  each time the monks parade through the region. The case
  might have been settled decades ago if the old gods did not
  share some of the same characteristics as their former
  worshipers. Living in a hard and dangerous world, the
  Haslanti gods saved and hoarded Essence over the centu-
  ries. Thus, they still have enough power to maintain their
  standing as divinities worthy of Yu-Shan.
  For their part, the nine new gods have clubbed some
  of their resources for the time being, in order to build a
  sanctum for their pantheon. The House of the Nine
  Hearths of Emerald and Silver, near the 29th Celestial
  Gate, is the residence in Creation for the current gods of
  the Haslanti League and the principal earthly residence
  for the spirit courts that govern and oversee the lands and
  seas around the League. While the bureaucrats of Heaven
  sputter and fume about the improprieties of such an act
  and scream about proper authorizations (and suitable
  bribes) the House of Nine Hearths has already become an
  easier method of resolving disputes in Creation than
  taking an argument to Yu-Shan.
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  Outwall tribes live on the tundra all year herding elk and
  reindeer, they lack raw manpower to mine metals needed
  for weapons and tools. They also lack garden space or time
  to grow vegetables, herbs and roots.
  Thus, no Haslanti can draw sufficient resources from
  land, sea and ice to provide an adequate diet or a comfort-
  able life. Through ties of kinship, marriage and business
  partnerships, families diversify their economic and social
  portfolios. A Haslanti’s numerous children will be appren-
  ticed or fostered out at the early age of five or six — some
  to live with elk herders, others to dwell in greenfields to
  become farmers, artisans, orchardists and traders. Others
  go to miners, to fisherfolk and to whale hunters. Thus, a
  reindeer-woman may have brothers in fishing, cousins in
  mines, nephews in the orchards and an artisan aunt.
  Lifelong ties exist between all of the necessary compo-
  nents of Haslanti life. A family’s storerooms fill up before
  winter comes with ingots of iron and rounds of cheese,
  pouches of diamonds and casks of salt fish, flasks of whale
  oil and barrels of apples, jars of preserved goat’s milk and
  iceship sails. Such provisions last through the Air and
  Water months when overland travel is difficult and pro-
  vide trade goods for the Earth months when trade routes
  open again.
  In winter, average Haslanti families converge on the
  family house. Fostered children come home from summer
  stations, bearing wages in the form of food and trade goods
  of various sorts. Summer steadings and fishing stations are
  closed up, and iceholts anchor in protected coves out of
  the worst weather. People move into townhouses, near
  friends and business colleagues.
  Winter visiting and hosting is a major form of attain-
  ing social prestige in the Haslanti League. Weddings,
  funeral rites, baby namings and other important occasions
  are often postponed until winter, in order to ensure maxi-
  mum attendance. Most towns have at least one “assembly
  room” for rent, where dances, parties, epic song-cycles and
  plays can be performed for guests. To say that a person had
  a summer wedding is to say that their families disapproved,
  and a spring funeral means the deceased was despised.
  FEASTING
  For all Haslanti, whether in the Outwall or in Icehome,
  the word party is synonymous with food. While outsiders
  insist little can be done with elk meat, the Haslanti
  consume it raw as tartar, marinated in fish sauce, fried in
  rendered whale oil and battered with beer and oats. Tables
  curve beneath the weight of the food at even small celebra-
  tions. In addition to elk and reindeer, feasts serve cheese
  (the League produces over 80 varieties from cattle, sheep,
  goats, elk and reindeer), milk, yogurt, bread (29 traditional
  types from flat bread to honeyed puffballs), fish and fish
  sauce, seal, apples, pears, walnuts, honey, potatoes, carrots,
  beets, porridge (eight major kinds, seasoned with every-
  thing from local herbs to exotic spices) and spicy cabbage.
  LIFE IN THE LEAGUE
  In North’s harsh environment, cooperation and com-
  petition go hand-in-glove. Since the winters are so harsh,
  most people cannot get by easily. No one greenfield is
  able to make all that it needs in order to survive and
  prosper in the North. The League survives based on this
  recognition. However, competition drives relationships
  between greenfields, dependent emeralds and allied
  Outwall tribes. Each city-state strives to acquire in both
  reputation and truth the most livable and excellent part
  of the League — the attendant prestige and dignity
  ensure a degree of favor in negotiations over the balance
  of trade, fishing and herding rights and control of emer-
  alds in contested border areas.
  FAMILY LIFE
  Haslanti yeomen usually have a summer residence for
  food production and resource gathering and a smaller
  winter house in a town or city for a social life and keeping
  warm. These outlying steadings sit on marginal greenfield
  land, while emerald and tundra households work sheep or
  goat ranches, fruit orchards or host summer elk herds.
  Other families hunt walrus and whale, managing opera-
  tions from a summer iceholt, a collection of buildings on
  an ice barge parked on the Great Ice near a hole or crack
  in the ice. Fishing stations — clusters of huts on rocky islets
  jutting out of the Great Ice — host fisherfolk during the
  annual runs of salmon, tuna and other large fish. Though
  ANCESTOR WORSHIP
  The Ennead function as national gods of the
  whole Haslanti confederacy, but nearly every dis-
  trict and community has its own ancestor spirits
  who are venerated or worshiped with varying de-
  grees of attention and devotion. In some Outwall
  communities, this consists of pouring out a little
  milk or flour for them. On the Great Ice, the first
  fish or the first whale oil of the season is often
  reserved for them.
  The present stresses upon the League, in the
  form of the Tear Eaters in the east and the Bull to the
  south, have caused many more people to turn to their
  ancestors than previously. The results have some-
  times been useful, but elsewhere, ancestral worship is
  twisting itself to the purposes of the Deathlords and
  their Abyssal servants. Outwall communities in the
  east have sacrificed babies, and the elderly have been
  abandoned on the Great Ice in the west. The Grand-
  mothers are aware of this problem, as are many of the
  Dreamseers, but it is hard to curb these abuses from
  a distance or to make the dangers known to the
  people who practice them.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  96
  COMPETITION AND DISSENSION
  The League has two major political fault lines, divid-
  ing the confederacy into three major identities. An event
  on one of the fault lines tends to have drastic repercussions
  that shake the whole of Haslanti society.
  The first division lies between greenfields and emer-
  alds on one side and the Outwall tribes on the other.
  Radical differences separate town-dwellers in green vales
  from herdfolk of the open tundra who live in tents of bone
  and hide. The second division lies between those who
  dwell on land and those who work on the Great Ice. Solid
  ground does not crack and yawn wide enough to swallow
  ships and towns. Great Ice wildcatters demand good pay,
  superior food, better equipment and regular air boat and
  iceship patrols past fishing stations and iceholts.
  For Haslanti town-dwellers, the demands of Outwall
  and Great Ice communities seem preposterous. Great Ice
  work crews come into port to drink kirsa and hodolos and
  fight with respectable townsfolk or follow their own lewd
  comments with sexual assault. Herdfolk don’t bathe and
  pretend not to know the value of silver, yet demand duels
  whenever they feel cheated in a deal.
  In this climate, small incidents quickly grow out of
  proportion and become sources of recrimination. Outwall
  and Great Ice towns often join forces against greenfields
  and demonstrate their political clout. However, just as
  often, Outwall and Great Ice towns fight over real and
  imagined rivalries. Two years ago, sailors from an iceship
  on shore leave made a pass at a statuesque Outwall woman
  on a trade mission; later that night, a gang of greenfield
  ruffians disguised as Outwall herders jumped the crew,
  murdering two. Anger, lawsuits, arbitration attempts and
  revenge killings still have not calmed down. Meanwhile,
  seal steak and elk rib prices both dropped, resulting in
  profits for several greenfielder families.
  CULTURE
  Being a confederation, the League has very little uni-
  fied culture. The individual cities each have their own
  government, and customs differ widely. Nonetheless, cer-
  tain generalizations can be made. All Haslanti practice
  cautious hospitality. Strangers are always given access to
  food and shelter, though not a huge feast or the best bed.
  Haslanti all believe in hard work – able hands should not
  remain long idle. A sick woman of an iceholt is given yarn
  and knitting needles, while a man gets ivory and carving
  tools. Even a stranger with little experience of the North can
  haul nets or drive the buzzards from a rack of drying elk meat.
  The second most important piece of common culture
  is the sharing of dreams. Breakfast is usually prolonged by
  the discussion of dreams and the interpretation of dream
  symbols. Consensus usually decides whose dream is of most
  interest, and competing theories are offered as to a
  nightmare’s meaning. Dreamseers regularly consult the
  Zedakha, a compendium of over 10,000 dream symbols
  interpreted according to the teachings of seven major
  Dreamseers. Interesting or symbol-rich dreams are often
  repeated by itinerant dream-speakers. Some Outwall com-
  munities paint dreams on tent walls and ceilings, and
  many houses in the towns and fishing stations are also
  painted. Most Haslanti have at least one tattoo to remind
  them of a clear or focused dream.
  DUELING
  The third common component of Haslanti culture is
  the custom of dueling. The Haslanti themselves say they
  are going for a walk by the stream — a walk from which
  they may or may not return. Most legal issues in Haslanti
  society are settled through compromise and mediation.
  Elders sit in judgment in legal cases, and a combination of
  witnesses and arbitrators keep these informal court pro-
  ceedings from getting out of hand.
  However, when mediation or arbitration fails, any
  aggrieved person may choose violence as a means to settle
  a quarrel. Duels are always hand to hand, usually with
  bladed weapons, and arbitrators chosen by lot from the
  local assembly serve as seconds and guardians of the
  proceedings. Duels used to take place in lonely locations.
  Now, they occur quite openly in designated places. Some
  Haslanti fight for honor, meaning until the surrender of
  one party or the other. A few quarrels, however, can only
  be settled by death. The duel’s participants usually set the
  conditions, but honor is usually enough.
  Dueling custom is rigorous and formal. The aggrieved
  party issues a challenge, and the challenged may back
  down immediately and apologize or accept. Each then
  finds an arbitrator and registers the intention to duel. The
  arbitrators settle upon a location and time, to take place no
  more than four days after the challenge was issued. The
  challenger is responsible for the basic funeral expenses,
  paid in advance. Also, if the victim is the chief breadwin-
  ner of a household, the challenger becomes financially
  responsible for taking care of the victim’s immediate
  family and kin. This can involve taking the family into her
  household or making a lump-sum payment in silver.
  Killing outside of the formal rules of challenge is
  murder. A murderer is an outlaw and may be killed out of
  hand by the victim’s family, by bounty hunters or by
  anyone else with a grudge against the killer.
  THE LEAGUE MILITARY
  Each city-state of the League maintains its own small
  force for protecting against raids from barbarians and for
  responding in the first instance to attack from foreign
  powers such as Gethamane and Whitewall. Among Outwall
  tribes, this usually amounts to 100 reindeer or elk riders
  conducting patrol and harassment missions part-time and
  perhaps a dozen adventurous young men and women as a
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  scout force with gliders at their disposal. For greenfielders,
  local defense forces are 1,000 or more full-time soldiers
  backed up with several dozen gliders, half a dozen iceships
  to secure the approaches to the main port and several
  thousand part-time militia troops. An iceholt might only
  have 20 or 30 young people with pikes to repel boarders
  during a pirate action.
  In contrast, the League itself maintains lines of de-
  fense through monetary contributions from each district.
  Being a member of the local force is a dignified-enough
  career; being a member of the League military, answerable
  to the Council of Oligarchs alone, is prestigious. Some wits
  complain that the military does little besides collect its
  pay, since the army also collects the annual levies assessed
  on each district. Much of the League’s effort is divided
  between drill and police work, but there is always the
  chance for a real engagement against the forces of
  Gethamane, the Bull of the North, the Fair Folk or
  barbarian raiders.
  THE WIND FLEET
  The core of the Haslanti armed forces is the Wind
  Fleet. Composed of 112 air boats of the first class and an
  additional 150 of the second class, the Wind Fleet is the
  pride of the Haslanti League and a demonstration of the
  North’s ingenuity. Where the Sky Guard of the Seventh
  Legion relies upon Hearthstones and Essence, the Haslanti
  air boats rely on nothing more than rendered whale oil or
  kerosene and the skills of pilot and crew.
  TWENTY-ONE KESTRELS
  The Wind Fleet is nominally under the command of
  Twenty-One Kestrels, a slender and agile woman of 43.
  She reports about the state of the fleet directly to the
  Oligarchs and is responsible for maintaining the fleet and
  its hangars in good repair. The granddaughter of the man
  who first designed the air boats for the League, Twenty-
  One Kestrels regards service to the Wind Fleet as a family
  occupation. She joined up partly to please her father and
  partly because she loved to fly. Of late, however, much of
  her time is spent on the ground, seeing to maintenance and
  the construction of new air boats and instructing crews in
  techniques and tactics. The Wind Admiral is bored.
  Most of her captains are so busy that she hardly ever
  gets to check in with them. The fleet is stretched to the
  limits of what it can do right now, with a third of the first
  class vessels doing the Icehome–Diamond Hearth run, a
  third performing the Icehome—Crystal run and the last
  third under repair. She dreads the day when a major
  accident at one of her resupply stations or a serious storm
  front causes a delay in the food shipments to the two
  northernmost cities of the League. She understands better
  than anyone else that the League needs even larger air
  boats than it currently has in order to keep up with the
  growing demands of the air-trade and that the Haslanti are
  currently at risk of not having the ships they need when a
  crisis arises.
  AIR BOAT SECOND CLASS
  The more common type of air boat in the League
  consists of a rigid, sausage-shaped balloon of silk treated
  with refined grease from the black walrus, approximately
  300 feet long. A wicker and bamboo frame within the bag
  keeps the structure rigid and inflated. Below the frame hangs
  the passenger compartment, an aerodynamic tube perhaps
  80 feet long of wood, wicker and bamboo, with portholes of
  oilcloth to reduce weight. From this frame extend six masts
  — two above the gasbag and two to each side, capable of
  deploying eight triangular sails from the sides and two square
  sails above. A pair of large propellers sits near the tail end,
  driven by the action of a gear train and the pedaling feet of
  the crew. Built for speed rather than battle, each of the
  second-class air boats carries a crew of 18 and up to 20
  passengers, along with up to two tons of cargo.
  The greatest weakness of the air boats is the large
  tanks of whale oil they must carry and burn to stay afloat.
  Several of the second-class vessels have been modified, so
  that, instead of carrying a heavy tank of fuel, they carry an
  inflated whale’s stomach, specially treated. This doubles
  the range of the air boat to 1,600 miles when lightly laden,
  but it also increases the risk of a leak or an accident. Whale
  stomach-bladders are easily punctured, whereas a wicker
  tank smeared with tar to make it waterproof is not. More-
  over, such air boats are no more maneuverable or speedy —
  they gain only distance, not additional speed, for the
  sacrifice of a heavier tank for the vehicle’s fuel.
  Speed: 2
  Maneuver: -2
  Endurance: 800 miles lightly laden; 300 miles fully laden
  Armor: (basket) 3L/5B, (gasbag) unarmored
  Armament: None normally
  Health Levels: 10 (basket), 8 (gasbag)
  Repair: 2
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  98
  AIR BOAT FIRST CLASS
  The heavy cruisers of the Wind Fleet are the 112 first-
  class air boats. With a 450-foot-long gasbag constructed
  out of layers of silk, dozens of individual bladders of whale
  intestine and laminated wicker, such an air boat could
  easily be mistaken for a cloud, were it not that an air boat
  is painted in bright colors, to emphasize the League’s
  achievement — and to aid in finding the cruiser when
  storms or arrow fire bring it down.
  This larger air boat looks like an oversized version of
  the second-class vessel, but in addition, the first-class air
  boat possesses a semi-circular sail mounted at the midship
  point, spreading perpendicular to the main keel of the
  vessel in a fan-shaped array. Six pedal-powered propel-
  lers constructed of bamboo serve as the main motive
  force against the wind. The passenger and crew compart-
  ment contains three decks, with the upper deck being
  exposed to the wind and weather for most of its length.
  This highest deck serves as a launching platform for the
  six gliders that the air boat first class carries as part of its
  standard complement.
  The air boat first class has a crew of 20, including the
  captain. Each vessel can carry up to 10 tons of cargo and six
  dozen soldiers and their gear or 20 tons of cargo alone.
  Most of these air boats are involved in the regular patrol
  runs between the southernmost Haslanti cities and farms
  and the more northern cities such as Diamond Hearth and
  Crystal. The journey can take several days in each direc-
  tion, especially fully laden with cargo or crew.
  Speed: 2
  Maneuver: 1
  Endurance: 1,200 miles lightly laden; 500 miles fully
  laden
  Armor: (basket) 3L/5B, (gasbag) unarmored
  Armament: None normally
  Health Levels: 18
  Repair: 3
  GLIDERS
  Gliders are part of the standard equipment on all
  the ships of the Wind Fleet. Second-class vessels usually
  only carry one or two, while the first-class vessels carry
  at least six.
  Gliders are constructed of feather steel, laminated
  wood and woven spider silk. Unlike the rarer folding
  gliders, true gliders are complex pieces of equipment and
  take 16 turns to assemble. The finished glider has a
  wingspan of almost 40 feet, and there are a series of control
  wires that come to the pilot’s hands. In an additional turn,
  the pilot can strap in and be ready to launch. Launching
  requires a cliff, precipice or flight deck of an air boat at least
  five yards high. (Most glider rolls, including launching, are
  difficulty 1.) These larger gliders can accommodate one
  passenger in addition to the pilot. A Haslanti with two or
  more dots in Ride knows how to pilot a glider. People from
  other regions must have a dot in Ride and purchase a
  specialty in “Glider” to learn to use one. Folding or
  disassembling a glider requires 10 turns. (Resources ••,
  ••• outside the North)
  The more advanced Folding Gliders used by Haslanti
  rangers and operatives for the Ears of the North are
  described on page 78 of Caste Book: Night.
  Speed: 3
  Maneuver: 3
  Endurance: Pilot’s endurance (also subject to wind
  conditions)
  Armor: 3L/5B
  Armament: None
  Health Levels: 10
  Repair: 2
  AERIAL TACTICS
  Although the air boats themselves are relatively frag-
  ile, their roles in the tactical plans of the League are
  critical. First, the second-class air boats rush over an
  advancing army from a height and drop grenades on the
  approaching forces. These bombs are sometimes firedust
  incendiaries, but the high cost of firedust forced the League
  to find new solutions. More often these days, the Wind
  Fleet uses a potent mixture of pine resins, phosphorous-
  saturated honey, whale oil and specially refined salts. The
  result is a sticky substance that, once set alight, burns even
  when doused with water. This material can be packed into
  thin clay jars (which burst on contact with hard surfaces)
  
  99
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  or sheep stomachs, (which burst on individuals and ani-
  mals). This material can even (with the addition of certain
  fish oils) be sprayed out of a special pump with a nozzle
  hose. The resulting panic and spreading flame often dis-
  courages a barbarian army before it even reaches sight of
  the walls of a city.
  Following up the fire attack, air boats first class arrive
  on the battlefield, dropping three 25-man scales by glider
  and parachute into areas where the defenders are at a
  disadvantage. The first-class vessels than continue bomb-
  ing convenient ground targets, especially obvious banners
  or command groups.
  In battles where Haslanti forces are engaged with
  invaders already, the air boats can also litter the ground
  with caltrops and pressure-sensitive Haslanti fire mines.
  These spring-loaded metal jars contain a small sparking
  device and a quantity of Haslanti fire. Sometimes they
  burst on contact with the ground, but they are designed to
  pop open and spray their contents on barbarians too
  berserk to recognize the mines as traps.
  THE ICE SQUADRON
  The second major instrument for projecting the League’s
  power across the Great Ice is the Ice Squadron. Currently
  containing 45 first-rate ships, with another 12 in produc-
  tion, the Ice Squadron is a series of sea-worthy hulls equipped
  with broad outriggers that hold long steel runners.
  BLUE DRAGONFISH
  The Ice Squadron reports to the Oligarchs directly,
  through its admiral, Blue Dragonfish. A “lost egg” Air-
  aspected Dragon-Blood, 92 years of age, the Admiral
  remains a servant of the League despite several offers from
  the Realm and several suggestions from his own officers to
  institute one-man rule among the Haslanti city-states. As
  long as he is out on the ice, with the wind in his mane of
  curly gray locks and frost in his beard, he is happy.
  Blue Dragonfish’s happiness is the principal reason
  why the Ice Squadron remains so small. The Admiral has
  little time to devote to paperwork and spends no time
  willingly on budget wrangling or arguing with the Oli-
  garchs. With several thousand square miles of ice to
  WIND FLEET WEAPONRY
  Name
  Accuracy
  Damage
  Rate
  Range
  Resources
  Haslanti Fire Grenade
  -2
  3L
  2
  20/60
  ••
  Fire Mines
  -3
  6L
  1
  5/80
  •••
  Caltrops
  +1
  1L
  100
  2/200
  •••
  Notes: Fire grenades can be thrown horizontally, but have a short range, only 10 yards. However, when dropped
  from an air boat, they have an accurate falling range of 60 yards. Fire mines, being larger, can only be hurled about
  five yards but can survive falls of 80 yards or more when dropped without going off. Caltrops can be scattered over
  a wide territory and easily survive falls of 200 yards or more.
  ADVENTURE SEED
  Target Character Type: Abyssal, Dragon-
  Blooded, Fair Folk, Heroic Dead, Heroic Mortal,
  Lunar, Sidereal, Solar
  Twenty-One Kestrels has had it in mind for
  about a decade now to try to make the voyage to the
  stronghold of Vanileth, the God of Artificial Flight,
  in one of her air boats. Her grandfather put off the
  effort after a 100-man expedition went down with
  two first-class and three second-class air boats. Her
  father attempted to design a heavier air boat for the
  purposes of the expedition but died before he com-
  pleted it. The vast distance between the nearest
  base and the stronghold puts her off, but she thinks
  she can accomplish the project, if she can build a
  gasbag just 80 feet longer than the largest ones she
  has now. At a minimum, she believes she needs the
  stomach of a cachalot whale and most of its intes-
  tines, which will need to be preserved and prepared
  according to her grandfather’s formula within a few
  hours of the whale’s death.
  She has the interest of the Oligarchs, who have
  provided seed money for the project. Among other
  things, the Oligarchs hope to secure Vanileth’s
  interest in their Second Age technologies. The old
  god is wrapped up in the Essence-powered method-
  ologies of the First Age, but if he can be shown the
  capabilities of other forms of flight, he might be
  persuaded to come out of retirement and help de-
  velop new flying tools.
  However, at the moment, the League is too
  concerned with maintaining the air boats they pres-
  ently use to worry much about a major experiment
  such as this endeavor. Any interested parties would
  have to provide some funding of their own, as well as
  bear the lion’s share of the risks of the actual voyage.
  patrol, Blue Dragonfish hopes to do and see it all; only
  grudgingly has he allowed another 50-odd captains and
  their crews to join him in the League’s service. Even so,
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  100
  the Ice Squadron is dangerously overstretched when it
  comes to military matters.
  Fortunately, Blue Dragonfish has no qualms about
  permitting merchant marine vessels on the Great Ice.
  Every city-state maintains a small fleet of trading coasters
  and long-distance merchantmen equipped with ice-
  outriggers. The presence of these extra ships gives the
  Oligarchs some comfort, but, at the moment, they have no
  direct control over them, and they can only call upon the
  services of these small fleets in a significant emergency.
  ICE SAILING
  Ice sailing is not like ocean sailing. Most of the White
  Sea is relatively flat, but there are numerous hazards and
  particular dangers to be observed and avoided. A skilled
  captain must be aware of her environment at all times and
  make major adjustments to course and speed on a regular
  basis in order to avoid the major navigational hazards of
  the White Sea.
  A reef is a raised line of rocks that protrudes from the
  surface of the Ice. Reefs are usually easily spotted; most of
  them are black rock, and many of them have either fishing
  stations, light houses or both. More than 500 reefs are
  charted. Most of them are only a few miles from shore, but
  a few break the surface even in the depths of the White Sea.
  Crevasses are significant breaks in the surface of the
  Ice, which nevertheless remain closed at the bottom, not
  revealing open water. A crevasse is white and rarely shows
  up except to the eyes of a trained and experienced lookout.
  The surrounding ice is usually flat, and stable crevasses
  range from four to 20 feet across and can run several miles
  long. If an outrigger or part of the hull catches the edge of
  one, the coaster or cruiser can be dismasted by the force of
  the sudden stop.
  Like reefs, rifts tend to be obvious. These are cracks
  in the surface of the Ice, usually 50 to 100 feet wide, and
  reveal open water at the bottom. They tend to appear blue
  or black from a distance, and they can run 40 or 50 miles
  long. Some rifts are artificial, created by cracking ma-
  chines and firedust charges, while others are natural, the
  result of tidal forces. Iceholts and fishing coasters tend to
  cluster around them to take advantage of the open water.
  Pressure ridges result when tidal forces or deliberate
  cracking in one region result in large plates of ice thrusting
  hard against one another. Instead of a wide crack, a
  massive upwelling of ice and snow creates a ridge of broken
  ice hills, 20 to 100 feet high and often 10 or 15 miles long.
  Pressure ridges usually appear in combination with other
  features, such as rifts and crevasses. Most merchant vessels
  maintain a safe distance.
  Shatterzones are regions where the main surface of
  the Ice has become broken into a series of individual plates
  and bergs. A coaster can sometimes ship its outriggers and
  use a combination of sailing and rowing to maneuver
  through a shatterzone. Larger cruisers must go around.
  Bergs are mountains of glacier-born ice that have
  entered the White Sea and have become jammed into the
  surrounding ice. Bergs have a tendency to turn over
  suddenly, creating shatterzones, pressure ridges, rifts and
  crevasses for dozens of miles around. The League has lost
  two coasters in such turnovers and an unknown number of
  mercantile vessels, as well.
  Snowdrifts form when wind and other factors pile up
  blown snow on an otherwise navigable surface. A snow-
  drift of wet snow will change the temperature of the runner
  of an iceship and slow it considerably, sometimes spinning
  the ship out of control. Snowdrifts are usually small patches
  in low-lying areas on the surface of the White Sea.
  Slushpools form in the summertime, when the sun
  and balmier temperatures melt a small region of ice rela-
  tive to the surrounding surface. A slushpool will usually
  slow down an iceship to the point where it breaks off an
  outrigger completely. The ship then careens off on a
  skittering, treacherous course for 200 yards or more.
  Slushpools often occur in conjunction with other hazards
  and are likely to be found around both reefs and shatterzones.
  ICESHIP COASTER
  Role(s): Icegoing merchant vessel/troop carrier
  Length: 85 feet (hull); 100 feet (outriggers)
  Beam: 12 feet
  Draft: 4 feet between iceriggers and hull
  Rig Type/Closest Tack: Imperial with foresail/ 3 points
  Speed: •••
  Maneuverability: -4
  Standard/Minimum Crew: 22/8
  Soak: 6L
  Health Levels: 12/24
  Description: Coasters are the passenger and cargo
  vessels of the White Sea. Their outriggers can be hauled
  inboard, and they can operate in open water as well as on
  the ice. The ship’s hull is broadly rounded, with a flat stern,
  and the rudder is, in fact, a long steel spike on a lever,
  which can be jammed into the ice. At high speeds, har-
  poons with tow cables must be used to change direction
  quickly. This tactic requires considerable cooperation
  between steerswoman and crew. The ship has a raised
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  quarterdeck and forecastle, with the officers sleeping be-
  low the rudder and the crew sleeping forward. The main
  deck directly below is used for passengers and lighter cargo,
  while the orlop deck is used for the heavier cargo and
  ballast. In total, an iceship coaster is able to carry some
  1,200 tons of cargo.
  In a military capacity, a coaster carries a 125-man
  talon and its supplies in tighter quarters than the Realm
  transports its troops. In winter, everyone stays warm this
  way. The League maintains nine coasters as troop trans-
  ports and 27 as patrol craft, each equipped with a heavy
  catapult on the foredeck and the quarter deck.
  Relatively narrow to reduce wind drag and supported
  on two broad outrigger pontoons with two long steel blades
  mounted on each, the cruiser rides very close to the surface
  of the ice, which limits operations in regions of broken ice.
  A two-deck-high forecastle breaks the force of the wind,
  matching a quarterdeck at the stern, and the mast rises
  almost 100 feet into the air, where a crow’s nest provides
  a long-distance observation platform to watch for cre-
  vasses, rocky outcrops or pressure ridges. The vessel rides
  heavily and makes use of two long steering spikes on either
  side of the stern. These must be jammed down hard into
  the surface of the ice in order to effect a turn.
  The most famous vessels of this type currently on the
  White Sea are the luxury passenger ship Frost Dream, the
  merchant vessel Pride of Fair Isle (which holds the long-
  distance speed record between Icehome and Diamond
  Hearth — 11 days) and Blue Dragonfish’s flagship, the
  Victorious Over Winter.
  ICESHIP CRUISER
  Role(s): Heavy icegoing merchant vessel, large troop
  carrier, major weapons platform
  Length: 160 feet (hull); 250 feet (outriggers)
  Beam: 36 feet (hull); 85 feet (outriggers)
  Draft: 3 foot clearance between iceriggers and hull
  Rig Type/Closest Tack: Imperial with foresail / 3 points
  Speed: ••
  Maneuverability: -5
  Standard/Minimum Crew: 55/15
  Soak: 6L (10L for naval ships)
  Health Levels: 15/20
  Description: The League maintains nine cruisers as
  its heavy weapons platforms, but considerably more be-
  long to mercantile cartels. Able to transport 2,000 tons of
  cargo or 500 troops and equipment in tight quarters, the
  cruiser is the heavyweight vessel for both the Ice Squadron
  and for the League’s major trade routes. The cruiser is the
  heavy hauler, the siege platform and the big stick of the
  Oligarch’s diplomatic efforts.
  Two of the League’s cruisers are outfitted as troop
  transports; the remaining seven are equipped as heavy
  platforms. These seven vessels are equipped with two light
  implosion bows, one at the bow and one at the stern. Each
  vessel also has four ballistae on a side, mounted on the
  lower decks. The four ships commanded by Essence-users
  mount a single large Essence cannon amidships on a swivel
  platform, giving them a 360 degree arc of fire.
  ICEHOLT BARGE
  Role(s): Fishing and whaling platform /village
  Length: 100–200 feet
  Beam: 60–80 feet
  Draft: 18 feet
  Rig Type/Closest Tack: Dragonwing/4 points
  Speed: •
  Maneuverability: -4
  Standard/Minimum Crew: 130/25
  Soak: 6L
  Health Levels: 15/25
  Description: Iceholt barges are ungainly things. Squat,
  slow, square and as broad as temples, they serve as mobile
  platforms on the Great Ice for fishing, hunting and, some-
  times, mining. Often, iceholt barges do not move for weeks
  at a time — and then, only when necessary.
  Each iceholt barge is slightly different, but usually, they
  have two masts on their blunt bodies, and their flat-bot-
  tomed hull is equipped with a dozen or more steel rails to
  help it slide over the ice. In the event of a catastrophic ice
  fracture, they can float, but if anything, they are even more
  ungainly in the water than on the ice. The deck of an iceholt
  is crammed with small structures: greenhouses, rendering
  huts, the vessel’s galley, as well as the pilot house and the
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  102
  officers’ hall. Below decks, an average of 70 workers and
  their families crowd in among cargo holds and workshops.
  Nearly all iceholt barges are utilitarian and lack any el-
  egance or beauty, but some have been retrofitted with
  sculptures, paint and carvings by their inhabitants over
  many years. Over 300 iceholt barges are currently in service,
  and most of them winter in Fair Isle, Tuskstad or Shield.
  THE HASLANTI LEVIES
  The League maintains one of the smallest armies in
  Creation. Weather and agriculture provide the core reasons:
  if the League took enough people from farming, herding and
  fishing to create a sizable army, its people would starve. There
  would not be enough food reserves to keep famine at bay. In
  addition to the problems of feeding the nation, there is also
  the matter of bad weather. Assembling the whole army in one
  location swiftly is an extremely difficult task, and keeping the
  army fed and supplied there is a nightmare.
  Each city in the League is responsible for contributing
  1,000 infantry to the League’s defense each year, in addition
  to those who volunteer for service in the Wind Fleet or the
  Ice Squadron. An additional 1,000 career soldiers form the
  officer corps and noncommissioned veteran troops, filling
  out the standing force to 10,000 men and women under
  arms. The army is organized and drills according to the
  principles of combat laid down in the Realm, with 500-man
  dragons, 250-man wings and 125-man talons. Since only a
  few Terrestrial Exalts live in the League, troops suffer
  through some training regimens designed to make a Realm
  legion into a shield for a group of Exalted working Charms.
  Instead of a large standing army, the League relies upon
  a standard militia plan. Every able-bodied citizen of the
  Haslanti member states is expected to be familiar with arms
  and equipment, to be knowledgeable in the piloting of a
  glider and to have made a jump using a spider-silk parachute.
  Outwall tribes are familiar with riding the chosen animal of
  their tribe, whether elk or reindeer, and greenfielders who
  can afford horses know how to ride them, as well. Local
  militias are answerable first to the city-state’s government
  — whether that be a council of Outwall chiefs or a mayor
  and a town council. Then, the combined militia answers to
  the orders of the Oligarchs, through the commanding
  General of the League. Young men and women participate
  for at least two months a year over at least four summers
  between the ages of 16 and 25, while older individuals drill
  in their standard talons four days a month. A few talented
  people are recruited for the 1,000-man veteran force or for
  commando teams assigned to the Ear.
  The militia usually operates in 125-man talons, rotat-
  ing through shifts on garrison duty at frontier forts, engaging
  in civil engineering projects (such as stabilizing emeralds,
  clearing roads and building wind-walls), and taking part in
  paratrooper and ranger training. In theory, the whole
  militia could take to the skies.
  The militia is somewhat more limited than that paper
  ideal: less than half of the League’s two active legions could
  actually take to the sky at once and only at the cost of
  suspending regular air boat travel to Crystal and Diamond
  Hearth. However, as the air boat construction facilities at
  Icehome and Shield improve, the militia will be able to
  make good on its boast. Furthermore, the militia trains its
  forces to function in small groups, as commandoes, rangers
  and scouts. The militia is less concerned about holding
  cities, towns and strongpoints. Instead, the militia would
  prefer to turn an enemy around before it reaches the walls
  of a city or town.
  THE EARS OF THE NORTH
  The Ears of the North is the name of the Haslanti
  League’s spy agency, though most people call them the
  Northern Ears or, more simply, the Ears. The greatest
  threats to the League’s continued unity and survival have
  never come from the barbarian tribes or from Gethamane,
  but from the machinations of the Guild and the industrial
  spies who come from the Realm’s client states on the
  Inland Sea. Against such powers, the military might of the
  Ice Squadron or the Wind Fleet means little. Instead, to
  fight forces that strike from shadows, warriors willing to
  GENERAL BJORN VARJNISON
  Bjorn Varjnison is the overall commander of
  the League army and militia. A broad-shouldered,
  brown-bearded farmer’s son from Ironfall, he smokes
  a long white clay pipe and mutters to himself
  constantly. Though the present Council chose him
  and he has regularly received accolades from each
  of the district assemblies of the League, Bjorn
  worries that the Haslanti will not be able to with-
  stand a major offensive from the Tear Eaters or the
  Bull of the North. As a human, he has a difficult
  time persuading Blue Dragonfish of the importance
  of building up the Ice Squadron, but he and Twenty-
  One Kestrels see eye-to-eye on the importance of
  the Wind Fleet. For his own part, Bjorn maintains
  close relationships with the Ears of the North.
  Bjorn is also the grand-nephew of one of the
  members of the Twisted Stone Conclave, the band
  of Lunar Exalted that watches over the League’s
  borders and occasionally meddles in Haslanti af-
  fairs. He is their ear into the military councils of the
  confederacy and one of their principal sources of
  information. Bjorn is particularly worried about the
  newcomer in the Ears, Elias Tremalion, who has
  supreme skills and yet also a taste for fine things in
  life. Elias, however, has noticed Bjorn’s attention,
  and wonders why the General observes so closely.
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  stand in the shadows and wait patiently are needed. Such
  warriors are recruited by the Ears.
  The Ears’ agents are recruited during their military
  training. Some are selected on the basis of physical prow-
  ess, to train as commandoes and rangers. Others are
  selected on the strength of their skills at languages or their
  cleverness or their talents at building small and dangerous
  things. Some are recruited to work full-time, but many
  more are expected to serve out of patriotism only part-time
  and perhaps only in emergencies. Few are ever allowed to
  retire completely, however.
  THE GRANDMOTHERS
  At the heart of the Ears sit the Grandmothers. In the
  small greenfield of Bertran’s Ford near Icehome, a certain
  teahouse is filled with chatting and gossiping elderly women
  for most of the day. These women are the directors and
  operational board of the Ears of the North, and they report
  what the Ears learn to the Oligarchs. The Guild agents and
  Realm spies both find the notion bizarre. Why trust your spy
  network to a bunch of old women? It can’t possibly be true.
  And yet, it is. The number of the Grandmothers is
  unclear, even to their own membership. Some days, there
  are 30 old gossips in the teahouse; other days, there are only
  four or five. Each has lost both a child and grandchild in
  service to the League and was invited to join by the existing
  membership. Their ages range from early 60s to high 90s,
  and they come from all the tribes and territories of the
  Haslanti. There is not one senescent mind among them. At
  least one of their number since the League’s founding has
  been a Lunar of the No Moon Caste. The present Lunar,
  Keen-Eyed Snowcat, is 86 (though her aged appearance is
  due to her shapeshifting skill and not her years). Keen-Eyed
  Snowcat’s main responsibility is not to dominate the Grand-
  mothers, but to hide them from the North’s many prying
  eyes and ears. So far, she has been successful.
  The five subordinate branches of the Ears report to
  the Grandmothers through various channels, and the
  Grandmothers report to the Twelfth Oligarch and whom-
  ever else the Twelfth pleases. The Grandmothers sometimes
  speak with contempt of the New Shoot, or the Sixth
  Branch, which is their name for Elias Tremalion. Even as
  they mock him for being so hastily and unconstitutionally
  grafted to the Haslanti system, they respect his growing
  abilities and regard him with cautious optimism as a tool to
  ensure the League’s continued safety in troubled times. As
  yet, they have not met him, for he seems too concerned
  with luxuries and his own comforts.
  THE BLOODED HAWKS
  The Blooded Hawks act as the battlefield operations
  teams of the Haslanti. Organized and trained to work in
  fists of five soldiers and double-fists of ten, the Blooded
  Hawks work to destroy the resources of enemy forces and
  subvert the combat readiness of their troops. Trained in
  stealth, survival skills and hand-to-hand combat, the
  Blooded Hawks use gliders to sweep out of the night sky
  onto a Guild caravans or barbarian encampments. Their
  missions include information gathering, supplies destruc-
  tion, enemy demoralization or leadership assassination. A
  cadre within the Blooded Hawks act as infiltrators and
  military advisors, as well. They blend into native societies
  and stir up trouble and rebellion against leaders who
  oppose the League and lend comfort and aid to Haslanti-
  aligned chiefs.
  The Grandmothers have 20 double-fists at their
  disposal and six air boats second class for transporting
  these forces rapidly. Roughly a quarter of them are imme-
  diately available, with half usually on-call within a couple
  of days. The remaining fists are usually on an extended
  mission, on leave or training too far away to be useful.
  Captain Ryga Tufnalisdotter is the overall commander of
  the Blooded Hawks.
  THE CUNNING DANCERS
  The Cunning Dancers are the analytical branch of
  the Ears of the North. Where the Blooded Hawks are
  field operatives, the Dancers examine the papers and
  information the Hawks bring back and try to form a
  coherent picture of what the enemies of the League are up
  to. Codebreakers, cipher-makers, linguists and
  thaumaturges all work within the Dancers to help create
  a model of what the League’s enemies are doing and
  thinking about doing and to shield Haslanti activities
  and plans from them at the same time.
  The Dancers’ understanding is far from thorough.
  Most information they work with is days, if not weeks, old.
  Some of it is years out of date. Dancer workroom maps
  reveal critical failures in their analysis: a broad semi-
  circular arc filled with notes and pinned papers covers over
  the region from Crystal south toward the Inland Sea before
  tapering out in the neighborhood of Gethamane and
  Whitewall but ends completely in the western reaches of
  the White Sea. The Dancers know little of the threats
  sweeping out of the Great Ice or the West.
  In southern operations, the Dancers have a strong
  understanding of the activities of their enemies and rivals.
  Guild caravans are carefully tracked, and the Dancers alert
  communities when likely slave-raiders are near. The roads
  into Gethamane are carefully observed to see who is going
  in and what might be coming out. Whitewall and the
  Realm client states also get a lot of attention. Of late, the
  Dancers have also been seeking out more information
  from the war camps of the Bull of the North. The Dancers
  sometimes arrange to send in fists to investigate. More of
  the Dancers’ information comes from paid informants in
  the Bull’s hosts, however, who pass on information to
  Haslanti agents in the Soothing Speakers.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  104
  The leader of the Dancers is Five-Point Aster, an
  androgynous, thin man in his early 40s, with long, blond
  hair and a crippled right hand. He dresses in a tattered gray
  robe and began his career in the Ears as a codebreaker 30
  years ago. As a boy, he found a group of Blooded Hawks on
  a mission and explained the meanings of their bird-whistle
  calls to them. As the God-Blooded grandson of a riddle-
  spirit, Five-Point Aster can tease meaning out of peculiar
  data, and he has an ear for truth.
  THE SHAPERS OF FORM
  If the Dancers are artists who see the picture the
  enemy makes, the Shapers of Form are the artists who
  paint pictures for enemy eyes. It is their job to conceal
  Haslanti force movements from watching eyes, to forge
  letters to enemy commanders and to mislead the spies of
  rivals. Some Shapers are field agents, who act as hangers-
  on and assistants to official ambassadors or travel with
  Haslanti merchant parties. Far more Shapers are involved
  behind-the-scenes within the League’s borders, where
  they plant incorrect information in places spies will find it
  or lure agents on wild goose chases for the secrets of air boat
  construction or the latest information on First Age relics
  recovered from Crystal and Diamond Hearth.
  Two secondary teams exist within the Shapers of
  Form, namely the savants studying First Age devices in
  their labs at Windcreche and the team of engineers trying
  to replicate First Age effects using Second Age equipment,
  stationed at Ironfall.
  The head of the Shapers is Ka Mockingbird, a miner’s
  daughter from the Great Ice. In her early 30s, she is red-
  haired and bright-eyed with wonder at what her savants
  and engineers can do most of the time. Her smile and
  laughter are renowned within the Ears, and she takes great
  delight in the cunning or the clever. Her favorite phrase is,
  “Is it simple enough to fool barbarians?” She helped design
  the folding glider 10 years ago, a critical tool in the
  Haslanti arsenal.
  THE SHADOW KNIVES
  The Shadow Knives, called the Nine Fists for their
  official number of troops, are assassins. Unlike the Blooded
  Hawks, who usually strike only military targets, the Knives
  can be sent against almost any entity whose continued
  existence threatens the League’s survival. Trained to the
  same standards as the Blooded Hawks, the Knives also
  learn breaking and entering buildings and tents, stalking
  chosen targets and wearing disguises for getting close to
  their targets. They also study various crafts and entertain-
  ments to provide cover stories for moving around the
  League and beyond.
  Standard procedure for sending in the Nine Fists is for
  the Dancers to recommend a particular person or entity as
  a target to the Grandmothers. The old women discuss and
  evaluate the various reasons for killing the person and pass
  their decision on to Salmon Twilight. The Grandmothers
  advise him whether “accidental” death or direct action
  would be preferred and what other nation or organization
  should take the blame. The method chosen, Salmon
  Twilight chooses a fist or lone assassin who best suits the
  selected method. The leader of the Nine Fists has several
  God-Blooded available to him and a vengeful spirit from
  an emerald laid waste by the Guild, but most of his
  subordinates are human.
  THE SOOTHING SPEAKERS
  Officially called the Speakers of Zephyr and Storm,
  the Soothing Speakers are the League’s diplomatic corps.
  The largest branch of the Ears, the Speakers send out
  trained ambassadors and staffs to speak for Haslanti inter-
  ests in the Realm’s client states, in Whitewall and
  Gethamane and even in the distant East. The Speakers
  who remain behind read the letters from distant places,
  send messages to their colleagues across Creation and pass
  the most important data on to where it needs to go,
  whether to the Oligarchs, the Grandmothers, the military
  or another branch of the Ears.
  Of late, the Speakers have said much relating to the
  Zephyr and heard more of the Storm. The destruction of
  the Tepet legions has raised a number of worries about the
  League’s continued immunity from attack. Yet, the Speak-
  ers urge caution for the moment, concerned that matters
  might suddenly force the Haslanti into a war with a Dawn
  Caste Solar Exalt and his Circle. Even so, the League is
  well aware that they might soon have to choose sides.
  ICEHOME
  The city-state of Icehome is the capital of the Haslanti
  League. For merchants from more civilized nations from
  the South, the East or the Realm, the city seems consider-
  ably more barbaric and savage than anything they are used
  to. For the Haslanti themselves, the city seems more soft
  and easy than they would like. Outlying peoples feel that
  SALMON TWILIGHT
  Salmon Twilight, a hard and hairy Wood-
  aspected Dragon-Blood from Windcreche, is the
  leader of the Nine Fists. In his 68 years of service to
  the League and to the Grandmothers, he has killed
  60 barbarian chiefs and chiminage shamans, more
  than 40 officials of the Realm’s client states and
  more than a dozen caravan masters and officers of
  the Guild. He is particularly proud of the merchant
  prince he assassinated in RY 741, who was taking
  slaves from among the Outwall tribes to sell to the
  Fair Folk.
  
  105
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  ICEHOME GREENFIELD
  Icehome Greenfield is the largest in the League, and
  it supports a population of slightly more than 250,000
  persons, of whom more than 100,000 live within or within
  sight of the capital city’s walls. About 100 miles long and
  averaging 32 miles wide, the greenfield is walled in by cliffs
  more than 100 feet high. A black, slush-filled river flows
  sluggishly through the center of the greenfield, irrigating
  fields and orchards; numerous canals also crisscross the
  land, to supply managed forests with moisture and ease
  transportation. Ice-skating contests running several miles
  in length are common in winter.
  Numerous towns and villages dot the landscape, ap-
  pearing to travelers first as a pillar of thin smoke rising into
  the sky and then as a squat, close group of low houses
  within a strong wall. Gravel roads bordered by walls of
  black stones join villages to towns across the fields. Typical
  family compounds are laid out in a regular L-shape, with a
  whitewashed summer house, containing workshops and
  large summer quarters on one wing of the L, a barn for
  animals and provisions on the other and a two-story winter
  house with a kitchen on the first floor at the corner.
  Usually two such houses will share a courtyard, though
  occasionally four do.
  WULGAR YHAINILSON
  The head of the Speakers is Wulgar Yhainilson.
  With shoulder-length ash-blond hair, much jew-
  elry, dark eyes and layers of leather and wool over
  silk, Wulgar presents the very picture of a Northern
  barbarian prince turned merchant.
  Outward gaudiness disguises his inner cunning
  and vitality. Few see beyond the façade of the
  wasteful fop to the dangerous weasel. An experi-
  enced negotiator, Wulgar led one of the missions to
  Whitewall, three missions to Halta and four to
  Gethamane. He is not easily impressed and uses
  many voices: Wulgar can whisper, bellow, name-
  drop and drive the knife home with his gently
  diplomatic tongue.
  Unfortunately for the League, Wulgar is
  overawed by the Bull of the North and is consid-
  ering betraying the Haslanti to the mighty Dawn
  Caste warrior.
  Icehome may have played out its usefulness as a center of
  trade and government within the League and that its
  population should be disbanded.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  106
  ICEHOME THE CITY
  The capital city itself stands in the lee of the black rock
  outcrop called Citadel Rock, just to the west of a broad
  harbor. The city’s three main districts — the Old Market,
  the Artisans’ Precinct and the Orchard Quarter — all lie to
  the south of the Citadel. Sixty-foot-high walls with 80-foot
  towers encircle the districts and join with the cyclopean
  blocks of the Citadel’s bastions. The surrounding territory is
  divided into fields, managed forests and small farms, while
  the cliff walls overshadowing the city are mined for building
  stone and small amounts of iron. To the east of the city and
  outside the walls lie the docks, where new iceships are
  constructed and iceholts tie up in winter.
  THE DOCKS
  Seven fingers of granite extend into the frozen harbor
  of black ice. Five hundred vessels ranging from day skaters
  to 100-foot-long iceholts can crowd in for winter. From
  Ascending Air to Resplendent Water, men can cross the
  harbor, stepping deck to deck. On shore, between the
  corniche and the city wall, lies a rough-and-tumble collec-
  tion of houses and shops. Some are old-style Haslanti
  longhouses, while others are Outwall-style aghars of rein-
  deer bones and hides. More stone and brick structures rise
  here every year: warehouses for Haslanti traders, foreign
  merchants and Guild caravans who have neither the
  prestige nor legal right to own land within the walls. The
  Docks District’s streets are mud and frozen slush in spring
  and summer and muddied snow in winter.
  Loosely, the district is separated into three bands. The
  northernmost region holds ship construction and ware-
  houses, along the main road from the corniche to the city
  wall echoes the noise of taverns, hostels, theaters and
  dueling  and the south holds the most odorous businesses,
  including the slaughtering of animals and the tanning of
  hides. Despite the distance, however, the smells from this
  district infect the nostrils of the whole city.
  OLD MARKET
  Within the walls lies Old Market. This district, more
  than any other, frames reports of the League in other lands.
  Here, 20 blocks of roofed arcades form a grid of “winter
  streets” centered around five small squares open to the sky.
  On the roofs of the winter streets lies a second set of
  “summer streets.” These are more haphazard and wild,
  crossing roofs and navigating around both huts and tents.
  Two-thirds of the city dwell in winter apartments here,
  among common rooms and halls for dances, parties and
  ceremonies. Socialites and traders use the winter streets
  only during the dark months. The rest of the time, these
  inhabitants prefer the summer streets, since a black market
  operates in the dark roads below.
  Much of Old Market is built of stone and brick, with
  roofs of red tiles. Inside, frescoes of life on the Ice and in the
  emeralds adorn walls. To foreigners, Old Market feels like
  one of the few truly warm places in the North, while, to
  herdfolk, Old Market feels like a prison. Old Market thus
  represents the struggle in Haslanti society between old
  barbarian ways and the emerging new civilization.
  Foreign merchants have a particularly hard time deal-
  ing with this tension. Old Market looks like a business
  district one might encounter in any city of the Second
  Age: there are shops, banks, moneychangers, caravan
  guards, pickpockets and courtesans. At the same time,
  however, violent duels occur in the broader parts of the
  streets and squares, and League arbitrators actually preside
  over these lethal contests.
  THE CITADEL
  Rising above the rest of Icehome like a dream is the
  Citadel, one of the great achievements of Haslanti society.
  The Citadel of Icehome is the official residence of the
  Council of Oligarchs, the national temple of the League and
  the Ennead, the treasure house for the League’s wealth and
  the longhouse of the people. Built of white marble instead
  of the black and gray granite common to the rest of the city,
  the Citadel seems to be one white cloud in a sky of storm.
  A cyclopean wall supports and defends the Citadel.
  Within, five major buildings crown the summit of Citadel
  Rock. The first of these is the Longhouse, which serves as
  the Oligarchs’ council chamber and the League’s guest-
  house. A white marble sheath shelters an inner longhouse
  made of wood, horn, elk hide and other traditional mate-
  rials, to remind the Oligarchs of the League’s beginnings.
  Ambassadors to the League sleep here their first night in
  the city, especially if they intend to be seen as friends.
  Arranged around the Longhouse is the U-shaped
  House of the Oligarchs. The House holds 12 comfortable
  apartments joined by a gallery of glass, with meeting rooms
  for private consultations. Most of the Profitable Men
  disdain the use of these chambers for more luxurious
  dwellings in the city. Both the Deft Hands and the Land-
  less Party make a point of using this house as their own, to
  emphasize their claims as representatives of the people.
  Behind this stands the Treasury, a beehive of stone
  buried in the granite, with numerous galleries and cham-
  bers tunneled beneath. The Treasury is the League’s central
  bank and emergency fund. It contains 100 jade talents and
  12,000 silver talents, as well as trophies and mementoes
  from Haslanti victories. Some of its galleries are open to
  public view. Part of the building is given over to Haslanti
  records, which citizens may consult at any time.
  Two more buildings stand at the northernmost point
  of the Citadel. The larger of the two is the Pantheon of the
  Ennead, a greenfielder-style godhouse with doubled
  porches, hearth room and godroom. Decorated with gold,
  silver, silk wall hangings and precious stones, the Pan-
  theon is the most luxurious temple in the League. The
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  walls are lined with trophies from military victories; hav-
  ing the symbols of victories set here, rather than in the
  Treasury, is a symbol of great honor throughout the League.
  A smaller stone building beside the Pantheon, built to
  resemble an overgrown aghar, is much more modest. The
  Tholos is home to the Haslanti’s national hearth fire, and
  it is the largest of eight similar structures each located in a
  city of the League. The Tholos is the depository for stories
  of heroes and their sorrows. Any song of valor or tale of epic
  woe spoken or sung in the Tholos echoes instantly in the
  other eight tholoi. In a lesser way, any story told in the
  other chambers will echo softly here. The Tholos is the
  beating heart that binds the League together — so long as
  tales of individuals are told here, the Haslanti will always
  retain some of their barbarian character. The Twisted
  Stone Covenant, an elaborate net of shells, beads and
  bones that functions as the constitution, lies hidden here.
  It is brought out only on rare occasions.
  THE ARTISANS’ PRECINCT
  Below the Citadel is the Artisan’s District. Less closely
  packed than the Old Market, most houses here are small
  compounds: a workshop and a barn or stable, a summer
  dwelling for guests and visitors to use in the warm months
  and a much smaller kitchen and winter dwelling for the cold
  months. Homes are packed into triangular blocks with
  narrow alleys between them. Icehome’s craftsmen and art-
  ists, from makers of Outwall-style tents to master armorers,
  live in this district. Foreigners and outsiders are rarely
  welcome in this part of town. In fact, ordinary citizens often
  challenge those they do not recognize. Traveling with a
  resident lessens the chance of a rude welcome.
  THE ORCHARD QUARTER
  The Orchard Quarter is a densely packed region
  within the walls where there are only a few small house-
  compounds. Narrow lanes and low stone walls divide the
  area into numerous orchards for fruit and nut trees, garden
  plots and meadows set with beehives. Apples, pears, wal-
  nuts and hazelnuts are the most common trees.
  In summer, young boys and girls seem to run wild
  here: chasing rabbits and squirrels, stalking each other
  and terrorizing visitors with toy spears and tiny bows
  with padded arrows. While the Orchard Quarter looks
  like the estates of the wealthy, it is instead home to
  specialty farmers who raise export-quality honey, fruit,
  cider and nuts.
  The children here seem on the surface to be a terrible
  nuisance, but the Orchard Quarter is one of the ways the
  Haslanti maintain their connection to their barbarian
  past. Although the Orchard Quarter is hardly a dangerous
  place, the trees and meadows provide a semblance of
  wildness in the city. Beehives and angry farmers provide
  mild threats. The fruit, the rabbits and the squirrels pro-
  vide targets, and less-cautious visitors teach opportunism.
  CHARACTER CONCEPTS FOR ICEHOME
  Warrior: Cliffguard, Warden of the Citadel
  Holy Man: Dreamseer, Roundhouse Firetender
  Savant: Genealogist, Orchardist, Soil Manager
  Criminal: House-Breaker, Dice-Tosser, Highwaywoman
  Entertainer: Tholos Singer, Street Juggler
  Bureaucrat: Arbitrator, Treasurer, Oligarch’s Secretary
  OTHER MEMBER STATES
  Icehome is only the first among equals within the
  League. Eight other cities vie for the privilege and honor
  of being second, and each feels very differently about its
  membership in the League, with some supporting closer
  unity and cooperation while others look for opportunities
  to break away. Each city upholds slightly different values,
  with some cities choosing to develop greater civilization
  and other cities preferring a more honest and open, if
  poorer and more barbaric, lifestyle.
  CRYSTAL
  Crystal is the only unwalled city in the League, first
  because of its youth and second its position in a small but not
  particularly healthy greenfield accessible only by air boat.
  Surrounded by some fields, it produces most of its own staple
  foods, though it has difficulty with fruits, vegetables and
  high-quality animals much larger than goats. Much of this
  kind of food must be brought in by air boat.
  Of the nine cities of the League, Crystal is both the
  youngest and the most eager for the soft living of civiliza-
  tion. Founded only 46 years ago, Crystal is a boomtown
  built on a combination of feathersteel mining and the
  excavation and exploration of a number of First Age ruins.
  Many residents either work in the mines or the city,
  seeking to gather enough wealth to move somewhere both
  more civilized and warmer. Many more are merchants who
  supply necessities and luxuries of more adventurous work
  — dry goods salesmen, tool manufacturers and mercenar-
  ies of all stripes. Stern barbarians rub shoulders with air
  boat captains in the streets here, while flute-girls and
  dancing boys call out from open doors.
  Crystal’s streets form a grid similar to imperial legion
  military camps, with the central market and major busi-
  nesses located along the main north–south and east–west
  streets and smaller, more specialized markets springing up
  at the four squares at the center of each quarter: mining
  equipment in the northeast, animals and slaves in the
  southeast, First Age goods in the southwest and drugs and
  prostitutes in the northwest.
  Crystal’s population reached a height of 15,000 people
  about 15 years ago, and an additional 15,000 live in
  villages in the larger greenfield. The Common Council
  knows its city-state cannot survive without the League and
  the air boats for the moment, but many residents desire a
  tighter and more rigorous political and legal system than
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  108
  Haslanti-style savage democracy. Of all the Haslanti states,
  Crystal is the most controlled.
  DIAMOND HEARTH
  Where Crystal is a frontier town seeking law and
  order, Diamond Hearth is less a community than a year-
  round riot. Savage democracy suits this greenfield of 80,000
  people all too well. Property rights are more likely settled
  with the long edge of a knife than with arbitration. Forty
  thousand people live in the shantytown of a city, while an
  additional 40,000 work the surrounding icebound land-
  scape. Of these, 20,000 are slaves who work the diamond
  mines and clear away snow and ice from the ruins of Tzatli.
  Diamond Hearth lies clustered along narrow lanes of
  eroded mud and gravel, with handsome stone winter
  dwellings standing beside wretched hovels built of wicker-
  work, mud and broken packing crates. Surrounded by
  snowy wasteland in all directions, the weekly arrival of an
  air boat or iceship from Fair Isle or elsewhere is a critical
  component in the population’s survival — if survival it can
  truly be called. Tribal ties have almost completely broken
  down around Diamond Hearth, and every family or sworn
  partnership works for itself alone. The district assemblies
  are little more than caucuses of the richest citizens, with
  the slaves and most of the general population shut out of
  decision making.
  SLAVE LABOR
  Perhaps 15,000 enslaved humans and 5,000 captured
  beastmen are involved in the mining of true ice, a blue-
  white material almost as hard as stone that retains its
  supernal frostiness even in the Far South — and that
  freezes solid any flesh that comes into contact with it
  without the protection of several layers of fur. Useful for
  building iceboxes elsewhere, here true ice is only a fear-
  some nuisance, a thing to be packed in barrels and shipped
  away, at the cost of some dozen or more slaves a month.
  Feathersteel mines, stone quarries and the hunt for First
  Age artifacts from the ruins of the city of Tzatli cost almost
  as many lives each month as the true-ice mines.
  The casual treatment of life takes its toll on both
  slaves and masters. The bodies of the dead cannot rot in
  this arid, frozen wasteland, and Diamond Hearth has
  virtually no city services to remove the corpses. As a result,
  the district is gradually becoming a shadowland, a black
  blot on the windswept Great Ice. As the city sinks deeper
  into despair and gloom, the servants of Shogun
  Widowmaker have been carrying off the vengeful ghosts of
  slaves, and at least some of the living souls, into the depths
  of Tzatli.
  FAIR ISLE
  Approaching Fair Isle from the south and east, one
  sees a pair of tall hills swathed in white and a bright green
  vale between them. Fair Isle is the largest emerald in the
  League, supporting a sunny-hearted population of 20,000
  in an oasis of fine trees and well-proportioned stone houses
  with blue roofs. Fair Isle’s streets are steps of honey-colored
  stone. A broad wall of red stone lines the harbor, and a
  glassed-in arcade of shops, inns and restaurants faces the
  ice. The second and third floors of these tall narrow
  buildings are given over to the farmers, artisans and
  fisherfolk, who make their living tending the needs of
  those who work year-round on the Great Ice.
  Fair Isle was forced into joining the League; the
  island’s westward and northward position makes it a
  critical lading point for iceships and air boats. Any ship
  making the voyage to Diamond Hearth must pass through
  Fair Isle. As wind deposited several thousand tons of good
  soil in the vale between the island’s rocky hills, Fair Isle
  became self-supporting.
  Despite a genteel and fragile façade, Fair Isle is a
  town of savage values. Self-reliance matters to the Twenty
  Matriarchs who tend the tholos here and act as the local
  government. Because only hard work keeps Fair Isle’s
  bounty from being strewn across the Great Ice and lost
  forever, everyone is expected to work for the island’s
  survival. The population also remain committed to the
  League — for now. Before the air boats came, the bare
  rock supported fewer than 1,000 people scraping meager
  livelihoods from the Great Ice. Wind-blown soil and
  regular trade have made the island prosperous. Still, the
  islanders recall how their grandfathers were defeated in
  battle, and consider how they might attain their inde-
  pendence again someday.
  FORT BEAR
  Fort Bear is a small city even in wintertime, with
  12,000 people calling it home. An additional 40,000 live
  in the surrounding Outwall regions, herding reindeer.
  Nearby pastures are covered with reindeer and elk, inter-
  spersed with fields for spring and summertime crops. A
  massive outcropping of white stone shaped like a sleeping
  frost bear overlooks the town. Sacred to the herdfolk
  thereabouts, the burial places of the chiefs and matriarchs
  of nearby clans are hidden in caves along its flanks, and the
  tholos stands near the mouth of White Bear. The perma-
  nent town gathers just below it on the hill’s flanks. In
  summer, the population shrinks to under 5,000, most of
  whom are shamans connected to sacred sites on White
  Bear, tribal elders too infirm for wandering and artisans
  involved in specialty crafts such as metalworking, aghar-
  building and weaving.
  During the weeks of the Fort Bear Assembly, the
  population often rises to almost 30,000. The Assembly
  gets little business done with 40 tribes in attendance, but
  the town and surrounding fields become a massive trade
  fair, with Haltans, Linowan, Haslanti, Cherakis, Rubylaks
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  and Sijanese engaged in buying and selling their products.
  The League government frowns on this fair, regarding it as
  a usurpation of Icehome’s traditional rights as the League’s
  political and economic capital. However, the Oligarchs
  can do little to stop the fair, as it involves the tribes most
  loosely connected to the Haslanti as a whole.
  IRONFALL
  Ironfall lies near the headwaters of the Breakstone
  River, which flows from a half-frozen lake in the broken
  hills north to the eastern edge of Icehome’s harbor. Be-
  tween Icehome and Ironfall lies a prosperous valley of
  farms and orchards, and without that rich farmland, the
  miners of Ironfall could not prosper. Sixty-five thousand
  people live in and around the black walls, of whom 20,000
  are slaves. Another 100,000 live in the greenfield, the
  surrounding emeralds and the Outwall.
  Ironfall itself is a glum, dour city. Built on cliffs
  overlooking a massive cataract on the Breakstone River,
  Ironfall has steep streets that are more steps than roadways.
  The city’s houses are built of black slag-stone dragged out
  of feathersteel and iron mines bored into the cliffs all
  around the town. Black clouds always seem to hang above
  the city, and a tremulous clanging seems to ring out
  constantly, owing to the number of smiths and metalwork-
  ers within. The town’s population is hidebound and
  conservative, and they suspect constant threat from nearby
  Outwall tribes who wish to steal iron and metalwork. Of
  course, the herdfolk only want their products and nothing
  of the city itself. The town to them seems swaddled in
  gloom and frozen order all the time, cold as the metal
  Ironfall produces.
  Ironfall miners regard themselves as Haslanti through
  and through, as loyal to Icehome as to their mothers. Settlers
  from the capital founded their city two centuries ago.
  Despite the city elders’ loyalty, many wonder at the wisdom
  of trading good metals with herdfolk of uncertain, unproven
  kinship and peacefulness. While other Haslanti live with
  the tumult of chiefs and duels of honor, the townsfolk here
  have a mayor and a town council composed of prosperous
  smiths and important merchants; the annual assembly is
  largely a rubber-stamp body for their legislation.
  Other Haslanti look upon Ironfall as proof of the evils
  of civilization. How can it be, they ask, that so many can live
  in the untamed North and yet be so dead to actual living?
  SHIELD
  Six hundred miles south of Crystal, Shield guards the
  League’s eastern boundary. Because the city is poor in iron
  and agriculture both, the city’s name is almost a joke. The
  League spends more to hold the place against the Tear
  Eaters, the dead from the Fortress of Crimson Ice and the
  icewalkers than the city has ever generated in taxes or
  tribute. The cliff walls sheltering the greenfield are low and
  heavily eroded, and the wind batters the landscape inces-
  santly — stripping away topsoil here, burying gardens in grit
  and dust there. Within sight of the city walls, 20,000 people
  grow potatoes and rye, collect shellfish and mine copper and
  tin from the surrounding hills. (Bronze production is one of
  the major industries here.) Another 100,000 farm the
  surrounding emeralds, fish in the eastern White Sea or herd
  in the Outwall. Divisions between greenfield, emerald and
  Outwall are thin here: for example, elk eat grass from what
  might have recently been a farmer’s potato patch.
  Five thousand live within the small curtain of badly
  built wall, most of whom are artisans and bronze-workers
  who trade with the nearby tribes. The city tholos stands
  within a park of wind-bent oak trees, and the flame of the
  public hearth within gutters incessantly. Most of the houses
  are only one or two stories tall. The tallest structure in Shield
  actually lies two miles outside the walls, a Guild caravanse-
  rai. Its three stories provide the largest single source of
  revenue to Shield. The Guild thus remains tolerated despite
  precipitating the Gethamane War 182 years ago.
  Despite their poverty, Shield’s citizens think they are
  more free and more independent than other Haslanti.
  Though the Wind Fleet and the Ice Squadron use Shield as
  a base, personnel from the military rarely interact much
  with the Shieldings. Tribal ways thus remain stable and
  steady here, much more so than in Icehome or even Tuskstad.
  TUSKSTAD
  Lying on the western shores of the White Sea halfway
  between Gethamane and Icehome, Tuskstad is the princi-
  pal town of the mammoth herdfolk. In the months of
  Earth, Wood and Fire, Tuskstad is a trade center for salt
  fish, mammoth hides and ivory, as well as byproducts from
  mammoth hunts, such as hair and cheese. Most foreign
  merchants barely recognize Tuskstad as a town, much less
  a city-state. Instead, they see an overgrown barbarian
  camp of 15,000 people. Another 80,000 live in the city-
  state’s greenfields, emeralds and Outwall.
  In summer, Tuskstad is hot and fly-ridden, smelling of
  mammoth hides being tanned to make covers for the
  round aghar tents of the Outwall and drying fish and seal
  meat. The city wall is an earthwork rampart 20 feet high,
  set with a palisade of wooden stakes. Only four stone
  structures can be found within: two gatehouses, the tholos
  marking the Tuskstad’s allegiance to the League and the
  longhouse of Bellowing Mammoth, the wife of the chief of
  the Laughing Wind tribe.
  The Laughing Winds hold Tuskstad and the narrow
  greenfield vale that extends 12 miles down to the sea and
  6 miles wide. For more than 80 years, this tribe has held the
  vale against all comers. Now, the tribe acts as a major
  intermediary power between the League and the more
  independent herdfolk to the south.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  110
  WINDCRECHE
  Windcreche is a narrow valley on the coast of the
  White Sea, reachable by both iceship and air boat.
  Windcreche provides a necessary layover point for air
  boats making the crossing over the tundra to Crystal, and
  the 9,000 people who live here in winter make up the
  ninth and smallest city-state within the Haslanti League.
  Windcreche has little agriculture. Seal and walrus hunt-
  ing are major occupations, and the city-state provides
  more ivory to Creation than even Tuskstad. Despite
  ivory’s importance to the Haslanti economy (especially
  when buying slaves), Windcreche remains one of the
  poorer and more tribal of the settled communities. Few
  foreigners ever bother to visit except on their way farther
  north and east to Crystal.
  Windcreche stands on a peninsula jutting into a
  large bay, with city walls of rough-hewn stones packed
  together to form wharves for both skate-boats for walrus
  hunters and larger iceholts and trading vessels that stop
  here to collect the ivory or to drop supplies for Crystal. A
  large, central square serves as the town market and the air
  boat landing ground. Rendering factory smells from pro-
  cessing whale and walrus blubber into oil and gas for
  refueling air boats fill every street. Most houses here are
  small winter dwellings, built of stone covered with plas-
  ter mixed with walrus blood (as red walls make it harder
  to become lost in a snowstorm). Most houses are two
  stories high, with the kitchen on the first floor and the
  living rooms on the second.
  Windcreche cows are famous for their small size.
  None is more than three feet high at the shoulder, but they
  produce the sweetest milk in Creation. Windcreche but-
  ter-cheese is a delicious luxury in the East. Unfortunately,
  the erosion in the surrounding pastureland, and the dis-
  tended size of the whole herd, may cause this luxury to
  vanish forever.
  EXALTS OF THE LEAGUE
  The League makes use of much technology that any
  mortal can learn to operate. Humans can all learn to
  handle gliders, air boats and iceships competently. Yet,
  many modern nations founder when they try to operate
  completely without the assistance of the Exalted. The
  League is no exception: though its Lunar founders often
  leave the Haslanti to their own devices, the changing ones
  surely interfere from time to time. The League has a
  number of God-Bloods and outcaste Dragon-Bloods in its
  service, in addition to one Solar. There are also numerous
  Lunars operating within its borders, as well.
  LUNARS
  The Lunar Exalted are heavily involved in shaping
  and turning the League to their own purposes and ends.
  From Gerd Marrow-Eater, Haslanti unifier and warleader,
  to younger Silver Pact members, some Exalts of Luna
  
  111
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  regard the League as their personal landscape, to be as
  much altered by their will as their own bodies.
  GERD MARROW-EATER
  Description: Gerd Marrow-Eater founded the League,
  and as such, he enjoys legendary status whenever he
  appears. Ranked among the murr-ya, he is a pillar of the
  Silver Pact, a warleader and chief. At the same time, he is
  a god to Haslanti, a dreadful elemental power of Creation
  — and a menace to the Dragon-Blooded, tracked by the
  Wyld Hunt.
  Gerd’s Tell is well known from the days when he
  challenged and fought the chiefs of the Haslanti before the
  formation of the League. Eagle feathers sprout from his
  arms and ears, and his head is covered with white down.
  Players of Hasanti are at +2 to
  Perception rolls made to
  notice and recognize him
  from the tales.
  Gerd sees most of
  the League as his ex-
  tended 
  hunting
  grounds but holds a
  region 
  between
  Gethamane 
  and
  Icehome as his per-
  sonal domain. Though
  he sometimes takes a
  direct hand in the
  League’s manage-
  ment, 
  he 
  has
  wandered 
  more
  widely in Creation in
  the last 50 years. At
  some level, Gerd is
  bored with the League.
  Having built a func-
  tioning society, he
  wants to go do some-
  thing else.
  Caste: No Moon
  Nature: Architect
  Tell: Eagle feathers
  Attributes: Strength 4 (8), Dexterity 5 (9),
  Stamina 4 (7), Charisma 5, Manipulation 4,
  Appearance 4, Perception 5, Intelligence 5,
  Wits 5
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 4, Tem-
  perance 4, Valor 5
  Abilities: Archery 5, Athletics 4, Brawl 5,
  Craft (Moonsilver) 4, Dodge 5, Endurance
  5, Lore 5, Occult 3, Resistance 5, Perfor-
  mance 5, Presence 5, Sail 3, Stealth 5, Survival
  5, Thrown 5
  Backgrounds: Allies 4, Artifact 4, Cult (Haslanti) 3,
  Followers 4, Heart’s Blood 5, Manse 4
  Charms: Beast Instinct Method, Blossoming Gift of Luna,
  Body Weapon Technique, Calling Luna’s Favor, Courage-
  Building Address, Crowd-Calming Pronouncement,
  Crowd-Inciting Method, Deadly Beastman Transforma-
  tion (x4), Emotion-Shaping Technique, Ever-Wary Fox
  Technique, Finding the Spirit’s Shape, Form-Fixing
  Method, Gill-Breathing Technique, Glorious Battle Pres-
  ence, Hide of the Cunning Hunter, Humble Mouse Shape,
  Hunter’s Eye Technique, Lion Roar Method, Many-Faced
  Moon Transformation, Masking the Brilliant Form,
  Moonsilver Shaping Rite, Ox-Body Technique (x3), Prey’s
  Skin Disguise, Sealskin Endurance, Sense
  Sharpening Change, Sensing the
  Deadly Flow, Shaping the Ideal
  Form, Spirit-Scenting Tech-
  nique, 
  Tale-Spinning
  Mastery, Tattoo-Cutting
  Wisdom, 
  Towering
  Beast Form, Weather-
  Scenting Method,
  Whale-Breath
  Technique
  Beastman Gifts:
  Bestial Reflexes,
  Resilience of Na-
  ture, 
  Rugged
  Hide, 
  Terrible
  Beast 
  Claws,
  Wound-Knitting
  Power
  Face: 8
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  112
  Base Initiative: 10 (17)
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 10 (17) Accuracy 9 (13) Damage 4B (8B)
  Defense 9 (13)
  Kick: Speed 7 (14) Accuracy 8 (12) Damage 6B (10B)
  Defense 8 (12)
  Bite (Hybrid Form): Speed 20 Accuracy 16 Damage 16L
  Defense 14
  Claw (Hybrid Form): Speed 23 Accuracy 18 Damage 13L
  Defense 18
  Moonsilver Short Powerbow(Arvida’s Bite): Speed 10 (17)
  Accuracy 13 (17) Damage 8L (12L) (Rate 2, Range 350)
  Dodge Pool: 10 (14)
  Soak: 
  7L/7B//9L/9B
  (Moonsilver chain shirt, 5L/3B)
  Willpower: 8
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/
  -2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 4
  Personal Essence: 20
  Peripheral Es-
  sence: 48 (52)
  Committed Essence: 4
  Other Notes: None
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 10 (17) Accuracy 10
  (14) Damage 4B (8B) Defense 11 (15)
  Rate 5
  Kick: Speed 7 (14) Accuracy 10 (14)
  Damage 7B (11B) Defense 6 (10) Rate 3
  Bite (Hybrid Form): Speed 20 Accuracy
  16 Damage 16L Defense 14 Rate 3
  Claw (Hybrid Form): Speed
  23 Accuracy 18 Damage
  13L Defense 18 Rate 4
  Dodge Pool: 14
  (18)
  TAGAR
  FROSTBREATH
  Description: Tagar
  Frostbreath is a stu-
  dent and protégé
  of Gerd Marrow-
  Eater. Holding
  Fox as his totem,
  he was chosen by
  Luna during the
  Black Winter of
  RY 631. Though
  he 
  wandered
  Casteless for almost
  four years before the Silver Pact
  found him, he was eventually
  bonded to the Changing Moons.
  Now, he acts as a messenger and herald for the
  Twisted Stone Conclave, the society of Lunars who watch
  over the League. Traveling among the herdfolk, he com-
  mands their respect and allegiance, for he knows the
  League’s stories — he helped perform some of the events
  they tell — and he knows the way to influence chiefs and
  assemblies alike to do deeds pleasing to the Conclave.
  Like a fox, Tagar’s hands and feet have black booties
  and mittens, and his head and body hair are both red like
  a fox’s; yet his beard is mostly white. His eyes are also fox-
  like in their shape. In his human form, he appears to be
  about 45 years old, and he has two long swirling tattoos
  down each arm.
  Tagar acts as the Conclave’s investigator in the mortal
  world, determining the intentions of different tribes and
  helping people and families through their various difficul-
  ties. He is a skillful mediator but also a dangerous foe,
  for, while he prefers stealth and quickness to
  fighting, he is able to turn the tribes against
  anyone who becomes an enemy.
  Caste: Changing Moon
  Nature: Conniver
  Tell: Black feet and hands; fox eyes;
  vivid red hair/white beard
  Attributes: Strength 4 (6), Dex-
  terity 4 (6), Stamina 4 (6),
  Charisma 4, Manipulation 4, Ap-
  pearance 4, Perception 5,
  Intelligence 4, Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Convic-
  tion 2, Temperance 4, Valor 2
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Aware-
  ness 3, Brawl 3, Bureaucracy 4,
  Craft 1, Dodge 3, Endurance
  1, Investigation 2, Larceny 3,
  Lore 4, Melee 2, Performance
  1, Presence 2, Socialize 2,
  Stealth 5, Survival 5,
  Thrown 3
  Backgrounds: Allies 4, Ar-
  tifact 2, Contacts 4, Cult 1,
  Followers 3, Heart’s Blood 4,
  Manse 2
  Charms: Body Weapon Tech-
  nique, Calling Luna’s Favor,
  Deadly Beastman Transfor-
  mation (x2), Finding the
  Spirit’s Shape, Hide of the
  Cunning Hunter, Many-
  Faced 
  Moon
  Transformation, Mask-
  ing the Brilliant
  Form, Ox-Body
  T e c h n i q u e
  
  113
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  (x2), Rat-Head Technique, Shaping the Ideal Form, Stealthy
  Fox Method, Steel Paw Style, Tool-Hand Technique
  Beastman Gifts: Lightning Speed, Resilience of Nature,
  Wound-Knitting Power
  Face: 4
  Base Initiative: 8 (10)
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 8 (10) Accuracy 7 (9) Damage 4B (6B)
  Defense 7 (9)
  Kick: Speed 5 (7) Accuracy 6 (8) Damage 6B (8B) Defense
  6 (8)
  Moonsilver Razor Claws (Arvida’s Claws): Speed 9 (11)
  Accuracy 10 (12) Damage 8L (10L) Defense 8 (10)
  Sling of Deadly Prowess (Winter Hail): Speed
  8 (10) Accuracy 9 (11) Damage 8L
  (10L) (Rate 2, Range 250)
  Dodge Pool: 7 (9)
  Soak: 2L/4B//3L/6B
  Willpower: 7
  Health Levels: -0/
  -1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-
  2/-2/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 3
  Personal Essence: 17
  Peripheral Essence: 37
  (42)
  Committed
  Essence: 5
  O t h e r
  Notes: None
  EXALTED POWER
  COMBAT
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 8 (10) Ac-
  curacy 8 (10) Damage 4B
  (6B) Defense 9 (11)
  Kick: Speed 5 (7) Accuracy 8
  (10) Damage 7B (9B) Defense
  4 (6)
  Moonsilver Razor Claws
  (Arvida’s Claws):
  Speed 8 (10) Ac-
  curacy 10 (12)
  Damage 9L
  (11L) De-
  fense 
  8
  (10)
  Sling of Deadly Prowess (Winter
  Hail): Speed 8 (10) Accuracy
  10 (12) Damage 8L (10L)
  (Rate 2, Range 250)
  Dodge Pool: 10 (13)
  DRAGON-BLOODS
  Haslanti view the Terrestrial Exalted with a mixture
  of awe and suspicion. On the one hand, the Immaculate
  Philosophy made its presence regularly known, and people
  see the Dragon-Blooded with some hesitancy. On the
  other, Terrestrials have ridden roughshod over these lands
  before, and their motives are suspect. Few Terrestrial
  Exalted are allowed into the councils of the Haslanti —
  and only after proving both their skill and their loyalty.
  Even then, Haslanti Dragon-Blooded are much preferred
  to exiles from other lands. If anything, the Terrestrial
  Exalts are raised on a strict diet of loyalty to the tribe first
  and the league second. Every few decades, an
  Exalt has to be killed, at much
  cost in lives and treasure, be-
  cause 
  the 
  Dragon-Blood
  betrayed his people.
  BLUE
  DRAGONFISH,
  HASLANTI ADMIRAL
  Description: At 92 years of
  age, Blue Dragonfish has led
  the League’s Ice Squadron
  for more than 60 years
  as the most capable
  and efficient cap-
  tain in the North.
  The son of an
  emerald-holder
  from the dis-
  trict around
  Shield, Blue
  Dragonfish
  experienced
  the 
  Second
  Breath while at
  the tiller of an
  iceship as a
  teenage ap-
  p r e n t i c e .
  Since then,
  his 
  feet
  have hardly touched solid ground.
  He rose rapidly through the ranks
  of the mercantile fleet and
  joined the Ice Squadron an-
  other five years on. Ever since
  he reached the age of 30, the
  whole fleet has answered his command.
  Blue Dragonfish lives for the wind in his hair and the
  thunder in the hull as his ship coasts over thick ice. Some
  call him a man possessed, and he looks the part more
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  114
  every day. His beard is more white frost than salt-and-
  pepper, and his skin took on the blue of icebergs long ago.
  His long hair is always elaborately braided, so that the
  wind can set it flying, and his face resembles nothing so
  much as the crags of an iceberg.
  Aspect: Air
  Nature: Explorer
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3, Charisma
  5, Manipulation 4, Appearance 4, Perception 4, Intelli-
  gence 3, Wits 4
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 2, Temperance 2,
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Archery 3, Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 1, Dodge
  2, Endurance 2, Investigation 3, Lore 3, Martial Arts 5,
  Presence 3, Sail 5, Socialize 1
  Backgrounds: Allies 4, Artifact 3, Command 5, Con-
  nections 2, Henchmen 3, Manse 2, Reputation 3,
  Resources 3, Retainers 2
  Charms: Fine Passage Negotiating Style, Five-
  Dragon Blocking Technique, Five-Dragon Claw,
  Five-Dragon-Force Blow, Five-Dragon Forti-
  tude, Flickering Candle Meditation,
  Hurricane-Predicting Glance, Ox-Body
  Technique, Pirate-Masquerading
  Method, Spring Follows Winter,
  Storm-Outrunning Technique,
  Sturdy Bulkhead Construction,
  Swallows Defend the Nest
  Base Initiative: 7
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 7 Accuracy 8 Dam-
  age 3B Defense 8
  Kick: Speed 4 Accuracy 7 Dam-
  age 5B Defense 7
  Jade 
  Long
  Powerbow(Master
  Winter’s Teeth):Speed
  7 Accuracy 7 Damage
  8L (Rate 3, Range 400)
  Dodge Pool: 5 (4)
  Soak: 4L/7B (Buff
  jacket, 3L/4B, -1 mo-
  bility penalty)
  Willpower: 6
  Health Levels: -
  0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/
  -4/Incap
  Essence: 4
  Personal Es-
  sence: 10
  Peripheral Es-
  sence: 21 (28)
  Committed Essence: 7
  Other Notes: None
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 7 Accuracy 9 Damage 3B Defense 10 Rate 5
  Kick: Speed 4 Accuracy 9 Damage 6B Defense 5 Rate 3
  Dodge Pool: 9 (8)
  NELLENS RALINONA
  Description: Ralinona is the wittiest, kindest, clev-
  erest and most successful courtesan in Icehome. Catering
  to a wide array of merchants, diplomats, tribal leaders
  and foreign visitors, Ralinona’s house and girls (and a
  few boys) are famous in the North as the place to go for
  all sorts of entertainment — and not just sexual either.
  Gateway tournaments, draughts round-rob-
  ins, concerts — Ralinona provides all sorts
  of entertainments to her guests and gentle-
  men; she also handles most of the bouncing
  duties personally.
  Ralinona is also a scion of House
  Nellens and is the Realm’s principal
  agent in the Haslanti League. Her
  house caters to the wealthy and
  powerful, and she herself is able
  to listen in on many of the con-
  versations in her house. Her girls
  act as a secondary network of in-
  formants, and she has contacts all
  over the League.
  Ralinona’s greatest frustra-
  tion is her apparent sterility.
  While the Dragon-Blooded are
  renowned for their ability to
  propagate, she has been unable to
  conceive at any time in the last
  six decades, and her three former
  husbands have done quite well
  with new wives. Small wonder,
  then, that she has been exiled
  from the glittering courts to
  this barbarian wilderness. The
  bitterness underlying her charm-
  ing smiles is concealed but
  growing. As an Air Aspect, she
  has a surprising degree of affin-
  ity with the Northerners, and
  Blue Dragonfish has been a
  friend and customer — if
  not exactly a useful
  source of information —
  for more than 30 years.
  He is attempting to
  sway her into join-
  ing her loyalties
  with the League,
  
  115
  CHAPTER THREE • THE HASLANTI LEAGUE, NASCENT EMPIRE
  but in a very soft-handed way. She knows his ploy and
  seeks to turn it to her own advantage.
  Ralinona has silky, yellow-white hair that the wind
  teases and toys with quite easily. Her skin has a yellow-
  blue texture to it, and her smile is both playful and
  intelligent. She prefers silks and fine Southern linens to
  scratchy wool, but the sight of her in her blue traveling
  leathers has been known to make customers swoon — or
  even bow down.
  Aspect: Air
  Nature: Conniver
  Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3, Charisma
  4, Manipulation 4, Appearance 5, Perception 3, Intelli-
  gence 3, Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 2, Temperance 4,
  Valor 3
  Abilities: Archery 2, Athletics 2, Bureaucracy 3, Craft 1,
  Dodge 2, Endurance 2, Investigation 5, Larceny 2, Linguis-
  tics 4, Lore 3, Martial Arts 4, Medicine 1, Melee 5, Occult
  2, Performance 5, Presence 3, Resistance 1, Ride 2, Sail 2,
  Socialize 5, Stealth 5, Survival 1, Thrown 4
  Backgrounds: Allies 2, Artifact 1, Command 5, Connec-
  tions 3, Henchmen 2, Resources 4, Retainer 1
  Charms: Elemental Concentration Trance, Seeking
  Throw Technique, Whirlwind Shield Form, Five-
  Dragon Blocking Technique, Five-Dragon Claw,
  Five-Dragon-Force Blow, Five-Dragon Form, Five-
  Dragon Fortitude, Language-Learning Ritual,
  Loquacious Courtier Technique, Ox-Body Technique,
  Poisoned Tongue Technique, Spirit-Detecting Mirror
  Technique, Thousand Tongues Meditation, Voices on
  the Wind, Wind-Carried Words Technique
  Base Initiative: 7
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 7 Accuracy 8 Damage 3B Defense 8
  Kick: Speed 4 Accuracy 7 Damage 5B Defense 7
  Chakram: Speed 7 Accuracy 8 Damage 4L (Rate 3, Range
  20)
  Dodge Pool: 6
  Soak: 1L/3B
  Willpower: 6
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-2/-
  4/Incap
  Essence: 4
  Personal Essence: 10
  Peripheral Essence: 29
  Committed Essence: None
  Other Notes: None
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 7 Accuracy 9 Damage 3B Defense 10 Rate
  5
  Kick: Speed 4 Accuracy 9 Damage 6B Defense 5 Rate 3
  Dodge Pool: 10
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  116
  
  117
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  APPENDIX
  SWAR,
  THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS
  CONSTRAINED,WHICH MEN CALL
  OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT
  LIES WITHIN
  Far in the North of Creation, beyond the shores of the
  White Sea, beyond the farthest outposts of the Scarlet
  Dynasty, where the ice never melts, in a place so terrible
  only the hardest men can survive, there is a tiny city named
  Crystal. A mining outpost of the Haslanti League, one of
  Creation’s less impressive rising young empires, the several
  thousand hardy souls of the city cling tightly to the icy
  land. They mine thick, rich veins of ore that have lain
  unharvested in the mountains for centuries, and, in addi-
  tion, they dig into the ice and snow for relics. From these
  scavenger’s scrapes, the men of Crystal brought forth
  shipments of scavenged feathersteel from fallen towers and
  many other looted imperishables from the small First Age
  ruins that dot the region.
  Recently, everything changed when a team of miners
  searching for feathersteel veins came upon a cavern that
  was later found to be a fallen airship tower of a First Age
  city. The city’s portals hung ajar, and the narrow corridor
  within led to the glorious vista that is Swar. Through the
  tower, the miners found an entire city, entombed under
  the ice — perfect, uninhabited, untouched by the Conta-
  gion — just waiting to be looted. From the vast Essence
  dome above to the endless streets below, the city was glory
  in amber. None of the three prospectors was a scavenger
  lord or anything remotely like one, and none of them had
  any intention of on-the-job training. When they first saw
  the city and its flittering clouds of glittervanes, they wisely
  retreated at high speed and informed the city elders of
  Crystal about what the men had found.
  WHAT IS THIS?
  This section is partly a treatment of a location,
  but that location is so dynamic and so certain to
  change and be changed by the visit of the characters
  that the material is written in the format of an
  adventure. The ruins outside of Crystal are a place
  in flux about to be explored. Characters are likely to
  be the first to go there, for a variety of reasons, and
  their visit there will change the place, so this loca-
  tion has been presented in a more dynamic format
  than location description normally allows.
  THE DISCOVERY OF SWAR
  There had been a great deal of suspicion around Crystal
  that there was a First Age construction of some sort in the
  neighborhood, because the local geomancy suggested a
  Manse that wasn’t present and much of the material recov-
  ered in the area looked like military detritus of various sorts.
  The Haslanti assumed this was debris from military opera-
  tions or work gangs or some other unknown source operating
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  118
  in the vicinity of the Manse, and so, the Haslanti were
  unsurprised to find the large hidden structure, though they
  were obviously astounded by its extent. (In truth, the local
  debris field was hurled away from the explosion of the Manse
  that Swar absorbed to form the Freehold within which it
  now hides, but more on that later.)
  The more the savants and the scavenger lords of
  Crystal (such as they were) learned about the city, the
  more excited and confused they became. It was the begin-
  ning of Crystal’s short warm season, so after a few days of
  exploration and a few dead explorers, word of the discovery
  was sent back to the central authorities of the Haslanti
  city-states. Along with the notification of the discovery
  was a request for help, as the defenses of the city were
  obviously far beyond the resources of the people of Crystal
  to tackle on their own.
  The city was dubbed “Old Crystal,” due to its proxim-
  ity to the hardscrabble mining town and the ongoing
  assumption that Swar was some sort of First Age wonder.
  Two months later, halfway through the summer, a more
  serious expedition arrived from Icehome with relatively
  educated savants and relatively competent scavenger lords.
  What the expedition found after it arrived by air boat
  was not a First Age ruin any of them had ever seen. The find
  clearly showed signs of an inhuman magical power or some
  kind of fundamental flaw in its construction. The consensus
  was that Old Crystal was the product of the folly of Bagrash
  Köl, spun up from nothing using the Eye of Autochthon.
  They asserted he had built it beneath the ice to hide it from
  the wrath of the Scarlet Empress. They believed that Old
  Crystal was laid low, like so many of Köl’s other wonders,
  when that sorcerer was destroyed by the Eye.
  Explorations of the area near the door produced a
  variety of First Age wonders, both obvious wonders of the
  kingdom of Bagrash Köl and other strange artifacts whose
  nature was exotic and was thought, perhaps, to be of some
  little-known Infernal provenance.
  These were mere conjectures, as the savants available
  to the Haslanti people are half-educated rascals with worn
  trousers by any standard other than that of an arctic frontier
  empire. The savants’ guesses were good guesses, but they did
  not recognize the alien hand behind the tools. In truth, the
  lost city near Crystal had nothing to do with Bagrash Köl or
  even with the First Age. The story of the city the Haslanti
  call Old Crystal and that was once more commonly called
  Swar was far stranger, and deadlier, than that.
  Again, the result of the Haslanti pryings were stalled
  explorations and dead scouts, though. at least in this case,
  the explorers learned something — the city was not a
  normal lost city. There was something wrong with it:
  maybe something had gone wrong when it was created,
  maybe something had happened afterward or maybe some
  sort of sorcery guarded the place. Regardless, exploration
  demanded the utmost caution, and absolutely demanded
  Exalted scouts.
  Furthermore, matters have become challenging, be-
  cause time is now of the essence. The warm season races by,
  but the Time of Tumult grinds forward regardless of season.
  Characters who are in the Haslanti League or who are capable
  of travel at supernatural speed — through multi-day Stormwind
  Rider marathons, for example — may arrive before the end of
  the summer travel season during the season of Fire, but slower
  characters of merely mortal mettle will have to wait out the
  nine-month winter before going to the city. Nine months
  when other expeditions can prepare. Nine months of the
  Time of Tumult grinding forward without desperately needed
  magical resources. Characters will be pressured to make the
  trip if they are able, and, if not, they will be expected to be on
  the first air boat out of Icehome when the storms over the
  White Sea break for the short Northern summer.
  THE PROFFERED REWARD
  It is at this point that the narrative of this adventure
  properly starts, for it is at this point that the characters are
  assumed to become involved. The powers that be in the
  Haslanti League see a chance to better their nation and
  themselves, but only if they can extract the value from
  whatever sort of horrible magical mishap they’ve discovered.
  This provides excellent motivation for young Exalted
  aligned with the Haslanti League. Youthful Solars or
  outcastes loyal to the state or hired on as mercenaries may
  find themselves at the forefront of efforts to explore Swar.
  Characters who undertake to explore the matter for the
  Haslanti League will be offered a Resources payment. This
  payment will be either enough to give them all Resources
  ••• for five years or to increase their Resources to ••••
  for that time for characters who already have Resources
  •••. If characters take the payment as a Circle, it will give
  them a pool of Resources •••• for five years.
  This is the kind of offer that the Haslanti are willing
  to make to any Exalted characters in the North who appear
  open to recruitment. The Haslanti will not hire anyone
  with known ties to another major faction (that is, charac-
  ters who have known Backgrounds such as Backing, Mentor,
  Allies and so on relating to groups known to entertain
  their own ambitions). The Haslanti see that this salvage
  operation will be difficult and will prefer to employ expe-
  rienced scavenger lords from the East if possible.
  Also, unfortunately, much of the payment will come in
  the form of vouchers and lines of credit with the Haslanti
  government, rather than in silver and jade. Characters who
  do not dwell in the Haslanti city-states will lose the equiva-
  lent of one dot of the Resources payment, and characters
  who do dwell in the Haslanti League will never truly be free
  of recruitment attempts for “just one more mission” and the
  implicit threat of the instant evaporation of Haslanti lar-
  gesse. But still, some characters may be Haslanti patriots,
  and some others may be young enough that this reward is
  sufficient to attract their attention.
  
  119
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  CRYSTAL OVER THE WINTER
  Swar does not rest over the winter. If characters come out before the first snow, then matters will progress
  as they progress. If the characters come out to Old Crystal after the end of the nine-month winter, they will
  find that the entire city of Crystal is empty, with the gates left hanging open. Similarly, characters who arrive
  in the spring will find the military camp at the gate of Old Crystal likewise deserted, and no evidence or signs
  whatsoever of where its inhabitants went.
  Meals are found half-eaten and pipes half-smoked, and there are a fair number of half-pairs of shoes. Of
  course, to leave Crystal, the inhabitants would have had to forge through feet of snow, and there’s no
  evidence anyone ever did so. The only explanation for their disappearance is the word “SWAR” (a nonsense
  sound in Old Realm) written in huge red-paint letters in the town square in a perfect sorcerer’s hand. Needless
  to say, there were no sorcerers with perfect First Age penmanship native to the city.
  The exact mechanical origins of this effect are left undescribed, but it is almost certainly some form
  of contagious Beguilement through the vessels of the three individuals who discovered Swar. Assume
  the effect is cloaked from retrocognition by some form of fatelessness that rolls out down from the
  heavens like smoke, falls quickly over the town and the military camp — and then is withdrawn, and
  there are no more inhabitants.
  None of these beings is ever seen or heard from again. Even if Swar is slain wholly and its every nook
  and cranny investigated, they are not there. There are no ghosts of them in the Underworld, and Heaven has
  not received their souls for rebirth. This matter is provided as a terrifying mystery — thousands of people are
  gone with only a single word left behind to mark their passing. Storytellers can use the disappearance to play
  up the danger of the city or can have the characters jumping and fretting about the possibility that the
  Deathlords have their hands in these matters as well. If this adventure is to have any mysterious parts, there
  has to be a mystery, so don’t point the finger immediate at the city of Old Crystal.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  120
  Obviously, this reward is not the sort that is going to
  attract characters who can best Swar on their first encounter.
  The reward may, however, prove sufficient to draw characters
  who will subsequently become entangled with the city. Also,
  obviously, word of the Haslanti search for unattached heroes
  will spread, just as rumor of the discovery will spread among
  men and gods from the prayers and whispered secrets of the
  miners who happened upon the city.
  Few know the specific nature of Swar, but all those who
  care to put their ear to the ground in the North will have heard
  the stories of the Haslanti League’s discovery of a great city
  buried beneath the ice. Servants of the Bull of the North, the
  Realm, the Silver Pact, the various Sidereal factions or, really,
  any group in Creation with the slightest eye on the global prize
  might arrive in an attempt to steal the thunder of the Haslanti
  and, instead, find they have laid claim to a terrible threat.
  It could also be that the players’ characters are powerful
  enough to arrive on the heels of the news of how a dozen
  Exalted went into the lost city of Old Crystal and came out
  again totally changed, and set off across the land on errands
  they would not reveal. Such an event, at the dawn of the
  Time of Tumult, is ominous and sure to draw the interest of
  any powers that are not already attentive to these events.
  EQUIPPING THE EXPEDITION
  It is possible that characters will have all sorts of
  equipage when they arrive at Old Crystal, depending on
  their fortunes and their ability to haul large loads over long
  distances. What they can procure onsite and in the Haslanti
  League is easier to describe. Crystal is itself not large or
  prosperous. There are no slaves for sale, and the only items
  above Resources •• available are those directly relating to
  mining, scavenging or wilderness living. Even most of those
  items are imported specially over vast distances via air boat,
  so if the characters want something more sophisticated than
  clothes and hand tools, the items  may take up to a year to
  arrive if characters can’t fetch the items for themselves.
  Characters in Icehome can buy items up to Resources •••
  in value across the counter and can probably secure Resources
  •••• items if they have the cooperation of the Haslanti state.
  In terms of how much can be hauled, probably no more than
  5,000 pounds of gear can be moved — and that will take several
  air boats. Therefore, characters are going to be going on an
  expedition, not on a public-works project to excavate the city.
  Characters who are not friendly to the Haslanti League
  will not be able to buy anything at Crystal or Icehome.
  There is no place around Crystal for foreigners to take
  exploring gear in any quantity except Old Crystal, and
  characters will be prevented from doing so if the Common
  Council of Crystal can stop them. If characters arrive after
  the winter, they will find Crystal abandoned, and they can
  help themselves to all the cornmeal, candles and shovels
  they want (and probably a Resources ••• transaction in
  money if they gather up every coin).
  
  121
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  NARRATIVE ARC
  The general assumed arc of this story is that the charac-
  ters come to the city of Old Crystal following rumors of power,
  offers of riches or some personal drive to explore the un-
  known. They find the city to be unusual and confusing but,
  without a frame of reference, are left guessing randomly at
  what the city might be. After they start making progress
  attacking the city’s riddles, the city starts to push back.
  Characters isolated from the main group may be subject to
  powerful shaping attacks that seek to subvert them to the
  needs of Swar, which are self-protection and escape.
  Either the characters prove able to resist Swar’s assaults
  and flee or perhaps even slay the city, or they cannot with-
  stand the psychic pressure of its assault and leave the city of
  Old Crystal as the psychic slaves of the unshaped Fair Folk,
  sent off on a terrible quest to free it from bondage. Either way,
  when all is said and done, unless the characters wrest Fair Folk
  magic from Old Crystal or are Fair Folk who perform quests on
  Old Crystal, the characters come off rather less well than they
  went into the matter, as Swar has few possessions.
  CHARACTER MOTIVATIONS
  This adventure assumes that Exalted characters are
  motivated directly or indirectly by the desire to explore the
  lost city of Old Crystal and loot its riches, while Fair Folk
  characters are probably drawn by the possibilities pre-
  sented by a powerful unshaped Fair Folk ripe for questing
  that’s trapped where it can’t escape.
  What follows is a basic rundown of ideas for character
  motivations for this story, broken up by various Exalt types:
  Solars: Solars are the Exalted most likely to come in
  contact with Swar. They are the Exalts most eager to
  search for untapped power and the most driven to desper-
  ate risks to meet their needs. They are also the ones most
  in danger from contact with Swar. Unlike the Dragon-
  Blooded, Solars are unlikely to immediately turn tail when
  they realize the scope of the threat. Unlike Lunars, Solars
  are not immune to the Wyld. Unlike the Sidereals, Solars
  cannot call for a huraka assault force. And yet, if bent to
  Swar’s will, Solars will form the most excellent pawns.
  Dynastic Dragon-Blooded: The Realm and any of the
  countless subgroups that compose it can all agree on one
  thing: they need more wonders under their command, and
  they don’t need to pay anybody too terribly much for them,
  what with the incipient civil war and all. One way or
  another, Dynastic characters sent to Old Crystal are going
  to be all or part of an expeditionary force sent to claim new
  resources for the Realm, their Great House, their sworn
  brotherhood or some similar assemblage of worthies.
  Dynasts coming to Swar are really in a terrible situa-
  tion. They are far beyond the borders of the Realm, on the
  very edge of Creation, probably having just pushed the
  Haslanti out from the area by force of arms and having
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  122
  occupied the area at swordpoint. Surrounded by hostile
  natives, the Dragon-Blooded probably plan on using the
  city of Old Crystal as a fortress as they loot it. Perhaps they
  will even get involved in this project before the Dynasts
  come face-to-face (as it were) with the City of Formless-
  ness Constrained, for whom they will make excellent
  pawns. As noted above, the one good thing about Dynasts
  in this situation is that they will be so clearly outclassed
  they have a very good chance of surviving.
  Lunars: The Lunar Exalted have their own contacts
  with the Haslanti people. The story of the city of antique
  madness beneath the ice near Crystal moved as quickly
  among the Silver Pact as it did among every other gang of
  wind-tongued gossips in Creation.
  Lunar characters may well be young Exalts of low
  status who go to Swar on their own to explore there and
  prove their worth as members of the Silver Pact. Alter-
  nately, they may be sent as scouts or fetchers-of-trinkets for
  their elders.
  In the latter case, it is possible that the young Lunars
  will be equipped with knowledge of what Swar’s true nature
  is. The elder No Moons are as old and as wise as the
  Deathlords. It is entirely possible that young characters may
  be sent to Swar not to slay the city, but to enslave it. More
  than any other sort of Exalt — other than perhaps the
  equally arcane Forest Witches — Lunars can find a use for
  Swar other than as taskmaster or combat practice. Properly
  equipped with the wisdom of the No Moons, Lunars may
  force Swar to forge them Graces, wrest raksha magic or
  accomplish whatever other possibly fatal brush with power
  an elder Lunar can imagine for his young pack of whelps.
  This isn’t only a goal for young members of the Silver
  Pact. Older Lunars may very well have a reaction similar
  to that of the Fair Folk on discerning Swar’s location,
  seeing it as a captive target for Lunar ambitions to learn the
  magics of the raksha. If the player group is running more
  experienced Lunars, it is likely that this is the reason they
  have come to the City of Formlessness Constrained and
  not on a search for a new daiklave or a heap of riches.
  Abyssals: Abyssals intersect more strongly with Swar
  than might seem the case at first. The Lover Clad in the
  Raiment of Tears’ Fortress of Crimson Ice lies not far from
  the gates of the city (as Deathlords reckon distance), and
  the other Deathlords presumably have some interest —
  negative or positive — in having a vast unshaped raksha
  smashing its way through the North. Abyssal characters
  may be sent to free Swar, they may be sent to destroy it or
  they may simply be another pack of would-be scavenger
  lords, seeking to sack a ruined city of forgotten miracles —
  but wearing a rather dark set of clothes.
  Sidereals: Assuming that the Sidereals become aware
  of Swar, it seems unlikely the city will not receive a visit from
  them. In some ways, the Sidereals are the least exciting
  visitors to Swar because, other than killing them, it offers
  few threats. Sidereals who happen on Swar and are enslaved
  can almost certainly count on their fellow Exalted and gods
  in the Celestial Bureaucracy to heal them from this malady.
  And afterward, a strikeforce of powerful Celestial beings
  with Wyld immunity is fairly certain to pay Old Crystal a
  visit and leave the place a smoking Wyld-twisted ruin.
  Unless the Storyteller wants to simply display how this
  terrible threat is a morning’s work for the Five-Score Fellow-
  ship, it is probably best to make sure that there are real
  motivations for interacting with Swar. Perhaps the city has
  something the Exalted need, or is of some use to them or
  contains some secret that will not survive Swar’s destruction.
  Whatever the case, as with all Sidereal games, it’s not
  going to be a very exciting game unless there’s some external
  motivation that ties the adventure into the overarching
  Sidereal plot. Just as with everything else in Exalted, from
  the Sidereal perspective, it’s all actually about them and
  their ongoing mission, and Storytellers must hook this
  adventure to their politics and personal machinations, just
  like any other game in which they are involved.
  Outcaste Dragon-Blooded: More powerful Dragon-
  Blooded outcaste groups such as the Seventh Legion can
  probably make serious designs on ownership of Swar sight
  unseen. The Forest Witches have the resources to attempt
  to loot Old Crystal as well. While the Seventh Legion is
  likely to simply nuke the site from orbit and move on, it is
  an interesting question if the Forest Witches might actually
  be capable of making some use out of Swar. Certainly, there
  are certain aspects of the City of Formlessness Constrained
  that appear similar to effects with which the Forest Witches
  are familiar. While the specifics of their strange magical
  paradise were never explored, it is certainly possible that
  Forest Witches seeking tribute to their own masters will
  stumble upon Swar and find it more of a resource than a
  hazard, but that is a variation on this material that indi-
  vidual Storytellers will have to prepare for themselves.
  Others: There are certainly reasons for Alchemicals,
  Dragon Kings and various other playable oddities to come
  to Swar. Most of these are the same as outcaste Terrestrials
  — these others are either with someone else or indepen-
  dent freebooters out for lucre.
  Fair Folk: Fair Folk have their own peculiar reasons
  for wanting Swar. Those who are still loyal to the Balorian
  ideal are likely interested in freeing one of the great
  generals of the Balorian cause. Those who are more ruth-
  less will likely see Swar as a handy piggybank of power to
  be looted as they wish and require in order to fuel their
  questing. Those hostile to the Balorian cause cannot fail to
  see that Swar would be a major addition to the arsenals of
  their world-destroying foes. It would be profound irony for
  Swar to be destroyed by a group of Fair Folk seeking to
  protect Creation, but it is far from impossible.
  Storytellers should be careful — because if putting
  Swar into a story with Exalted is asking for dead characters,
  
  123
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  then putting it into a story with Fair Folk is asking for
  worse. Asking Fair Folk characters to fight Swar is like
  asking Exalted of comparable Essence to face Raksi Queen
  of Fangs and her five angry Lunar henchmen. It’s just not
  going to end well.
  REQUIREMENTS
  The city of Swar is a dangerous locale. While the
  mortals who have recently discovered it have come and
  gone with only minimal casualties, this is because Swar
  wishes to lure in those it feels it can use in its endeavors to
  escape. Characters whom the Storyteller wishes to come
  into contact with Swar and defeat it must have some very
  powerful Traits.
  However, there’s no reason that the characters must
  defeat Swar when they first encounter it. The City of
  Formlessness Constrained is exactly the sort of terrible
  hazard that young Exalts can happen upon and thereby
  suffer the sort of grave misfortune that defines heroes. Swar
  will not destroy those it ensnares, so it is not necessary that
  the city be defeated. Instead, defeat by Swar produces more
  adventures, for the characters merely obtain another pa-
  tron whose requests cannot be ignored.
  Swar treasures its victims more than anything, as only
  Essence wielders have any chance of undoing the surveil-
  lance patterns that lock Swar into its Freehold. If the players
  are mature enough to handle compulsion, there is no reason
  that a trip to Swar cannot be part of the initial events of a
  series, wherein the characters are compelled to obey their
  geasa with the city while presumably attempting to escape
  the binding. However, Storytellers should be careful with
  this, as players will often fight to the death rather than
  concede any control of their characters. Be sure the players
  know ahead of time that there are some fights that cannot
  be won, and make certain the players are willing to accept
  the loss of autonomy on their characters’ parts.
  For characters to have a good chance of defeating
  Swar and slaying it in a direct confrontation, the following
  Traits are required:
  Powerful Abilities: Swar has an Essence of 8. Sooner
  or later, characters will not be able to allow it to sap their
  Willpower any longer. That means Swar can impose die
  penalties of up to -8 on characters. The group of characters
  that challenge Swar should, as a group, have at least one
  individual with them capable of accomplishing remark-
  able (difficulty 3 or better) feats each of combat, athletics,
  perception, strength and occult knowledge, even while at
  a eight-die penalty.
  Real Might: Characters should probably have Es-
  sence 6, 7 for Dragon-Blooded, with focus Traits at the
  maximums permitted by their Essence and complemented
  by advanced Charms. Sorcerers should have bound de-
  mons, elementals or other powerful sorcerous servitors.
  Characters should each have multiple Artifact ••• type
  items, and one or more Artifact •••• item in the Circle
  will probably ease matters considerably.
  Wyld Immunity: Lunar Exalted are largely immune
  to the effects of the Wyld due to the tattooing they receive
  during their initiation. Other Exalted can achieve similar
  immunities through the use of powerful Charms. This
  adventure primarily involves challenging one of the un-
  shaped Fair Folk. Characters who are not immune to the
  Wyld will find Swar the deadliest of hazards and a sepul-
  cher for heroes. Characters who are immune to the Wyld’s
  effects and can shrug off Swar’s shaping attacks will simply
  need to survive the various hazards and wee folk of the city.
  Characters who are immune to the Wyld can probably slay
  the city even if they possess only Essence 4 and 5, provided
  they are sufficiently frugal with their Essence.
  THE TRUE HISTORY OF SWAR
  In the time of the Contagion, when the wards around
  the world fluttered and failed and the armies of the Fair
  folk advanced, in the first rank of the great unshaped
  swords of Balor was Swar, who raged first forward and then
  back, hither and yon, in the shape of a great vortex of the
  Wyld, which ravaged and destroyed Creation. In Swar’s
  glorious rage against all that was, it advanced far ahead of
  the Balorian armies.
  When the Empress’ counterblow came, Swar was the
  first to absorb it. Vastly wounded, Swar struggled to
  escape the lash of Creation’s defenses. Darting away from
  the waves of iron fire, Swar leapt atop a powerful war-
  ruined Manse and twisted it until it was a Freehold, and
  then, Swar pulled his vast shapelessness inside the faerie
  hill and vanished.
  By the time the eyes of Creation’s defenses finished
  with the denser concentrations of targets near the edge of
  the world, Swar was long hidden behind the Freehold’s
  fatelessness. Yet, Swar was neither forgotten nor destroyed,
  and so, the sensors of the War Manses sweep forever across
  its last known location, observing, waiting. The unshaped
  raksha cannot be located, but it cannot leave, for the
  weapons that enforce the wards around the world will
  never forget its location. And so, it remains here, trapped
  and hateful, until Creation’s end — or until Swar can
  manipulate circumstances so that the eyes of Creation’s
  defenses no longer search for it.
  Swar has no intention of waiting for the world to end.
  To do so would mean conceding to some other being the
  honor of that deed, and Swar is gravely determined to end
  the scourge of shape itself.
  And so, Swar has waited. It has set its lures, and
  finally, it has been discovered. It has given out treasures,
  small glories, to explorers and killed a few who were over-
  brave. Reward and risk together is the hero-summoning
  honey, and Swar knows it. Soon, Exalts will come, and
  Swar will enslave them and use them to set it free.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  124
  Perhaps this will be, perhaps not, but that is the plan
  of Swar, the City of Formlessness Constrained, Which
  Men Call Old Crystal.
  GENERAL APPEARANCE
  Swar is in general appearance not unlike many small-
  to-medium-size First Age cities. This resemblance to the
  works of men is only superficial, but has served the city
  well. Because of this general semblance to the works of
  men, the city has so far been mistaken for one. There is a
  central Manse at the city’s center and a tight collection of
  subsidiary Spires around it. There are smaller, less glorious
  buildings in a ring around the central cluster of Spires, and
  then a vast sprawl of small residential structures, with
  poverty increasing and the size of structures shrinking as
  the distance from the core increases.
  All else about the city is a wonder, for Swar has never
  genuinely dwelt among mortals and its attempts to masquer-
  ade as a human city have produced rather eccentric results.
  First, Swar’s location is highly unusual. Old Crystal
  seems to have been swallowed by an ice sheet, or built
  there deliberately, for the whole city lies beneath 100 feet
  or more of pack ice. A glinting violet dome of Essence
  appears to hold the city’s vast roof aloft, so, clearly, the
  glacier’s arrival was anticipated. However, the city shows
  none of the other massive engineering works that would
  have been necessary to make it secure against the crushing
  feet of the herds of Mount Mostath. The actual reason for
  the location is, of course, because it is a faerie mound; the
  location was chosen to minimize the surface of the Free-
  hold exposed to Creation. However, seen as a work of
  mortal or divine hands, it seems obvious that the city was
  built after the glacier was in place, for aesthetic reasons or
  military ones, either to decorate the city or to hide it.
  Unlike other First Age constructions, the Spires are
  not of dazzling white marble, gold and glittering steel. The
  structures of Swar are made of azure glass, of red-brown
  stone, of darkly gleaming aluminum and of excellent faux
  jade in a dazzling rainbow of colors. Swar’s central Spires
  are all of aluminum and faux jade, vast airy structures that
  could never withstand a stormwind. The five to twelve
  story towers arrayed around the Spires are built of azure
  glass blocks, also trimmed with faux jade and aluminum.
  The circles of residences around take the approximate
  character of tenement or apartment blocks, and they are
  universally built of thick, red-brown stone far more at
  home under the pale-blue desert sky than under the
  glinting violet dome and endless tons of white glacial ice.
  And so, the city stretches, from black anodized heart,
  through blue glass and jade, to the thick red stone of the
  residential Barrios. All of this is lit forever in the tones of
  late twilight by the Essence dome above. The dim roads are
  occasionally dazzled by the coruscations of the fox car-
  riages as they hurtle through the streets trailing shrieks and
  music and embers, and, far above the pavement, shine the
  sundrop sparks of the glittervanes. These glass needles dart
  across the city in their multicolored packs, some swooping
  down to light the streets below, others hovering high
  above to dive on flushed-out prey.
  The fox carriages, the glittervanes and a hundred subtle
  miracles that seethe across the face of the city, always just
  around the corner, all combine to give the city’s heart a
  glittering appearance, for there is always some actinic light
  glinting off the many reflective surfaces at the city’s core. In
  Swar’s suburbs, the porous, nonreflective stone drinks in the
  light, and the effect is one of darkness, punctuated by the
  clangorous splendor of passing fox carriages or glittervane
  flocks, and succeeded again by black silence.
  Swar’s peculiarity extends to a far more fundamental
  level than merely eccentric choice of building materials
  and lighting. The buildings of Swar have rooms that are
  not arranged as mortals arrange rooms, and those rooms
  have doors between them whose location is dictated by the
  same alien logic. Structures are built so that one must
  traverse other houses to go between interior rooms. Doors
  pierce walls at random heights from the floor, and they are
  not always provided with stairs. Furnishings are scattered
  at random, and rooms seem to have strangely combined
  functions (bathing pool and bedroom, for example, or
  dining room and coal room).
  In addition, the roads and buildings are not laid out
  any more sensibly than their contents, and navigation is a
  terrible chore. This is especially true in the outer reaches
  of the city where the red-stone structures crowd together
  in drifts of aimless sprawl, built along roads that connect to
  nothing and lead to nowhere. So far, no scavengers have
  penetrated very far into the city because of this and the
  hazard of the glittervanes, which put a quick end to
  Haslanti efforts to use small scout balloons to work their
  way forward over the tenements. Toward the center of the
  city, as the buildings become larger, the aimlessness of the
  streets is less obstructive, and it is easier to travel — but the
  buildings are far more difficult to move in as their scale is
  increased tenfold over the apartments and townhouses of
  the residential sections.
  OUTSIDE OF SWAR
  While the inside of the City of Formlessness Con-
  strained is the meat of this adventure, the context for Swar
  is provided by the human geography around it. What
  follows are descriptions of the military activity around the
  entrance to the city, and of the nearest city. These are the
  most important elements of the mortal backdrop of Swar.
  CRYSTAL
  Crystal is a town of about 25,000 individuals located
  approximately seven miles south of the entrance to Old
  Crystal and approximately 800 miles north of the most
  northerly banks of the frozen White Sea. Crystal is also
  approximately 100 miles northwest of the Fortress of Crim-
  
  125
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  son Ice, which is perhaps as uncomfortable a position as a
  colony of mortals had ever survived for long in, but the
  Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears has not yet destroyed it.
  Crystal is a hardscrabble community primarily devoted
  to salvage and some limited mining of feathersteel. Crystal
  is more an outpost than an actual town, as there is nothing
  actually done there, other than mining and scavenging and
  some limited carpentry and processing of wild game parts.
  The mayor is an earnest, honest young man named Pillar of
  Probity who is a talented but impolitic idealist in what was
  until recently a career-ending frontier post.
  There is a garrison of 50 full-time soldiers — kept
  small to avoid attracting the Deathlord’s notice — but
  every adult has weapons and armor and is at least nomi-
  nally drilled for fighting. There are enough supplies to
  survive for almost two years cached throughout the com-
  munity and more hidden in the surrounding countryside.
  This is not merely paranoia about the nearby Deathlord —
  the area is closed even to the sturdiest air boats for 11
  months out of the year. With only four months to reach the
  city, it is possible that the unseasonable winds could cut off
  Crystal from the rest of the Haslanti League for an entire
  year, making two years of supplies as a necessity.
  Recently, Crystal has received almost 100 new inhab-
  itants and all their food and fuel, but only for a summer’s
  stay. The city is hoping that the fat-bellied visitors will be
  gone by the time the winter snows close back in, or there
  is going to be hunger and social conflict over the winter
  from overcrowding.
  Worse, many of the people of Crystal know that they
  are under increasing threat from what has been discovered
  around the city. While many of the inhabitants of the city
  are ignorant in any conventional sense, they are all famil-
  iar with the corruptive effects that wealth and the discovery
  of artifacts can have on individuals. They know there is a
  Deathlord 100 or so miles away, a world full of hostile
  powers, a city full of wonders that nobody can get at or use
  and not enough empty seats on the air boats back to take
  off the population and no efforts being made to do any-
  thing of the sort.
  THE ENTRANCE TO SWAR
  Seven miles from Crystal, the area outside of Old
  Crystal has become the bivouac of a significant force of
  Haslanti League air marines. A company of 100 troops is
  now deployed in the area, dug into an ice-palisade fortifi-
  cation they have built around the entrance with compacted
  snow and water. A group of 30 are always guarding the
  entrance to the city, another 40 or so are loose in the camp
  and able to spring to arms relatively quickly and 30 are on
  patrol during any given day.
  The 100 troops require a major supply effort from the
  Haslanti League. It’s not as if Crystal has enough surplus to
  supply them. As a result, there is a massive supply dumping
  THE NATURE OF THE DOME
  It is likely that characters will spend some time
  attempting to discern exactly what the purple Es-
  sence dome over Swar really is.
  What the dome is not is real. Swar is actually
  “much smaller inside” than the city in the ice, even
  at that city’s smallest. There is no giant dome
  holding up tons of ice. There is merely an arcane
  construct that exists coterminous with most of the
  ice. The format of a domed city with a single
  entrance serves to keep the exposed surfaces of the
  Freehold as small as possible, but a great deal of effort
  has been spent by the city to make the Essence dome
  look convincing.
  For all Swar’s many weaknesses in understand-
  ing mortals and mortal life, Swar has a good
  understand of the mechanics of Essence and can
  fake mortal sorcery well enough — Swar certainly
  saw plenty of it in the days before the Contagion.
  Inspected visually, the dome is absolutely indis-
  tinguishable from mortal sorcery. Even if inspected
  with All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight or some
  similar comprehensive Essence vision, the dome
  will most likely appear to be a complicated Celes-
  tial-level sorcery effect. Players of observers must
  succeed at a difficulty 7 Perception + Occult roll for
  their characters to discern that the Essence patterns
  in the sorcery are unnatural and rooted in the Wyld.
  program going on, as the League attempts to build suffi-
  cient supply caches for the kind of massive labor force that
  will be required to loot the city and the equally massive
  military force that will be required to protect the looting
  efforts. This program is only in its initial stages, because
  there is obviously no way to plan around the nearby
  presence of the Deathlord and little idea which Exalted
  will willingly take up arms for the Haslanti; the matter is
  still in the preliminary stages until a plan is concocted.
  The actual entrance to Swar seems to be a fallen
  airship tower, built so as to imply the city had only one.
  This is unusual in a city of that size (successful Intelligence
  + Lore roll, difficulty 4, to realize), which should have at
  least two such towers. Feel free to suggest stealth or lack of
  resources or a build date after the decline of airships had
  begun (definitely the case if Bagrash Köl built it) in order
  to explain the discrepancy.
  However, one thing is obvious upon inspecting the
  mad city that lies within and the airship tower itself (assum-
  ing success on a Perception + Investigation check, difficulty
  3) — which is that the airship tower is of modular, simplified
  military construction, while the city inside is obviously not.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  126
  Characters who garner at least five successes from the
  Perception + Investigation roll will notice that the airship
  tower itself is clearly of a style older than the city itself but
  the amount of wear on the tower seems equivalent, roughly,
  to when preserved evidence suggests Swar itself was raised
  — shortly before or after the Contagion.
  THE SHAPE OF SWAR
  In truth, Swar has no shape. Its self is an illusion, its
  image a lie. All things in Swar are malleable and can flow
  and twist at the will of the unshaped’s selves, and the city
  is itself aware, alive and willing to mislead, for the raksha’s
  subordinate selves use the Freehold’s Throne Room, Foun-
  tainhead and Stronghold to exert their influence across
  the Freehold.
  Yet, Swar is content with its city-self and has, in some
  ways, succumbed to the lure of shape, for though Swar is
  bizarre, it is, without a doubt, constant. Even when Swar
  flows like quicksilver, the shape of reality inside Swar tends
  to stay in an urban context. Rarely does the scene dissolve
  into strange new vistas, but instead, unreality creeps or leaps
  down the urban byways. Areas that are not under the active
  influence of Swar’s shaping powers generally revert quickly
  to their original urban décor, spattered here and there with
  trivial memorials to whatever madness once held sway.
  Still, tendencies aside, there is no shape to Swar, save
  what the city gives itself, and its tendency toward appearing
  to be a certain city is to give the adventure character and
  predictability. While inside the city, there is no limit to the
  forms of madness the characters can seem to experience. On
  the other hand, both Swar and your story have a certain
  requirement of constancy. Don’t let the game spiral off into
  crazed chaos. Swar is a city of illusion and madness, not just
  another random fluffy cloud of mutations.
  THE TRUE EXTENT OF SWAR
  This is the mortal description of Swar. Swar is a rather
  different place from the perspective of the raksha. Swar is
  a level 5 Freehold, meaning it naturally has 10 waypoints.
  It has a Stronghold, however, and the Sword Grace of the
  lesser self that claims that Stronghold is 5, so Swar has an
  area of 50 waypoints as a result. This is vast extent for
  Freehold in Creation and is enabled only by the powerful
  Stronghold of a mighty unshaped Fair Folk.
  What this all means in terms of mortal distance is:
  waypoints can be stretched to cover a mortal distance of
  some 30 miles. Swar could make itself as much as 1,500
  miles deep if it shaped itself into a chain of waypoints only
  one waypoint wide. Swar has a more complex structure,
  however, which makes it easier to penetrate but keeps
  Swar’s self in a tight defensive package.
  Swar’s true structure is a 4x5 grid of waypoints that
  comprise the Barrios around the city, followed by two
  stacked 3x3 grids of waypoints that represent the city’s
  subterranean zone and its azure-glass administrative dis-
  trict, followed by the complicated spiral that is the city’s
  administrative towers.
  To the eye, seen from the entrance, Swar is small, and
  it is perhaps a mile or a mile and a half from the outside of
  the city to the central Spire. This is far from the truth and
  
  127
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  Visual abilities that let the characters see the outside
  of the Spires will not offer an accurate picture of the
  conditions at the end of the journey and will, instead, show
  a complicated but false pattern of ladders and platforms
  outside of the Spires, suggesting a long climb. Let players
  make all the Perception + Awareness and Intelligence +
  Lore rolls they want at difficulty 5 for their characters to
  chart a path up the side of a Spire.
  THE BARRIOS
  The Barrios of Swar are a jumble of different simple
  styles of houses. Some are for single families, some are for
  extended families and some are built to house large num-
  bers of individuals in small apartment units. Other areas
  are devoted to cottage labor — baking, potting, butchery,
  shops, shrines and so on. Superficially, at least, the ar-
  rangement is one of residences mixed in with shop fronts
  and small workshops. However, the chaotic mixture of
  functions and spaces makes the result far more confusing
  than even the most haphazard and ingrown mortal slum.
  ROADS AND ROOMS
  The twin perils of navigating the roads and rooms of Swar form complementary challenges to explorers. In
  the outer reaches of the city, the buildings themselves are relatively easy to navigate, but the directionless dead-
  end streets that connect them are maddening, and they do not aid in navigation whatsoever. On the other hand,
  virtually any stunt requiring some sort of urban architecture is possible at any time.
  In the sprawling tenements of the city, it is generally a difficulty 2 Dexterity + Athletics roll to move in a
  house — for example to enter it, exit it or change rooms. Characters with perfect balance (as in a Charm) and
  who can leap 10 or more yards vertically can move freely. Characters who cannot leap at least 10 yards vertically
  or receive a lift from someone who can will require either stunts or the mortal paraphernalia of ropes, bridges,
  slings and many other specialized pieces of gear in order to move about.
  In the vast blue-glass cathedrals of the Heights, where the buildings are huge and the entrances obscure, the
  check can be at difficulty 3, 4 or even higher to move between rooms, and characters who are not preternatural
  athletes or gifted stunt artists will require a vast amount of mortal climbing gear to traverse these spaces.
  The mazy streets are just the opposite. It requires a successful Wits + Larceny or Survival roll of difficulty
  4 to make any forward progress through the Barrios. Otherwise, the character simply finds herself at a dead end
  or blind courtyard every time she seeks to move toward the city’s heart. If the Dancing Mask is actively Ring
  shaping against the character, this roll will be made at -7. It takes 30 miles of travel and three scenes (or rolls)
  to move from one waypoint to the next. Raksha who attempt to rush through two waypoints to arrive at a third
  will find they cannot move at a speed greater than one waypoint per scene.
  More toward the city’s center, the very size of the buildings makes the mazy streets between them less
  important, as they are only slightly more confused than such thoroughfares would be in a mortal city. In the
  Heights, the difficulty of the Wits + Larceny or Survival roll is 2, and a player need only make it twice for her
  character to progress to the next waypoint.
  Fair Folk may use their Perception + Awareness as a Ring-shaping action at difficulty 2 to sense the way
  forward in either the Barrios or the Heights. Characters with All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight or some similar
  sensory power that allows perception of Essence flows can also make Perception + Awareness rolls at difficulty
  2 to find the proper way forward to the next waypoint by following dragon tracks. Both rolls must be made the
  same two or three times as normal navigation. Characters who are supernatural trackers and can perceive Essence
  can advance automatically, but it still takes a minimum of two or three scenes.
  The Undercity of Swar and the Spires have their own unique rules. See the Undercity section on page 130
  and the Spires section on pages 131-132.
  merely a visual illusion. Swar can, in fact, be as shallow as
  a mile and a half from the outer edge of the city’s protective
  dome to the central Spires of the city, if it aligns its streets
  and compresses its self. It can also be as deep as 240 miles
  to the foot of the central Spire, and characters who
  attempt to bypass its structures will find themselves trav-
  eling the full depth and then some, all while beset by razor
  winds and glittervanes (see “The City’s Response to Ex-
  alted,” on pages 132-133).
  Note that this is the reality of Swar. This is how the vast
  occult being that forms Swar has arranged its metaphysical
  body. The fact that one can see the central administrative
  towers from every scene does not make it possible to leap or
  fly directly to them. While they appear in the background
  of every inward-looking vista, they are not actually “there.”
  Abilities such as Travel Without Distance will carry the
  character only into the next waypoint, while attacks that
  have a line-of-sight range and other effects that should be
  able to reach the city’s center will seem to vanish into the
  distance and disappear instead.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  128
  Rooms and houses open onto one another in no
  sensible order, and every sort of furnishing is used in every
  context — there are hog pens with imperishable reading
  lamps and butcher’s blocks with mattresses and blankets.
  If characters start trying to diagram a tiny area, the Story-
  teller should just play along and let them catalog the
  contents and speculate about the “lives” of the individuals
  who once lived in the city.
  The streets of the Barrios are paved with red-black
  earth, with stones and gravel hammered into the surface of
  the road as if by hundreds of years of passage, though, of
  course, no feet have ever trod them. There are gullies,
  washes, wells and footbridges, all of which handle runoff
  during tinflake falls, but these falls are comparatively few,
  and most of the public works of this sort are nothing more
  than ornamental follies. There is no water in the wells, the
  gullies lead nowhere save to conduits that pipe the metal-
  lic flakes off to whatever arcane fate befalls them. The
  structures have windows that can be opened and closed
  like shutters and whose glass panes — still unwarped and
  perfect after all these centuries — can be shifted from
  glittering mirror chrome to rainbow polychrome and back,
  but which are not transparent in either direction ever.
  The furnishings of the Barrios are made of a white-
  pine or white-ash colored wood, with a dark, regular grain
  and a smooth texture. All furnishings are worked flaw-
  lessly, with no signs of rough tooling, and have a soft, matte
  finish. The endless assortment of furnishings are strewn
  more or less at random through the Barrios. While there is
  little of the furnishings in the streets, the furnishings are
  packed into the rooms every which way, adding to the
  incongruity of the architecture and making the intended
  purpose for many locations indiscernible.
  or more stories, and they were the residences of elite
  bureaucrats, investors and other well-heeled worthies.
  In Swar, what is maintained about the Heights is that
  they are all tall. Swar knows nothing of human socioeco-
  nomic structures. Where First Age structures were
  traditionally made of marble and granite, Swar has built
  them from gleaming translucent blue glass. By their nature,
  the Heights are filled mostly with ornamental architecture
  – arches, pillars, processionals and so forth. Here and there
  inside these glass-block palaces, like inclusions in crystal, lie
  rooms full of the same furniture that fills the Barrios.
  The Heights of Swar were never made for human use
  or habitation, not even in the most confused sense. They
  are puzzling monuments, and little more. The vast upper
  extents of the Heights are haunted by packs of glittervanes.
  Their lower reaches are like great hollow churches, full of
  thick blue starlight and echoes. The windows in the
  Heights have no glass in them, being simply holes in the
  structure, though some have unglazed latticework sugges-
  tive of windows and obstructive to movement.
  The Stronghold: The fortress of Him Who Hurls Axes
  is located in a rather unusual domed building among the blue
  glass towers. This building is constructed of the same blue
  glass as the rest of the Heights, but there are no glittervanes
  nesting on its ovoid roof, and the building stands only perhaps
  five stories tall, squat and hidden among the taller structures.
  The Stronghold cannot be seen from any other waypoints
  save the one in which it is located. Even from there, it takes
  a successful Wits + Awareness roll at difficulty 7 from the
  ground (4 from the air) or a successful difficulty 2 Perception
  + Awareness roll as a Cup-shaping action to detect the
  Stronghold through its subtle camouflage.
  Within the heart of the temple, which is crisscrossed by
  walkways, narrow passages and other hallmarks of Creation’s
  defensive architecture, lies a map of the city in minute
  detail. The map is 10 yards on a side, and the players’
  characters are indicated by beads of white light. The pres-
  ence of Him Who Hurls Axes lingers close to the map. This
  map is useful to players because it accurately reflects the
  interlocking waypoints of the city. Characters who have
  seen the map may thereafter subtract 1 from the difficulty of
  attempting to move from waypoint to waypoint in Swar.
  Him Who Hurls Axes does not stray far from his post,
  and characters who wish to do battle with him in a mortal
  fashion must come into his lair and withstand the barrage
  of his blades if they wish to do him ill.
  The Fountainhead: The presence of the Dancing Mask
  haunts the aerie of the tallest tower in the Heights, far from
  the Stronghold of Him Who Hurls Axes. From its heights in
  the 14-story tower (a 60-yard jump from the ground), the
  Fountainhead regards the city that forms its domain and
  responsibility. The focus of the Dancing Mask’s Fountain-
  head is a great blue crystal ring, fastened to the floor, in which
  the same blue color that fills the blocks cleanly and without
  ripple surges and twists, visibly mixed with plain, clear crystal.
  DESTROYING FREEHOLD STRUCTURES
  Freehold structures such as the Stronghold,
  Throne Room, Glory and Fountainhead are all
  vulnerable to shaping attacks. Destroying one re-
  quires a difficulty 3 shaping attack using the Virtue
  related to the Grace in question. Obviously, the
  characters attuned to it, if any, will probably attempt
  to defend the location. It requires a difficulty 5
  shaping action to destroy an Arcane Redoubt, and
  this can be done with any Virtue, but only from the
  same waypoint as the Redoubt.
  THE HEIGHTS
  After five waypoints of Barrios, the Heights begin. The
  Heights is a common term for First Age neighborhoods
  where the standards of living were high enough to support
  powered people- and cargo-lifters of various sorts, mostly
  elevators and lift tubes. These structures sometimes rose 10
  
  129
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  Dancing Mask lurks nearby here, monitoring the city under
  its control through its awareness of the focus.
  The Fox Cataphract: The Fox Cataphract stalks the
  Heights as well. He walks the streets as a soldier on patrol
  — or like a bravo stalking his turf. Roaring fox carriages
  bolt forth from him when he hardens his gaze, and they
  lurch back into his being from all corners of the city when
  he pauses to catch his breath. He does not intrude onto the
  Fountainhead or the Stronghold, but instead, patrols the
  boundary between the two regions.
  There is often mock strife in progress between the Fox
  Cataphract and the city. This mirrors the genuine distaste
  Swar has for its shaped bastard child, but since occult
  prohibitions prevent genuine shaping combat, there are
  merely displays as Him Who Throws Axes and the Keeper
  of the Tower hurl mock attacks and preliminary injunc-
  tions at their shaped foe. Their goal is to demonstrate
  massive power as an advertisement for what shall happen
  when their strength in unleashed. This display is a rather
  pointless one, all things considered, but it satisfies the
  internal needs of the individual raksha in question. These
  attacks leave no lasting scars on the city and do no harm
  to the Fox Cataphract, but the attacks can cause tremen-
  dous light displays and shower axe blades and summonses
  down miles away. Fox carriages are also frequently at-
  tacked in this fashion, and these are invariably destroyed
  by Swar when it pounces.
  THE WEATHER IN SWAR
  Swar occasionally suffers from falls of metal
  snow. The material, which is apparently tin covered
  in zinc, floats down from the Essence dome in scaly
  flakes. A fair amount of this material can fall — up
  to a half-inch an hour for up to 12 hours at a time.
  After 12 to 36 hours, the flakes of tin and zinc melt
  into a quicksilver-type substance and flow into the
  city’s gutters, from whence the material drains away
  to the Undercity. So far, the denizens of Crystal
  have not yet seen a zinc fall, and the first one that
  mortal explorers witness will probably send them
  scurrying for cover for days (with good reason). The
  zinc falls occur more often when snow falls outside,
  but they still only happen about half as often.
  These tinflake showers are Swar’s only signifi-
  cant weather. At some times, light breezes seem to
  blow from random directions, but the City of Form-
  lessness Constrained is a place of stillness and
  unchanging light, where endless centuries have
  passed without laying their hands on the vast illu-
  sion that is the city’s face.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  130
  THE UNDERCITY
  Beneath the Heights of Swar is an industrial zone of
  sorts, whose complexity and arcane oddity serve as coun-
  terpoint to the crystalline blue purity above. It is apparent
  that Swar had some idea that cities possessed an infrastruc-
  ture for utilities and waste disposal, but it is also apparent
  that Swar had only a passing acquaintance with such
  edifices, perhaps from seeing them rent asunder. The
  corridors and conduits beneath Swar are as confusing as a
  sheep’s intestines. The corridors are great, then narrow,
  they combine industrial and pedestrian functions seamlessly
  and the processes that are performed in the city’s great
  industrial bowels have no connection to any chemistry or
  Essence-working practiced in Creation.
  In the bowels of Swar, memories and dreams and
  quicksilver and strange fruits are ground together to pro-
  duce compounds that are used in no processes, stored
  nowhere, merely passed back through conduits part or-
  ganic and part metallic until they are allowed to boil back
  into the unshaped gossamer that is the true Swar.
  The Undercity is Swar’s id, where the dark processes
  and painful decisions that govern Swar are made, and the
  Prince Malevolent dwells there with his goggle-eyed an-
  gels and his hateful mechanical dreams. The city wishes
  always to herd intruders down into the Undercity, for the
  Prince Malevolent will not rise from his domain, but to be
  victimized by his Cup is Swar’s surest way to bind interlop-
  ers to its will and force them to free it. In addition, the
  Prince Malevolent is the most ruthless of Swar’s selves and,
  thus, is considered best at confronting threats by the
  Heart. Characters who penetrate to the Heights are sure to
  find themselves under constant pressure to flee downward
  to where the Prince Malevolent can ravish them.
  Navigation in the Undercity is very difficult, for the
  passages shift frequently and direction is determined more
  by heart than physical law. Players must make a successful
  Wits + Awareness roll at difficulty 5 for their characters to
  find their way through the tunnels to the next waypoint.
  Players of characters with Essence vision merely need to
  successfully roll Wits + Awareness at difficult 3, and
  players of Fair Folk can roll a Perception + Awareness roll
  as a Cup shaping action at difficulty 3 for their characters
  to make their way to the next location. Only travel on foot
  is normally possible in the Undercity, and travel faster
  than walking or through other means requires a stunt.
  Travel through shaping is limited to one waypoint at a
  time. There are no “buildings” per se in the Undercity,
  though there are some very large rooms with smaller
  structures in them.
  The Glory: The Prince Malevolent’s Glory is a great
  turning spindle deep in the heart of the Undercity. Inside
  this terrible dynamo, alchemical fluids and reagent are
  transformed from dream to Essence, and from fantasy to
  nightmare. None who see this terrible machinery of spiri-
  tual alchemy can remain unmoved. The essence of the
  Prince Malevolent dwells within, twisting reality in the
  calculus of need and addiction.
  THE SPIRE ENTRY
  The true heart of Swar is the city’s Spires. These
  towering structures rise more than halfway to the Essence
  domes, and the Spires appear to be naught but willowy
  aluminum monocoques and honeycomb foams, part of a
  structure built for a great underground cavern, safe from
  wind and precipitation and so many of the other things
  that ravage buildings. There are a number of subsidiary
  Spires, but above them all rises the central Spire.
  The surfaces of the Spires’ aluminum are black anod-
  ized, some shiny and some matte. All over the surfaces of the
  Spires is masterful faux jade — the magical stone in all but
  its sorcerous potency — forming countless murals. These
  cartouches are simply random combinations of mythic
  elements, and in them, the godly archetypes perform strange
  actions. Here, a huraka first gives fire to a goat. There, the
  Unconquered Sun directs the phases of the moon.
  While it appears from a distance that Swar’s Spires
  must be ascended by climbing the outside, the fact of the
  matter is that they are too slick to climb easily (requiring
  a successful difficulty 6 Dexterity + Athletics check to
  climb each of the 54 10-foot segments of spire), and there
  is no entrance to the central Spire except at the bottom.
  The entrance to the Spire is guarded by the Keeper
  of the Tower, who dwells in the Freehold’s Throne
  Room at the gate.
  The Throne Room: The Throne Room is an out-of-
  the-way guardbox at the entrance to the central Spire, a
  conference room large enough for a dozen or so men to meet.
  In the internal mythology of Swar, it is the rallying place of
  the unshaped’s forces and the focus of rule in times of stress.
  It is also difficult for mortals to find — difficulty 5 on the
  Perception + Awareness roll for characters to notice the
  distant rattle of the litany bones, and a difficulty 6 Dexterity
  + Athletics test of balance and nimbleness (automatic if a
  Charm such as Graceful Crane Stance is used, or flight, or
  a vertical leap of over 50 yards) for characters to make the
  jump to reach the Throne Room door. A character could, of
  course, use rope. Raksha and characters who can sense
  Essence flows will have no problems locating the Throne
  Room, but must still reach it.
  Within the Throne Room, the Keeper of the Tower
  lurks, rattling his Litany Bones endlessly as he squats on the
  floor in a circle of blood and fire. Even if he perceives that he
  is observed and can be struck, the Keeper will not defend
  himself from mortal attack. Swar is a city whose laws are fixed
  and whose society is that of dust and shadow and silence, a
  falsehood whose only purpose is affront at the characters. The
  Keeper of the Tower is the conductor of an imaginary
  symphony. He will not stir from his bones until he is slain. He
  will, however, contend in shaping combat with all comers.
  
  131
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  THE SPIRE
  At the center of the city of Swar lies the Spire, the seat
  of the Freehold’s bonefire. Within the Spire itself is the
  bastion of Swar’s self, an ever-blowing Wyld storm that
  twists and writhes in the tight confines of the tiny space
  allotted it. The Spire comprises 10 waypoints, and within
  them, Swar’s primal madness reigns. Swar’s primary mind
  will not leave the Spire to tread its own roads, waiting
  instead for intruders to attempt to beard it in its lair.
  The interior of the Spire is pure chaos, as devastating
  and brilliant as that which isolates the former seat of
  government in Nexus. The Spire is brilliant colors, burn-
  ing sensations and howling, slicing madness, all flowing in
  every direction. Characters who are not Fair Folk cannot
  move without flying or using some other mode of move-
  ment that does not require leverage. Also, players of
  Exalted who can tire must make a successful Fatigue roll at
  +3 difficulty every scene (20 minutes) or have their
  characters fall from a vast height. Each waypoint is 30
  miles across, and Storytellers should assume characters fall
  the maximum distance to the steel floor inside the door of
  the central Spire. It will take characters about 20 minutes
  to fall one waypoint, so some characters may be able to
  recover from exhaustion on the way down.
  The paths between the waypoints are hidden, and
  players must make a difficulty 3 Perception + Awareness
  roll, at -4 dice, for their characters to find their way due to
  the punishing conditions within the Spire. Players of Fair
  Folk need only make a successful Perception + Awareness
  roll, difficulty 2, as a Ring-shaping action for their charac-
  ters to detect the paths of travel between waypoints.
  In addition, the effect of the agitated state of the space
  within Swar’s Spire on unprotected mortal flesh is quite
  astonishing. It is Pure Chaos within the Spire, and the
  player of any creature that is not immune to the Wyld will
  have to make a difficulty 6 Willpower + Essence roll every
  scene. Success causes them to gain a blight, failure causes
  them to gain an abomination, and a botch curses them
  with a deformity.
  For more details on mutation, see Chapter Six of
  Exalted: The Lunars. Storytellers without the Lunars
  book can assume that unless a character is protected from
  the effects of the Wyld by some Essence effect, she will
  quickly mutate into an unrecognizable blob of protoplasm.
  Success on the Willpower + Essence roll merely causes a
  minor change, while failure on this difficulty 6 roll essen-
  tially removes the character from the purview of humanity.
  The Arcane Redoubt: Deep in the swirling chaos
  that is the heart of Swar, there is a pillar of bonefire, and
  within that bonefire is an iron pot so great that five men
  could not lift it, and within that pot lies Swar’s soul of souls.
  There is not much to the Redoubt, merely a flame, a few
  powerful runes and the pot that holds the wrathful heart of
  the City of Formlessness Constrained. Those who would
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  132
  approach it must withstand its attacks on their long
  approach, and they are many and powerful, so it is more a
  matter of the journey than the destination. If the Redoubt
  is destroyed, Swar itself will immediately be destroyed by
  the combination of the crushing pressure of reality and a
  barrage of geomantic assaults from the War Manses that
  still monitor the spot of Swar’s imprisonment. Apply this
  assault to characters as three 25A strikes that can only be
  dodged or blocked by perfect defenses. Increase the dam-
  age to 75A if the characters are Fair Folk.
  THE CITY’S RESPONSE TO
  EXALTED
  Swar has the following goals with the Exalted: It will
  attempt to herd them through the Barrios as a test. If they
  can navigate their way through the Barrios while with-
  standing attack, they will be driven into the Heights by
  Him Who Throws Axes and the Fox Cataphract, where
  hordes of glittervanes will attempt to drive the characters
  underground to the lair of the Prince Malevolent. There,
  the Prince will attempt to ravish them. (See the Prince’s
  write-up on pages 136-137.)
  This is how Swar will react. Keep in mind that Swar’s
  component beings do not share some sort of psychic link,
  and most of them are almost incapable of communication,
  even with Swar’s central mentality. Swar has shaped this
  strategy into itself through centuries of meditation and self-
  exploration. When things actually unfold, the subsidiary
  personalities do not communicate well. They have certain
  tendencies and habits that interlock to form defensive
  strategies. Characters who slip through Swar’s initial scourg-
  ing will find it much easier to evade the city’s defenses.
  After the characters are ravished, the Prince Malevo-
  lent will act as a conduit for the voice of Swar itself to speak
  — a dramatic act that costs Swar a significant amount of
  power — or abandon the characters if they still seem hostile.
  They will be allowed to retreat from the city by the most
  direct route, and if they seem reasonable, some poppet will
  come and explain matters to them to aid them in their quest.
  Those who remain aggressive will be allowed to strangle on
  their ravishment until they discern an answer or come
  crawling humbly back, begging for instruction.
  Swar does not know that some Exalted can negate
  ravishment (see Exalted: The Fair Folk, page 141), and
  so, it will assume that any Creation-born being it maims
  and sends out beyond its bounds are its slaves. Swar is very
  intent on this peculiarly raksha point of view, and will be
  rather astonished if those that it enslaves comes back
  trailing vengeance. Swar accepts victory and defeat in the
  shaping contests on a fundamental level, and has very little
  to lose. From what Swar has wrung from its handful of
  victims, Swar reckons itself the equal of any Exalt who will
  come to stand against it in this Age. Of course, Swar also
  has no idea that the Sidereal Exalted exist, nor does it have
  any meaningful appreciation of the Deathlords and little
  understanding of the might the gods themselves wield —
  so Swar is prone to biting off more than it can chew.
  Included below are some of the more likely themes
  that interactions may take with various types of Exalted.
  Obviously, every game is different, but these themes present
  the stereotypical thrusts of the Exalt types and show how
  they are likely to come in contact with Swar — and how
  Swar is likely to respond.
  DYNASTIC DRAGON-BLOODED
  Swar knows the Dragon-Blooded well from its studies
  of Creation prior to the fruition of the Balorian Crusade.
  Swar has been hoping it would encounter them first and
  feels they are most suited to its needs. If a mixed group of
  Celestial and Terrestrial Exalted comes into contact with
  Swar, it will probably attempt to discard or destroy the
  Terrestrials, though quick thinking or hard bargaining
  might save them.
  This is also an excellent setup for ill-fated Storyteller
  characters in games where the players must wait until after
  the winter to go exploring, as Terrestrials who came into
  contact with Swar crisscross Creation in search of infor-
  mation on the War Manses as secondary opposition to a
  more experienced party.
  OUTCASTE
  Outcastes sent to Swar are, if possible, in a worse
  situation than Dynasts. The difference is that the average
  Dynast can count on a family, the military of the Realm
  and his own superior training. Outcaste mercenaries or
  freebooters have only their own necessarily lesser re-
  sources with which to pursue their ends and protect their
  selves. Yet, they are still as exposed to shaping combat
  damage as any other Terrestrial. The problem for them is
  not so much that they will come to some worse fate than
  a Dynastic Terrestrial — outcastes too will be sent to
  destroy the War Manses — they are just going to be far less
  well-equipped and more likely to die in the process than a
  Dynastic Terrestrial. Of course, it doesn’t matter too very
  much because whoever destroyed the Manses is probably
  going to be killed in the process by their defenses or shortly
  thereafter by their owners.
  SOLARS
  After Terrestrials, Solars are the Exalted most in
  danger from contact with Swar. Unlike the Dragon-
  Blooded, they are unlikely to immediately turn tail when
  they realize the scope of the threat. Unlike Lunars, Solars
  are not immune to the Wyld. And unlike the Sidereals,
  Solars cannot call for a huraka assault force. If bent to
  Swar’s will, Solars will form the most excellent pawns.
  Swar knows of the Solars — it remembers their hateful,
  golden glory, and it remembers that some could resist it
  and some not.
  
  133
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  Swar will attempt to enslave each Solar at most once,
  but if the Solars are showing signs of being very powerful
  or having immunity to Wyld influence, the city will simply
  seek to destroy them with environmental hazards and
  manikin attacks. However, it hopes to attempt to twist
  them to its own ends.
  Note that those Solars who know Wyld-Shaping
  Technique can slay Swar quite readily, although it will
  take a fairly long time, and each can shelter safely behind
  Integrity-Protecting Prana or Chaos-Repelling Pattern
  while they do it.
  might well be seen as some rare subcaste of the Chosen of the
  Sun. This may prove useful to Storytellers who want to run
  a game that plays up the mysteries of the Abyssals, especially
  an Abyssal game that focuses on those questions. However,
  Storytellers should keep in mind that Abyssals are not
  actually Solars — Chaos-Searing Treatment and Wyld-
  Slaying Burst are nowhere near as powerful as Wyld-Shaping
  Technique, and Wyld Shield Meditation is not nearly as
  effective as the Chaos-Repelling Pattern.
  SIDEREALS
  Swar does not know of the Sidereal Exalted. Even before
  the end of the First Age, the Sidereals did not advertise
  themselves on the front lines of the battle for Creation. The
  Sidereals are an unknown to the City of Formlessness Con-
  strained, and it will probably treat them like Solars — roughly
  but warily, seeking to overmaster, not destroy.
  THE CITY’S RESPONSE TO
  RAKSHA
  For all Swar’s disregard of mortal vengeance, the city
  wants nothing to do with the Fair Folk. In Swar’s time, the
  shaped Fair Folk were few in number, but Swar is vastly
  discerning in the ways of its milieu. Swar knows that, since
  the world has not ended, the Balorian Crusade has fallen
  and the shaped will have multiplied and infiltrated the edges
  of Creation. Swar knows that, because no major efforts to
  resecure its location have taken place, Creation is probably
  in disarray as well. As a leader in the Balorian Crusade, Swar
  is intimately familiar with Creation’s permanent border and
  how perilously close it hides lies to the edge of the Real. Swar
  can only conclude it has, by the greatest of fortune, evaded
  the notice of its raksha brothers and sisters to date.
  Swar knows this will end, sooner or later. Swar’s
  strategy when dealing with raksha is very simple — dead
  men tell no tales. The unshaped is powerful enough to offer
  its own context to those who come to walk its byways. It
  is isolated from the Wyld, and questing against it will not
  help it raise its Essence, but will, instead, strip it of its self
  and Essence. If Swar is spotted and news is released of its
  location, then it will quickly be mined out and destroyed
  by the ambitions of the shaped. This, Swar knows.
  As a result, any Fair Folk who enter its precincts live
  on blessedly borrowed time, for no self of Swar is friendly
  to them in the least. Of course, it is notable that Swar has
  no idea that the Fair Folk may have the kind of extensive
  commerce with the beings of Creation that sometimes
  takes place in the Second Age. Swar knows nothing of
  Ravagers. It knows nothing of the Guild’s trade in slaves.
  In short, Swar knows nothing of a world where releasing a
  handful of obviously spellbound Exalts to do Swar’s world-
  spanning bidding might reach the ears of the raksha
  princes and engender an investigation. Swar has no con-
  cept of the cat’s-paw in this matter and will obligingly
  attack those sent to provoke it with its full fury.
  LUNARS
  Swar knows the Lunar Exalted as powerful fighters,
  magnificent in all things, but slightly less powerful than
  the Solars and without the occasional gesture-level fiat
  over reality. What Swar explicitly does not know is the
  changes that have taken place in the Lunar Exalted,
  particularly the emergence of Wyld tattooing. Swar sees
  the Lunars instead as powerful but not as dangerous as the
  Solar Exalted; whereas, in fact, a Lunar is far more deadly
  to the city than any Solar could ever be. Swar will try to use
  shaping at least once on each Lunar until they indicate to
  it the shaping doesn’t work or it becomes clear through
  elimination that no Lunars are shapeable.
  ABYSSALS
  Swar has never seen an Abyssal before, but it won’t
  have to think long to decide that the terrible robed figure
  with the howling sword and the black aura of death is, in
  fact, a terrible apparition of doom. This is especially true
  given the deathknights’ very evident resemblance to Solars.
  Indeed, Swar may not even know they are not Solars of some
  sort. Since they are so closely analogous to Solars, Abyssals
  WYLD-SHAPING TECHNIQUE
  Wyld-Shaping Technique can reshape one
  waypoint per invocation. It is difficulty 1 to reshape
  the Barrios, difficulty 2 to affect the Heights, diffi-
  culty 3 to affect the Undercity or the Spire and
  difficulty 4 to affect the bonefire, Stronghold, Glory,
  Fountainhead or Throne Room.
  Apply the higher of the base difficulty of the
  target area and the difficulty determined by the
  desired result and described in Wyld-Shaping Tech-
  nique on page 187 of Exalted. The character must
  be in a waypoint to transform it.
  Swar cannot erode the reality in Wyld-Shaping
  Technique under the current circumstances in any
  story-relevant length of time, and the characters can
  gradually stamp it out one waypoint at a time, and
  end up left with an area with the contents of their
  choice and some very, very strange geometry.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  134
  SPECIFIC RESPONSES
  Swar knows that there is no chance at hiding its
  nature from its fellow raksha, and, as a result, Swar is not
  particularly canny when dealing with the Fair Folk. To the
  City of Formlessness Constrained’s perception, the raksha
  present a much more dire threat. The city sees itself as
  superior to mortals, as a destructive whirlwind. The dire
  threat of Creation’s War Manses is frightening but an
  abstraction brushed against once, not like Swar’s endless
  centuries of existence in the raksha milieu. So, the city’s
  perception is that the forces of Creation gathered together
  seem like a reasonable foe, while even a single hobgoblin
  is a terrible threat to its existence. Normally, Swar will
  concentrate the full weight of its Freehold’s power against
  raksha intruders. The Freehold has a Stronghold, a Glory,
  a Fountainhead and a Throne Room. This is a matter that
  will communicate itself quickly, as the nature of the
  response and the aura of the shaped conspire to give the
  matter a distinctive feel.
  Though the Glory is constrained by the nature of the
  Prince Malevolent, all of the other special areas of the
  Freehold will be powered by the appropriate Virtues’
  subselves of Swar. Each will strike at intruding Fair Folk in
  shaping combat, seeking to prevent their targets from
  fleeing Swar.
  THE FACES OF SWAR
  Swar itself has several subsidiary selves it uses to
  defend its self and to police its city. Most are closely
  attached to different regions in the city, but each can and
  does move about to different extents. Of these, Swar itself
  and the Prince Malevolent move least, never leaving their
  particular areas, while the Fox Cataphract and the Danc-
  ing Mask move freely about the city.
  Storytellers should keep in mind that, with the excep-
  tion of the Fox Cataphract, Swar’s selves are unshaped and
  lack bodies. Even the Keeper of the Tower’s self is merely
  an illusion given to the place.
  In some cases, Swar’s selves are noted as having
  shaping weapons. In each case, these are merely Essence
  organs that accomplish similar tasks. They can be made
  ready and unready as normal shaping weapons, but if the
  subsidiary selves are slain, these weapons are lost.
  HIM WHO HURLS AXES — SWORD
  Description: Him Who Hurls Axes is the strong right
  arm of Swar. It is he who is the cutting edge of Swar’s wrath,
  and it is he who seizes the possessions of those who do
  battle against Swar and renders them as tribute to the
  unshaped’s Heart. Him Who Hurls Axes is brutal, direct
  and effective. He was long the public focus of Swar, and he
  remains the most glorious of the unshaped’s selves.
  Him Who Hurls Axes dwells in his fortified bunker
  Stronghold (see page 128). Among the offshoots of Swar, he
  ESSENCE, QUESTING AND THE UNSHAPED
  The unshaped normally permit the shaped Fair
  Folk to undertake quests within them for reasons of
  personal benefit. As beings so vast and poorly orga-
  nized, the commerce of ideas between their various
  waypoints is tenuous at best. Questing shaped raksha
  are one method by which change can be affected
  across an unshaped raksha’s space.
  Normally, the unshaped must endure quests to
  increase Traits the way that the Exalted must spend
  time training. This text will not detail the specifics
  — playing the unshaped is far outside of Exalted’s
  mechanical purview — but the proportions are like
  unto those of mortals for training similar Traits.
  Each time a subsidiary self takes part in a shaping
  contest, the self experiences the equivalent of seven
  days of training, win or lose, which can later be
  applied to increasing Traits. Each time the primary
  self takes part, it gains three weeks of training that
  can be applied to itself or any subsidiary selves.
  Normally, losing a questing contest is not terri-
  bly hard on the unshaped. It temporarily decreases
  the Essence of any defeated selves by 1 for a story, but
  the influence of the Wyld and the growth enabled by
  the questing interaction replenish this. However,
  one of the unshaped trapped in Creation (an event
  which has happened to Swar and possibly to a few
  unfortunate unshaped seized by the Solar Delibera-
  tive for experimentation) does not experience this
  renewal from natural Essence flows and so suffering
  questing is a death sentence, as it will consume and
  deplete the raksha’s Essence by 1 point per self per
  time it is defeated in questing combat.
  Characters only gain rewards per the various
  effects of damage on the unshaped if the victim of
  their shaping is of an Essence higher than their own.
  is the one that it closest to the material, as is to be expected
  from a creature so intently focused on battle. His presence
  is marked by a whirling cyclone of razor-edged projectiles.
  He does not bring these with him, but gathers them as he
  finds them, and so his attacks sometimes have a whimsical
  character as he hurls showers of unlikely objects such as
  plates and glass fragments. He is restrained from constant
  rampage by the action of the Keeper of the Tower and little
  else. Were it not for the Keeper’s constant citations and
  injunctions, there would be naught left of Swar save axe-
  scarred ruins, and to trouble Swar is to awaken Him Who
  Hurls Axes for War for a terrible rampage.
  Shaping Combat: Him Who Hurls Axes attacks
  enemies with cascades of slicing attacks, using Dexterity +
  Presence, Dexterity + Archery and Dexterity + Athletics
  
  135
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  Attributes: Strength 8, Dexterity 6, Stamina 8, Charisma
  6, Manipulation 4, Appearance 4, Perception 6, Intelli-
  gence 4, Wits 6
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 5, Temperance 4,
  Valor 6
  Abilities: Archery 6, Athletics 7, Awareness 6, Bureaucracy
  2, Craft (Glamour) 5, Dodge 6, Endurance 4, Investigation
  4, Larceny 3, Lore 2, Occult 4, Performance 5, Presence 6,
  Resistance 5, Socialize 2, Stealth 6, Survival 2
  Charms: Assertion of a Greater Vision, God-Humbling
  Victory Sword, Ill-Approving Eyes, Radiance of the In-
  vincible Warrior, Sapphire Emptiness Kata, Scattering
  the Foe, Unparalleled Terror Technique
  Shaping Base Initiative: 11
  Cup (Conviction): 5
  Cup Soak: 14
  Cup Health Levels: 9
  Cup Attack (Stealth): 6
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 11 Damage 6 Defense
  11 Rate 1
  Milieu: Speed 11 Accuracy 12 Damage 6 Defense 13 Rate 5
  Prodigies: Speed 8 Accuracy 12 Damage 9 Defense 8 Rate 3
  Ring (Intelligence): 4
  Ring Soak: 16
  Ring Health Levels: 8
  Ring Attack (Craft [Glamour]): 5
  Gossamer: Speed 11 Accuracy 10 Damage 12 (Rate 2,
  Range 0)
  Raw Will: Speed 11 Accuracy 9 Damage 6 (Rate 2, Range 0)
  MORTALS KILLING SWAR
  Just because an unshaped Fair Folk’s selves
  have not used Assumption Charms to join the
  physical world does not mean they do not have a
  presence in a waypoint and a selfness that can be
  assailed. They have the same Virtues and Feeding
  Maws as any other raksha. These things are simply
  hard to perceive and easy to defend. Normally, they
  are immaterial and invulnerable to mortal damage
  and intent on shaping combat with invading raksha.
  However, characters with Ghost-Eating Tech-
  nique and other spirit-slaying Charms and the ability
  to perceive dematerialized spirits have a very good
  chance of killing some of Swar’s selves. (For me-
  chanical details on this, see the “I Got Disintegrated!”
  sidebar on page 135 of Exalted: The Fair Folk.)
  Swar will cheerfully hide the Virtues of the selves at
  range and behind obstacles, but only after it realizes
  that mortals can prove a real danger to it. Its expe-
  rience with mortal weapons designed to slay the Fair
  Folk is with First Age and Shogunate weapons of
  war — great mechanical devices that project Es-
  sence-destroying rays or release iron thistledown.
  Swar has no personal experience with Exalted
  who can slay the unshaped with their personal weap-
  ons. Only after some Exalt strikes one of its lesser
  selves with a telling blow will it realize
  that mortals are potentially quite dan-
  gerous. At that point, it will begin to
  play an ultra-conservative game, hail-
  ing Ring-shaping attacks down on
  intruders with the Dancing Mask’s cos-
  mos seed and using swarms of poppets
  to slay mortal opponents in a merely
  mortal fashion.
  to bury his opponents in showers of razor-
  edged glass, glittervanes, hardened wind
  and, of course, axes. This effect is wielded
  as a Hazard and is a natural form of sky
  barb that can only cause hurtling rains of
  razor-edged things. If he is forced to un-
  ready this shaping weapon, he can use the
  glittervanes directly as a monster.
  Him Who Hurls Axes focuses his
  vexation on stealing cysts, pennants,
  Hearthstones and, then, all artifacts.
  Against other raksha, this tactic is espe-
  cially useful, as a lack of pennants and
  cysts means there will be no flight from
  Swar’s clutches.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  136
  Staff (Manipulation): 5
  Staff Soak: 14
  Staff Health Levels: 10
  Staff Attack (Occult): 4
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 7 Damage 6 Defense 7
  Rate 1
  People: Speed 8 Accuracy 10 Damage 9 Defense 6 Rate 3
  Society: Speed 11 Accuracy 10 Damage 6 Defense 11 Rate 5
  Sword (Dexterity): 6
  Sword Soak: 18
  Sword Health Levels: 12
  Sword Attack (Athletics): 7
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 11 Damage 8 Defense 11
  Rate 1
  Hazard*: Speed 21 Accuracy 12 Damage 15 Defense 10
  Rate 2
  Monster: Speed 15 Accuracy 14 Damage 14 Defense 11
  Rate 2
  Personal Prowess: Speed 13 Accuracy 14 Damage 11
  Defense 13 Rate 3
  * Preferred Attack
  Base Initiative: 12
  Attack:
  None, no body
  Dodge Pool: 12
  Soak: 4L/8B
  Willpower: 10
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 6
  Essence Pool: 60
  THE PRINCE MALEVOLENT — CUP
  Description: The Prince Malevolent is Swar’s black
  underpinnings. Swar was always a creature of the Sword
  and Staff, except that, to enable those schemes and plans,
  it needed to be proficient at the sort of manipulations that
  only the Cup can provide.
  And so, the Prince Malevolent grew within Swar, a
  darkness within the greater darkness of the unshaped, a cold,
  calculating hand willing to stroke a heart there, massage an
  ego here, to play at love and loyalty. In all of this, Swar was
  remarkably successful, to the point where its mastery of the
  Cup began to outstrip its desire for such mastery. The Prince
  Malevolent was isolated away from the rest of Swar’s sys-
  tems, reduced down to a black box process whereby the
  unshaped could extract the benefits of the Prince’s mastery
  of the Cup, but without experiencing the effects of mastery.
  In the context of Swar’s current preoccupation with
  masquerading as a mortal city, the Prince Malevolent is
  the city’s service Oubliette, the darkened infrastructure
  that drives the city. There is no place in central Swar
  where the streets do not thrum with the hidden motors of
  the Prince Malevolent’s domain.
  The influence of the Prince Malevolent is primarily
  heralded by the growth of pressure, oppression, arcing scarlet
  Jacob’s ladders, steam whistles, objects glowing red-hot from
  heat and other, similar signs of industrial danger and malfunc-
  
  137
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  tion. The Prince Malevolent is the black, surging havoc at the
  heart of an industrial accident, the glorious infiltration of
  systemic poisons. He is the interpenetrating system failure,
  and to be in his presence is to know the pressure that exigent
  circumstances can force on a system.
  Shaping Combat: The Prince’s attacks are very sinis-
  ter, and very direct, as he uses Conviction + Performance
  to crush his foes with the glowing radiance and glowering
  aura of his presence. Around the Prince, steam hisses, leaks
  drip and free will runs like wax before a fireplace. The
  Prince Malevolent is a simple, direct and powerful com-
  batant. He seeks to use Cup combat to ravish the target’s
  Conviction with the following two commands:
  • The character cannot bear to leave Swar for a year
  and a day, save at the leave of Swar.
  • The character cannot bear to harm Swar or see Swar
  attacked.
  Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 6, Stamina 6, Charisma
  8, Manipulation 8, Appearance 8, Perception 7, Intelli-
  gence 7, Wits 7
  Virtues: Compassion 6, Conviction 4, Temperance 5,
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Archery 4, Athletics 4, Awareness 5, Bureau-
  cracy 6, Craft (Glamour) 6, Dodge 4, Endurance 4,
  Investigation 4, Larceny 4, Lore 5, Martial Arts 2, Medi-
  cine 2, Occult 5, Performance 6, Presence 5, Resistance 4,
  Socialize 6, Stealth 4, Survival 3
  Charms: Assertion of a Greater Vision, Dissonance of
  Principles, Heart-Cutting Style, Howling Dream Consump-
  tion Prana, Ill-Approving Eyes, Sapphire Emptiness Kata
  Shaping Base Initiative: 11
  Cup (Conviction): 4
  Cup Soak: 15
  Cup Health Levels: 10
  Cup Attack (Performance): 6
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 10 Damage 4 Defense 10
  Rate 1
  Heart Thorn*: Speed 5 Accuracy 10 Damage 9 Defense 12
  Rate 2
  Milieu: Speed 11 Accuracy 11 Damage 4 Defense 12 Rate 5
  Prodigies: Speed 8 Accuracy 11 Damage 7 Defense 7 Rate 3
  * Preferred Attack
  Ring (Intelligence): 7
  Ring Soak: 15
  Ring Health Levels: 12
  Ring Attack (Craft [Glamour]): 6
  Gossamer: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 13 (Rate 2,
  Range 0)
  Raw Will: Speed 11 Accuracy 13 Damage 7 (Rate 2, Range 0)
  Staff (Manipulation): 8
  Staff Soak: 16
  Staff Health Levels: 12
  Staff Attack (Occult): 5
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 11 Damage 8 Defense 11
  Rate 1
  People: Speed 8 Accuracy 14 Damage 11 Defense 10 Rate 3
  Society: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 8 Defense 15 Rate 5
  Sword (Dexterity): 6
  Sword Soak: 14
  Sword Health Levels: 10
  Sword Attack (Presence): 5
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 9 Damage 6 Defense 9
  Rate 1
  Personal Prowess: Speed 13 Accuracy 12 Damage 9 De-
  fense 11 Rate 3
  Base Initiative: 13
  Attack:
  None, no body
  Dodge Pool: 10
  Soak: 3L/6B
  Willpower: 8
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 7
  Essence Pool: 70
  THE DANCING MASK — RING
  Description: The Dancing Mask is the monitor and
  overseer of Swar’s material self and physical laws. More than
  any other one of Swar’s components, the Mask has altered
  profoundly since it was confined to its current city-shape.
  The Dancing Mask was once the monitor of Swar in a much
  more dynamic, much faster self, keeping its internal pro-
  cesses fit and ready for fast travel or hard combat.
  It is due to this that Swar’s self is always lit here and
  there by flickering miracles — the unshaped’s Ring cannot
  bear to keep the entire location static as it is, so areas that
  are completely out of sight often boil with tiny prodigies.
  These flickering miracles vanish just before they
  come into anyone’s direct line of sight. This frequently
  leads individuals traversing the city to feel as if they are
  walking into a room where everyone has fallen silent and
  is watching them and adds to Swar’s eerie ambient feeling
  of watchful suspense.
  The Dancing Mask’s presence is heralded by tiny
  miracles. Mostly, it spends its time at the Fountainhead,
  where the Dancing Mask’s boiling illusions will not disrupt
  the city’s semblance of stasis.
  Shaping Combat: The Dancing Mask attacks in a rain
  of miraculous calamities. Using Intelligence + Craft (Glam-
  our) and Intelligence + Martial Arts, it reverses gravity,
  showers targets with terrible substances, implodes buildings
  on its targets and attempts to lethally manipulate its victims’
  life processes. The Dancing Mask is doubly armed, for it is the
  striking fist of Swar. While the Dancing Mask resides in its
  Fountainhead, it wields a curdling dream bow and showers
  raw destruction on targets within the city. If forced to depart
  the Fountainhead, for whatever reason, the Dancing Mask
  bears a cosmos seed within itself that allows it to fight at long
  range even without the support of the Fountainhead.
  When the Dancing Mask fights with the curdling
  dream bow, the attacks are shockingly direct — impale-
  ments, immolations, poisonings and crushing blows. When
  the Dancing Mask wields the cosmos seed, the modes of
  attack are more indirect and subject targets to falling
  structures and dangerous environmental conditions such
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  138
  as toxic air and burning rain. Characters who succumb will
  be incumbered to the following:
  • First, to defend Swar and keep it secret.
  • Second, to seek out the Manses that keep Swar
  imprisoned and their methods of control, and to deacti-
  vate them or destroy them so that Swar may flee Creation.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4, Charisma
  7, Manipulation 7, Appearance 7, Perception 7, Intelli-
  gence 7, Wits 7
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 5, Temperance 6,
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Archery 3, Athletics 4, Awareness 4, Bureau-
  cracy 5, Craft (Glamour) 6, Dodge 5, Endurance 3,
  Investigation 5, Larceny 4, Lore 3, Martial Arts 6, Occult
  4, Performance 4, Presence 5, Resistance 6, Socialize 2,
  Stealth 3
  Charms: Assertion of a Greater Vision, Flesh-Carved
  World, Ill-Approving Eyes, Mind’s Grip Rigor, Pounding
  Dream Harmony, Shuddering Wyld Inference, Waypoint
  Knife, Wyld-Curdling Attack
  Shaping Base Initiative: 11
  Cup (Conviction): 5
  Cup Soak: 16
  Cup Health Levels: 9
  Cup Attack (Investigation): 5
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 10 Damage 4 Defense 10
  Rate 1
  Milieu: Speed 11 Accuracy 11 Damage 4 Defense 12 Rate 5
  Prodigies: Speed 8 Accuracy 11 Damage 7 Defense 7 Rate 3
  Ring (Intelligence): 7
  Ring Soak: 17
  Ring Health Levels: 13
  Ring Attack (Martial Arts): 6
  Curdling Dream Bow*: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 19
  (Rate 3, Range 1)
  Gossamer: Speed 11 Accuracy 14 Damage 13 (Rate 2,
  Range 0)
  Raw Will: Speed 11 Accuracy 13 Damage 7 (Rate 2, Range 0)
  * Preferred Attack
  Staff (Manipulation): 7
  Staff Soak: 10
  Staff Health Levels: 12
  Staff Attack (Occult): 4
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 9 Damage 7 Defense 9
  Rate 1
  People: Speed 8 Accuracy 12 Damage 10 Defense 8 Rate 3
  Society: Speed 11 Accuracy 12 Damage 7 Defense 13 Rate 5
  Sword (Dexterity): 4
  Sword Soak: 14
  Sword Health Levels: 8
  Sword Attack (Presence): 5
  Entanglement: Speed 5 Accuracy 7 Damage 4 Defense 7
  Rate 1
  Personal Prowess: Speed 13 Accuracy 10 Damage 7 De-
  fense 9 Rate 3
  Base Initiative: 11
  Attack:
  None, no body
  Dodge Pool: 9
  Soak: 2L/4B
  Willpower: 10
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 6
  Essence Pool: 60
  Gossamer: 15
  THE KEEPER OF THE TOWER — STAFF
  Description: The Keeper of the Tower is the lawgiver
  of the City of Formlessness Constrained. In the time before
  Swar’s imprisonment, the Keeper was the ruler of the
  unshaped’s body politic, chastening alternate personali-
  ties and moderating the influence of the other Virtues.
  Like most eunuchs, it is the ruler of the ruler, and the laws
  of the Keeper constrained the Heart of Swar as thoroughly
  as they confined its other Graces. In this manner did Swar
  police its self for dissident ideals and rogue beliefs. Now, it
  is the Keeper of the Tower’s pronouncements that dictate
  the customs and politics of this empty city, and the
  crooked rattling of his litany bones sets the lockstep of the
  feet that never tread the city’s pavement.
  The Keeper’s presence is signaled by the appearance
  of runes and heatless red flame and a feeling of manipula-
  tive oppression quite unlike the looming power of the
  Prince Malevolent. Shaping or not, the Keeper never
  ceases to rattle his bones or croak in his rasping voice the
  litany of the laws of the city of Swar. This self-serving
  document is a mass of codes and regulations never meant
  to be practiced nor ever examined as a whole for plausibil-
  ity. Its arbitrary nature extends to the very level of Essence
  and atom, and every being that lives or does not live is
  guilty of egregious offenses of composition, to say nothing
  of any crimes that may have been committed against the
  will of the City of Formlessness Constrained, which is of
  course enshrined as the highest principle.
  Shaping Combat: In combat, the Keeper is shame-
  lessly direct. Through Manipulation + Occult, the Keeper
  wrings out the law like a wet sponge, changing what the
  Keeper wishes without precedent or reason. It criminalizes
  the most basic functions of life and existence. The sen-
  tences are of the utmost utility to the state, and the Keeper
  is Swar’s “backup Prince Malevolent.” Targets who are
  snared will first have their Cups ravished as if they were the
  victims of the Prince Malevolent, and then, they will be
  vexed as if they were victims of Him Who Hurls Axes.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 7, Stamina 5, Charisma
  5, Manipulation 7, Appearance 4, Perception 6, Intelli-
  gence 6, Wits 6
  Virtues: Compassion 5, Conviction 7, Temperance 4,
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 5, Brawl 3, Bureaucracy
  6, Craft (Glamour) 5, Dodge 4, Endurance 3, Investigation
  5, Larceny 4, Lore 6, Medicine 2, Occult 7, Performance 3,
  Presence 5, Resistance 3, Socialize 5
  Charms: Assertion of a Greater Vision, Deeper Into Trouble
  Technique, Furiously Stalling Destiny, Ill-Approving Eyes,
  Inauspicious Moment for Attack, Laughing Monster Stance,
  Sapphire Emptiness Kata, Subtle Hammer
  
  139
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  Shaping Base Initiative: 12
  Cup (Conviction): 7
  Cup Soak: 14
  Cup Health Levels: 12
  Cup Attack (Larceny): 4
  Entanglement: Speed 6 Accuracy 11 Damage 4 Defense 11
  Rate 1
  Milieu: Speed 12 Accuracy 12 Damage 4 Defense 13 Rate 5
  Prodigies: Speed 9 Accuracy 12 Damage 7 Defense 8 Rate 3
  Ring (Intelligence): 6
  Ring Soak: 16
  Ring Health Levels: 10
  Ring Attack (Bureaucracy): 6
  Gossamer: Speed 12 Accuracy 13 Damage 12 (Rate 2,
  Range 0)
  Raw Will: Speed 12 Accuracy 12 Damage 7 (Rate 2, Range 0)
  Staff (Manipulation): 7
  Staff Soak: 14
  Staff Health Levels: 14
  Staff Attack (Presence): 5
  Entanglement: Speed 6 Accuracy 10 Damage 5 Defense 10
  Rate 1
  People: Speed 9 Accuracy 13 Damage 8 Defense 9 Rate 3
  Society: Speed 12 Accuracy 13 Damage 5 Defense 14 Rate 5
  Sword (Dexterity): 7
  Sword Soak: 15
  Sword Health Levels: 11
  Sword Attack (Presence): 5
  Entanglement: Speed 6 Accuracy 10 Damage 4 Defense 10
  Rate 1
  Personal Prowess: Speed 14 Accuracy 13 Damage 7 De-
  fense 12 Rate 3
  Base Initiative: 13
  Attack:
  None, no body
  Dodge Pool: 11
  Soak: 2L/5B
  Willpower: 10
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 6
  Essence Pool: 60
  Gossamer: 15
  SWAR ITSELF — HEART
  Description: At the farthest extents of Swar’s remote,
  towering self lies the raksha’s vast and powerful Heart. The
  area around Swar’s Heart is a terrible place, full of tearing
  chaos and wild, roiling madness, and it reflects the horror of
  Swar’s inner self fully, a hate-taloned need regulated only by
  the influence of the Graces and constrained only by fear and
  the logical limits of its own growth. Those who would seek
  to beard Swar must necessarily confront its Heart. Swar’s
  Heart is comparatively simple; it has little subtlety and no
  nuance. Those who come to it have passed the outer layers
  of the unshaped raksha’s refined self and come to its howling
  inner core, twisting endlessly around the Freehold’s bonefire.
  Shaping Combat: Swar’s Heart attacks by undermin-
  ing and destroying the integrity of its targets in a somewhat
  indirect fashion, manifesting its attacks as the swirling
  terror of the Wyld storm within the Spire.
  Swar has three weapons that it can wield. It bears a
  commandment lens for Staff combat (its preferred weapon,
  wielded with Manipulation + Thrown), a heart thorn for Cup
  combat (wielded with Conviction + Larceny) and a Nishkriya
  mask for Sword combat (wielded with Dexterity + Athletics).
  Swar’s combat effects are the same as those of Him Who Hurls
  Axes and the Prince Malevolent, save that they are backed by
  the undiluted might of Swar’s Graces — they are expressions
  of the city’s unshaped will, and it is natural that their wishes
  and behavior match those of the city.
  Attributes: Strength 8, Dexterity 8, Stamina 8, Charisma
  8, Manipulation 6, Appearance 6, Perception 8, Intelli-
  gence 6, Wits 8
  Virtues: Compassion 7, Conviction 6, Temperance 6,
  Valor 8
  Abilities: Archery 2, Athletics 7, Awareness 8, Bureau-
  cracy 3, Craft (Glamour) 8, Dodge 6, Endurance 6,
  Investigation 5, Larceny 7, Lore 6, Medicine 4, Melee 6,
  Occult 8, Performance 4, Presence 6, Resistance 5, Social-
  ize 6, Stealth 4, Survival 5, Thrown 8
  Charms: Assertion of a Greater Vision, Awakened Dream
  Manufacture, Compelling Presence, Ecstatic Reproduction
  Style, Flesh-Carved World, Forging the Arcane Redoubt,
  Forging the Cup Grace, Forging the Fountainhead, Forging
  the Glory, Forging the Heart Grace, Forging the Ring
  Grace, Forging the Staff Grace, Forging the Stronghold,
  Forging the Sword Grace, Forging the Throne Room, Furi-
  ous Maelstrom Craft, Gaping Virtue Mouth, God-Humbling
  Victory Sword, Heart-Cutting Style, Howling Dream Con-
  sumption Prana, Ill-Approving Eyes, Iron Nightmare Muzzle,
  Maddening Summons, Manacles of Virtue, Mind’s Grip
  Rigor, Pounding Dream Harmony, Pyre of Dreams Defense,
  Radiance of the Invincible Warrior, Sapphire Emptiness
  Kata, Scattering the Foe, Shape-Forged Servant, Shudder-
  ing Wyld Inference, Swallowed Grace Defense, Swift Wings
  of Song, Unparalleled Terror Technique, Unsightly Rigor
  Approach, Untouchable Performer Technique, Whispers
  Behind the Eyes, Writhing Ego Evasion, Wyld-Curdling
  Attack, Wyld Prince Resilience
  Shaping Base Initiative: 15
  Cup (Conviction): 6
  Cup Soak: 17
  Cup Health Levels: 15
  Cup Attack (Larceny): 7
  Entanglement: Speed 9 Accuracy 13 Damage 8 Defense 13
  Rate 1
  Heart Thorn: Speed 9 Accuracy 13 Damage 13 Defense 15
  Rate 2
  Milieu: Speed 15 Accuracy 14 Damage 8 Defense 15 Rate 5
  Prodigies: Speed 12 Accuracy 14 Damage 11 Defense 10
  Rate 3
  Ring (Intelligence): 6
  Ring Soak: 18
  Ring Health Levels: 14
  Ring Attack (Lore): 6
  Gossamer: Speed 15 Accuracy 13 Damage 14 (Rate 2,
  Range 0)
  Raw Will: Speed 15 Accuracy 12 Damage 8 (Rate 2, Range 0)
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  140
  Staff (Manipulation): 6
  Staff Soak: 16
  Staff Health Levels: 14
  Staff Attack (Thrown): 8
  Entanglement: Speed 9 Accuracy 12 Damage 8 Defense 12
  Rate 1
  People: Speed 12 Accuracy 15 Damage 11 Defense 11 Rate 3
  Society: Speed 15 Accuracy 15 Damage 8 Defense 16 Rate 5
  Commandment Lens*: Speed 15 Accuracy 14 Damage 8
  (Rate 2, Range 6)
  * Preferred Attack
  Sword (Dexterity): 8
  Sword Soak: 18
  Sword Health Levels: 16
  Sword Attack (Athletics): 7
  Entanglement: Speed 9 Accuracy 13 Damage 8 Defense 13
  Rate 1
  Nishkriya Mask: Speed 19 Accuracy 18 Damage 11 De-
  fense 16 Rate 3
  Personal Prowess: Speed 17 Accuracy 16 Damage 11
  Defense 15 Rate 3
  Base Initiative: 16
  Attack:
  None, no body
  Dodge Pool: 14
  Soak: 4L/8B
  Willpower: 10
  Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-1/-2/-
  2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 8
  Essence Pool: 80
  Gossamer: 20
  THE FOX CATAPHRACT —
  SWAR’S LESSER SWORD
   Description: Like all of its
  kind, Swar is unique. Part of its
  uniqueness, currently, is that it
  is gestating another raksha. As of
  yet, this nearly complete raksha
  has no Heart Grace but is not merely
  a transient ripple of miracle within Swar’s
  selfness. Swar cannot itself erase him, and he
  clearly has his own Graces, but in place of his
  Heart, the Fox Cataphract carries an effigy of
  Swar’s own Sword Grace.
  Swar is, like most raksha, murkily uncertain
  to outright distrusting of its own motivations. It does
  not know where the Fox Cataphract came from, if he was
  its own creation as a form of reproduction, a gift or attack
  from another raksha, a mental illness or Essence cancer or
  some sort of occult wound left by Creation’s defenses. It
  cannot remember a time before there was a Fox Cataphract,
  and Swar knows that its memory is clearly distorted.
  Although he is shaped and the great raksha is un-
  shaped, the Fox Cataphract is not Swar’s complement or
  antithesis, but very much his own being. He has one
  feeding maw, on his Valor, and possesses every sign that
  another will develop — if he receives a Heart, he will
  certainly not kindle as a commoner. If he will be a Xia, a
  Cataphract or an Anarch remains to be seen. He shows
  characteristics of all three.
  The Fox Cataphract is brash and loud and prone to
  clangor. He is also, currently, shaped, having used Assump-
  tion of Elemental Shape (Fire). This makes him vexing to
  Swar, which sees him as a mutant child and plans to slay him
  immediately if he divides from it and retains shape.
  The Fox Cataphract currently appears to be a huge,
  hulking fox-man, whose fur is made of blue fire, clad in gossamer
  mail of interlocking golden shields with protective runes and
  rubies and bearing a terrible gossamer sword. His helm is tall and
  crowned with a plume of unearthly peacock feathers.
  Shaping Combat: In shaping combat, the Fox Cataphract
  has a very limited set of options. He activates Radiance of the
  Invincible Warrior and attacks in Sword shaping combat
  with his Dexterity + Brawl, wielding personal prowess and
  hurling himself forward, swinging his sword, leaping over
  obstacles and rushing in for the kill of the foe with a primal
  rage so great it could savage even the unshaped. The Fox
  Cataphract will attempt to seize the Sword Graces, then the
  Cup Graces, then the Ring
  Graces and then the other pos-
  sessions of his targets. He can
  also attack in physical com-
  bat. None of his other Graces
  
  141
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  are well developed enough for him to initiate shaping combat
  with them, but he can still defend with them.
  Attributes: Strength 12, Dexterity 6, Stamina 10, Cha-
  risma 4, Manipulation 4, Appearance 4, Perception 8,
  Intelligence 5, Wits 8
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 4, Temperance 4,
  Valor 5
  Abilities: Archery 4, Athletics 6, Awareness 5, Brawl 6,
  Craft (Glamour) 4, Dodge 6, Endurance 8, Investigation 2,
  Larceny 1, Melee 6, Occult 4, Performance 5, Presence 6,
  Resistance 6, Ride 4
  Charms: Aegis of a Martial Destiny, Antagonist-Naming
  Technique, Assertion of a Greater Vision, Assumption of
  Elemental Shape (Fire), God-Humbling Victory Sword, Ill-
  Approving Eyes, Radiance of the Invincible Warrior, Scattering
  the Foe, Thematic Stunting Methodology, Unparalleled Ter-
  ror Technique, World-Devouring Warlord Stance
  Base Shaping Initiative: 9
  Cup (Conviction): 4
  Cup Soak: 13
  Cup Health Levels: 8
  Cup Attack (Performance): 5
  Milieu: Speed 9 Accuracy 10 Damage 5 Defense 11 Rate 5
  Ring (Intelligence): 5
  Ring Soak: 17
  Ring Health Levels: 9
  Ring Attack (Endurance): 8
  Gossamer: Speed 9 Accuracy 14 Damage 14 (Rate 2,
  Range 0)
  Raw Will: Speed 9 Accuracy 13 Damage 8 (Rate 2, Range 0)
  Staff (Manipulation): 4
  Staff Soak: 13
  Staff Health Levels: 8
  Staff Attack (Occult): 4
  Society: Speed 9 Accuracy 9 Damage 4 Defense 10 Rate 5
  Sword (Dexterity): 6
  Sword Soak: 19
  Sword Health Levels: 11
  Sword Attack (Brawl): 6
  Entanglement: Speed 3 Accuracy 10 Damage 12 Defense
  10 Rate 1
  Personal Prowess: Speed 11 Accuracy 13 Damage 15
  Defense 12 Rate 3
  Base Initiative: 14
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 14 Accuracy 12 Damage 12B Defense 12
  Kick: Speed 11 Accuracy 11 Damage 14B Defense 11
  Giant Gossamer Sword: Speed 14 Accuracy 14 Damage
  18L Defense 11
  Dodge Pool: 12
  Soak: 5L/10B
  Willpower: 9
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-1/-1/-2/-2/-
  2/-2/-4/Incap
  Essence: 5
  Essence Pool: 50
  Gossamer: 10
  EXALTED POWER COMBAT
  Attack:
  Punch: Speed 14 Accuracy 13 Damage 12B Defense 14
  Rate 5
  Kick: Speed 11 Accuracy 13 Damage 15B Defense 9 Rate 3
  Giant Gossamer Sword: Speed 14 Accuracy 14 Damage
  18L Defense 11 Rate 3
  Dodge Pool: 17
  OTHER ANTAGONISTS
  Some of Swar’s phantasmal residents have a recurring
  character, being the favorite imaginings of the various
  subsidiary selves that govern parts of Swar. In their long
  centuries of empty repetition in the silence, these trea-
  sured toy dreams have become the poppets of Swar. Some,
  like the fox carriages, are extremely dangerous, while
  many of the others are merely slightly solidified glamour.
  FOX CARRIAGE
   Description: The fox carriages are an echoing side-
  effect of the gestation of the Fox Cataphract in the belly of
  the semi-shaped Swar. When they began, this phenom-
  enon created mere phantoms. However, centuries of echoes
  and the growing strength of the Fox Cataphract have lent
  a solidity to these creatures that make them more than
  mere shaping illusions. Now, they belt up and down the
  mazy streets of Swar, letting out train-whistle shrieks and
  snorting blue fire like the proto-raksha that they echo. The
  fox carriages are seen only in the Heights and the Barrios
  of Swar, as they cannot fit into the Undercity or the Spires.
  The fox carriages are vast fox-headed vehicles of blue
  flame, appearing somewhat as a cross between a steam
  locomotive and a chariot, and with room for up to 12 on the
  rear. At first appearance, they are a form of mass transit
  system for the city of Swar, and they will often appear to act
  as one, stopping for visitors and whisking them from loca-
  tion to location or driving them about randomly. When
  Swar is roused against intruders, and the Fox Cataphract is
  dispatched to confront intruders, the fox carriages will
  likewise rouse themselves into combat. They are brutal
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  142
  fighters, attacking by crushing the target with their iron
  wheels, and dispatching animate fireballs from the top of the
  fume-stack on the front of the carriage.
  Shaping Combat: The fox carriages are some of
  Swar’s weapons in shaping combat. They are a horror. If for
  some reason the Fox Cataphract is slain, the fox carriages
  will become unavailable.
  GOGGLE-EYED
  ANGEL
   Description:
  The goggle-eyed an-
  gels are the servants
  of the Prince Malevo-
  lent. They are his
  technicians, worship-
  ers and sacrifices.
  They live only to
  serve him. They crawl
  from great vats and
  are returned to them.
  And yet, repetition
  has given them
  enough reality that
  they are a somewhat
  of a threat for crea-
  tures of Creation.
  The goggle-eyed
  angels are exactly
  that: tall, willowy fig-
  ures, with gangly,
  nimble limbs. Their
  great eyes stare un-
  blinking, seeking out
  every speck of light
  in 
  the 
  Prince
  Malevolent’s great
  dark recesses and
  drinking it in, leav-
  ing the place all the darker behind them. They have
  protruding pot bellies and slouching postures, and they are
  filthy with the strange chemicals of the Undercity.
  Goggle-eyed angels are shy and do not leap readily to
  combat. Instead, they lurk deep in the machinery of the
  Undercity, their glittering eyes watching from a safe dis-
  tance. When any battles conclude, the angels will resume
  their custodial duties, cleaning up any ghastly remains and
  repairing any damage the Undercity suffered in the fight-
  ing. However, if directed to do so by the Prince, they will
  fight ferally with their savage, dirty yellow fingernails and
  rotting brown and yellow teeth.
  Shaping Combat: The goggle-eyed angels may be
  props in shaping combat but do not form a weapon. The
  Prince Malevolent does, however, have a number of them
  as possessions, which he can use as his servants in the
  shaped world, but their low intelligence makes them of
  limited use.
  GLITTERVANE
   Description: Glittervanes are the manifold offspring
  of the Keeper of the Tower. Each dictum, rule, observation
  or cutting idea flutters from his head and flies on its tiny
  crystal wings to the upper aeries of the Heights, where the
  dreams nest and grow in rookeries of their kind, drinking
  the color pumped into the azure blocks from the pumping
  stations in the Undercity. Over time, they grow to the size
  of medium dogs, and when their time has come, they
  release their hold and fall downward.
  Many do not fly, and their shattered remains dot the
  upper stories of the Heights. Others do, and these glassy
  razors patrol the skies above Swar’s waypoints. Thousands
  of these glittering predators are Swar’s to command, and
  the city gives them over to Him Who Throws Axes.
  Glittervanes are shining, glittering agglomerations of
  crystal grown from the edicts of the Keeper of the Tower.
  There is a cigar- or dart-shaped central body, surrounded
  by a swirling vortex of razor-edged glass that both provides
  lift and a cutting surface. Glittervanes are lit from within
  by a soft but exceedingly bright pastel light. The most
  common colors are pink, blue and green. They provide
  torchlight visibility out to 20 yards.
  Glittervanes nest in the Heights until they are ma-
  ture, then they patrol the air of the city in packs of 6 to 24.
  Normally, the packs patrol using a high-low split, with the
  lower group flying across the terrain and lighting it with
  their bodies, and the other half of the group hanging up
  higher, ready to dive down on any revealed targets.
  
  143
  APPENDIX • SWAR. THE CITY OF FORMLESSNESS CONSTRAINED, WHICH MEN CALL OLD CRYSTAL, AND WHAT LIES WITHIN
  Shaping Combat: Glittervanes are one of Him Who
  Throws Axes’ Sword shaping weapons. They are a monster.
  OTHER HAZARDS OF SWAR
  Swar is not filled only with poppets and terrible
  unshaped Fair Folk. While other raksha could probably
  ignore Swar’s often-hazardous nature or simply bypass it
  with their shaping, the Creation-born cannot avoid the
  Wyld’s hazards so easily, and the City of Formlessness
  Constrained has many exotic materials and dangerous
  hazards to which a character may be exposed.
  THE WAR MANSES
  The War Manses that keep Swar imprisoned are a matter
  for the Storyteller to decide on. It could be that they are simply
  one or more small, hidden, hardened First Age military facilities
  that must be researched, found and destroyed. It could be that
  Swar forces the characters to brave the Imperial Manse to save
  Creature
  Physical Att.
  Will.
  Health Levels
  Attack
  Dodge/Soak
  Abilities
  Str/Dex/Sta
  Spd/Acc/Dmg
  Fox Carriage*
  7/4/11
  6
  –0x4/–2x4/
  Fireball: 6/7/11L
  4/14L/20B
  Archery 4,
  –4x4/I
  Carriage Rush:
  Athletics 4,
       6/10/20Bp
  Awareness 1,
  Brawl 4,
  Presence 3
  Goggle-Eyed
  3/3/3
  2
  -1/-3/I
  Claw/Bite: 6/5/2L
  Athletics 2,
     Angel**
  Awareness 3,
  Lore 1,
  Survival 2
  Glittervane**
  2/5/4
  2
  -1/-3/I
  Stab: 11/10/6L
  Athletics 5,
  Martial Arts 4
  * Never extras. This is an automaton that never fails Valor checks and never makes any other kind of check.
  ** Always extras.
  Object
  Soak (L/B)
  Health Levels to Damage
  Health Levels to Destroy
  Black Aluminum Walls
  12/16
  20
  30
  Blue Glass
  2/20
  1
  10
  Blue Glass Windowframe
  1/10
  1
  2
  Red Adobe
  8/8
  20
  36
  Fallen Airtower Entryway
  12/18
  40
  80
  Hazard
  Diff.
  Resisted Effect
  Failed Effect
  Interval
  Undercity Waste Immersion
  4
  3L
  6L
  1 turn
  Falling Shower of Blue Crystal
  3
  3B
  3L
  1 turn
  Flame Aura of Fox Carriage
  3
  2L
  6L
  1 turn
  Razor Winds
  5
  1L
  2L
  1 turn
  Tearing Chaos Within the Spire*
  1
  5B
  1A
  1 scene
  * This is in addition to resisting the Wyld effects of the tower. Aggravated damage from tearing chaos ignores
  armor.
  its skin or that the characters already control one or more of the
  War Manses in question. The specifics are up to the Storyteller
  to determine. The Manses are one of the ways Swar ties in with
  the rest of a Storyteller’s game, so they are left open so that the
  person running the game can attach them to the larger plots as
  needed. What is definitely true is that the Storyteller must
  make some decisions about where these Manses might be, how
  many there are and what might control them. Assuming Swar
  does not destroy the characters utterly and is not destroyed by
  them, the War Manses in question are going to be very
  important to the next phase of the series. At a bare minimum,
  keep a number and some locations on hand for when things
  suddenly go in the directions of needing to move the characters
  on to the next stage of things. There is no reason to think they
  will give you an instant’s peace after they figure out where they
  are supposed to go. Also, there is every reason to expect the
  characters to split into small groups to explore multiple loca-
  tions at once, so don’t assume you will just be able to feed them
  one location at a time either.
  
  EXALTED • BASTIONS OF THE NORTH
  144
  
  Bulwarks of Civilization in an
  Unforgiving Land
  The North is home to one of the harshest environments in Creation. Savage
  winters, deadly predators and scarcity of food would all be challenge
  enough, even without the added danger posed by barbarians, the Fair Folk
  and the dead. Defying both the elements and the Northlands’ myriad of
  threats, however, three nations have succeeded in wresting order from a
  chaotic wilderness and forging a stable home for their subjects.
  Frozen Strongholds of Stability
  Bastions of the North details the three great powers of the North: Whitewall,
  Gethamane and the Haslanti League. Inside, players will find all they need
  to create characters from these frontier states, and Storytellers will find
  the tools they need to run series set there. Discover how these three very
  different powers each succeeded in mastering the untamed North — and
  the secrets each harbors that threaten to undo their fragile authority.
  ISBN 1•58846•686•8  WW8807  US $24.99
  w w w . w h i t e - w o l f . c o m
  TM
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Storyteller [multi]/Exalted/Exalted 1st Edition/Setting Books/Exalted - Bastions of the North.pdf