TEXT: TM
  
  1
  BY GENEVIEVE COGMAN, PETER SCHAEFER AND JOHN SNEAD
  TM
  
  2
  CREDITS
  Authors: Genevieve Cogman, Peter Schaefer and 
  John Snead
  Comic Scripter: Carl Bowen
  Storyteller Game System Design: Mark Rein•Hagen
  Developers: John Chambers and Dean Shomshak
  Editor: Scribendi.com
  Art Direction: Brian Glass
  Artists: Imaginary Friends (with Kevin Chin, Erfan 
  Fajar, Lan Jun Kang, Kenneth, Marc Lee, Garrie Mukha-
  warman, Ben Qwek, Nicolas Stephan and Tze)
  Cover Art: UDON with Chris Stevens, Mark Sinclair 
  and Jim Zubkavich
  Book Design: Craig S Grant
  © 2007 White Wolf, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of 
  the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and for blank character sheets, 
  which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf and Exalted are registered trademarks 
  of White Wolf, Inc. All rights reserved. The Compass of Celestial Directions, the Wyld, the Manual 
  of Exalted Powers the Lunars, the Age of Sorrows and the Second Age of Man are trademarks of 
  White Wolf, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted 
  by White Wolf, 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 supernatu-
  ral elements are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature 
  content. Reader discretion is advised.
  Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com/
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  COMING NEXT:
  COMING NEXT IN THIS SERIES:
  THE COMPASS OF CELESTIAL DIRECTIONS, 
  VOL. III—YU-SHAN
  $24.99  
   
   
  160 PAGES
  The third of five books dedicated to the supernatural 
  locales of the Exalted setting, this supplement focuses on 
  the Celestial City of Yu-Shan, home of the gods. Built 
  by the Primordials as a refuge in which they might en-
  joy the Games of Divinity at their leisure, while their 
  subordinates tended to Creation, Yu-Shan was taken by 
  the gods as the spoils of the Primordial War. Home to a 
  massive Celestial Bureaucracy rife with corruption, the 
  continent-sized city has since the Usurpation been the 
  sole province of the Sidereal Exalted. Will the return of 
  the Solar Exalted upset the status quo of the Celestial 
  City, for good or ill, or will the Chosen of the Maidens 
  succeed in maintaining their monopoly on the resources 
  of Heaven?
  THE MANUAL OF EXALTED POWER—
  THE LUNARS
  $31.99  
   
   
  240 PAGES
  Gifted with power by the Celestial Incarna Luna, the Lunar 
  Exalted were once the mates of the Solar Exalted and trusted 
  stewards of the Old Realm. Then, after the Lawgivers went 
  mad with power and their Dragon-Blooded troops rose up 
  to slay them, the Lunars retreated to the edges of Creation, 
  biding their time and massing their forces to one day bring 
  down the hated Realm. With the Solars returning en masse, 
  have the Lunars waited too long to bring down the old or-
  der and replace it, or does the return of their ancient mates 
  signal that the time is finally at hand for vengeance?
  
  3
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
  INTRODUCTION 
  4
  CHAPTER ONE: CREATION’S RIM 
  7
  CHAPTER TWO: LIFE IN CHAOS 
  34
  CHAPTER THREE: THE NORTHERN WYLD 
  67
  CHAPTER FOUR: THE WESTERN WYLD 
  85
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD 
  102
  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD 
  120
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES 
  138
  TM
  
  4
  
  5
  INTRODUCTION
   
  INTRODUCTION
  INTRODUCTION
  The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The 
  Wyld is a setting book for the Exalted roleplaying 
  game. This book contains detailed information about 
  the Wyld, the catch-all term for the regions beyond 
  Creation where reality becomes more fluid than solid. 
  Weaker Wyld zones have a few quirks, such as flammable 
  granite or squirrels with sharp horns—small twists in 
  the natural way of things. Where the Wyld is stronger, 
  the surroundings become stranger: trees grow their 
  roots into the sky instead of the ground, and crystal 
  toadstools emit spun-sugar spores. More natural laws 
  bend, or even shatter, allowing life to blossom within 
  solid stone or causing water to boil when it’s cold and 
  freeze when it’s hot.
  The Wyld waits beyond the farthest East, South, West 
  and North, a threat that picks at the stitches of the world 
  simply by its very nature. People who encounter the Wyld 
  come away changed, sometimes for the better, often for 
  the worse and always away from human. Some victims 
  change physically: they grow larger or smaller, spit acid, 
  unsheathe claws or grow a second head. Other victims 
  return from the Wyld driven mad by their experiences.
  Among the threats that the Wyld presents to Cre-
  ation, the Fair Folk are one of the greatest. They call 
  themselves raksha and the Wyld Rakshastan. Though 
  there are exceptions, most raksha wish to undermine the 
  constancy of Creation and reduce it to the same primal 
  chaos that birthed them. A Manual of Exalted Power
  will explore the Fair Folk in more depth, but this volume 
  reveals many of their activities and households.
  Wyld mutants live in tribes and sometimes cities, 
  usually in the regions nearest Creation or just inside 
  For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened 
  lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed 
  were really impossible.
  —Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  
  6
  the borders of the Wyld. Their customs and habits are 
  incredibly varied. Some Fair Folk present obvious dangers 
  because they practice cannibalism or human sacrifice. 
  A few of these strange tribes could potentially become 
  allies to Creation. However, most Wyld cultures are 
  too improbable to live within Creation; they can only 
  survive in realms of dream and madness. The magical 
  reality of Creation allows a great deal, but draws the line 
  at people with jack-o’-lantern heads or who can speak 
  only in rhyme.
  Lunar Exalted also frequent the Wyld. They use the 
  Wyld as a tool and a haven, since their moonsilver tattoos 
  protect them absolutely from the chaos’ body-warping 
  effects. From their territories at the rim of the world, 
  they fight off dangers from beyond.
  But the Wyld is more than just a mindless threat. It is 
  an adventure opportunity for any Exalted character. The 
  Wyld abounds in lost ruins, treasures and strange peoples 
  just waiting to be discovered. The Lawgivers of old made 
  treaties with the Fair Folk that accomplished sweeping 
  changes in their relationships. Mutant societies wait to 
  be stopped from their hideous misdeeds or converted 
  to a character’s cause. The Lunar Exalted (who become 
  fully fleshed characters of their own in The Manual of 
  Exalted Power—The Lunars) can fight threats to Creation 
  on their own, or they can become potential allies for 
  returning Solars or outcaste Dragon-Blooded.
  HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
  This book is of limited use without the core Exalted 
  game book. Admittedly, you can find a lot of neat ideas 
  herein that have nothing to do with the Exalted rules 
  and everything to do with bizarre, fantasy-chaos realms 
  where weird things happen. They are tied into the Exalted 
  cosmology, but you can work around that. The Wyld 
  breaks boundaries, even of game systems!
  You can use The Compass of Celestial Directions, 
  Vol. II in a core game focusing on the Solar Exalted 
  without difficulty, and this book vastly expands the infor-
  mation about the Wyld presented in Chapters One and 
  Seven of Exalted. If the Wyld is already in your game, 
  this supplement will be a great help.
  Other supplements will draw extensively on this one. 
  Just as The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. I—The 
  Blessed Isle is incredibly useful for playing Dynasts of 
  the Realm, this book can add a lot of information and 
  depth to the Lunar Exalted or the Fair Folk.
  Chapter One: Creation’s Rim
  This chapter describes the nature of the Wyld, includ-
  ing how it deepens from Creation into Pure Chaos. Also 
  included is a brief history of the Wyld, focusing on the 
  assault on Creation during the Great Contagion.
  Chapter Two: Life in Chaos
  Many different entities live within the Wyld: the 
  Fair Folk, societies of mutants, Lunar Exalted and even 
  stranger things. This section deals with how they survive 
  and what they do out there.
  Chapters Three Through Six: The Wyld Directions
  Each cardinal direction (except the center direction) 
  receives its own treatment in these four chapters. Because 
  the elemental poles influence the nature of the Wyld, 
  each chapter describes the unique environments that arise 
  when each element mixes with chaos. This information 
  is as up-to-date and thorough as it can be for lands whose 
  only constant is change.
  Chapter Seven: Wyld Prodigies
  The Wyld doesn’t just affect the land; it also affects 
  people and animals. This chapter describes how Wyld 
  societies seek power or wisdom in chaos, and provides 
  more Wyld-induced mutations and mental derangements. 
  The chapter concludes with a selection of creatures, 
  sample beastmen and rules for playing beastman and 
  Wyld mutant characters.
  
  7
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  
  8
  The Wyld consists of the unstable realm between 
  Creation and Chaos. Creation operates by natural and 
  supernatural rules: animals grow and rocks don’t; water 
  freezes when it’s cold and boils when it’s hot. Chaos 
  operates by no rules at all. Nothing about Chaos is defin-
  able in any way humans could understand. In the Wyld, 
  these two realities mix.
  The entities of Creation are defined by their qualities: 
  their size, shape, substance, color and so on. The taint 
  of Chaos breaks apart these qualities and recombines 
  them. In the Wyld, the boulders can be made of flesh 
  and the animals of stone. The rain falls up, or fire is 
  cold. Humans become beasts. Beasts become humans. 
  Grass grows the size of trees, while trees grow the size of 
  grass—for a while, until they all become something else. 
  Nothing is sane. Nothing is safe.
  Anything brought into the Wyld becomes part of 
  it—quickly or slowly, but inevitably, unless some power-
  ful force prevents it. In particular, people change. Some 
  people find their bodies changing in strange and often 
  horrible ways. Others remain human in form, but the 
  Wyld warps their spirits into perverse insanities. People 
  who spend too much time in the Wyld suffer both sorts 
  of change and become bizarre, savage monsters.
  For all of this endless and chaotic change, however, the 
  Wyld lacks true creativity. Even the most exotic beast of 
  the Wyld is merely a variation of some beast in Creation, 
  or jumbles together the forms of different creatures. They 
  may combine two or more animals (such as the finned, 
  serpentine ice wyrms of the North), animals and plants 
  (such as the creatures of the East that grow on trees) or 
  even animals and natural features (such as the vast living 
  islands of the far Western sea). The landscape is much 
  the same: portions of the Wyld sometimes spontaneously 
  transform themselves to look like regions in Creation 
  from the present, the past or maybe yet to come. Every 
  CHAPTER ONE
  CHAPTER ONE
  CREATION
  CREATION’S RIM
  ’S RIM
  
  9
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  hut and every insect in the Wyld duplicates something in 
  Creation, combines several existing creatures or objects 
  and maybe warps the result as in a funhouse mirror.
  The Wyld’s changes look random. Behind the chaos, 
  however, lurks a secret order. The Wyld follows laws of 
  meaning and story. The conscious desires of the enigmatic 
  Fair Folk cause many of the land’s changes and shifts, but 
  the Wyld responds to any visitor. People who visit the 
  Wyld find it echoing their hopes and desires… or their 
  nightmare fears. The Wyld tries to make them characters 
  in stories—but it shatters the plots into madness.
  And yet, people do go into the Wyld. Its ceaseless 
  change offers treasures beyond description. The Wyld can 
  give you anything you want. Gold and jewels, fruits unlike 
  any tasted before, strange flowers, drugs that produce 
  miraculous effects, birds and animals that would fetch 
  fortunes from collectors, slaves, followers, unconquered 
  lands to rule… the imagination has no limits.
  The looser reality of the Wyld also enables strong-
  willed people to see distant places, other times or the 
  secrets hidden in the human heart. A very lucky person 
  might emerge from the Wyld with powers denied to mere 
  humans—perhaps even the power to wield Essence. The 
  greatest temptation of the Wyld, however, is the chance to 
  live your dreams. Some visitors become parodies of their 
  former selves, archetypes of heroes or villains, warriors 
  or lovers—perfect, the way only a character in a story can 
  be perfect, but no longer human.
  The Wyld is different things to different people. 
  To the sheltered peasants who live in the Realm, the 
  Wyld is everything outside their protected heartland 
  of Creation: the barbarian marauders, the soul-stealing 
  Fair Folk, the abhorrent lands of Chaos where nothing 
  has fixed shape or form, and insanity reigns. It is the 
  anarchy beyond civilization, not ruled by the appointed 
  Princes of the Earth.
  To the educated Terrestrial Exalted, or to savants who 
  live in kingdoms nearer the edges of the world, the Wyld 
  is a boundary between actual existence and unformed 
  potential. They classify the Wyld into degrees of danger 
  they can name, understand—and, often, underestimate. 
  People who think that they control the Wyld because 
  they can describe a few aspects of its nature are often 
  proved painfully wrong.
  To some creatures, however, the Wyld is home.
  Barbarian tribes that roam the fringes of Creation 
  often step beyond its borders. They might not want to—but 
  sometimes they don’t have a choice. They live in the teeth 
  
  10
  of the Wyld, casting defiance at it or incorporating it into 
  their customs and mythologies. Some barbarians are still 
  fully human, in body and mind; others are twisted in 
  body, or mind or both. Groups of beastmen grow and 
  prosper at the Wyld’s edge, bred from mingled human 
  and Lunar stock, created by sorcery or warped from 
  humanity by the taint of chaos.
  The mythic Lunars walk through the world’s rim like 
  gods. In the Wyld, the shapeshifting Lunars can become 
  war-leaders, advisors, rulers and even deities. They were 
  human once, but Luna chose them to work her will in 
  the world and gave them power like unto gods. In the 
  First Age, they were the Exalted partners of the Solars. 
  The Lunars fled to the boundaries of the world to escape 
  the Usurpation and the hosts of the Dragon-Blooded. 
  Now some Lunars preserve the ancient ways, while oth-
  ers plot to regain their old dominions; some protect and 
  educate mortals, while others use, hunt and discard them. 
  If the Lunars move to the designs of their changeable 
  patron goddess, then those plans are unknown to both 
  the hidden Sidereals and the deities who watch from 
  Earth and Heaven.
  Then there are the Fair Folk—the beautiful, soul-
  eating monsters that come in from outside Creation to 
  devour, pervert or simply enjoy the structured world. 
  Few beings can see the Fair Folk’s true form, and fewer 
  would want to. They are collections of feeding maws and 
  Essence repositories, united in whorls of chaos. Fair Folk 
  in Creation must use Charms to create physical existences 
  for themselves, or they sublimate into nothingness from 
  the sheer pressure of shaped reality.
  Like much about them, the term “Fair Folk” is a 
  human invention appropriated by the raksha (their 
  own name for themselves). The raksha lack creativity, 
  so they copy. They lack innovation, so they steal. They 
  lack structure, so they imitate. And they lack souls, so 
  they devour them. They attempt to live inside epic stories 
  where they are hero, villain, protagonist, antagonist, lover, 
  betrayer or some other vital part of a self-created legend. 
  They call the Wyld Rakshastan, a mad playing-field for 
  their mad games.
  Other creatures dwell in the Wyld, too. Gods, ghosts 
  and demons may find themselves trapped in the Wyld, 
  or flee there to avoid some worse fate. The Wyld itself 
  generates strange beasts and monsters without number; 
  some are intelligent and could almost be called people. 
  Just as the Fair Folk, however, most of the Wyld’s natives 
  are too improbable to live in Creation. They can only 
  survive in a land of dreams… a land that became much 
  wider almost eight centuries ago.
  THE HISTORY OF THE WYLD
  The sages of Heaven say the Pure Chaos of the Wyld 
  always existed. It held the potential for everything, the 
  actuality of nothing. Chaos had no beginning or bounds; 
  time and space were unknown, for no distinctions existed 
  to define “here” from “there” or “now” from “then.” But 
  it held intelligences that gods and mortals cannot hope 
  to understand. Men call these entities the Fair Folk when 
  they enter Creation.
  For reasons unknown even to the gods, mighty beings 
  arose in Chaos. A few divine philosophers speculate that 
  these Primordials consisted of vast conglomerations of 
  Fair Folk who welded their souls together into a few dozen 
  entities of unimaginable power. Other scholars speculate 
  that the Wyld itself evoked the Primordials by mere chance. 
  Regardless of their origin, the Primordials were vastly more 
  powerful than the grandest of the current princes and 
  queens of Chaos. By their will, the Primordials shaped 
  a realm of solid reality and forged unchanging laws that 
  eternally bound its form. Here, time always flowed in a 
  single direction. Dropped objects fell downward. Plants 
  grew in the ground, and animals fed upon both them and 
  each other. Souls passed from life to death and back to 
  life again. Gods and elementals gave consciousness to the 
  flows of Essence that permeated Creation, so that Chaos 
  could not reclaim the Primordials’ handiwork.
  The denizens of Chaos hated the newly formed so-
  lidity of Creation. No longer did they dwell in timeless, 
  formless perfection. Creation’s rule-bound existence 
  horrified beings who had never known division into Self 
  and Other, or Real and Not-Real. In shaping Creation, 
  the Primordials also gave definition to its opposite. The 
  Courts of Madness sought to destroy Creation, but the 
  Primordials rebuffed their most fearsome attacks.
  After the gods and Exalted overthrew the Primordials, 
  the Ones Beyond hoped once more to end the blasphemy 
  of Creation and restore the perfection of formlessness. 
  They found, however, that while each Exalt was individu-
  ally less mighty than the Primordials, the Exalted were 
  many. Their Charms, spells and weapons destroyed the 
  invading Fair Folk by the thousands.
  During the first centuries of the Old Realm, all the 
  various Exalted worked together to construct thousands 
  of magical jade obelisks. They placed these obelisks a few 
  miles from Creation’s edge as a mystic barrier against 
  attacks from the Wyld. The completed ring protected 
  all of Creation.
  As the Celestial Exalted grew in power, they turned 
  their sights upon the Wyld and wrought the edges of the 
  Wyld into new portions of Creation. As they pushed 
  
  11
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  back the borders of the Wyld, the Exalted built new obe-
  lisks to stabilize these newly formed lands. Meanwhile, 
  the older obelisks remained in their original position. 
  Some ended up more than a thousand miles from the 
  edge of the Wyld.
  Creation, so the Celestial Exalted often left reality engines 
  in place to protect border settlements. Finally, a new jade 
  obelisk was placed in a geomantically favorable portion 
  of the new territory. This obelisk removed the need to 
  guard the region or protect it with a reality engine. Later, 
  ties of commerce and Essence would subtly bind the new 
  territory to the rest of Creation.
  When the Dragon-Blooded overthrew the power-mad 
  Anathema and formed the Shogunate, they lacked the 
  means to expand the boundaries of Creation. At this time, 
  the Fair Folk began to plan and hope that they might 
  reclaim the regions they had lost and end the blasphemies 
  of form and limitation. However, the armies and magics 
  of the Shogunate still proved too powerful. While the 
  Fair Folk won a few minor victories, the Dragon-Blooded 
  usually held their own against even the massed hordes of 
  the Fair Folk. The Lunar Exalted, exiled to the edge of the 
  world after the Usurpation, likewise defeated many inva-
  sions the Dragon-Blooded never suspected. The network 
  of jade obelisks also continued to destroy any Fair Folk 
  who came more than a few miles inside Creation, if the 
  invaders could not topple them quickly enough.
  Although the Dragon-Blooded of the Shogunate 
  lacked Charms to forge the raw Wyld into Creation and 
  could not manufacture their own protective jade obelisks, 
  they could use existing reality engines. Occasionally, they 
  could even repair damaged ones. So, they could safely 
  launch attacks far into the Wyld and swiftly counter 
  any attempt by the Fair Folk to mass an offensive on the 
  borders of Creation.
  The Contagion changed all that. With almost nine 
  out of 10 people dead, the Shogunate in ruins and the 
  sudden appearance of shadowlands weakening the very 
  fabric of Creation, the Fair Folk saw an unprecedented 
  opportunity. They gathered a vast army and launched an 
  attack around the entire border of Creation. Some Fair 
  Folk took forms similar to the ones they saw in Creation, 
  the better to withstand its deadly force of order: some 
  of men, and some of mad fusions of whatever creatures 
  caught their notice. They shaped more warriors—immense 
  behemoths, hordes of hobgoblins—from the raw potential 
  of the Wyld. Other Fair Folk remained unshaped so 
  they could wield their full, awful power. Even weakened 
  by the newly formed shadowlands, the network of jade 
  obelisks slew the entire first wave of the attack, but this 
  mass of hobgoblins and Fair Folk managed to destroy 
  many of the jade obelisks even as their own substance 
  was rent asunder. Although thousands of Fair Folk died, 
  they wrecked the network of obelisks in less than a day. 
  Creation lay open to the armies of Chaos.
  THE STRUCTURE OF THE ANCIENT WYLD
  During the Old Realm and the Shogunate, the 
  Wyld did not exist in its present form. Creation and 
  Chaos were far more distinct than they are now. 
  There were no tainted lands, because the Wyld 
  did not ebb and flow over the edges of Creation. 
  A thin shell of Deep Wyld began just outside the 
  outer ring of jade obelisks. Beyond that lay the 
  eternal flux of Pure Chaos. A hero could travel 
  from Creation’s bounds to the Courts of Madness 
  in a single day.
  Out in the Deep Wyld, the Exalted fought their battles 
  against the Fair Folk. Much less often, the Exalted met 
  ambassadors to negotiate treaties between the rulers of 
  Creation and the Courts of Madness. The Fair Folk oc-
  casionally won a battle during the long millennia of the 
  First Age. Greater losses always followed these victories, 
  as the ever-more-powerful Celestial Exalted, aided by their 
  Dragon-Blooded armies and increasingly powerful arti-
  facts, gradually pushed back the frontiers of the Wyld. The 
  victories of the Solar Deliberative significantly expanded 
  the boundaries of Creation, but also redoubled the resolve 
  of the Fair Folk. Some of the Ones Beyond began to fear 
  that Creation would consume their home entirely.
  These epic battles became the subject of detailed 
  military histories and fantastic tales—and modern schol-
  ars cannot tell which is which. However, the process of 
  expanding Creation always stayed much the same. First, 
  the Exalted slew the Fair Folk or drove them out of the 
  portions of the Wyld the Exalted wished to make part of 
  Creation. Then, the Solar Exalted used powerful Charms 
  to transform the Wyld into Creation.
  The Copper Spiders built powerful mechanisms 
  known as reality engines to aid these efforts. These devices 
  temporarily extended the stability of Creation around 
  the attackers, allowing them to venture deep into the 
  Wyld. Once the Exalted won the battle, they combined 
  the power of their reality engines with the might of their 
  Wyld-altering Charms, reinforcing these Charms’ effects 
  and extending their range. The Fair Folk sometimes 
  launched suicidal attacks into newly formed regions of 
  
  12
  Madness swept in from the borders of the world. 
  In the vanguard came the Fair Folk who had accepted 
  form to destroy form. Behind them came the unshaped 
  raksha, each one dissolving dozens of miles of Creation 
  as it passed. The surviving Dragon-Blooded massed in 
  their legions. The Lunar Exalted emerged from their hid-
  den redoubts at the world’s edge to pursue the Fair Folk 
  from the rear. The Sidereals descended from Heaven to 
  pit their matchless martial arts against the invaders from 
  beyond. They all fought bravely, and died, and the hordes 
  of Chaos moved inward toward the Blessed Isle.
  At last, a Dragon-Blooded officer activated the 
  long-quiescent defense grid of the Imperial manse. The 
  awesome power of this artifact swiftly laid waste to the 
  Fair Folk host and drove the survivors out of Creation.
  Although the Fair Folk were defeated, their attack 
  forever changed the structure of Creation. No longer was 
  it a vast region surrounded by a thin bubble of Deep Wyld 
  and floating in Pure Chaos. Instead, this attack eroded 
  enormous swathes of territory and transformed these 
  lands into regions with varying admixtures of Chaos and 
  Creation. This broad intermediate zone is what people of 
  the Age of Sorrows now know as the Wyld. The Fair Folk 
  attack also tore holes in Creation to create pockets of the 
  Wyld throughout the Threshold. Bound to both Creation 
  and the surrounding Pure Chaos, these Wyld pockets 
  and newly created Bordermarches and Middlemarches 
  became home to the exiled Lunar Exalted, the Fair Folk 
  who had taken form during the course of the attack and 
  a multitude of Wyld mutants and beastmen.
  Today, the Wyld continually ebbs and flows around 
  the edges of Creation. The Wyld is the most active and 
  the most dangerous in the West, with boundaries just a 
  little more stable in the harsh North. The Wyld is least 
  active in the East, and moderately so in the South. The 
  reason for these differences in stability is quite simple: 
  the West is the least populous portion of the Threshold, 
  while the East is the most. The prayers and dreams of 
  each and every mortal provide a tiny bulwark against 
  the eternal chaos that seeks to destroy Creation. This 
  is one of the major reasons why the Great Contagion 
  made Creation so much more vulnerable to attack by 
  the Fair Folk.
  In some regions, the Wyld slowly retreats and Cre-
  ation reasserts itself. Most of the Wyld, however, defies 
  all the power of mortals, Exalted and gods. North and 
  South, East and West, chaos still erupts from the Wyld, 
  in the form of Fair Folk, mad barbarians and monsters 
  out of dream and nightmare. The Empress herself could 
  not force back the Wyld—only stop its advance. Now 
  the Empress is gone. The princes and queens of Chaos 
  look upon the Creation they hate, and once more plan 
  its ending.
  GEOGRAPHY OF MADNESS
  Creation is a huge continent in a vast, endless sea of 
  Pure Chaos. The Wyld is effectively the coastal marshes, 
  skerries and the continental shelf of Creation: neither 
  the static reality of Creation nor the uncontrolled lunacy 
  of Pure Chaos, but a mixture of both.
  The Wyld falls into three rough categories: the Bor-
  dermarches, the Middlemarches and the Deep Wyld. 
  Beyond that lies Chaos, where the unshaped Fair Folk 
  dwell, and the elemental poles, pure expressions of Fire, 
  Air, Water and Wood. The Wyld has also flooded over 
  part of Creation and receded, leaving it changed: these 
  “tainted lands” are not truly part of the Wyld itself, 
  though they warn of its power. They are regular in their 
  instability, fixed and bordered.
  The Bordermarches are the periphery of the Wyld, 
  where the shallow waters of Chaos ebb and break on the 
  shores of reality. The forces and forms of Creation still 
  dominate the Bordermarches; they are warped rather than 
  entirely changed. Barbarian and beastmen tribes dwell 
  here, as do those raksha who like the taste of Creation 
  without fully being a part of it.
  Beyond and around the Bordermarches lie the 
  Middlemarches, where the Wyld has made the landscape 
  malleable and reality is like wax, soft and easily sculpted. 
  Here dwell the majority of the raksha and other creatures 
  strange and potent enough to survive the shifting world 
  around them.
  Further out yet lies the Deep Wyld, where even the 
  raksha, creatures of Chaos as they are, find themselves 
  endangered. Here the unshaped roam, and bedlam rules. 
  One’s surroundings change with every passing second, 
  and outside the sanctuaries ruled by the lords of this 
  realm—who are, of course, as insane as the place itself—or 
  the occasional fragment of solidity, the world is a sea of 
  rolling change and madness.
  Beyond the Deep Wyld lies pure Chaos, the utter 
  antithesis of reality. Here dwell things that are as alien 
  to the raksha as the raksha are to mortals. The gods 
  themselves dare not travel here.
  CENTRAL TRAITS
  Any location in the Wyld has a few distinct themes or 
  images that you can describe in a few paragraphs. These 
  are the central traits of the place. Regardless of how the 
  place shifts and alters itself, these traits do not change; 
  
  13
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  they represent the essential nature of that location. This 
  book’s descriptions of specific Wyld locations give their 
  central traits. A location’s central traits can only change 
  if a Celestial Exalted or one of the Fair Folk deliberately 
  transforms it.
  The natural changes that regularly occur in all 
  portions of the Wyld do not affect these traits. How-
  ever, anything that is not directly related to a location’s 
  central traits can and does change on its own. In the 
  Bordermarches, these changes happen gradually and are 
  relatively superficial. In the Middlemarches, the changes 
  can include everything not set by the statement of central 
  traits. Even the cities and towns within Fair Folk domains 
  change—their streets wind in different paths, architectural 
  details of buildings change and in the Middlemarches, 
  even the locations of buildings relative to each other can 
  shift dramatically. Nothing stays the same unless some 
  powerful entity compels this.
  The Deep Wyld is different. It contains no stable 
  locations that are not artificially maintained. No single 
  place within the Deep Wyld has any central traits except 
  for its elemental direction. Even this much consistency 
  surpasses the Pure Chaos beyond Creation, which has 
  no central traits at all.
  WAYPOINTS
  Where reality frays, the relationship between places 
  becomes fluid. The Wyld doesn’t so much have geogra-
  phy as it does loosely related locations of significance. 
  Distance in the Wyld is measured not in miles, but in 
  experience—the layers of myth, chaos and change that 
  one must pass to reach one’s destination. The raksha 
  measure distances in periods of journey and in waypoints, 
  and other creatures follow their example: in the lands 
  of madness, sometimes the mad are the best guides. 
  Where distances change, and locations flux, and no 
  map is the same from one day to another, you cannot 
  speak of places as so many miles apart; you can only 
  speak of the landmarks and scenes of importance you 
  TIDE OF MADNESS
  Remember that the Wyld shifts according to the 
  phases of the moon. During the full moon, the Wyld 
  rises, submerging the Bordermarches till they are as 
  fluid as the Middlemarches, and the Middlemarches 
  till they are as changeable as the Deep Wyld; during 
  the new moon, the Wyld ebbs in turn. For those 
  who must travel the Wyld, the new moon is the 
  safest time of the month to do so.
  must encounter between your starting point and your 
  destination. In the Wyld, a traveler can study a rock and 
  force it through observation or memory to take on color 
  and quality—but, by default, the rock has none. Those 
  present at a waypoint can interact with the world and 
  have more detailed interactions with one another.
  Journeys carry travelers in the Wyld through regions 
  thin in shape and form, where very little happens or can 
  happen. They are just travel. Waypoints are the important 
  locations where things happen. At the waypoint in a 
  journey, two enemies meet, a hero encounters the old 
  woman who can give him a vital clue to his quest or a 
  heroine reaches an uncrossable chasm that she must 
  nevertheless somehow cross. These temporary grains of 
  stability, such as the speck of sand at the heart of a pearl, 
  coalesce meaning around them and force the Wyld to 
  conform to the needs of wanderers, forming into the 
  structured patterns of stories, of desire and destiny.
  As a rule of thumb, each period of Storyteller-nar-
  rated travel is a journey, and the Storyteller’s narration 
  represents almost the entire experience. In the reaches 
  of the Wyld, “You travel for a few days through a land 
  of rock and low brush carved out of singing crystal,” is 
  a complete experience. If the traveler has the Charms 
  or the powers to survive the journey itself, then days 
  (or minutes or hours) of passage can be summarized in 
  a single descriptive sentence. This may be a description 
  of easy travel, such as, “You ride for hours across the 
  plains, seeing only the tumbleweeds and hearing only 
  the wind,” or a more difficult passage such as, “You scale 
  the mountain, clambering up amid the howling storm, 
  until you reach the plateau.” It may even be utterly ap-
  propriate to the Wyld: “You run across the sword-edge 
  that bridges the abyss, and on the other side your sworn 
  enemy meets you.” The journey itself doesn’t matter; 
  only its beginning and its end.
  SCOPE OF THE WYLD
  Rakshastan is a kingdom of madness and illusion, 
  but the eroding substrate of Creation gives the Wyld a 
  measurable, if rather flexible, size. The Bordermarches 
  of Rakshastan are about 20 waypoints wide, and the 
  Middlemarches form a belt some 60 waypoints thick 
  beyond that. At the far edge of the Middlemarches, the 
  Deep Wyld is about 20 waypoints wide. Beyond that lie 
  the infinite wastes of Pure Chaos, where waypoints no 
  longer exist. Fair Folk culture, such as it is, lies in these 
  concentric rings of half-shaped, half-warped lands; there 
  is never a moment when some tribe, household or court 
  is not struggling to maintain its hold on its territory, or 
  plotting to seize lands from another group.
  
  14
  WYLD ZONE GENERATOR
  Storytellers can use the following ideas to generate Wyld areas on short notice, from tainted lands to the 
  Deep Wyld. When using these conditions described below to create tainted lands, assume that these condi-
  tions once held sway over this section of Creation and that only a few small remnants remain. The further 
  out into the Wyld the region being created is, the more the listed traits will dominate the appearance and 
  nature of the region.
  BASIC GEOGRAPHY
  The physical structure of the Wyld zone takes one of the following forms:
  Color. Some feature of the area is a non-standard color, such as purple sand or scarlet trees. Maybe every-
  thing is the same color, or in shades of gray.
  Geometric Forms. Instead of natural, irregular forms, some aspect of the Wyld zone assumes an unnatu-
  ral regularity as straight, curved or jointed rods, disks, polygons, flat planes, spheres, cones, cylinders, torus, 
  helix, crescents, Möbius strips or even stranger shapes.
  Land Forms. The Wyld zone is based on some particular natural form such as ocean, river, swamp, tundra, 
  forest, hills, mountains, desert, badlands, boulders, islands, canyons, caverns or craters.
  Man-Made Forms. Something in the Wyld zone imitates a modern or First Age metropolis (ruined or 
  intact), or takes some other artificial form such as pagodas, temples, castles, tombstones, clockwork, a First 
  Age factory-cathedral, furniture or kitchen tools.
  Mythic. The entire region is specifically designed as the setting of a particularly fantastic myth or story.
  Organic Forms. Something, or everything, in the Wyld zone mimics the shape of a human, some kind 
  of animal, bird or fish, insects or other lower creatures, plants or body parts such as eyes, hands, mouths, 
  tentacles, heads, viscera or bones.
  Reified Desire. The landscape expresses a single emotion or desire, such as rage, hunger or lust. Every-
  thing there represents this theme in some vividly direct manner, for example, a forest of carnivorous plants 
  that attempt to devour anything that comes near them or a town filled with animate food that walks up and 
  begs newcomers to eat it.
  Scale. Some aspects of the landscape are much larger or much smaller than normal. Perhaps the 
  landscape is alive and made of one or more vast animals or plants. One dimension might be stretched or 
  compressed: for instance, trees grow impossibly tall or no taller than waist-high—but completely normal in 
  every other dimension.
  Strange Materials. The landscape, plants or animals are made of some unusual material: sand dunes 
  made of sawdust, plains of living, hairy flesh and so on. Consider stone, metal, glass, soil, gelatin or slime, 
  water or other liquids, fire, clouds, living flesh, bone or foodstuffs.
  FLORA AND FAUNA
  The plants and animals in a Wyld zone might follow a theme as well.
  Collective Organisms. Creatures can separate into smaller creatures, such as animals that disperse into 
  small, flying ants when threatened.
  Hybrids. Plants contain elements of different plant species, animals are made of parts of different animals 
  from Creation (such as gryphons or beastmen). Perhaps there is no distinction between plants and animals: 
  trees, shrubs and herbs move around, or animals have leaves. The plants and animals may all possess various 
  elemental traits, such as wings of flame, shells made of stone or metal or feathers of ice.
  Speech. Animals or plants can speak, and some or all may be intelligent.
  Unifying Trait. The flora or fauna appear relatively normal, but they are all the same color, they all have 
  snake scales or they all have three eyes.
  Warped. The flora and fauna appear in some way twisted or distorted, often in a truly hideous fashion, 
  such as a land where animals appear to lack skins and all of their muscles and organs are clearly visible.
  
  15
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  LOCATING WAYPOINTS
  In the Wyld, distance consists of waypoints passed. 
  This means that raksha, and others who travel in the 
  Wyld, do not so much go to a particular place as travel for 
  a particular purpose. They don’t go out into the wilderness 
  just to travel 10 miles out and then back again; they go 
  out to hunt, to meet an ally or enemy, to prospect for 
  treasure or some other reason.
  If two people meet in the Wyld, and neither had any 
  definite plans about where they should meet, then the 
  waypoint reflects their mental states and desires, and by the 
  nearest elemental pole. Two lovers who yearn to meet for 
  a passionate rendezvous in the West may find each other 
  on a convenient island with happy, flower-clad islanders, 
  blossoming groves and bowers decked with singing birds. 
  (Of course, this does assume that the traveler has some 
  way of traversing the environment in the first place.) A 
  pair of bitter enemies seeking each other in the North 
  may come face-to-face across a field of splintered ice, 
  crisscrossed with thin bridges. A hero seeking guidance in 
  the South may find it at a lost oasis, where an old woman 
  sits and weaves a tapestry of serpents beside a dry well. A 
  wanderer looking for adventure in the East finds it above 
  the treetops, in a wide clearing bounded by huge leaves, 
  where jungle cats prowl in the shadows and a questing 
  cataphract demands her name and allegiance.
  Waypoints are parts of stories. They do not necessarily 
  have to make sense in terms of plausible geography (as in, 
  could there be a village here, or how can there be a field 
  of blades there); but they must be appropriate to the story. 
  When characters move around in the Wyld with direction 
  and intention, they unconsciously draw to themselves 
  whatever would give meaning and drama to their actions. 
  A waypoint will be thematically appropriate to a scene, 
  whether the participants consciously desire it or not.
  If someone in the Wyld states an intention to meet 
  another person at a specified location, such as “near the 
  village of flesh-potters,” “in the poison forest” or “on the 
  lip of the volcano,” and if the area of the Wyld is stable 
  enough for such a place to continue to exist, then the 
  place where they meet becomes a waypoint that happens 
  to have those characteristics. However, this can only 
  happen in the Bordermarches, or in more stable parts of 
  the Middlemarches; further out, the Wyld becomes too 
  unstable for travelers to find any waypoint twice.
  Deeper into the Middlemarches, or even the Deep 
  Wyld, waypoints become more impressionist and less 
  plausible in how they imitate Creation. A precipice is 
  impossibly high and looks down on impossibly sharp 
  rocks, or over a sea of living blood. A forest may be nothing 
  THE MECHANICS OF TRAVEL
  When beings of Creation use Charms to 
  speed travel through the Wyld, they force it into a 
  shape much like their own native milieu. In such 
  circumstances, each journey between waypoints 
  corresponds to 30 miles. In the Wyld, without influ-
  ence from Creation or the Creation-born, a journey 
  can occupy anywhere from minutes to days.
  Fair Folk characters can survey the local Wyld 
  by having their players roll (Perception + Awareness). 
  Success lets them identify major features—raksha, 
  unshaped, freeholds, wandering behemoths, Lunar 
  Exalted and so forth—as far away as the Storyteller 
  permits. With one success, they can identify known 
  raksha and freeholds and roughly assess others’ 
  movements and condition. Three or more successes 
  give data equivalent to a close but quick visual ex-
  amination. Players of Exalted characters can oppose 
  this with a (Conviction + Stealth) roll.
  However, the biggest trick that the Fair Folk 
  have (and that others can master) is not so much 
  to travel between waypoints as to adjust where a 
  waypoint is. In Bordermarch waypoints adjacent to 
  Creation, a raksha can slide the waypoint along the 
  interface between the Wyld and Creation. To travel 
  in this manner, the raksha must spend a point of 
  Willpower, and the player must roll (Intelligence + 
  Craft [Glamour]) at difficulty 3. For every success 
  the player rolls, the raksha may slide her location 
  100 miles along the edge of Creation while staying 
  in the same waypoint, up to a maximum of 1,000 
  miles. Fae-Blooded mortals can also perform similar 
  feats of mobility.
  Naturally, waypoints in the Bordermarches are more 
  stable than ones in the Middlemarches, and waypoints 
  in the Deep Wyld form and dissolve in a single scene. 
  Just because the landscape temporarily remains solid 
  enough for an encounter doesn’t mean that it’s going 
  to make life easy for the raksha—or anyone else—who 
  passes through. Perhaps a conversation is best carried 
  out on the edge of an ocean, or halfway up a cliff. An 
  encounter with an enemy might take place atop a range 
  of bending bamboo spikes, while a horde of raving white 
  monkeys charges from the North. Maybe the wooden 
  walls of the house where the characters take shelter from 
  the storm are in fact the stomach lining of a large and 
  well-camouflaged behemoth, and they have kindled their 
  fire directly above its liver.
  
  16
  but background, vague trees in green and brown without 
  clear definition or identifiable as a precise species—just 
  the idea of a forest—or it may be impossibly detailed and 
  vivid, with every leaf a different shape and forcing you to 
  notice its uniqueness. A lake is the very lake the traveler 
  remembers from her childhood, and the lotuses blossom 
  just as they did when she first left home. The bamboo 
  trees overhead are sculpted from silver and emerald, and 
  each leaf has a different proverb carved on it.
  In the Bordermarches, and even in the Middlemarch-
  es, some waypoints correspond roughly to geographical 
  locations, in that they have a particular description and 
  tend to be generally the same whenever they are visited. 
  They also have stable connections to other waypoints. 
  These are usually associated with a particular Fair Folk 
  domain. Other inhabitants can also stabilize a waypoint 
  through their attention and expectation that their home 
  shall remain the same. Frequent visitors from Creation 
  may also stabilize a waypoint. Such waypoints tend to 
  slide inwards toward Creation itself, dragging the sur-
  rounding environment with them.
  One final problem with such waypoints is that the 
  raksha’s ability to slide them along the edge of Creation 
  can result in temporarily stable areas of the Wyld being 
  interchanged, and known waypoints close to the borders 
  of Creation moving from where they have previously been 
  used for meetings or trade. The Guild cannot rely upon 
  known waypoints for their expeditions into the Wyld to 
  trade slaves with the raksha, or to secure exotic goods; 
  they can only travel and hope.
  TAINTED LANDS
  Throughout most of Creation, the border between 
  the Wyld and Creation is unstable. Every month, the 
  border can shift by as much as a dozen miles, changing 
  with the phases of the moon. The occasional Wyld storm 
  can blow hundreds of miles into Creation. In the West, 
  the borders of the Wyld are even more unstable and can 
  shift several miles with the daily tides. In addition to 
  these short-term variations, conflicts with the Fair Folk 
  or powerful magical forces can send the Wyld sweeping 
  over part of Creation for a time, or force the Wyld to 
  withdraw for months, decades or, on rare occasions, 
  permanently. Regions that the Wyld has touched but 
  gave back to Creation are known as “tainted lands.” They 
  remain strange places long after they have fully stabilized. 
  Although tainted lands no longer partake of the Wyld’s 
  eternal change, they bear its marks forever after.
  
  17
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  The geography of the tainted lands is often subtly 
  askew. Perhaps sand dunes are steeper, or spires of rock 
  are thinner and more attenuated than could happen in 
  the rest of Creation. Everything slants in one direction, 
  as if gravity didn’t pull straight down, or the rocks, hills, 
  streams and trees show a geometrically regularity no 
  natural thing should attain.
  In other cases, the land shows obvious strangeness: 
  The region became a Middlemarch before freezing back 
  into Creation. Rock formations can look like undersea 
  reefs, the walls and buildings of modern or ancient cit-
  ies or even plants and animals. One tainted land might 
  consist of a petrified forest where both the trees and 
  animals are now solid stone. Another land might feature 
  exotic friezes and titanic inscriptions in lost tongues that 
  spontaneously appeared on preternaturally smooth rock 
  faces. Impossible features might remain, such as a huge 
  rock balanced on a spire of stone that’s simply too thin 
  to support it, but lingering energies of the Wyld hold 
  the rock and the spire in place.
  Plants and animals are occasionally born with minor 
  mutations or mutate as they grow older. Horned animals 
  such as goats or bison are sometimes born with three 
  or more horns, which are occasionally mobile, metal or 
  poisoned, trees may grow several kinds of fruit, snakes and 
  lizards are sometimes born with fur instead of scales and 
  similar strange events are moderately common. Humans 
  are not exempt, either.
  On the other hand, plants and animals from the 
  Wyld can survive in such tainted lands far more easily 
  than in the rest of Creation. A creature that is simply an 
  exotic but physically functional mixture of two animals, 
  for example, an antelope with large feathered wings, can 
  leave the Wyld and live anywhere within Creation. How-
  ever, trees that grow skulls filled with blood and brains 
  are simply too strange to survive in Creation—but they 
  might live in a tainted land. Hives of thumb-sized ants 
  that fashion miniature pikes and shields from fragments 
  of wood or bone and field organized phalanxes against 
  various tiny opponents could thrive in tainted lands.
  While materials in a tainted land must be (relatively) 
  natural, they need not be at all common or normal. 
  Boulders can be made of cobalt blue glass or well-aged 
  cheese, or a Wyld storm might leave filigrees of pure gold 
  on a rock face. Of course, this inlay could just as easily 
  consist of human bone or the dried venom of scorpions. 
  Any form and any mundane material are equally pos-
  sible, including exotic materials normally found nearer 
  the elemental poles. Tainted lands sometimes hold the 
  unmelting ice found in the farthest North or the coals of 
  the far South that burn forever without growing smaller. 
  The distinction between living and non-living materials 
  is irrelevant deep in the Wyld, and so both can be found 
  in unusual places in tainted lands: veins of dried blood 
  can be found inside solid rock as easily as veins of metal, 
  while animals found dead after the Wyld retreats may 
  have bones made of ice or steel.
  Although few mortals live willingly on the borders 
  of the Wyld, storms can bring the Wyld to the people 
  and create tainted lands far from Creation’s rim. All of 
  these places hold plants and animals that can be found 
  nowhere else in Creation, but that do not require braving 
  the dangers of the Wyld to acquire. Traders and barbarian 
  tribes who are loathe to visit even the Bordermarches can 
  gather exotic natural wonders without venturing there.
  The risk inherent in living in lands that both contain 
  the remnants of the Wyld’s energies and that the Wyld may 
  one day reclaim makes the tainted lands the perfect refuge 
  for anyone sufficiently desperate. Mortal bandits, outlaws, 
  Anathema cultists and similar outcastes often flee into 
  the tainted lands in the hope that the exotic terrain will 
  frighten their pursuers into withdrawing. These measures 
  often work, but the freedom from persecution offered 
  by the tainted lands is often the first step in the refugees 
  becoming Wyld mutants. Even if they never venture into 
  the Wyld, a few of their children may develop a pox or 
  POSSIBLE MINOR WAYPOINTS
  • A ruined temple to one of the characters, over-
  grown with vines
  • A chasm with a rickety rope bridge over a river 
  of blood
  • An obsidian island floating at the heart of 
  a volcano
  • A peach grove similar to those in Yu-Shan
  • A cloud platform amid a storm
  • An amphitheater exactly like the Chamber of 
  the Deliberative, only made of cheese
  • A field strewn with needles and one strand 
  of hay
  • A teahouse or inn filled with mannequins 
  wearing masks
  • An oasis in the middle of the desert
  • A clearing in a forest of trees whose leaves 
  whisper secrets
  • A cave in the side of a snowy mountain
  • The mouth of a huge skeleton
  • The back of a vast leviathan lumbering across 
  the countryside
  
  18
  debility… the promise of miracles waits just a few miles 
  away… or the Wyld returns to sweep them into itself.
  Over time, however, the impossible fades to the im-
  probable and finally to the merely unusual. The trees that 
  grew skulls grow skull-like walnuts instead. The bizarre 
  rock formations erode, or vegetation shrouds them until 
  one can only guess what they might have been. Fewer 
  people or animals are born with mutations, and these 
  sports are less severe. Onetime Wyld mutants might even 
  stabilize as a funny-looking but natural race to join the 
  human panoply.
  DESIGNING TAINTED LANDS
  For the Storyteller, creating a tainted land is a lot 
  like designing a Bordermarch or Middlemarch—only it 
  doesn’t change. The degree of deviation from Creation’s 
  norms depends on the severity and duration of the 
  Wyld exposure, and the length of time since the Wyld 
  retreated. A region that briefly became a Bordermarch 
  100 years ago might look almost normal, with only a 
  few oddities to show the Wyld’s passage. A region just 
  blasted by a powerful storm from the Deep Wyld might 
  look utterly fanciful, with the forms and substances of 
  things scrambled to madness.
  While they last, the changes of the Wyld usually 
  have the logic of story and myth, so consider a tainted 
  land’s past. An ancient battlefield might become a land 
  where dead trees made of bone stand with the rusting 
  and decayed shields of the fallen warriors dangle from 
  their branches like fruit. Similarly, a small grove of trees 
  where lovers tryst might become perfumed rose quarts, 
  or all of the walls in an ancient city’s ruin might become 
  slabs of marble engraved with the name of its long-dead 
  inhabitants, written in a language last spoken when the 
  Primordials ruled Creation.
  Tainted lands are often more closely and obviously as-
  sociated with an elemental direction than the surrounding 
  terrain in Creation. Southern tainted lands usually show 
  the touch of heat and fire, just as tainted lands in the East 
  are more verdant and overgrown than nearby non-tainted 
  regions. On the other hand, sometimes a tainted land 
  shows a strong influence from a different elemental pole: 
  an aquatic forest growing in Western coastal shallows, 
  for instance, or a patch of the South’s volcanic heat and 
  combustible substances in the North.
  THE BORDERMARCHES
  The border between Creation and the Bordermarches 
  is often very subtle. Instead of any obvious shift, oddi-
  ties and changes become more numerous and severe the 
  deeper you go into the Wyld. The edge of the Border-
  marches is normally several miles wide. Unsuspecting 
  mortals and Exalted sometimes wander into the Wyld 
  for hours before the violet-colored rivers or trees bearing 
  crystalline fruit prove they have left Creation’s tainted 
  rim for the Bordermarches. 
  Just as the tainted lands are the portions of Creation 
  most like the Wyld, the Bordermarches are the portion 
  of the Wyld most like Creation. The overall landscape 
  usually stays the same, or at least takes years to change, 
  but the details shift and change. Over the course of a 
  week, a huge and ancient tree along the side of a path 
  may change from a spreading oak to a chestnut… or a 
  strange conifer with purple, prehensile needles or even 
  a vaguely tree-shaped pillar of living greenstone. Just as 
  likely, the same tree can be on one side of the path today 
  and the other side tomorrow.
  Few mortals other than Exalted and Wyld barbarians 
  travel further than the Bordermarches voluntarily. Any 
  sensible person who finds he’s wandered further into the 
  Wyld is quick to retrace his steps toward a more stable 
  reality. A few ordinary barbarian tribes conduct important 
  rituals in the Wyld. Their mystics and shamans enter the 
  Bordermarches to pursue visions and power. Desperate and 
  hardened bandits, criminals facing execution or individuals 
  fleeing blood feuds and other deadly and immediate threats 
  to their lives may enter the Bordermarches as a refuge they 
  hope will be temporary. Only beastmen and Wyld barbarians 
  who embrace chaos, body and soul, knowingly spend their 
  entire lives in the Bordermarches. Life in the Bordermarches 
  is harsh: fearsome mutant beasts roam the Wyld in search 
  of prey, while Fair Folk and their hobgoblins invade from 
  the Middlemarches in search of mortal souls.
  The Bordermarches’ change is slow and relatively 
  minor ways, but mortals who spend too much time in 
  this area eventually mutate and become Wyld barbarians. 
  Although some especially hardy individuals may remain 
  DESIGN QUESTIONS
  • What are the region’s chief anomalies? Consider 
  the landscape, the plants, the animals and the 
  people (if any). How severe are the changes 
  from Creation?
  • Do any particular locations stand out as especially 
  strange or significant?
  • Does the tainted land contain anything useful 
  or valuable?
  • Does the tainted land contain anything danger-
  ous? (Beyond the lingering Wyld-taint itself.)
  • Does anyone visit, or even live in the tainted 
  land? Why?
  
  19
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  free from mutations, children conceived or born in the 
  Bordermarches always carry at least one pox, and most 
  of these mutations can pass on to their descendents.
  Despite the dangers, though, people can live in 
  the Bordermarches in ways the Creation-born can 
  understand. Time and distance do not shift too much. 
  Although the effects of the Wyld may play scramble the 
  forms and substances of things, the underlying reality 
  remains much like Creation.
  A Bordermarch can have trees with leaves of steel, 
  while huge flowers snap at passing animals. Sea creatures 
  grow shells of gold or obsidian, or gophers speak in the 
  tongue of the Old Realm. There are places where streams 
  of the finest plum wine flow into caverns of crystal—and 
  dank fens where even the moss on the trees drips with 
  venom. You can recognize the trees as trees, though, and 
  the seashells as seashells. In a Bordermarch, the trees 
  don’t bounce around like pogo sticks, and the seashells 
  don’t change in your hand to become miniature copies 
  of the Imperial manse.
  People who live in a Bordermarch, or who visit one pro-
  fessionally, do not let the occasional wonders blind them to 
  its dangers. Tigers and jungle vipers are pretty, too. Anyone 
  who wants to make his fortune in the Bordermarches—or 
  even live long enough to worry about mutation—must take 
  nothing for granted. Wyld barbarians and beastmen know 
  the dangers of their homeland; visiting outsiders had best 
  find some way to learn from them.
  DESIGNING BORDERMARCHES
  The Bordermarches are essentially transitional zones 
  that still look much like the nearby parts of Creation—just 
  turned a little weird. Amplify or re-shuffle the natural fea-
  tures and make the area and its inhabitants both slightly 
  mutable and somewhat deadlier. Bordermarches far in the 
  North, South, East or West show the influence of the nearby 
  elemental pole, but no more so than Creation itself.
  Bordermarch beasts keep a spurious plausibility. This 
  is not a place for lions made of living flame or other flat-
  out impossible creatures. Instead, a visitor might find a 
  yeddim-sized lion with a scorpion’s tail that feeds upon 
  ox-sized beetles with shells of living wood. Nothing about 
  Creation says a lion couldn’t be the size of a yeddim; only 
  the combination is unnatural.
  In addition, the Bordermarches are the only portion 
  of the Wyld that can connect to other realms of reality. A 
  few shadowlands have formed inside the Bordermarches. 
  Gateways can also open to the heavenly city of Yu-Shan 
  or the dread realm of Malfeas. Such triple junctions 
  of Creation, Chaos and another realm are extremely 
  rare—but they can happen.
  THE MIDDLEMARCHES
  Out past the Bordermarches lie the Middlemarches. 
  Here, the laws of reality become mere suggestions, though 
  they retain a little influence. Although fish may swim 
  easily through the sky and breathe air, they might still 
  be fish. A dropped rock may fall sideways, and fires may 
  freeze and snow burn, but the concepts of gravity, heat 
  and cold are still valid, at least some of the time. These 
  changes also stay consistent within a particular district 
  of the Wyld, although they may change over time.
  The Middlemarches scramble the qualities of Cre-
  ation every-which-way. Here, water flows uphill as often 
  as down, and rocks hold conversations with clouds that 
  walk like men. There are glens where lions made of fire 
  hunt stags made of living ice, and caverns hold lakes 
  that reshape themselves into living versions of a visitor’s 
  greatest fears. The kaleidoscopic changes can sometimes 
  make a Middlemarch resemble an ordinary part of Cre-
  ation—but never for long. 
  The border between the Bordermarches and the 
  Middlemarches is normally far less subtle than the tran-
  sition between the Bordermarches and Creation. Here, 
  the very nature of the Wyld can dramatically change in 
  the space of a few hundred yards. The vast, bottomless 
  cliffs that separate the Northern Bordermarches from 
  the Middlemarches offer the most blatant example, but 
  a few other borders are almost as dramatic.
  The other obvious difference from the Border-
  marches is the rate of change. In the Bordermarches, the 
  landscape changes slowly and gradually. The location of 
  a tree, the shape of a rock or the pattern of curves and 
  ox-bows in a stream may shift every few hours, but such 
  changes rarely occur more than a few times a day, never 
  when anybody watches, and only a few elements of the 
  landscape change at once.
  In the Middlemarches, these changes become far 
  more extensive. Everything in the Middlemarches changes 
  frequently, rapidly and extensively. In the deepest por-
  tions, a forest may always remain a forest—but the types 
  of trees, the density of the forest and the paths through it 
  can all change every time a traveler looks over her shoulder 
  or stops to rest. You couldn’t map a Middlemarch before 
  it became someplace else. At most, you could record a 
  Middlemarch’s theme—its most obvious qualities, and 
  their most usual combinations.
  At least a region’s largest features take some time 
  to change. An entire mountain range may transform 
  into a series of low atolls in the middle of an ocean, but 
  this change occurs over the course of days or weeks: the 
  mountains gradually sink, and the land around them 
  
  20
  slowly fills with water. However, you probably won’t find 
  yourself walking one minute and swimming the next.
  Probably. Time and distance can vary in a Middle-
  march, though not to the mad extent found further from 
  Creation. Days can seem to pass in hours, while seconds 
  crawl like minutes in other places. In some locations, 
  a single step can carry you across a meadow; in other 
  places, moving inches may take minutes of running. 
  Wyld mutations can manifest after only a few days in 
  the Middlemarches. In some cases, mutations can occur 
  within a few hours.
  The unshaped Fair Folk keep outposts in the 
  Middlemarches, but never visit for long. Fluid as the 
  Middlemarches seem to people from Creation, the lords 
  of Chaos still find these places difficult to manage and 
  control. Most Fair Folk who have taken form choose to 
  dwell within the Middlemarches, where they may enjoy 
  the sweet freedom of the Wyld, while not overly risking 
  contact with the courts of the unformed Fair Folk that 
  they have left behind.
  DESIGNING MIDDLEMARCHES
  The Middlemarches are always a transitional zone. 
  Some of Creation’s norms still apply, but others do not. 
  In the Northern driftlands, dropped objects need not fall 
  down and in the South, fire is a physical substance that 
  can resemble water or stone as much as the ephemeral 
  fire of Creation.
  A Middlemarch often shows a strong elemental 
  character that gives a method to the madness. Water, fire, 
  lava, ice, wind or trees act in physically impossible ways, 
  but stay in keeping with metaphor and dream logic: Lava 
  flows like water—so it can nourish incandescently hot 
  vegetation. People speak of trees having limbs, so trees in 
  the Wyld have arms and legs, and can walk. Harsh winds 
  can literally take solid form to buffet a visitor.
  In other portions of the Middlemarches, especially in 
  intermediate regions such as the jungles of the Southeast, 
  these elemental associations may take second place to 
  some bizarre magnification of existing natural features 
  or local legends. In all cases, the Middlemarches are 
  organized around one principle, or at most a handful of 
  central principles, that defines both their physical struc-
  ture and the physical laws of this particular region.
  For example, Creation’s far Northeast holds many 
  dense forests cut by huge, glacier-fed rivers. In the North-
  east Middlemarches, therefore, one often finds exotic 
  forests filled with trees many miles high that grow out 
  of a huge, swiftly flowing river whose many branches 
  and divisions seem almost like a vast tree made of flow-
  
  21
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  ing water. The river may flow with fresh water—or with 
  torrents of seawater, mercury, steaming blood or even 
  vast numbers of tiny leaves. Similarly, the Southeast 
  jungles are notorious for their profusion of snakes. In 
  a Southeastern Middlemarch, the trees and vines might 
  be made of huge serpents that slowly crawl over each 
  other. Some of these snakes are 100 yards long, and 
  many of them are multi-headed, as their bodies split 
  like the branches of a tree. Every few years they mate, 
  and the entire serpent-forest dissolves into a frenzy of 
  titanic movement.
  Regardless of how exotic a Middlemarch becomes, 
  the Middlemarches always have solid ground of some 
  sort, and the creatures dwelling within them keep some 
  relatively stable physical form. However, these creatures 
  can be made from living fire, solidified water or other 
  impossible materials. The distinctions between plants and 
  animals are often completely arbitrary. When designing a 
  section of the Middlemarches, consider a region’s central 
  traits and then assume that everything else can change 
  radically over the course of a few days.
  DEEP WYLD
  Consider once more the model of the Wyld as a 
  sea breaking on the shores of Creation: in the Deep 
  Wyld, the sea floor exercises little influence on the 
  stormy and dangerous waters that swirl above it. Only a 
  few outcrops of stable land remain above the waves of 
  constant change. Trees shed leaves that become birds, 
  the flowers sing or clouds become solid to crawl across 
  the land. The currents also churn the deeper structure 
  of the landscape: canyons open in mountains, expand 
  into valleys, sink into seas, rise again in forests or cities. 
  Or become a chorus of singing pigs.
  All the influences of Creation flood into the Deep 
  Wyld to help shape possibility, and jumble together with 
  no regard for the laws of reason, logic, scale or gravity. 
  Replicas of the greatest architecture of Creation, pres-
  ent or past, stand side by side with impossible freaks of 
  nature. Replicas of the ancient Dragon Kings roam the 
  land, while tyrant lizards and mice battle each other in 
  fields of flame or snow.
  Everything in the Deep Wyld is formed from the 
  materials appropriate to that elemental quarter, but can 
  take any shape at all, barring intervention by an unshaped 
  raksha. The creatures that roam each quarter of the Deep 
  Wyld, which may be considered “natural” to that area, 
  are similarly formed from the substances of that area. 
  In the East, the creatures that stalk the Deep Wyld are 
  composed of wood, leaves and flowers; in the South, they 
  are made of fire, smoke and ash. Creatures in the West 
  are sculpted out of water; while the North holds beings 
  made of ice and snow, wind, clouds and lightning.
  Living within the Deep Wyld requires either the 
  total ability to ignore or adapt to its changes or bunker-
  ing down in a zone of stability and only emerging when 
  necessary. Some creatures shift from form to form in 
  order to survive in whatever environment surrounds 
  them. In the windy North, for instance, growing wings 
  at a moment’s notice is useful.
  The unshaped raksha ignore the chaos of the region, 
  matching its fluidity with their own. What humans see as 
  their bodies are merely images that represent the focus of 
  the raksha’s self-awareness. The complete entity spreads 
  through miles of Deep Wyld, shifting and reshaping 
  themselves with every alteration of landscape and climate. 
  They can enter the Deep Wyld from the realm of Pure 
  Chaos without suffering too much from the faint traces 
  of Creation. The Ones Beyond enter Creation’s furthest 
  rim in order to explore, to ravage and to destroy.
  The Deep Wyld also holds creatures that were cre-
  ated or that crossed the borders during the Fair Folk 
  invasion. They are no longer fluid enough to survive in 
  Pure Chaos, but are too strange to endure long under 
  the strictures of Creation. Sometimes they wander into 
  Creation and mortals call them behemoths, after the 
  strange monsters wrought by the Primordials at the dawn 
  of time, but these beings are truly creatures of their own 
  sort. Whatever name they receive, they tend to cause im-
  mense destruction before Creation slays them.
  Powerful deities and Exalted can protect themselves 
  through mighty Charms… for a while. Beings from 
  Creation cannot survive for long in the Deep Wyld: 
  their substance is too mixed, too solid; the turbulent 
  elemental currents of the Deep Wyld quickly mutate 
  or dissolve them. Only the Lunar Exalted, protected 
  by moonsilver and their own protean nature, can resist 
  the Deep Wyld indefinitely. Even they, however, must 
  fear the unshaped raksha and other strange creatures 
  spawned from Chaos.
  Thinking too much about the Deep Wyld’s logic 
  leads to attempts to understand it, which can lead only 
  to madness. The Wyld does not have logic and cannot be 
  understood. It is the domain of unreason, and here, on the 
  edge of total Chaos, only a few fragments of recognizable 
  form remain, teasing the mind to try seeing some sort of 
  pattern in how they are put together. This has been the 
  downfall of many savants, who have thrown themselves 
  into efforts to find sense and meaning in the Wyld, and 
  have destroyed their own minds in the process.
  
  22
  DESIGNING THE DEEP WYLD
  The Deep Wyld is too chaotic to contain distinct 
  locations. A waypoint changes into something else within 
  the span of a single scene. At least there is usually some 
  continuity between what came before the change and 
  what exists afterwards: a forest falls before a plain exists, 
  and a mountain takes several minutes to rise rather than 
  simply not existing one moment and being there the 
  next. The principle of change remains constant; however, 
  nothing remains the same, and the changes do not have 
  to follow any theme. After the mountain rises, it could 
  sink again—or become a molehill inhabited by mile-sized 
  moles—or shrink to become an ice cream sundae—or any 
  crazed transformation you can imagine. Only the domi-
  nant element provides any hint of continuity.
  THE ELEMENTAL POLES
   At the furthest edge of Creation’s influence lie 
  the Elemental Poles of Fire, Air, Wood and Water. 
  They are in the Wyld, but not of it. The Wyld itself 
  slithers around them, but the poles themselves mark 
  the boundaries of Creation.
  The elemental poles have no fixed location. They are 
  the Furthest Point. As Creation expanded in the First Age, 
  the poles stretched further apart. As the Wyld swept in 
  to wash Creation’s borders away, the poles moved inward 
  toward their center, the Elemental Pole of Earth.
  To reach one of the other elemental poles, journey 
  outward from Creation and concentrate on the most 
  “elementally pure” parts of the landscape. While the 
  traveler runs the risk of straying into Chaos, if he keeps 
  heading toward the structured principle of the element 
  that he seeks, eventually he finds his way to the pole. 
  Once he arrives, there is no path into Chaos. To go from 
  an elemental pole into Pure Chaos, a traveler would have 
  to go back toward Creation, and thus re-enter the Deep 
  Wyld, and choose a different path from there.
  Around each pole lies total confusion and dizzying 
  change. A mountain range rises up in seconds, and then 
  reduced to plains, and then becomes a forest or a riverbed. 
  A great chasm opens before a traveler’s feet, and then 
  fills up again. The only real stability (and scarcely even 
  that) lies in the area directly around a traveler, briefly 
  firm due to the traveler’s own perceptions and to any 
  Charms or sorcery the traveler may use.
  As the forms become more chaotic, however, the 
  substance of the Wyld becomes purer near an elemental 
  pole. In the West, the sea reaches to the horizon; forests 
  rise from the surface of the water in high fountains that 
  bear leaves of fluid, mountains of water arise and hold 
  their shape until they are cast down again, and one may sail 
  down and up a vast ravine that holds its form as though 
  carved. In the South, springing trees and grasses of fire 
  burn without being consumed, while deer and birds of 
  flames pass by. In the East, the ground is made of wood 
  and leaves, while the people seen in the distances are 
  living dolls of grass and wood that speak with human 
  voices. In the North, the ceaseless wind blows the endless 
  wastes of snow and ice into a thousand fleeting shapes. 
  Solid floes of pallid, opaque air go rushing through the 
  sky like birds, and bolts of lightning become towers, trees 
  or tumbleweeds.
  However, the elemental poles themselves do not 
  show the same kind of chaos as the Wyld around them. 
  They keep to the rules of Creation, without mad re-com-
  binations or distortions of scale. The birds at the Pole 
  of Wood may be made of wood and leaves, but they are 
  true birds and not lizard-fishes that swim through the air. 
  The rivers at the Pole of Fire may consist of liquid flame 
  and lava and flow through banks of burning coal, but 
  they do not run uphill or sing opera. While the scenery 
  and terrain at the poles change constantly so that fields 
  of flowers blossom and die within a minute, and cliffs 
  rise and fall within an hour, they are elemental copies 
  of the things from within Creation, not impossibilities 
  from outside it. A few savants believe the poles offer the 
  originals of Creation’s forms, which the Pole of Earth’s 
  influence solidifies within Creation.
  Few dwellers in Creation could survive a journey 
  to the elemental poles, but those few have much to 
  gain. Savants and craftsmen can gather samples of the 
  pure element in untainted, undiluted form, to build 
  great works of craft and sorcery. Just as the jade of the 
  Imperial Mountain is the purest and most potent, no 
  mortal flame can match the heat of the Pole of Fire, 
  and no mortal herb can match the medical potency 
  of one culled from the Pole of Wood. Diplomats can 
  negotiate with mighty elementals, or maybe even the 
  Elemental Dragons themselves. Warriors and leaders 
  can seek ancient lost weapons, or conquer spirit courts 
  and strike down gods.
  The Fair Folk shun the elemental poles. These are 
  the domains of spirit courts controlled by powerful el-
  ementals. Here, a traveler can hope to find a moment’s 
  shelter from the constantly changing environment. The 
  spirits themselves prefer their dwellings as elementally 
  pure as the rest of the pole, but they do not like their 
  palaces dissolving into the elemental vortex. The spirits 
  may even provide special accommodations for guests 
  who cannot endure the full fury of their element. The 
  elementals of the poles tend to be arrogant and care 
  little for humanity, since these elementals usually lack 
  
  23
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  specific responsibilities elsewhere in Creation, or choose 
  to disregard them. Visitors may need to prove their worth 
  and force the elementals to remember what courtesy and 
  consideration are due the Princes of the Earth.
  PURE CHAOS
  Here there are no rules, no boundaries, no limits 
  and no restrictions. Anything is possible, can happen and 
  is happening, all at once. Mortals who enter a pocket of 
  utter Wyld suffer a strange sensory overload: they can-
  not process the infinite change happening around them, 
  and so their minds shut down, trying to cope. Creatures 
  who lack some sort of protection against the power of 
  the Wyld, such as a Fair Folk guardian, quickly find their 
  minds shattered and their bodies mutated beyond any 
  hope of recovery or even identification.
  Pure Chaos doesn’t just flout the laws of nature, it 
  flouts them insanely. This is part of what drives onlookers 
  mad: nothing can be relied upon, nothing follows logi-
  cally. A human mind can barely accept a flock of birds 
  made of fire swooping through the air, but when the 
  birds turn into fish a second later, and then dive into the 
  ground after that while making little grunting noises, and 
  spring up again as turnips that blossom pinkly, even the 
  sanest person cannot predict what will happen next. But 
  even these flickering forms are merely contagion from 
  Creation—images and shapes that Chaos reflects from a 
  visitor’s own mind. Pure Chaos itself offers images that 
  no human mind can encompass, relationships that break 
  all sane patterns of thought even to consider them….
  In Pure Chaos, parallel lines touch at a point that is 
  too far to be visible, and yet is perfectly clear when you 
  look at it. Colors unknown in Creation bleed into each 
  other to make shades you can taste. Objects feel horridly 
  soft and mushy, but also as hard and angled as diamonds. 
  Purple lights flow into six-dimensional labyrinths that 
  smell of something rotten. Worst of all, it almost, almost 
  makes sense, and the viewer is left feeling that a moment 
  longer would allow her to understand. That understand-
  ing, of course, is the first sign you are going mad.
  This is the home of the unshaped Fair Folk, and 
  they rule over it utterly. At their behest, all things are 
  possible, and none may gainsay their desires. Time and 
  space are at their command in Pure Chaos, and they 
  may do as they will. Only the most foolhardy, powerful 
  or courageous dare to invade the Fair Folk’s realm. Or 
  the most crazy, of course. While many of the Fair Folk 
  endure within Creation to plague its inhabitants, count-
  less more remain, unformed, pondering how to exploit 
  the world of fixed form to their purposes, or whether 
  they should simply rip it apart and reduce everything to 
  Chaos once again.
  Pure Chaos has no outer limits. While Creation has 
  boundaries, Chaos by its definition has none. It has no 
  outer edges, no ultimate ruler, no defined social order or 
  geography—nothing but vortices of force and possibility 
  that sometimes, by chance, assume a kind of coherence 
  and become entities, or locations or tools. Any forms 
  in Chaos are mimicries of what the Ones Beyond have 
  observed inside Creation, rather than being the fruit of 
  any coherent thought. Even the emotions and thoughts 
  of the unshaped raksha are copied from Creation: they 
  could not think or feel without the example of thinking, 
  feeling creatures before them. Naturally, the raksha resent 
  this imposition, while simultaneously thieving concepts 
  and images to comprehend their own resentment.
  Introducing someone from Creation into the swirling 
  patterns of Chaos has an even more pronounced effect 
  than simply having him show up at a waypoint. It’s like 
  throwing a stone into a pool, or forcing crystallization: 
  the solid, real person becomes a focus for events and 
  structure. Entities in the area are drawn toward him, 
  feeling the ripples that he creates in the utter random-
  ness that they are used to. He is noticed. He becomes a 
  waypoint, and the formless chaos may coalesce into a 
  location around him—a mad, deadly location shaped by 
  his own mind and the hatred of the Ones Beyond. Even 
  the raksha who have taken forms inside Creation cannot 
  safely return to Pure Chaos. The environment notices 
  them, reacts to them, re-forms itself in response to their 
  nature and actions and ultimately attempts to dissolve 
  them into chaotic elements as well.
  ANOMALOUS LOCATIONS
  The Wyld breaks boundaries, including the bound-
  ary between itself and Creation. In addition to tainted 
  lands where the Wyld left its mark on Creation, specks 
  of stable Creation sometimes endure in the Wyld, while 
  pockets of the Wyld infect Creation.
  POCKETS OF THE WYLD
  The Wyld is not confined to the edges of Creation. 
  In some locations, pockets of the Wyld also exist within 
  Creation. The most infamous of these localized aber-
  rations lies in the heart of Nexus’s Firewander district. 
  Similar to many such Wyld areas, it dates from the end 
  of the First Age, when the attacking Fair Folk destroyed 
  Essence-powered weapons designed to defend the city. 
  Scavenger lords create more Wyld pockets when they tin-
  ker—disastrously—with powerful First Age devices beyond 
  
  24
  STORIES IN CHAOS
  For the Storyteller, designing Pure Chaos is difficult. There is little actual story or logic to players 
  stumbling through one random obstacle after another, though a couple of dramatic scenery changes help 
  underline the nature of the environment. Since the main rule of Pure Chaos is that there are no rules, 
  the Storyteller should go for thematic aspects of description rather than specific geographical ones.
  It is not advisable to run more than a single scene or two at a time in Pure Chaos. Not only is it 
  hard to sustain the atmosphere, but too much exposure detracts from Chaos’s nature as the land of 
  true madness, where no sane person or thing can exist for long. Even the noblest and mightiest of 
  Exalted should fear Pure Chaos and be grateful for their escape. A journey beyond Creation’s furthest 
  rim is the climax of an epic adventure.
  The Storyteller may wish to bear these points in mind.
  Why are the characters there? If they seek a particular entity or location, then the nature of 
  Chaos draws those things to the characters within a short period—along with suitable dangers. If the 
  characters have stumbled into Pure Chaos by accident, or been brought there against their will, then 
  they want to escape. The Storyteller may throw some environmental obstacles in their way, or allow 
  them to encounter (or flee) one of the unshaped raksha, but the scene’s focus lies in leaving the area 
  and returning to a zone of relative stability. In either case, the progress of the scene should be either 
  toward the encounter or toward the escape, not just stumbling round in circles.
  How do the characters react? The players may actually wish to explore their characters’ reactions 
  to this insanity, by deepening the bonds that tie their group together and holding each other back from 
  the edge of lunacy, or by suffering a Limit Break, or simply just roleplaying reaction to an environment 
  so unlike anything they have known in Creation.
  What are their current emotions and wishes? A mournful, gloomy character affects the “landscape” 
  around her unconsciously. White lilies bloom like fungus on the trees before their blossoms swim away 
  into the wastelands of dark reeds and singing wolves. An optimistic, merry character (should such a 
  thing be possible under the circumstances) finds that happy little ponies prance around him before 
  chewing each other to pieces, and that the colored winds braid themselves like ribbons and make 
  temporary pathways over precipices, while the stars descend to light his path and fireflowers bloom on 
  the corpses around him. Similarly, if the characters think about particular people or locations from 
  Creation, the flux around them takes those images—to a degree. The characters may find themselves 
  walking through a distorted parody of Great Forks, where the buildings around them are made from 
  rotted meat, or travel through a field of flowers where every blossom has Mnemon’s face.
  What unshaped are in the neighborhood? The Storyteller should design one or more unshaped 
  raksha to provide a (somewhat) coherent encounter for the characters. An unshaped raksha has par-
  ticular habits of behavior and something approximating structured thought, but also shows illogical 
  limitations, preconceptions and desires. At least a few of the Ones Beyond probably want to interact 
  with the characters, though this may involve anything from discussion to unmaking them or devouring 
  them. The Ones Beyond do not consider such options mutually exclusive.
  How do they get out? This is particularly important if the unshaped raksha hunt the characters. 
  The Storyteller should prepare some particularly vibrant images beforehand, so as not to detract from 
  the urgency of a chase scene. The environment takes shape to hold the characters back: chasms gape at 
  their feet, plants entangle them, fish bite at their shoulders and legs, flowers grow to giant size and bar 
  their way, hurricanes drop mountains of pudding on them…. Chaos becomes even more nightmarish 
  than it was already (though more comprehensible). Only fixed purpose, Charms and desperation can 
  drag the characters back over the borders into Creation.
  
  25
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  their comprehension. The largest and most dangerous 
  of these Wyld areas result from detonation of the reality 
  engines that once helped protect Creation. Imprudent 
  experiments in the First Age created a few Wyld zones 
  that seem likely to last for millennia.
  The great Fair Folk invasion left other Wyld pockets 
  where the Exalted or the Realm Defense Grid slew the 
  mighty unshaped raksha. Just as mortal deaths erode 
  the barriers between Creation and the Underworld, the 
  violent dissolution of the greatest Fair Folk sometimes left 
  weak spots where the Wyld leaks through. On the other 
  hand, a few Wyld pockets are still-living unshaped raksha, 
  trapped within Creation and sustained by demesnes or 
  flukes of local geomancy. They have lost their minds but 
  retain their rage and hatred for Creation, producing some 
  of the deadliest Wyld pockets of all.
  Still other Wyld pockets form when storms of Chaos 
  blow into Creation. The local geomancy sometimes traps 
  an eddy of the storm. These Wyld pockets seldom last 
  more than a few years, however, and most subside within 
  months, leaving a small patch of tainted land.
  Only the Blessed Isle is free from Wyld pockets. The 
  Fair Folk invasion never breached its shores. The Realm’s 
  proximity to the stabilizing Elemental Pole of Earth offers 
  much protection from the Wyld, which the vast geomantic 
  engines and weapons of the Imperial Manse strengthens to 
  protect the entire Blessed Isle. As a result, manifestations 
  of the Wyld cannot exist on the Blessed Isle.
  Wyld zones are uncommon in the Threshold, but 
  most large nations contain at least a handful; they become 
  more frequent the further one travels from the Blessed 
  Isle. Fortunately, Wyld pockets seldom cover more than 
  a few dozen square miles, and many encompass just a few 
  acres. Larger Wyld zones do tend to be less intense. Most 
  large Wyld pockets within Creation are equivalent to the 
  Bordermarches: reality shifts and changes slowly and in 
  relatively subtle ways. The East and West hold the largest 
  Wyld pockets. In the East, several Wyld zones contain 
  entire forests. In the West, isolated pockets of the Wyld 
  surround a number of atolls and other small islands.
  Local people know the boundaries of Wyld pockets 
  and usually mark them; whether outsiders notice the 
  marks is another matter. While some communities build 
  fences or erect stone pillars with warning inscriptions, 
  isolated farmers or barbarians may settle for marks carved 
  on tree trunks or small piles of rocks. Fortunately, the 
  boundaries of Wyld pockets rarely fluctuate by more than 
  a dozen yards—unlike the actual borders of the Wyld.
  Most Wyld pockets gradually decay in size and power. 
  The inherent solidity of Creation is a powerful and en-
  during force, and any region surrounded by Creation on 
  all sides must feel its continuing pressure. Early records 
  state that the Wyld zone in the Firewander district was 
  once the equivalent of Pure Chaos; now the district’s 
  heart merely equals the Middlemarches, and the size of 
  this Wyld pocket has decreased by a third since the end 
  of the First Age.
  When a Wyld pocket seems to last forever without a 
  trace of weakening, some mystical force must artificially 
  maintained it. For instance, the Fair Folk can tap and 
  twist the power of a demesne to create a freehold within 
  Creation—a Wyld pocket under their control. Comatose, 
  unshaped raksha are a variation on this idea. Malfunc-
  tioning sorcery or magitech are the other chief sustainers 
  of Wyld pockets—including, ironically, the devices once 
  meant to protect Creation from the Wyld.
  CREATING POCKETS OF THE WYLD
  Hundreds of Wyld pockets are scattered throughout 
  the Threshold, and each one is unique. Wyld zones cre-
  ated by the Fair Folk have a specific theme and feel set by 
  their master. Accidental Wyld pockets often exaggerate 
  the characteristics of the surrounding terrain, or are zones 
  of exotic randomness where reality constantly shifts and 
  can re-form into almost any new shape.
  In any case, a Wyld zone’s power is most important 
  information for both the Storyteller designing a Wyld 
  pocket and the characters who explore it. A Wyld pocket 
  that is equivalent to the Bordermarches is a very differ-
  ent place from one that is equivalent to the Deep Wyld. 
  Wyld zones are never equivalent to Pure Chaos; such utter 
  negation of order cannot exist in an area surrounded by 
  Creation. However, Wyld pockets equivalent to the Deep 
  Wyld happen now and then. They are one of the most 
  common results of a large reality engine exploding (the 
  other common result is to for everything in a similar-sized 
  area to be turned into stone).
  Unlike the Deep Wyld at the edge of Creation, pockets 
  of the Deep Wyld need not show any strong elemental asso-
  ciations. Every Wyld pocket, however, contains some central 
  trait that provides a degree of consistency. Utter random-
  ness without pattern or sense only happens in Pure Chaos. 
  Although physical laws may change, the laws of theme and 
  story remain as true in small pockets of the Wyld as they 
  are in the larger expanses surrounding Creation.
  Each Wyld pocket has a specific theme. A Wyld pocket 
  shaped by the Fair Folk has a theme set by their mad whims. 
  An accidental Wyld zone’s theme might result from the 
  circumstances of its genesis. Some Wyld pockets merely 
  exaggerate aspects of their surroundings… but anything’s 
  possible, from birds to music to hunger. Take hunger as 
  an example. In a pocket of Deep Wyld, fantastic predators 
  
  26
  might be spontaneously generated from the earth and 
  devour one another in an endless spectacle of eating. A 
  subtler, Bordermarch pocket might look like a peaceful 
  orchard of trees loaded with ripe, luscious fruit… but the 
  more you eat this fruit, the hungrier you get. If you don’t 
  stop, you could starve to death in an afternoon.
  Such places offer huge advantages to any Exalt or hero 
  who can exploit them. On the other hand, they probably 
  survived so long because of First Age defenses. Powerful 
  sorcery, weapons or supernatural guardians may repel 
  Exalted just as well as they do hazards of the Wyld.
  Gods or demons of sufficient power, stranded in or 
  exiled to the Wyld, might create personal zones of stabil-
  ity. A few other potent creatures can also hold the Wyld 
  at bay. Even these potent entities risk losing themselves 
  to chaos, however. Any deity (except perhaps the Incar-
  nae) who sustains a pocket of Creation must commit a 
  great deal of its power to do so, and would require some 
  compelling reason to maintain it.
  Several islands of Creation are embassies of Heaven 
  to important courts of the Fair Folk. Such embassies are 
  normal portions of Creation that do not even count as 
  tainted lands. The gods of these sanctuaries serve in 
  these hardship posts by command, and usually wish to 
  leave as soon as possible.
  On the other hand, a few gods and goddesses have 
  gone to the other extreme. They walled themselves away 
  in the Wyld, and rule a petty domain as absolute lord and 
  master—but they grow ever more insane in their isolation. 
  Some of these gods are celestial criminals who fled Yu-
  Shan for fear of audits or other punishment, while other 
  gods lost their position through their rivals’ power plays. 
  A few pitiful deities wished to protect worshippers or ter-
  ritory from the incoming Wyld, and trapped themselves 
  in a self-chosen prison that they cannot leave, for fear of 
  losing everything that defines their existence.
  In a darker vein, shadowlands gain a degree of stability 
  from their connection to the Underworld. The Wyld may 
  affect them to some degree, but they also maintain their 
  integrity and boundaries. This can make them unexpected 
  refuges for the living in an emergency. Of course, they have 
  their own hazards, such as ghosts, the walking dead, perhaps 
  a deathknight who already uses it as a base in the Wyld, 
  and direct links to the Underworld. When 100 raksha on 
  nightmare-swift steeds decide to hunt you, however, even 
  these dangers can seem like a positive advantage.
  Many sanctuaries lack inhabitants, but several of the 
  largest contain First Age towns inhabited by mortals and 
  Dragon-Blooded who have had no contact with Creation 
  since the days of the Shogunate. Others include lands 
  inhabited by tree folk, beastmen or Dragon Kings. The 
  Lunar Exalted know about most of these sanctuaries and 
  use them as refuges, resources and, occasionally, fiefdoms 
  or experiments in shaping societies.
  The Fair Folk overran many pockets of Creation cen-
  turies ago, and killed or enslaved the mortal and Exalted 
  inhabitants. Few of the remaining regions could survive a 
  ARTIFICIAL WYLD POCKETS 
  (ARTIFACT •• OR •••)
  A sufficiently wealthy and determined person 
  can import material from the Wyld to create a small 
  pocket of partial unreality. A very rich person might 
  do this to keep Wyld creatures in a zoo, as a medical 
  resource (such as the arm-beasts from the Forest of 
  Arms; see p. 132), or for a Wyld cult. Creating such 
  an artificial Wyld zone involves transporting material 
  from the Middlemarches, then containing it within 
  thaumaturgical boundaries. The result is effectively 
  an Artifact, and follows the rules and costs for creating 
  Artifacts. An artificial tainted land is Artifact ••; 
  an artificial Bordermarch is Artifact •••. Such a 
  Wyld pocket requires fresh, monthly infusions of 
  soil, stones, vegetation or other Wyld materials to 
  maintain their potency; the monthly Resource cost 
  is one greater than the pocket’s Artifact rating, or 
  two greater on the Blessed Isle.
  POCKETS OF CREATION
  Just as small regions of the Wyld exist within the 
  boundaries of Creation, small pockets of stable Creation 
  exist within the Wyld. None of these lands exist within 
  Pure Chaos, but they can be found in the other, more 
  stable, regions of the Wyld. None are larger than a dozen 
  miles across, and some are no larger than a small hill or 
  a few city blocks.
  What sort of place can endure in the Wyld and remain 
  stable? Only a place established with great power, and 
  possibly still drawing on that power. Unfortunately, any 
  power that can resist the Wyld for centuries may present 
  hazards of their own.
  The most common reasons for pockets of Creation 
  are functional reality engines or intact jade obelisks that 
  survived the Fair Folk invasion. Other sorcery or devices 
  from the Old Realm may impose stability on the Wyld 
  as well: for instance, legends speak of an artifact called 
  the Eye of Autochthon that could quell the Wyld. The 
  Exalted of the Old Realm built cities, palaces, sorcery-
  laboratories or factory-cathedrals on the world’s rim to 
  exploit the Wyld or expand the frontiers of Creation.
  
  27
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  concerted assault by the Fair Folk, so the inhabitants must 
  reach some accommodation with the local raksha. The 
  people might offer tribute or otherwise persuade the Fair 
  Folk that coexistence makes an amusing game. In other 
  cases, the people have some threat fearsome enough—First 
  Age weapons, perhaps, or a Lunar’s protection—that the 
  Fair Folk are willing to leave them alone.
  JADE OBELISKS
  The ancient rulers of the Solar Deliberative did 
  not remove the older obelisks when they extended the 
  boundaries of Creation. This left some obelisks hundreds 
  of miles from Creation’s new borders. The Fair Folk in-
  vasion destroyed most of the obelisks at Creation’s rim, 
  but hundreds of the older monuments survived. The 
  broken and inactive ruins of many more can be found 
  in or near the Wyld.
  Intact obelisks are almost identical. They are made 
  from white jade and stand seven yards high, three 
  yards wide and two yards thick. Thumb-thick bands of 
  orichalcum line their edges, and the four vertical faces 
  of the obelisk bear moonsilver inscriptions. On the two 
  widest faces, complex magic sigils lace around the great 
  seals of Gaia and Autochthon. The writing on the two 
  narrow faces recount the events that lead to the obelisk’s 
  placement, including records of ancient battles and the 
  names of the Celestial Exalted involved.
  Although these obelisks no longer protect the entire 
  border of Creation from Chaos, each obelisk still carries 
  potent stabilizing enchantments. Land within seven miles 
  of an obelisk cannot permanently become part of the Wyld. 
  Storms of Chaos can sweep over protected areas and the 
  lesser ebb and flow of the Wyld can still cover this land 
  during the nights of the full moon, but the Wyld cannot 
  cover land protected by one of these obelisks for more 
  than one week every month. In addition, both the land 
  itself and all permanent structures within this area cannot 
  be altered by temporarily incursions of the Wyld.
  This protection no longer extends to plants, animals, 
  mortals or temporary structures such as tents. However, 
  the landscape does not change: hills and riverbeds all 
  retain their shape despite the worst Wyld storms, and 
  Western islands that bear an obelisk cannot be washed 
  away by the Wyld’s destructive tides. In addition, the 
  effect of the Wyld on living things and similar objects 
  is reduced by one level within a mile of the obelisk, and 
  nothing short of Pure Chaos can affect anything within 
  100 yards of an obelisk.
  
  28
  Today, these surviving obelisks give the borders of 
  Creation a scalloped appearance in some regions, as the 
  Wyld extends inward between them. Other obelisks preserve 
  tiny islands of Creation in the Bordermarches and Middle-
  marches, with bands of tainted land around them.
  A ring of obelisks might protect a much wider 
  area—after all, the great circle of obelisks once shielded 
  all of Creation. Unfortunately, a jade obelisk weighs more 
  than 100 tons. Most proposals to create new jade obelisks, 
  or make better use of the existing supply, run aground on 
  the problem of transporting such colossal weights.
  Naturally, surviving obelisks are known to every 
  mortal or Exalt living near them, and held as treasures 
  beyond price. Local people often incorporate the obelisks 
  into their religion. Any small gods of the region don’t 
  object, because they need the obelisks, too. When mortal 
  astrology or warning talismans predict a fluctuation of 
  the Wyld, everyone who lives nearby seeks shelter at the 
  sacred monument.
  In some cases, a single tribe or community owns the 
  obelisk and defends it against all comers. The people do 
  not permit outsiders to take shelter, or the community 
  demands a high price. Other pillars become neutral 
  ground where everyone can find refuge. (In the South, 
  jade obelisks also tend to occupy lush oases, adding to 
  their value. They are held as common ground because 
  anyone who tried to claim sole ownership would provoke 
  a genocidal alliance against them.) During Wyld storms, 
  beastmen, barbarians and Wyld barbarians all huddle 
  within the protection of the obelisk, while also carefully 
  watching one another. Their comrades slay anyone who 
  violates this peace, lest their act bring down the wrath of 
  all neighboring tribes—not to mention the gods who also 
  flock to the obelisk’s protection. The gathered mortals 
  pray, of course, so a Wyld storm also makes a good op-
  portunity for gods to solicit worship and for barbarians 
  to present petitions.
  CREATING SANCTUARIES
  A pocket of Creation usually has terrain, climate and 
  other features appropriate to their elemental direction. 
  Southern pockets of Creation tend to be deserts or volca-
  noes, Eastern sanctuaries are wooded and so on. However, 
  areas created by Old Realm sorcery and technology may 
  feature incongruous or unusual buildings, or have been 
  transformed so completely that they look like nothing 
  else in Creation. In such extreme cases, infiltration by 
  normal aspects of that direction (cold winds and ice in 
  the North, or lakes and seas in the West) show that the 
  sanctuary’s boundaries have weakened, and the Wyld 
  is breaking in.
  REALITY ENGINES
  During the height of the First Age, the mighty Solar 
  Exalted used powerful Charms to expand the frontiers 
  of Creation. To protect advance bases in the Wyld and 
  to ensure that new areas would remain safe and stable 
  before a jade obelisk was placed nearby, the Copper Spi-
  ders built powerful artifacts called reality engines. These 
  devices protect an area from the ravages of the Wyld. A 
  small engine might shield a single building complex; 
  the largest reality engines protected entire townships or 
  mighty metropoli covering dozens of square miles.
  The Solars built these devices to run with little or no 
  maintenance. A few reality engines still work long after 
  the Wyld swallowed the territory surrounding them. As a 
  result, more than a dozen First Age cities, and two entire 
  factory cathedrals, exist as islands of Creation within 
  the Bordermarches and Middlemarches of the Wyld. 
  Some of these islands are still inhabited by mortals and 
  Terrestrial Exalted who have not seen Creation since the 
  end of the Shogunate.
  Even though reality engines all have the same func-
  tion, they come in a wide variety of forms. They range 
  in size from one to 10 yards across. The larger the reality 
  engine, the greater the area it can affect. The size and 
  shape of the protected area depends both on the innate 
  power of the reality engine and how it is tuned.
  The most powerful reality engines were made dur-
  ing the height of the First Age. These are smooth and 
  elegant geometric forms of clear, faintly glowing crystal, 
  inlaid and shot through with filigree of moonsilver and 
  DESIGN QUESTIONS
  When creating a pocket of Creation amid the Wyld, 
  the Storyteller should consider several factors.
  • What is the history of this sanctuary? Who or 
  what created it, and why?
  • Is it currently being maintained by some power 
  source, or not?
  • Are there any current allies nearby who support it?
  • Are there any enemies nearby who want to seize 
  control of it?
  • Are there any enemies nearby who want to de-
  stroy it?
  • What is the current psychological state of its 
  inhabitants, trapped in the middle of the Wyld? 
  Can they leave? If so, why do they stay?
  • Is it in the process of eroding, and will the arrival 
  of outsiders accelerate this?
  • What are its defenses, if any?
  
  29
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  orichalcum, and set with nuggets of jade. A typical Old 
  Realm engine might consist of an icosahedron twice the 
  height of a man, balancing on one point and orbited by a 
  dozen melon-sized tetrahedra, cubes and spheres. Reality 
  engines made earlier in the First Age appear considerably 
  more complex and often resemble the intricate magitech 
  of the Shogunate. Such a reality engine might be a squat 
  jade cylinder three yards across and two yards tall, with 
  levers, dials and switches made from the other magical 
  materials and holding intricate clockwork of the same 
  substances. Reality engines made during the last days of 
  the First Age were the most exotic. They often take the 
  form of portrait busts or even statues of their creators or 
  other then-famous Solar or Lunar Exalted, with concealed 
  panels that open to reveal miniature versions of the 
  clockworks and crystals found in the earlier models.
  Reality engines were all build during the First Age, 
  and they do not wear out and break down. Unfortunately, 
  they can be damaged. Reality engines that were dam-
  aged but not destroyed may create large, self-sustaining 
  Wyld pockets: the damaged device reverses its normal 
  function by forcibly and continuously transforming 
  an area from Creation into the Wyld. If someone can 
  brave the dangers of this Wyld pocket to shut down the 
  reality engine, the area shrinks or becomes less chaotic. 
  Repairing the device often quickly restores the area to 
  the stability of Creation.
  Because of the power inherent in all reality engines, 
  the center (and sometimes the entirety) of such a Wyld 
  pocket is equivalent to the Middlemarches or occasionally 
  the Deep Wyld. A damaged reality engine cannot generate 
  Pure Chaos, but the area around the reality engine may 
  offer physical dangers as well as Wyld mutation. Blasts 
  of fire, animate toxic vines, tornado winds or razor-edges 
  shafts of stone may erupt at random, or the disrupted ele-
  ments of Creation may generate even stranger perils.
  Nevertheless, the lure of such a powerful and useful 
  device draws Scavenger Lords, Dynasts from the Realm and 
  occasionally Celestial Exalted into these Wyld pockets in 
  hopes they can repair or turn off the reality engine inside. 
  In the first centuries after the Shogunate’s fall, several Wyld 
  zones were restored to Creation when Dragon-Blooded 
  managed to turn off the damaged reality engine inside.
  Of course, a person who doesn’t know how reality 
  engines work might destroy the occult machine instead. 
  The Dragon-Blooded also (reluctantly) destroyed a few 
  reality engines they could not hope to repair. This is 
  profoundly dangerous. The Wyld pocket may stabilize 
  as something both strange and deadly, such as a boiling 
  lava pit or a grove of exceptionally poisonous trees found 
  nowhere else in Creation.
  FREEHOLDS
  The Fair Folk are creatures of the Wyld, but even they 
  don’t want chaos around them all the time. Powerful raksha 
  can transform demesnes into freeholds—havens that obey 
  their lord’s will. A freehold is both a zone of the Wyld and 
  an island of stability. Which aspect a visitor notices first 
  depends on the freehold’s surroundings and the taste of 
  the raksha noble who controls it. A freehold could look 
  like anything from a near-copy of Creation to a fantasia 
  as mad as anything found in the Deep Wyld. Whatever 
  the freehold’s appearance, however, a freehold remains an 
  expression of the Fair Folk’s power… and nothing about 
  the Fair Folk can be considered even remotely safe.
  A CAREFUL AMBIGUITY
  A freehold combines aspects of Creation and the 
  Wyld. The environment shifts as easily and rapidly as 
  in a Middlemarch, making it comfortably fluid for the 
  raksha. The freehold’s lord can lock certain aspects of 
  its appearance in place, though. The ruling raksha usu-
  ally fixes the freehold’s décor but allows the placement 
  of trees, fountains, buildings or rooms within buildings 
  to change freely.
  The freehold also grants a Middlemarch’s conceal-
  ment against astrology. On the other hand, Wyld mutation 
  SERVICING AND REPAIR
  Only Solar Exalted can create reality engines, 
  and only Celestial Exalted can repair badly damaged 
  ones. However, sufficiently trained Dragon-Blooded 
  can perform minor repairs and perform routine 
  maintenance on models that require such servicing. 
  The return of the Solar Exalted has brought forth 
  rumors that at least one small Wyld zone has been 
  eliminated and that the reality engine inside it was 
  repaired and moved elsewhere.
  Repairing a moderately damaged reality engine re-
  quires the efforts of a technician with Occult •••••, 
  Lore ••••• and Craft (First Age Devices) •••••. 
  These repairs require one day of work, materials 
  costing Resources •••, and an (Intelligence + Craft 
  [First Age Devices]) roll at difficulty 4. Severe damage 
  adds one dot to each required trait and increases the 
  difficulty of the roll to 5.
  Retuning a reality engine to alter the size or 
  shape of the protected area is somewhat easier. 
  The technician merely requires Occult ••••, 
  Craft (First Age Devices) •••• and Lore ••••. 
  The technician’s player rolls (Intelligence + Lore) 
  at difficulty 3.
  
  30
  does not occur unless the bonefire’s master deliberately 
  withdraws protection from a person or creature.
  APPEARANCE
  A freehold’s location greatly influences its character. 
  Fair Folk of the East usually build their freehold dwell-
  ings out of wood; in the Far East, the raksha prefer to 
  shape vast living trees so that their trunks, branches and 
  leaves form the structure and furnishings of the freehold’s 
  fortress. Similarly, Northern raksha often carve their 
  freeholds from mountains or build them from unmelting 
  ice. Western raksha build their freeholds underwater or 
  on lonely islands, and may build their dwellings from 
  shells, coral, living seaweed or sheets of solid water. 
  Southern raksha conjure whirlwinds of sand, obsidian 
  desert strongholds or citadels shaped from heatless flame. 
  Beyond that… anything goes! The sun and moon can 
  look like lamps hung from the stone vault of the sky, or 
  the flowers may sing lullabies.
  Freeholds often feature castles, manor houses or 
  temples designed for defense as well as for beauty and 
  caprice. The citadel has room for many lesser raksha ser-
  vants as well as whatever close allies the ruler may possess, 
  rather than requiring them to dwell in the surrounding 
  domain. After these practical considerations, though, 
  fantasy reigns. A castle may spin like a top. A manor is 
  raised on a mile-high pillar. A temple forms the center of 
  a gigantic flower whose petals close in the evening.
  THE BONEFIRE
  The wellsprings of Essence known as demesnes ex-
  ist through all of Rakshastan, even in the Deep Wyld. 
  Just as gods and Exalts, the raksha make use of these 
  sites, but they cannot create manses due to their innate 
  incomprehension of Creation’s laws. Instead of capping 
  demesnes and using the resultant hearthstones, the raksha 
  nobles build their castles and fortresses on these sites, and 
  bend their Essence to their will through a combination 
  of raksha sorcery and complex Glamour crafting.
  At the exact center of a freehold lies its heart, a pil-
  lar of heatless, silver flame called a bonefire. The typical 
  bonefire ranges from one to two yards in diameter and is 
  several yards tall. Larger freeholds have bigger, brighter 
  bonefires, so any knowledgeable person can guess the 
  power of a freehold by looking at its bonefire. (This 
  requires a [Perception + Occult] roll at difficulty 1.)
  Extinguishing the bonefire disperses the freehold, 
  so the Fair Folk give thought to their defense. The bone-
  fire usually occupies a wide, flat, empty space such as a 
  plaza, great hall or temple, so the raksha have plenty of 
  room to fight intruders. A small dais or pit defines the 
  bonefire’s specific location. Any further details depend 
  on the taste of the raksha noble. Prudent nobles might 
  lock the bonefire within a small building decorated with 
  friezes, paintings or sculptures of deeds of glory or infamy 
  performed by the domain’s ruler. Options that are more 
  extravagant include setting the bonefire on the palm of 
  a huge statue (far above molestation, the noble hopes), 
  surrounding an image of some sort or atop a mountain. 
  One freehold’s ruler chained a defeated enemy within 
  the bonefire to burn forever, as both punishment and a 
  warning to anyone else who might threaten him.
  In most cases, a single noble controls the bonefire and, 
  through it, the freehold. Now and then, however, two or 
  THE EXTENT OF FREEHOLDS AND DOMAINS
  When the Fair Folk convert a demesne to a freehold, the demesne’s power sets the maximum size of the 
  freehold. Obviously, notions of size are very rough in the Wyld, so a freehold’s size may be better measured 
  in waypoints. In general, a freehold controls a number of waypoints equal to its freehold rating +5, includ-
  ing the waypoint the freehold rests upon. The waypoints may form a line, a cluster or whatever arrangement 
  suits the freehold’s master.
  Freeholds within Creation are much smaller than those in the Wyld. Freeholds within Creation contain 
  just as many waypoints; however, the waypoints are simply more compact, and closer together. In a Wyld 
  freehold, for instance, a series of three waypoints might take the form of three bridges where raksha knights 
  challenge intruders to battle. For a freehold in Creation, the waypoints might appear as a series of three gates 
  in concentric castle walls, where visitors must solve a riddle to pass.
  Level 
  Waypoints 
  Size in the Wyld 
  Size in Creation
  • 
  6 
  60 miles across 
  100 yards across
  •• 
  7 
  90 miles across 
  200 yards across
  ••• 
  8 
  120 miles across 
  400 yards across
  •••• 
  9 
  150 miles across 
  1/2 mile across
  ••••• 
  10 
  200 miles across 
  One mile across
  
  31
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  more nobles jointly control a freehold’s bonefire. Within 
  their domain, the bonefire’s masters can use it to spy on 
  any location in the freehold, or any cyst or pennant the 
  bonefire has produced. The nobles can control or sense 
  their domain as long as they bear a token or pennant 
  themselves, even if they are thousands of miles away. 
  Everything within the domain is subject to the lord’s will: 
  he can make the land bountiful or barren, create beasts 
  and servants at will, and alter the weather, the landscape 
  and the architecture of any building within the domain 
  to fit his whim. The general character of the land usually 
  follows the elemental character of the freehold’s quarter 
  of Creation, but the prince controls all the details.
  place—nature conspires to make the freehold invisible 
  and seal away this little part of the Wyld. Freeholds in 
  Creation contain as many waypoints as a freehold in the 
  Wyld, the pressure of Creation’s Essence confines them 
  to a much smaller geographic area.
  A freehold within Creation stays closer to its natural 
  surroundings than is usual in the Wyld. The water at the 
  bottom of a lake may look and feel like air, and residents 
  and visitors can breathe it, but the freehold still incorpo-
  rate aquatic traits such as fields of water-weeds instead of 
  grass. Similarly, freeholds built under hills are all clearly 
  built underground. Some “hollow hills” consist of end-
  less corridors of roughly worked stone or vast wooden 
  longhouses, while others feature elaborately carved and 
  decorated passageways, such as the tombs of Sijan or the 
  hallways of Gethamane. The most ornate of these freeholds 
  are buried castles, or fortresses carved from enormous 
  tree roots or embedded in great caverns ornamented with 
  stalactites, crystals and draperies of stone.
  Freeholds are often larger on the inside than the 
  lake, hill or valley that contains them. However, they 
  are still limited in extent. Raksha nobles who live in 
  such freeholds may attempt to disguise the limited scope 
  of their domain with twisting and branching passages, 
  labyrinths of nooks and chambers or other tricks to 
  block long-range views—made even more complex by 
  the noble’s ability to alter its structure at will. However, 
  none of these tricks can completely disguise that the 
  freehold is a very small pocket of safety amidst the huge 
  and hostile world of Creation.
  On the one hand, these miniature realms of chaos are 
  the ultimate safety from other raksha. Their inhabitants 
  know that their enemies must journey all the way through 
  perilous Creation itself before they can attack the freehold. 
  On the other hand, nobles with a freehold in Creation 
  have built their stronghold in enemy territory, and they 
  risk attacks from mortals, gods and Exalted, all of whom 
  often view these freeholds as threats to Creation itself.
  No one can enter, leave or even see in or out of the 
  freehold except at special doorways created by its master. 
  These must look like gateways or natural arches of some 
  sort. Even freeholds located at the bottom of lakes, or atop 
  airy mountains, can only be entered by such gateways. 
  Naturally, all but the most desperate or impoverished raksha 
  nobles post many well-armed guards at these entrances to 
  fend off intruders. The freehold’s master can conceal its 
  entrances from mortal eyes… though not perfectly.
  FREEHOLDS IN THE WYLD
  Freeholds in the Bordermarches are physically iso-
  lated just as those in Creation, but not as severely. In the 
  FREEHOLDS IN CREATION
  Raksha can also form a freehold inside Creation. 
  They only need a demesne—preferably uncapped, but they 
  can destroy a manse to uncap its demesne. The resultant 
  freehold is much smaller than a freehold in the true Wyld. 
  These little seeds of Wyld pollution can be found in the 
  tainted lands, or even deeper in Creation itself.
  Geomantic considerations demand that these 
  freeholds should be physically isolated from the rest of 
  Creation: under hills, at the bottom of lakes, in inac-
  cessible valleys and so on. These locations also help to 
  protect the residents from interference by the denizens 
  of Creation. Clouds obscure the area, rippling water 
  blocks vision, shadows from the mountains conceal the 
  CYSTS AND PENNANTS
  From the bonefire of a freehold spring cysts and 
  pennants. Cysts are wellsprings of Essence akin to 
  hearthstones. Pennants are mere wisps of power—not 
  sufficient to allow raksha to regain Essence, but strong 
  enough to stave off the wasting away that raksha suf-
  fer when in Creation. Fair Folk who dwell within 
  Creation typically reshape their freehold’s demesne 
  to provide the maximum number of pennants, and 
  thus allow a large number of raksha to survive outside 
  the freehold. A freehold can produce up to three 
  pennants per point of the freehold’s rating.
  The prince of a freehold can see and hear ev-
  erything occurring at the location of every pennant 
  as though he were standing there. This requires no 
  expenditure of Essence or willpower, but the raksha 
  can only focus on one pennant at a time, and he 
  must perform this feat at the bonefire. A raksha 
  noble can thus be very well-informed of goings-on 
  outside his freehold, as long as he has minions and 
  spies willing to travel beyond its boundaries.
  
  32
  Fair Folk who inhabit freeholds in the Deep Wyld 
  often maintain lines of trade and diplomacy with the 
  Middlemarches and even the Bordermarches. The raksha 
  closer to Creation can supply mortal slaves for food and 
  amusement, interesting works of art and songs produced 
  by mortals and by Exalted and other genuine original 
  pieces of work that the parasitic raksha themselves could 
  never produce. Those in the Deep Wyld respond with 
  creations of glamour, powerful allies, items torn from the 
  edge of the Wyld or even from Chaos itself, and relics 
  that were lost from the fringes of Creation during the 
  Balorian Crusade.
  The raksha of the Deep Wyld enjoy near-complete 
  safety from Creation’s dangers. Few beings would come 
  so far from Creation to assail the raksha here, and the 
  raksha who dwell in the Deep Wyld are more amused 
  than threatened by visitors who make the journey. These 
  raksha do not remember the days of the Old Realm, 
  when the Solars would shatter raksha fortresses and 
  scourge them back into Chaos. While the Deep Wyld’s 
  raksha find the modern Solars intriguing and exciting, 
  these raksha do not yet view these Solars as a genuine 
  menace—which may, in the years to come, become a 
  grave mistake.
  ETERNAL VIGILANCE
  Given the need for shelter, freeholds are highly prized 
  and desperately guarded. At any given time, a known 
  freehold is likely to face siege from wandering Fair Folk 
  who seek to claim it as their own, or other nearby free-
  holds who wish to expand their territory. However large 
  a freehold may seem inside, it is never big enough for 
  all the ambitious raksha who shelter within it. Enemies 
  within one freehold may team up to conquer another, 
  just so they can be comfortably separate once they own 
  it, and feud with each other at a distance. Raksha may 
  also face threats from persons who wish to loot the rak-
  sha of their treasures, or enemies who hate the raksha 
  bitterly enough to pursue them through Creation and 
  the Wyld alike.
  But raksha are not the only ones to hide within 
  freeholds. Whether in Creation or the Wyld, a freehold’s 
  existence outside of Fate makes it a rare protection from 
  the astrological curses of the Sidereal Exalted. Ancient 
  Lunars have wrested freeholds from the Fair Folk in order 
  to dwell therein with their mortal followers. There are even 
  mad gods and broken spirits who shelter in cringing terror, 
  seeking to preserve themselves against the transforming 
  influence of the Wyld, aware that they could not hope 
  to reach the boundaries of Creation again.
  FORCING ENTRANCE
  Perceiving a concealed entrance to a freehold 
  requires a successful (Perception + Awareness) roll. 
  The difficulty is the sum of the freehold’s power 
  level and the permanent Essence of its raksha master. 
  However, the natural distortions in Essence caused 
  by the freehold’s presence allow Exalted and other 
  Essence-users to halve the difficulty (round up) if 
  they activate any Charm that increases Perception 
  or Awareness. A character who uses Charms to 
  sense the flows of Essence directly can automatically 
  detect such openings.
  The border between Creation and the freehold’s 
  interior is very strong. Nothing short of the most 
  powerful Celestial Charms (such as Wyld-Shaping 
  Technique or Ritual of Lunar Stability) can open 
  other entrances into these freeholds. The difficulty 
  of the roll to create new entrances equals the per-
  manent Essence of the freehold’s lord.
  Solar Exalted can also attempt to use Wyld-Shap-
  ing Technique to destroy or reshape a freehold, but 
  the difficulty of this roll is the permanent Essence 
  of the raksha controlling the freehold + the rating 
  of the demesne from which it is built. The Solar’s 
  player must succeed on a single roll to accomplish this 
  feat. The raksha who controls the freehold actively 
  resists this attempt and can strike back. A Solar whose 
  player fails the roll suffers one level of unsoakable 
  lethal damage for each difficulty level she failed the 
  roll by. A Solar whose player botches the roll suffers a 
  number of automatic levels of unsoakable aggravated 
  damage equal to the permanent Essence of the raksha 
  overlord + the rating of the freehold.
  Bordermarches, freeholds may be found on small islands 
  amid lakes or oceans, or on mesas or in the depths of vast 
  forests. While these freeholds are isolated and bounded, 
  they need not be completely separate from their sur-
  roundings. The looser reality around them also means 
  that they are not as well hidden. The freehold’s master 
  cannot conceal its entrances, though they are as well 
  defended as those of any freehold in Creation. Freeholds 
  in the Middlemarches or Deep Wyld can sprawl as wide 
  as their masters choose. A Wyld freehold’s master may 
  still limit access by ordaining that no one may pass its 
  outer waypoints unless they follow a special route, perform 
  certain deeds or meet special conditions, but Wyld-shap-
  ing Charms easily bypass these requirements.
  
  33
  CHAPTER ONE • CREATION’S RIM
  SAMPLE FREEHOLDS
  The following are typical examples of raksha freeholds and Domains:
  Dark Fountain is located in one of the mountains to the northwest of the Lap. The central buildings of 
  the freehold lie within a great cavern more than 500 yards across and 100 yards high. Gothic and baroque 
  buildings made from black and charcoal-gray stone occupy almost half of this immense cave. They have 
  elaborate flying buttresses, and are adorned with fantastic gargoyles. The gargoyles are all servants of the rul-
  ing nobles, and can be animated or transformed back into stone at the controlling noble’s whim. Only half 
  of this palace is built in the cave; the rest is carved deep into the surrounding rock, and consists of a series 
  of ornately decorated but completely windowless passages. The cave itself is the other half of this freehold, 
  and is dimly lit by the large patches of luminescent fungi that adorn the cavern walls, and ornamented with 
  stalactites, stalagmites, and deep streams. The cave is heated by deep volcanic fires, and thus is perpetually 
  as warm as a fine spring day. A multitude of tentacled bats, large blind predatory lizards and pallid, dog-sized 
  slugs dwell in the cavern, while bone-white fanged fish swim in its streams.
  Dreaming Pool is an oasis set amid the Southern deserts, northeast of Gem. Shimmering heat waves 
  surround the oasis, hiding it from view. The oasis itself is barely 400 yards across, centered on the pool in 
  the middle; the bonefire burns inside the water, constantly heating it to a boil. The local raksha dwell in 
  tents made of silk and sunlight, and the chief of the tribe has a particularly beautiful tent draped with cloth 
  of gold. The palm trees that surround the area have leaves of gold and silver and emerald, and the birds that 
  perch in them have feathers made of tiny gems. Snakes of living obsidian hide in the shadows of dunes and 
  bask in the edges of the boiling spring. Hobgoblins in the form of veiled men and women serve the raksha 
  of this place, faceless and smooth-skinned beneath their veils.
  Shining Mist, a small freehold located at the bottom of a lake a few hundred miles northeast of Laryn. 
  The lake bottom of Shining Mist is a strange mixture of bucolic meadow and sea floor; there is both grass 
  and coral, and trees grow from the lake bottom intermingled with great shells. The lake is filled with water, 
  but everyone within this freehold can breathe it normally and can either walk as if on land, or swim, at 
  their choice. All the animals are mixtures of beasts that live in ordinary meadows and sea life. Creatures that 
  resemble crosses between small, brightly-colored tropical fish and songbirds fly overhead, while crab-shelled 
  horses (treat as ordinary horses that can breathe both air and water and that have a soak of 7L/9B) and oc-
  topus-tentacled sheep graze the lake bottom. The shops and houses are well-made buildings similar to those 
  found in the Realm, or any prosperous client state. They are all painted in sea colors, with windows and 
  trim shaped like seashells and fish. Shingles resemble huge fish scales, and all of the stonework looks heavily 
  water-worn. The Duke’s castle, at the center of the freehold, is a work of art in mother-of-pearl and turquoise, 
  with the battlements scalloped like clamshells, and the cataphracts all in scaled, finned armor.
  
  34
  
  35
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  CHAPTER TWO
  CHARACTER
  CREATION
  CHAPTER TWO
  CHAPTER TWO
  LIFE IN CHAOS
  LIFE IN CHAOS
  Not everyone finds the Wyld as hospitable as the 
  raksha, but they live there anyway. For many, the Wyld 
  represents endless potential, freedom from oppression 
  (or just reality), a source of wealth or hope. Many are 
  disappointed, but by then, it’s too late to leave.
  Almost every creature imaginable lives someplace in 
  the Wyld. Most of these migrated there from their place of 
  origin, be that Creation, the Underworld or Heaven, and 
  the few others the Wyld spawns. Chaos has the unique 
  property of being able to achieve nearly any effect, given 
  time and luck, and can even duplicate the Essence pat-
  terns of ghosts and gods. The Wyld’s imitations are rarely 
  perfect, so explorers must be alert for telltale differences 
  if they wish to tell fakes from the real thing.
  MORTALS
  Few ordinary mortals are foolhardy enough to live 
  in the Wyld. However, hundreds of barbarian tribes live 
  near the Wyld’s border. Since the edge of the Wyld ebbs 
  and flows with the phases of the moon, some barbarians 
  occasionally end up in the Wyld. What’s more, many 
  barbarians regularly spend time in the tainted lands. 
  Any mortals who are sufficiently brave or desperate to 
  dwell in the Wyld itself soon become Wyld mutants if 
  they are not already.
  Four distinct groups of mortals live in and near the 
  Wyld: the most remote tribes of mortal barbarians, Wyld 
  barbarians, beastmen and strange, created races from the 
  First Age. Despite their differences and the enmity these 
  groups often feel for each other, they live in or near the 
  Wyld for much the same reasons.
  Some people live at the edge of Creation to avoid 
  attention and possible attack by civilized people. 
  Civilized people and non-mutated barbarians alike feel 
  deep suspicion for Wyld barbarians, beastmen and the 
  descendents of beings created in the First Age—or even 
  
  36
  outright hatred. While mortal barbarians do not face 
  these same threats, aggressive rivals can drive the least 
  successful or most primitive tribes to the very edges of 
  Creation. Severe weather or famine can also force tribes 
  to take their chances with the Wyld’s fringe. Some tribes 
  die out or become Wyld barbarians. Other barbarians 
  struggle both to survive and maintain their humanity in 
  the face of harsh environments, the nearby chaos of the 
  Wyld and the other inhabitants of such regions.
  BARBARIANS 
  Few barbarians want to live near the Wyld. Civi-
  lized people often see little difference between ordinary 
  barbarians and Wyld barbarians, but the two groups see 
  themselves as nothing alike. Their separation begins with 
  their attitude to the Wyld itself. By definition, Wyld bar-
  barians accept the influence of the Wyld upon themselves. 
  In sharp contrast, almost all ordinary barbarians hate 
  the Wyld; most of them also refuse to have any dealings 
  with the Fair Folk. This does not prevent barbarians from 
  worshipping the Wyld, but they worship it in fear, seeking 
  to protect themselves from its fathomless menace.
  Barbarians hold similar feelings about Wyld mutants. 
  These tribes expose or kill children born with obvious mu-
  tations, and if their parents do not wish to be exiled from 
  the tribe, they must submit either to gelding or drinking 
  sufficient quantities of maiden tea to render them sterile. 
  Adults who gain Wyld mutations are killed or driven 
  from the tribe and forbidden from returning. Many tribes, 
  including the icewalkers of the North, believe that living 
  as a mutant torments that individual’s soul. They also see 
  mutants as an affront to the tribe’s ancestors and patron 
  spirits. When icewalker shamans kill a mutant, they declare 
  they have freed the person’s spirit from the taint of the 
  Wyld; now the person can be reborn within the tribe.
  Some barbarian tribes accept Wyld mutants as sha-
  mans and expect them to use their mutations to help deal 
  with gods, Fair Folk and various other dangers. Barbarians 
  fear these shamans as much as they value them. They 
  are both sacred and accursed. Mutant shamans typically 
  dwell apart from the rest of the tribe. A tribe may see 
  the usefulness of a shaman who can walk unscathed 
  through the burning winds of the uttermost south, or 
  spend an hour underwater gathering medicinal seaweed. 
  A shaman whose essence the Wyld has awakened is even 
  better. Even this concession to the Wyld carries danger, 
  though. After all, the shaman who owes his power to the 
  Wyld might decide to serve it instead of the tribe. The 
  only reliable way for a community to retain its humanity 
  is to reject all mutation among its members.
  
  37
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  Because of the press of civilization, however, some 
  barbarian tribes have no choice about living near the 
  Wyld, often within the tainted lands. No two barbarian 
  tribes possess the same customs, but most of them develop 
  similar ways of dealing with the presence of the Wyld 
  and the dangers of the Fair Folk. Most tribes do their 
  best to avoid the Wyld and slay any creatures that stray 
  out of it. Even their bravest warriors and hunters stay 
  at least a day’s journey from the Bordermarches; if they 
  must venture any closer, they carry a talisman to warn 
  them if the Wyld’s border shifts. Other tribes, especially 
  in the Wyld-torn lands of the West and the North, must 
  make accommodations for it. Some Western tribes make 
  offerings to nearby Fair Folk courts by sending out un-
  crewed boats laden with offerings, and with sails set to 
  take them into the Wyld.
  On the other hand, barbarians know the Wyld of-
  fers wonders they cannot easily ignore. Tainted lands 
  sometimes offer great boons to barbarian tribes. Most 
  importantly—from the barbarians’ point of view—tainted 
  lands sometimes generate useful plants that live nowhere 
  else. For example, age-staving cordial, seven bounties 
  paste and sweet cordial all include at least one ingredient 
  from Creation’s rim. Animals, insects and minerals from 
  tainted lands may also possess medical or occult value. 
  The learned doctors of the Realm rely on herbs, roots, 
  glands and venoms that a barbarian collected months 
  before and sold to a traveling merchant. Thaumaturgists 
  also support a small but lucrative trade in materials from 
  tainted lands.
  The barbarians aren’t stupid, of course. Whenever 
  possible, they foist the job of collecting Wyld-empowered 
  treasures onto their shamans, who should know how to 
  protect themselves, or onto slaves, who are expendable. 
  Some barbarian tribes live near the Wyld because they fall 
  into the latter, unhappy category: some stronger tribe forces 
  the weaker ones to pay tribute in commodities gleaned 
  from a tainted land, with extermination as the alternative. 
  Whatever the method, the barbarians keep their visits brief 
  and use protective talismans whenever possible.
  Barbarian tribes are also forced into the tainted 
  lands by the armies of civilization, the walking dead or 
  famine. Once here, the tribe’s future becomes uncertain. 
  The Wyld’s residual energies eventually induce mild 
  mutations in a few children conceived and born in the 
  tainted land. If the Wyld surges over this land once more, 
  adults may also mutate.
  The tribe’s future depends on how it responds to 
  such events. If the tribe culls or casts out its mutants and 
  soon finds a way to move further back into Creation, 
  the members remain ordinary mortals. If they decide 
  that greater prosperity, or perhaps simple survival, mat-
  ters more than their humanity, then they soon become 
  Wyld barbarians.
  WYLD BARBARIANS
  The Wyld barbarians are the most diverse, numerous 
  and infamous class of dwellers on Creation’s fringe. Many 
  Wyld barbarian tribes form spontaneously from ordinary 
  barbarians who fled or were expelled from their tribes 
  because of their mutations. Wyld tribes often last only 
  a generation or two before the members either die off 
  or succumb to other and stranger fates—but a few tribes 
  retain most of their humanity for centuries. Similar to 
  the difference between ordinary barbarians and Wyld 
  barbarians, a great deal depends on the tribes’ attitude 
  to the force of Chaos around them.
  Tribes that accept Wyld addiction among its members 
  and who regularly embrace the transformations of the 
  Wyld face either destruction or radical transformation. 
  Within years or at most a decade or two, the members 
  mutate to the point that they can no longer leave the 
  Wyld. Soon after, they end up as slaves of the Fair Folk, 
  transform into savage man-beasts (such as the notorious 
  buck-ogres) or become inhuman, living archetypes utterly 
  subsumed into a location of the Wyld.
  Civilized peoples and mortal barbarians both tell 
  stories about brutal tribes whose members are all barely 
  human monsters with each member more bizarre than 
  the last. However, these Wyld-twisted monsters are actu-
  ally quite rare. They just don’t last long before they pass 
  beyond the Middlemarches into the Deep Wyld, and 
  dissolve into the ever-changing Chaos. Unfortunately, 
  such tribes are also the most violent and dangerous and 
  so are the most likely to stage raids on non-mutants.
  Tribes of mutants who wish to retain some semblance 
  of humanity limit their exposure to the Wyld. Hundreds 
  of tribes of Wyld barbarians actually live in the Wyld, but 
  most live only in the Bordermarches and avoid straying 
  deeper into the Wyld. Also, many Wyld barbarians live 
  in the tainted lands and only venture into the Wyld for 
  specific purposes.
  In these careful tribes, only a few shamans and 
  other specialists travel frequently into the Wyld to seek 
  visions, collect valuable commodities, negotiate with 
  the Fair Folk and other powerful entities or deal with 
  other dangers. These specialists may possess a variety of 
  extreme mutations. Most tribal folk appear far more hu-
  man. Their ancestors gained a variety of mutations that 
  now breed true, more or less. Such packages of inherited 
  
  38
  mutations rarely exceed one or two poxes and maybe a 
  single affliction or blight.
  Because of their proximity to the Wyld, individual 
  barbarians may also possess one or two additional poxes 
  or a single deficiency. However, more extreme mutations 
  are quite rare since few Wyld barbarians travel further 
  than the Bordermarches of the Wyld. Only their sha-
  mans and heroes enter the Middlemarches. The Deep 
  Wyld is avoided by all but the foolhardy, the desperate 
  and the suicidal. Barbarians who acquire debilities and 
  deformities may be gelded or otherwise prevented from 
  breeding, lest their infirmities spread through the tribe. 
  Even more than ordinary barbarians, Wyld barbarians 
  simply cannot afford any weakness in their members.
  The inherent diversity of the Wyld ensures that dif-
  ferent tribes or tribal confederations display different 
  hereditary mutations. Those few daring scholars who 
  seek to understand mutated savages can tell a group of 
  mutants’ tribal affiliation simply by looking at them. For 
  example, in the East, different tribes of the mutated for-
  est people are distinguished by whether they possess hair 
  or leaves (and each tribe has its own distinctive foliage), 
  whether they have bark for skin and whether they possess 
  tails or extra arms to aid their climbing.
  While generalizations are impossible, many Wyld 
  mutants show the influence of the nearest elemental pole. 
  The pox of Elemental Adaptation (see Chapter Seven) is 
  quite common. Western mutants are often amphibious; 
  Northern mutants often sport thick, white fur. Members 
  of many tribes distrust anyone who gains too many 
  mutations, knowing that madness, Wyld addiction and 
  eventually both inhuman minds and the inability to 
  survive outside the Wyld awaits anyone who succumbs 
  too easily to the transformative powers of chaos.
  WYLD ADDICTION
  All Wyld mutants face the danger of addiction. 
  Few mutant tribes have a place for the weak or foolish: 
  anyone who cannot resist the temptations of the Wyld 
  must rely upon the help of their close comrades to help 
  them recover, or at least to remain with the tribe until 
  the shaman performs a blessing against the Wyld (see 
  below). If no one aids them, Wyld addicts wander into 
  the chaos, never to return.
  The danger of Wyld addiction prevents most tribes 
  from venturing beyond the Bordermarches, and even 
  they use various magical protections against the Wyld 
  and carefully track its boundaries. Any tribe that remains 
  even remotely sane retreats to safety if a Wyld storm blows 
  toward them or the edges of the Middlemarches move 
  nearer to them. Most Wyld barbarians can withstand 
  prolonged exposure to the Bordermarches without be-
  coming addicted; they’re used to it. However, exposure 
  to the Middlemarches or the Deep Marches carries 
  greater risks.
  As a companion worry, Wyld tribes also know that 
  any barbarian who gains too many mutations becomes 
  unable to leave the Wyld. In fact, repeated mutation can 
  force a person to live in the Middlemarches—cutting her 
  off from her tribe forever.
  WYLD MUTANTS AND OUTSIDERS
  Ordinary humans who become mutants experience 
  two horrors at once. They find their bodies changed in 
  unexpected, and often terrible, ways. At the same time, 
  they become outcastes, feared or hated by their former 
  friends, relatives and communities. In cities, people 
  who cannot hide their mutations usually sink to the 
  lowest levels of society as beggars or petty criminals, 
  or join carnivals as part of a freak show. (Such are the 
  most common fates of scavengers in Nexus whose bodies 
  warp because they explored the Firewander district too 
  eagerly.) In small farming villages and among nomads or 
  other barbarians, however, newly changed mutants can 
  expect death or exile.
  In these tight-knit communities, nobody can expect 
  to hide a physical mutation for long. Their mutants must 
  flee sooner or later, and they have few choices where they 
  can go. Some mutants find their way to Nexus, Chiar-
  oscuro and other great cities, but they usually know they 
  can expect a wretched, impoverished life. Instead, they 
  turn to the tainted lands as the best of a series of bad 
  options: where should the Wyld-tainted go, but toward 
  the Wyld? Tribes of mutants who live in the tainted 
  lands regularly encounter newly changed mutants who 
  seek a home among people who—they hope—will tolerate 
  their differences.
  This strategy works less often than new arrivals might 
  hope. Life on the edges of Creation is harsh and unfor-
  giving, and no Wyld tribe has space for the lazy or the 
  helpless. A mutant who wants to join a tribe must prove 
  he can farm, hunt, herd, fish, gather, weave baskets or 
  otherwise help the tribe survive. Accepting new members 
  also carries risk. A Wyld mutant might be dangerously 
  insane or carry a disease. Occasionally, these mutants 
  actually work for gangs of mutant hunters as stalking 
  horses and judas goats.
  Because of these costs and dangers, Wyld tribes vary 
  in their attitudes toward outsiders. The most extreme 
  tribes either kill any unfamiliar mutants or drive them 
  away with the promise of a swift death if they return. 
  Most tribes accept outsiders, but only once the tribe’s 
  
  39
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  shaman examines the outsiders for signs of madness, 
  disease or deception. Any hint of these results in death 
  for the mutant, possibly after torture to find the number 
  and location of any mutant-hunting allies.
  Before accepting an outsider, a Wyld tribe may also 
  demand some deed of valor or martial prowess, such 
  as defeating a champion or hunting a dangerous beast. 
  Mutants who fail are ordered to leave on pain of death. 
  Mutants who instead demonstrate valuable knowledge 
  such as medicine, thaumaturgy or significant skill at one 
  or more crafts are usually accepted because such skills 
  are in high demand.
  WYLD CULTS
  Just as they do with any other source of potential 
  power, some humans revere the Wyld or try to exploit it. 
  They may worship the Fair Folk or other powerful enti-
  ties, but some people seek power directly from the raw 
  and untamed powers of Chaos. These groups may start 
  by attempting vision-quests and power-quests, but they 
  usually end up addicted to the Wyld’s sense of limitless 
  possibility. The leaders soon sport visible mutations, 
  and the entire cult may follow. Of necessity, these cults 
  congregate near Wyld pockets or the borders of Creation, 
  so they can be found anywhere in Creation except the 
  Realm. Wyld cults usually last only a few years before 
  they are uncovered or destroy themselves.
  One exceptional Wyld cult called the Children of 
  Transformation has grown up around the Firewander 
  district of Nexus. Remarkably, this cult has existed for 
  almost a century, concealed by the anonymity provided 
  by Nexus’s poorer districts. The cult members seek per-
  sonal power through careful exposure to the Wyld. The 
  cult’s founders learned the secrets of vision-questing and 
  power-questing from ancient, forbidden books. Members 
  use the power of the Firewander Wyld pocket to awaken 
  their Essence and give themselves several discreet but 
  useful poxes.
  Unlike many such cults, the Children of Transfor-
  mation have no interest in proselytizing. However, any 
  person who uncovers their activities receives the choice of 
  joining them or dying. People who join are taken into the 
  Firewander district and forcibly transformed by a skilled 
  power-quester. The new recruit is given at least one obvi-
  ous but concealable mutation to ensure that he faces the 
  same fate as the rest of the cult if he betrays it.
  All civilized lands forbid the activities of Wyld cults. 
  So do most barbarians. Cults face death or expulsion 
  once their mutations or their activities become known. 
  Survivors must flee for their lives, and most eventually 
  find themselves at the borders of Creation, in the tainted 
  lands or the Wyld. The remnants of these cults often 
  form the basis of deadly but short-lived tribes driven 
  mad by the Wyld.
  WYLD CRAZED TRIBES
  The least enduring but most dangerous tribes of 
  barbarians embrace the Wyld and actively seek mutation. 
  These tribes usually begin with Wyld cultists. Unlike most 
  tribes, these barbarians eagerly accept ordinary mortals 
  who accidentally gained one or more mutations. As the 
  cult-tribe becomes more fanatical, it captures people and 
  forces them deep into the Wyld until they mutate so 
  much that joining the tribe becomes their only alterna-
  tive to suicide. Their love of the Wyld does not prevent 
  them from making regular forays into Creation: they see 
  Creation as both a source of recruits and other supplies 
  as well as their abandoned, and often hated, home.
  One of the most infamous Wyld-crazed tribe calls 
  itself the Devourers. They live on the plains of the 
  Southeast, far south of the kingdom of Harborhead. The 
  tribe’s members all have many mutations—most display 
  oversized mouths and three or more clawed arms. More 
  than half of them sport extra heads. A few captives who 
  escaped their clutches report savage and terrible rites, 
  in which the Devourers eat the living organs and limbs 
  of their captives in the belief that the Devourers can 
  thus incorporate the best features of their victims into 
  themselves. By the time the prisoners escaped, a few 
  Devourers seemed to have body-parts that resembled 
  those of less fortunate captives, so there may be some 
  horrid truth in these practices.
  In a few years, or at most a few decades, the members 
  of most of these tribes become incapable of leaving the 
  Wyld for long. If they do not assimilate fully into the Wyld, 
  they may become the retinue of one of the Fair Folk. Other 
  members dissolve into the Wyld’s eternal chaos. Before 
  any of these fates, however, the tribe’s members become 
  truly horrific mutants. Either they hate all non-mutated 
  mortals or wish to spread the terrifying glory of their mu-
  tations on the rest of humanity. These savage, monstrous 
  beings typically live in Bordermarches. From here, they 
  launch terrible, bloody raids into Creation—perhaps for 
  mindless slaughter, perhaps to capture and sell victims 
  to the Fair Folk or perhaps to drag captives far into the 
  Wyld until they are irreversibly changed.
  It is debatable whether the inhabitants of Creation are 
  more likely to see these murderous, insane mutants than 
  the Wyld barbarians who strike a cautious détente with 
  chaos. However, Creation’s dwellers are much more likely 
  to tell chilling tales of their horrific deeds and grotesque 
  appearance. Stories about three-armed cannibals spread 
  
  40
  in a way that cattle raids by bandits who simply happen 
  to have fur, claws or even prehensile tails do not.
  By civilized or even barbarian standards, all Wyld 
  mutants are dangerous and often unstable beings—but 
  the short-lived, often ad hoc tribes of Wyld-embracing 
  mutants are the source of much of the horror with which 
  other people regard the Wyld. Even the stable tribes of 
  Wyld barbarians avoid these lunatic tribes, fearful of 
  their excesses, but also certain that the tribe will not 
  last very long. If the cult-tribe does not vanish deeper 
  into the Wyld by its own choice, mutant-hunters and 
  warriors from Creation eventually gather in sufficient 
  numbers to destroy the cult or force the cult members 
  away. Other Wyld tribes may even attack the crazed 
  mutants in hope of driving them deeper into chaos, and 
  eventual destruction.
  ADAPTING TO THE WYLD
  The Wyld echoes the stories of Creation as much as 
  reflecting its physical forms. Visitors to the Wyld carry 
  wisps of story—goals, fears, expectations, conscious or 
  unconscious—that the Wyld absorbs, magnifies and 
  scrambles together with great, archetypal tales and tropes. 
  At best, outsiders can shape their own brief tales of power 
  or knowledge in the Wyld and then depart from it. The 
  longer people spend in the Wyld, however, the more it 
  tries to fit them into one, simple story instead of the 
  complex muddle of plots that characterize real people.
  A few of these stories are hero tales, such as those of 
  Eos and Ossissa, in which this daring pair have become 
  uncatchable scourges of the Realm. Other tales are hor-
  ror stories. Mutants hunted from Creation often accept 
  a very simple story: they become horrific monsters that 
  bring terror, death and destruction to the folk of Creation, 
  just as the stories they heard say they should.
  However, Wyld barbarians often find less terrible 
  stories. Some, like the forest people of the far East, have 
  been adapted to their forests and are now a much a part 
  of it as the lianas that grow on the trees and the mon-
  keys that swing among them. The forest people exist to 
  serve their forests and can no longer survive elsewhere. 
  Similarly, in the far North, the white-furred, eight-foot-
  tall Wyld barbarians that plague both the Haslanti and 
  the icewalkers live a story where the barbarians are brave 
  savages who can endure any hardship and feel utter 
  contempt for weakness or cowardice.
  The transformation from ordinary mortal to part of 
  a story strips away at least some of the individual’s hu-
  
  41
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  manity by transforming him into a living archetype. The 
  mortal warriors of a tribe known for honor and bravery 
  may feel that cowardice or deceit are terrible personal 
  failures, but they can still act in these ways. If the Wyld 
  transforms this tribe into living characters in a story about 
  bravery and honor, they may seem much the same… at 
  first glance. Now, however, they are literally incapable 
  of fear or deceit. They cannot even think of acting these 
  ways. Creation-born folk who spend time talking to such 
  beings soon realize that there is something subtly inhu-
  man about them. Their thoughts run in channels: the 
  same channels, or at most a limited repertoire of scenes 
  and social roles. The brave, honest warriors are all the 
  same brave, honest warrior. Wise elders are all the same, 
  stereotypical Wise Elder—or the same Superstitious Elder, 
  Hostile Elder or whatever.
  People assimilated to the Wyld are no longer subject to 
  random mutations. The Charms of the Fair Folk or Celes-
  tial Exalted can change their bodies, but the ever-changing 
  tides of Chaos do not affect them. Their existence as part 
  of the Wyld incidentally renders such people immune 
  to direct manifestations of the Wyld’s power such as the 
  waters of Chaos (see p. 87) or frozen fog (see pp. 69–70). 
  The thought-patterns and physical mutations that define 
  their story pass on to their descendents who are born in 
  the Wyld. However, while their physical mutations remain 
  part of their heredity even in Creation, children of these 
  mutants who are born and grow up in Creation automati-
  cally lose these mental limitations and develop the minds 
  of mortals—by Creation, by its very nature, resists the 
  incorporation of mortals into the Wyld’s eternal stories. 
  Also, even these Wyld mutants can be touched by the 
  glories of Exaltation, and all forms of Exaltation free the 
  Exalt’s mind from these Wyld-forged constraints.
  WYLD SHAMANS
  A skilled shaman is a vital part of any Wyld barbarian 
  tribe. Because shamans regularly go power-questing deep 
  in the Wyld, they have many mutations—often including 
  an awakened Essence. In addition to performing the du-
  ties of any barbarian shaman, such as laying ghosts and 
  curing ills, Wyld shamans are expected to study the Fair 
  Folk and either act as emissaries to them or to advise the 
  tribe’s leaders how to avoid them. Wyld shamans also 
  deal with gods, elementals and demons even more than 
  ordinary, mortal shamans. With access to both the Wyld’s 
  valuable and unnatural wonders and their own powerful 
  mutations, Wyld shamans can both bargain with and 
  intimidate minor spirits and demons quite effectively. 
  These shamans also regularly use vision-questing to learn 
  all manner of valuable secrets.
  Even highly mutated Wyld barbarians often think 
  their shamans are strange and disturbing. In addition 
  to their physical mutations, most Wyld shamans have 
  adapted to the Wyld and become living archetypes. 
  Such shamans are exceptionally skilled, but have lost 
  everything that is not part of their defined role as The 
  Tribe’s Shaman—they never for a moment think of being 
  anything else.
  BEASTMEN
  People within Creation often see no difference be-
  tween Wyld barbarians and beastmen, but the two groups 
  themselves see nothing in common between them. Wyld 
  barbarians sometimes show animalistic traits, but they 
  are not true fusions of human and animal. Beastmen are. 
  They owe their genesis to the intersection of two power-
  ful, supernatural forces: the shapeshifting Lunar Exalted 
  and the boundary-breaking power of the Wyld.
  All beastmen were originally the offspring of Lunar 
  Exalted, but many tribes have been breeding true for 
  hundreds of years. A few tribes date back to the Sho-
  gunate. Any powerful Lunar can create beastmen, and 
  many Lunars maintain small cadres of loyal beastmen 
  followers. In the Age of Sorrows, however, most beastmen 
  live without direct control from any Lunar. The Chosen 
  of Luna observe these beastmen tribes, and often accept 
  their worship, but rarely interfere with their lives or 
  activities. The beastmen are the Lunars’ children, after 
  all—or more remote descendants—and just as all good 
  parents, the Lunars let their children learn and grow 
  on their own.
  Beastmen live on the fringes of Creation for several 
  reasons. Their Lunar forebears had to mate with a human 
  (while in animal form) or an animal (while in human 
  form) to breed a beastman, and their descendants live 
  near the places where they began. Civilized folk also 
  prevent beastmen from moving away from Creation’s 
  rim. Imperial armies generally slaughter any beastmen 
  they capture, because they think beastmen are savage, 
  untamable creatures tainted by the touch of the Anath-
  ema. The Immaculate Philosophy clearly states that like 
  any creatures derived from or related to the Anathema, 
  beastmen are soulless monstrosities who deserve slavery 
  or death. After centuries of such murderous hatred, beast-
  men have learned to hate civilized folk in return.
  Opinions about beastmen rarely improve in civilized 
  nations that do not follow the Immaculate Philosophy: 
  beastmen are frightening and inhuman, but because 
  they are far less deadly than gods or Exalted, human 
  fears more readily turn to hatred or scorn. Some 
  countries attack beastmen as zealously as the Realm. 
  
  42
  INTERACTION WITH THE ASSIMILATED
  Most people have never heard of Wyld assimilation. The Wyld’s grotesque, blatant changes to minds and 
  bodies overshadow this subtle deformity of the soul. Careful conversation, however, can reveal Wyld assimila-
  tion and identify the limitations on the thoughts and behaviors of a Wyld assimilated person or culture—in 
  effect, their Motivation or the group’s Policy.
  Players must succeed at (Perception + Socialize) rolls to gain such information. Five to 10 minutes of conver-
  sation, and a simple success, reveals that a person thinks in an obsessive, rigid way—but some people do think in 
  narrow channels, so that isn’t enough to prove Wyld assimilation. A character must spend a full scene talking 
  with a person (and her player roll three successes) to spot that the person thinks in no sane, human way. The 
  character recognizes Wyld assimilation if he thinks to look for it. Figuring out the approximate limitations on 
  the thoughts and behaviors of a Wyld-assimilated person or group—in effect, the assimilated group’s Policy—re-
  quires five to 10 successes on an extended roll, with each roll representing a full scene of probing conversation. 
  Charms may grant more extensive and detailed knowledge.
  Personal and cultural factors can make it harder to spot Wyld assimilation. A person may have been obses-
  sive before the Wyld turned him into a story. Some people also perceive monomania as commendable zeal. 
  Dozens of Immaculate monks, for instance, have become living archetypes of relentless pursuit, after a few too 
  many trips into the Wyld after Anathema. Far from realizing these fanatical hunters have gone insane, the Order 
  holds them up as laudable examples—no matter how many other hunters these fanatics get killed.
  Assimilation to the Wyld has a powerful effect on social combat, whether mundane or enhanced by Charms. 
  Assimilated people have no Intimacies, only a Motivation—the role they play with utter fidelity. Social groups 
  likewise adhere to their Policy with total dedication. If a social attack aligns closely with a Motivation or Policy, 
  the attacking character’s player receives a +3 dice bonus to his roll (if the Storyteller thinks a roll is necessary at 
  all). Any course of action that deviates significantly from the Motivation or Policy imposes a -3 dice penalty to 
  the roll. A social attack that directly opposes a Motivation or Policy fails outright—no need to roll at all.
  Example: The Falling Tears Poet, a Moonshadow Caste deathknight, tries recruiting the Devourers for an attack on a 
  town. He must persuade the demented cannibals of two things at once: to raid beyond their usual territory and not to eat 
  him. The former objective is in line with the Devourers’ Policy, so the deathknight’s player has a +3 dice bonus to the social 
  attack. The latter objective would directly challenge the Devourers’ Policy of eating everyone who isn’t one of them—but the 
  Abyssal argues that letting him live will enable the Devourers to kill and capture many more people than they could without 
  him, which plays on another part of their Policy. The roll for this social attack, therefore, takes a -3 external penalty.
  Finally, the Falling Tears Poet must make these attacks as a flurry, since the mutant maniacs won’t care about letting 
  him live unless they are also convinced to make the attack, and the deathknight won’t persuade them to attack the town 
  unless they refrain from trying to eat him. One Presence Excellency later, the Abyssal has his allies… deeply unreliable allies 
  who will need careful handling to prevent them from turning on him.
  As long as assimilated people or groups stay in the Wyld, mundane social combat cannot break their Mo-
  tivations or change their Policies. Only unnatural mental influence or social influence Charms can challenge 
  a Motivation or Policy directly, and then suffer a -5 external penalty. Even magical social combat cannot work 
  an enduring change in a Motivation or Policy: that requires Shaping magic to change the fundamental nature 
  of a Wyld-assimilated person or group.
  Pulling a Wyld-assimilated person into Creation extends the possibilities for social combat. Without the Wyld 
  constantly reinforcing the person’s role, her assimilation can be broken. This requires creating an Intimacy—any 
  Intimacy, so long as it deviates from the person’s Motivation in some way. For instance, a social combatant might 
  try to give an honorable warrior a personal loyalty that doesn’t follow his usual script, or give a cannibal savage 
  a personal enmity beyond his general desire to kill and eat the unmutated. The social attacks to establish the 
  Intimacy suffer a -3 dice penalty because they challenge the person’s Motivation to follow his scripted role.
  A single, independent Intimacy, however, gives the person two roles or stories instead of one. That suffices 
  to make her a real person again, prying her loose from the Wyld. Her Motivation hasn’t changed—a cannibal 
  maniac, for instance, is still a cannibal maniac—but it becomes a human Motivation (however strange or unpleas-
  ant), and subject to change. The person is also most likely addicted to the Wyld, and might not be able to live 
  in Creation anyway. Nevertheless, the person becomes subject to normal social combat.
  
  43
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  Beastmen sometimes gain marginal acceptance in the 
  Threshold’s most open and cosmopolitan cities, such as 
  Nexus and Chiaroscuro, but they still risk enslavement. 
  The few free beastmen find employment as gladiators, 
  bodyguards to wealthy eccentrics or in the criminal un-
  derworld. They remain second-class citizens, however, if 
  they receive citizenship at all. The law seldom punishes 
  humans who cheat, rob, assault or kill a beastman; people 
  usually smirk and say, “The freak had it coming.” And 
  of course, everyone “knows” that male beastmen lust 
  for human women.
  The forest-dwelling folk of the Haltan Republic 
  form the chief exception to this prejudice. In Halta, 
  beastmen form a small, distinct class within civilized 
  society. Snakemen and hawkmen often work as priests, 
  thaumaturges or doctors. Haltan humans, however, feel 
  more friendship for the country’s sentient animals than 
  for the half-human beastmen. Halta treats its beastmen 
  with careful formality, and they do not mingle casually. 
  For instance, if a beastman enters a Haltan tavern, the 
  human patrons immediately leave to give him privacy.
  A few other societies also accept beastmen, but 
  none are as large as Halta. All such lands lie far from the 
  Realm’s control. A few beastman tribes also grow into 
  small countries of their own, which may in time develop 
  into curious little civilizations. For all the fear leveled at 
  real, present beastmen, however, people in Creation’s 
  interior like to hear stories about “civilized beastmen” 
  who live safely far away. Such tales usually emphasize the 
  weird, animalistic customs of the beastmen, or use the 
  beastmen to satirize human foibles.
  Despite all the prejudice beastmen face, they do 
  not inspire quite the same reflexive disgust and horror 
  as the twisted humanity of Wyld mutants. In Creation’s 
  interior, the hatred, fear or scorn become ideological 
  rather than visceral. At least a few people can learn to 
  see beastmen as fellow humans if they get to know one. 
  Barbarian tribes feel a simpler hatred: they see beastmen 
  as inhuman competitors for land and food, and possible 
  harbingers of Lunar domination. The rapacious nature 
  of predatory beastmen, similar to the dreaded wolfmen, 
  does little to help these conflicts—but even herbivorous 
  gazelle-men claim land that nomadic herders might want 
  for their own flocks. Unlike ordinary barbarians, though, 
  beastmen seldom fear to live in the tainted lands on the 
  edges of the Wyld. Other beastman tribes give up on 
  Creation entirely and dwell in the Bordermarches.
  Even beastmen tribes that owe Lunars neither wor-
  ship nor obedience often know the techniques to resist 
  the Wyld. Their Lunar ancestor taught them, or some 
  other Lunar took on this duty. On top of their innate 
  resistance to the Wyld (see Chapter Seven), beastmen 
  excel at all of the various magical protections against the 
  Wyld. As a result, beastmen tribes that live within the 
  Bordermarches resist mutation much better than ordinary 
  humans. Safe from pursuit by all but the most brave or 
  foolhardy mortals, Bordermarch beast-tribes regularly 
  venture forth into Creation for the same mixture of 
  raiding, thievery and occasional trade as Wyld barbar-
  ians. Instead of mutating, beastmen tend to assimilate to 
  the Wyld as living icons of fierce strength and courage, 
  spurning or preying upon the weak humans who hate 
  and fear the beastmen. Tribes of carnivorous beastmen 
  might eat humans who fall into their claws—but as they 
  might reasonably point out, is this cannibalism? Humans 
  often say that beastmen are just animals; the beastmen 
  sometimes agree, and just as any tiger or wolf, they view 
  humans as just so much meat.
  RELICS OF THE PAST
  Beastmen and Wyld mutants are not the only 
  offshoots of humanity to find refuge at Creation’s rim. 
  The Solar Exalted of the Old Realm created several new 
  versions of humanity. The people of the air and people 
  of the sea were designed to glorify the Solar Delibera-
  tive and expand its reach into the skies and under the 
  waves. The tree folk and the dune people were created 
  as servants and slaves. Unlike many lesser creations, the 
  Copper Spiders made certain that all four races would 
  breed true, and so their descendants survive into the 
  Age of Sorrows.
  Few members of these offshoot races remain. When 
  the Dragon-Blooded overthrew the Solar Deliberative, 
  the Dragon-Blooded massacred all the Solar creations 
  they could find because they assumed these beings 
  would remain forever loyal to their now-dead masters. 
  They were also eliminated to help purify the world of 
  the Anathema’s taint—erasing the record of the Solars’ 
  power and excesses. Only the most isolated settlements 
  of the air-folk and sea-folk escaped these terrible purges. 
  They survived the Shogunate by remaining hidden. The 
  tree folk remained safe through sheer remoteness in the 
  furthest East, while a pair of Lunar Exalted saved the 
  dune people.
  The Contagion and the invasion of the Fair Folk 
  ended the Shogunate, but this did nothing to help these 
  living relics. All four races escaped the worst ravages of the 
  Contagion because of their isolation, but the Fair Folk 
  slew them as readily as the Shogunate had. Just as these 
  races’ ancestors fled to Creation’s edge, small numbers 
  
  44
  of these living relics survived by fleeing inward before 
  the tsunami of the Wyld. When the Scarlet Empress 
  restored order, these beings again had to contend with 
  an Immaculate Philosophy that called them unclean 
  monsters, while residents of many Threshold kingdoms 
  considered them either evil mutants or, at best, potentially 
  valuable slaves. The four races continue to live on the 
  very edges of Creation.
  THE PEOPLE OF THE AIR
  The people of the air look like attractive humans 
  who have huge and graceful white-feathered wings grow-
  ing from their shoulders. To demonstrate their power, 
  their creators endowed them with the wings and eyes of 
  raptors and unusually long lifespans. Today, fewer than 
  25,000 people of the air survive in all of Creation. Their 
  largest settlement is the eyrie of about 7,000 who live in 
  the half-ruined First Age city of Sezakan, located high 
  in the mountains of the Northwest. (See Chapter Four.) 
  Smaller, less civilized holdings that range from a few dozen 
  to a thousand or more air-folk can be found in both the 
  far North and the Northeastern forests. Almost 1,000 
  of the people of the air live in the civilized nations of 
  the Threshold, but they are mostly slaves kept because of 
  their exotic beauty and magnificent wings. Some air-folk 
  find a place on the fringes of civilization as scouts and 
  messengers. Only in the far Threshold, however, does the 
  value of a flying ally or employee regularly outweigh the 
  stigma of being considered either a mutant or a creation 
  of the Anathema.
  THE PEOPLE OF THE SEA
  The people of the sea look like nothing more than 
  attractive Westerners, with the blue or green hair and 
  pale, blue-tinged skin sometimes found in the West. Their 
  most obvious differences are the large but elegant gill slits 
  on their neck and extending a palm’s breadth down their 
  back. In the air, the slits close and resemble unusually 
  symmetrical scars. The only other marks of their true 
  nature are their unusually long lives and the tough but 
  delicate webbing between the first joint of their fingers 
  and the entirety of their slightly over-long toes. 
  Unfortunately, the warm climate and casual attitude 
  toward nudity found in much of the West means that 
  people of the sea often have trouble concealing their webs 
  and gills. Sea-folk are loathed and feared throughout much 
  of the West, because they are often mistaken for Wyld 
  mutants or the aquatic and inhuman Lintha pirates. As 
  a result, sea-folk who live in the civilized nations of the 
  West must accept a lowly station in life. Most of them 
  
  45
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  avoid civilization and dwell near the edges of Creation. 
  The two largest communities are the ruined city of Jalarin, 
  located in the Western Bordermarches, and the island 
  of Seahome, in the West’s tainted lands. 
  Seahome is an island to the West of the Neck that 
  covers 90 square miles. More than 4,000 people of the 
  sea live on it or, more often, just offshore. Although the 
  island lies within the tainted lands and waters of the West, 
  a jade obelisk protects Seahome and its inhabitants. The 
  folk of Seahome have skilled astrologers who can usually 
  predict Wyld storms and call their people to the obelisk 
  with conch-shell horns.
  THE TREE FOLK
  The tree folk have bright green hair and skin. Their 
  prehensile toes make them as much at home in the treetops 
  as on the ground, and they possess a natural immunity 
  to all plant toxins. Their green skins allow them to gain 
  much of their nourishment from sunlight and water 
  and so they require half as much food as other mortals; 
  on the other hand, tree folk require lots of time in the 
  sun. While the Solar Exalted shaped the people of the 
  air and the people of the sea for the sheer joy of it, the 
  tree people had a far less glorious purpose.
  The tree folk were not made to glorify their creators. 
  They were made to work the vast forests of the far East 
  where the trees grow many miles high. Here, far from any 
  other mortals, they collected rare flowers, seeds, vines 
  and fungi. Automated skyships delivered the harvest from 
  processing stations to the cities of the Solar Delibera-
  tive. The skyships gave the tree folk tools for their work; 
  anything else, they had to make by themselves. During 
  the Old Realm, the tree folk’s entire contact with the 
  outside world consisted of short visits every decade or 
  two by one of the mighty Solar Exalted. These Exalted 
  spoke to the tree folk and made certain that their loyalty 
  to the Deliberative remained absolute.
  The tree folk’s centuries of slavery ended with the 
  Usurpation. The Dragon-Blooded might have tried to 
  exterminate the tree folk, but could seldom find them. 
  The Great Contagion spared them because they had 
  so little contact with the outside world. However, they 
  became early targets for the invading Fair Folk. The tree 
  people who remained free found much of their home now 
  part of the Wyld. Some settled in the Bordermarches and 
  gradually became Wyld mutants, while most remained 
  within Creation and retained their humanity.
  Today, the mutant and non-mutant tree folk avoid 
  one another, which is exceedingly easy given the huge 
  expanse of the Eastern forests. Both groups share one 
  important common attitude: they feel an abiding distrust 
  for the Exalted. The Chosen of Luna generally leave the 
  tree folk alone, being more interested in seeing how their 
  unique barbarian culture evolves.
  Many tribes of tree folk also share a mixture of disdain 
  and fear of other mortals and avoid them. Because the 
  tree folk are so often taken for Wyld mutants, this fear 
  is largely justified. Only traders from Halta enjoy regular 
  contact with a few of their tribes. Because the tree folk 
  know forest secrets unknown to any outsiders, anyone who 
  trades with them can return with mysterious bounties of 
  the forest impossible to find by other means.
  THE DUNE PEOPLE
  Surviving creations of the First Age also dwell in 
  the South, and their history is one of the most horrific 
  in Creation. Late in the Old Realm, the Solar Exalted 
  bred the dune people as a slave race. They labored in 
  a city of pleasures that once stood in the middle of the 
  desert. Their creators made them albinos so that any 
  escape into the desert would swiftly kill them. Thus, they 
  worked only at night or underground.
  During the Usurpation, the Dragon-Blooded would 
  have killed the albino slaves along with their Solar masters. 
  A pair of heroic Lunar Exalted took pity on the dune 
  people and led them into the desert in the dead of night. 
  There they taught the arts of survival and commanded 
  them never to live in slavery again. Over time, however, 
  the dune people became as harsh as their desert home. 
  They do not merely see civilized folk as potential oppres-
  sors; the dune people see civilized folk as foes who must 
  be slaughtered whenever possible… and as food.
  The dune people are true albinos who must forever 
  avoid the searing rays of the sun, which would kill them 
  in minutes. Despite their lack of pigmentation, they have 
  taken no deformities from the Wyld. They are barbar-
  ians, not mutants. Similar to most barbarians, the dune 
  people are concerned with honor, pride, tribal lore and 
  reverence for the natural spirits and their ancestors—but 
  survival most of all. They hunt and kill humans, beast-
  men and Wyld mutants as part of an eternal feud with 
  the rest of the world.
  During the day, dune people lie beneath the desert 
  sands and breathe through the hollowed thighbones of 
  their enemies. They come out only at night. Experienced 
  travelers know the dune people hunt for human meat at 
  night and during sandstorms. The one advantage travel-
  ers have when dealing with the dune people is, just as 
  other mortal barbarians, they avoid the Wyld whenever 
  they can. Caravans that journey into the Bordermarches 
  leave the dangers of the dune people behind. The dune 
  people happily kill Wyld mutants and use their bones 
  
  46
  and skin for tools. The dune people refuse to eat the 
  Wyld mutants’ meat, however, and swiftly hunt and kill 
  any of their own who suffer Wyld mutation.
  CAN’T WE ALL GET ALONG?
  The reflexive hatred that most of Creation’s folk feel 
  for Wyld barbarians, beastmen and relics of the past may 
  seem discouraging, especially to an Exalt who regards a 
  tribe as her people, and wants them to find prosperity, 
  security and acceptance within Creation. It may also seem 
  strange that so many people lump together the handsome 
  and civilized people of the air with grotesque monsters 
  such as the Devourers.
  Remember that most people don’t know the different 
  origins of humanity’s offshoots. For all the average citizen 
  of Whitewall or the Haslanti League knows, a person 
  with wings was transformed by the Wyld as surely as any 
  furred, fanged savage. The average person knows a jumble 
  of stories about Wyld mutation, bestial miscegenation 
  and vile Anathema sorcery.
  Appearance is no help, either. Some Wyld barbar-
  ians look human—or at least as human as any beastman 
  or relic race—but the Wyld has made them monsters on 
  the inside. Maybe the gorgeous woman with the white 
  wings, or the handsome fellow with gills, really does en-
  joy torturing people to death or feeding on the brains 
  of children.
  Centuries of propaganda make things worse. The 
  Immaculate Order—arguably the most powerful cultural 
  institution in Creation—says that evil forces taint relic 
  races, beastmen and Wyld mutants alike. The Scarlet 
  Empire, Creation’s greatest military power, backs up 
  that position. Repeat a message long enough and even 
  people who hate you can start believing it.
  Not that the people of Creation’s rim are innocent. 
  Whether human, once-human or part-human, they meet 
  attack with counterattack, slave-raid with slave-raid, hatred 
  with hatred. Not many of them feel they should show 
  more forbearance than their enemies.
  So any Exalt who wants to make peace and friendship 
  between a Wyld tribe and anyone in Creation is in for 
  a challenge. The people of the air and people of the sea 
  would be easiest, since they look the most human and 
  occasionally find limited acceptance on their own. Tree 
  folk and some beastman tribes would present greater dif-
  ficulties because they look obviously nonhuman. They 
  have a rightness to them that most Wyld barbarians lack, 
  though. The tree folk and beastmen’s animalistic features 
  are at least consistent. Wyld barbarians—especially those 
  whose mutations are not all inherited—are visibly warped 
  humans, and that suggestion of violated flesh (and violated 
  identity) inspires an instinctive fear that even the most 
  rational person must work to overcome.
  In places where people have little direct experience 
  with part-humans or once-humans, the prejudice might 
  be shallower. At least a Lunar or Lawgiver doesn’t have to 
  work against personal grievances about who killed whose 
  sibling, spouse or parent. Mere laws might keep a Wyld-
  touched population from death or slavery. Prejudice, 
  however, does not die quickly. Just because the people 
  of the sea helped your country defeat the Lintha pirates 
  doesn’t mean you want your daughter to marry one. At-
  titudes like that take decades or centuries to change… or 
  powerful Charms, such as the Lawgivers once used to rule 
  Creation. Whether it’s ethical to use mind control on 
  entire populations is a question characters must answer 
  for themselves.
  FAIR FOLK
  The Fair Folk borrow or steal the words and skills of 
  others to describe—and, ultimately, to define—themselves. 
  They are nightmares and heroes, lovers and warriors, 
  murderers and torturers, larger-than-life figures out of 
  stories. They have to be. They do not know how to be, 
  and they cannot be, simply human. Their histories are 
  full of archetypes moving through predestined roles, 
  betraying and loving and warring and despairing, but 
  never ultimately changing in nature. And the Fair Folk 
  cling to this, throwing themselves into each successive 
  part and living it to the hilt, desperate to fan passion—any 
  passion—to a flame inside their inhuman hearts.
  The fundamental Wyld at the core of raksha nature 
  causes shaped Fair Folk to need the stability of settled 
  past and established deeds as part of their carefully struc-
  tured identities. They define themselves by the deeds that 
  they have performed, the passion and hatred they have 
  garnered from others, and the skills they have mastered. 
  All Fair Folk hunger for powerful allies or adversaries, to 
  draw an emotion from them—any emotion—and to exist
  to that person. The Fair Folk play a part, and they make 
  themselves that part. They are like actors who do not 
  exist without their costumes and lines, utterly swallowed 
  up in the stories that they enact. They are masks without 
  faces behind them. They crave interaction, drama and 
  passion, whatever the drama and passions may be.
  They also devour souls. Raksha feed on human souls, 
  ravaging them through their emotions; some prefer the taste 
  of love or affection, while others prefer pain, aggression, 
  pride, humiliation… They can control their feeding so as not 
  to harm the victim—more than the victim permits, anyway. 
  
  47
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  UNSHAPED RAKSHA
  Unshaped raksha have not taken on a stable form. They dwell in the utter Chaos that storms beyond 
  Creation, and some of them prowl in the Deep Wyld. They dislike the comparative fixity of the Middlemarches 
  and cannot survive long in the Bordermarches or Creation, as matter there becomes too fixed and structured 
  for them. Thousands of them entered Creation during the great Fair Folk invasion, but legions of shaped 
  raksha helped them draw the Wyld inward to sustain them, and they expected to unmake Creation before it 
  could unmake them.
  These entities have no actual, solid form. They can permeate an entire waypoint… or more accurately, 
  they are sentient waypoints traveling through the outer Wyld. They have no genuine names of their own, only 
  a collection of words or syllables that somehow describe an aspect of their being.
  Protean as they are, however, the unshaped do need to adopt a few defined traits when they leave Pure 
  Chaos. These are not so much a fixed nature as an arbitrary set of traits similar to the central traits of a way-
  point. These traits might include a visible, tangible focus for the raksha’s self-awareness and interaction with 
  other beings… or it might not. For example, the unshaped raksha Kroange, Tooth in the Cliff, usually creeps 
  through the world as a cave lined with teeth in the bowels of a mountain. When Kroange feels restless, it takes 
  the form of a rock and rolls through the valleys and fields, never casting a shadow. Kroange sometimes hides 
  among other rocks; the rocks then become impossible to count. Each of Kroange’s teeth has a separate nature. 
  Long ago one of them, Subak, was stolen from him by Princess Kyema of the Jet Court, and he would reward 
  anyone who could return it. Subak now takes the form of a dagger, which the Princess wears at her side; it can 
  cut through any flesh once it has tasted that person’s blood, despite any armor or Charms.
  Unshaped raksha do not and cannot react on a human level, or comprehend human preoccupations. 
  They are insane, without even the appearance of humanity to conceal this.
  
  48
  The Fair Folk who live openly within Creation’s major 
  cities subsist on harmless emotions such as joy or pleasure, 
  and refrain from doing permanent damage. A raksha 
  might even pay people to argue, so it can feed on their 
  anger and exist through their opposition. The raksha who 
  dwell in the Wyld rarely see any need to confine their 
  desires, however, and feed until they leave the human as 
  an empty, soulless shell. These victims are often sold to 
  the Guild—who frequently sold the raksha the slaves in 
  the first place—for use as menial labor.
  INVADERS FROM BEYOND
  Every scholar in Creation knows how the Fair Folk 
  invaded from beyond the world’s rim. The raksha re-
  member this story, too—but of course, they tell it from 
  the other side.
  Once upon a time, the Fair Folk had neither shape 
  nor identity. When the Primordials formed Creation, 
  the Ones Beyond raged against it. The powerful among 
  the raksha took shapes borrowed from Creation so they 
  could have voices to speak, and gathered thoughts so 
  they could formulate what they desired to say. They 
  sought emotions that would express their desires, and 
  they found them: Valor, Compassion, Temperance, 
  Conviction and Will.
  The newly arisen leaders strove for dominance (an-
  other concept they imitated), as each raksha desired to 
  make the assault on Creation an expression of its chosen 
  Virtue. At last, a single raksha came forward. With cun-
  ning speech, it showed the other raksha that all things 
  ultimately served their desires, whether to enslave, destroy 
  or cherish Creation’s mortal inhabitants. It swore that 
  nothing should ever prevent the raksha from doing as 
  they wished. They named this raksha Thief of Words, 
  and it still roams Creation to the present day, an object 
  of awe and terror among the Fair Folk—the definer of 
  their race.
  THE FAIR FOLK TAKE FORM
  Prince Balor of the Terrible Gaze then raised his 
  standard and named his will: that Creation should be 
  taken, for the raksha to ravage, shape or destroy at their 
  whim. He led the assembled forces into Creation. The 
  Dragon-Blooded, greatly wearied by their own efforts in 
  the Usurpation and by the scourge of the Great Conta-
  gion, could not stand against the raksha.
  Right when the world seemed about to fall into their 
  hands, and the raksha began to celebrate their victory, 
  the leaders turned on each other and slew each other 
  with the mightiest of their weapons. And then it was 
  that the Scarlet Empress roused the Imperial Manse and 
  reestablished the boundaries of the world. The surviving 
  Fair Folk leaders fled, and so did their forces with them. 
  Balor’s Crusade had failed.
  The Dragon-Blooded thought the main threat bro-
  ken. They set up garrisons on the borders of Creation, and 
  led hunts to dispose of small freeholds where they could 
  find them, but the Scarlet Empress found she had more 
  than the Fair Folk to deal with: the Dragon-Blooded did 
  not harry the raksha all the way back to Chaos. The Lu-
  nars who remained knew the Wyld better, and remained 
  on guard. Meanwhile, the Fair Folk themselves became 
  more fixed in form and nature as they remained within 
  Creation. But those raksha beyond the boundaries, still 
  unshaped and unformed, cursed their fellows and saw 
  them now as pitiful freaks and traitors little better than 
  humans and deserving to be destroyed with them.
  When the Fair Folk began to meet with each other 
  again, they had all changed. They now bore aspects and 
  forms taken from mortal dreams and nightmares. For a 
  while there was confusion, with some giving offence where 
  it was not intended, and others not giving offence despite 
  their greatest efforts to do so. However, after discussion, 
  the Fair Folk discovered that they all still shared the 
  concepts of Valor, Temperance, Conviction, Compas-
  sion and Willpower. Five courts based on these concepts 
  THIEF OF WORDS
  Thief of Words has become a legend among 
  the raksha. While the Fair Folk frequently profess 
  to honor sages or respect cunning counselors, Thief 
  of Words is one of the very few elder raksha whom 
  everyone really listens to and obeys. The raksha 
  themselves do not know the limits of its powers and 
  fear to test its strength. Rumor variously says that 
  Thief of Words has been the lover of the Scarlet 
  Empress (whom the raksha hate and fear above all 
  humans, and therefore love for giving their existence 
  meaning), that it lives in Yu-Shan, that it journeys 
  in disguise between the courts to keep them in op-
  position and that it organizes the next crusade to 
  destroy Creation. Since Thief of Words is said to 
  take any shape it pleases, nobody can say what it 
  looks like. Sometimes the arch-raksha is an excuse 
  for new movements and fashions among the Fair 
  Folk; at other times, Thief of Words (or someone 
  claiming its identity) has halted a war in the mak-
  ing, forced a treaty or even intervened on behalf of 
  normal humans. Anyone who can reasonably claim 
  to have met Thief of Words becomes an instant 
  subject of interest to any raksha.
  
  49
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  Guild caravan going there as well; he is likely to reach 
  the freehold sane and in one piece. What may happen 
  after that is a different matter.
  A few raksha also affect to scorn the trade as weak 
  and decadent. What glory do the raksha gain by lounging 
  in their freeholds, waiting for their dinners? They should 
  stalk through Creation as its predatory lords, filling it 
  with their wonder and terror. The schism between the 
  traders and the hunters leads to many entertaining 
  rivalries and vendettas.
  THE COURTS AND HOUSEHOLDS
  As of RY 768, the Five Courts are Opal, Ruby, Jet, 
  Lapis and Pearl. Previous courts include the Emerald 
  Court—now a mere household, due to the carelessness 
  of its twin rulers, though still devoted to Valor—and the 
  Diamond Court, which was destroyed.
  The Opal Court champions Valor. Its ruler Prince 
  Japhthia traces his lineage back to Balor himself. The court 
  currently resides in the distant East, from where the war-
  riors ride forth to cast defiance at the local petty gods.
  The Lapis Court offers shelter for those who practice 
  what the Fair Folk term Compassion. Here rules Neshi 
  of the Double Whips, who goes perpetually veiled and 
  who sleeps surrounded by human children. The mood of 
  THE CHURCH OF BALOR
  The raksha would never sincerely worship any god. However, the drama of divinity and worship appeals 
  to the Fair Folk. They can adopt formalized postures of veneration, homage, penance and prayer. They 
  particularly appreciate the idea of gods who influence the entire world—who are known by everyone, in fear 
  and reverence. And when were the raksha more godlike, more known, than when they almost destroyed the 
  world? And, they take up the tragically slain Prince Balor (never mind that other raksha killed him) as a lost 
  but noble cause, and swear undying loyalty to his crusade. The Church of Balor was sculpted by a thousand 
  terrified human dreams of destruction, a thousand wanton human lusts for conquest and a thousand dying 
  human souls screaming in pain.
  The Church is what Fair Folk think religion ought to be. Worshippers kneel and pray, priests incant strange 
  chants of praise, warriors in shining armor ride forth on quests, horrible sacrifices take place in exquisite or excru-
  ciating detail, zealots duel over points of doctrine, and so on. Many Fair Folk join or leave the Church as a whim, 
  as they find it a convenient excuse for some role they wish to play, or as justification for some feud or friendship.
  While the Church officially seeks to bring the Final Crusade that sweeps Creation back into Chaos, the 
  Church’s devotees share no consensus on how this should take place. Some adherents favor inviting the un-
  shaped raksha from the Deep Wyld or from Chaos to lead the armies. Others suggest murdering the Scarlet 
  Empress and her most faithful servants first, while still others simply want to ride out in nightmare, blood and 
  fire, and destroy everything in their path. The passive remainder simply enjoys the feuds and disputes, but is 
  unlikely to launch any Crusade in the immediate future.
  With the Empress vanished and the Great Houses in strife, some raksha say this is the perfect moment for 
  a new Crusade. Some of them even suggest offering cataphracts and hobgoblin legions to certain Houses or 
  rebel kingdoms and satrapies, helping them break free from the Realm and then turning on both sides when 
  they are weakened. This proposal interests many raksha, and particularly the Five Courts, but would require 
  careful choice of victims and wording of bargains.
  arose, and many lesser households. Many raksha chose to 
  affiliate themselves with one or more of these groupings, 
  the better to befriend or feud with their kin.
  As the years went by, more than one court fell to 
  become a mere household, and more than one household 
  rose to become a court. Some courts or households set 
  up their own treaties with gods, mortals or Exalted; how-
  ever, these treaties only bound the particular Fair Folk 
  who belonged to that court or household… or perhaps 
  only an individual raksha. Although the Fair Folk must 
  keep their given word to the letter, they do their best to 
  interpret it to suit themselves.
  The Guild taught the Fair Folk about commerce. 
  The raksha offered glamours, sorcery and rare items 
  from the Wyld; the Guild offered human slaves. Unlike 
  the Guild’s other clients, the Fair Folk did not object to 
  truculent and awkward slaves; the raksha enjoy willful 
  victims. Once the raksha savored the last morsel of a 
  victim’s mind and soul, they often sold the slaves back 
  to the Guild, for use as menial beasts of burden. While 
  civilized society looks down on the trade, and strategists 
  condemn it as merely strengthening the raksha, it brings in 
  so great a profit that the Guild certainly does not intend 
  to stop it. A traveler who wanted to reach a particular 
  raksha freehold could do worse than journeying with a 
  
  50
  this court ebbs and flows with the years, and it is given 
  to passing fashions. It recently traveled to the far South, 
  and lion warriors guard the silken tents of its nobles.
  The Pearl Court is filled with raksha who idolize Will-
  power. Its nobles duel by night and day, and the ocean around 
  it is doubly salted with raksha blood. The court rides on the 
  back of one of the last remaining behemoths, which swims 
  the seas of the Western Middlemarches. Judge Nehemeth 
  sits on a throne carved from a single pearl and only moves 
  from it when a would-be usurper challenges her rule.
  The Jet Court is the refuge of those who have a high 
  (yet moderate) regard for Temperance. Many of these raksha 
  strive to demonstrate this virtue at the expense of their fel-
  lows. They take pleasure in demonstrating how moderate 
  and well judged they are in their pleasures and hatreds, 
  leading to a number of duels second only to the Pearl Court. 
  Princess Kyema rules the Jet Court mildly and seductively, 
  aided by her personal rumormongers and spies; it currently 
  lies in the Northern Wyld, but rarely stays put for long, as 
  that would show excessive attachment to one place.
  The Ruby Court prizes Conviction. These raksha 
  do not care what anyone does, so long as they do it with 
  uttermost passion and certainty. The nobles of this court 
  weep tears of blood, take human lovers, slay them in 
  fits of jealousy and then feud with each other about it. 
  Duke Aral is a weak ruler who spends much of his time 
  before his mirror. The nobles of his court politick and 
  command in his absence. The court resides in the far 
  Southeast, and trades heavily with the Guild.
  The Lesser Households may take the name of gems 
  such as the Garnet, the Beryl, the Amethyst and the 
  Citrine, to name but a few, or they name themselves 
  after flowers, musical instruments or whatever else their 
  master pleases. They move and travel as they wish, if 
  they cannot obtain a freehold. While a household often 
  follows its master’s wish and allies to a single court, just 
  as many households include members scattered across 
  the courts. Likewise, some households live within a 
  court’s bounds while others live apart if the Wyld or in 
  Creation. A household lacks the authority or power of 
  a court, but a sufficiently strong household can gather 
  allies and maybe in time become a court itself. The Ruby 
  Court was once a simple household itself, and still has 
  many allies among the Lesser Households.
  COMMON RAKSHA OF THE 
  FOUR DIRECTIONS
  Travelers through the quarters of Creation report 
  that the raksha who live in the different directions each 
  have their own customs, habits, hungers and passions. 
  However, strong similarities appear among raksha in a 
  particular elemental direction, far more so than among 
  humans who might live in the same area. Along with 
  being infinitely variable, raksha are infinitely impression-
  able. Without strong, personal inspirations, the average 
  raksha takes impressions from his surroundings like a 
  drop of hot wax. Fair Folk want exotic personal habits, 
  rites, oaths, feuds and all the other things that give them 
  the semblance of a human personality. They are easily 
  swayed by the hunger of the sea, the drama of the climate 
  and the local human customs. The Fair Folk gather them 
  in as magpies gather gaudy toys, and assemble them into 
  intricate and vivid lifestyles. See Chapters Three through 
  CHILDREN OF THE DIAMOND COURT
  The Diamond Court is one of the great raksha 
  cautionary tales. Centuries ago, the Diamond Court 
  celebrated Conviction. The court set itself against 
  all four of the other courts, arguing that Conviction 
  made all other virtues possible. Warriors of the 
  Diamond Court also raided human villages and left 
  false traces that cast blame on the other courts or 
  nearby freeholds, in an attempt to draw the other 
  raksha into an alliance against the humans. The 
  nobles of the court and its ruler, Queen Kanathar-
  itha, argued that true Conviction made all means 
  not merely possible, but necessary.
  The Diamond Court was taken by surprise by 
  the Tepet legions, which penetrated deep into the 
  Wyld with the help of Guild experts, thaumaturgy 
  and powerful Charms. (If they had assistance from 
  Sidereals, Lunars or other raksha nobles, this was 
  kept well secret.) The legions destroyed the Diamond 
  Court, burned its palace, slew the Queen and left 
  the remains to the Wyld. Some raksha claim that 
  the younger members of the court, including the 
  Queen’s twin babes, were taken to be sold as slaves 
  by the Guild—a most exquisite irony, the tellers all 
  agree—but if this is so then no trace of them has 
  been found for centuries. The Ruby Household 
  rose to become a court in the power vacuum that 
  was left.
  The whole affair of the Diamond Court taught 
  the raksha to keep their depredations below the 
  level that would provoke the Realm’s retaliation. 
  With the Empress gone and the Realm in disarray, 
  that caution is nearly gone. Furthermore, finding 
  the “lost heirs” could easily spark a restorationist 
  civil war among the courts that would entertain all 
  raksha involved.
  
  51
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  Six for the appearances and attitudes frequently adopted 
  by the raksha of the Wyld’s four quarters.
  The Five Courts, by comparison, define themselves 
  far more by their chosen virtues than by the general cus-
  toms or nature of their environment. The raksha within 
  a court often reflect the local elemental temperament, 
  but they filter it through their own attitudes, with the 
  ruler’s personality as a further influence.
  Finally, in some freeholds the ruler makes such an 
  impression upon his subjects and the environment that 
  local customs reflect nothing but his own temperament. 
  This can lead to small enclaves inside Rakshastan that 
  look and act nothing like the dominant Fair Folk culture 
  for that region.
  TRADE WITH THE GUILD
  Trade between the Guild and the Fair Folk began in 
  approximately RY 130, between particularly daring Guild 
  factors and Fae-blooded ravagers who saw this as an easy 
  way to procure the human slaves their raksha masters 
  demanded. Within barely a dozen years, trade had blos-
  somed into a full-grown industry, and the ravagers had 
  been cut out in favor of direct bargaining between high-
  ranking Guild merchants and the Fair Folk themselves. 
  Those first merchants left behind detailed instructions 
  as to the proper protocols to use when trading with the 
  raksha, and these are still regarded as the most reliable 
  way to do so. While merchants (Guild and otherwise) are 
  free to make their own deals anywhere in Rakshastan, 
  and often do, five fortified markets offer some degree of 
  associated safety through their established customs.
  These five Goblin Bazaars—one in each quarter of 
  Creation, and one that wanders with the Wyld itself—serve 
  as convenient points for Guild caravans to trade with 
  the Fair Folk. When a caravan comes close enough to a 
  bazaar, one of the common Fair Folk guides the caravan 
  in. The guide may arrive alone, or with an honor guard 
  of gossamer-glass ships, firebirds or other wonders out 
  of the Wyld. By the rules of these bazaars, the caravan 
  master must formally ask permission to enter, and then 
  every member of the caravan must go in; nobody can 
  stay outside. The Guild officials must refrain from sam-
  pling the refreshments they are offered while bargaining 
  with the raksha lord of the fortress. By the laws of the 
  exchange, anyone who partakes of the hospitality must 
  remain as a slave. After the bargaining ends (and still 
  without any food or drink) the Guildsmen may leave, 
  and will find the price of the newly sold slaves packed in 
  their caravan cargo, together with any dream-eaten slaves 
  chained together in a coffle.
  The Goblin Bazaars have been the same for the last 
  few centuries, but their lords and ladies change frequently. 
  They are as follows:
  The Wreath of Lashes is found off the Ash Road 
  deep in the Southern Desert, where lions and fire-black-
  ened scorpion-children guide the caravans to this bronze 
  tower. The slowly writhing walls are chill to the touch, 
  and move with shifting bas-reliefs of long-devoured 
  slaves, revisiting their past torments in slow motion. 
  A maze of curtains made from whip-braids and chains 
  leads the way to the reception hall. Visitors are offered 
  chilled wine and raw, spiced meat. Merchant princes 
  often leave with gossamer blades, carved jewels, ever-
  burning lamps and unguents that make one beautiful 
  as the dawn for one hour.
  The Embrace of Ash and Yew is deep in the Eastern 
  Forest. Carnivorous gray stags lead caravans on a twisting 
  path toward the rising sun and a huge ash tree twisted 
  together with an equally huge yew tree. Interlocking 
  chambers lie within the living wood, decorated with spi-
  derweb tapestries that give soft music from the plucking 
  of fist-sized spiders. Hanging fruits, candied insects and 
  nectar are served here. Guild representatives leave with 
  gossamer cloth, rare spices and dyes, recipes for medicines 
  and poisons, dream-inducing wines and birds that sing 
  the most complex arias after hearing them once.
  The Mouth of White Sleep lies in the distant North, 
  and a chill white fog shrouds the gates of this ice palace. 
  The hospitality here is the offer of fur cloaks and heated 
  rooms; the reward is blocks of never-melting ice, bottled 
  winds, soap that washes away a guilty conscience and 
  tapestries woven from the dreams of gifted artisans.
  The Surgeon’s Deep is cut from the body of a slowly 
  writhing whale-behemoth. Glass boats and Fair Folk in 
  the shape of gulls guide travelers to the bazaar. Great 
  spears puncture the behemoth’s nerve-points and closed 
  the flow of living Essence to its vital organs until those 
  chambers have hardened into jade. Slaves are exchanged 
  for gossamer armor, Wyld pearls, thought-reflecting mir-
  rors, immense corals, shells and other Western treasures. 
  Merchant princes must avoid the skewered, living sea-
  creatures and heady rum offered to them.
  The Fragrant Hill wanders through the Wyld places 
  of the world. Caravans take a widdershins route around 
  the source of the Gray River until the hill appears, 
  cloaked in mist and smelling of the rare incense of the 
  greatest Immaculate temples. Visitors must refuse the 
  shining gems they are offered to navigate the darkness 
  within, and use only their own lanterns, or grope in the 
  dark. They must also refuse the savory roots and legumes 
  
  52
  heaped on platters for them. Here can be obtained scrolls 
  depicting First Age devices, gryphon feathers, cakes of 
  diamond-dust and mechanical toys of inhumanly cun-
  ning manufacture.
  Of course, other domains and freeholds buy slaves, 
  too, or trade away their dream-eaten husks to the Guild 
  or any other merchants. However, any deals the humans 
  broker outside the Goblin Bazaars are individual ones, 
  and subject to raksha interpretation and raksha humor. 
  Let the vendor beware.
  RAVAGERS
  The Guild sells mortal souls to the Fair Folk, but 
  some people work for the raksha directly. Ravagers are 
  humans whose wills the raksha have broken or suborned, 
  and who now serve them with slavish devotion. Some 
  ravagers abduct other mortals for their masters. Other 
  ravagers serve as messengers, warriors and front-men. 
  They are often physically attractive, either because they 
  were so originally or because their raksha masters disguise 
  them with glamour.
  A few ravagers are Fae-blooded—people of mingled 
  raksha and human descent—reared as coddled and abused 
  pets inside some freehold or finding their way to raksha 
  service after painful lives in Creation. Other ravagers 
  began as slaves but took their masters’ fancy. The raksha 
  may cultivate other potential ravagers from childhood, 
  occasionally visiting their villages or cities to observe them 
  from a distance. The Fair Folk look for cold-blooded 
  amorality: not just the obviously vicious bullies but the 
  little princesses and drama queens, the village Lotharios 
  and neighborhood tattletales—anyone who hides behind 
  an image and doesn’t care whom he hurts in the process, 
  or who would rather live an imaginary life than a real 
  one. In short, people like the raksha themselves.
  A ravager in training briefly becomes a petted toy, 
  perhaps the favored lover of one or several raksha, while 
  simultaneously witnessing the degradation and collapse 
  of other humans around him. The Fair Folk also promise 
  the mortal that if he serves faithfully, he will be rewarded 
  with immortal beauty and power as the raksha themselves. 
  This combination of stick and carrot seduces the wills 
  of most ravagers. Stronger-willed mortals, or half-bloods 
  who understand what happens to all mortals eventually 
  in a Fair Folk domain, become the leaders of such groups 
  and receive gossamer weapons and armor. Their masters 
  promise to spare them so long as they obey perfectly and 
  bring back more victims.
  
  53
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  Ambitious ravagers sometimes realize the thrall that 
  the Fair Folk have over them and try to break free. These 
  ravagers may discard their raksha belongings and hide in 
  a village or city far from raksha dwellings, while trying 
  to forget the unimaginable pleasures and pains that they 
  once enjoyed. Former ravagers have even become regarded 
  as local holy men, due to their stern denial of physical 
  pleasures. (Of course, for a ravager, nothing compares 
  to what he once knew at the hands of the Fair Folk.) A 
  few even manage to live out a normal mortal lifespan, 
  and die respected by a community that never knew of 
  their previous tasks. More often, onetime ravagers vanish 
  in the dead of night, carried away by raksha who finally 
  tracked them down, or they cannot resist the memory 
  of the Fair Folk any longer and go stumbling back to 
  the Wyld, to have their dreams devoured and their souls 
  emptied away.
  Not many ravagers survive more than a few years. 
  Either they die while carrying out the raksha’s bidding, 
  or they no longer possesses the physical charms and 
  grace that made them suitable servants. After all, the 
  Fair Folk would never tolerate a minion who was less 
  than beautiful or pleasing. However much a favorite 
  they once were, most ravagers end up suffering and dy-
  ing with the other victims, or shuffling in some Guild 
  merchant’s slave-coffle. Half-bloods have a better chance 
  of surviving and prospering, since their innate abilities 
  and longer lifespans give them the option of finding a 
  niche within the freehold and somehow establishing 
  their own value.
  POLITICS OF THE FAIR FOLK
  Among the raksha, politics deals not so much with 
  territory or power as with personal feuds, long-term 
  enmities, current fashions in the use of captive humans 
  and general style. The actual reason for the long enmity 
  between the Pearl and Lapis Courts matters little when 
  compared to the opportunities their adherents find to 
  fight duels, plot against each other, insult each other in 
  public places, steal each others’ treasures or pet mortals 
  or enjoy passionate, forbidden affairs with each other 
  before the tragic betrayal and inevitable temporary mutual 
  destruction. Although genuine discussions about terri-
  tory and tribute do go on behind the scenes, the average 
  raksha understands “politics” as “a chance for me to 
  indulge myself and develop some new enemies.”
  This is affected by the fact that the popular, powerful 
  Fair Folk are the interesting ones who can hold the atten-
  tion and respect of other raksha. They have Exalted (and 
  preferably Solars or Lunars) as allies or enemies. Their 
  weapons are known to freeholds across Creation. Their 
  powers and skills become the subject of tales among both 
  raksha and humans, and their stories grow more and 
  more epic. Such raksha gain assistance and obedience 
  from other Fair Folk who hope to become part of their 
  story or find new roles for themselves. Lesser Fair Folk—or 
  worse still, boring, nondescript Fair Folk—must scrabble 
  for crumbs in the corners, unimportant and unwanted, 
  and lack the attention and interaction sufficient to fully 
  define themselves and become strong.
  Policies among the Fair Folk divide into two loose 
  categories: genuine and serious policies that deal with 
  real events affecting the stability of the court, household, 
  freehold or individual and policies developed purely for 
  emotional and narrative indulgence. Fair Folk often man-
  age to combine the two, but not always. Powerful Fair 
  Folk are most likely to be behind genuine politics, since 
  they don’t have the driving need for attention that forces 
  lesser Fair Folk to choose the most dramatic, interesting
  course of action.
  Fair Folk are always delighted to involve other beings 
  in their politics. Exalted in particular make marvelous 
  tools, agents or adversaries. It is not considered a sign 
  of weakness to employ one of the Exalted to perform a 
  task, but rather a sign of skill and control that the raksha 
  could persuade or force the Exalt to comply.
  Raksha political activities include the following:
  Send official ambassadors. These Fair Folk should 
  be powerful, elegant, interesting and in every way good 
  representatives of the group they represent. They are 
  expected to deliver dramatic threats or sweet flattery 
  BARBARIAN RAVAGERS
  The Fair Folk employ seductive ravagers when 
  they wish to gain victims by stealth and cunning. 
  Some raksha, however, prefer a more brutal style of 
  predation by proxy. They bully, bribe or bamboozle 
  a local tribe into attacking some other tribe, or the 
  civilized folk of Creation, with the aim of capturing 
  victims. The shock, fear and grief of the captives give 
  extra savor to their souls. Some barbarians do this 
  of their own volition: they realize the Fair Folk want 
  slaves, so the barbarians offer captives as tribute if 
  the raksha will leave them alone. 
  This racket works best with ordinary barbarians 
  and Wyld barbarians. A tribe that assimilates to the 
  Wyld might even make service to the Fair Folk part 
  of its scripted identity. Beastman tribes, however, 
  sometimes have Lunar sponsors who object forcefully 
  to raksha domination—but that can be a desirable 
  outcome, too.
  
  54
  while presenting their ruler’s demands or requests, and 
  to emphasize the importance and interest of the faction 
  they represent. It is considered good manners for visit-
  ing ambassadors to involve themselves in local court or 
  freehold life, via seductions, duels, betrayals and other 
  normal interactions.
  While it might be more useful sometimes to send 
  weak or unimportant ambassadors so your enemies will 
  underestimate you, no raksha could bring herself to do 
  this. It’d be so dull, and it’d damage her reputation. 
  Sending someone so hideously ugly or gruesome that his 
  very ugliness makes a statement in itself has possibilities, 
  though. Persuading a Celestial Exalt to serve as an ambas-
  sador is a major diplomatic coup. A Terrestrial Exalt is 
  worth a round of applause, but doesn’t have quite the 
  same shock value.
  Send unofficial ambassadors. Raksha groups do this 
  either when they don’t want to admit in public that they 
  negotiate with each other, or when the official ambas-
  sadors in situ can’t be trusted to handle the important 
  business. Unofficial ambassadors genuinely represent 
  their particular group (after all, where’s the point other-
  wise?) but don’t admit to having any particular authority. 
  They merely display themselves attractively, get involved 
  with the group they visit and have quiet words behind the 
  scenes. Such negotiations may concern important issues 
  that affect both groups, and the secrecy is an important 
  factor. Discovering or revealing these negotiations can 
  cause genuine attempts to kill a raksha, rather than sim-
  ply artistic ones. While an Exalt can be sent on this sort 
  of mission, it might involve revealing too much about a 
  raksha group’s secret goals or weaknesses.
  Stage daring raids. This can range from simple 
  border attacks and duels to full-scale kidnappings and 
  thefts from the ruling raksha’s throne room. This sort 
  of action demonstrates the raiding Fair Folk’s power, 
  competence and style: stealing a raksha lady’s ring while 
  she holds court, for instance, would definitely impress the 
  other Fair Folk. A raid can be done as the equivalent of 
  a polite introduction, or as a demonstration of strength 
  between two raksha groups who are currently neutral or 
  feuding mildly. The raksha consider it gauche for too many 
  pursuers to hunt down a raider or thief. The offended 
  party should merely send a few high-quality hunters to 
  bring back the item, the thief’s head, the thief himself 
  or some other item of value.
  Meet at a neutral location. Minor freeholds compete 
  to host this sort of event. While powerful visitors may 
  overshadow the local lord, diplomatic meetings offer 
  unparalleled opportunities for local raksha to entangle 
  themselves in the visitors’ stories, acquire important allies 
  and generally make new friends and enemies. Meetings 
  at neutral ground usually occur when two major groups 
  of raksha wish to interact, but without the commitment 
  of sending ambassadors (official or unofficial). This sort 
  of meeting generally involves some degree of competi-
  tion, such as a shared hunt, an exhibition of crafts, a 
  demonstration of pet slaves, a contest of magic or other 
  opportunities to show off.
  Lure away important members. Seducing a member 
  of an opposing Fair Folk group into joining your own 
  demonstrates your social prowess and personal power 
  among the raksha. If you can bring along her entourage, 
  lovers, enemies and other associates, so much the better. 
  The drama of an important member of a group publicly 
  renouncing her old allegiance provokes immediate response 
  from everyone concerned or merely watching. Raksha eti-
  quette suggests that you either seduce someone from the 
  other group into your company, or fetch back the defector 
  by whatever means you can—a double defection for twice 
  the drama! Some Fair Folk would entice the defector with 
  romance, treachery or the promise of a mutual enemy, while 
  others prefer the classical approach of dragging her back 
  in chains for immediate and painful punishment.
  WAR
  Mortals seem to enjoy war since they spend so 
  much time on it, and the raksha agree: war is one of 
  the grandest entertainments ever devised. Of course, 
  a war should be done with proper concern for the feel-
  ings of both sides—that is, with a dramatic entrance, the 
  presentation of insult, either the merciful sparing or the 
  painful execution of the messengers, the challenges to 
  duels from both sides, ultimatums, last-minute attempts 
  at peace and of course the war itself. Human minions 
  make wonderful audiences for speeches and die so 
  beautifully on the battlefield. War really has to be one 
  of the most popular modes of Fair Folk politics; it offers 
  all the raksha a chance to show themselves at their best 
  and build new relationships. Besides, when the war ends 
  one side can sue for peace, the other side can gracefully 
  accept it, and they can begin a cycle of feasts, prisoner 
  exchanges, betrayals, hopeless avowals of shame, demands 
  for restitution and other enticing pastimes until war is 
  declared again.
  Best of all, war allows the Fair Folk to involve other 
  people in their sport, from barbarian tribes to entire na-
  tions, if the raksha can trick or enthrall the mortal leaders. 
  The Fair Folk can devote years to seducing, blackmailing 
  or otherwise manipulating chiefs, kings, priests, magnates 
  
  55
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  or whoever else they need to arrange a big, entertaining 
  war. The raksha might not even bother to fight themselves, 
  but let their dispute hang on the mortals’ outcome, with 
  lesser wagers on the side. They might even draw in a few 
  of the Exalted. In particular, many of Luna’s Chosen have 
  traced attacks on their favored tribes or other turmoil at 
  the Wyld’s fringe to raksha “games”… and found that it 
  was all planned to bring the Lunar to a final, epic conflict 
  with the raksha themselves.
  LUNAR EXALTED
  The Chosen of Luna prefer not to live inside the 
  Wyld. Many of them try to live as near the edge of their 
  local Bordermarches as possible. They use the Wyld as a 
  resource, a challenge, a refuge and a tactical advantage; 
  many also see it as a responsibility that other Exalted 
  have long since forsaken. As the Wyld such a central 
  part of their lives and continued survival, the Lunar 
  Exalted have every reason in the world to make their 
  homes near the Wyld.
  USES FOR CHAOS
  From territories around the Wyld, Lunars control 
  vast swathes of land and all that entails. Many untapped 
  sources of valuable minerals belong to nobody so much 
  as the Lunar Exalted, resting in the mountains or under 
  the ground until the Lunar decides she needs them. 
  Pristine forests lie on the edge of the Bordermarches, 
  often a little bit strange, but all a hero needs to build an 
  army’s stock of spears or to hunt and salt enough wild 
  pork to keep a legion marching for months.
  On the other side of the border, the resources 
  become harder to claim, but commensurately more valu-
  able. Lunar artificers cannot craft impossible substances 
  from Chaos as the Solars of yore did, but the Lunars 
  can still obtain miraculous ingredients for their artifacts 
  and experiments. Some Lunars just keep looking until 
  they find what they want. Others bargain with the Fair 
  Folk and unformed raksha (whose bargains are often so 
  unfathomable that they must be ill-intended—perhaps) to 
  behemoths, homeless demons or unclassifiable things.
  The territories of Luna’s Chosen are large enough to 
  include many small, mortal societies. Despite the distance 
  from the “civilized” way of life that radiates outward from 
  the Realm, nearly every type of culture has representa-
  tion on Creation’s rim. Nomadic tribesmen wander the 
  plains and dunes, harvesting edible plants and hunting 
  the local animals; while villages of subsistence farmers 
  scratch out a living. Even minor city-states form, far from 
  the influence of the Realm or the Guild, developing their 
  own rivalries and intentions. Any or all of these cultures 
  may fall inside a single Lunar’s territory, and they are 
  the perfect seeds for the Lunars to cultivate into instant 
  armies or into potential rivals for the Realm. As Halta 
  and the Haslanti League prove, yesterday’s city-state can 
  grow into tomorrow’s fledgling empire.
  In the Wyld, the Lunar Exalted find less predictable
  human cultures. Adding Wyld mutations and assimilation 
  into the mix creates the possibility of cultures in which 
  kingship depends on ritually sucking blood through a 
  mosquito proboscis, where self-worth is judged on the 
  quality of one’s gills or in which people operate as a 
  hive mind. Lunars treat the Wyld societies they discover 
  (and seed, and found) as experiments for what might be 
  done in Creation. Few Lunar Exalted believe that Wyld 
  cultures are viable for transplant into Creation, but there 
  are always exceptions. On the other hand, many Wyld 
  cultures could provide quality shock troops in the event 
  of a war, so Luna’s Children keep an eye on them, either 
  personally or through agents.
  In the end, Luna’s Children actually control at 
  least as much ground as the Scarlet Empress did in her 
  heyday, but their power is more diffuse. They cannot 
  send a magistrate to a small town and make everyone 
  turn out its pockets—a Lunar must go himself, unless 
  he already established a great deal of influence over the 
  region. Many Lunars prefer the personal nature of this 
  arrangement, but some still try to reign as distant lieges 
  instead of intimate warlords.
  Humans (and their derivatives) are not the only 
  creatures Lunars find useful. Many beasts of the Wyld, 
  such as the sea horse of the West and the ice hollows 
  of the North, prove useful to the Children of Luna. 
  As examples, the former serve as excellent steeds and 
  the latter can make excellent guardians (if trained) or 
  traps for enemies (if wild). The remarkable simhata are 
  descendants of creatures removed from the Wyld early 
  in the First Age.
  Most Lunars who keep territories around or in the 
  Wyld also respect that the land they claim was once 
  thousands of miles from Creation’s edge. They tread 
  now upon parts of the Old Realm they once guarded, 
  making their homes a treasure trove of ancient history. 
  Some territories are so connected to the old protectorates 
  they once were that Lunars who loved those lands have 
  handed their names down from the First Age, perhaps 
  hoping to reestablish them someday. Every day, however, 
  the Wyld erodes more history that the Lunars have not 
  yet recovered and recorded… and anything consumed by 
  the Wyld is lost forever. To prevent this, some Lunars 
  
  56
  (or their proxies) scour the Wyld for lost knowledge and 
  remains of the Old Realm, believing this the highest ideal 
  they could serve in this dark Age.
  Not all sources of ancient history and knowledge 
  are susceptible to the Wyld. Tombs of Celestial Exalted, 
  from the first casualties of the Primordial War to the last 
  deaths of the Usurpation, exist in significant number 
  on the edge of Creation. Their locations often seem 
  random until one remembers that any place might have 
  been a favored sanctuary two millennia ago. Entire cities 
  exist on the borders or within the Wyld, and even their 
  obvious geomancy might hint at forgotten techniques. 
  Fortresses, highly shielded against all dangers but slowly 
  eroding, once projected power across Creation and 
  protected the Old Realm’s tributaries; some may still 
  contain First Age weapons or defenses, undiscovered 
  and ready to be looted. Lunars follow up credible leads 
  to salvage what was lost.
  Even the empty space is a resource. Within their great 
  territories, Lunars have all the authority and flexibility 
  they need to experiment with new Charms, sorceries, 
  thaumaturgic arts and even the most massive artifacts. 
  With such wide open spaces, few people care if a new 
  spell accidentally dissolves an area 20 miles wide to 
  pine sap. With such a wide range of cultures available 
  to them, Lunars can test their techniques on all manner 
  of people and usually find a place for their new magic 
  to be appropriate.
  The Wyld also provides immediate access to a vari-
  able testing ground. Some environments may cause some 
  techniques to function differently, and any true researcher 
  likes to know that before using a spell or Charm in the 
  field. There are even fewer to complain when a weapon 
  that seemed stable collapses an entire Wyld region into 
  nothingness—and entities that do complain generally aren’t 
  held in high regard by the Lunar Exalted. They also use 
  the Wyld as a source of inspiration, sometimes wandering 
  it for weeks or months at a time just to see if the ever-
  changing land offers anything interesting to learn.
  CHALLENGES AND THREATS
  No reasonable Lunar ever forgets that their moonsil-
  ver tattoos do not protect them from every danger in the 
  Wyld. Creatures wander into Bordermarches or, worse, 
  the Middlemarches and come out mutants. Sometimes 
  they are harmless, but just as frequently they come out 
  aggressive, sturdier, stronger or even just inherently 
  dangerous to anything around them. A horse that fires 
  spines from its body every few minutes just can’t stay in 
  its old stable.
  The Wyld’s people can be even more dangerous than 
  mutated beasts. Whatever people may have hoped when 
  they entered the Wyld, frequent danger and derangement 
  by the Wyld tends to make them… aggressive. Tribes of 
  ferocious Wyld mutants can be a premier danger to the 
  Lunar Exalted. Even though the Children of Luna have 
  a reputation for conquering and taming barbarians, this 
  sometimes requires long trials of worth or a wearying 
  series of ritual combats—assuming the mutants are not 
  part of a story that requires they fight to the death.
  Luna’s Chosen also face threats from the Fair Folk, 
  who believe themselves the true masters of the Wyld. 
  The Lunar Exalted are heroes, however, and rarely the 
  sorts to back down before the odd raksha. The Fair Folk 
  treat life as a story; the Lunars are prepared to teach the 
  raksha exactly who are the protagonists and who are the 
  recurring villains.
  The Lunars also know that most raksha would like 
  to march into Creation with their hobgoblin hordes 
  and unravel the world from the edges in, until nothing 
  was left. This makes the raksha the Lunars’ indisputable 
  enemies, who must be stopped. Even those raksha who 
  occasionally seem harmless, or even helpful, are in some 
  way inimical to Creation’s continued existence.
  The Wyld holds many other potent and dangerous 
  creatures. Some of these are behemoths, created by the 
  Primordials before they were dethroned, or born later 
  from Chaos itself. Other things bear no title or category. 
  These unique and powerful creatures range from mon-
  sters that could trample cities, to the songbird-maiden 
  Callibia whose voice enslaves all who hear it. Some of 
  these entities can become acquaintances or resources, 
  but they are too dangerous to become allies—at least, 
  not for long.
  Lunar Exalted know all of the above dangers very 
  well. Mentors among the Silver Pact have collected lore 
  of the Wyld and passed it on for nearly 15 centuries, 
  and the threats to Luna’s Children and to Creation as a 
  whole are foremost of the things remembered. For this 
  reason, some Lunars give thanks for their exile to the 
  world’s rim. Living here makes them strong, unlike their 
  thinly remembered lives in the Old Realm.
  The flexibility of the Wyld’s landscape actually presents 
  opportunities with the threats. Through a combination 
  of their own Charms and temporary treaties with their 
  local raksha, some Lunar Exalted take the time to create 
  and overcome various challenges. Within the malleable 
  Wyld, a Lunar can fight ersatz Deathlords marching out 
  of shadowlands or Dragon-Blooded on the shore of the 
  Blessed Isle itself. Realities of these situations are often 
  
  57
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  beyond the Lunars—or too suicidally dangerous to attempt 
  for real—but Fair Folk shapings can take into account 
  information that the raksha themselves don’t know.
  Through this method, the Lunars have managed to 
  accrue incredible amounts of experience without ranging 
  far from their territories. When Luna’s Chosen must fight 
  these adversaries for real, (and they know such days must 
  come, and soon), they already have a body of effective 
  tactics and training. This doesn’t mean the Lunars aren’t 
  in danger from their war games—raksha shapings can kill, 
  and some raksha are playful or malicious enough to let an 
  undefeated horde of walking dead march on through the 
  Wyld until they met their fates. In some respects, facing 
  an adventure constructed by an elder or by oneself can 
  be every bit as harrowing as doing the real thing.
  SAFE REDOUBTS
  Living on the edge of the Wyld exposes the Lunars 
  to some enemies but protects them from others. Their 
  moonsilver tattoos give them a perfect defense against 
  the mutations and shaping effects that are the Wyld’s 
  primary danger. Though the maddening scenes and vi-
  sions can still warp a Lunar’s mind, they are practiced 
  at maintaining their sanities. Thus protected from the 
  distortions of the Wyld, the Lunar Exalted enjoy relative 
  freedom in the chaos outside Creation.
  So, when powerful forces such as a Wyld Hunt or 
  Realm legion threaten a Lunar on his own territory, the 
  Child of Luna can fall back into the Bordermarches. For 
  many Lunars, running an opponent through the Wyld is 
  like leading the authorities through the back alleys where 
  he grew up. Because the Lunar knows the dangers, he is 
  safe; his foes lose their way, stumble into danger, become 
  frightened and otherwise operate at a disadvantage. A 
  pursuer must choose between facing unknowable threats 
  or losing the quarry altogether.
  The most dedicated enemies, from fanatical Im-
  maculate monks to unswerving assassins from Malfeas, 
  pursue Lunars even into the Deep Bordermarches. Against 
  these enemies, the Lunars may lead the hunt into the 
  Middlemarches, or even the Deep Wyld. Neither offers as 
  much safety for the Lunar Exalted as the Bordermarches 
  do, but the Lunars’ pursuers still face immeasurably more 
  risk than their Lunar prey.
  On the other hand, the Fair Folk and other enemies 
  originate from the Wyld itself; they don’t fear its dangers, 
  
  58
  they are the dangers. Against such enemies, the Lunar 
  uses the opposite tactic. Luring the raksha out into the 
  Bordermarches (where Fair Folk are weaker) or even into 
  Creation proper (where Fair Folk are most constrained) 
  allows the Lunars to make the most of their Charms and 
  powers while denying the raksha their unique talents. 
  The same tactics expose heavily mutated creatures to a 
  dearth of the Wyld energies they need to live; prolong-
  ing the hunt weakens such beasts and may eventually 
  kill them.
  Some enemies can match the Lunars step for step 
  wherever they go. Solar Exalted can learn Charms to 
  become proof enough against the chaotic energies, and 
  other Lunar Exalted—unsurprisingly—are just as danger-
  ous in the Wyld as in Creation. Faced with such pursuers, 
  a Lunar must turn and fight or press on and use his 
  familiarity with his territory and the nearby Wyld to his 
  greatest advantage. Just because neither the Lunar nor 
  his enemies can be shaped directly by the Wyld doesn’t 
  mean that a scratch in the Poison Woods is not still 
  deadly. A Lunar who knows his turf can lead any foe 
  into serious danger.
  Sometimes, a Lunar with contacts in the Wyld can 
  arrange for shelter from outside forces. Most raksha 
  could easily construct locations that are safe from other 
  Creation-born entities but are designed to accept the 
  Lunar. For instance, a Lunar might obtain an enormous, 
  sword-laden willow that cuts to ribbons anyone who ap-
  proaches except the Lunar herself. Of course, treating 
  with such creatures is very risky, for who knows when the 
  refuge might turn on the Lunar? Some Lunars develop the 
  ability to create such places on their own. Lunar-shaped 
  sanctuaries are more dependable than any bargained from 
  the Fair Folk, but they are more easily torn to shreds by 
  the shaping powers of raksha in the Wyld.
  THE ADVANTAGE OF CONTROL
  A further advantage of operating between Creation 
  and the Wyld is the power to limit access between them. 
  The Lunars cannot control the borders completely—the 
  border is simply too large to patrol it all. But they watch 
  the parts within their territories and use manipulable 
  societies to guard when and where they cannot. By fo-
  menting suspicion or peculiar taboos in cultures along 
  Creation’s rim, a Lunar can ensure that most adventurers 
  from Creation leave a commotion in their wake.
  Not every Lunar attempts such a massive and time-
  consuming program of border control. Elders of the Silver 
  Pact are among the most likely to try sealing off their 
  sections of the Wyld. Their personal power and centuries 
  of accumulated resources also make them the most likely 
  to pull it off. The Sidereal Exalted often influence their 
  calculations: Lunar elders know that if the Sidereals 
  could find the prizes buried in the Wyld’s chaos, they 
  would use them against the Pact or its goals. Histories and 
  artifacts thought lost could allow a Sidereal’s schemes to 
  bear fruit instead of a Lunar’s, and for that reason some 
  of Luna’s Chosen guard the border well.
  Some Lunars also remember the value of impossible 
  reagents from the Wyld. The loss of the Solar Exalted 
  makes it much harder to obtain a cocoon’s betrothal or 
  moonsilver dreams, but there are ways. Even a Dragon-
  Blood could obtain such treasures, if he could somehow 
  convince the Fair Folk to make them for him. Lunars stand 
  against this for several reasons. They hate the idea of the 
  usurpers and betrayers striving for what they destroyed. 
  Some Lunars do not believe that the cultures of Creation 
  are ready to reclaim such power. Other Lunars want to 
  keep the Realm as weak as possible before their impending 
  invasion. They can’t prevent the Dragon-Blooded from 
  obtaining Wyld-treasures and occult reagents so long as 
  the Guild maintains its trade with barbarians and the 
  Fair Folk, but at least they can reduce the commerce.
  Restricting access to the Wyld’s resources also pres-
  ents opportunities for payment or bribery. More than a 
  few Lunars across the Age have empowered their client 
  societies with choice reagents. Some even go so far as to 
  barter these valuable ingredients with other Exalted for 
  equally (or more) valuable services. Even Sidereals have 
  suffered debts to the Silver Pact for this very reason… 
  debts repaid with cover-ups of Lunar activities, good or 
  bad luck for client tribes, reassignment of hostile gods and 
  other services that would provoke audits and inquiries in 
  the Bureau of Destiny if they became known.
  PROBLEMS OF SCALE
  Because the edges of Creation form a wide, ragged 
  band around the Threshold, Lunar Exalted live far from 
  one another. Packs may run together in single, large ter-
  ritories, but a Lunar often lives thousands of miles from 
  her nearest neighbor. Such distances make it difficult to 
  organize meetings, even when the Lunar calling it accepts 
  that less than half the Silver Pact will show. Spells such 
  as Infallible Messenger provide one way to call a group 
  together. Celestial Circle sorcerers (such as Raksi) have 
  a spell that can send messages to large groups at a single 
  time, and other Lunars summon demons or elementals 
  to carry the word for them. Still, not every (or even most) 
  Lunars know sorcery.
  The Wyld provides other possibilities. Raksha are 
  strange creatures, and only their imaginations and the 
  forces of their wills limit their powers. With proper incen-
  
  59
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  tive, a raksha could potentially transmit a message from 
  one Lunar to all other Lunar Exalted—though it might 
  not reach those inside Creation. Furthermore, it takes 
  time for the Lunars to gather for a meeting. Charms that 
  allow a Lunar to travel quickly through the Wyld are not 
  uncommon, potentially enabling them to reach their 
  destinations faster by going around Creation than they 
  would by going through it. If they lived farther from the 
  border while still avoiding the Realm’s influence, meeting 
  with other Lunars would become yet more difficult.
  DUTY OF THE EXILES
  When the Lunar Exalted originally fled to the edge 
  of Creation, they needed to reach safety and recover 
  their strengths. Since then, the Lunars began building a 
  world that might displace the Shogunate—and then the 
  Contagion hit, along with the Balorian Crusade. Even 
  diminished and weakened as the Lunars were, they forti-
  fied the boundaries of Creation as best they could.
  The Lunars don’t care that the Scarlet Empress saved 
  the world. Most Lunars have never forgiven the Dragon-
  Blooded for their treachery in usurping Creation’s rule 
  and their incompetence in letting the Fair Folk assault 
  Creation. The Silver Pact considers itself the only group 
  that can defend Creation against the constant Wyld 
  threat that began during the Great Contagion. (For a 
  much more detailed discussion on the history of the 
  Lunar Exalted, please refer to The Manual of Exalted 
  Power—The Lunars.)
  That danger still exists. The Lunar Exalted still guard 
  against the Fair Folk. Though few raksha prefer to live 
  in the boring and mundane Bordermarches (or, gasp, 
  in Creation itself) many Fair Folk consider it a duty of 
  their own to weaken Creation and introduce more of the 
  Wyld. As Fair Folk move inward from the Middlemarches 
  toward Creation, the Lunars go forth to meet them as 
  they did during the Great Contagion.
  Neither side has vast armies. In the Balorian Crusade, 
  waves of hobgoblins met with disorganized throngs of 
  soldiers and civilians; now single raksha steal toward the 
  rigid lands and feed them unstable Essence, accompa-
  nied only by their personal servants and Wyld-creations. 
  Facing them are Lunars, stepping forward alone or with 
  their packs and barbarian followers to siphon out the 
  destabilizing Essence and eventually destroy or rout the 
  Fair Folk.
  The conflict is not always so direct as that. Lunars 
  use every tool at their disposal to interdict raksha in-
  terference. Easiest and most ready are the people who 
  live in or near the Wyld. Lunars try to plant societies 
  in tainted lands or Bordermarches. Just having people 
  living on the land and watching it gradually quells the 
  Wyld. Even people who assimilate to the Wyld have this 
  effect: the land becomes a stage on which they play out 
  their scripted roles, and their inability to change keeps 
  the local Wyld from altering too drastically.
  Lunars also fortify cultures with customs and mind-
  sets that help them resist the Fair Folks’ threats and wiles. 
  For instance, the sort of paranoia the folk of Whitewall 
  show toward the inhuman makes it more difficult for 
  raksha to influence the people. Callous as it may seem, 
  some Lunars also use natural, long-term conditioning to 
  deaden the people’s imaginations and hopes, denying 
  the Fair Folk sustenance.
  When necessary, Lunars are not above inciting mu-
  tant or natural societies to war against the raksha. Most 
  Lunars even prefer using mutant peoples, because their 
  mutations make them more effective troops. Lunars also 
  appreciate when a society’s common derangements make 
  them more pliable to the Exalted or less susceptible to 
  the Fair Folks’ influences; some of Luna’s Chosen actu-
  ally find ways to encourage these mental mutations in 
  the populations they cultivate, and lock them in through 
  Wyld assimilation.
  Another oft-used tactic is to sow dissention among 
  the many and varied raksha nobles. As a melodramatic 
  people, the Fair Folk often look for opportunities to play 
  the part of the betrayer, betrayed or the arch-nemesis. 
  Lunars usually leave this sort of delicate manipulation 
  to the most proficient among them; if not teased in just 
  the right way, some raksha nobles are just as likely to 
  choose the part of the ignorant victim over the role of 
  the enraged victim.
  Finally, the Lunar Exalted who claim territories in 
  the Middlemarches help when they can. These Lunars 
  (usually at least a century old) use their familiarity with 
  the Wyld, the Fair Folk and their territory to sabotage 
  the raksha’s efforts closer to Creation. Sometimes this 
  is a simple matter of upsetting things “at home.” The 
  Fair Folk have a strong need to maintain their places 
  within their queerly fluid structures of nobility, and 
  disrupting that structure can send a troublesome raksha 
  hurrying back to its native court, lest it be cut from the 
  ongoing stories or reduced to a bit-player. Other Lunars 
  make an effort to simply destroy or sabotage the raksha’s 
  freeholds, reducing their supply of Essence. Attacking 
  the Guild’s slave caravans prevents the Fair Folk from 
  easily acquiring the dreams that sustain them and that 
  they spin into gossamer treasures—quite apart from the 
  moral satisfaction gained.
  
  60
  Other tactics grow increasingly topical. Examples 
  include distracting one particularly aesthetic raksha with 
  an out-of-place rosebud or disturbing another’s hobgoblin 
  eugenics program. (The latter is difficult, since they are 
  little more than creations of their lord’s imagination, but 
  a raksha could divorce itself from the process in order 
  to be “surprised.”)
  No matter how many raksha the Lunars distract, di-
  minish or outright destroy, there are always more ready to 
  take up the task of undermining Creation. Even when the 
  Children of Luna raid the Wyld to reduce the population, 
  more Fair Folk eventually spring from the deeper chaos of 
  the Wyld. It seems almost like a losing battle, especially 
  since the eldest Lunars remember the tools they possessed 
  before the Contagion for this very purpose.
  Suggestions that the battle is futile rarely meet with 
  much agreement. It is the nature of heroes, survivors 
  and protectors—all of which Lunars are, or often con-
  sider themselves—to defy the odds. Lunars who study 
  the nature of Exaltations point out that similar to the 
  raksha, every Lunar who falls will eventually be replaced. 
  And some Lunars believe that despite all appearances, 
  a final solution exists. They have labored, some for 
  decades and some for centuries or more, to recreate 
  the jade obelisks and reality engines of the Old Realm. 
  A few Lunars even hope to develop a spell or artifact 
  that prevents the Wyld from developing the sort of 
  consciousness that becomes one of the Fair Folk. The 
  Vacuity Blossom, as some within this small cabal call 
  themselves, speak occasionally of “a seed,” but they 
  are careful to let nothing else of import drop, lest they 
  forewarn the enemy.
  Since news of the Scarlet Empress’ apparent abdica-
  tion, the Lunar Exalted have seen a redoubling of raksha 
  insinuating themselves into the skin of the world. They 
  know another great battle looms, and vow that this time, 
  the Ones Beyond will not take them by surprise.
  DEEPER AND DEEPER
  Lunar Exalted don’t always live on the edge of the 
  Wyld. Some Lunars move inward, toward Creation and 
  the seats of power and away from the unraveling edges; 
  others move outward, farther from the places where reality 
  makes sense. These tend to be elder Lunar Exalted, in part 
  because they can better endure the Wyld for long periods. 
  Such pioneers head outward for different reasons.
  One Lunar might fear assault from the Realm and 
  so moves his base of operations into the Middlemarches. 
  Or a Lunar stares at the mostly normal constellations of 
  the Bordermarches, thinks of the Sidereals and decides to 
  move farther out to dim his star to astrologers. Another 
  Lunar just needs some quiet time to think, so she finds 
  a place in the Wyld where she won’t be bothered.
  Lunars who venture farther from Creation often 
  engage in the same activities as their colleagues on the 
  edge. They make preparations, build up resources and 
  launch their own attempts at fixing the world, all in 
  their own ways. The risks of living deeper in the Wyld 
  are greater than living within Creation, but some Lunars 
  think the potential rewards are equally large.
  The Bordermarches and even the Middlemarches 
  hold some remarkably healthy and strong societies that 
  Lunar Exalted have watched or guided for decades, if not 
  centuries. Where the Middlemarches fade into the Deep 
  Wyld, there are still hearts of stability that only someone 
  who lived there for years could find. Treasures lost since 
  the Contagion, since the Usurpation and even wonders 
  never discovered exist in the farthest reaches of the Wyld, 
  and dedicated Lunars mean to find them.
  Admittedly, not every Child of Luna who leaves 
  Creation for the Wyld is an explorer or a careful warrior. 
  Some really do retreat from the demands of their heroic 
  calling. A Lunar might seek a place of refuge in the Wyld 
  where she could hibernate as some of her peers did from 
  the First Age to the modern day, and another could just 
  want to escape himself. It is the unfortunate truth that 
  some Lunars still succumb to chimerism, even after they 
  have been tattooed, simply by losing the mental restraint 
  to keep unlimited shapechanging in check.
  A few Lunars enter the Wyld to study their ancient 
  enemies, the Fair Folk. Through stealthy observation 
  or pacts and bargains made, Lunars can watch raksha 
  craft glamours and shape the Wyld. Over the centuries, 
  the Lunars have devised a few Wyld-shaping Charms 
  themselves. They can also acquire artifacts with pow-
  ers similar to those of the raksha themselves. Thus do 
  Creation’s stewards gain advantages the Fair Folk would 
  rather keep for themselves. This is not always a blessing. 
  Lunar Exalted who study raksha methods occasionally 
  find their natures shifting, becoming less human and 
  more alien. Perhaps the raksha know something their 
  frequent enemies and occasional allies do not.
  At least one Lunar Exalt keeps to herself in the 
  Wyld as part of a plan for Creation. By remaining aloof 
  and separate after becoming somewhat renowned, her 
  reputation grows by itself. People come to remember her, 
  or to think of her, as greater than she ever was, and she 
  plans to soon use this to her advantage. Another Lunar 
  has examined the Wyld for more than 100 years, and he 
  now believes he could banish it from Creation if he had 
  to. His plan is to open the floodgates and let the Wyld 
  wash over the world, wiping the slate clean before his 
  
  61
  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  unique techniques force the chaotic energies back to the 
  edges. Even other Lunars consider him a madman.
  SPIRITS IN THE WYLD
  Though casual savants or junior Immaculates might 
  think that spirits would welcome a place where physical 
  matter was fluid and physical definitions broke down, 
  this is not the case. The Wyld can mutate spirits as easily 
  as mortals. What’s more, in a place where concepts shat-
  ter, shift and recombine, spirits who define themselves 
  through a concept within Creation find themselves 
  warped or weakened by the changes to their basic nature. 
  What happens to a river-spirit in an environment where 
  rivers can flow backwards, or be made of custard? How 
  can a bird-spirit sustain her essential self when birds can 
  be made of leaves, or fire, or fall into dust when they 
  are touched?
  Spirits in the Wyld risk losing their identity, even more 
  so than humans. To endure, they need human worship 
  to remind them who they are, or they need some sort of 
  magical protection. Otherwise, they grow steadily more 
  insane and, if they do not leave the Wyld, break down 
  entirely. Spirits do not gain poxes, afflictions or blights, 
  but they do gain derangements (see pp. 148–150), and may 
  also suffer unconscious physical alterations that match 
  their madness. A totally lunatic spirit will not last long in 
  the Wyld, but will swiftly be devoured by local predators, 
  raksha, other mad gods or stranger things.
  Spirits who find steady worship by a stable mortal 
  population might retain their original nature and integ-
  rity, reinforced by regular supplies of Essence and the 
  belief of their faithful. However, one tribe living in the 
  Wyld can only support a few godlings with their belief; 
  usually there is no room for a full pantheon or a spirit 
  court, only for a single or a few protective spirits. This 
  can result in savage turf wars over worshippers, as newly 
  arrived spirits who have been banished into the Wyld, or 
  swallowed up by a sudden change in borders, desperately 
  try to keep their worshippers or attract new ones before 
  they lose too much of themselves.
  On the other hand, a tribe’s beliefs can change a 
  spirit’s aspects and identity. An ancestral stag-spirit that 
  protected hunters may find itself becoming a vengeful 
  half-man, half-stag warder of boundaries whose antlers 
  drip with blood. The mistress of a river now polluted 
  with Wyld substances might go mad, invent new rites and 
  demand senseless new offerings after every full moon. A 
  physician-god clad in rainbows becomes a fierce guardian 
  
  62
  of the tribe’s purity who commands them to slay anyone 
  who doesn’t look like themselves.
  Fortunate spirits can hide in protected areas—free-
  holds, zones of stability, past Solar sanctuaries and so 
  on. They gain some degree of shelter from the chaos 
  outside. The protected zone may even support a group of 
  worshippers to provide the spirit with Essence. This is the 
  best possible solution for a spirit caught in the Wyld, but 
  they remain cut off from the world outside, from other 
  elementals or spirits, from their superiors in spirit courts 
  and from Yu-Shan (if they had the power and authority to 
  travel there). Trapped spirits often go insane from isolation, 
  and the mortals who share their sanctuary become fodder 
  for their whims as toys, pawns, minions or slaves.
  Spirits can also cannibalize other spirits to survive. 
  This can result in gatherings of spirits where the stronger 
  ones devour the weaker ones, and all attempt to lure in new 
  victims to serve as new prey. Huddled together in some 
  sort of refuge, or subsisting on a few pitiful worshippers, 
  these spirits become no better than Fair Folk, living from 
  day to day and ruled by their hunger. Visiting Exalted may 
  become new prey, or may provide a chance for some of 
  the spirits to escape. If Exalted can escort the spirits to the 
  borders of Creation, or stabilize their domain, then they 
  give these spirits a chance to return to a saner existence. 
  (Assuming that the spirits want to, by then….)
  For elementals, there is no gap between Creation and 
  the elemental poles. An elemental can journey from the 
  edge of Creation to its elemental pole without passing 
  through the Wyld, following the uncorrupted threads 
  of its own substance. While elementals could lead other 
  beings along the same path, the passengers would need 
  to transform their own substance into dematerialized, 
  elemental Essence—the same pure substance they would 
  need to survive at that pole. The ways that elementals 
  travel are not safe for humans.
  SPIRITS ON THE BORDERS
  Those spirits who live on the border of Creation must 
  live with the constant fear of the Wyld and of their own 
  unmaking. Such spirits are often terrestrial gods with very 
  limited domains that lie beside the Bordermarches, and 
  who cannot shift their territory or expand it into safer parts 
  of Creation. Stronger gods who cover actual boundaries or 
  concepts of boundaries on a large scale, may have several 
  Charms that hold back the Wyld, while small terrestrial 
  gods may only know one or two such Charms.
  In any event, such gods and elementals take a keen 
  interest in Exalts or other powerful beings who can force 
  back the Wyld or dispose of local Wyld raiders. An Exalt 
  can reasonably presume that any petty spirit dwelling on 
  Creation’s rim will appreciate any such help. However, 
  visitors should take care: some old spirits resent the Ex-
  alted whom the spirits think “betrayed” them, by failing to 
  defend Creation’s borders during the Fair Folk invasion. 
  Such spirits might not attack openly, but they can tell 
  lies to send Exalted into danger, offer protective Charms 
  that fail or attempt other petty, vicious revenges.
  OTHERS
  While mortals, Fair Folk, spirits and the Lunar Ex-
  alted form the chief inhabitants of the Wyld (in power, 
  if not in numbers), many other intelligences also enter 
  the Wyld or call it home.
  DRAGON-BLOODED
  Terrestrial Exalted may have greater resistance to 
  Wyld energies than mortals, but not by much. Therefore, 
  Dragon-Blooded either master appropriate Charms before 
  venturing out of Creation or succumb to mutation and de-
  rangement almost as quickly as mortals do. Even misshapen 
  and insane Dragon-Blooded have better survival rates than 
  their unExalted stock, though, so they have the potential 
  to form strong, if temporary, societies in the Wyld.
  Of all the Exalted, the Children of the Dragons 
  have the fewest reasons to seek out the Wyld. They are 
  not reviled across Creation as Anathema, for a start, and 
  most of them could easily gain positions of power in 
  whatever culture they chose. Even the least self-possessed 
  Terrestrial can turn to the Realm for support, though 
  the Dynastic Houses will not respect him. Because the 
  Dragon-Blooded can usually fulfill their desires within 
  Creation, their reasons for leaving it altogether are con-
  sistently more personal.
  Personal reasons are not limited to individuals. 
  Groups of Terrestrials who all adhere to a personal 
  code—which may conflict strongly with the Immaculate 
  Philosophy or even the basic practices of decency—find 
  reasons to abdicate Creation for the Wyld. Either way, 
  these strong beliefs provide a path of least resistance for 
  their minds to follow while the Wyld drives them mad. 
  Their emotions and thoughts shape the Wyld around 
  them and help determine where they go, leading the 
  Dragon-Blooded to locations or scenes that resonate more 
  deeply with them and more easily drive them mad.
  Dragon-Blooded societies within the Wyld are rare 
  and, usually, short-lived. Wyld mutant tribes greatly out-
  number mutant Dragon-Blooded tribes, simply because 
  there are more mortals to mutate. Once a society forms and 
  settles down, it is only a matter of time before they begin 
  to breed and, after a decade or two of births, include more 
  mortals than Exalted. A few communities retain a small 
  
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  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  cadre of Dragon-Blooded leading a growing population 
  of mortals, but eventually that rule falls apart. Progeni-
  tors die off, and these Terrestrial offshoot groups never 
  manage the sort of breeding programs that the Realm and 
  Lookshy use to keep their Exalted populations up. (If they 
  try, inbreeding puts a stop to it within three generations.) 
  Eventually, it becomes a tribe of funny-looking mortals.
  It doesn’t help that some Lunar Exalted, who frequent 
  the same areas of the Wyld, hold a grudge against the 
  Dragon-Blooded. The Wyld Hunt still competes with the 
  Silver Pact to reach Exalting Lunars first, and every Lunar 
  alive knows what the Realm does with any Lunar it catches. 
  Elder Lunars make terrifying foes, and some of them 
  remember the horrors of the Usurpation personally.
  A few members of the Silver Pact argue that Dragon-
  Blooded who seek to make their own societies should 
  be left to do so. They believe the Terrestrials may come 
  up with something innovative and useful, or they just 
  remember the sheer necessity of the Usurpation and feel 
  a need to balance out the rage their brethren feel.
  The Children of Luna don’t always ignore Dragon-
  Blooded in the Wyld or lash out at them in rage. A 
  few groups of Terrestrials do not believe the Lunars are 
  Anathema. Some of them do not know the Immaculate 
  Philosophy at all. With this ancient enmity out of the 
  picture, Lunar Exalted and small families of Dragon-
  Blooded occasionally join each other for their mutual 
  benefit. By virtue of their greater individual prowess, 
  Lunars often become the most valued members of such 
  communities, if not the straight-out leaders.
  Older Lunars look upon these relationships with a 
  taste for the irony of it all. Unusual and ironic or not, 
  these groups are often very effective in the effort against 
  the Wyld or other threats, reminding some Lunars (of 
  the few who actually know) that humans were originally 
  Exalted to fight as a team.
  SIDEREAL EXALTED
  The Sidereal Exalted do not like visiting the Wyld. 
  Many of their Charms and abilities weaken or fail outside 
  Creation, making the Sidereals less capable when they visit. 
  The Wyld’s energies also degrade the Sidereals’ connec-
  tion to Yu-Shan and the Loom of Fate. Although they can 
  usually resist the Wyld’s effects, trips beyond Creation’s 
  rim still make them profoundly uncomfortable.
  Occasionally, however, the Chosen of the Maidens 
  simply must enter the Wyld. Their unsurpassed super-
  natural martial arts still function there, making them 
  competent (or terrifying) opponents even separated from 
  Creation and the Loom of Fate. Sidereal Exalted who 
  wield influence over the Realm (or other Dragon-Blooded) 
  usually enter the Wyld with a squad of hand-picked Ter-
  restrial soldiers. So armed, the Sidereal may rely more on 
  their powers than on her own diminished abilities.
  Fair Folk villains may retreat into the Wyld after causing 
  great harm in Creation (and intending such harm again); 
  well-trained operatives go in after the enemy to surprise the 
  raksha and deny them any opportunity to recover.
  Daring Sidereal investigators also try to learn the 
  plans of their Lunar rivals. The Sidereals know that 
  Luna’s Chosen have a millennial plan called the Thou-
  sand Streams River—apparently a plan to raise barbarian 
  hordes and nations to encircle the Realm and, the Si-
  dereals fear, destroy it. Every trail of evidence, however, 
  leads into the Wyld—so if Fate’s Chosen wish to learn 
  operational details of this challenge to their power, they 
  must venture where Fate has no sway.
  ASTROLOGY IN THE WYLD
  While the Sidereals do not like to mention it 
  even among themselves, the power of their astrology 
  weakens outside Creation. The stars and constella-
  tions are part of reality; they do not control what 
  lies outside it.
  The following penalties apply to Sidereal astrol-
  ogy when used against targets in the Wyld.
  Target is in the Bordermarches: Increase dif-
  ficulty of attempt by 1/2 again.
  Target is in the Middlemarches: Increase dif-
  ficulty of attempt by 3/4 again.
  Target is in the Deep Wyld or Pure Chaos: 
  Impossible to use Sidereal astrology against them.
  At the end of the First Age, some of the remain-
  ing Solars and Lunars chose to flee into the Wyld 
  in order to avoid the wrath of the Sidereals. Many 
  of those Lunars and Solars, in turn, perished in the 
  Wyld, but held it a better fate than the astrological 
  curses that only the Sidereals can wield.
  SOLAR EXALTED
  The Solar Exalted do not have any real history with 
  the Wyld, at least not in the Second Age. Now returning 
  in great numbers, the Lawgivers have the opportunity to 
  begin such a history—if they so choose.
  Most Solar Exalted have significantly more interest 
  in Creation than they do in the Bordermarches and 
  Deeper Wyld, so Solars who visit there usually go with 
  specific goals in mind. One might seek a lost city, another 
  an ancient Lunar or one of the impossible reagents for 
  which they were irreplaceable in the First Age. A Solar 
  might seek a previous incarnation’s tomb.
  
  64
  The Chosen of the Sun rarely settle in the Wyld. 
  They are less naturally equipped to handle the Wyld than 
  they are the dangers of Creation, and the various enemies 
  beyond Creation’s rim can be harder to avoid. With all 
  the many tasks awaiting them in Creation —especially 
  the ongoing threat from the Realm—Solars tend to focus 
  their efforts inward rather than outward.
  Of course, the Solars might not have a choice. What 
  might be the absolute greatest threat to Creation has 
  waited and watched from outside since the beginning 
  of time. Some of the Solar Exalted would be a great 
  advantage in the Lunars’ eternal fight against the Wyld. 
  Certain Lunars might be suspicious or proud and refuse 
  their assistance, but as long as the Solars offered their aid 
  in earnest many Lunars would happily accept it.
  GHOSTS
  In the Age of Sorrows, ghosts walk the Underworld. 
  They are restless souls, doomed to wander the land of 
  their memories until they find peace with themselves and 
  their station—or until something completely dissipates 
  their Essence. In the meantime, they find careers in the 
  Underworld’s necropoli or seek out living descendants 
  in hopes of gaining worship.
  But not all dead spirits accept existence in the bleak 
  Underworld. The few who desire more must look outside 
  Creation—where even the richest wines taste like unremark-
  able memories to a ghostly tongue—toward the Wyld.
  Something about the Wyld entices wayward ghosts. 
  The dead only know sensations and emotions that they 
  felt in life, and then only through faded memories. By 
  searching the Wyld, a ghost can hope to find a sensation 
  so intense that it rejuvenates her memories or overwhelms 
  her with an entirely new experience. Normally, it is im-
  possible for a ghost to experience something new, but 
  the Wyld has always denied impossibility.
  Ghosts may seek the Wyld because of its danger. 
  Few ghosts want to die (again), but some of them miss 
  the threat of death. Not much can actually kill ghosts 
  and make them stay down. The Exalted, Deathlords 
  and puissant other ghosts, demons or gods fit the bill, 
  but they aren’t everywhere. But the Wyld abounds in 
  unpredictable and uncatalogued dangers. A certain seed 
  might have the power to destroy a ghost forever when 
  consumed, or the venom of a Northern winter sparrow 
  might kill the already dead. Who knows? A genuine threat 
  of permanent death provides a certain excitement that 
  some ghosts crave.
  The Fair Folk hold little terror for ghosts. Ghostly 
  emotions and desires are stretched too thin, after serving 
  for years after death, to give the raksha any pleasure or 
  sustenance, so the Fair Folk rarely seek them out. Only 
  when Fair Folk desire a ghost for some special purpose—a 
  plot within Creation or the Underworld or a new kind of 
  plaything—do they look for spirits of the dead. A raksha’s 
  attention can be dangerous for a ghost, but rarely deadly.
  But ghosts cannot prepare themselves for the scenes 
  and events they encounter in the Wyld. The wonders 
  and terrors of the Wyld can ensnare and addict the dead 
  as easily as the living. The addicted ghosts want to stay 
  within the Wyld to experience what it has to offer, no 
  matter that their experiences are but faded memories of 
  their past lives. Some ghosts who enter the Wyld refuse 
  to leave again. Unless concerned companions—perhaps 
  living descendents, ghosts of ancestors or friends made 
  in the Underworld—come to rescue the ghosts from the 
  enchanting terrors that exist outside of Creation, some 
  aspect of the Wyld eventually ends them forever.
  Enterprising ghosts may find ways to exist in the 
  Wyld. Raksha patrons are ideal because of their com-
  mand over the Wyld and their penchant for creating 
  new and interesting stories. One of the Fair Folk might 
  take on a ghost—or an entire troupe of them. The raksha 
  remakes himself in the shape of a lord of the dead and 
  gives the ghosts roles that he wants them to play: the 
  ghost who left behind a lover whom she seeks to regain, 
  another whose only purpose now is to see the honor of 
  his office restored and so forth. The stories of the dead 
  also offer many entertaining roles for raksha, from the 
  oppressive Deathlord to the learned and compassionate 
  necromancer who desires to help the ghosts. Renegade 
  deathknight is currently a fashionable role to play among 
  raksha “in the know.”
  Some places in the Wyld offer natural abodes for 
  ghosts. shadowlands occasionally coexist with the Wyld, 
  especially in the North where both are prevalent. These 
  locations represent a balance of the freedom a ghost 
  may achieve by coming to the Wyld and the prison of 
  humdrum afterlife in the Underworld. Being able to 
  recover Essence is a great boon that ghosts usually lose 
  when they flee to the Wyld.
  Deathlords and other ghost-slavers occasionally make 
  forays into these “Wyld Shadows.” They hope to harvest 
  ghost populations that have little or no leverage in the 
  Underworld’s politics, ensuring that no one shall grow 
  angry on the ghosts’ behalf.
  DEMONS
  The spawn of the Yozis occasionally escape from the 
  foulness of Malfeas into the burningly clean and bright 
  
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  CHAPTER TWO • LIFE IN CHAOS
  world of Creation and the Unconquered Sun. Sorcer-
  ers or thaumaturges summon most of these, but a few 
  demons manage to exploit other cracks in their prison-
  world. Brief doorways from their calamitous realm may 
  open through the unjoyous ring of a dropped temple bell, 
  the vile ecstasy of a forced deflowering or other crimes 
  against the righteous or divine. However these demons 
  arrive, some demons try to stay in Creation. Perhaps they 
  seed freedom, though from what is hard to know. Others 
  simply cannot get the pleasure they want in Malfeas and 
  remain to indulge their natures.
  Once in Creation, demons go to the Wyld for dif-
  ferent reasons. Safety is one possibility: Creation holds 
  enough Dragon-Blooded, gods and God-Blooded to 
  endanger even a dematerialized demon. Eventually, they 
  seek out safer ground and think the Wyld is someplace 
  they can rest.
  A demon can also find relief from the constant irrita-
  tion of Creation’s nature. Demons may seek the Wyld in 
  an effort to feel more at home, without actually returning 
  to that terrifying place. The ever-accommodating Wyld can 
  mimic Malfeas’ interior or the desert Cecelyne with remark-
  able accuracy. Occasionally, demons that relax in these 
  imitations find themselves actually back in Malfeas, once 
  more at the whim of the Yozis and the demon princes.
  Only a few Second and Third Circle demons have 
  the proper nature to shape the Wyld to their whim, so 
  demons need the help of the Fair Folk to construct a 
  place of comfort for themselves. The raksha rarely work 
  without price, however, and so the demons find them-
  selves bound to yet another master. Demons end up 
  fighting Lunar Exalted on the raksha’s behalf, running 
  errands across Creation, serving as ravagers or even play-
  ing out one of a million roles within the raksha’s court. 
  Demons who can’t stand their servitude eventually leave 
  and do without a comfortable refuge… and risk a worse 
  fate than slavery.
  Demons are not immune to the mutating energies 
  of the Wyld, just as ghosts aren’t. Mutations look mostly 
  appropriate to the demon’s nature, but never entirely. 
  Erymanthoi wings might be bloody, furred and have 
  sharp bone spurs; depending on what aspect of the 
  Wyld endowed them upon the blood-ape, they could 
  also display bat leather, dragon scales or bloody-furred 
  strix feathers.
  First Circle demons that suffer mutations use them, if 
  appropriate, but rarely care as long as they can still fulfill 
  their natures. Mutant erymanthoi still want to lap up 
  blood and crush bones in their claws, whether their new 
  frog tongues make it easier or not. Some mutations force 
  a demon to become something different. An erymanthus 
  with the diet mutation can no longer consume blood—it 
  must reverse the mutation, become something different 
  from what it was or die. The latter two options seem very 
  similar for creatures such as demons.
  First Circle demons with changed natures would be 
  torn apart by their brethren and spawners should they 
  ever return to Malfeas—yet another reason why demons 
  who flee to the Wyld rarely try to go home. Demons who 
  remain long enough in the Wyld also inevitably develop 
  derangements. For demons, a derangement is not a mental 
  quirk but a direct alteration to the creature’s nature: a 
  neomah endowed with an obsession for collecting roses 
  is no longer devoted to creating her flesh-creatures and 
  therefore is no longer truly a neomah. Instead, she may 
  create rose-amalgams or change in an even more funda-
  mental way.
  Any Second Circle demon has a greater ego than 
  even the proudest First Circle demon—the least creatures 
  of Malfeas know instinctively that they exist as less than 
  motes in the Yozis’ eyes. With greater connection both to 
  itself and its betters, a Second Circle demon recognizes 
  that a mutation may be useful and that it is not—gener-
  ally—disposable. Many understand that the Wyld changes 
  their natures as it changes their forms; knowing that their 
  Third Circle demons prefer them as they are, Second 
  Circle demons strive to avoid such alterations.
  A Second Circle demon who receives a mutation 
  (or worse, a derangement) generally seeks to reverse it 
  through power-questing or bargaining with the raksha. 
  Some demons do consider the change for the better 
  and return to Malfeas without fear. Such courage is not 
  always justified.
  Something about the Fair Folk resonates with de-
  monkind. They both have specific natures and answer 
  calls that cannot be denied. Relationships between de-
  mons and raksha can deepen over time. Their Essences 
  intertwine. Eventually, the Wyld and the raksha shape 
  the demon into something else. The demon loses its 
  connection with Malfeas and the greater demon that 
  spawned or created it; it becomes a part of the Wyld and 
  of the raksha that reshaped it.
  Second Circle demons rarely acquire completely 
  new natures in this fashion. They are more intimately 
  connected with their superiors and more the equal of 
  a raksha noble (though not in its own domain). When 
  such assimilation or transformation does happen, a demon 
  of the Third Circle—or even the progenitor Yozi—takes 
  notice at the loss. First Circle demons are much more 
  ignorable disappearances on the demons’ parts.
  
  66
  BEHEMOTHS
  “Behemoth” is a broad category of creature. Crea-
  tures of Primordial construction, some of which embody 
  certain mortal concepts and others of which are simply 
  huge and monstrous, are behemoths. Fair Folk living 
  weapons, wrought to make an artistic statement while 
  devastating opponents in shaping combat, are also 
  termed behemoths—they are also huge and monstrous 
  or thematically potent. Some behemoths spontaneously 
  appear from the Wyld and, with similar features as those 
  previous entities, are termed behemoths.
  These powerful creatures range in intelligence from 
  non-sentient to brilliant within their bailiwick. Their 
  powers are equally unpredictable, as are their reactions 
  to and interactions with humankind. Only Fair Folk 
  weapon-behemoths are at all predictable as a class, and 
  that is only to do as their raksha lords direct them.
  Whatever their origins, the Wyld has no power over 
  behemoths. Either it spawned them, or their Primordial 
  creators infused them with power and selfhood sufficient 
  to resist anything less than Pure Chaos.
  NATIVES
  Not every sentient creature found in the Wyld came 
  from somewhere else. Some creatures defy any definition 
  beyond “native to the Wyld.” The flame gryphons of the 
  South, the children of the wind in the North and the 
  inhabitants of Skyport in the West are all prime examples 
  of entities who originated nowhere but the chaos of the 
  Wyld. Similar to behemoths, natives of the Wyld are hard 
  to define because of their extreme diversity. Creatures 
  of this sort seldom come nearer to Creation than the 
  Middlemarches.
  Natives are most notably different from behemoths 
  and other unique monsters in that natives comprise 
  societies. Even when outsiders do not perceive such group-
  ings, natives of the Wyld usually interact with each other 
  in ways that make them a culture instead of individual 
  “monsters.” Flame gryphons protect themselves and their 
  nests from exploitation, children of the wind create their 
  tunnels for unknown reasons and the people of Skyport 
  accept merchants at their upside-down quays.
  Most native creatures have standard methods of deal-
  ing with the rare visitors from creation, usually shunning 
  the outsiders for the natives’ own safety. Other natives 
  are prepared to deal with visitors. Wyld societies that 
  Creation-born explorers often seek can be the most averse 
  to outside influence—they usually have something that 
  the Exalted (or other daring explorers) consider valuable 
  and go to great (and offensive) lengths to collect. Flame 
  gryphons are one example of such a society that justifiably 
  resists any contact with the Creation-born.
  
  67
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  
  68
  CHAPTER THREE
  TRAITS
  CHAPTER THREE
  CHAPTER THREE
  THE NORTHERN WYLD
  THE NORTHERN WYLD
  The Northern Wyld takes its form from the influences 
  of Chaos and the Elemental Pole of Air. The predominant 
  qualities are wind and cold and a tendency to float into 
  the sky, from the islands that hover in midair to plants 
  and animals made of living ice.
  THE NORTHERN 
  EDGE OF CREATION
  The actual borders of Creation lie north of the White 
  Sea. Tainted lands and Wyld pockets, however, extend 
  at least as far south as Whitewall. Wyld storms occasion-
  ally sweep in from the icy wastes of the Bordermarches 
  and across the White Sea. Whirlwinds of chaos from 
  the storms can taint areas ranging from several feet to 
  several miles across, or curdle into actual pockets of the 
  Wyld. These Wyld storms leave behind trees and ani-
  mals frozen solid or transformed into pure ice—but only 
  into ordinary ice; living ice can only exist in the actual 
  Wyld. Now and then, plants or rocks are changed into 
  one of the rare forms of permanent ice. Most of these 
  storms occur in the depths of winter, but can happen 
  at any time. North of the White Sea, the land contains 
  only the most desperate tribes of icewalker barbarians, 
  the people of the Haslanti League, beastmen and the 
  northern Wyld barbarians.
  The power of the Wyld is not just limited to living 
  things. After a Wyld storm, travelers may find words 
  of some ancient language, or something that looks like 
  writing but matches no known language, engraved on 
  mountainsides and glaciers. Each of these strange glyphs 
  can be as much as a foot or two high. Entire mountains, 
  cliffs or hills near the Bordermarches are resculpted on 
  a regular basis: each storm changes some feature of the 
  landscape, as if millennia of wind erosion happened in 
  
  69
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  a single afternoon. While these alterations can take any 
  form, the most common leave the landscape looking 
  strangely fragile and stretched. Narrow, almost ethereal-
  looking natural bridges of ice or stone stretch between 
  plateaus. These structures retain sufficient chaotic ener-
  gies that the narrowest bridges can support an entire 
  Guild caravan at once.
  FROZEN FOG
  The whirlwinds of chaos that create the tainted lands 
  also cause one of the most unusual dangers of northern 
  winters: frozen fog. This threat extends from Gethamane 
  to the Pole of Air itself. The fog contains only a hint of the 
  Wyld’s chaos and so cannot induce mutations or alter the 
  landscape, but is nonetheless deadly and greatly feared. 
  Great, billowing masses of this frigidly cold and oddly 
  dry fog periodically descend upon the Northlands. A thin 
  layer of ice soon covers anything that lacks protection 
  from the cold. A bare hand exposed to frozen fog become 
  frostbitten in less than a minute. Frozen fog becomes 
  increasingly common the further North one travels, and 
  some explorers say that endless banks of the white haze 
  float beyond the eternally frozen mountains.
  Frozen fog is almost opaque. Inside the fog, visibility 
  rarely exceeds 20 feet, and sometimes is less than half 
  that. The fog can descend upon a settlement in less than 
  an hour. Wyld barbarians sometimes use it as cover for 
  an attack. The barbarian raiders who follow the fog are 
  obviously twisted by the Wyld, just as some of them are 
  immune to all forms of cold.
  Thick furs and other heavy clothing can protect a 
  person from the bitter cold, but frozen fog offers other 
  UNMELTING ICE
  The Wyld produces two varieties of ice that 
  never melt. One has a greenish tinge, while the 
  other is tinted blue and glows. Green ice never melts 
  and, regardless of the temperature, remains as cold 
  as the coldest winter day of the far north. Blue ice 
  remains only slightly below freezing; it glows brightly 
  enough that a rod of blue ice provides as much light 
  as an ordinary torch, and an egg-sized piece of blue 
  ice inside a lantern gives as much light as the usual 
  oil and wick. Both forms of ice are extremely rare 
  and much in demand in countries further south. 
  Prospectors regularly brave the Northern tainted 
  lands in search of these rare wonders and on rare 
  occasion head north to the Bordermarches.
  
  70
  perils, too. People are sometimes moved vast distances by 
  the Wyld energies lingering in the fog. Now and then, an 
  individual caught in one bank of frozen fog stumbles out 
  of another fog bank dozens or hundreds of miles away 
  from his previous location. Everyone who has survived 
  such a translocation reports hearing a distant sound of 
  bells while he was in the fog. Although the destinations 
  seem random, everything in a given bank of fog seems 
  to go to the same location.
  Within a few dozens miles of the border of the 
  Wyld, the frozen fog does not carry along only travelers 
  and animals. Storms near the Bordermarches send huge 
  banks of frozen fog advancing from the edge of the Wyld. 
  These massive fogs can also move entire natural features. 
  Although large features such as mountains and cities seem 
  immune to such vagaries, hills, small groves of tress and 
  even small villages can be surrounded by frozen fog and 
  find themselves transported dozens of miles when the 
  fog clears. Such locations are never actually transported 
  into the Wyld, nor do they move more than a dozen 
  miles from the border of the Wyld. Because of this shift-
  ing, Northern tainted lands are regarded as even more 
  dangerous than those in other parts of Creation.
  for a few days or weeks at most. Their fiercest warriors, 
  however, regularly hunt monsters and Wyld barbarians 
  in the tainted lands. The warriors even venture into 
  the Bordermarches to track down and destroy the most 
  dangerous bands of Wyld barbarians and wolfmen. Ice-
  walkers perform these missions into Chaos with ruthless 
  efficiency. Their shamans call on powerful totem-gods 
  called the Animal Masters for aid in tracking their foes 
  and for enchantments and talismans against mutation.
  The icewalker way of life is now in turmoil. A great 
  leader has arisen among them: Yurgen Kaneko, the Bull 
  of the North, Warlord of the Sun. Ever since Kaneko 
  destroyed the Realm legions, tribe after tribe have sworn 
  fealty to him. The small, scattered tribes are rapidly 
  metamorphosing into a nomad empire. This does not 
  please either the Animal Masters (who do not want the 
  Unconquered Sun taking their worship) or the tribes’ 
  former patrons among the Lunar Exalted. Observant 
  tribes among the other races view the nascent barbarian 
  horde with greater alarm—not to mention the Fair Folk 
  who used to prey on the icewalkers, while the icewalkers’ 
  neighbors of the Haslanti League wonder if their onetime 
  allies might become dangerous rivals.
  WYLD BARBARIANS
  In the North, many Wyld barbarians grow thick 
  white fur and their hereditary mutations usually include 
  the pox Elemental Adaptation: Air. In addition, the poxes 
  Large and Claws are common. Visitors to the far North 
  often assume that huge, white-furred Northern Wyld 
  mutants are bear beastmen; true polar bear beastmen 
  are very rare.
  A few mutants can find a lowly place in the cosmo-
  politan cities on the Inner Sea, but neither beastmen 
  nor Wyld barbarians find welcome in the harsh lands 
  further north. The icewalkers and their Haslanti allies 
  loathe and fear both groups. Whitewall and Gethamane 
  are only a little more tolerant. Although beastmen and 
  mutants may not enter Whitewall, both groups can use 
  the sacred traveler’s road. Gethamane allows beastmen 
  and Wyld mutants to enter if they arrive peacefully, in 
  small numbers with weapons sheathed. However, none 
  may stay longer than a week, and very few find any 
  welcome.
  The icewalkers make no treaties with any of the Wyld 
  barbarian tribes, whom the icewalkers consider monstrous 
  horrors. However, all the nomads have an unspoken 
  agreement: icewalkers never settle in and rarely visit the 
  tainted lands, and the Wyld barbarians rarely settle further 
  into Creation than the tainted lands. Both groups cross 
  SURVIVING FROZEN FOG
  Exposure to frozen fog inflicts environmental 
  damage of 2L/minute, Trauma 5. What’s more, 
  armor and most Charms give no protection at all: 
  only natural soak applies, or Charms that specifi-
  cally protect against temperature extremes, such as 
  Hardship-Surviving Mendicant Spirit. The pox 
  Elemental Adaptation: Air renders a creature immune 
  to frozen fog.
  Sufficiently warm, heavy clothing also protects 
  against frozen fog, though a person must keep 
  moving to avoid being encased in ice. The clothing 
  necessary to protect against this damage adds one 
  to the maneuver penalty and fatigue value of the 
  character due to its bulk.
  BARBARIANS
  The far North is a hostile and sparsely occupied 
  region. Its inhabitants include Wyld barbarians, beast-
  men, a few communities of the people of the air and the 
  most desperate icewalker tribes.
  THE ICEWALKERS
  The barbarian tribes called icewalkers fear the Wyld 
  as the source of both vast Wyld storms and the frozen 
  fog. Tribes that face starvation may camp in tainted lands 
  
  71
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  the vague boundary between the tainted lands and the 
  rest of Creation regularly for raiding, but neither spends 
  more than a few weeks in the other’s territory.
  The sparse settlement in the North means that a few 
  Wyld tribes find homes further from the Wyld, and further 
  from the icewalkers. The Varajtul tribes, for instance, live 
  hundreds of miles from Creation’s rim, but still show the 
  mutations and cannibal ferocity they gained in the Wyld.
  THE VARAJTUL
  The largest and most feared group of Wyld barbarians 
  in Creation’s Northwest are called the Varajtul. Hardly 
  anyone else knows their true name; the Varajtul do not 
  talk to their food. Indeed, they speak only a language of 
  their own, meant to imitate the howling and moaning 
  of the winds. In their own tongue, they call themselves 
  the Dream of Infinite Light.
  Varajtul average eight feet tall, with bodies covered 
  in white, gray or light blue fur. They have narrow, yellow 
  or blue eyes and mouths full of fangs. Their only clothing 
  consists of cloaks woven from human hair, whose designs 
  record the deeds and vision-quests of their ancestors; the 
  frigid winds do not bother them. Their blood, however, 
  is human enough.
  Most of the time, Varajtul hunt, fish and gather wild 
  foods just as other Northern tribes. In battle, the Varajtul 
  prefer spears with heads of bone or stone, but can use any 
  human weapon. They often lay traps such as camouflaged 
  pits, snow-filled trenches lined with spikes or nets trig-
  gered by trip lines. They value human meat for religious 
  reasons as well as the taste. While Varajtul readily feed 
  on their dead foes, they prefer to butcher captive warriors 
  or shamans and roast them for a tribal feast.
  Most important of all for the Varajtul, captives can 
  be taken to a Wyld pocket and ceremonially dissected 
  with a blade of unmelting ice and eaten alive. This 
  thaumaturgical procedure of their shamans calls the 
  Wyld energies into the spilled blood to produce visions 
  of the victim’s emotions, memories and desires—and, 
  sometimes, a complete vision-quest performed in only 
  one day. The Varajtul do not see themselves as savages: 
  rather, they consider themselves the most spiritual folk 
  of Creation. Only a few have spent enough time in Wyld 
  pockets to assimilate. Most eat human flesh out of the 
  sincere religious conviction that other tribes and races 
  are no better than beasts.
  BEASTMEN
  Unlike the Wyld barbarians, the savage wolfmen, 
  the mystical elkmen, the nocturnal owlmen and the 
  other Northern beastmen settle where they choose. 
  The icewalkers regard beastmen as yet another breed of 
  deadly creature.
  The wolfmen are the most feared and most abundant 
  Northern beastmen. Their hunting packs threaten travel-
  ers throughout the North. Some wolfman tribes also rule 
  communities of brutalized human slaves, who become the 
  feral creatures’ dinner if they cannot provide other food. 
  The coastal cities controlled by the Realm pay a bounty on 
  wolfmen skins. Despite their notoriety, however, the wolf-
  men are not the only beastmen in the Northern Wyld.
  ELKMEN
  The elkmen are the most mysterious of the Northern 
  beastmen. They are all natural Essence-users and have a 
  reputation as potent magicians—not just thaumaturgy but 
  true sorcery, as well as Charms bartered from spirits and 
  stored within talismans. Elkmen breed slowly, keeping their 
  population low. Small communities occur throughout the 
  North, from the chilly lands near Whitewall to the tundra 
  near the Eternal Ice. Because of their potent magic and 
  the fact that as herbivores they never hunt humans as prey, 
  elkmen are perhaps the most accepted of the Northern 
  beastmen. Of course, humans fear elkmen, as sensible 
  people fear any sorcerer, but some human communities 
  trade with them for the use of their powerful magics. More 
  ominously, the elkmen’s Lunar heritage permits a few to 
  learn necromancy instead of sorcery; these elkmen are 
  feared and revered by Northern tribes who carry ancestor-
  worship to unhealthy extremes. Widespread taboos include 
  never looking an elkman in the eye, never letting one step 
  on your shadow and never eating in their presence.
  OWLMEN
  Owlmen are a Northern version of hawkmen found 
  in the taiga forests of the far Northeast. The largest tribal 
  confederation of owlmen, known as the Nightfliers, lives 
  in a tainted land less than a hundred miles from the 
  Haslanti city of Crystal. They retreat into the treetops 
  when danger threatens, but venture out of their forest 
  to raid and trade with the Haslanti. Sometimes the owl-
  men fly east to the northern fringes of Haltan territory, 
  to pursue fierce rivalries with the hawkmen that humans 
  seldom see. The Nightfliers worship various Northern air 
  and storm spirits, and are ruled by a hereditary council 
  of God-Blooded warriors and shamans.
  THE HUNGRY HORDE: 
  A NIGHTFLIER RAIDING PARTY
  Description: This medium-sized raiding party con-
  sists of a band of owlmen warriors who want to raid and 
  plunder human settlements. They carry ironwood short 
  
  72
  swords and boomerangs and wear breastplates or buff 
  jackets. One of the tribal confederation’s God-Blooded 
  chiefs leads this feared war-band.
  In lean years, especially after a particularly harsh 
  winter, the Hungry Horde goes raiding. In good years, 
  however, they sell their services as caravan guards and 
  protect human towns near the Wyld from incursions by 
  hobgoblins, Wyld barbarians and similar dangers the hu-
  mans find more uncanny than the owlmen themselves.
  Commanding Officer: Classa Hodek, God-Blooded 
  owlman warrior
  Armor Color: None, various looted armor 
  Motto: “For loot and glory!”
  General Makeup: 70 flying light infantry with short 
  swords and boomerangs, supported by 20 archers.  
  Overall Quality: Fair
  Magnitude: 3
  Drill: 1
  Close Combat Rating: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 2
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3 Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 4 
  Might: 2 
  Armor: 2 
  Morale: 3
  Special Characters: Classa Hodek, two low-powered 
  God-Blooded lieutenants
  Formation: The Hungry Horde fights in skirmisher forma-
  tion… usually from the air, when they engage in ranged 
  combat. They prefer to soften up foes with archery and 
  boomerangs before closing to use their blades.
  WYLD POCKETS
  As one of the two directions hardest hit by the 
  Balorian Crusade, the North contains many Wyld pock-
  ets—some of them dozens of miles wide. The Ice Forest is 
  unfortunately rather typical of Northern Wyld pockets. 
  The really dangerous Wyld pockets contain groups of 
  predatory Fair Folk.
  THE ICE FOREST
  This Wyld pocket covers an oval nine miles long 
  and six miles wide. In the short, cool summers of this 
  region, the Ice Forest is instantly visible from far away, 
  as the only portion of the hills perpetually locked in 
  winter. For a good portion of the year, however, snow 
  blankets the entire region, and the exact edge of this 
  little Bordermarch become far less clear. The vegetation 
  provides the surest clue. While the bushes and scrubby 
  trees in the surrounding land are draped in snow and 
  ice, the tall conifers of the Ice Forest have needles made 
  from snow and ice.
  As usual for Bordermarches, the paths between the 
  trees and even the trees themselves shift and change. How-
  ever, the Ice Forest always remains a wood of ice-needled 
  trees, inhabited by pale blue animals with antlers, hooves, 
  claws and teeth of arctic ice. Even the most desperate 
  and hungry mortals have learned never to hunt these 
  creatures. Animals and trees alike are as cold as Diamond 
  Hearth in midwinter: even a brief touch causes severe 
  frostbite, and their blood is colder still.
  Mortals also avoid the Ice forest because it is also 
  home to a deadly band of Wyld barbarians called the 
  Pale Hunters. These monstrous beings all have the poxes 
  Elemental Adaptation: Air (see p. 145), Fangs, Fur (white, 
  like a polar bear) and Large (eight feet tall on average). 
  Most have other mutations, too, which can include fangs, 
  antlers and other horrific deformities. Their ancestors 
  were outcast from the Varajtul in a cultural dispute the 
  Pale Hunters no longer remember; they don’t remember 
  Varajtul mysticism or language, either.
  These barbarians live in a castle built entirely of 
  ice. They ride forth on fanged and horned blue horses 
  to hunt humans for food and sport. The Pale Hunters 
  are also ravagers. Once they eat their fill, they capture 
  more people and trade them to the Fair Folk. Although 
  no Fair Folk inhabit this forest, they built the castle as a 
  reward for the mutants’ vile services. Anyone who kills 
  a Pale Hunter can bring the head to any town or city 
  within 500 miles to claim a bounty.
  Northern city-states have launched almost a dozen 
  attempts to root out this pesthole of cannibals, including 
  one led by a trio of outcaste Dragon-Blooded. These ven-
  
  73
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  tures all ended in disaster: the cold and the massed might 
  of several hundred Wyld barbarians make a formidable 
  combination. In addition, the Fair Folk gave the Pale 
  Hunters an artifact that allows them to call the frozen 
  fog (see pp. 69–70). They do not hesitate to use it if a 
  foe besieges their castle or they simply wish to eliminate 
  a threat with little risk to themselves. Anyone who finds 
  a way to destroy these monstrous beings can expect a rich 
  reward from the Haslanti and the icewalkers, as well as 
  the undying love of the local people.
  Commanding Officer: Glorious Ruin
  Armor Color: None
  Motto: “Get ‘em!”
  General Makeup: 180 heavy cavalry with axes or chop-
  ping swords and javelins 
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 4
  Drill: 0
  Close Combat Rating: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 4
  Ranged Attack Rating: 2 Ranged Attack Damage: 3
  Endurance: 4 
  Might: 3 
  Armor: 3 
  Morale: 4
  Special Characters: Glorious Ruin, three Fae-Blooded 
  sub-commanders 
  Formation: Ice Forest raiders are too crazed and savage 
  to fight in any formation except an unordered mob.
  FAIR FOLK OF THE NORTH
  The Fair Folk of the North, the Winter People, 
  are as merciless as the region’s long winters and harsh 
  landscapes, while their smiles are as short and false as 
  the pitifully brief summers. The Winter People lust for 
  warmth of all kinds: the passion of desire, the vivid 
  burning of mortal dreams, the heat of living bodies and 
  of blood.
  In the North, raksha temperament often changes 
  with the seasons. In the winter, they become heartless 
  as the icy winds, but can be merry and even sometimes 
  merciful in the summer, dancing across the land along 
  the briefly unchained rivers. Their hunger is remorse-
  less, but it is rarely personally sadistic; they scar the lands 
  like winter storms. Sometimes they can be kind as well 
  as cruel to the humans around them, depending on 
  their mood, and a chance-met raksha might choose to 
  lead humans safely home or entertain them as honored 
  guests… in the summer. But winter always comes soon, 
  and any mortals caught in the raksha domains spend 
  their lives in charmed sleep, fed with milk and animal 
  blood to prolong their lives as far as possible. The Fair 
  Folk sip the mortals’ dreams and blood away, draining 
  them together with their heat and their lives.
  Some raksha model their domains after typical 
  Northland longhouses, while others build castles of ice, 
  bridges that lead over vast chasms to impossible, sunny 
  forest clearings, underground catacombs walled with 
  bones and snow, floating dwellings amid stormclouds 
  anchored to the ground by thin silken ladders or high 
  spires on a mountaintop flying bannerets of silk in un-
  imaginable colors. When they desire more victims, they 
  set forth in sleighs forged of ice or dare the stormy seas 
  DAMAGE FROM ICE FOREST CREATURES
  Touching the animals or trees of the Ice For-
  est inflicts environmental damage of 1B/action, 
  Trauma 1. Contact with their blood is as deadly as 
  a supernatural ice storm (see Exalted, p. 131)—the 
  blood continues to deal damage until characters 
  manage to wash or wipe it off. The Pale Hunters 
  are immune.
  ICE FOREST WAR PARTY
  Description: This medium-sized raiding party con-
  sists of Wyld mutant warriors riding ice blue, carnivorous 
  mutant horses. These merciless warriors are armed with 
  axes or chopping swords and javelins; they wear reinforced 
  buff jackets, or better armor if they can scavenge it. Their 
  leader, the fiercest and most mutated of their kind, calls 
  himself Glorious Ruin. They fight with little discipline, 
  but great ferocity. They prefer to attack by night.
  
  74
  in longships, bearing down on merchant ships as they 
  sail against the wind through howling gales.
  THE SEVEN STORMWINDS
  The Fair Folk who call themselves the Seven Storm-
  winds hunt the icy plains of Creation’s Northwest. They 
  actually number more than 30 raksha, each with their own 
  retinues of hobgoblins, dog-handlers, grooms, bodyguards 
  and human slaves. The best warriors in the group are 
  acclaimed as the Seven Stormwinds in person, and form 
  a council that leads the tribe. This unusual sharing of 
  authority (for raksha) results in an extremely stable tribe. 
  While the position of a Stormwind is theoretically open 
  to challenge at any time, in practice the Stormwinds have 
  grown used to watching each other’s backs and eliminat-
  ing each other’s challenges before a duel can take place. 
  They do not feel affection for each other as humans 
  would, but they prefer to deal with known quantities 
  rather than with new challengers. Other raksha cite this 
  as an example of their stagnation. Their freehold takes 
  the form of several longhouses, lodged in a valley one can 
  enter only by walking a certain path backwards.
  The Stormwinds themselves are Frost Lily, Kinderans, 
  Migulo Whiteblade, Snowbreath, Mellelone, Tormentil and 
  Wolfchild. These old, experienced raksha have learned to 
  temper their thirst for excitement with due caution. Frost 
  Lily is the youngest, and ardently desires an encounter 
  of some sort with deathknights. Migulo Whiteblade, the 
  oldest, buys healthy, dream-filled slaves from the Guild in 
  return for ice-diamonds, living amber and flowering am-
  ethysts. Kinderans is the architect responsible for sculpting 
  their longhouses. The other four have a constant stream of 
  love affairs and betrayals that entertain the entire domain. 
  All use bows and axes, save for Mellelone, who insists on 
  wearing only a leather vest and skirt, and fighting with 
  her bare hands. Featherheart, a younger raksha in the 
  tribe, swims naked in the rivers and whistles down gulls 
  and white eagles; she plots to trick Celestial Exalted into 
  bringing down one or more of the Stormwinds.
  THE BORDERMARCHES
  Although ice covers the northern edge of Creation, 
  fertile land reappears in the Bordermarches. First, the 
  ice gives way to arctic tundra and taiga… but twisted 
  by the Wyld. Instead of the dwarf conifers and willows 
  found in Creation’s far Northlands, Bordermarch forests 
  sometimes sport stunted versions of temperate wood-
  lands, Southeastern jungles (complete with snow-hung 
  lianas) or the olive groves, chaparral and cacti of the 
  South. Then again, a Bordermarch forest might feature 
  apple trees bearing fruit of ice, or the wind might play a 
  willow’s twigs like a harp. Bordermarch tundra, mean-
  while, is especially hard to navigate because it’s so flat 
  and featureless—sometimes completely featureless—or the 
  frozen rivers and distant, icy mountains change position 
  from day to day.
  Deeper in the Bordermarches, frigid versions of lands 
  throughout Creation appear. A traveler might find a copy 
  of Sijan built entirely from ice, or snow drifted into dunes 
  as in the far South. The plants and animals may be freez-
  ing cold, just as the creatures of the Ice Forest.
  The pull into the sky creates landscapes that could 
  never exist in Creation. Impossibly slender bridges of rock 
  cross mile-wide chasms, and rivers flow uphill as easily 
  as down. The most spectacular, however, are the hollow, 
  funnel-shaped mountains that are widest at the top and 
  no more than a few yards wide at their base. These often 
  contain pocket environments that may be surprisingly 
  temperate—the element of Air expresses itself through 
  the upside-down mountain, rather than the usual cold 
  of the North.
  THE CITY OF SEZAKAN
  The mountains on the Western coast of the north-
  ernmost lands hide the First Age city of Sezakan. High 
  cliffs and mountains render the city’s valley almost inac-
  cessible except from the air. As a result, the valley makes 
  an ideal home for the 7,000 people of the air who live 
  there. The city center holds a large manse that looks 
  like a pyramid of glowing blue ice. Sezakan’s builders 
  tapped the power of the manse so that instead of form-
  ing a hearthstone, the manse provides the city with both 
  light and protection from the frigid weather. A dome of 
  Essence covers the entire city to moderate the winds and 
  keep the city warm. At night, the dome glows brighter 
  than the full moon seen on a clear night. This manse 
  also powers the reality engine that partially protects the 
  city from the Wyld.
  Sezakan is only 25 miles from the edge of the Bor-
  dermarches. The Wyld sometimes advances over the 
  city on nights of the full moon, or when a Wyld storm 
  blows into Creation. During the Old Realm and the 
  Shogunate, the reality engine protected the entire city 
  from even the Deep Wyld. Today, the ancient device is 
  out of tune, and the people of the air only remember 
  how to perform basic maintenance. Instead of providing 
  complete protection from the Wyld, the engine merely 
  downgrades the Wyld’s effects by one category. Inside 
  the city, the Bordermarches are treated as Creation, the 
  Middlemarches are treated as the Bordermarches and the 
  Deep Wyld is treated as the Middlemarches.
  
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  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  Most of the time, this limited protection is enough. 
  The Bordermarches cannot affect Sezakan, and no Wyld 
  storm has inflicted worse than the Middlemarches around 
  the city. When the city is within the Wyld, the Essence 
  dome shines a brilliant violet to warn the inhabitants not 
  to leave the city. As a result, the buildings have suffered 
  almost no damage from the Wyld, and the inhabitants 
  are almost completely free of Wyld mutations. The very 
  few Wyld mutants among the city’s residents are expected 
  not to breed; they are slain or driven out if they make a 
  fuss about this.
  The dome glows faintly violet if the Wyld approaches 
  within 10 miles of the city and continues to brighten as 
  the Wyld comes closer, warning the residents to call back 
  hunting parties. Hunters and other people traveling to 
  or from the city look for the glowing dome as a warning 
  either to return rapidly or fly south, away from the rav-
  ages of the Wyld.
  Thaumaturges must periodically adjust or repair the re-
  ality engine. While adjusting the device is relatively simple, 
  repairs call for jade and other rare materials. The people 
  of Sezakan must seek out civilized areas or ancient ruins 
  to obtain the parts they require. The Sezakanians honor 
  the daring scavengers and silver-tongued traders who fly 
  across the Northlands their city needs. Because the Wyld 
  often yields deposits of unmelting ice and feathersteel, the 
  inhabitants of Sezakan have valuable goods to trade.
  Some traders regularly deal with Gethamane and the 
  Haslanti, but never reveal the location of their home. 
  For large trading expeditions, successful merchants can 
  request use of one of the city’s two flying vehicles, a pair 
  of fast courier excellent air boats (see Wonders of the 
  Lost Age, p. 35). The inhabitants recently manufactured 
  their second air boat from components in their city, aided 
  by a pair of Haslanti technical advisors who were carried 
  to and from Sezakan blindfolded—the only humans to 
  visit Sezakan in the last 200 years.
  Most of the other First Age devices in this city no 
  longer function. Sezakan has the wreck of a battle car-
  rier (see Wonders of the Lost Age, pp. 36-37), but lacks 
  the knowledge and resources to repair it. A few dwell-
  ings contain functional automatic doors and windows 
  that open or turn opaque at a touch, but most such 
  devices failed long ago; the last of the lift-tubes inside 
  the tall apartments failed centuries ago. Today, elderly 
  Sezakanians sometimes take the interior stairs, but most 
  people fly up to the balconies found on the apartments 
  in the city’s blue glass terraces and spires.
  The Solar Council governs Sezakan. These elected 
  leaders receive advice from shamans who deal with the 
  local gods and elementals. The inhabitants worship the 
  Unconquered Sun. Because of Sezakan’s isolation, the 
  Shogunate never razed or conquered the city; the city 
  contains one of Creation’s few intact temples to the Un-
  conquered Sun. This temple is a slender, golden pyramid 
  located east of the manse, across the central plaza.
  The Sezakanians include a few God-Blooded people 
  of the air, because Sezakanians occasionally take air 
  elementals and local gods as lovers or spouses. The 
  inhabitants seldom mate with gods or elementals who 
  cannot fly due to the risk that their offspring might lack 
  wings. The joys of flight are central to life in Sezakan: 
  infants born with missing or atrophied wings are exposed 
  to the elements. Adults who cannot fly due to injury or 
  disease become objects of pity and veiled horror; they are 
  encouraged to commit suicide. All members of the Solar 
  Council must demonstrate their flying prowess every year 
  on the high holy day of the Unconquered Sun.
  During the Usurpation, several dozen Dragon-
  Blooded loyalists took refuge in Sezakan. As a result, the 
  city’s population always includes about a dozen Azure 
  or Crimson Dragons. Both the God-Blooded and the 
  Dragon-Blooded people of the air are honored here and 
  are expected to help keep the city in good repair. They 
  often become members of the Solar Council.
  So far, no Sezakanian has become a Celestial Exalt. 
  Recent prophecies, however, foretell that at least one 
  inhabitant shall soon take the Second Breath as a mighty 
  Sezakan, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 1  
  Government: 2 
  Culture: 3
  Abilities: Awareness 2, Bureaucracy 1, Craft 3, Integ-
  rity 4, Investigation 1, Occult 1 (Savant Academy +3), 
  Performance 2, Presence 2, Stealth 2, War 2
  Virtues: Compassion: 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 2
  Limit Break: Temperance 
  Current Limit: 2
  Willpower: 6
  Bonus Points: 15 
  External Bonus Points: 4
  Notes: Almost half of the ruling Solar Council 
  are God-Blooded or Dragon-Blooded, several of 
  whom are sorcerers with Legitimacy. Several other 
  skilled sorcerers live in Sezakan. The dominion’s 
  external bonus points come from trading contacts 
  with Gethamane and the Haslanti League, which 
  are invested in one dot of the Craft Specialty and 
  the War Specialty (through trade in artifacts and 
  weapons). The city’s Virtue Flaw causes Sezakan to 
  attempt to break all contact with the outside world 
  and eliminate all outside influences.
  
  76
  Celestial Exalt. This event could suddenly put this iso-
  lated land back in contact with the rest of Creation and 
  possibly the Fair Folk.
  Aside from gods and elementals, hardly anyone has 
  visited Sezakan. Visitors are expected to keep the city’s 
  existence and location secret: anyone who seems unlikely 
  to do so is held captive, or, in extreme cases, killed. Visi-
  tors who can fly, using wings, artifacts or Charms would 
  receive greater favor; outsiders who cannot fly can expect 
  a mixture of pity and disdain. They will also have trouble 
  gaining access to much of the city, since it is very much 
  designed for fliers.
  TURRETS OF THE ICE BLOSSOM
  The castle called the Turrets of the Ice Blossom 
  rules the greatest raksha domain of the northeastern 
  Bordermarches. This freehold sprouts from the top of 
  an impossibly slender peak like a giant rose carved of 
  ice, with its shining spires rising from the center—but 
  some savants of the North say the name refers to its 
  queen. Ellith, the mistress of this domain, seems proud 
  and glorious at first glance, but she has slowly sunk into 
  weariness and decrepitude. She sustains herself on the 
  blood of children, keeping them in separate towers of her 
  castle in rooms full of toys. Her subjects fear Ellith for her 
  power and love her for the bright, innocence-fed dreams 
  that fill the castle: while the living children weaken and 
  die in the upper chambers, glamours and dreams laugh 
  sweetly and play in the frost-draped corridors.
  In the cellars of the castle lurks Ithelle, Ellith’s 
  daughter. Even if she was not born of Ellith’s body, both 
  claim the relationship. Her aging mother stripped Ithelle 
  of all beauty to maintain her own charms. An army of 
  ugly hobgoblins and a few withered warriors serve Ithelle 
  as she plots against the raksha in the turrets above and 
  attempt to assassinate or usurp them. If Ithelle can reach 
  Ellith and tear out her heart, replacing it with Ithelle’s 
  own, she can regain the beauty that was once hers, while 
  Ellith becomes a crone and flees to the cellars, there to 
  plot to usurp the throne. Both sides endeavor to draw 
  visitors into their constant struggle, using them as tools, 
  lovers or victims.
  The only true neutral in the domain is Kerris, the 
  Master at Arms. He commands the cataphracts and 
  hunters, but would never dream of interfering between 
  the Queen and her daughter; he seeks only to keep the 
  borders secure and the trade with the Guild constant. 
  Children are expensive slaves to transport, and die so 
  quickly. He pays the Guild in flowers that never die 
  plucked from fields of snow, silver filigree, never-melting 
  ice and chains of adamant. Kerris rides out daily with his 
  warriors on white horses with silver hooves. But ghosts 
  crawl through the beautiful ice palace, amid the gaudy 
  raksha indulgence, and some day it runs the risk of be-
  coming a shadowland chained to the Underworld.
  ICE BLOSSOM HUNTERS
  Description: A unit of hunters from the Turrets of 
  the Ice Blossom, under the authority of the Master at 
  Arms. These riders are armed with both swords and bows, 
  and emphasize speed and mobility over strength.
  Commanding Officer: Captain Djavan
  Armor Color: Silver chain mail with black trim
  Motto: “For the Queen!”
  General Makeup: 50 riders, each carrying sword and 
  shortbow of steel-hard ice
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 3
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3  Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 4 
  Armor: 3 
  Morale: 2
  Special Characters: None
  Formation: Relaxed
  THE BRIDGE OF TEARS
  The most impressive of all of the North’s natural 
  bridges is the fabled Bridge of Tears. It exists on the 
  furthest reaches of the Northern Bordermarches and 
  bridges the path into the Middlemarches. This vast 
  
  77
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  natural structure is actually a single huge peninsula 
  that has gradually pulled free of the ground since the 
  Fair Folk invasion. Today, it is an arch of land 30 miles 
  long and half a mile wide. The southernmost portion 
  of this bridge joins the ground in a gradual slope that 
  is easy for even ordinary mortals to walk up. After the 
  first mile, the bridge is completely separated from the 
  ground. The bottom of the bridge rises as high as a mile 
  above the ground and extends 12 miles out beyond the 
  vast cliff that marks the end of the Bordermarches and 
  the beginning of the Middlemarches for this area of the 
  Northern Wyld.
  The end of the Bridge of Tears forms a wide, aerial 
  plateau roughly a mile in diameter. Most of the Fair 
  Folk consider it neutral territory. This plateau has the 
  unique property that it attracts the driftlands in from the 
  Middlemarches. Every week or two, a driftland moves 
  toward the end of the Bridge of Tears and then stops 
  just as it touches it. Anyone on either the bridge or the 
  driftland can then walk from one to the other safely and 
  easily. The driftland remains in contact with the bridge 
  for one to three days, and then floats away. No driftland 
  has ever been known to touch the bridge more than once 
  a decade, unless directed to do so by one of the more 
  powerful raksha. The bridge obtained its rather sorrowful 
  name because of the mist and gentle rain that covers it 
  at least once a day.
  MIDDLEMARCHES
  In the Northern Middlemarches, the element of Air 
  clearly supersedes all other influences from Creation—but 
  all the forms and qualities of Creation manifest and re-
  combine freely. Here, lightning bolts stick in the ground 
  and sprout branches like trees. Pork chops fall like snow, 
  and children made of sherbet eat scoops from each other’s 
  bodies. The Wyld barbarians might be furred, as in the 
  Bordermarches—but they are just as likely to have bodies 
  made of ice, crystal or clouds—or ordinary-looking flesh. 
  The logic that says people ought to need protection from 
  the cold no longer applies.
  DRIFTLANDS
  The most noteworthy feature of the Northern Wyld, 
  however, is how much of the geography is aerial. Portions 
  of the land detach from the ground and float lazily through 
  the air. Aerial islands of the Bordermarches range from 
  small, rock-lined pools a dozen yards across to flying 
  mountains. These “driftlands” settle toward the ground 
  as they near Creation. The Middlemarches hold larger 
  driftlands—a few are hundreds of miles across.
  Gravity remains constant on a driftland: without 
  using Charms, characters can only walk or stand on the 
  tops of these islands. A few driftlands are stationary, but 
  most wander at random. Except when a new driftland 
  rips itself from the ground and rises gradually upwards, 
  none ever drops below 10 yards from the ground. They 
  rarely collide, but when such collisions occur, they can 
  be exceedingly spectacular. A few stationary driftlands 
  are connected to the ground by slender bridges of ice 
  or stone. Breaking the bridges frees the driftland to 
  move through the skies as the others. Larger driftlands 
  sometimes contain rivers that run off their edges. Some 
  of these rivers plunge down to the ground as mobile wa-
  terfalls. Others flow through the air from one driftland 
  to another, twisting in complex ribbon-like paths as the 
  two driftlands move in relation to one another.
  Ice covers some driftlands or they are actual floating 
  glaciers, but in other cases, they can support vegetation, 
  life and a temperate climate. (Why shouldn’t they be 
  warmer? They float closer to the sun….) The largest 
  driftlands generally stay remote from each other, but the 
  smaller ones float in vast clouds, allowing the inhabitants 
  and animals to easily travel from one to another.
  Driftland swarms sometimes show a strange but 
  consistent geography and ecology. Waterfalls cascade from 
  one driftland to another, the two driftlands maintaining 
  constant distance and speed from each other. Vines or 
  trees that have grown together over the centuries may link 
  particularly close driftlands. The air of the driftlands is 
  full of predators, and some Wyld creatures sleep on the 
  wing, never landing or coming to a halt. White hares 
  spread flaps of skin like the flying squirrels of Halta to 
  glide from driftland to driftland, forming packs to hunt 
  the giant toads that hide in driftland caves.
  The largest driftlands or swarms often have no ground 
  beneath them. In these regions of the Middlemarches, 
  the influences of the Wyld and the Pole of Air break 
  Creation into floating fragments. In these cases, up or 
  down become arbitrary concepts, meaningful only for a 
  single driftland—or each driftland maintains a uniform 
  “downward” pull over its entire surface, which folk from 
  Creation find as strange as the driftlands themselves.
  HY BANNIT
  This enormous driftland is shaped like a coin almost 
  300 miles in diameter and 10 miles thick, with no ground 
  underneath it. One side consists of wide fertile valleys 
  located between gentle mountains, while the other side 
  features rough scrub, rugged terrain and harsh mountains; 
  the sides are all of ice. Two driftlands smashed together long 
  ago, and the icy sides mated to produce a strange interior. 
  
  78
  Raksha and other creatures live on both sides. Hy Bannit 
  is composed of some 50 waypoints (20 to a side and 10 
  in the interior) and several small freeholds.
  Immense caves of ice pierce the driftland’s interior. 
  The gravity of each side cancels out, leaving the interior 
  weightless. The caves in turn host a weird ecology. Vast 
  snow wyrms dwell and feed on the lesser predators and 
  prey. Half-deer roam there, creatures with one head and two 
  bodies that can split apart so one half feeds while the other 
  half watches for predators. Carnivorous moss infiltrates the 
  ice and moves along it in creeping patches, leaving a rough, 
  scarred surface behind it. The flesh-eating grubs lay eggs 
  that look like small opals; they do not hatch unless they are 
  in close proximity to something warm for at least a day, to 
  make sure they have sufficient nourishment during their 
  early hours. The raksha do not know how the rumor began 
  that an abandoned ice castle inside Hy Bannit holds a huge 
  treasure trove hidden during Balor’s attack on Creation. 
  The caves are deadly enough that few visitors survive their 
  explorations, and the raksha themselves have given up.
  THE SHATTERED LAND
  A raksha legend says that these thousands of driftlands 
  once formed a great land that almost rivaled the Blessed 
  Isle in size, before mighty Balor shattered it with his spear. 
  The driftlands float in an oval cloud about 2,000 miles long 
  and 1,600 miles wide and deep; most of these driftlands 
  are spheres and ovoids between a quarter of a mile and 10 
  miles wide. Their slow, ever-changing orbits rarely move 
  the driftlands more than three miles from one another, 
  and some driftlands float considerably closer.
  An alliance of raksha nobles control a good portion 
  of the Shattered Land, but most of it remains wild and 
  untamed. Trade and commerce abound. Hobgoblins work 
  the open mines found on many of the driftlands, while 
  raksha wind yachts ply the air between them. These raksha 
  have little concern for Creation; their aerial continent 
  keeps them busy enough.
  PROPERTIES, PEOPLE, PLACES
  THE AIRLESS QUARTER
  One cubic mile of space in the Northern Middle-
  marches has no air whatsoever. Tribes of mutants mark 
  it with obscure warnings so their warriors may avoid it, 
  and the locals’ favored tactic is to force their enemies into 
  the quarter. Animals never stray into it, perhaps sensing 
  its completely dead nature. Some Lunar Exalted have 
  mastered a Charm to enter it safely; they are rare enough 
  that they find the Airless Quarter a safe repository for 
  concealing valuables.
  Back in the Old Realm, a Sidereal’s experiment-
  gone-wrong created the Airless Quarter. An attempt to 
  condense tons of air into a single, manageable point went 
  haywire. It channeled all the air in a strictly defined area 
  into a single point, but continued to do so and could 
  not be stopped. In a region that was, at the time, within 
  Creation, authorities bound the Airless Quarter away 
  from mortals for their safety.
  If some enterprising individual could figure out 
  how to steal away the single point in the center (half a 
  mile above the ground), she would possess a source of 
  near-infinite air with a multitude of uses.
  BREATH TUNNELS
  Breath tunnels are a natural form of rapid transport 
  in the Northern Middlemarches. Small ice caverns pierce 
  the frozen ground in numerous places across the Wyld. 
  They look unremarkable in most respects. Inside is only 
  a small ledge, barely shielded from the fierce elements 
  outside, that looks down upon a tunnel through which 
  a vicious wind blows. Jumping down into this tunnel 
  whips a person along the channel at incredible speeds. 
  By mortal reckoning, breath tunnels move travelers at 
  anywhere from 50 to 200 miles per hour. According to 
  Fair Folk and other travelers familiar with them, breath 
  tunnels can take a person anywhere from four to 20 
  waypoints in a single scene.
  Most breath tunnels convey a person swiftly from 
  one terminus to another. Because the winds flow in only 
  one direction, there is no immediate return trip. It is 
  often easier to find one’s way back overland than to find 
  a corresponding, reverse breath tunnel. Some termini 
  have multiple landings over multiple breath tunnels that 
  go to a variety of places, in either direction. The breath 
  tunnel network is random, but extensive.
  A person who mastered the network of breath tun-
  nels could appear almost anywhere in the Northern 
  Wyld in very short order. Such mobility would provide 
  great advantage in Creation, even with the distance from 
  the Middlemarches. Even so, a measure of luck always 
  BRANCHING BREATH TUNNELS
  Occasionally, a single tunnel branches in the 
  middle and has two destinations. One is always the 
  stronger destination, the default. The player of any 
  character who wants to take the other must make a 
  ([Dexterity or Wits] + Athletics) roll at a difficulty 
  of 2 to 4, depending on the wind’s speed. Botch-
  ing this roll inflicts 10 dice of bashing damage on 
  the character.
  
  79
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  swathed in very light blue silk. Children of the wind can 
  deaden all airflow around them. They use this to stop the 
  winds of the breath tunnels while they smooth out the 
  roofs and walls with their hands and grow new breath 
  tunnels between new locations. Read about a sample 
  child of the wind on p. 153.
  Children also silently and invisibly watch the all the 
  breath tunnel termini. While they have a strict policy not 
  to interfere with regular uses of the tunnels, children of 
  the wind can shut down a tunnel when people abuse 
  them. The most explicit abuse of the tunnels is to move 
  large numbers of troops, but others exist.
  SKYWATER SPRINGS
  Skywater springs occur naturally across the Middle-
  marches. At first, they look like natural sources of fresh 
  water, bubbling from the ground or off a driftland, 
  misting in the cold air. On closer inspection, an explorer 
  discovers that they are flowing springs of liquid air, which 
  quickly sublimate into the atmosphere. Skywater is more 
  transparent than even the purest water, and runs over a 
  creekbed of snow and ice without disturbing them.
  Travelers Creation-wide, especially in the West and 
  East, prize bottled skywater. Westerners know the danger 
  of drowning, and the Eastern scavengers fear suffocating 
  AIR SEEDS (ARTIFACT ••)
  New breath tunnels grow from air seeds, yel-
  lowed things that look like small pine cones. The 
  children seem to be able to generate them at will. 
  To plant an air seed, push it against any solid re-
  gion of ice, earth or stone, and germinate it with 
  five motes. The air seed sinks into the ground 
  and opens a shaft of air through it, up to 100 feet 
  long at the rate of one foot a day. Smaller channels 
  branch off it, which children of the wind fill in 
  and seal up in their tunnels. Air seeds qualify as 
  two-dot artifacts. 
  plays into tunnel travel: in the Wyld as they are, breath 
  tunnel termini shift over time and are not dependable 
  unless a person’s records are very up-to-date. Luckily for 
  travelers from Creation, the tunnels are always close to 
  12 feet in diameter, making many Wyld monsters too 
  large to fit. 
  THE CHILDREN OF THE WIND
  The children of the wind consider the breath tunnels 
  their responsibility to maintain. Though they are usually 
  immaterial, the children appear as child-sized old men 
  
  80
  in cave-ins and self-shutting tombs. They use skywater 
  as an alternative or emergency source of air. Drinking 
  a bottle provides a character with enough liquid air to 
  ensure that she doesn’t need to breathe for the next eight 
  hours. One can also let it slowly seep out of its bottle to 
  keep enclosed air from growing stagnant for 12 hours.
  A bottle of skywater goes for Resources •••• in 
  most regions, occasionally ••• in the North.
  THE UNSURMOUNTABLE SUMMIT
  This spot is the single highest place in the Northern 
  Middlemarches. In this place, the nature of air to be above 
  things most strongly expresses itself. The Summit itself is 
  circular platform 15 feet in diameter that has one small, 
  treacherous path downward and otherwise looks out over 
  open air. From here, a person can see all the driftlands 
  and the rest of the Northern Wyld, all the way to the 
  Elemental Pole of Air and the northern edge of Creation. 
  The sharpest, Charm-enhanced sight can just make out 
  the Imperial Mountain far, far southward.
  Explorers do not actually reach the Unsurmount-
  able Summit by climbing a great mountain. Instead, 
  it looks like a nondescript patch of ground, marked by 
  nothing. Stepping upon it, however, a traveler suddenly 
  sees the most fantastic of views and a very surprising 
  cliff. The path one trod into the rough circle becomes 
  the way back out, and stepping there takes one directly 
  back to the flat, unremarkable ground of before. People 
  who seek the Summit may spend mortal lifetimes trying 
  without success.
  One special quality of the Summit has never been 
  discovered. Northern Lunar Exalted have used it as a 
  lookout point without peer, but even they do not know 
  that it serves as an unknown and unguarded portal 
  to Yu-Shan. By exemplifying the quality of the “high-
  est point,” the Unsurmountable Summit floats above 
  Heaven itself. By jumping off the small Summit’s cliff, a 
  character hurtles not to doom miles below but into the 
  Jade Pleasure Dome where the Incarnae play the Games 
  of Divinity. The lack of any immediate path back can 
  only mean trouble for the unprepared visitor.
  WEAPON STORMS
  Storms of flying blades meander across the North, 
  cutting down the unfortunate creatures in their paths. 
  Chakrams are the most common. The only time a chakram 
  storm truly dies is when it wanders into Northern Cre-
  ation. Then, the storm weakens as it goes farther from 
  the Wyld until it exhausting itself.
  Each chakram in a storm is unique as a snowflake. 
  Chakrams are also entirely real, no matter that they fall 
  from steely-looking clouds and come from the Wyld. 
  When the storm passes, the chakrams remain. When 
  a chakram storm dies in the North, scavengers retrieve 
  the weapons, and chakrams glut the market. For a time, 
  they can be cheaper than food in Diamond Hearth 
  and Crystal. Some chakrams command higher cost for 
  exceptional artistry.
  The Northern Middlemarches also spawn javelin 
  storms, dagger storms and storms of other weapons. These 
  occasionally meet, grow in strength and form temporary 
  murder storms. Individuals who live or spend a lot of 
  time in the Northern Wylds are inevitably familiar with 
  chakram storms; such explorers sometimes rid themselves 
  of less savvy enemies by luring their foes into these storms 
  while having ready shelter for themselves.
  WEAPON STORM DAMAGE
  A weapon storm is an environmental danger 
  with a damage rating equal to the weapon’s dam-
  age per minute and a Trauma of 2. Storms that are 
  more dangerous may have higher Trauma ratings. 
  A murder storm has a damage equal to the summed 
  damage ratings of all involved weapons. Occasionally, 
  there are jade chakram storms. These have damage 
  ratings of 3L. They are very rare, and when they 
  enter Creation, many people get very rich.
  THE JET COURT
  Toward the Deep North lies the Jet Court, one of 
  the five great centers of raksha power. The raksha of this 
  court consider Temperance the greatest virtue, and go to 
  great lengths to show how temperate they are by spying 
  on each other, betraying each other and brutally killing 
  each other over who is most moderate. The court lies in 
  a set of ice caverns connected by twisting corridors, set 
  with arrases and convenient bedrooms and courtrooms, 
  perfectly arranged for plotting, rendezvous and affairs. No 
  other group of raksha nearby is foolish enough to defy the 
  court and give them cause for dramatic feuds and open 
  warfare; the Winter People journey from Creation and 
  the Bordermarches to exchange regular gifts and visits.
  The court’s ruler Princess Kyema is as artistically 
  perfect in her beauty as she is perfectly cutting in her wit. 
  Her constant, mild smile soon seems more threatening 
  than any scowl. She has ruled the Jet Court for centuries. 
  Kyema enjoys leaving glamour-created copies of herself 
  around the court while she spies on her nobles. She 
  blackmails her agents into desperation.
  Three special minions assist Kyema’s schemes. The 
  Lady Ennaya, a maker of poisons and aphrodisiacs, leads 
  
  81
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  the Amethyst Household. The fearsome warrior Count 
  Okudo decides his actions purely at the fall of dice. Lord 
  Kazour, a diplomat and courtier, conceals his hopeless 
  love for the Princess. He walks amid the falling snow in 
  thin silks and bare feet.
  The major entertainments of the court are spying, 
  betraying, blackmailing, indulging or torturing pet mor-
  tals and disturbing other Fair Folk. The court is a very 
  random faction, since they can justify almost any course 
  in the name of “temperance”—and delight in doing so. 
  Indeed, to plan anything would show a disturbing lack 
  of indifference. The court has no set hours for rising or 
  sleeping, and courtiers and sycophants constantly wander 
  the long, icy hallways. The hobgoblins who serve the Jet 
  Court are usually beautiful metal statues or dreamlike, 
  mist-shrouded ice sculptures swathed in scarves of jet 
  that has been woven like silk.
  The Jet Court does good business with the Guild, 
  directly and through the Mouth of White Sleep, throw-
  ing gold and gems at the merchants’ feet before luring 
  the unchained slaves that they have purchased out into 
  the snow. The court is also prompt in returning mind-
  broken slaves, and while these slaves often have artistic 
  mutilations that render them less than ornamental, they 
  are nevertheless adequate for hard labor. The Jet Court 
  doesn’t usually try to lure the Guildsmen into the snow. 
  In fact, a recent apparent kidnapping turned out to be a 
  murder attempt by a rival merchant group, who hoped 
  to anger both sides and usurp the Guild’s slave trade in 
  the region. The rival group in question now enjoys the 
  Jet Court’s hospitality.
  The Bull of the North and several Lunars have 
  recently caused the Jet Court some problems, forcing 
  it to restrict its raiding and curtailing the Guild’s visits. 
  Princess Kyema ponders a huge raid that would take an 
  entire encampment of warriors as slaves, or breaking 
  into one of the Northern cities and stealing a choice 
  selection of mortals from it. While this would remove 
  the need for new mortal slaves for a while, it could also 
  provoke a major alliance against the Jet Court. This could 
  be extremely risky; she fears the possibility of a Lunar-
  Haslanti-icewalker triple alliance, and the potential of a 
  Haslanti air fleet backed by Lunar magic.
  JET COURT SKIRMISHERS
  Description: A group of three hundred Fair Folk 
  cataphract raiders. They are of Excellent quality, half 
  male, half female. They wear gossamer armor and carry 
  gossamer weapons.
  Commanding Officer: Count Okudo
  Armor Color: Black glass with violet and silver trim
  Motto: None. They charge in dead silence, casually looking 
  around as if they just happened to be passing through.
  General Makeup: Lancers
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 4
  Drill: 5
  The Jet Court, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 2/2 Government: 3/3 Culture: 3/3
  Abilities: Awareness 2 (Superior Diplomats 3), Craft 2, 
  Integrity 3, Occult 3 (Supernatural Etiquette 3), Perfor-
  mance 3, Presence 3, Stealth 2 (Calculated Assassination 
  3), War 2
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temperance 4, 
  Valor 2
  Limit Break: Temperance 
  Current Limit: 2
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 15 
  External Bonus Points: 9
  Notes: The Jet Court is a Supernatural dominion. 
  Princess Kyema, Lady Ennaya and Lord Kazour are 
  all sorcerers, and Princess Kyema has Legitimacy. 
  The Jet Court does not hold any savants, as any 
  powerful members of the court are far from secre-
  tive. In the event of a Limit Break, the Jet Court 
  turns in on itself and engages in self-critiquing and 
  demonstrations of personal non-involvement. The 
  court will refuse to get involved in outside affairs or 
  take any action that could be construed as personal 
  interest in events.
  
  82
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Endurance: 7 
  Might: 4 
  Armor: 4 
  Morale: 2
  Formation: Close
  THE SCARLET CRYSTAL ARTISAN
  The Lunar called the Scarlet Crystal Artisan claims 
  her territory around the Unsurmountable Summit 
  and uses it regularly. This elder of the Silver Pact leads 
  her thousands of mutant followers on grueling trips 
  several times a year to thin their ranks and strengthen 
  the survivors.
  The Lunar uses her observations from the Summit to 
  direct her military efforts in the Northern Middlemarches. 
  The Scarlet Crystal Artisan leverages the fanatical devo-
  tion of her mutants into a powerful (if unfocused) war 
  machine for fighting the Fair Folk, the Realm and, 
  recently, the Bull of the North. She dreams of turning 
  the far North into a paradise using powerful spells and 
  the work of her people.
  The Scarlet Crystal Artisan’s followers fight for her. 
  She forms them into First Age battle units for efficacy. 
  They are a diverse lot of Wyld mutants, still recognizable as 
  of human stock but otherwise with little in common.
  WYLD HORDE TALON
  Description: Warriors in a typical war party have 
  many mutations, but none consistent enough to form 
  into effective different battle ranks or units.
  Commanding Officer: Varies
  Armor Color: The armor is as diverse as the soldiers, 
  but is usually splashed with dried blood.
  Motto: “Marching to Paradise!”
  General Makeup: 125 warriors, effectively heavy infantry, 
  armored with layers of Wyld creature hides. Their patron 
  usually equips them with short spears and javelins for 
  both close-up and ranged fighting.
  Overall Quality: Fair
  Magnitude: 3
  Drill: 1
  Close Combat Attack: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 3 
  Ranged Damage: 2
  Endurance: 4 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 1 (-1 mobility penalty) 
  Valor: 4
  Formation: These units swarm over the Scarlet Crystal 
  Artisan’s targets of opportunity.
  CRAZED MARAUDER SCALE
  Description: Shock troops, eager and able to desta-
  bilize enemy units.
  Commanding Officer: Varies
  Armor Color: Same as above
  Motto: “Hawoogawoogawooga!”
  General Makeup: 25 warriors armored the same as 
  most others. These fight with big axes to frighten their 
  opponents, howl nonsense for further intimidation and 
  use thaumaturgic potions to ignore pain.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: — 
  Ranged Damage: —
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 2 
  
  83
  CHAPTER THREE • THE NORTHERN WYLD
  Armor: 1 (-1 mobility penalty) 
  Valor: 4
  Formation: The Scarlet Crystal Artisan holds these units 
  in reserve to attack from unexpected quarters or when 
  the enemy is weak.
  THE DEEP WYLD
  The land in the Deep Wyld is all made of snow and 
  ice, and although as durable as ordinary rock or soil, it is 
  no thicker than a child’s hand, with only air underneath, 
  and ripples like a flag in the wind. While gravity always 
  remains oriented toward the surface a character stands 
  upon, vast arcs of land twist and fold in the sky, and val-
  leys can lead down to other, seemingly endless ribbons 
  of land. Storms chase each other across the landscape, 
  pursued by bright clear skies and perfect sunsets or glori-
  ous stars and moons. No shelter lasts for long; ice-forests 
  of pine trees rise and then crumble again, cliffs fall to 
  snow and caves lead down through long tunnels out onto 
  mountain peaks high above the horizon.
  Sometimes the whole landscape breaks apart into 
  driftlands, which become clouds firm enough to walk 
  upon. Snowflakes chiseled from crystal and black onyx 
  fall from the sky, slicing at those caught below. The 
  mists take on the form of white animals, their eyes and 
  mouths a red so deep it’s black and then stalk anyone 
  who disturbs their quiet coiling. The ice beneath a 
  traveler’s feet forms itself into tiles, and strange game-
  pieces mimic the traveler’s paces as if he were a part in 
  a gigantic game of Gateway. Mirrors in the sky reflect 
  whatever happens below, but also show strange tracks in 
  the snow and ice, and odd shadows that don’t belong to 
  any visible creature.
  As with any quarter of the Deep Wyld, a few sanc-
  tuaries have been nailed into the chaos. Homes built by 
  Celestial Exalted in the distant past still stand. Thin cords 
  of fate tie observatories to Yu-Shan. shadowlands where 
  cities died in the Fair Folk invasion resist dissolution 
  through their link to the Underworld. Dreams of the 
  Yozis bob like stinking bubbles of perversion amid the 
  windstorms of insanity. But these tiny points of reality 
  are nearly lost in the measureless sea of chaos.
  UNSHAPED RAKSHA
  The unshaped raksha that wander through the North 
  tend to ignore such sanctuaries as not worth their notice; 
  the hateful stability of Creation interests them more. 
  Foremost among them is Ramis-Adke, Feather on the 
  Wing, who floods across the landscape in a great blanket 
  of feathers that have nothing solid beneath them. Ramis-
  Adke flies through both air and earth without pausing, 
  sweeping through mountains and cliff faces with as much 
  ease as it flies through windstorms and hurricanes. It 
  smothers and devours those in its path, stripping them 
  down into broken gems and charcoal in the heat of its 
  interior furnaces. When Ramis-Adke rests, its feathers 
  form a set of concentric circles in the ground, and the 
  magical materials bubble out of nowhere to congeal at 
  the center, so great is Ramis-Adke’s natural prohibition 
  against stillness. Several lesser unshaped raksha follow 
  Ramis-Adke, no more comprehensible than it is.
  Another prominent unshaped raksha is Isingwethe, 
  Unborn from Blood. Isingwethe hates all things that 
  have life and death. She resolves to break into Creation 
  so she can tear her way down into the Underworld and 
  crack it like an eggshell. Following this, she intends to 
  rip Yu-Shan apart and dine on the corpses of the gods. 
  She was a close ally of Balor’s, and would have joined his 
  Crusade had not a duel with him left her close to death. 
  Isingwethe manifests as a woman with scarlet skin and 
  white hair, or as a creeping stain across the landscape that 
  leaves it corroded and fractured. She has many servants, 
  dolls of icy moss and frozen sticks bound into mimicries 
  of human or animal forms, all of whom constantly bleed 
  from various wounds.
  The Northern Deep Wyld offers no fixed locations 
  for the great unshaped to meet for their incomprehensible 
  debates. When they wish to gather, they form a floating 
  island out of the swirling ice and wind. This sudden surge 
  of temporary stability causes ripples all the way to the 
  Bordermarches, evoking a responding wave of chaos that 
  sweeps through the Wyld and makes the lesser raksha 
  tremble in fear.
  THE ELEMENTAL POLE OF AIR
  The Pole of Air is the furthest North you can go. 
  Here, everything flies on eternal, hurricane-strength 
  winds. Any solid land is just a driftland pulled in from 
  the Wyld, or coalesced from the driving snow before being 
  sent into Creation. Up or down only have meaning with 
  regard to such temporary islands of solidity—the winds 
  are much stronger than gravity, if the Pole of Air feels 
  that pull from Creation at all. A man may be picked off 
  a driftland’s surface, tossed hundreds of feet into the air, 
  and smashed back to the ground by a passing gust of wind 
  … if he ever came down at all. From time to time, the 
  winds freeze in their tracks and form solid paths through 
  the air, leading skywards like ribbons of silver, creating 
  an interlacing maze high above the ground. When they 
  shatter, glittering shards of ice sharp as chakram storms 
  cut through the tattered veils of snow and frozen fog with 
  
  84
  the force of a Solar’s swordblade. The never-melting snow 
  grinds away whatever’s left. The sheer cold can freeze 
  blood and flesh in seconds. The sun barely peeps through 
  the eternal storms: more light comes from the lightning 
  that flashes through the snow-clouds, illuminating them 
  poisonously green and purple.
  This is no land for mortal flesh. Only elementals 
  and spirits may call it home. The razor-winds, the deadly 
  cold and the lightning defeat any mundane protection. 
  The Pole of Air can challenge even the Charms of the 
  Exalted: a character needs separate Charms to resist the 
  force of the winds, the killing cold and lightning, and the 
  razor-edged storms of ice. A Solar, for instance, would 
  need Element-Resisting Prana to survive the cold, Iron 
  Kettle Body (or excellent armor) to resist the ice-storms 
  and perhaps an Athletics Charm such as Spider-Foot 
  Style to stay on a tumbling driftland.
  While one might expect to find the Elemental 
  Dragon of Air at the pole, she seldom finds time to visit. 
  The climate and location are greatly to her taste, but 
  her responsibilities keep her far too busy in Creation. 
  When Mela arrives at the pole, a great, shining palace 
  of ice crystallizes from the snow to ride the winds; the 
  clouds gather, tornadoes dance around her palace and 
  lightning rings across the sky in celebration of her com-
  ing. Lesser dragons of Air and other elementals gather 
  to bid her welcome, bringing gifts and songs of praise. 
  When she departs, she takes any gifts with her, and the 
  floating palace dissolves back into snow, which falls to 
  the ground beneath.
  Other beings can petition her at these times, if they 
  have appropriate rank and power (such as Celestial Ex-
  alted, or old and powerful Dragon-Blooded), or if they 
  bring worthy gifts. Mela’s moods are changeable as her 
  element, however, and proven enemies of the Dragon-
  Blooded are unlikely to find favor with the Dragon herself. 
  She never receives Fair Folk, and takes great pleasure in 
  rending them limb from limb and scattering their blood 
  into the howling winds. Despite the Realm’s centuries 
  of hunting the Lunar Exalted, however, the Dragon of 
  Air hears them out.
  In Mela’s absence, her Seneschal Colis-Jahmen guards 
  against incursions from the Wyld. Colis-Jahmen is a lesser 
  elemental dragon of Air, proud, young and jealous of 
  his rank and prerogatives. His predecessor in the post 
  died barely 50 years ago, under dubious circumstances 
  that may or may not have involved the visiting Sidereal 
  Iron Siaka and an oath carelessly sworn to an unshaped 
  raksha. Colis-Jahmen is served by lesser elementals and 
  gods of air that prefer the purity of the absolute North to 
  human worship or Celestial duties. While Colis-Jahmen’s 
  sycophants view anything that is not a creature of the Air 
  as a lesser being, they treat visitors with haughty politeness, 
  permitting them to explain their presence and possibly 
  even deigning to assist them in small ways. Various other 
  spirit courts also dwell at the Pole of Air.
  
  85
  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  
  86
  CHAPTER FOUR
  CHAPTER FOUR
  THE WESTERN WYLD
  THE WESTERN WYLD
  Ships sail on stranger tides than usual when they 
  enter the far West. For one thing, the Western Wyld re-
  sponds most readily to a visitor’s thoughts: water’s nature 
  is to accept the forms given to it, and in the Wyld that 
  includes forms given by thought. Unlike the North or 
  South, the Western Wyld does not openly attack intruders 
  with environments in which normal life cannot survive. 
  It receives visitors, lures them in with illusions and the 
  horizon’s promise, and then swallows them up.
  THE WESTERN 
  EDGE OF CREATION
  The West is the quarter of Creation most vulner-
  able to the Wyld. Wyld storms usually manifest as fierce 
  monsoons that rain blood, exotic sea-life or a multitude 
  of other substances across the islands and the seas 
  near the borders of Creation. The extensive “tainted” 
  portions of the West reach 100 or 200 miles from the 
  Bordermarches—often within 100 miles of the main ar-
  chipelagoes. These areas endure Wyld monsoons several 
  times a year. Only beastmen, the truly desperate and 
  Wyld mutants live in the Western tainted lands. Mortal 
  sailors pray their ships will not be blown too far West. 
  As a result, the inhabitants of this region have only the 
  dangers of the Wyld and each other to fear.
  However, these dangers can be quite severe. Wyld-
  tainted water regularly flows out of the Bordermarches. 
  When currents from the Wyld run especially strong, tides 
  can move in reverse or run much higher or lower than 
  normal. The water itself can have strange properties.
  The two most common aberrations are called strong
  and weak water. Strong water is unusually thick, almost 
  gelatinous. It looks like normal seawater, but pushing a 
  hull or an oar through it requires five times the normal 
  effort. However, humans float so easily in strong water 
  it’s nearly impossible to drown.
  
  87
  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  Weak water has no buoyancy: ships and swimmers 
  instantly sink to the bottom when they encounter weak 
  water. It looks just like ordinary water (though abilities to 
  sense Essence or the Wyld reveal its presence). Fortunately, 
  the transition from ordinary water to weak water is never 
  instantaneous: an alert captain can spot the prow’s dip as 
  it moves into weaker water, giving a brief opportunity to 
  move away from the deadly current. Many ships sailing 
  near the Wyld place small floats on long poles in front 
  of the ship, to give early warning of weak water.
  Sometimes the waters of the Wyld become so filled 
  with the powers of chaos that they dissolve everything solid 
  in their path. This unnatural extension of water’s natural 
  power is normally confined to the Middlemarches and the 
  Deep Wyld, but occasionally these destructive currents 
  sweep into the Bordermarches and even into Creation.
  The Lunar Exalted, the native inhabitants of the 
  Wyld and anything made from gossamer or the magical 
  materials are immune to these “waters of chaos,” but these 
  currents can quickly dissolve a boat, a mortal or a Wyld 
  mutant in a few minutes, and an islet or atoll in a scene. 
  The waters of chaos seldom last more than a minute in 
  Creation or the Bordermarches; in the Middlemarches, 
  they normally confine themselves to special currents.
  Life on islands near the Wyld is often no safer. 
  Although most Wyld storms are sufficiently brief that 
  thaumaturgical protections normally suffice to shield 
  people from mutation, the islands they live upon lack 
  such protection. Wyld storms can reshape islands. On 
  rare occasions, currents or rains of the waters of chaos 
  erode an entire island to nothing, while simultaneously 
  dissolving the inhabitants as well as any boats they may 
  use to try to escape.
  Many of the people who live on the edges of the West 
  are aquatic, and some are more at home in the water than 
  on land. Having the freedom to retreat into the sea and 
  the ability to survive for days or weeks without walking 
  on land allows the Wyld mutants, beastmen and other 
  inhabitants of the Western edges of Creation to survive 
  in this harsh Wyld-torn region.
  BARBARIANS
  The human barbarians of the West have much in com-
  mon with their civilized kin, such as feather ornaments, 
  tattoos meant to protect against bad fortune or the Fair 
  Folk, and the custom of Tya, or women living as men. They 
  are most numerous in the Southwest, where they live on 
  hundreds of little volcanic islands beyond the Wavecrest 
  Archipelago. Their outrigger canoes easily take them from 
  island to island, and on raids into Wavecrest.
  Between storms, Wyld tides and volcanic eruptions, 
  the Southwest tribes live in one of Creation’s least pre-
  dictable areas. They respond by observing hundreds of 
  taboos meant to placate the local godlings and gain their 
  protection. Some of these taboos actually do please one 
  god or another; most are pure superstition, born when 
  people try to repeat whatever they did before a stroke 
  of good luck or avoid doing whatever they did before a 
  calamity. These barbarians have more shamans than any 
  other culture in Creation… but no higher proportion of 
  effective shamans than anyone else.
  The barbarians spend prodigious effort on statues, 
  temples and pyre-offerings to every god they can find. 
  They spend rather less effort cultivating their island 
  homes. Indeed, they tend to strip an island of vegetation 
  and animal life within a few generations, and then move 
  on to another island. After several centuries of this, they 
  are running out of islands, leading to fiercer and more 
  frequent tribal wars. Some people give up and move to 
  Wavecrest… and other tribes move further west, into 
  the tainted lands where the gods and elementals make 
  stranger demands than ever and the power of chaos 
  grows even stronger.
  WYLD BARBARIANS
  In the West, the pox Elemental Adaptation: Water is 
  especially common, as is the blight Gills. Many mutants 
  WYLD WATERS
  In game terms, the various Wyld-tainted waters 
  have these effects:
  Strong water reduces ship movement or swim-
  ming speed to one-fifth normal. However, players do 
  not need to roll for their characters to stay afloat.
  No one can swim or sail in weak water. A (Wits 
  + Sail) roll, difficulty 3, enables a captain to notice 
  and steer out of weakening water; a swimmer can 
  escape with a successful (Wits + Athletics) roll, 
  difficulty 2.
  Spotting a current of the waters of chaos requires 
  a (Perception + Lore) roll at difficulty 3. The water 
  deals environmental damage of 2A/minute, Trauma 
  2 (see Exalted, p. 244)—and only Essence-channel-
  ers can resist these effects. Charms that protect the 
  user against the Wyld or environmental damage 
  completely protect the user from the waters of chaos. 
  Talismans against the Wyld allow bearers to roll to 
  resist the effects of these waters—but the supernatural 
  water still inflicts lethal damage.
  
  88
  also have fish scales, large fish-like eyes and skin or hair 
  of blue, green, silver or fish-belly white. Ignorant outsid-
  ers often confuse the less mutated barbarians with the 
  people of the sea.
  Wyld mutants face many dangers in the West. Roving 
  packs of sharkmen present as much threat to mutants as 
  anyone else. The West has no cities large or sophisticated 
  enough for mutants to find even minimal acceptance. 
  Instead, Wyld barbarians must risk their lives defend-
  ing their chosen territory in the Bordermarches or the 
  tainted lands from attack. The sharkman threat makes 
  these tribes of Wyld mutants even more tightly knit than 
  those of other lands; in turn, they are also more inclined 
  to view all outsiders as enemies.
  Mutants who can breathe water have no trouble living 
  off the sea’s vast bounty. Tools, medicines, worked metal, 
  pottery and other manufactured items are difficult to 
  acquire in the far West, however. More than other Wyld 
  mutants, perhaps, tribes in the West resort to raiding 
  civilized folk—as if the West didn’t have enough pirates 
  already. Some mutants simply swim to their targets or 
  hitch rides upon the backs of tamed sea-beasts. Others 
  construct, or more often steal, ships. They obtain their 
  wealth and useful goods by raiding ships or attacking 
  human villages on remote islands. Wyld pirates stay far 
  from any island with a Realm garrison, and shun the 
  Skullstone Archipelago: the Water Aspects of the Realm 
  can fight as powerfully underwater as on dry land, while 
  the undead armies of Skullstone fight underwater with 
  frightening efficiency.
  The Sea Lord of Coral Archipelago grants letters of 
  marque to several companies of Wyld pirates. In return 
  for sparing Coral’s own shipping, the barbarians can 
  dock at a few specific ports for repairs and to purchase 
  supplies with their booty. However, they may not leave 
  their ships and may only trade with specially licensed 
  merchants, who always keep well-armed guards with them. 
  Any mutants who violate these rules are killed, and their 
  twisted bodies set out on floating buoys at the edge of 
  Coral’s ports, as a warning to any mutants or other pirates 
  who would defy the edicts of the Sea Lord.
  The murderous Lintha pirates also offer Wyld 
  barbarians a haven. The inhuman-looking, pure-blood 
  members of the Lintha “family” show no prejudice at 
  all to even the most grotesque mutants. Wyld mutants 
  make up almost a third of this large and deadly criminal 
  band. A few mutant barbarians advance to the upper 
  ranks of the Lintha and dwell in Bluehaven’s lavish 
  
  89
  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  and barbaric splendor. More often, they just work for 
  the Lintha, bringing their stolen wealth back to their 
  small and isolated island homes. Mutants who join the 
  Lintha usually dwell on the edges of the Wyld and not 
  within the Bordermarches—even more than in the Bor-
  dermarches of the rest of Creation, the storms and tides 
  of chaos of the West twist barbarians living within the 
  Wyld in ways that leave them unwilling or even unable 
  to leave the Wyld.
  THE PELAGOTHROPES
  The most mutated of Wyld barbarians are called 
  pelagothropes. Especially in the Northwest, they often 
  have a layer of fat and oily fur, like a seal’s—but this can 
  be blue or green. Long, webbed feet that are almost flip-
  pers, scaled skin and nictitating membranes on the eyes 
  are also common mutations. Some pelagothropes might 
  be sealmen further transformed by the Wyld.
  Pelagothropes who must still breath air find them-
  selves forced west toward the Wyld. Gilled tribes, however, 
  sometimes dare to live in the main archipelagos of the 
  West. If pressed by humans, the pelagothropes just move 
  a little deeper. Favored homes include coral reefs, villages 
  woven from living kelp and seaweed or caves hollowed 
  from the underside of icebergs. The gilled pelagothropes 
  still need small areas of land to bear and rear their young, 
  however, since they take time to learn how to use their 
  gills. They use the most remote islets and sandbars for 
  this purpose.
  The sea provides almost everything the pelagothropes 
  need, from food to coral or stone for weapons. Ordinary 
  humans know almost nothing of the pelagothrope culture; 
  most tribes even remain aloof from the Lintha pirates. 
  A few Guild factors, however, manage to trade beads 
  and baubles for coral sculptures, which fetch high prices 
  among connoisseurs of the unusual.
  Pelagothrope religion focuses on the ocean depths. 
  Their priests and shamans descend to the lightless depths 
  to commune with storm mothers, sirens and sea-spirits 
  almost unknown to surface-dwellers. Pelagothropes also 
  quest for visions in Wyld pockets far under the waves, 
  or journey west to the Bordermarches. Their rites are a 
  mystery even to the other marine races.
  BEASTMEN
  The sharkmen are the most feared and numerous 
  beastmen in the West. One legend says their savagery so 
  impressed the Fair Folk that the raksha created the horrid 
  siaka-men as a hobgoblin version of these arch-predators. 
  Sharkmen are fully amphibious: they can breed and raise 
  their young underwater, but also swarm over the side of 
  a ship or onto a beach to hack down any humans who 
  get in their way. Similar to ordinary sharks, sharkmen 
  subsist on raw meat and are always hungry. Most shark-
  men have a taste for human flesh.
  No beastman breed is more hated than sharkmen. A 
  few dozen sharkmen survive in the West and the Realm as 
  gladiator slaves. The Lintha and a few other exceptionally 
  brutal pirate groups use a few hundred more as shock 
  troops. The Lintha keep these creatures both well-fed 
  and in carefully locked cages, when not setting them to 
  devour the Lintha’s enemies. Otherwise, sharkmen are 
  killed on sight. The people of Wavecrest, the Neck, Coral 
  and even Skullstone all consider sharkman-hunting both 
  a deed of valor and a public service. A mounted shark-
  man head is a point of pride.
  Unfortunately, sharkmen breed rapidly and can 
  easily slip away into the water when threatened. Most 
  sharkmen live on the furthest outskirts of Creation. 
  Because they are too bestial to fear the dangers of un-
  controlled mutation, many sharkmen live deep within 
  the Bordermarches and only enter Creation when mor-
  tal ships come near. Ships that stray too near a pack of 
  sharkmen can often face attack by foes that possess half 
  a dozen or more additional mutations. In other cases, 
  near-constant exposure to the Wyld turns sharkmen 
  into living stories of rapacious, cannibalistic predators. 
  These sharkmen have no culture beyond their eternal 
  hunger and contempt for every other form of life; but 
  the sharkmen who still belong to Creation worship the 
  shark-bodied war god of the West.
  The whalemen and dolphinmen are the only other 
  beastmen common in the West. They wage a vicious war 
  for survival against the sharkmen. Although the whale-
  men and dolphinmen are more intelligent and capable 
  of civilized behavior, these creatures cannot breed as 
  rapidly as sharkmen and lack their sheer ferocity. To 
  survive the ravages of their enemies, the whalemen and 
  dolphinmen follow a strict code of honor, truth and 
  mutual aid. These beastmen avoid humans, whom they 
  regard as cowardly and deceitful.
  Most whalemen and dolphinmen live on isolated 
  islands in the tainted lands of the West. Because they 
  breathe air and must spend time on land to give birth and 
  forge metal weapons, dolphinmen are highly territorial 
  and guard the location of their islands with their lives. 
  Dolphinmen treat any trespass into their territories as 
  an attack. While they might spare the lives of intruders 
  who do not threaten or attack them, they strip intruders 
  of any items useful to the dolphinmen pod, and often 
  
  90
  beat them to discourage return visits. The prevalence of 
  sharkmen in the Bordermarches prevents dolphinmen 
  and whalemen from venturing into the Bordermarches 
  except to hunt these monsters.
  THE PEOPLE OF THE SEA
  The people of the sea find little welcome in the 
  main archipelagoes of the West. Fishing nets, mortal 
  thaumaturgy and persistent hatred from land-dwellers 
  encourage the people of the sea to live on the edges of 
  the Wyld, or sometimes even within it. This results in 
  a number of different communities scattered through 
  the West; the largest are the island of Seahome and the 
  Wyld-lost ruined city of Jalarin (see pp. 93–94).
  SEAHOME
  More than 6,000 people of the sea live on the 
  small island of Seahome, located due west of Abalone. 
  Although Seahome is located within the tainted lands, 
  a jade obelisk protects the island and its inhabitants 
  from the Wyld. The Seahomers would like to push back 
  the Wyld as a matter of self-interest. They also have a 
  number of damaged First Age artifacts salvaged from 
  the sea. Centuries of fighting the Wyld and striving to 
  restore their heritage from the Old Realm have resulted 
  in a respect for scholarship and the study of magic: a 
  council of sages governs the island.
  The Seahomers have also bred with outcaste Dragon-
  Blooded and water elementals for centuries. Some of this 
  is mere propinquity, but many Seahomers also believe 
  this increases their ability to master the lost Wyld-working 
  technologies of the First Age. Today, Seahome includes 
  a few hundred God-Blooded and more than a dozen 
  Dragon-Blooded people of the sea. They also have a few 
  citizens who are merely Dragon-Blooded: Seahome offers 
  refuge to female “lost eggs” who find themselves stifled 
  by the patriarchal culture of the West. As a result, stories 
  about Seahome often portray it as an island of water-
  breathing women with loose morals and magic powers, 
  when actually it just has simple gender equality. Perhaps 
  fortunately, few human mariners know Seahome’s loca-
  tion, or would dare sail that close to the Wyld anyway.
  The people of Seahome have close, but secret, ties 
  to the Emissaries of Perfect Water (see The Manual of 
  Exalted Power—The Dragon-Blooded pp. 84-85), who 
  share the Seahomers’ interest in pushing back the Wyld. 
  Four members of this organization are people of the sea 
  from Seahome, including one Sable Dragon sorcerer.
  WYLD POCKETS
  In the West, Wyld pockets occur both on land and 
  in the sea. Pelagic Wyld pockets often include huge, 
  never-ending whirlpools or patches of sargasso weed 
  that may be both animate and home to other danger-
  ous creatures. On land, Wyld pockets may cover part or 
  all of an island. Because some islands actually change 
  location, especially in the aftermath of a Wyld storm, 
  they can become deadly traps for sailors seeking land to 
  resupply their ship.
  THE HAMOJI VOLCANO
  Mount Hamoji, the largest volcano on the Wavecrest 
  Archipelago, rises near the center of Abalone, the 
  archipelago’s largest island and capital. Several square 
  miles around this volcano belong to the Bordermarches, 
  and the volcano’s caldera is a Middlemarch. As a result, 
  this mountain changes its shape, sometimes daily. The 
  volcano also occasionally spews jets of glowing violet lava, 
  clouds of blood or poisonous flowers and other such 
  oddities. Smaller Wyld zones surround several of the 
  archipelago’s other large volcanoes and a few tiny, nearby 
  volcanic islands as well. These volcanoes often erupt at 
  the same time as Hamoji, but all of these Wyld zones are 
  considerably smaller and are all Bordermarches.
  Volcanoes hold a special place in the beliefs of the 
  Wavecrest islanders. When these volcanoes are particularly 
  active, special priestesses carry living convicts deep into the 
  Hamoji Wyld pocket and hurl them into the volcano. No 
  one knows if the volcano-spirit devours these offerings, if 
  the Wyld swallows them or if they just die, but the victims 
  Seahome, a Magnitude 2 Domain
  Military: 1 
  Culture: 2 
  Government: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 0 (Superior Diplomats +2), 
  Bureaucracy 1, Craft 2, Integrity 2, Investigation 1, 
  Occult 2 (Savant Academy +3,), Performance 1, Pres-
  ence 1, Stealth 1, War 1
  Virtues: Compassion: 3, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 2
  Limit Break: Conviction Current Limit: 5
  Willpower: 6
  Bonus Points: 10 External Bonus Points: 3
  Notes: Seahome is ruled by a council of scholar-
  magicians with Legitimacy. Despite being relatively 
  small, Seahome boasts more than a dozen sorcerers. 
  It has close ties to the Emissaries of Perfect Water, 
  who provide its external bonus points. These points 
  are used in the city’s Occult Specialty. When in 
  Limit Break, Seahome tries to continue pursuing 
  its current goal, regardless of how costly or difficult 
  it becomes.
  
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  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  are never seen alive again. After the sacrifice, it sometimes 
  rains brains or fresh bone-fragments. Although no one 
  understands the reasons, the volcano stops erupting 
  after a sufficiently large sacrifice. Unfortunately, on rare 
  occasions the only sacrifice that will satisfy the Hamoji 
  Wyld area is the Feathered One, Wavecrest’s ruler, or 
  the sacrifice of a person of unmatched beauty. Naturally, 
  when eruptions become especially severe, the Feathered 
  One has his servants search for such individuals.
  FAIR FOLK OF THE WEST
  Mortal settlements in the West try to ward themselves 
  against the Fair Folk. The islands of prey attract the raksha 
  just as blood in the water attracts sharks. The Western 
  Fair Folk actually hunt mortals less than in more settled 
  areas, however, because they have many more Wyld 
  havens to live in. On fantastical islands or enchanted 
  reefs and grottoes, the Fair Folk can play their endless 
  games without need for mortal dreams. The raksha who 
  devour souls for sustenance or just to play the predator, 
  however, are as vicious as any in Creation—and these are 
  the raksha whom mortals meet.
  The Fair Folk predators of the Southwest know 
  neither fear nor remorse. They feed on the pain and 
  desperation of their victims. Southwestern raksha ape 
  the customs of the region’s mortals by dwelling on 
  islands in tribal groups, each with its own set of initia-
  tory ceremonies, superstitious prohibitions (faithfully 
  observed though never believed) and tattoos. These Fair 
  Folk particularly delight in carved wooden masks, which 
  each raksha carves and paints for himself. They wear no 
  armor, and they carry light weapons such as slings made 
  from tanned human skin, daggers and javelins.
  The ruling Fair Folk control the tribe’s tame siaka, 
  giant squid and other monsters of the deep. They direct 
  raids against fleets or single boats rather than against 
  islands and archipelagoes; these raksha do not want to 
  “overfish” a single area and drive out or kill all the hu-
  mans. Few great dreams fill their empty spirits; for the 
  most part, these raksha are content to live an endless 
  cycle of war, hunger and war again.
  In the Deep West and Northwest, the raksha build 
  palaces of coral and pearl, far below the range of human 
  divers. The raksha decorate their secret dwellings with 
  jewels and figureheads taken from sunken ships. Raksha 
  carry humans down from ships in cocoons of air, and 
  then torment them in their dreams until they wake 
  screaming, slowly to suffocate as the air in their cocoons 
  grows foul. The male raksha of these regions take great 
  pride in their weapons—nets, tridents and spears—and 
  sometimes even go disguised on land to seek inspiration 
  from master weaponsmiths. Female raksha usually hunt 
  alone. They lure isolated mortals with songs and promises 
  of love, joy and delight until they join them in the waves 
  and swim down with them to their deaths. These lazy, 
  beautiful and crafty raksha have no regard for humans, 
  but have learned to love their own existences. They are 
  artists, creators and dangerous hunters, feeding at the sea’s 
  breast like idle children, and could dream the centuries 
  away nibbling at the edges of Creation.
  THE NACRE WHIRLPOOL
  A few hundred miles east of the Coral Archipelago, 
  on the trade route to the northern Inland Sea, a perpetual 
  whirlwind boils. The whirlpool guards this freehold’s 
  mother-of-pearl palace. All who would visit must sail 
  directly into the rainbow in the maelstrom’s spray, as if 
  it were an arched doorway. The ship rides the whirlpool 
  down into the depths, tossed like a toy by the churning 
  sea, until it reaches the calm zone at the bottom. Any 
  other course results in a ship’s destruction. Sailors who 
  must pass nearby know the whirlpool’s dangers, but they 
  also know that the payment of a living victim grants them 
  safe passage—usually.
  The raksha of this freehold have become lazy and 
  self-indulgent. They do not bother to organize trade with 
  the Guild when passing ships offer them mortal souls. 
  In lean times, the Fair Folk sometimes stir themselves to 
  drag victims from ships or raid Coral for victims.
  The Fair Folk take their cue from Baron Temmeno. 
  This raksha noble is languid and lecherous as an octopus, 
  drinking the finest wines and sharing his couch with 
  raksha and mortal beauties. His laxness inspires a similar 
  laziness in his followers; they know their human slaves 
  cannot escape from deep beneath the waves, so these 
  raksha permit more freedom than most raksha would. 
  They have some communication with the Winding Stairs 
  and the Seven Stormwinds in the Northern Wyld (see 
  p. 74), exchanging ambassadors with both out of sheer 
  boredom or to arrange the shipping of exotic foodstuffs 
  and luxuries.
  No one at the Nacre Whirlpool knows that local 
  Guild representatives are organizing a mercenary strike to 
  destroy or cripple the raksha’s freehold. The Guild objects 
  to paying souls and getting nothing in return. Its local 
  factors now seek Exalted, God-Bloods or thaumaturges 
  to supply supernatural aid in the assault.
  THE BORDERMARCHES
   The Western Bordermarches actually consist of 
  two realms: one on the islands and the surface of the 
  
  92
  sea, the other underwater, especially on the sea bottom. 
  This undersea realm is by far the more populous. The 
  vast majority of Wyld-dwelling life dwells in these exotic 
  landscapes where herds of panicked seahorses flee from 
  ravenous bands of siaka-men.
  The seas of the Western Bordermarches are unusually 
  animate and active. Waves often move regardless of any 
  wind or currents. Sometimes the waves form tendrils that 
  reach out and try to touch or grab anyone or anything 
  that comes near. Looking into the sea for any length of 
  time can result in faces, heads and even roughly formed 
  bodies rising from the surface of the water. Reaching 
  down to touch the water often results in a watery hand 
  reaching up to touch the character. While such hands 
  sometimes weakly grasp at the character, in most cases 
  they touch and then vanish back into the water. Also, 
  while the waters of chaos are still rare, strong and weak 
  water often occur, as do currents of radically different 
  temperatures or speeds.
  The Fair Folk and their hobgoblin servants range 
  freely over much of the sea bottom Bordermarches. In 
  addition, aquatic versions of many land animals roam 
  the sea floor. Tigers covered with blue and black fish 
  scales and elk with the skin of dolphins hunt and graze 
  the strange land underneath the sea. Most of these crea-
  tures cannot swim and instead walk and run along the 
  sea bottom as easily and swiftly as their counterparts run 
  along the plains and savannahs of Creation.
  DRUMMERS OF THE ENDLESS WAVE
  Southwest of Wavecrest, in a Bordermarch of hori-
  zon-less ocean broken by dead volcanoes and tidal waves, 
  dwell the Drummers of the Endless Wave. A mated pair 
  of Fair Folk called No-mind and No-desire, who lost their 
  original names to the ocean, leads this raksha tribe. No-
  mind, the planner of the pair, schemes to increase the 
  tribe’s influence and watches constantly for attempts 
  to usurp him. He lost one of his eyes together with his 
  name, but he replaced it with a faceted emerald. No-desire 
  swims naked with the siaka, his long blood-scarlet hair 
  floating behind him, and his mask is set with ruby scars. 
  The two hold an iron domination over their tribe, but 
  fear any discovery of their names.
  Their tribe does not know that, three centuries ago, 
  their leaders’ names were stolen by one of the great un-
  shaped raksha, the Sucking Tide, who still holds them 
  in order to use the Drummers as tools and minions. For 
  the moment, the Sucking Tide directs the Drummers to 
  cause random havoc, but intends to use them to support 
  a wider invasion when it sees a good opportunity.
  The Drummers themselves have no idea how they are 
  used. They live a happy, carefree, bloodthirsty life on the 
  ocean wave, with their pet siaka and their human slaves. 
  Tidal rollers constantly sweep across their island, raising 
  their tethered glass dwellings high above the surface as 
  they pass by; their bamboo rafts float in shifting patterns, 
  forming loose bridges and strange writing on the surface 
  of the water. Human slaves don’t last long before being 
  fed to the siaka. The Drummers have little to do with 
  other local raksha, since the Sucking Tide does not want 
  its mastery over the two leaders discovered.
  DRUMMERS OF THE ENDLESS WAVE PATROL
  Description: A patrol group from the Drummers of 
  the Endless Wave. They carry barbed spears and wear 
  loincloths, and either ride in canoes that row themselves 
  or swim alongside them.
  Commanding Officer: Esotai Wavebane
  AQUATIC SURVIVAL
  Western Fair Folk can use their Charms to 
  breathe water, and most Western hobgoblins are 
  naturally aquatic. Mortals, Exalted and Fair Folk 
  from other portions of the Wyld often have more 
  trouble surviving underwater. Characters who do not 
  possess the appropriate Charms, spells or artifacts 
  can instead search for one of the rare plants and 
  animals that can be eaten, held or worn to allow 
  the characters to survive underwater. While none 
  of these Wyld-spawned wonders allow characters 
  the same mobility as that granted to Sable Dragons, 
  they at least permit characters to breathe underwa-
  ter. Some also let characters move and fight as if 
  they were on land. However, these quasi-natural 
  wonders do not let characters use missile weapons 
  underwater. Their blessings extend only to the 
  character herself.
  Finding such plants requires a successful (Per-
  ception + [Lore or Survival]) roll of difficulty 3 in 
  the Bordermarches or 2 in the Middlemarches and 
  Deep Wyld. Only natives of the Western Wyld with 
  Lore 2+ or residents of Creation with Lore 2 and 
  a specialty in the Wyld know enough to find these 
  plants or animals, however. Each success above the 
  required difficulty allows the character to find two 
  additional “doses” of the plant. Each “dose” typically 
  lasts either one scene or one full day—but they drugs 
  that are more potent may also force an immediate 
  roll to resist permanent mutation.
  
  93
  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  both the wonders of the deep ocean and the activities of 
  Jalarin’s tens of thousands of aquatic inhabitants.
  During the Usurpation, a battle destroyed almost half 
  of the city. The inhabitants fled into the ocean depths. 
  Sable Dragons looted the ruins of any portable artifacts, 
  and then abandoned the city. Years later, some sea-folk 
  returned to reclaim their home, far from the persecutions 
  of the Dragon-Blooded.
  The Contagion and the Fair Folk invasion completed 
  the city’s ruin. Two-thirds of the inhabitants died. The 
  return of the Wyld shifted the local Essence flows away 
  from the city’s manse, leaving the city firmly within 
  the Western Bordermarches. The assault on Creation 
  incidentally produced temblors that tumbled most of 
  the city’s remaining towers and shattered all but one of 
  the surviving crystal domes.
  The survivors lost all knowledge of First Age wonders. 
  The powerless manse, the city’s temples and the bottom 
  halves of several towers remain largely intact, as do many 
  of the low building that nestle amidst these vast edifices. 
  They now serve as home to more than a thousand aquatic 
  barbarians who live as fish-herders and raiders amid the 
  ravaged splendors of the past.
  The people of Jalarin adapted to life in the Wyld 
  by becoming living tales of proud, fearless, honorable 
  but utterly merciless pirates. Although they always keep 
  their word, getting a promise of safe passage or even an 
  acceptance of surrender requires their foes to impress the 
  Jalarinites with their bravery. All lesser foes are either killed 
  or sold to the Fair Folk without a second thought. The 
  Jalarinites’ assimilation to the Wyld leaves the inhabit-
  ants of Jalarin largely free from mutations: they look like 
  perfectly formed people of the sea. Jalarinites typically 
  wear kilts and vests of sealskin or still-scaled fishskin, 
  ornamented with beads, mother-of-pearl badges and 
  jewelry taken from their victims, in a display of barbaric 
  splendor. They go heavily armed even in Jalarin itself.
  Raiders from Jalarin regularly attack ships around 
  Coral, Skullstone and the Neck. Their ships can sink down 
  into the water until their decks are awash, which makes 
  them singularly difficult for Western navies to capture. 
  These pirates gain valuable wares; what they can’t use, 
  they keep as trophies. The Jalarinites also take captives 
  and keep them alive in the city’s one remaining crystal 
  dome: fast-growing seaweed gives the dome a murky but 
  breathable atmosphere. When the Jalarinites have at least 
  a dozen captives, they feed them alchemical concoctions 
  that allow them to temporarily breathe water and carry 
  them to the Fair Folk. The borders of the Middlemarches 
  are only a few dozen miles away, and the Fair Folk have 
  Armor Color: Decorated loincloths and ornamental 
  tattoos
  Motto: The sound of canoes being tapped and thumped 
  like drums
  General Makeup: 30 Fair Folk, all capable of either 
  fighting or sailing; all can either throw their spears or 
  use them as stabbing weapons. They carry spares.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 3
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3  Ranged Attack Damage: 3
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 3 
  Armor: 1 
  Morale: 3
  Special Characters: None
  Formation: Unordered
  THE PIRATES OF JALARIN
  Jalarin, located several hundred miles west of the 
  Coral Archipelago, was a jewel of the First Age: a city 
  beneath the sea. The city’s highest towers extended a 
  dozen stories above the waves. They provided luxurious 
  accommodations for visiting Exalted, as well as mooring 
  masts where skyships docked. Visitors then could descend 
  to air-filled crystal domes, where they could look out upon 
  
  94
  a large, underwater domain nearby. The Jalarinites pay 
  this living tithe to buy peace with the Fair Folk and to 
  cement a promise of mutual aid.
  The treaty’s wording is quite loose, but the Fair Folk 
  understand how it fits into the Jalarinites’ story, and how 
  it enhances their own tales. The deal has lasted more 
  than five centuries. As a result, the population of Jalarin 
  includes several dozen Fae-blooded people of the sea, 
  who are both the finest shamans and the city’s primary 
  emissaries to the Fair Folk.
  The Jalarinites’ assimilation to the Wyld and treaty 
  with the Fair Folk enable the Jalarinites to employ shark-
  men as shock troops and marines. The Jalarinites control 
  these monstrous predators with a combination of drugs, 
  Fair Folk artifacts and the sharkmen’s own tendency to 
  become part of a story. Typically, a fifth of the crew of 
  any Jalarin pirate ship are sharkmen.
  JALARIN PIRATE COMPANY
  Description: This pirate company consists of 185 
  fierce sea-folk pirates wearing breastplates and armed with 
  chopping swords and boomerangs (for cutting rigging). 
  They are aided by 45 sharkmen shock troops wearing 
  buff jackets and armed with great axes.
  Commanding Officer: Captain Fakran, a middle-aged 
  and exceptionally skilled and fierce pirate captain
  Armor Color: Black breastplates
  Motto: None
  General Makeup: 140 flying marines with javelins and 
  chopping swords, supported by 45 archers and 45 shark-
  men with great axes.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 4
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 2 
  Ranged Damage: 2
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 2 
  Armor: 2 
  Valor: n/a
  Special Characters: Captain Fakran and a pair of Fae-
  blooded sub-commanders
  Formation: These pirates make up the crew of three 
  ships, Fakran’s Golden Reaver and the two smaller ships, 
  the Fearless and the Tiger Shark. They spend much of 
  their time on these vessels and when in Jalarin are always 
  anxious to return to sea.
  Notes: Pirates of Jalarin can never fail Valor rolls. Their 
  story does not permit it.
  MIDDLEMARCHES
  In the Middlemarches, the distinction between 
  ocean surface, sea floor and sky becomes uncertainty. A 
  sinking ship might drift down to a land under the waves; 
  or a waterspout might carry one to a lake in the sky. In 
  some places, water mimics solid forms from elsewhere 
  in Creation, while remaining clear. In other locales, 
  such as islands and the undersea lands, the Wyld copies 
  substances as well as forms in its usual jumbled fashion. 
  The tendency for water to animate and take shapes and 
  images from visitors becomes even stronger than in the 
  Bordermarches: not only can people’s daydreams play 
  out in the sea’s reflections, the water may itself take 
  the forms of visitors or their imaginings, if only for a 
  short time.
  PROPERTIES, PEOPLE, PLACES
  LANDS OF DESIRE
  The West’s propensity to mirror back a visitor’s 
  thoughts becomes strongest on certain islands that seem 
  like paradise itself. These islands offer almost everything 
  a person wants, from good food to dead loves returned. 
  Want to take the place of the Unconquered Sun and rule 
  Yu-Shan in glory? The Western Wyld provides.
  But it is all illusion. Nothing on these islands is real. 
  The treasures and artifacts vanish when taken from the 
  island. The books of First Age lore only record your own 
  imaginings. The friends, lovers, servants and families are 
  only dreams. They only know what the seeker thinks 
  they do.
  
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  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  Lands under the sea can also gratify desires in this 
  manner. Whatever their form, these lands of heart’s 
  desire are the West’s most seductive trap. No real force 
  keeps a visitor from leaving; all you have to do is set aside 
  beautiful illusion for harsh reality.
  THE MIRROR MAZE
  The Mirror Maze is one of the most enigmatic 
  places in Rakshastan. Various raksha nobles have tried 
  to place this maze within their domains, but it resists 
  all forms of control, appears and disappears throughout 
  the Western Middlemarches.
  This place is a huge, shifting maze made of solid 
  water. This water is as hard as a wooden wall, but stays 
  fully transparent and is neither cold nor frozen. Wherever 
  visitors walk is the floor in this three-dimensional maze, 
  and terms such as walls and ceilings become meaning-
  less. The passages are all square, and between nine and 
  11 feet across. They twist, turn, branch off from one 
  another and intersect in a constantly changing network 
  of smooth corridors.
  Bubbles float within the walls of these twisting 
  passages. Some bubbles are as small as a fist, while the 
  largest can be three yards in diameter. Each bubble 
  provides a miniature view of some place in Creation 
  or Rakshastan, like a curving window. One may show 
  the bedroom of the Perfect of Paragon, while another 
  might look into the private hunting preserve of a raksha 
  noble from the Western Middlemarches. Naturally, larger 
  bubbles give views that are more detailed. These bubbles 
  cannot be used to affect the actual locations they show. 
  Also, a bubble breaks and vanishes if anything disturbs 
  it. All of the bubbles move slowly through the walls, 
  and vanish within a few hours, so there is no reason to 
  assume that a bubble that appears one day will be there 
  on the next.
  Finding a particular bubble involves a lengthy search. 
  This is as much an act of will as a physical search. Un-
  fortunately, the longer a character traverses the Maze, 
  the harder it becomes for her to find her way out. Occa-
  sionally, visitors will find lost raksha, Exalted and spirits 
  wandering helplessly through the Maze.
  THE OCEAN RIVER
  Sailing westerly and always farther west, some voyag-
  ers see what looks like a rippling blue ribbon rising from 
  the horizon. They have found the Ocean River. This 
  strip of sea follows its own path through the Western 
  Middlemarches, like the flow of a swift river two miles 
  wide cutting through a landmass. The Ocean River has 
  no beginning or end. Daring traders or explorers use 
  the Ocean River as an express route to other places 
  throughout the Wyld.
  When a ship embarks upon the river, it stays level 
  with the rest of the ocean for at least 20 miles. Then the 
  river begins to separate. Sometimes it rises from the ocean. 
  In places, the river separates entirely from the ocean 
  beneath it, creating a blue arch in the air. The Ocean 
  River is deep enough that most sea creatures, including 
  larger monsters, can still swim along its length. In other 
  places, the Ocean River dips below the surface of the 
  surrounding ocean. There, the waters of the ocean form 
  an unbroken “wall” at the river’s border. Occasionally, 
  the river goes so deep that it acquires a saltwater ceiling. 
  Monstrous creatures occasionally swim through the 
  wall to get at ships sailing the Ocean River; sometimes 
  they succeed, and sometimes the current sweeps them 
  away. Whenever the Ocean River bends to the south, it 
  becomes brackish water, then freshwater. These sections 
  of the river have their own freshwater creatures that live 
  nowhere else. One such creature is the swimming Ocean 
  River oyster, which creates a pearl so iridescently beauti-
  ful that queens have killed to possess it. When Ocean 
  River flows north, it becomes salty again. Sometimes the 
  current is warm; other times, cold.
  The Ocean River divides and recombines enough 
  that a master of its slowly-shifting braids and meanders 
  could travel across the Western Wyld with brilliant speed, 
  including to the undersea lands and locations in the 
  sky. Much of the time, the river blends in with the rest 
  of the ocean, making the Ocean River difficult to find 
  SEARCHING THE MIRROR MAZE
  Finding a particular bubble requires a successful 
  Willpower roll with difficulty equal to the highest 
  permanent Essence rating of any person regularly 
  involved with that location. (So for instance, the 
  difficulty to spy on the Perfect of Paragon’s bedroom 
  would equal the permanent Essence of the Perfect.) 
  The difficulty of this search drops by 1 (to a mini-
  mum of 2) for every additional scene the character 
  spends walking the Mirror Maze and looking for 
  the appropriate bubble.
  Leaving the Mirror Maze requires a Willpower 
  roll with a base difficulty of 1, but the difficulty 
  increases by 1 for each scene the character spends 
  searching (either for a particular bubble or for an exit), 
  to a maximum of 7. Characters who botch either roll 
  become hopelessly lost, and the difficulty of leaving 
  the Mirror Maze becomes 7 immediately.
  
  96
  and nearly impossible to accurately map. Few mariners 
  except the Western raksha know it well.
  Effectively, the Ocean River is a waypoint whose 
  properties dictate that it is never more than three scenes 
  away from any other waypoint. Traveling on the Ocean 
  River is generally one scene that may encompass a great 
  length of time. When other scenes occur on the Ocean 
  River (say, a mutiny on a Creation-born boat), the travelers 
  reach the point nearest their destination once that scene 
  ends. It is simply a property of the Wyld that experiencing 
  narrative speeds the journey.
  WATERDROP OCEAN
  Enormous masses of floating water often occur in 
  the Western Middlemarches, but the Waterdrop Ocean 
  dwarfs them all—almost a separate Creation. This huge, 
  spherical ball of water is more than 500 miles in diameter, 
  with a multitude of fish and other creatures. A single, 
  massive coral reef fills the interior of this vast ocean with 
  a lacy openwork of narrow, spreading branches. In the 
  large, open spaces between the coral tendrils of the reef 
  live enormous kraken, sea dragons and sea serpents.
  The Fair Folk say that the center of the reef holds a 
  cache of treasure placed there long ago by one of Balor’s 
  chief aides—but this treasure is also said to be guarded 
  by kraken-whales and other powerful beasts that remain 
  mindlessly loyal to the raksha who placed them there. 
  No one who has returned from a journey to the center 
  of the Waterdrop Ocean has ever found the treasure, 
  much less defeated its guardians.
  Wyld shifts can transfer ships to the Waterdrop 
  Ocean without them even realizing (at first) where they 
  are and how much their location has changed. The 
  Waterdrop Ocean can appear anywhere in the Western 
  Middlemarches.
  THE WEEPING MAIDEN
  On a lone island in the far, far West rests the Weep-
  ing Maiden. She is a limestone statue of a young woman 
  on her knees, hands cupped beneath her face. Tears drip 
  slowly from her eyes into the bowl made by her hands. 
  That cup overflowed long ago, and two salt-lined channels 
  run down to the nearby shore and into the ocean.
  Sailors’ tales claim that the Weeping Maiden is sister 
  to the Five Maidens of the stars. After breaking some law 
  of Heaven, she was punished by being turned to stone 
  for 31 years. When that times was up, her sisters forgot 
  or neglected to release her. When she realized she had 
  been forgotten, she began to weep. Her tears are the 
  source of the Great Western Ocean. Some end the tale 
  by mentioning that, were she ever released, her constel-
  lations would return to the sky and long-forgotten fates 
  would return to Creation.
  Regardless of the truth of the matter, there are some 
  benefits to finding and visiting the Weeping Maiden’s 
  small island. A taste of the very salty water that fills her 
  cupped hands endows one with the ability to drink 
  saltwater as if it were fresh, but freshwater becomes poi-
  sonous. Dabbing the water on the eyes stings and blurs 
  a person’s sight in the clear air, but conveys the power 
  to see clearly through the murkiest and darkest ocean 
  depths. Touching the water to the ears renders one deaf 
  to human speech but capable of understanding and 
  speaking with the animals of the sea.
  Also, visitors may petition the Weeping Maiden to learn 
  something of their fate, request a desirable fate or abjure one 
  unpleasant. Tall tales about the Weeping Maiden describe 
  many rituals to summon these services, and each is “the 
  only one.” The true ritual is recorded within a waterlogged 
  but serviceable book held by the Lintha Family.
  Used properly, the ritual allows a character at the 
  Weeping Maiden to learn an aspect of her future or 
  apply a single astrological blessing to help her reach or 
  avoid a certain prospect, similar to Sidereal Astrology. 
  The change is usually so subtle that neither the Five 
  Maidens nor the Sidereal Exalted notice it unless they 
  specifically watch for it, and then they cannot detect the 
  change’s source.
  To visit the Weeping Maiden, however, one must 
  pass her guardian. Iwau Tamotsu, Watcher with Eyes 
  of Stone, defends the ocean around the statue’s island 
  and viciously attacks everything that comes near. Her 
  guardian is a massive coral-reef behemoth, harder than 
  steel, only vaguely human in shape and so large that it 
  stands on the ocean floor while it destroys and devours 
  intruders on the ocean’s surface. What the behemoth 
  eats reappears, drowned and broken a thousand ways, 
  on the shore of the Blessed Isle. Few seek the Watcher’s 
  ward nowadays, otherwise the Dragon-Blooded would 
  be more curious about how the Watcher’s victims got 
  there. (See Chapter Seven, pp. 152–153 for the Watcher 
  with Eyes of Stone’s statistics.)
  THE PEARL COURT
  In the Deep West lies the Pearl Court, a haven for 
  raksha who value pure Will above other virtues. More 
  than anything else, they wish to assert their dominance 
  over other creatures. Members of the Pearl Court are not 
  quite as vicious as those of some other courts, and these 
  raksha don’t maintain as high a degree of permanent feud, 
  but they cannot refrain from testing themselves against 
  
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  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  those around them. Even the raksha, however, cannot all 
  rule or always win. This fundamental problem in the code 
  of Willpower leads Pearl Court raksha toward a morose, 
  self-loathing bitterness. A Pearl Court noble who loses a 
  duel blames himself for a failure in Willpower, as well as 
  his victorious opponent: the noble’s loss shows he did 
  not want victory enough.
  The Pearl Court follows Judge Nehemeth, whose 
  body is living bronze, whose eyes are rubies and whose 
  long fingernails are carved ivory. She rigidly controls 
  the entire court, never moving from her throne at the 
  center except when challenged to a duel, and issues strict 
  judgments on any who defy her laws. Her human pets 
  and raksha pages change her robes and polish her body 
  and copy down her pronouncements. She spends day 
  and night creating new laws, leaving actual diplomacy 
  to her counselors and entertainers.
  Other noble raksha venture out into the Wyld to 
  serve the court’s interests, maneuver for power inside 
  the court or simply to find something to do. The deed 
  matters less than that one set out to achieve it, and suc-
  ceeded despite opposition.
  Lord Coraydo wears nacreous scale armor and styles 
  himself the Warrior of the Pearl as he searches for new 
  adversaries. He takes little interest in his human slaves. 
  Coraydo leads many of the court’s hunts and raids, but 
  his declared goal is to conquer Creation all the way to the 
  gods and beyond. The other nobles of the court admire 
  his ambition; they would admire it more if Coraydo 
  could propose any plan, however remote, for achieving 
  this goal.
  Dilari of the Sea Foam is one of the most skillful 
  dancers in all Creation. She graces any court or freehold 
  that she visits, which makes her Nehemeth’s most useful 
  spy and collaborator. She also works to keep the courts 
  in balance and to avoid another Crusade; she organizes 
  pacts, love affairs and betrayals as beautifully as she does 
  the dances of the Pearl court.
  Another widely traveled noble is Sweeter Than 
  Honey, a minstrel, an equivocator and a diplomat. He 
  received his current name from a Lunar with whom he 
  formed a brief alliance to dispose of a deathknight, and 
  kept it after avoiding the Lunar’s subsequent attempts 
  to kill him. Sweeter Than Honey spends much of his 
  time traveling the Wyld with interchangeable, short-
  lived apprentices, and the rest of it acting as a gadfly in 
  Nehemeth’s court who finds loopholes in her laws. He 
  also goes through human slaves at a painfully fast rate, 
  and constantly searches for new slaves after driving the 
  latest set raving mad.
  The Pearl Court itself consists of a single castle of 
  shimmering mother-of-pearl that rises, spire upon spire, 
  so high that the sun and moon must change their course 
  to avoid crashing into it—that’s what people see, anyway. 
  Though it rises from the sea on an isolated crag of solid 
  stones, the court moves throughout the Western Middle-
  marches, because Nehemeth wills it so. This makes the 
  Pearl Court hard to find; it buys most of its slaves through 
  the Goblin Bazaar of Surgeon’s Deep.
  The length of time the court has spent in the West 
  means the court has built up many enemies. The Fair 
  Folk have displeased nearby Lunars, angered the Silver 
  Prince and even annoyed the Lintha—just to prove they 
  could. The court’s best local ally (not counting other 
  raksha, who would betray it if they saw the chance) is the 
  Guild, which values its stable market for slaves. Some 
  raksha nobles speculate when the Pearl Court shall move 
  elsewhere in the Wyld—and if so, where it will go.
  PEARL COURT RAIDERS
  Description: A group of 150 Fair Folk raiders. They 
  are of Excellent quality, half male, half female. They wear 
  gossamer armor and carry gossamer swords, tridents and 
  daggers. They ride on horses of foam and starlight that 
  gallop across the surface of the waves.
  Commanding Officer: Captain Dragon Pike
  Armor Color: Grey siaka hide ornamented with mother 
  of pearl
  The Pearl Court, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 2/2 Government: 4/4 Culture: 3/3
  Abilities: Awareness 3, Bureaucracy 3 (Red Tape 3), 
  Integrity 3, Investigation 3 (Witch Hunt 3), Occult 3 
  (Supernatural Etiquette 3), Performance 2, Presence 3 
  (Imperious Demands 2), War 2
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 4, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 3
  Limit Break: Conviction Current Limit: 3
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 15 
  External Bonus Points: 9
  Notes: The Pearl Court is a Supernatural dominion. 
  Judge Nehemeth is a sorcerer with Legitimacy, while 
  Dilari of the Sea Foam is a savant (her influence 
  behind the scenes is occasionally suspected but not 
  proven). In the event of a Limit Break, the Pearl 
  Court becomes ruthlessly controlling and refuses 
  to engage in any situation in which the court does 
  not have total authority over proceedings, either 
  ignoring them or attempting to seize power over 
  other participants.
  
  98
  Motto: None. They sing strangely as they ride into 
  battle.
  General Makeup: Armed riders
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 3
  Drill: 4
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 4 
  Armor: 4 
  Morale: 2
  Formation: Skirmish
  SKYPORT
  When sailors hear of Skyport and its strange mariner 
  culture, they blow it off as a tall tale. But those who sail 
  far enough into the Northwest see the truth of it for 
  themselves. First come the ships of Skyport’s fleet. These 
  ships do not show bow and sail but instead display a keel, 
  sticking the wrong way up into the air. As much of the 
  hull’s bottom shows as is usually underwater, even to the 
  point of rising up when the ship is laden.
  Most sailors who spot Skyport believe at first that 
  they’ve drank too much grog, or that the chef did some-
  thing stupid with the fish last night, but it’s real. The 
  sailors of Skyport sail under the water, floating their 
  livelihoods upside down on the sky above. Barnacles of 
  a sort latch onto their ship bottoms, bird eggs with very 
  hard shells that sort nutrients out of the air until they 
  hatch and fly off.
  As the sailors approach Skyport itself, the waters 
  become thicker with ships and boats, all sailing the un-
  derside of the sea. Fishing lines hang upwards into the 
  air to catch gulls and Wyld beasts for tonight’s dinner, 
  plus a little more for the aromatic and feathery Bird 
  Market. Some people trawl nets. Before the city becomes 
  visible, a small, fast but armed ship—sails to the sky, for 
  once—meets the visitors and asks them to heave to for 
  a discussion.
  The people of Skyport are black-skinned like obsidian. 
  They look as humans might if they were creased down 
  the middle and each half folded somewhat back. They 
  are very thin, and the two planes of their narrow faces 
  ensure that each bright eye looks a different direction. 
  Their fingers are long and thin and their legs strong 
  but apparently covered with baggy, loose skin. This is 
  actually a series of fins that wrap around their legs when 
  out of water.
  Once the greeter meets the ship’s captain, he or 
  she explains the docking procedure. The native tongue 
  of Skyport is Riverspeak for reasons no one knows, but 
  some people know other languages, too. Skyport’s official 
  greeter usually also speaks Seatongue and Old Realm. She 
  explains that, because their buildings are on the ocean’s 
  other face, the ships of Creation are dangerous to them. 
  Much like port cities with swamps, reefs or other hidden 
  dangers, Skyport requires native pilots if the explorers 
  wish to go on.
  Pilots are skilled at their jobs. Following their guid-
  ance, a captain can easily sail the ship within the lanes 
  marked as safe. Small poles marked with red paint show the 
  way but can be hard to notice, as can the piles of detritus 
  showing through the water that the guides assiduously 
  avoid. Before the crew knows it, they reach the foreign 
  quarter – that is, the above-water section of Skyport.
  There, buildings constructed from driftwood, sea-
  weed, coral, bones and other flotsam rest solidly on the 
  water. They rise and fall with the waves but never capsize. 
  The two dozen buildings include the port authority, 
  hostelries for visiting sailors, warehouses for trade goods, 
  offices for merchants who deal with foreign merchants 
  and shops for resupply.
  Despite the long quays and many slipways, there never 
  appear to be any other ships docked—not surprising, out 
  in the Middlemarches. By the time visitors dock, even the 
  ship that came out to meet them is gone from sight.
  Visible from this area of Skyport is a pale patch of 
  ocean that looks more sky-blue than marine blue-green. 
  Here is where the greeter’s ship has gone. Sailing into 
  this patch of ocean, a ship loses buoyancy quickly, fast 
  
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  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  enough to make a captain certain he’s going down with 
  his vessel. But instead of water rushing in and giving 
  them a cold grave, the ship flips around to sail on the sky 
  from underneath. Merchants in the foreign quarter sell 
  blue-black jade pendants (Artifact •) that allow foreigners 
  to breath the sea around Skyport.
  In Skyport proper, the “ocean” below is a clear blue, 
  stormy gray, and many colors in between. The air and 
  sky are a deeper blue, growing green and sometimes 
  murky in the sky. Sunlight comes from below, so many 
  houses have skylights in their basements. Traveling the 
  path from sky to sea (which may be taken on foot, on a 
  floating quay) places one far from Skyport’s true center. 
  The first buildings that people see are mere shacks, hovels 
  for Skyport’s paupers. Just like above, the buildings rest 
  firmly (if upside-down) on the ocean’s surface and roll 
  with the waves. There, the tops of the red-painted sticks 
  are visible—two-sided buoys, marking the paths where the 
  pilots direct the foreign, “under-air” ships.
  The buoys are spread out enough for a ship to pass 
  through, and a channel leads toward the city center. Now, 
  the city becomes visible: many buildings, constructed of 
  the same materials as before but somehow noble and 
  grand, rise from the ocean’s surface into the depths. All 
  transit between buildings is done by gondola or floating 
  bridges. Natives look stranger underwater, as their fins 
  unwrap and float ethereally around their legs, but they 
  obey their upside-down gravity. They use the increased 
  buoyancy of being underwater but do not swim in it—to 
  them, as to any visitors who enter through the official 
  path, it is atmosphere.
  Visitors to Skyport are invited to partake of all its 
  exotic pleasures, from alcohols and drugs never seen in 
  Creation to elegant seaweed parks to erotic practices that 
  could confuse a Cynis. Luckily, they accept jade as cur-
  rency. Skyport also has many confusing and unintuitive 
  laws, such as, “Do not gaze at the space between a woman’s 
  eyes in public,” or, “Only touch those you own.” They do 
  not consider it necessary to tell guests about these laws 
  until they have been broken. Skyport also has many un-
  usual methods of punishment, including turning people 
  into fish or water-plants for extended periods.
  THE DEEP WYLD
  All the forms and qualities of Creation are present 
  in the Western Deep Wyld, but everything is made of 
  water. The endless sea evokes shining, transparent dupli-
  cates of whales, seals, people, islands, cities or anything 
  else found in the West of Creation—or anywhere else. 
  Volcanoes of ice spew steaming rivers. Forests of clear 
  water rise from the waves. Breakers crash on beaches of 
  granulated water, where liquid children splash and play. 
  The difference between air and water becomes largely 
  meaningless here. Most of the time, a visitor can breathe 
  the water; but sometimes, he can drown in air.
  Influences seep in from the South and the North. 
  Although no polluting fire or hurricane winds can part 
  the waters, even here there is heat and cold. The far 
  Northwest sees much ice and snow. The far Southwest has 
  areas of boiling steam that can flense the flesh from the 
  bones, condensing into clouds as they move northward 
  until they become masses of water undulating through 
  the sky.
  The waters of the utter West are unnaturally reflec-
  tive. The water often forms itself into large flat sheets like 
  giant mirrors, or warped surfaces that throw back twisted 
  images. While there is light, the sun, moon and stars are 
  not seen: water arcs above so high that they block the 
  celestial bodies from view, if indeed they even exist here. 
  Though rainbows may cut through spray, the source-less 
  light that casts them cannot be found. In deeper parts 
  of the water, light fades until only the pallid glow of 
  luminous fish illuminates the endless depths.
  This land of mist and reflections is even more chaotic 
  and changeable than the rest of the Deep Wyld. A stray 
  Skyport, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 1 
  Government: 2 
  Culture: 3
  Abilities: Awareness 2 (Visitors +2), Bureaucracy 3, 
  Craft 3 (Unique Art +2), Investigation 1 (Visitors +2), 
  Occult 2 (Water +2), Performance 3 (Strange Entertain-
  ments +3), Presence 2
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 1
  Virtue Flaw: Temperance 
  Current Limit: 2
  Willpower: 6
  Bonus Points: 15 External Bonus Points: None
  Notes: Citizens of Skyport do not Exalt as Celestial 
  or Terrestrial Exalted; all their savants and sorcerers 
  are native heroic mortals. One of the Exalted who 
  came to spend a great deal of time there could greatly 
  shift the city’s direction, if he could figure out its 
  Policy. Skyport’s bonus points are tied up in its third 
  dot of Performance and its Specialties. Because of 
  the city’s distance from other dominions, Skyport 
  has no external bonus points. The people of the city 
  are remarkably intransigent when it comes to their 
  unique laws. Its Virtue Flaw causes the city to crack 
  down on lawbreakers, especially visitors.
  
  100
  thought or memory can briefly reshape a nearby bit of 
  water into a duplicate of some familiar place, or cause an 
  image of a friend to appear in a nearby reflection. 
  Freeholds and domains here on the edge of Chaos 
  take the form of vortices, standing breakers and other 
  aquatic manifestations of power, rather than islands, 
  sunken palaces or smooth sargassos. Some raksha shape 
  their dwellings as icebergs hollowed into castles of ice or 
  twisting mazes of frozen corridors.
  UNSHAPED RAKSHA
  The sparse population of the West gives its unshaped 
  raksha less of humanity to draw on for concept and form. 
  As a result, these raksha tend to manifest in even more 
  abstract, diffuse and impersonal ways than usual for 
  their kind. However, some raksha have gained fearsome 
  names and reputations.
  Shatters the Horizon has little active malice, but 
  spreads insanity merely by her presence. She breaks all 
  horizons, whether of the world, the body or the mind. 
  When she is near, nothing seems true; best friends 
  may kill one another while claiming that their victim 
  was “just a copy, an imposter, not real,” and virtuous 
  men and women can commit horrible atrocities just to 
  watch what happens, confident that the whole thing 
  is a particularly realistic dream. Shaped raksha utterly 
  dread Shatters the Horizon, for she weakens the con-
  ventions of personality they have assumed, unmasking 
  and unshaping them. When she comes even closer—or 
  more precisely, when she directs more of her attention 
  on an individual—flesh flows like wax and she plays with 
  heroes like dolls, reshaping them to her whim. From a 
  distance, she cannot be seen, but the horizon in her 
  direction grows cracked like brittle glass, and any water 
  nearby loses its taste.
  The Sucking Tide exercises a hidden influence over 
  the Drummers of the Endless Wave. It manifests as 
  water that has the consistency of flesh, and that forms 
  a never-ending whirlpool. The Sucking Tide drinks the 
  names of people trapped inside it, and then releases 
  them to do its will in Creation. Anyone who sees the 
  Sucking Tide dreams of it afterwards, and it attempts to 
  follow them to the borders of Creation. Bodies of water 
  in their dreams become gateways for it, and water runs 
  from their eyes and mouths while they sleep, casting 
  reflections of the Wyld.
  Salt That Cuts manifests as a brittle sharpness on the 
  surface of the water. In its presence, all water takes on 
  edges and slices anything it touches. Other flat surfaces 
  become sharp in all directions as well, no matter how 
  one tries to stand on them. The only way to smooth 
  them is to coat them with fresh blood, which lasts for 
  a few seconds before dissolving into the water. In the 
  presence of Salt That Cuts, storms slice the sea to pieces 
  until the water itself bleeds, and all liquids become salty. 
  Salt That Cuts rarely speaks, but its voice resounds like 
  an echo. Salt That Cuts cannot endure any whole thing, 
  any perfect thing or any smooth thing, and destructively 
  lacerates such entities if it encounters them.
  THE ELEMENTAL POLE 
  OF WATER
  At the furthest West, a strange sense of order appears. 
  Even though the place is filled by water and its illusions, 
  even though nothing is solid, still, this is a place of pure 
  elemental power rather than the Wyld, and water must 
  obey certain laws inherent to its nature. Rivers cannot 
  remain still, and tides must flow. Even if the water shapes 
  itself into mighty castles, avenues of towering trees, or 
  mountains and crags and valleys, it remains water. It 
  does not have the bitter coldness of pure air, the savage 
  heat of pure fire or the unrestrained hungry growth of 
  pure wood. It is water, it flows, it penetrates and it takes 
  whatever form it is given.
  The Pole of Water has no surfaces, only discontinui-
  ties between different forms of water. A river of mobile 
  water falls over a cliff of solid water through a space of 
  breathable water into a lake of still, receptive water. The 
  few bubbles of air are so suffused with moisture that 
  fire cannot burn without the help of puissant Charms. 
  SURVIVAL AT THE POLE OF WATER
  The animals and plants of Creation include 
  much water; blood is an inner sea. Mortal creatures, 
  therefore, survive at the Pole of Water more easily 
  than at the Poles of Air or Fire. A visitor may drown, 
  but he drowns in a familiar element. Any Charm 
  or other magic that enables breathing underwater 
  removes that danger.
  The elemental pole has its own version of the 
  water of chaos, however—destructive not because of 
  Wyld-taint but because water’s nature is to dissolve 
  what it touches. Any Charm that protects against 
  the water of chaos also shields a mortal against the 
  pole’s all-dissolving currents. For what it’s worth, 
  a victim dissolved by the pole does not die. The 
  water takes the form of his body, mind and soul, 
  as it takes the form of any container, transforming 
  him into an elemental.
  
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  CHAPTER FOUR • THE WESTERN WYLD
  No plants can survive, because the Water Pole has no 
  impurities to nourish it or earth to take root upon; the 
  only exceptions are the trailing weeds that sometimes 
  grow on the bodies of water-spirits, emblematic of their 
  nature rather than actual, physical plants. There is no 
  earth here, for the endless depths have no bottom and 
  no further shore; equally, the only coral here grows on 
  the bodies of water-spirits. The pole knows only water; 
  water solid or liquid, horizontal or vertical, in shapes 
  imaginable and unimaginable, twisted in an endless 
  medley of movement.
  The Elemental Dragon of Water never ceases to move 
  through the waters of Creation; she visits the elemental 
  pole, but no more than any other place, and she is never 
  still. The visits of Daana’d are unheralded, but cause a 
  great commotion as all the water-spirits and elementals 
  rush to pay homage, disrupting the tides of the region 
  and dragging storms and waterfalls behind them. She 
  continues to move while she accepts their obedience 
  and hears their reports, never ceasing, and her servants 
  must therefore follow her, though she is kind enough 
  to slow her pace. Her majestic dwelling consists of lakes, 
  waterfalls and rivers that twist and bend in on themselves 
  in impossible patterns. When Daana’d is in residence 
  and swimming through it, it glows with a blue light that 
  shines through the entire pole.
  Two mighty lesser water dragons, Unresting and 
  Unhasting, take command in the Elemental Dragon’s 
  absence. They were born from a single stream that was 
  divided at its source, and seldom part from each other, 
  twining their bodies around each other in long arcs of 
  crystalline water and flashing scales. They now disdain 
  the Creation that birthed them for the purity and beauty 
  of the elemental pole. The two guard its borders against 
  intruders from Creation or the Wyld; these Dragons 
  consider this duty far more important than anything 
  they could do inside Creation. Unresting and Unhasting 
  also disdain lesser beings—which to them means anything 
  less than a major deity. Since they are younger than the 
  First Age, they do not remember the Solar Exalted, and 
  know the Lunar Exalted only as wanderers of the Wyld, 
  powerful yet often unstable.
  
  102
  
  103
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  CHAPTER FIVE
  CHAPTER FIVE
  THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  The Elemental Pole of Fire spreads its influence 
  throughout the Southern Wyld. In Creation, the growing 
  heat dries the land to desert or calls volcanoes from the 
  earth. In the Wyld, the deserts become harsher, hotter and 
  stranger, while the volcanoes may spew substances other 
  than lava. Not only do the many forms of heat and fire 
  appear—actual flames, hot coals, lava, solar heat—so do the 
  products of flame: ash and smoke, but also forged metal 
  and the jewels that form from crystallizing magma.
  The further reaches of the Southern Wyld often 
  become lethally hot for mere mortals, while the Exalted 
  need Charms to survive. In other areas, however, the heat 
  lessens while other aspects of fire take precedence: its light, 
  its capacity to burn out impurities, its evanescent, flickering 
  motion or its power to liquefy, boil or transform.
  THE SOUTHERN 
  EDGE OF CREATION
  The South is the portion of Creation most inherently 
  hostile to life. Although the warm coastal lands contain 
  many populous and highly civilized lands, the interior 
  becomes harsh and hot, dry and desolate. The tainted 
  lands and Bordermarches of the South usually consist 
  of dune fields, pebbly “desert pavement,” barren lava 
  plains, salt pans and flash-flood gullies, just as the rest 
  of the Southlands. The few mortals who survive in this 
  unforgiving land adapt to it physically or culturally in 
  ways that make them profoundly dangerous to outsiders. 
  Most tribes of beastmen, barbarians and Wyld barbarians 
  living in the far South are cannibals who eat both their 
  
  104
  own dead and any outsiders the inhabitants can slay or 
  capture—meat and moisture are too rare to waste.
  Civilized mortals would avoid the far South, except that 
  the region abounds with gems and other riches, including 
  firedust. The drive to obtain these riches sends caravans 
  from the Guild and other merchants deep into the South, 
  sometimes into the Borderlands themselves. Paradoxically, 
  despite the harsh environment of the Southern edges of 
  Creation, the riches found in the Southern Wyld make it 
  the most frequently visited section of the Wyld.
  The borders of the Wyld shift in the South, just 
  as everywhere else. Wyld-infused substances that flow 
  or blow into Creation, however, cause most of the 
  region’s tainted lands. Common sources of Wyld-
  taint include rivers of exotic lavas (on the surface 
  or intruding through subterranean channels) and 
  volcanic ash dunes of strange and sometimes deadly 
  sand. Drifts of screaming sand, flows of fleshy lava 
  and storms of animate ash all happen fairly often in 
  some places.
  EXOTIC SAND
  The following types of sand occur in small patches throughout Southern tainted lands. In the Border-
  marches, these sands may cover large swaths of desert. In the tainted lands, all of these sands except gem sand 
  and firedust transform into ordinary sand within a few months after leaving the Wyld.
  Firedust: This common product of Southern Wyld storms finds use in firewands and other weapons. 
  Firedust draws almost as many prospectors to Creation’s rim as gemstones.
  Jewel Sand: This rare and treasured sand consists of tiny fragments of emeralds, diamonds, rubies or other 
  precious stones. In addition to being extremely beautiful, jewel sand can be used by artisans for everything from 
  high-quality abrasives to decorations. A large bag can be sold for Resources ••• in any city in the South.
  Living Sand: This strangest of sands is a collective organism, much like a colony of tiny ants. Living sand 
  normally ignores anyone who walks over it, striking it hard can anger it and anyone who rests or sleeps upon it 
  risks being treated as a convenient meal. Angry or hungry sand slowly crawls over its victim. It can only move at 
  a rate of one yard per turn, and the sand ceases to attack once the person moves outside its boundary. However, 
  this sand easily slips through any barrier that is not airtight. As a result, living sand ignores all armor (but not 
  natural soak). It crawls up victims and deals one die of lethal damage per attack. Exalted and beings with natural 
  soak are protected until the sand chews through their protection, which requires a number of successful damage 
  rolls equal to the value of the armor (for beings with natural armor) or the character’s Stamina (for Exalted).
  Rotten Sand: The infamous “rotten sand” acts exactly like quicksand, except that rotten sand is dry. When 
  someone steps into a patch, her player must roll (Dexterity + [Acrobatics, or Ride if mounted]). Two or more 
  successes allow the character to avoid sinking into this innocuous-looking death trap. A single success means the 
  character sank almost to her waist. A failed roll indicates the character sank to mid-chest, while a botch means 
  she sinks up to her neck. Players then make the same roll every action as the character attempts to flatten out, 
  get to the surface and crawl slowly and carefully out of this sand. Two successes on a roll allow the character to 
  go from being in the sand up to her neck to up to her chest, then to her waist and then to flattened across the 
  surface. Once a character is on the surface, she can slowly “swim” to the edge of the sand, at a speed of one yard 
  per action, with no need for further rolls. Failing a roll causes the character to sink one level, such as from being 
  buried up to her waist to being buried up to her chest. Characters who are already buried up to their necks sink 
  under the sand and begin to suffocate. Botching this roll means the character sinks two levels.
  Speaking Sand: The Wyld infuses some sands with sound that the faintest pressure can release, such as 
  a strong breeze or someone walking upon it. Most sands contain noises from past times. Some sands carry 
  the horrified screams of mortals facing the Fair Folk invasion or similar horrors. Others contain ordinary 
  sounds such as howling winds or animal grunts. However, a few sands pick up and echo sounds from all across 
  Creation. One common sound consists of brief snatches of speech about a nearby character or his loved ones, 
  which were spoken in private and never meant to be heard by the person himself.
  Unstable Sand: This exotic sand acts normally unless struck with a hard blow, such as a person or large 
  animal running over it, falling on it or dropping something heavy on it. At this point, the entire patch of sand 
  vanishes, leaving only a small amount of fine dust behind. Characters on the unstable sand fall into a pit that 
  is usually between two and six yards deep… and the normal sand starts falling in on them. Escape requires an 
  extended (Dexterity + Athletics) roll, with the total number of successes equal to the pit’s depth in yards.
  
  105
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  WYLD BARBARIANS
  Many Southern Wyld mutants are completely hairless 
  and possess a tough leathery hide, or even scales similar 
  to those of a snake or lizard. The pox Elemental Adapta-
  tion: Fire is also very common. Although many tribes of 
  Wyld mutants dwell in the South, most are small because 
  the deserts just don’t provide enough food for larger 
  populations. The Panagda, or Scaled Folk, are the most 
  numerous breed of Southern Wyld barbarians.
  THE PANAGDA
   Unlike the nocturnal dune people, these strange 
  beings love the sunlight. They all bear the poxes Scales 
  and Elemental Adaptation: Fire. In addition to their scaled 
  skin, they also have the slitted golden eyes of serpents. 
  Humans sometimes mistake the Panagda for snake beast-
  men, but the Scaled Folk lack fangs, poison, long snouts 
  and other ophidian features; they owe their state to the 
  Wyld alone, not the Lunar Exalted.
  The Panagda rule the day, just as the dune people stalk 
  the night. Because the Panagda feel cold more severely 
  than normal humans and their night vision is poor, the 
  Scaled Folk retreat to mountain caverns and the lava tubes 
  of extinct volcanoes during the night. Similar to the dune 
  people, the Panagda are fierce cannibals who prey upon 
  both caravans and any dune people they find.
  However, some Panagda tribes have learned other 
  ways of life. Because they all live either within the Bor-
  dermarches or the tainted lands bordering them, the 
  Panagda have great knowledge of the riches found there. 
  Scaled Folk have learned the skill of permanently setting 
  gemstones in their own scales: their chiefs and shamans 
  often glitter with complex, jeweled patterns.
  After ceremonially devouring their own dead (with 
  many reminiscences about the deceased’s excellent quali-
  ties), the Panagda dry the skulls and keep them as bowls. 
  The skulls of chiefs and shamans are coated in gold and 
  gems. The highest honor a Panagda can offer a guest is 
  water from the skull of his mother or father.
  A few tribes trade some of their riches or act as guides 
  to gemstone rivers and similar wonders—although they 
  always keep the finest sources of treasure to themselves. 
  Because of their love of ornament, Scaled Folk may trade 
  large amounts of raw gems or lengthy service as guides 
  for gemstones that civilized jewelers have faceted. The 
  Panagda have raw gems in plenty—but not the tools and 
  skills to produce such finished stones. Of course, they 
  value food and water, too… and have learned that a 
  
  106
  handful of stones can buy a feast for an entire tribe. If 
  the merchants prove weak or careless, the Scaled Folk 
  get two feasts and keep the stones.
  As with all Wyld barbarians, however, dealing 
  with the Panagda carries risk. The Scaled Folk have no 
  concern for outsiders. Even tribes willing to trade with 
  or otherwise aid well-defended caravans usually attack 
  ill-defended caravans out of a mixture of greed and con-
  tempt. Panagda warriors also often challenge the most 
  skilled caravan guards to duels that are supposed to be 
  to first blood, but are actually lethal—refusing to answer 
  such a challenge shows cowardice and often dooms an 
  entire caravan.
  THE GOLDEN SHIELD TRIBE
  This Panagda tribe sells yellow sapphires mined from 
  tainted land, where they also obtain golden obsidian 
  for sword-clubs, tomahawks, javelin-points and daggers. 
  The wealth of food, water and ornaments bought from 
  the Guild has suddenly increased the tribe’s power and 
  prestige, enabling the Panagda to push around other little 
  tribes on the Wyld’s edge. Their chief, Sandswimmer 
  Fang, now buys weapons from the Guild and plans to 
  conquer other tribes to form a tribal kingdom.
  The tribe takes its name from the shield-shaped 
  designs of yellow jewels they fix to their scaled chests. 
  Sandswimmer Fang, his top warriors and shamans have 
  the most elaborate shield-designs, enchanted as talismans 
  against the Wyld. The tribe worships the constellation of 
  the Shield as well as their local small gods. No Exalted, Fair 
  Folk or greater deities are manipulating the tribe—yet.
  Sandswimmer Fang and his chief shaman both have 
  Essence pools thanks to power-questing. Sandswimmer 
  Fang spent years having adventures on Creation’s rim, 
  making him an uncommonly skilled heroic mortal. 
  After taking over his tribe, Sandswimmer Fang pushed 
  for greater Guild commerce and works to convince his 
  people that outsiders can be used for more than food. 
  As long as he brings in food and power over other tribes, 
  his people will follow him.
  BEASTMEN
  Most beastmen in the South have even less material 
  culture than their barbarian or Wyld mutant neighbors; 
  in the warm climate, the beastmen don’t need it. Hyena-
  men are the most common breed in the warmer areas 
  and the tainted lands of the South, while gazellemen 
  abound in the tainted lands of the Southeast. However, 
  snakemen are the only beastmen capable of living in the 
  deep desert and lava plains of the far South and in the 
  Southern Bordermarches. They rarely need to drink, 
  their venom allows them to slay their prey quickly and 
  they can endure the searing rays of the sun far better 
  than ordinary mortals.
  THE BEAST CRATER
  High in the volcanic mountains separating Gem from 
  the verdant lands to the West is a vast, extinct volcano. It 
  rises more than a mile and a half high, with a caldera 20 
  miles in diameter and half a mile deep. The steep walls 
  of this crater enclose an exotic lost world. In the center 
  of the enormous valley lies a deep freshwater lake two 
  miles across. The altitude moderates the Southern heat 
  and rains reach the mountain from the West, so the 
  valley is warm, verdant and brimming with life. Inside 
  the crater live almost 90,000 large animals and nearly 
  5,000 beastmen.
  The Southern flank of the mountain lies within the 
  Bordermarches, but the crater is within Creation. Winds 
  blow strange volcanic dust in from the Wyld, and exotic 
  beasts sometimes descend the Southern crater wall and 
  enter the valley, but some unknown power prevents the 
  Wyld from advancing further than the outer rim of the 
  caldera. Even when Wyld storms draw the Bordermarches 
  around the mountain, the entire crater always remains 
  fully a part of Creation. The only exception is the top 
  100 feet of part of the Southern crater wall.
  The steep walls cut the crater off from the rest of 
  Creation. Any being that wants to enter the crater from 
  Creation must either fly in or attempt a steep, half-mile 
  climb down the cliffs. The Southern wall of the crater 
  has several steep paths from the crater floor, but they 
  Golden Shield Tribe, a Magnitude 2 Dominion
  Military: 3 
  Government: 1 
  Culture: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 1, Bureaucracy 1, Craft 1, 
  Integrity 2 (Tight-Knit Heritage +2), Occult 1 (Su-
  pernatural Etiquette +2), Performance 1 (Display 
  of Wealth +2), Stealth 1, War 2
  Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 3
  Virtue Flaw: Temperance 
  Current Limit: 1
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 10 
  External Bonus Points: 6
  Notes: The Golden Shielders trade with the Guild 
  and use their wealth of food to buy influence with 
  other tribes because Sandswimmer Fang tells them 
  to. In the event of Limit Break, Sandswimmer 
  Fang loses control: the people eat the traders and 
  their stored food in a massive feast, and start more 
  vendettas with neighboring tribes.
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  end at steep cliffs just before the top. For a few weeks 
  of the year, however, the Bordermarches slip down the 
  crater wall and sometimes etch short-lived paths from the 
  crater to the Wyld.
  The Southern two miles of the valley are tainted land. 
  Creatures from the Bordermarches stay in this area. The 
  occasional light dustings of volcanic ash and strangely 
  scented winds from the Wyld provide the influxes of 
  Chaos these creatures need to thrive and reproduce. 
  Here grow low trees with large, shiny leaves and flowers 
  that feel hot and glow orange-red in the dark, as well as 
  lizards with bronze or obsidian scales and a variety of 
  similarly exotic flora and fauna.
  A mixture of plants and animals from the central 
  South coast and the lush, tropical Southwestern shores 
  inhabits the rest of the valley. Some creatures are smaller 
  than normal. Packs of lions hunt gazelles, wild boar and 
  dwarf elephants no larger than warhorses. A profusion 
  of tropical birds sing and squawk in the trees; austrech 
  and other large, flightless birds roam the savannahs. The 
  beast valley also contains an abundance of flowering 
  plants, including many found nowhere else.
  Five different varieties of beastmen live here—the 
  only place in Creation where so many different types 
  of beastmen live next to one another. Snakemen and 
  chiropterans dwell in the small forests dotting the valley, 
  while the gazellemen, hyenamen and leopardmen prefer 
  the veldt. No humans or Exalted live in this valley: the 
  Lunar Exalted visit now and then, but only to observe 
  this unique land.
  Despite plenty of feuds and others personal conflicts, 
  the beastmen form a rude confederation of tribes. By 
  agreement, no beastman may hunt another as prey or 
  eat his flesh. Such offenders are declared enemies of all 
  beastmen, who any may raise claw or spear against the 
  offenders without fear of retribution. These beastmen 
  are considerably more violent and aggressive than equally 
  primitive human communities. They make their weapons 
  from flint, wood and bone and can use no more than 
  Second Degree (Adept) thaumaturgy. However, they have 
  forged a unique culture in which the members cooperate, 
  fight duels and tell stories of love and war, wisdom, folly, 
  tragedy and farce. They call the crater “the world.”
  Several times a decade, the tribes band together to 
  defend one another when the Wyld storms drive a horde 
  of predatory hobgoblins and other Wyld creatures over 
  the rim and down into the valley. The beastmen know 
  to attack visitors from the Wyld on sight—and for all they 
  know, human visitors from Creation are just more Wyld 
  aberrations. They will rob, kill and possibly devour weak 
  or helpless visitors from Creation. Visitors who seem 
  formidable, but not immediately aggressive, provoke the 
  beastmen’s curiosity and have a chance to prove they 
  are people. This usually involves a duel to first blood to 
  determining visitors’ bravery and merit.
  BEAST CRATER WAR BAND
  Description: This war band consists of 100 beast-
  men warriors who foray after Wyld storms to defend 
  their valley from Wyld mutants, hobgoblins or any other 
  threat. The members of the war band wear buff jackets 
  reinforced with strips of bone and wield spears, bows 
  and axes. This particular band is composed of about 20 
  chiropterans, 20 gazellemen, 20 hyenamen, 30 leopard-
  men and 10 snakemen. The war band is led by Baras 
  Goblinbane, an elemental-blooded leopardman who is 
  one of the valley’s most renowned war leaders. Off duty, 
  the members split up and rejoin their tribes.
  Commanding Officer: Baras Goblinbane 
  Armor Color: Dark buff jackets with orange tiger stripes 
  of painted bone
  Motto: “Devour our enemies for the World.”
  General Makeup: 70 light infantry with axes and javelins; 
  supported by 30 archers 
  Overall Quality: Excellent
  Magnitude: 3
  
  108
  Drill: 3
  Close Combat Attack: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3 Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 2 
  Armor: 2 (-2 mobility) 
  Morale: 4
  Special Characters: Baras Goblinbane, two God-
  Blooded chiropterans
  Formation: The war band usually operates in skirmish 
  formation, but once the warriors surround an enemy, 
  the warriors often converge to close formation.
  RELICS OF THE PAST: THE DUNE PEOPLE
  The dune people inhabit much of the deep desert. 
  Several tribes live near the fringes of the Glittering Desert, 
  where they lie in wait for mortal scavengers and hobgob-
  lin relic hunters; the dune people devour all who come 
  near their lairs with equal relish. When night falls, the 
  tribes emerge from their sandy beds and creep silently 
  across the dunes and scree, to hunt any nearby visitors 
  to their desiccated realm. Their keen senses allow them 
  to spot the fainted flicker of a distant campfire or the 
  sound made by sleeping mortals.
  The dune people silently advance on any camps they 
  find, slay the sentries and then swarm upon victims in 
  a deadly massed attack. Disdaining clothing as a useless 
  artifact of civilization, they wield heavy boomerangs, 
  hammers and axes made from stone, human bone and 
  tendon. The dune people devour their captives, drink 
  their blood and render their bones and sinews into the 
  tools needed for their survival.
  DUNE PEOPLE HUNTING PARTY
  Description: This hunting party consists of 50 hunt-
  ers of the Jaresh Plains tribe, a large band of nocturnal 
  dune people who must hunt humans and beastmen as 
  a source of food and tools. The war party consists of a 
  moderately small team of naked dune people wielding 
  axes, slings and boomerangs. 
  Commanding Officer: Nysala, chief of the Jaresh 
  Plains tribe 
  Armor Color: Ghostly white skin 
  Motto: None
  General Makeup: 30 light infantry with axes and javelins.; 
  supported by 20 slingers 
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Rating: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3 Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 0 
  Morale: 3
  Special Characters: Nysala, chief of the Jaresh Plains 
  tribe and Obok, the head shaman of this tribe
  Formation: This hunting party relies almost exclusively 
  on skirmisher formation.
  POCKETS OF THE WYLD
  The South holds a great diversity of Wyld pockets, 
  from small fountains of exotic lava to entire chaos-filled 
  mountains. The most dangerous pockets seem like 
  inviting oases in the middle of barren deserts, but are 
  actually small Bordermarches or Middlemarches where 
  deadly plants, animals, Wyld barbarian raiders or stranger 
  phenomena await tired and thirsty travelers.
  THE FIREGEM FOUNTAIN
  One of the smallest but most famous Southern 
  Wyld zones occupies the corner of a large and verdant 
  oasis. This Wyld zone is only 30 yards in diameter, but 
  in daylight, the Wyld zone shines and glitters brightly 
  enough to be seen from miles away. The entire area looks 
  like different colors of candle wax ran and dripped over 
  everything… only instead of wax, the layered dribbles and 
  splashes are multi-hued gemstone. Technically, the Wyld 
  pocket is no more changeable than the Bordermarches. 
  At its center, however, lies an opening to a lava tube that 
  leads into the Middlemarches.
  Just as everything else in this glittering Wyld zone, 
  the opening regularly changes shape, but always stays in 
  the heart of the region; the width of the opening ranges 
  from several inches to two feet. Between four times a day 
  and once a week, a small fountain of burning, molten 
  gemstone issues from this portal. This exotic lava is as thick 
  as warm honey. If the lava touches any of the hardened 
  gem-lava surrounding the fountain, burning lava simply 
  cools and hardens, but if any of it falls upon anything 
  else—from ordinary stone to wood or even living human 
  
  109
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  flesh—the liquid flows over the substance and causes it 
  to catch fire. This fire burns exceedingly hot and deals 
  damage as an acid bath (see Exalted p. 131).
  Instead of turning to ash, the burned portions of 
  the object transform into solid gemstone. A log struck 
  by a splash of burning, liquid sapphire would catch fire, 
  gradually burn away and leave behind a log made of 
  solid sapphire. This transformation only occurs within 
  the boundaries of the Wyld zone. As soon as someone 
  removes an object outside of the Wyld zone, the molten 
  gemstones are simply that and the fire they produce 
  becomes ordinary fire.
  Many fortune-hunters try to exploit these transfor-
  mations. However, doing so is exceptionally dangerous. 
  After leaving the Wyld, the lava itself rapidly transforms 
  into colored glass. Only materials the lava burned and 
  transformed remain as gemstone once they leave this 
  Wyld pocket. As a result, characters must actually place 
  an object into the lava splash to obtain gemstones. Un-
  fortunately, while the lava usually splashes out just a few 
  yards from the vent, it can spray outwards anywhere from 
  one to 15 yards and can erupt at any time, even seconds 
  after a previous eruption. Placing an object inside this 
  Wyld pocket and safely retrieving the object after its 
  transformation requires both exceptional patience and 
  a great deal of luck. In the past decade, two unfortunates 
  were completely transformed into gemstone statues. (A 
  partner salvaged them, sold them to a Dynast and retired 
  to villa near Chiaroscuro.) Many other gem-lava gather-
  ers have lost fingers, hands or entire arms to this deadly 
  but valuable lava.
  FAIR FOLK OF THE SOUTH
  The Fair Folk of the South are a motley group of 
  hunters and rovers. Just as the mortal residents, the Fair 
  Folk here often wander as bands of raiders. Many also 
  remember when the visionary fanatic Ikerre scarred the 
  Southern Wyld and left the Glittering Desert as a result. 
  Though Ikerre’s dream failed in the end, she left behind 
  a scarred and vicious group of raksha who fear that it 
  could be done again.
  On the wide stretches of the savannas, the Fair Folk 
  run in the shapes of lions to hunt their prey. They whis-
  per outside the walls of mortal villages, luring victims to 
  join them or convincing dupes to open the village gates. 
  They are masters of manipulating mortal emotions, and 
  murmur sweetly of the erotic ecstasy of the hunt, the 
  sweet surrender of the prey, the glory and the passion 
  of bloodstained death; they do not say who does the dy-
  ing. They are terrible blights, migrating from district to 
  district lest they exhaust all prey in a given region. These 
  Fair Folk are proud, seductive and lethal; they gain no 
  satisfaction from anything less than devouring souls or 
  slaying humans. The Fair Folk cultivate animal hungers 
  rather than civilized tastes, and would readily join any 
  new crusade to destroy Creation, assuming that they were 
  well-fed on the way.
  Deeper in the desert lie other tribes of Fair Folk, 
  who ride horses swifter than arrows and catch rumors 
  on the wind. They raid oases, tents and settled villages, 
  sweeping down like a storm to carry away the young 
  and the beautiful. These Fair Folk harvest their victims’ 
  dreams in elegant tents, at leisure and with style, and 
  enjoy mordant jests and vicious humor. Fair Folk from 
  the far South region strive to be swift, beautiful and 
  artistic. Few of them would support a new crusade; hu-
  mans are victims, created for food, exploration and wit, 
  but destroying them all would leave the raksha short of 
  nourishment and amusement.
  ENCAMPMENT OF THE COPPER ROSE
  In the Encampment of the Copper Rose dwells Ali 
  of the Last Whisper with his clan of raiders. Ali chooses to 
  refrain from attacking villages or oases that display certain 
  charms that folktales say protect against the Fair Folk. By 
  doing so, he makes his personal legend all the stronger; 
  if it comes to extremities, he may break the charms and 
  ravage at will, but he has not yet done so. Some others 
  in his band, in particular the young noble Western exile 
  Rimoah, disagree with Ali; however, they have not yet done 
  so openly, as Ali is also fond of folktales that demonstrate 
  the raksha’s cruelty and ingenuity in torture.
  Ali permits several other raksha groups to live in 
  his desert freehold as well. They know they do so at his 
  sufferance, and form part of his nascent power base. Ali 
  works toward treaties with local petty gods and spirit 
  courts, implying that he can call on the Lapis Court 
  for assistance. He ponders the value of offering raksha 
  miracles to mortal tribes and petty kings as well, as part of 
  his plan to become a political player and power-broker.
  From the outside, the Encampment’s Freehold looks 
  like a small oasis gone dry, with sand half-burying dead 
  thorn-trees and crumbling mud-brick buildings. Anyone 
  who passes a certain doorway in a ruined, freestanding 
  wall enters a pleasant domain of streams, mundane 
  greenery and rose-vines made all of copper. Silken tents 
  surround a central lake on which floats a palace of 
  obsidian ornamented with copper. Human slaves and 
  obsidian statues serve the raksha. Ali deals frequently 
  with the Guild, and is one of their main purchasers of 
  human slaves in the area, occasionally going so far as to 
  
  110
  intercept some deliveries of slaves that were intended 
  for the Lapis Court. Should the court discover his in-
  volvement, a prolonged, vicious and interesting (for the 
  raksha) war is likely.
  Moving further South, the Wyld reveals its nature in 
  ways that are more obvious. The desert dunes might not 
  merely look like ocean waves—they might be genuine seas 
  of dust, with waves raised by the wind. Eyeless versions of 
  fish, seaweed and other creatures live in these waterless 
  seas. The Fair Folk build gossamer yachts to sail upon 
  them… or some eerie-eyed raksha dwell beneath the dunes, 
  rising to attack like the sand sharks they tame.
  Where the Southern Bordermarches are not desert, 
  they are often volcanic. Huge fields of lava stretch across 
  the deep South, some hardened into weird, twisted shapes, 
  some eternally molten and some just plain strange.
  GEMSTONE RIVERS
  Rivers and small lakes reappear as you move into the 
  Southern Wyld… but they don’t always contain water. 
  Instead, they hold concentrated brine or solutions of 
  other salts, or petroleum. A very few hold liquid glass 
  or gemstone—even ponds of liquid glowstone that light 
  up the landscape at night. Most life near these rivers 
  takes on the color of the river, and the plants growing 
  closest to the banks are almost all made of living crys-
  tal or jewels. These rivers provide no sustenance for 
  mortals or Exalted, but cause no harm when touched 
  or imbibed.
  When these jeweled liquids dry, they leave behind 
  exceedingly thin films of gemstone. While the liquid 
  itself soon transforms into colored water if taken into 
  Creation, the dried residues remain. A few brave mortals 
  regularly travel into the Wyld to coat common goods in 
  this liquid, so that they can sell sapphire-coated trinkets, 
  cloth-of-emerald or glowstone-coated rods that can light a 
  traveler’s way at night. Despite the profits (a person who 
  does this for a living can earn Resources •••), few people 
  face the dangers of the Wyld to gather this wealth.
  THE GLITTERING DESERT
  Two centuries ago, the mortal prophet Ikerre used 
  the vastly powerful Eye of Autochthon to slay enormous 
  numbers of the Southern Fair Folk and their hobgoblin 
  servants. Her mad crusade left a region far south of 
  Chiaroscuro now called the Glittering Desert. A portion 
  of desert lies within Creation, but it extends through the 
  Bordermarches and into the Middlemarches.
  The enormous magics of the Eye transformed every 
  creature tainted by the Wyld into shining, multi-colored 
  quartz—all the Fair Folk, every Wyld barbarian, even the 
  plants and animals down to the tiniest insect in the thin, 
  dry soil or the lichen on the rocks. The soil itself became 
  glittering fragments of crystal. To this day, nothing lives 
  in the Glittering Desert.
  The Encampment of the Copper Rose, 
  a Magnitude 2 Dominion
  Military: 2 
  Government: 2 
  Culture: 3
  Abilities: Awareness 2, Craft 3, Integrity 2, Occult 3 
  (Supernatural Etiquette +3), Performance 2, Pres-
  ence 3 (Organized Crime +2), War 2
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temper-
  ance 3, Valor 2
  Limit Break: Temperance 
  Current Limit: 0
  Willpower: 6
  Bonus Points: 10 
  External Bonus Points: 6
  Notes: The Encampment of the Copper Rose 
  is a Supernatural dominion, and Ali of the Last 
  Whisper is a sorcerer with Legitimacy. In the event 
  of a Limit Break, all the internal factions of the 
  Encampment turn against each other, attempting 
  to supplant Ali and seize power, and will intrigue 
  with outsiders in order to give themselves a win-
  ning edge.
  THE BORDERMARCHES
  The Southern Bordermarches usually look similar to 
  the Southern portions of Creation. The scrubby bushes, 
  olive groves, date palms and almond trees of the Southern 
  coast and oases reappear beyond the mundane deserts. 
  Just as the rest of the inland South, expanses of sandy 
  desert or ragged lava surround these fertile waypoints. The 
  trees are taller (or shorter) and occasionally more mobile, 
  however, and the animals become a bit stranger.
  FIRE IN THE SOUTHERN BORDERMARCHES
  Fires lit in the Southern Bordermarches 
  never naturally extinguish themselves. Such fires 
  can be put out by water or smothering. As in 
  Creation, fires in the Southern Bordermarches 
  only consume flammable objects—but the fire 
  doesn’t go out when it exhausts its fuel. The fire 
  does not grow larger or spread unless it obtains 
  more fuel, but a campfire lit in the Southern 
  Bordermarches could burn for 1,000 years if no 
  one put it out. Also, every fire in the Southern 
  Marches adds one extra die to its resisted and 
  non-resisted environmental damage.
  
  111
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  However, the greedy and the curious occasionally visit 
  the desert to search for valuable artifacts. Exalted and 
  mortals are free to visit, but Fair Folk still find it baneful. 
  The Eye of Autochthon poisoned the land against their 
  return. As a result, they must send in mortal servants, 
  typically either ravagers or Wyld mutants that the Fair 
  Folk hire, to search for wonders in the lands where they 
  once lived.
  The Eye destroyed all of the demesnes in this desert 
  and transformed the buildings in the Freeholds into solid 
  quartz, but left magical artifacts untouched—whether they 
  were created by the Fair Folk or trophies captured from 
  fallen Exalted. These objects now lie buried under the 
  shifting, shining drifts of crystal. Treasure-hunters also 
  remember that the Eye of Autochthon itself has never been 
  seen again, so it may still lie in this vast wasteland, too.
  VOLCANOES AND UNDERWAYS
  Volcanoes dot the tainted lands and Bordermarches 
  of the South. In the Bordermarches, these fiery moun-
  tains can grow considerably taller and more jagged than 
  in Creation. Also, they sometimes spew anything from 
  hallucinogenic steam to clouds of butterflies. Even 
  within the borders of Creation, volcanoes near the 
  Wyld occasionally produce strange and eldritch affects, 
  because they tap veins of magma that lead back into the 
  Middlemarches or beyond.
  Wyld lava currents periodically shift, leaving empty 
  lava tubes similar to those found around Creation’s 
  volcanoes. These tubes are typically between one and 
  10 yards in diameter. Some portions of the Southern 
  Bordermarches contain vast numbers of such empty, 
  underground tubes. In places, they intersect to form 
  complex and deadly mazes filled with exotic beasts.
  A few tubes also lead to huge caves, some of them 
  miles across. These underground worlds range from exotic 
  tainted lands that are still nominally part of Creation 
  to small pockets of the Deep Wyld. Some are strange 
  underground freeholds ruled by weird, chthonic Fair 
  Folk, while others become home to fearsome beasts or 
  the ancient, pre-human inhabitants of Creation that took 
  refuge in this isolated, subterranean world long ago.
  Since the “lava” often was not just melted stone, 
  the tubes are often coated with dried blood, sticky acid 
  or even rows of human arms, kraken tentacles or other 
  equally mobile and potentially dangerous protuberances. 
  (See Chapter Seven for the Traits of these clutching 
  threats.) Occasionally, a connection with the burning 
  lava of Creation or liquid chaos from the Deep Wyld 
  is re-established, and the lava tubes fill again with some 
  deadly substance.
  Wyld lava tunnels can form a secure hiding place 
  against pursuit. They may also contain various wonders 
  carried in from the further Wyld. On extremely rare 
  SIGHT AND SURVIVAL IN 
  THE GLITTERING DESERT
  During the day, sight perception rolls are at +2 
  difficulty because of the brilliantly shining reflections 
  from the unnatural sands. Indeed, the Glittering 
  Desert can blind a visitor: this is an environmen-
  tal effect of 1 dot Perception/hour, Trauma 3. 
  If a player fails the (Stamina + Resistance) roll, the 
  character’s Perception drops by 1. At Perception 0, 
  the character is blinded (permanently, for mortals, 
  but Essence-users heal the lost Perception as lethal 
  damage). The only ways to avoid these effects are 
  to wear a visor of smoked or darkly colored glass 
  (which inflict +1 difficulty on sight perception 
  when the character is not in bright sunlight)—or to 
  travel at night.
  The sand in this desert is unusually jagged and 
  sharp, so the damage from a severe sandstorm here 
  equals the damage from a supernatural ice storm.
  Fair Folk or hobgoblins who enter the Glittering 
  Desert automatically take one level of unsoakable 
  lethal damage for every hour they remain. Nothing 
  can prevent this.
  While in the Glittering Desert, however, 
  characters do not risk mutation. The Glittering 
  Desert is beyond doubt the largest sanctuary in all 
  the Wyld.
  WYLD LAVA
  Hazard 
  Damage 
  Trauma
  Boiling Acid 
  6L/action 
  3
  Boiling Blood 
  4L/action 
  3
  Boiling Venom 
  4L/action* 
  4
  Hallucinogenic Steam 
  2L/action** 
  2
  Lava 
  6L/action 
  4
  * Once a character takes lethal damage from boiling 
  venom, she also faces the toxic effect of the venom 
  itself. Select whatever poison seems appropriate. (See 
  Exalted, p. 131 for Arrow Frog Venom and Coral 
  Snake Venom.)
  ** Hallucinogenic steam also has a Poison effect: 
  Damage 2 (no real damage)/hour, Toxicity 4, Toler-
  ance —/—, Penalty -3.
  
  112
  occasions, these tunnels and caves hold wondrous 
  remnants of the First Age that survived untouched. 
  Uncovering any of these artifacts and lost treasures 
  requires treasure-hunters to brave the manifold dangers 
  of the lava tubes—and some of them die and leave their 
  own treasures to the Wyld.
  BLACK CHIAROSCURO
  One of the strangest and most enduring features of 
  the Southern Bordermarches is Black Chiaroscuro. It 
  has lasted far longer than duplicate sections of Creation 
  usually manage. This waypoint consists of a lava plain 
  bearing a life-sized, preternaturally accurate copy of the 
  First Age city of Chiaroscuro, all made of black lava 
  rock and jet-black obsidian. Just as everything within 
  the Wyld, this duplicate shifts and alters over time, but 
  always resembles Chiaroscuro at some point in its history. 
  Sometimes, Black Chiaroscuro shows the complete city as 
  it was during the height of the First Age. The city shifts 
  and changes over several weeks. First it grows larger and 
  more elaborate, with extensive walls. Then it collapses into 
  Chiaroscuro’s current state, where huge jagged shards of 
  obsidian mark the ruins of its once-magnificent towers. 
  New buildings appear to mark Delzahn construction. The 
  cycle occasionally ends with Black Chiaroscuro rebuilding 
  in a variety of exotic forms, which some scholars theorize 
  might be possible future Chiaroscuros.
  This rocky metropolis only mimics the actual struc-
  tures of the buildings and roads. Black Chiaroscuro has 
  no furnishings, and the copied lift tubes and other First 
  Age wonders are merely empty shells of rock without 
  any enchantment. However, the duplicate includes the 
  tunnels that run underneath Chiaroscuro. Many of 
  these tunnels remain unknown in modern Chiaroscuro, 
  so information gained in Black Chiaroscuro can help 
  anyone who seeks to infiltrate the city or discover lost 
  tombs and treasuries.
  A few hundred Wyld barbarians live in the towers 
  that never completely fall to ruin. These furtive and sav-
  age beings know the details of their city at all stages of its 
  existence. They eagerly hunt and attempt to kill anyone 
  who comes to explore this exotic wonder.
  THE PACHARENAI
  This pride of Fair Folk goes abroad in the shape of 
  lions, and has an ongoing vendetta with some of the des-
  ert tribes in the far South of Creation. The Pacharenai’s 
  predation has become one of their defining features: they 
  absolutely could not destroy the tribes, but the Pacharenai 
  hunt the tribes wherever they find them. (Conversely, the 
  barbarian, Wyld mutant and beastman tribes in question 
  view the Pacharenai as a particularly vengeful form of 
  divinity that must be fought at all costs but at the same 
  time honors them by pursuit. The prey-tribes regularly 
  offer small sacrifices, such as a child a year.)
  The Pacharenai is an unusually large pride for the 
  South. This pride contains a full two dozen nobles, fol-
  lowing a leader named Elegance. Elegance looks like a 
  withered, sun-scorched woman of surprising ugliness, 
  with a face seamed with scars and bones that stand out 
  beneath her flesh. She parades her unusual looks as a 
  contrast to the beauty of the other raksha nobles; Elegance 
  enjoys dramatically posing in thin silk scarves, with her 
  barbed spear Malice always at her side. The tribe dwells 
  at a Bordermarch oasis hidden by sandstorms, where 
  metallic cats wander among the palm trees and huge 
  scorpions guard the entrances and exits. They consider 
  their human slaves a valuable commodity—worked to 
  their limit, but not casually destroyed.
  PACHARENAI HUNTERS
  Description: Two dozen raksha nobles; this is the 
  full number of truly dangerous fighters available to the 
  Pacharenai, though they can muster hundreds of lesser 
  hobgoblins and minions. 
  Commanding Officer: Elegance
  
  113
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  Armor Color: Lion skins
  Motto: None
  General Makeup: Lions; also able to take the shape of 
  humans armed with swords and javelins, wearing shim-
  mering silk armor that turns weapon blows
  Overall Quality: Fair
  Magnitude: 2
  Drill: 4
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: — 
  Ranged Damage: —
  Endurance: 7 
  Might: 5
  Armor: 3 
  Morale: 2
  Special Characters: None
  Formation: Relaxed; they never engage in ranged combat.
  THE MIDDLEMARCHES
  Moving closer to the Pole of Fire, the element of 
  flame pervades all other forms and qualities. Desert and 
  lava remain, but the Middlemarches acquire seas like the 
  West, forests like the East and winds like the North—seas 
  of liquid fire, forests of red-hot metal and winds of smoke. 
  Even though flames burn forever without fuel, flammable 
  substances—coal, petroleum, tallow—often appear, or 
  substances burn that normally resist fire. Even living 
  creatures may be formed from flame.
  PROPERTIES, PEOPLE, PLACES
  FALSE SUN GROTTO
  At night, light shines from a maw of stone jutting 
  upward from lava plains. A tunnel leads to a cave several 
  miles across. The cavern has no roof; instead, three dozen 
  suns float in blue-white sky. White sand, bleached by the 
  intense light, covers the cavern floor.
  Nothing from Creation could live in the blazing heat 
  of the many suns, but the center of the grotto holds a small 
  village built of chalcedony bricks and tiles. The people 
  hide themselves under the searing sand when strangers 
  come. The inhabitants listen to those who walk above 
  them, and reveal themselves only to visitors who seem 
  trustworthy and kind.
  All members of this race look identical. They are 
  tall (for humans), they bear themselves regally, they 
  are very manly in aspect, their skin is bronze and they 
  have four arms. Some folk might find this a familiar 
  image. For their part, these creatures (who appear to be 
  neither raksha nor mutants) have no idea whom they 
  resemble. As an isolated, once-ostracized culture, they 
  are cautious about other people but generally trusting. 
  They have no tools except their metal-hard hands, which 
  are usually enough.
  The people of the grotto speak Old Realm. Their 
  traditions say that long ago, their ancestors suffered an 
  attempt at extermination; that is why they hide from 
  strangers. They have no name for themselves. Their tales 
  say the grotto was once much larger.
  These creatures are not the only dwellers in the False 
  Sun Grotto. A small variety of hot-natured creatures 
  live there, which the sentient inhabitants hunt. The 
  bronze creatures eat what they hunt, but they often 
  do not appear to need that sustenance. They refuse to 
  discuss how they manage to reproduce, what with them 
  all being male.
  The folk of the grotto creatures cannot leave the 
  grotto for long. They sicken and die without the light 
  and heat of three dozen suns, as they cool and the fire 
  of life leaves them.
  CONDITIONS OF THE GROTTO
  The light and heat of the False Sun Grotto inflict 
  two environmental effects on the Creation-born:
  • The searing heat inflicts Damage 2B/minute, 
  Trauma 2.
  • The intense glare can blind visitors, as in the 
  Glittering Desert, but Damage of one dot Percep-
  tion/minutes, Trauma 5 (without smoked or 
  tinted goggles).
  Conversely, the folk of the Grotto suffer one 
  level of bashing damage for every hour they spend 
  outside the heat of the three dozen suns. This can-
  not heal until they return to their home.
  LIQUID FIRE
  In the Wyld, fire can absorb the qualities of other 
  states of matter, including water. Rivers, lakes and small 
  seas of liquid fire extend throughout the Southern 
  Middlemarches and Deep Wyld. Liquid fire comes 
  in different colors—ordinary pale yellow, but also red, 
  orange, green, blue, violet, silvery, golden, white, gray 
  and even black. Even stranger, liquid fire often burns 
  only certain classes of substance and leaves other sub-
  stances alone. One fire-stream might burn only flesh, 
  while another might everything except vegetable matter. 
  As usual for the Wyld, one cannot predict what a fire 
  will burn and what it will not; the raksha keep track of 
  it all, though. Fortunately, currents of liquid fire with 
  different properties never mix. They usually burn no 
  hotter than a bonfire.
  You can carry liquid fire in a cask or bucket, so long 
  as it cannot burn the container. Liquid fire retains its 
  
  114
  properties throughout the Wyld, but lasts only three days 
  in Creation before going out.
  THE ROOKERY
  The Rookery is one of the most legendary locations 
  in all the Southern Marches and consists of a lava island 
  that moves about the largest of the fire seas. Any flame 
  gryphon (see Chapter Seven) can find it, but no flame 
  gryphon would tell any other being the island’s location 
  or guide anyone there unless forced by unnatural mental 
  influences. Even raksha who become close allies with 
  flame gryphons would never be taken there unless the 
  Rookery already faced dire peril.
  Young flame gryphons hatch at the Rookery, and 
  old flame gryphons go there to die. A quarter of the 
  island is a huge graveyard of golden claws and beaks and 
  opalescent white bones. Sometimes the flame gryphons 
  mate; sometimes they lay eggs spontaneously. But they 
  nest and hatch their young nowhere except this float-
  ing mountain. Flame gryphon eggs take only a week to 
  hatch, and the young flame gryphons fly and become 
  independent in another two months. Some flame gry-
  phons permanently live on the Rookery, but most flame 
  gryphons visit it periodically. Between 100 and 300 flame 
  gryphons are in residence at any time, and they will all 
  defend it to the death.
  Although a few raksha nobles and a handful of Lu-
  nar Exalted know the Rookery’s location, they keep this 
  knowledge to themselves. Flame gryphons bring a few 
  trusted visitors who seek young gryphons as steeds and 
  partners—but only blindfolded. Any attempt to invade the 
  island results in the flame gryphons fleeing to a new and 
  unknown location, or slaughtering all the invaders and 
  then spending the next few years killing everyone they 
  find within three waypoints. Flame gryphons know that 
  without this vigilance their young would all be abducted 
  and raised in slavery. As a result, the normally solitary 
  flame gryphons work together to protect the Rookery 
  from discovery or exploitation. (And naturally, the Guild 
  is extremely interested in its location.)
  THE YASAL FIELD
  Explorers come upon the Yasal Field without warn-
  ing, cresting a dune or stepping from a lava tube to find 
  themselves amidst a yellow expanse reflecting the sun 
  and firelight. Because yasal normally exists only as rare 
  caches of small shards, the field is the equivalent of an 
  empress’s ransom.
  
  115
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  Unfortunately, yasal is a fragile gemstone. The crystal 
  growths here are too large and unwieldy to move as they 
  are, so entrepreneurs must cut off portable pieces—no 
  easy task. Potentially, however, pieces cut here could be 
  large enough to hold even Celestial gods.
  The fields already hold many captured spirits. Even 
  ensconced in the Wyld, these crystals have existed so long 
  that many gods or elementals have come across it and, 
  accidentally, become imprisoned in the crystals. Yasal 
  dust is so pervasive in the air that a visitor does not even 
  need to touch imprisoning crystals to hear the desperate 
  voices of the spirits. Cutting a crystal that contains a spirit 
  could shatter the spirit, free it or leave it be.
  These fields are older than anyone suspects. During 
  the Primordial War, a circle of Lunars lured one fetich 
  demon into the Wyld’s yasal fields, trapped it in the 
  crystals and scattered them. Then, the yasal crystals did 
  not slowly grow as they do now, so perhaps the demon 
  is still there.
  (inevitably) finds them betraying him with one of his 
  courtiers. Aral barely bothers with the other courts so 
  they all meddle with his, turning the Ruby Court into a 
  constant carnival of visitors, ambassadors, strangers and 
  plotters. However, Aral has many ties among the minor 
  raksha households. He also enjoys entertaining interesting 
  humans as guests—for a while, at least; they distract him 
  from his ennui and can serve as convenient pawns.
  Fortunately for the court’s stability, Shikuzi the 
  Weaver is a power behind the throne. This skillful 
  schemer looks like a tall man swathed in silken scarves. 
  He never draws his great scimitar, but spends all day at 
  his loom in a nook off the throne room. Shikuzi uses 
  only hair from living humans in his weaving, and the 
  cloths from his loom usually bear some innovative curse 
  of misfortune.
  Shikuzi’s closest ally is Shusai of the Immaculate 
  Blade, who constantly seeks to test herself against monks 
  of the Immaculate Order. Shusai’s enthusiasm for bloody 
  personal combat has done more damage to the court’s 
  forces than most of its enemies.
  Another major factor in Ruby Court politics is 
  Hakasane, who for centuries has handled the Court’s 
  dealings with the Guild. She looks like a 12-year-old girl 
  with curly, blonde hair and blue eyes. Hakasane often 
  carries small, harmless pets such as doves or rabbits. 
  Her skill at negotiation equals her prowess with a bow: 
  Hakasane’s tenacity has won the court many fine slaves. 
  She often travels outside the Ruby Court on errands of 
  CUTTING CRYSTALS
  Cutting a portable chunk of yasal without 
  shattering and ruining it requires a successful roll 
  of (less of [Dexterity or Perception] + Craft [Air]) 
  at difficulty 3. If a yasal growth contains a spirit, 
  success leaves the spirit intact. A failed roll releases 
  the spirit, and a botch destroys the spirit.
  THE RUBY COURT
  In the Southeast, between Wyld-twisted jungle and 
  savannahs full of strange beasts, lies the Ruby Court, 
  ruled by Duke Aral and advised by Shikuzi the Weaver. 
  These raksha prize conviction and dedication and never 
  regretting their actions. The Ruby Court is a hotbed of 
  treason, plots, counter-plots, love, betrayals and tragic 
  funerals followed by vengeful duels.
  The Ruby Court moved here a decade ago from the 
  distant North… the same time several Tepet legions ar-
  rived, commanded by the celebrated Roseblack. Perhaps 
  this was coincidence; or perhaps caution on Duke Aral’s 
  part. Few raksha dare suggest behind-the-scenes diplomacy 
  between Shikuzi and the Roseblack; anyone who could 
  prove active collusion could topple the court, or blackmail 
  his way to extremely rapid advancement.
  Duke Aral urges his subjects to indulge their every 
  desire. He whiles away his days with an endless stream 
  of beautiful blonde women, whom he claims to recog-
  nize as his one true love. They die on his blade when he 
  The Ruby Court, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 3/3 Government: 3/3 Culture: 2/2
  Abilities: Awareness 2 (Blackmail Official 2), Craft 3, 
  Integrity 3, Occult 3 (Supernatural Etiquette 3), Perfor-
  mance 3 (Rousing Rhetoric 3), Presence 3, War 3
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 4, Temper-
  ance 2, Valor 3
  Limit Break: Conviction 
  Current Limit: 3
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 15 
  External Bonus Points: 9
  Notes: The Ruby Court is a Supernatural dominion. 
  Duke Aral and Shikuzi the Weaver are both sorcer-
  ers with Legitimacy, while Hakasane is a savant. In 
  the event of a Limit Break, the Ruby Court utterly 
  refuses to reconsider or retract any of its actions or 
  statements, pursuing them to the point of insanity, 
  while simultaneously engaging in internal struggles 
  as its members all support their own point of view 
  and refuse to consider anyone else’s.
  
  116
  Commanding Officer: Lady Hishinia
  Armor Color: Ruby glass plate mail; the lancers have it 
  etched in gold, the skirmishers in copper.
  Motto: “For glory and for war!”
  General Makeup: Armed riders: 250 lancers, 750 
  skirmishers. All carry shortbows and use them from a 
  distance before charging.
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 6
  Drill: 4
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 3  
  Ranged Attack Damage: 3
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 4 
  Armor: 4 
  Morale: 3
  Formation: While the Ruby Court army prefers to begin 
  a battle in relaxed or skirmishing formation, the army’s 
  favorite tactic is to surround a foe, then close ranks for a 
  lance charge. The army feels the massed power of the charge 
  expresses the court’s chosen virtue of Conviction.
  THE LAPIS COURT
  The Lapis Court in the far South attracts raksha who 
  claim they practice compassion towards lesser beings. The 
  court’s ruler, Neshi of the Double Whips, always goes 
  veiled; she allows no one but her entourage of human 
  children to see her naked face. Should any of the children 
  disappoint Neshi by loving someone else better than 
  her, she slays them on the spot using her paired whips 
  of light. Neshi is a consummate politician who works 
  toward bringing down Duke Aral and the Ruby Court. 
  She also makes a great show of secretly supporting the 
  Church of Balor and a new Crusade.
  The court itself does not relish dueling, but has a long 
  tradition of hunts, ambushes and torture. Raksha who 
  adhere to the court’s tenets love their human pets—love 
  them to death, draining every scrap of their souls along 
  the way. But the doomed mortals enjoy every minute of 
  their demise; such is raksha compassion. Nobles of the 
  court keep large human entourages, and are extremely 
  protective of them; injuring another raksha’s pet humans 
  constitutes a dueling offence, and has instigated many 
  fine feuds. The court itself occupies a large freehold, ap-
  pearing as a set of tents pitched around a vast pavilion 
  of woven silk and steel. Afternoon and evening feasts 
  take place under the stars in the open air, with musical 
  accompaniment and dramatic entertainment.
  Notables of the court, besides Neshi herself, include 
  Lady Ayana, a courtier from the far Northeast who keeps 
  her chambers as freezing as the icy North. She looks like 
  a beautiful woman with long black hair, but has the legs 
  trade and slave-handling, accompanied by four mute, 
  devoted human guards.
  The Ruby Court has not yet made a serious impact 
  on the local freeholds, alliances and power plays. At the 
  moment, Shikuzi is investigating the strength of nearby 
  Lunars, using any convenient visitors or adventurers as 
  his cat’s-paws. For the moment, the court engages in love 
  affairs, contests of art and frequent duels and hunts. Duke 
  Aral indulges its guests with their preferred amusements 
  and with generous gifts of slaves. Hunting expeditions 
  frequently ride all the way to Creation in search of prey, 
  slaves or interesting guests. Mortals who sufficiently amuse 
  the court through their wit or unusual skills might leave 
  safely, bearing miraculous raksha treasures; mortals who 
  grow tedious or gauche are devoured.
  When the Ruby Court came South, the court seized 
  a large freehold from local raksha. Duke Aral remodeled 
  it into a fantasia of minarets, marble courtyards and 
  fountains of scented water, blood and wine. (The noble 
  raksha who previously owned the freehold is now dead, 
  and his subjects scattered or accepted lowly positions in 
  the Ruby Court.) The court’s hobgoblins take the form 
  of marble statues or animate vortices of wind, but human 
  slaves do most of the work.
  RUBY COURT ARMY
  Description: A force of 1,000 Fair Folk cataphracts, 
  half male, half female. They comprise the main part of the 
  Ruby Court’s forces; the court would rarely field them all 
  at the same time. The cataphracts wear gossamer armor 
  and carry gossamer swords, lances and bows.
  
  117
  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  and feet of a deer. Ayana likes to steal her lovers from 
  human gatherings where she goes dancing, but flees if 
  anyone looks down and sees her inhuman hooves.
  Ayana is (just as everyone) friends with Janiera the 
  Winter Rose. This young, innocent-seeming raksha is 
  sincere and genuine in her compassion for humans, 
  her affection for her friends and her willingness to agree 
  with anything said to her at that moment. Janiera is ut-
  terly fickle and unpredictable, for she agrees with a new 
  person the moment that she talks to him, but also has 
  no equal as a dream-crafter with contacts throughout 
  all five courts.
  Nlassa of the Lion’s Mane is another prominent 
  member of the Lapis Court, and an open member of the 
  Church of Balor. She often prowls the freehold in the 
  form of a black-furred lion. Nlassa often raises arguments 
  that polarize the court. She drives her pet humans to 
  insanity with practice and speed, making her a frequent 
  customer of the Guild.
  The court itself has dwelled in the deep South for 
  more than a century now, and the Guild has become 
  used to trading with this court. By local custom, Neshi 
  purchases all the court’s slaves directly and then pres-
  ents them to her nobles in return for suitable gifts—this 
  irritates the Guild since it stops them raising prices, 
  and they trade secretly with some of the more powerful 
  members of the court. Many in the court are intrigued 
  by the return of the Solar Exalted and the appearance 
  of the Deathlords and Abyssal Exalted. These members 
  of the court seek Solar lovers or enemies for passionate 
  encounters or bitter revenges.
  LAPIS COURT GARRISON
  Description: The Lapis Court calls on its main 
  troops less often than the other courts do, but they 
  still stand ready for battle. The garrison consists of 600 
  Fair Folk cataphracts armed with scimitars, shortbows 
  and javelins.
  Commanding Officer: Night Cat the Prowler
  Armor Color: Chased dark blue steel plate, covered by 
  silk robes and veils in gold-spangled blue.
  Motto: Changes frequently; currently “Heart’s desire!”
  General Makeup: Lightly armed cavalry and mounted 
  archers
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 5
  Drill: 4
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3  Ranged Attack Damage: 3
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 4 
  Armor: 3 
  Morale: 2
  Special Characters: None
  Formation: Usually in skirmishing or relaxed forma-
  tion. Half will harass the foe close to while the other 
  half maintains arrow and javelin fire, then the first half 
  retreats while the second half covers them.
  BLADE MESA
  At one point in the Middlemarches, fields of lava 
  flow sluggishly toward a central mesa. With thick boots 
  or minor magic, explorers can walk on the cool lava and 
  scale the mesa’s plateau, where thousands of stone-skinned 
  mutant warriors fight a constant battle. These warriors 
  come from tribes that live on the surrounding lava plains. 
  They live on crystal grain and magma fruit. The mutants 
  grow to full maturity within one year. Their most able-
  bodied men impregnate their large female population 
  before charging to the top of Blade Mesa to kill and die. 
  Women of these Wyld tribes (all functionally identical 
  but discernable by different mineral compositions of their 
  skin) give birth to infants after only a month of pregnancy. 
  Because the women live longer lives (about five years), 
  matriarchs rule the tribes—but they never question the 
  ideal of marching to certain death.
  The men instinctively know how to use the thousands 
  of bronze shields and weapons they find on the mesa. 
  They enter the fight and soon die, to be replaced the next 
  day by their cousins and in a year by their sons. Should 
  one not die on the field of battle, he would succumb to 
  old age within another year and a half.
  
  118
  The eternal war raises some questions. Have the 
  bronze weapons always been there, recycled among war-
  riors? If so, the weapon must be enchanted because they 
  have never broken or lost their edges. Or does Blade Mesa 
  somehow repair them or produce more? New warriors 
  become able to enter the fray at just the proper rate so 
  the battle never diminishes, the tribes never grow and 
  they always remain balanced against each other. All this 
  suggests a guiding hand behind this Wyld region… or 
  that the Wyld has a better sense of humor than one 
  might imagine.
  BLADE MESA WARRIORS 
  Description: Disorganized on the Mesa, these war-
  riors would make a skilled force in battle.
  General Makeup: A horde of at least 300 men, armed 
  with bronze swords, spears and shields. They eschew 
  both armor and ranged weapons, preferring to meet the 
  enemy face-to-face, kill and die.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 5
  Drill: 0
  Close Combat Attack: 6 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: — 
  Ranged Damage: —
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 0 (-0 mobility penalty) 
  Valor: 5
  Formation: At any given time, at least 10 of these units can 
  be found on each side of the constant Blade Mesa conflict. 
  They cannot actually fail Morale checks in their eternal 
  battle. They always fight in unordered formation.
  THE COAL NOMADS
  Where the Coal Nomads walk, they leave nothing 
  behind. They collect everything they find on their eternal 
  voyage through the Wyld.
  From a distance, the Coal Nomads look much like 
  one of the black-skinned tribes of the South on a poorly 
  planned expedition. With a closer view, it becomes evident 
  that the wandering tribesmen are not quite human. Their 
  eyes are black chunks of solid coal, and the hair they wear 
  long is chalky charcoal. Despite their human-seeming skin, 
  they leave trails of coal dust on everything they touch.
  At least one tribe of Coal Nomads numbers in the 
  thousands. Wherever they wander, they collect everything 
  that isn’t nailed down. This gives the tribe an enormous 
  collection of unpredictable gewgaws. They wear anything 
  wearable, especially anything colorful, and cart the rest of 
  their expanding collections on their backs or in wagons 
  they construct from whatever’s on hand.
  Occasionally, the tribe wanders into the Bordermarches 
  or, rarely, true Creation. They never stay for long, because 
  the things they find aren’t as interesting or attractive as the 
  things of the Middlemarches. Meetings with the peoples of 
  Creation often result in conflict. The Coal Nomads simply 
  want to take everything they pass by and, with no real concept 
  of others’ possessions, see nothing wrong with doing so. 
  People the Coal Nomads pass by usually resist, especially 
  when the tribe tries to carry the people off, too.
  The Coal Nomads never escalate conflicts to violence. 
  They are mentally incapable of causing anyone harm. 
  Instead, they either flee or mob their aggressor in an 
  attempt to harmlessly bind him for their own safety. Of 
  course, they then carry off the aggressor, back into the 
  Middlemarches. No one knows what they do with the 
  people they “collect.”
  Other and smaller tribes of Coal Nomads also wander 
  the Wyld, but they have their own mental quirks. Some 
  live by stealing from the main tribe and trading with 
  other denizens of the Wyld. Others gather knickknacks 
  and use them to lure the large tribe along a path with 
  much food, hoping to live on the big tribe’s discards. 
  None can act to harm another creature.
  THE DEEP WYLD
  Past the furthest Southern Middlemarch, all things 
  become fire and smoke, lava and ash. Whether the land-
  
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  CHAPTER FIVE: THE SOUTHERN WYLD
  scape currently apes the streets of Nexus or the private 
  jewel-mines of the Despot of Gem, its substance is all 
  the same: fire and its products. Smoke perpetually veils 
  the air, and the heat in the landscape equals that of a 
  bonfire (see Exalted, p. 131).
  UNSHAPED RAKSHA
  While the unshaped raksha of the South are not more 
  than usually hostile to other entities, the substances of 
  the waypoints they inhabit renders them life-threatening 
  merely by their presence.
  Nessaiyah, the Winding Path, is widely feared by the 
  elementals and other creatures of this quarter. It appears 
  as a bridge or a stairway, but smoke and distance hide its 
  far end. It seems to lead in the direction a traveler wants 
  to go. Once he sets foot on it, however, the Winding 
  Path begins to feed on him. First, it eats the memory 
  of his destination, then the memory of his origin and 
  finally the memory of his name. Once all three of these 
  are gone, Nessaiyah lets its victim go. One peculiarity of 
  the Winding Path is that it never shows any footprints, 
  even if it seems composed of ash or dust. Another is that 
  if anyone standing on it can manage to put a foot on 
  both its beginning and its end at the same time, then it 
  crumbles into flames and disperses.
  Orchinast, the Golden Mirror, moves in the center 
  of a lake of fire that follows her wherever she goes. She 
  manifests as a woman made entirely of golden fire who 
  always looks exactly like the person or thing she encoun-
  ters; if she speaks to a male, then she seems both female 
  and male in a subtly insane way. She offers to grant 
  anything that a person encountering her may want, in 
  exchange for the person’s face. The lake of fire in which 
  she swims constantly teems with screaming visages among 
  the flames. Her hunger for identity drives her closer to 
  the Middlemarches each year, and she may eventually 
  enter Creation and become shaped.
  Levasque, the Burning Plague, does not so much set 
  fire to the things that it encounters as it infects them with 
  a disease that causes patches of their bodies to turn to 
  flame and consume the rest. Levasque devours ash and 
  smoke, exhaling them as fire, and breathes forth contagious 
  heat each time it moves. It leaves a trail of areas of pure 
  inferno, where nothing remains but self-devouring flame. 
  Levasque rises in hissing tongues of flame from below to 
  above, spreading wings like a dragon, and sings in 100 
  creaking, weary voices as it flies. At its heart, the Burning 
  Plague keeps a screaming old man, whose identity no one 
  has discovered, but who maintains his form and integrity 
  even in the Deep Wyld and in a raksha’s belly.
  THE ELEMENTAL POLE OF FIRE
  Here at the purest center of Elemental Fire, the rising 
  flames consume even smoke and ash. Fire burns here 
  brighter than the sun, purer than diamonds, richer than 
  silk, sweeter than honey. Nothing material from Creation 
  can endure here without powerful Charms, sorcery or 
  elemental nature. Anything that lacks a perfect, uncon-
  ditional defense against fire must melt or burn. Darkness 
  and cold never touch the Pole of Fire, only degrees of heat 
  and light. No substance exists except great, ever-changing 
  landscapes of fire; forests, whirlwinds, bridges, arches, 
  aurora that fill the sky and palaces that burn brightly 
  against the background inferno.
  The Elemental Dragon of Fire spends much of his 
  time here, in one of the few places of Creation where 
  he need not restrain his flames for fear of destroying 
  everything around him. However, Hesiesh spends much 
  of his time sleeping, husbanding his strength for those 
  moments when he must rise to obey Gaia’s commands. 
  Jakara the Blade-Like Flame, a lesser elemental dragon 
  who rose from a lowly position as a swordsmith’s forge-
  spirit, serves him. Jakara is a noble warrior and a loyal 
  follower, but a poor administrator. She patrols the area 
  around the pole herself, often forgetting to order her 
  elemental minions to see to petty matters.
  The Pole of Fire itself rises in a great towering spire 
  at the heart of the area, overshadowing even the tallest 
  mountains of solid flame that surround it. At its top 
  sleeps the Elemental Dragon of Fire himself, coiling 
  round it in an endless spiral. Storms of fire sweep out-
  wards from him to crackle across the shifting, unstable 
  landscape, and lesser elementals and spirits rise to bask 
  in their caresses, briefly tasting the purest of flames. A 
  few solid palaces of solidified fire float amid the rippling 
  infernos, constructed by First Age Solars or gods to pro-
  vide temperate housing for their visits. Many Twilight 
  Solars came here to obtain samples from this pole, or 
  to smelt or anneal substances for which no lesser blaze 
  would suffice. Some of their tools and books remain in 
  their long-deserted dwellings, preserved and guarded by 
  their elemental or automaton servants.
  
  120
  
  121
  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  CHAPTER SIX
  CHAPTER SIX
  THE EASTERN WYLD
  THE EASTERN WYLD
  In the furthest portions of the East, beyond the reach 
  of any of any civilized nations, the trees grow ever taller, 
  and the growth becomes thicker and more impenetrable. 
  These unending forests support an abundance of living 
  things. This superabundance of animal life continues after 
  the point where the earth itself gives way to a cathedral of 
  unimaginably vast trees stretching endlessly from zenith 
  to nadir. Out here, near the Elemental Pole of Wood, the 
  Eastern Bordermarches are especially rich and verdant.
  The trees are alive with a multitude of arboreal 
  creatures. In addition to lemurs, monkeys and apes of 
  all sorts, there are several types of arboreal and semi-
  arboreal humans. Little is known of these beings other 
  than brief glimpses through the foliage and occasional 
  brushes—all the more rare because many such encounters 
  leave no survivors.
  THE EASTERN 
  EDGE OF CREATION
  In the East, the geography of the tainted lands 
  looks very much like the terrain of nearby mundane 
  regions. The changes appear in the plant and animal 
  life. Those Wyld-warped plants and animals that can 
  survive inside Creation thrive in the tainted lands and 
  occasionally spread out of the Wyld completely. A few 
  scholars believe that some of the huge, carnivorous 
  plants of the Southeastern jungles must be examples of 
  Wyld-mutated plants that naturalized within Creation. 
  Although plant-animal hybrids and similar exotic beings 
  cannot survive or breed outside the Wyld’s influence, 
  unusually animate or poisonous plants are especially 
  common in the tainted lands.
  
  122
  Conflict between the various inhabitants of the East-
  ern tainted lands and the Bordermarches happens less 
  often than elsewhere, because almost the entire region 
  consists of huge forests. Movement through the forests 
  is difficult; food and water are abundant. Few denizens 
  of Creation’s Eastern rim need to travel far, while most 
  have great difficulty finding one another. An ordinary 
  barbarian tribe and a band of Wyld barbarians who would 
  gladly kill each other on sight can live for generations 
  just 40 miles apart and never meet. Mortal barbarians 
  are less common in these lands, however. Most people 
  at the edges of the Eastern Wyld are Wyld barbarians, 
  beastmen or tree folk. Traders and representative of the 
  Haltan Republic occasionally break the tribes’ isolation 
  to barter for exotic plants and skins.
  in hopes of escaping the Great Contagion, or from the 
  ancient native peoples of the East, who found the Wyld 
  sweeping up and around them.
  LANDS OF THE TREE FOLK
  The tree folk live throughout the East, from the most 
  remote portions of Creation, through the tainted lands 
  and well into the Bordermarches. They have adapted so 
  perfectly to life in the treetops that assimilation to the 
  Wyld doesn’t change them very much. The tree folk live 
  a story that isn’t about them: they are just part of the 
  eternal forest, serenely accepting its bounty and its peril. 
  Their songs go in cycles, with no beginning or end, and 
  they see their lives the same way.
  Most tribes avoid contact with outsiders. The tree 
  folk prefer to avoid opponents when possible and vanish 
  into the forests, leaving behind a variety of deadly traps. 
  When the tree folk cannot avoid battle, they fight to the 
  death with ironwood boomerangs and blowguns; their 
  darts carry exceptionally deadly toxins.
  Non-Exalted outsiders can gain the trust of the tree 
  folk. Doing so usually requires both an introduction by 
  another outsider who already knows the tribe well, and 
  spending months among the tree folk learning their 
  ways and allowing them to become comfortable. After 
  some years of friendship, outsiders may even be invited 
  to become honorary members of their tribe.
  OTHER TRIBES
  The Wyld has changed many barbarian tribes so 
  they look very much like the tree folk, while some tree 
  folk have mutated in ways that make them look more 
  Wyld. In the East, the pox Elemental Adaptation: Wood is 
  quite common, as are mutants with green skin, vines in 
  place of hair, or green fur or leaves covering their body. 
  These so-called forest people are the most common sorts 
  of Wyld mutant found in the far East.
  Other Eastern Wyld barbarians have simian bodies, 
  with unnaturally long arms and legs, and feet similar to 
  an ape’s, with prehensile toes. Some also have tails like a 
  monkey’s. Although most of these beings are as bright as 
  other humans, a few tribes have sunk somewhere between 
  apes and men… and these barbarians have a taste for raw 
  meat and human blood wholly unlike any wholesome, 
  natural primate. Little is known about any of these 
  creatures outside Creation’s rim, except they are highly 
  aggressive and quite proficient with blowguns, javelins 
  or small bows. These barbarians typically use darts and 
  arrows tipped with deadly herbal poisons, and frequently 
  kill and rob travelers who stray too near their territories. 
  The most notorious half-ape tribe, however, serves the 
  THE HALTAN CONNECTION
  The Haltan Republic has no Eastern borders. 
  The forest nation sprawls off into formally affiliated 
  tribes, then a zone of cultural influence and trade 
  routes that extends thousands of miles—into the 
  tainted lands and even the nearer portions of the 
  Bordermarches. At least eight large barbarian tribes 
  consider themselves Haltan allies, including three 
  tree folk tribes, two tribes of Wyld barbarians, one 
  tribe of hawkmen and another of chiropterans. 
  These tribes have little contact with each other and 
  so the natural rivalries among barbarians, Wyld 
  barbarians and beastmen almost never trouble 
  this vast and unique region. In another century, 
  they will consider themselves Haltans in all but 
  law, and the Republic will extend citizenship. 
  The Haltan Republic owes much of its growth 
  to such assimilation. See The Manual of Exalted 
  Power—The Lunars for the deeper story behind 
  Halta’s singular expansion.
  THE FOREST PEOPLE
  Very few fully human barbarians live in or near 
  the Eastern tainted lands. The tree folk filled that 
  niche centuries before any normal humans ever had a 
  chance. The tribes that moved into the region after the 
  Great Contagion all turned Wyld long ago. Most tribes 
  just don’t face the same pressure to live on Creation’s 
  rim encountered in other quarters of Creation: more 
  likely, they approach the Wyld unknowingly, and are 
  taken unawares when a Wyld storm or a shift in the 
  Bordermarches taints the land around them. They are 
  descended from refugees who fled deep into the forest 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  mad Lunar called Raksi, Queen of Fangs: these are actu-
  ally beastmen, however, rather than mutants.
  BEASTMEN
  Raksi’s ape-children have little contact with the other 
  beastmen of the East. The most common Eastern breeds are 
  the snakemen, hawkmen, catmen and the bat-like chiropter-
  ans. These creatures live throughout the tainted lands and 
  Bordermarches of the East. In addition, some tribes—such as 
  the hawkmen who regularly attack the hawk-riding inhabit-
  ants of Mount Metagalapa—live fully within Creation. A few 
  individuals seek their fortunes in Nexus, where they can find 
  employment as gladiators or members of mercenary troops. 
  However, most Eastern beastmen prefer to avoid notice by 
  Creation’s inhabitants. These beastmen lead their inhuman 
  lives in the deep forests and occasionally raid nearby human 
  communities. Only in Halta do beastmen form a significant 
  and accepted part of human society.
  The catmen of the East are divided into several 
  breeds, each forming their own tribes. They range from 
  the lynxmen of the cool Northeast to the jaguarmen of 
  the Southeast jungles. Their collective range is wide (and 
  extends through the South as well), but individual breeds 
  may live in just one small area.
  The East’s most distinctive beastmen, however, are 
  the bat-like chiropterans. They live within the full range 
  of the Eastern forests. These beastmen are built for flight 
  with two hands on each of their wrists: a slender and 
  dexterous four-fingered hand, plus the extra, elongated 
  fingers that form the basis for their wings. Chiropterans 
  are short and lightly built; their extremely bat-like heads 
  feature large ears and short muzzles. A nap of short fur 
  covers a chiropteran’s body (but gives no protection 
  from weapons, so does not count as the Fur mutation). 
  Chiropterans operate equally well at night and during the 
  day; most chiropterans live nocturnally since this helps 
  them avoid contact with ordinary humans.
  Their unusual appearance renders chiropterans 
  distasteful to humans, so most avoid all contact with 
  humanity. Some chiropteran colonies raid human settle-
  ments, however, swooping down to steal small livestock 
  during the night and then flying off with their plunder 
  before the sun rises.
  THE BLOOD BATS
  The jungles of the Southeast hold a rare chiropteran 
  breed that drinks blood. They find human blood just as 
  palatable as the blood of domestic or wild animals. Fortu-
  nately, these blood-drinkers almost never go outside of these 
  jungles. The largest tribe of blood-drinking chiropterans 
  lives in a large tainted land 300 miles northeast of the 
  
  124
  ruined city of Rathess. Here, in a dense and occasionally 
  animate jungle, several thousand of these beastmen rule 
  over more than 10,000 human slaves who serve as both 
  their laborers and their blood supply. The chiropterans 
  avoid killing the humans they feed from, but make certain 
  to drain unruly and rebellious subjects enough to leave 
  them perpetually weak and anemic.
  The priests of the blood bats are skilled shamans with 
  enlightened Essence. They regularly deal with powerful 
  elementals. Because of ancient breeding experiments 
  by their Lunar creator, blood bats occasionally Exalt as 
  Air-, Fire-, or Wood-aspected Terrestrial Exalted. Such 
  Dragon-Blooded bat-folk form their ruling council. These 
  long-lived priest kings feel the same contempt for ordinary 
  Dragon-Blooded as they show for all humans and regard 
  their blood as a particularly potent and heady meal.
  Based on distorted legends of the ancient Dragon 
  Kings, these blood bats worship a debased version of 
  the Unconquered Sun. Their legends say that if the 
  Sun’s hunger for human blood is not sated near the 
  end of every day, the Sun might never set and its heat 
  will burn Creation to a lifeless cinder. The blood bats 
  force their slaves to raise huge stone pyramids as temples 
  to the Ever-Hungry Sun. Here, every afternoon, the 
  priests of the blood bats sacrifice one human captive 
  and offer his blood to the Sun. Blood bat war parties 
  regularly fly out in search of humans to capture. They 
  sometimes hunt in Rathess, since the ruins often contain 
  many well-nourished mortals filled with especially rich 
  blood. If the priests fail to obtain sufficient captives for 
  the sacrifices, the priests sacrifice one of their human 
  slaves. To prevent this from occurring, slaves often work 
  with blood bat hunting parties by making duplicitous 
  appeals for aid from travelers they encounter and then 
  leading their would-be saviors into the waiting arms of 
  the blood bats.
  BLOOD BAT WAR PARTY
  Description: This band of warriors serves one of the 
  priest-lords. The war party consists of a medium-sized team 
  of flying blood bat warriors wearing leather breastplates 
  (equal in protection to chain shirts), and armed with short 
  swords, short spears and javelins. They think of ordinary 
  humans as food and hunt them for sport.
  Commanding Officer: Klast Swiftwing, an Emerald 
  Dragon blood bat
  Armor Color: Crimson leather breastplates
  Motto: “Blood for the Sun!”
  General Makeup: 50 flying light infantry with javelins and 
  short spears, supported by 20 slingers and 10 archers.
  Overall Quality: Excellent
  Magnitude: 3
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 2  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack: 3 
  Ranged Attack Damage: 2
  Endurance: 5 
  Might: 2 
  Armor: 1 
  Morale: 3
  Special Characters: Klast Swiftwing, a Dragon-Blooded 
  blood bat who is also one of the rulers of the blood bats.
  Formation: When not out raiding, the troops are quartered 
  in the bloodstained Temple of the Ever-Hungry Sun in the 
  blood bat’s city. They fight in skirmishing formation.
  WYLD POCKETS
  In the East, pockets of the Wyld often consist of small 
  groves of mutated trees or other plants that cover no more 
  than half a mile in diameter. The East’s inherent fertility 
  tends to diffuse and overwhelm most Wyld pockets as 
  the exuberance of life in the East overwhelms even the 
  raw, chaotic power of the Wyld. Some Wyld pockets hold 
  unique and strange ecosystems, or occasionally a single 
  very unusual entity.
  THE COLLECTOR WOOD
  This Wyld pocket in the eastern Scavenger Lands 
  is just a quarter mile in diameter. The entire region is a 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  section of the Bordermarches. The Wyld pocket looks like 
  a small, exotic forest where large, multi-legged creatures 
  resembling furry insects run and climb among trees whose 
  fleshy leaves can grow a yard across. Plants and animals 
  are all a vivid shade of reddish-purple.
  Anyone who observes the area closely discovers that 
  the animals are born from pods growing on the side of 
  the plants, and that the creatures exist to tend the plants. 
  Or rather, plant: each bromeliad-like tree grows from a 
  single network of roots and rhizomes. Almost none of 
  these creatures leave this Wyld zone. They cannot survive 
  inside Creation for more than a week or two and find 
  Creation deeply uncomfortable.
  However, any visitor faces grave danger. The creatures 
  attack anyone who enters the forest. They kill and devour 
  anything that harms the plants. Individuals who are caught 
  before they harm the plants are captured and placed 
  inside one of the pods on the side of the plants. In two 
  days, they emerge with vivid purple skin and proceed to 
  tend the plants. Just as everything else within “Collector 
  Wood,” these purple-skinned humans regularly change 
  form and soon are indistinguishable from the other crea-
  tures. Removing someone once he has emerged from a 
  pod causes him to die as rapidly as any other native of this 
  Wyld pocket, unless someone assisting him has potent 
  Shaping Charms that can remove the Wyld’s taint.
  Most disturbing of all, whenever the Collector Wood 
  acquires another servant, a new magenta-hued tree springs 
  up outside the forest boundaries, thus increasing the 
  forest’s area. To prevent this horror from spreading, the 
  local people built a wall around it and keep large animals 
  from wandering in.
  Although only the foolhardy or the occasional Exalt 
  is willing to enter this exotic trap, this Wyld pocket does 
  offer one treasure. The pods that breed the animals and 
  transform the Creation-born exude a dark purple sap 
  when cut (which attracts the creatures that protect the 
  plants). This sticky fluid is a potent restorative: each pint 
  allows mortals and Exalted to heal any injury without a 
  scar. In addition, drinking this liquid causes all existing 
  scars to fade and restores function to crippled (but not 
  missing) limbs. This healing requires between three and 
  seven days, depending upon the severity of the person’s 
  injuries. During this time, the individual falls into a 
  deep slumber and cannot be awakened until her injuries 
  have healed.
  The healing sap does have side effects. If the imbiber’s 
  player fails a (Stamina + Temperance) roll, made when 
  the character drinks the sap, the character wakes up 
  healed but suffers from Wyld addiction (as if from the 
  Bordermarches). If the drinker is anywhere near the 
  Collector Wood, she enters it in preference to any other 
  Wyld area. Since the nearest other section of the Wyld 
  is several hundred miles East, the treated individual is 
  most likely to head for Collector Wood.
  FAIR FOLK OF THE EAST
  The Fair Folk of the East regard appearance as the 
  primary art. They serve it in every way they can, reinforcing 
  natural beauty with art and craft. They perfume themselves 
  with orchids that no human eye has ever seen, and clothe 
  themselves in fabrics woven from dreams.
  The Fair Folk of the Northeast deck themselves in 
  somber yet striking clothing in shades of black and green 
  and favor night over day, shadow over sunlight. These Fair 
  Folk are creatures of control, fear and sadism. They adopt 
  a calm, haughty demeanor with the arrogance of known 
  superiority, but take the time to draw out a human’s 
  agony and fear. Their human slaves are utterly broken, 
  spirits shattered, taunted with dreams of freedom and 
  then hunted down in the woods until their hearts give 
  out. However, these raksha are cowards at heart. They 
  fight their duels to first blood rather than death. While 
  they live among trees and imitate their beauty, there are 
  corpses buried at their roots.
  The malign, beautiful and sly Fair Folk of the South-
  east deck themselves with gaudy bright colors, similar 
  to the poisonous frogs and insects of the region. They 
  are neither cowards nor stupid, but they are lazy. Jungle 
  raksha prefer to wait and strike from ambush, favoring 
  the blowgun, club and spear. They luxuriate in the heat 
  and damp, and lounge amid brilliant flowers, wrapping 
  themselves in swathes of silk, feathers, leather and metal, 
  or baring their skin to show off body-painting. Their vic-
  tims suffer atrociously, whether slaves, captives or mere 
  wandering fools. These raksha use glamours and jungle 
  hallucinogens to inflict hours of screaming, nightmare 
  torments as they extract the dreams of their prey. These 
  raksha hunger to enjoy the last iota of the dreamer’s soul, 
  extracted in screaming pain, and are swift to find ways 
  to deny or betray bargains.
  In between, the Fair Folk of the central East are as 
  exuberant and energetic as the teeming forests of their 
  realm. Fads and fashions change with the seasons. House-
  holds and freeholds search endlessly for the next fad that 
  will have the other raksha imitating them. As befits the 
  presence of the Valor-obsessed Opal Court, the Eastern 
  Fair Folk make bold plans and take chances, whether they 
  plan slave-taking raids deep into the Scavenger Lands, try 
  to make a swineherd into a king or offer three wishes to 
  a woodcutter, just to see what trouble they can cause.
  
  126
  THE ARCH OF BONES
  In the far Northeast, where the forests meet the snow, 
  rises the Arch of Bones. It hides deep in the woods, 
  in a freehold entered where the branches of two trees 
  intertwine. From the inside, the freehold looks like a 
  clearing littered with skulls, surrounded by dark, snow-
  hung conifers inlaid with the bones of these raksha’s 
  victims. A constant storm lashes the trees with veils of 
  snow. In the center of the clearing rise two towers of 
  bone and ivory, with a bridge between them at the top, 
  and many banners of pale silk whipping from poles along 
  its top and sides.
  The Fair Folk of this freehold are extremely secretive. 
  While they frequently buy victims at the Goblin Bazaars, 
  these Fair Folk take pains never to let anyone see the way 
  to their home; their purchased mortals are blinded, and 
  visiting Fair Folk are brought there blindfolded.
  Lady Ebon rules the Arch of Bones. She eschews 
  the usual fanciful raksha styles to wear simple drapes of 
  black, claiming that the winter in her heart knows no 
  end. The other Fair Folk follow her lead and similarly 
  dress in severe black with white accents and small orna-
  ments carved of bone.
  As with most freeholds, the ruler is the source and 
  center of the prevailing mood. Lady Ebon’s paranoia 
  comes from her birthright as one of the lost scions of the 
  Diamond Court (see p. 50). While the Diamond Court’s 
  destruction happened centuries ago, Lady Ebon still fears 
  attack from the courts and the true death, and expects 
  treason. Her most trusted counselor, Naithe the Black, 
  constantly manipulates other raksha or visitors into petty 
  conspiracies against Lady Ebon, so that she can then 
  expose them and feed her ruler’s paranoia further.
  Mortals in the Arch of Bones are tolerated pets or 
  helpless food; no raksha in the court would ever trust 
  a human enough to let one leave. Humans wander the 
  bone corridors, blinded and shackled, with the marks 
  of their raksha owner embossed upon their collars. The 
  hobgoblins of the household are whirling vortices of pine 
  needles, carved statues of wood and bone or wolf-skinned 
  humanoids with ice-crusted fur.
  THE BORDERMARCHES
  The Eastern Bordermarches often look much like 
  Creation, at least to someone unskilled in woodcraft. 
  The climate stays the same as the rest of the East, ranging 
  from cold forests in the Northeast to steamy jungles in the 
  Southeast. The plants and animals, however, can change 
  radically… and often intermingle, a phenomenon rarely 
  seen in the Bordermarches of the Wyld’s other quarters. 
  Tall reeds that end in serpents and trees whose leaves 
  migrate with the seasons are only two examples from this 
  unnaturally verdant realm. Even more than the rest of 
  the Wyld, everything in the Eastern Bordermarches can 
  breed with everything else and often does.
  While ordinary trees grow in the Eastern Wyld, most 
  trees sprout leaves and fruits belonging to other sorts of 
  plants as well as their own. A great many animals here are 
  born from fruit or pods. These creatures have no parents 
  to nurture them and so they either grow rapidly or leave 
  the fruit most of the way to adulthood.
  Usually, when these pods are brought back to Cre-
  ation, they cannot hatch and instead make interesting 
  curiosities; scholars sometimes buy them and cut them 
  open to examine the half-formed animals inside. Now 
  and then, these pods do survive the transition into Cre-
  ation and unexpectedly hatch. Given that a single pod 
  can contain a deadly flying serpent, a hive of intelligent, 
  carnivorous bees or a ravenous, flesh-eating monkey, this 
  trade in Wyld curiosities shall never grow very large.
  THE LAND OF NIGHT
  The Northeast holds a small forest locked in endless 
  night. When the sun shines over the rest of Creation, this 
  woodland stands out because it remains cloaked in per-
  petual darkness. The moon and stars shine normally over 
  this land, but the sun never shows. The trees are equally 
  unusual: many sorts of etiolated trees with bone-colored 
  leaves and chalk-white bark as well as the rare blood ebony 
  trees, which rapidly die if exposed to sunlight and have 
  jet-black wood and blood-red leaves and sap.
  An abundance of fungi live among these unnatural 
  groves. Mobile puffball mushrooms a yard wide creep 
  slowly between mushrooms up to five yards tall. The 
  mushroom spores do not affect the animals native to 
  the Land of Night, that are all unusually large versions 
  of nocturnal creatures. Strix and giant carnivorous bats 
  feast on the fungal trees and occasionally supplement 
  their diet with living flesh, while the deer have jet-black 
  eyes twice the size of normal members of their kind, 
  while their ebon hooves and antlers contrast sharply with 
  their unnaturally pale fur. Most of the hobgoblins who 
  live in this realm have the large-eared heads of bats: their 
  faintly clicking sonar allows them to ignore the perpetual 
  darkness of their homeland.
  THE SHADOWLAND OF FATAL ONYX
  The center of the Land of Night holds a city called 
  Fatal Onyx. This small shadowland benefits from the 
  perpetual darkness of its surroundings. The buildings 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  are all made from sculpted bones, from the pale yellow 
  of ancient and well-polished ivory to the stark white of 
  a sun-bleached skull. The ghosts of Fatal Onyx move to 
  and from the Underworld as readily as any other ghosts. 
  However, Wyld energies also taint this shadowland, and 
  so the ghosts of Fatal Onyx are all as black as soot; they 
  look like shadows given a three-dimensional form. Their 
  eyes and mouths give only minor variations in their 
  uniform darkness.
  While ghosts in Fatal Onyx start out as shadowy 
  version of the forms they take in the Underworld, over 
  time they mutate and change as much as anything else 
  in the Wyld. Some grow taller or wider (or both), and 
  their limbs occasionally transform into flippers, wings 
  or claws. Some ghosts lose all limbs and become feature-
  less, inky blobs crawling across the landscape. These 
  transformations gradually fade when ghosts return to 
  the Underworld, though the recovery may take decades. 
  Ghosts find such mutations almost as terrible as living 
  men would. The ghosts can leave anytime they wish—but 
  most remain and accept their progressive deformity, for 
  the shadowland does not protect the ghosts from addic-
  tion to the Wyld.
  A trio of exceedingly powerful and ancient nephwrack 
  necromancers are the absolute monarchs of Fatal Onyx. 
  They call themselves the Triat. They all look the same: 
  fluid, misshapen shadow-creatures barely recognizable 
  as humanoid, with long, snouted heads crowned with 
  glittering diadems of onyx. Just as all of their kind, they 
  hate the living. The Triat also loathe the chaotic existence 
  of the Fair Folk and their hobgoblin servants. The Triat 
  founded Fatal Onyx as part of a crusade to cleanse and 
  conquer the Wyld—and the Wyld caught them.
  The three nephwracks use the black ghosts as packs of 
  hunting beasts that run screeching and howling through 
  the Land of Night. When night falls in the surround-
  ing Bordermarches, the nephwracks lead their ghosts 
  to hunt anything they can find, including hobgoblins, 
  Wyld barbarians, beastmen, weaker Fair Folk and unusu-
  ally careless Exalts. The three nephwracks resist further 
  Wyld mutation because the Wyld has made them one 
  of its stories, as the dread huntsmen who rule the Land 
  of Night.
  The nephwracks do not care what they catch. Only 
  the hunt for living prey matters. They prefer to take mortal 
  (or immortal) victims alive and carry them back to Fatal 
  Onyx for a slow, agonizing death and consumption. They 
  especially enjoy torturing hobgoblins. Captured raksha 
  face the same fate unless they can buy their freedom with 
  gifts and sworn promises of large favors. A far worse fate 
  awaits mortals or Exalted captured by these monsters. In 
  addition to using their blood to power their foul necro-
  mantic rituals, the nephwracks possess a terrible artifact 
  that enables the user to devour dreams, emotions and 
  souls as the Fair Folk do. The nephwracks obtained this 
  artifact as ransom for a pair of captured raksha nobles. 
  The Triat periodically allow their best hunting ghosts 
  to ravish one of their captives. Even a small taste of this 
  twisted pleasure is one of the greatest joys a ghost can 
  obtain, and this lure attracts thousands of ghosts to Fatal 
  Onyx and their own entrapment in the Wyld.
  The Triat would prefer to hunt mortals and the 
  occasional Exalt. However, their packs of ghosts are 
  so addicted to the Wyld that most refuse to hunt in 
  Creation. Therefore, the Triat must usually settle for 
  hobgoblins. Now and then, the Triat raid the caravans 
  of slaves taken through the nearby Bordermarches, on 
  their way to raksha domains.
  MUTANT GHOST HUNTING HOST
  Description: This is Arlat Blood-Binder’s personal 
  hunting host. It consists of 120 moderately trained, but 
  exceptionally aggressive and determined war ghosts wearing 
  reinforced buff jackets and armed with axes or poleaxes.
  Commanding Officer: Arlat Blood-Binder, one of the 
  three nephwrack necromancers who rules Fatal Onyx.
  GIANT MUSHROOM SPOORS
  Cutting down or otherwise damaging the gi-
  ant mushrooms in the Land of Night may prompt 
  them to release a cloud of spores about six yards in 
  diameter. These spores are both mildly toxic and 
  horrifically invasive. Breathing the spores forces 
  the character to resist their poison effect (Damage 
  3L/1 Hour, Toxicity 3M, Tolerance —/—, Penalty 
  -1). In addition, the player of anyone touched by the 
  spores must roll (Stamina + Resistance), difficulty 
  3, for the character to avoid sprouting mushrooms 
  over her body. If a mortal botches this roll, the 
  mushrooms also grow internally, and within three 
  days the character explodes in a cloud of spores. 
  Fair Folk and Exalted whose players fail or botch, 
  and mortals who simply receive a failed roll, merely 
  sprout thumb- to fist-sized mushrooms all over their 
  body. These mushrooms subtract 1 from Dexterity 
  and reduce the character’s Appearance to 1. Mortals 
  require special medicine (minimum Occult 3, Lore 
  3 and Resources 2 to create) to cure them. Beings 
  of greater power recover from the spore infestation 
  as they recover from any other disease.
  
  128
  Armor Color: Pale gray reinforced buff jackets (ectoplas-
  mic; they evaporate in daylight)
  Motto: “Blood and life, blood and life!”
  General Makeup: 150 mutant war ghosts wielding axes 
  and poleaxes, supported by 10 nemissaries who possess 
  enemy forces, 50 zombies with poleaxes, and three spine 
  chains
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 4
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 4
  Ranged Attack: — 
  Ranged Attack Damage: —
  Endurance: — 
  Might: 3 
  Armor: 2 (-2 mobility) 
  Morale: 3
  Special Characters: Arlat Blood-Binder, a powerful 
  nephwrack skilled in necromancy; Tothis Vlan, leader 
  of the nemissaries
  Formation: When not in use, the zombies and spine 
  chains are stored in the main armory of Fatal Onyx, 
  while the war ghosts and nemissaries dwell in the city 
  when not out hunting. Arlat Blood-Binder dwells in the 
  city’s central palace-temple.
  MABANDE’S SERPENTS
  This raksha band dwells in the Southeastern Border-
  marches. Mabande’s Serpents are known for the accuracy 
  of their blowguns and the virulence of their poisons. 
  They dye their tongues in shades of blue and purple to 
  match their hair, and procure frogs and serpents from 
  far parts of the jungles, or even the Deep Wyld, in order 
  to distill new venoms. Mabande’s Serpents have become 
  one of the Guild’s best trading partners in the region, 
  since these raksha often need new slaves. They pay the 
  Guild with animals and plants taken from the Wyld, 
  and some of their drugs and poisons (though not their 
  finest work). Some of the Mabande’s Serpents philters 
  can rot a single internal organ while leaving the rest of 
  the body untouched, induce or prevent fertility, inflict 
  horrible addictions or slay creatures that resist any other 
  sort of physical damage.
  The Serpents build palaces of reeds and giant water-
  lilies, in a marsh where the vines intertwine with snakes 
  and poisonous frogs lurk in every pool of water. Their 
  human minions serve with desperate eagerness, aware 
  that even a hint of failure means that they become test 
  subjects for new poisons.
  Mabande herself maintains a careless, casual attitude, 
  lounging in her stillroom or her throne room while lesser 
  raksha tend to her every need. Sain the Throttler attends 
  to household discipline. This muscular warrior prefers 
  toxins that send his enemies into lengthy muscle spasms 
  until they choke on their own tongues. He currently 
  Fatal Onyx, a Magnitude 3 Domain
  Military: 2 
  Culture: 2 
  Government: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 1, Bureaucracy 1, Craft 1, 
  Integrity 2, Investigation 1, Occult 3 (Binding 
  Agreements +3), Performance 2, Presence 1, 
  Stealth 2, War 3
  Virtues: Compassion: 1, Conviction 4, Temper-
  ance 1, Valor 4
  Limit Break: Conviction 
  Current Limit: 3
  Willpower: 8
  Bonus Points: 15 
  External Bonus Points: 0
  Notes: Fatal Onyx is a fully supernatural dominion. 
  The Triat are sorcerers (more precisely, necroman-
  cers) with Legitimacy. Unlike most dominions, 
  Fatal Onyx lacks any external bonus points, because 
  it has no alliances. The ghostly inhabitants are all 
  completely loyal to the Triat, both due to the threat 
  of exile reinforced by the inhabitant’s addiction 
  to the Wyld, and the promise of draining mortal 
  emotions. The dominion’s Virtue Flaw causes Fatal 
  Onyx to inflict horrible tortures and suffering on 
  anyone the nephwracks suspect have opposed them 
  or even questioned their authority.
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  schemes to depose Mabande. Sain hopes to engage in 
  small invasions of Creation, slaying humans on all sides 
  and spreading fear; he sees himself as a glorious conqueror 
  similar to Balor himself, and fails to realize how human 
  and petty his ambitions are. The Serpents do not pur-
  sue contact with other Fair Folk, but host a great many 
  traveling raksha (or other people) who come to purchase 
  poisons. The household’s hobgoblins are humanoid but 
  composed of water, or they are half-women, half-serpent 
  beings with forked tongues.
  THE SERPENT HOST
  Description: The main force fielded by Mabande’s 
  Serpents if they need to defend their territory. These 
  150 raksha do not openly take the field, but attempt to 
  strike from cover, harassing the enemy with poisonous 
  missiles, spears and blowgun darts. All their weapons are 
  poisoned with the equivalent of arrow frog venom (see 
  Exalted, p. 131) or something stranger of the Storyteller’s 
  devising.
  Commanding Officer: Sain the Throttler
  Armor Color: Loincloths and skin paint in greens, 
  browns and bright flower shades
  Motto: None
  General Makeup: Foot troops
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 3
  Drill: 4
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3  Ranged Attack Damage: 3
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 3 
  Armor: 3 (all done by magic) 
  Morale: 3
  Special Characters: None
  Formation: Despite their superb Drill, Mabande’s Ser-
  pents only fight as skirmishers. Most of the time, enemies 
  encounter multiple smaller units.
  THE SILVER CLOUDS
  In the central Eastern Bordermarches lies the freehold 
  of the Silver Clouds, mansions roofed with silver and 
  ivory that can be seen glimmering through the woodlands 
  from far away. The raksha of this freehold follow Duke 
  Chanis, a warlord who knows no fear and risks anything 
  and everything to conquer. He enjoys good relations with 
  the Opal Court, and frequent hunts or tournaments 
  are arranged between the two. Many of his people are 
  infected by Chanis’s spirit, and he speaks of expansion 
  and the conquest of other raksha freeholds; he finds the 
  Arch of Bones a particularly tempting target.
  The raksha of the Silver Clouds ape divinity, claiming 
  to their human minions and victims that they are gods 
  descended from Yu-Shan. (This has not yet come to the 
  attention of any divinities that would punish such an 
  insult, but it is surely only a matter of time.) They treat 
  their human minions comparatively well, urging them 
  to strive valiantly for the greater glory of their gods, and 
  ravage their souls as they battle, devouring their urges 
  for glory and victory. Weaklings and the defeated are 
  exiled to the cellars below the Silver Clouds, and hunted 
  through the darkness by unseen marionettes that slowly 
  rip and tear the victims to pieces.
  Duke Chanis acts dramatically noble, heroic and 
  even somewhat honorable; he seems to take pride in not 
  breaking his word and in showing mercy to interesting 
  opponents who surrender gracefully. His most fervent 
  supporter is his lover Benne Foxjaw, a white-haired 
  raksha of great charm and a skilled painter. The two of 
  them betray each other frequently with Mitomin, the 
  Champion of the freehold and the best single combatant 
  within its walls. Mitomin fights with a bow or halberd. 
  He seeks hopelessly to free himself from his two lovers. 
  The emotional dynamics between these three powerful 
  raksha affect much of the politics within Chanis’ domain, 
  especially given that Chanis favors the Balorian Crusade, 
  while the other two do not.
  MIDDLEMARCHES
  Even more than in other quarters of the Wyld, the 
  Middlemarches of the East are imbued with life. The 
  forests absorb all the forms and qualities of Creation: trees 
  of flame or ice; trees of living, bleeding flesh; trees of iron 
  filigree that chime like bells; trees of braided human hair. 
  
  130
  The rest of the vegetable kingdom follows suit, from 
  cloth-of-gold moss to kelp-forests that send fronds waving 
  hundreds of feet into the air. The fusion between plant 
  and animal life also grows more pronounced, from vine 
  wyrms that merge giant serpents with jungle lianas to the 
  hatra trees that hatch these small but viciously swarming 
  beasts from pods. Conversely, many plants are mobile: 
  whole forests sometimes migrate, whether marching on 
  the ground, floating along great rivers or drifting on the 
  wind like giant dandelion seeds. Even the elements may 
  absorb living qualities, resulting in rivers of sap or blood, 
  rains of beetles or seeds or ground that twitches like the 
  itching skin of a gigantic beast.
  PROPERTIES, PEOPLE, PLACES
  AGGRESSIVE SCENT ZONE
  When nearing this region of the Wyld, even the 
  weakest nose detects a change to the air. Things smell 
  different—sharper, maybe—and almost everything has a 
  more detectable and distinct odor. Air smells more like 
  air, trees smell more like bark and sap, hands smell fleshy 
  and the ground smells more earthy. Aromas become more 
  noticeable and intricate the closer an explorer comes.
  Then all senses other than small diminish as visitors 
  approach the focus of the Aggressive Scent Zone. A person’s 
  sight dims, hearing dulls and sense of touch numbs, but 
  smell and its brother, taste, remain. This is not because 
  a person’s senses have weakened, but because things in 
  this waypoint have no qualities of image, sound or tactile 
  sensation—all these qualities are instead expressed through 
  scent. Eventually, all a person can do is smell.
  In the Aggressive Scent Zone, however, every scent 
  contains all the information necessary to function. A 
  tree smells like a tree, but also smells a certain width, 
  texture and distance away. Local beasts smell like their 
  analogues in creation but also smell confrontational or 
  unconcerned, young or old, scarred from battle or still 
  untested and scrawny or good eating. The path smells 
  directional, and stepping from it smells a little bit lost.
  Everything else has a scent of some kind, too. Up 
  smells like up, and not a bit like down. Someone standing 
  on her head (which her friends can’t see) smells oriented 
  upside-down. An incipient attack is preceded by the odor 
  of the event, just as an aggressor uses his target’s smell 
  to know where to strike. Speech comes across as sharp 
  scents that may take some practice to interpret. Anything 
  that can or must be perceived is conveyed through aroma 
  in the Aggressive Scent Zone.
  Humans, used to sight and hearing as their primary 
  senses, find it very difficult to accustom themselves to 
  functioning solely by smell. Without preparation or prac-
  tice, people new to the region acts in all ways as though 
  they were completely blind. It would be worse, losing all 
  hearing and touch, if scent did not pick up the slack.
  CAT FOREST
  Cat Forest can be hard to find, because it’s always 
  on the move—even more so than most Wyld locations. 
  Usually, an explorer can find it wandering back and 
  forth between the Eastern and the Northeastern Middle-
  marches, spending time in each. Some people seek it out 
  to acquire exotic pets, for themselves or for well-paying 
  employers, because the forest is home to breeds never 
  before seen in Creation. Of course, some are too large 
  to be made captive.
  In Cat Forest, cats run free everywhere, constantly 
  underfoot. The forest floor is covered not in needles but 
  in fur. Instead of loam, visitors smell the animal dander 
  and other odors one might expect of a place overrun 
  with cats. Cats are also overfoot, because the forest’s trees 
  are also cats.
  Cat-trees come in two kinds. The first is a mass of 
  squirming, crawling, clawing cats in the shape of a tree. 
  These tree-cats gather in the shape of local species—tower-
  ing pines and redwoods in the Northeast, branching oaks, 
  arching willows, and so forth. The tree-cats move constantly, 
  shifting position from the roots of the tree to the boughs 
  and back. When on the bottom, the cats move the mass 
  of felines above them slowly over the ground. At the top, 
  they sway and mew softly as wind rustles them, and one 
  occasionally falls to the ground like a ripened fruit. Except 
  fruits don’t land on their feet and run away….
  The second kind of tree is a sort of giant cat. Enor-
  mous legs have a furry, bark-like texture and a tangle of 
  leathery, cat-padded roots for feet. They reach up into the 
  sky and connect with spreading, furry rib-branches that 
  merge into a healthy-looking, leaf-bearing belly-canopy 
  up in the sky. Their tails hang from behind the two rear 
  trees, brushing along the ground in a long twist of mas-
  sive, furry vines, and their heads are enormous clusters 
  of furry needles with coloring suggestive of eyes, nose, 
  mouth and whiskers.
  Raksha occasionally ride the giant tree-cats, using 
  lures of occult and mundane nature to point the great 
  beasts where they want to go. Where the giant tree-cats 
  walk, the Cat Forest follows.
  An old woman, who calls herself the Magnificent 
  Suzerainess of the Celebrated Wood, walks wherever the 
  forest walks. When she tires, she calls to the animals that 
  scamper about her feet, and they converge and cling to each 
  other until they form a horse in the same way that other 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  cats make trees, and she rides. The Magnificent Suzerainess 
  of the Celebrated Wood steadfastly ignores anybody who 
  has hurt a cat within the past year, to the point that she 
  can walk completely through such people.
  The Suzerainess is a lost god of Creation. Only the 
  most puissant and skilled librarian or archivist could 
  extract the mystery of her former name and self from the 
  Bureau of Heaven’s Black Veil Annals. However, none but 
  Ryzala, Shogun of the Department of Celestial Concerns, 
  may peruse these records. Which she never does.
  Here and now, the Magnificent Suzerainess cares for 
  Cat Forest. She allows the raksha to manipulate the forest 
  from time to time because they do not harm it and they 
  always leave treats behind. For a god whose office has 
  been long empty, unnecessary or eliminated, she retains 
  a surprising amount of power. Using nothing but her 
  Charms and her wits, she can know everything that people 
  around her know. In her presence, people feel closer, 
  less alone and more empathic toward one another. Her 
  ability to engender these feelings make some believe she 
  was once the goddess of brotherhood or another abstract 
  concept, but all those gods are accounted for.
  When a visitor to Cat Forest truly impresses the 
  Suzerainess as a person of great virtue, as judged from 
  her unique perspective, she may bestow upon that per-
  son a gift. Endowments may include artifacts (she once 
  gave a daiklave made of cats), delicious and long-lasting 
  food, enhanced senses or a cat as a companion. This 
  last she gives only to her favorites, and it qualifies as an 
  automatic Familiar ••• that can stack with existing 
  familiars. The only twist is that the Suzerainess can share 
  the cat’s senses at will.
  FOREST OF ARMS
  In this bizarre Eastern woodland, the trees consist 
  of wildly branching arrays of arms and legs that watch 
  visitors with functional human eyes. In addition to mov-
  ing in the breeze, these limbs react to movement around 
  them. The trees try to grab anyone who comes within 
  range. The trees also fight back if someone attacks them. 
  Walking hands and strange conglomerations of arms 
  and eyes occasionally fall from the trees like ripe fruit, 
  and run or scuttle across the ground until they find a 
  new tree to join. If a mortal, Exalt or raksha passes by, 
  
  132
  In addition to being deadly to the touch, the Poison 
  Woods are inhabited by half-plant creatures that are 
  equally dangerous. A few brave (or foolhardy) people dare 
  to collect and train the beasts of the Poison Woods as 
  guard animals. None of these brightly colored creatures 
  can be bred outside the Poison Woods, however, since 
  they all grow from pods on the toxic plants, and none 
  of the plants will grow anywhere else—not even in other 
  Wyld areas.
  SKY FORESTS
  As in the other quarters of the Wyld, the idea of 
  “ground” becomes uncertain in the Eastern Middle-
  marches. Gigantic trees, miles high, can grow in the 
  Eastern Bordermarches and even the tainted lands—but 
  in the Middlemarches, whole forests can ascend to the 
  sky. A single massive trunk might support a whole forest 
  of normal-sized trees, shrubs, vines and other life, on a 
  patch of land cupped in its mighty branches. The trees 
  themselves might radiate outward from a clump of soil 
  and roots, like the seeds of a dandelion, with that central 
  mass supplying the local definition of “down.” Some 
  of these little forest-worlds drift freely. Climbing along 
  certain branches might take you to a sky-forest but not 
  take you back.
  THE OPAL COURT
  The Opal Court currently lies in the depths of the 
  Eastern Middlemarches. The court’s cataphracts and 
  courtiers practice the Virtue of Valor, inviting combats 
  from all and sundry, and going out to find them if they 
  don’t arrive fast enough. Dueling is a common sport, 
  although the current fashion is for challenges of will 
  and glamour rather than actual fighting. The courtiers 
  encourage their human servants to act as violent and 
  short-tempered as their raksha masters and mistresses, 
  so there is always some sort of brawling or battle going 
  on in the background. A wide assortment of hobgoblins 
  fill the area, many brought by masters and mistresses 
  from distant quarters of the Wyld and then discarded 
  here; most are warlike in some way, but the huge array 
  of styles makes them hard to categorize.
  The court itself occupies a large freehold. It looks 
  like a set of silk pavilions spreading outwards from a 
  central castle. The woods around it blaze with banners 
  and standards, and clatter with the armor and weapons of 
  defeated enemies. The court welcomes newcomers from 
  all quarters, and especially refugees seeking sanctuary 
  from enemies, knowing that they will bring interesting 
  feuds and battles with them. Deities throughout the East 
  suffer ever-increasing distress from the court’s presence. 
  ARM YOURSELF
  To bond with an unprotected victim, a free 
  arm need only maintain a hold for a number of 
  actions equal to its opponent’s Stamina. After 
  that time, the arm has successfully bonded itself 
  to the character. The time required is doubled for 
  gods and Exalts.
  A few surgeons might pay up to Resources ••• 
  for these animate arms and hands, as replacement 
  limbs for maimed patients—better an arm that 
  doesn’t match than no arm at all. Limbs from the 
  Forest of Arms retain their power to bond only 
  in a Wyld zone, however, so unless a doctor and 
  patient are willing to enter the Wyld the surgeon 
  also requires an operating room artificially infused 
  with Wyld energies.
  these creatures may mistake them for attractive trees in 
  desperate need of additional branches, and attempt to 
  climb up them and attach themselves.
  While a character protected from the effects of 
  Rakshastan is safe from anything more than casual im-
  mobilization or squeezing, an unprotected mortal or Exalt 
  finds the limbs bonding to him; the unfortunate person 
  immediately gain a particularly horrific-looking version of 
  the Multiple Arms mutation. Sadly, the extra limbs almost 
  never match the victim’s original arms, or each other, 
  and they bond anywhere they can get a grip.
  THE POISON WOODS
  In the most dangerous forest of the Eastern Middle-
  marches, the trees are formed of crystallized poisons 
  such as coral snake venom, strychnine or arsenic. Many 
  of the trees and other plants sport glistening and deadly 
  jewel-like thorns. A single scratch can bring a lingering 
  and painful death to any mortal. Eating one of the trees’ 
  fruits, the pure essence of poison, would kill all but the 
  most powerful raksha, gods or Exalted.
  TOXIC WONDERS
  Treat any scratch or prick from the forest as 
  exposure to arrow frog venom (see Exalted, p. 131). 
  All half-animal inhabitants have an additional 
  3L/3B soak from their plant-like skins, and their 
  bites are as dangerous as coral snake venom (see 
  Exalted, p. 131). A single well-trained poison 
  raiton or hatra sells for a high price in Creation 
  (Resources ••••+)
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  The Opal Court often sends raiding parties into Creation 
  to challenge local spirits and petty godlings to battles. 
  Sometimes the Fair Folk pose as mortal bandits—small 
  numbers of mortal bandits—and torment towns and man-
  ors until the outraged people muster to fight. Then the 
  court sends a greater force to fight this “rival kingdom.” 
  People throughout the Eastern edge of Creation now 
  pray for succor, and the Opal Court hopes they can find 
  it in the form of Exalted or other heroes who can give 
  them a real fight. The court’s leaders watch the turmoil 
  in Halta and consider how best to push it towards all-out 
  war. Of course, the Opal Court would split its army to 
  fight on both sides.
  The court’s ruler, Prince Japhthia, claims descent 
  from Balor himself. Japhthia sees himself as a mighty 
  strategist and leader of warriors, and declares that he is 
  destined to lead the next crusade. To this end, Japhthia 
  gathers information from across both the Wyld and Cre-
  ation. The court’s stability, and the scope of his plans, 
  has begun to cause a growing warp in the Loom of Fate, 
  even if he himself as a raksha cannot affect it.
  The Opal Court boasts many other notable Fair 
  Folk. The warrior Cahlenna eats nothing but the hearts 
  of prey that she has slain with her own hands. The idea 
  of hunting and killing one of the Lunar Exalted obsesses 
  her. She pays a number of Guild spies for information on 
  the whereabouts of Luna’s Chosen. She is also the head 
  of the Topaz Household, whose members are similarly 
  notorious for courage and for hunting.
  More outwardly pacifistic is Subarto, a minstrel from 
  the far North who seeks diversion by playing for perilous 
  rulers. He has gone as far as the Realm (while heavily 
  disguised) and even played for Dragon-Blooded and for 
  Immaculates. For Subarto, the thrill of the performance 
  seems to consist in knowing that his listeners may slay 
  him, and he refuses to perform unless this places him in 
  danger. Nobody trusts him, as he is a gossip and satirist, 
  but everyone talks to him.
  There is also the Laughing Boy, a raksha with no 
  known name who runs barefoot and leaves the ground 
  scorched behind him. He says little, but his eyes burn 
  with pure madness. The Laughing Boy enters Creation 
  from time to time to destroy and ravage. Otherwise, he 
  prefers the Deep Wyld, dancing through it but never 
  speaking.
  OPAL COURT RAIDERS
  Description: A group of 250 Fair Folk cataphracts. 
  They are of Excellent quality, half male, half female; while 
  the Opal Court can mobilize greater forces, this unit is 
  always ready for defense or attack. They wear gossamer 
  armor and carry gossamer swords, lances and bows, and 
  ride horses that can gallop through a forest as if it were 
  an open field.
  Commanding Officer: Baron Pierce
  The Opal Court, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 3 
  Government: 2 
  Culture: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 2, Craft 2, Integrity 3, Investi-
  gation 2 (Due Diligence 2), Occult 3 (Supernatural 
  Etiquette 3), Performance 3 (Saber-Rattling 3), 
  Presence 3, Stealth 2 (Sabotage 2), War 3 (Forcing 
  an Engagement 3)
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temper-
  ance 1, Valor 4
  Limit Break: Valor 
  Current Limit: 3
  Willpower: 7
  Bonus Points: 15 
  External Bonus Points: 9
  Notes: The Opal Court is a fully Supernatural 
  dominion. Prince Japhthia is a sorcerer with Le-
  gitimacy, while Subarto is a savant. In the event of 
  a Limit Break, the Opal Court immediately goes 
  to war, attacking the most convenient target, or 
  throws all its resources into any war it is currently 
  engaged in.
  
  134
  Armor Color: Iridescent black glass plate mail with red 
  silk scarves at the neck and helm
  Motto: “Eternal war, eternal glory!”
  General Makeup: Armed riders. All carry shortbows and 
  use them from a distance before charging.
  Overall Quality: Elite
  Magnitude: 5
  Drill: 4
  Close Combat Attack: 4 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Ranged Attack Rating: 3  Ranged Attack Damage: 3
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 4 
  Armor: 4 
  Morale: 3
  Formation: The Opal Court can muster several of these 
  units. They prefer to fight in close formation, charging and 
  curvetting in unison to show off their excellent Drill.
  ILIO STARA
  This First Age city, lost to the world since the Con-
  tagion, has resisted being swallowed by the Wyld for 800 
  years. Explorers in the Eastern Wyld might come upon 
  an open field of lush grass, about five miles across. It has 
  no obvious Wyld mutations or nature. The only unusual 
  feature is a bonsai tree that grows, undisturbed, in the 
  exact center of the meadow. The place seems remarkable 
  in its normalcy.
  When an explorer comes within one mile of the 
  bonsai, however, the strangeness reveals itself. As the 
  explorer walks toward the tree, she can see how she passes 
  tussocks and small boulders, but the tree seems to come 
  no closer. Likewise, she doesn’t seem to get any farther 
  from the edge of the field.
  Ilio Stara was the result of a Twilight Caste’s experi-
  ment in space and perspective. As an explorer travels 
  toward the tree, the distance that the traveler must cross 
  increases rapidly. Perhaps the traveler grows smaller, or 
  perhaps the space around her grows. Each step taken takes 
  the explorer less far than the last, and the grasses, stones 
  and insects around her become larger in comparison 
  to her. Either way, crossing the final mile to the tree is 
  equivalent to 100 miles of travel.
  Because the change is so gradual, an explorer on 
  foot may take several days to notice that the grasses are 
  getting larger, not just higher. The bonsai itself remains 
  the same size, which doesn’t help a character trying to 
  notice the size change. Only in the last several miles 
  does the false perspective lift, quickly inflating the tree 
  to many times its original size. By the time the explorer 
  reaches the tree, it towers over her and she can see the 
  once-fabled Staran Gate between the smaller trees that 
  cluster around the bonsai’s massive trunk.
  In the First Age, the Staran Gate was the public en-
  trance to Ilio Stara. Stunningly crafted from iridescent, 
  vastly magnified beetle wings, the gate’s two 100-foot doors 
  never look the same twice. From this point, a visitor can 
  see that Ilio Stara is a city cut into a living tree smaller 
  than a dog—but a full city nonetheless. Hallways without 
  number link thousands of chambers hewn into the wood. 
  These range from vast public spaces to the most private 
  bark-side apartments.
  The educated and the powerful of the First Age knew 
  Ilio Stara for the many arcane researchers who called it 
  home. Sperimin may have boasted the best teachers and 
  standard savants of the Age, but Ilio Stara had the most 
  creative and unpredictable researchers—whatever they 
  explored, it was usually something new and previously 
  unexamined. It seemed only natural for a city that owed 
  its entire existence to such an experimental (and never 
  duplicated) process.
  Even purely theoretical exercises could become 
  dangerous when they involved the Wyld, Malfeas and 
  other volatile subjects. Needles, which could separate 
  from the tree with little harm and would grow back in 
  a season, became disposable workshops. Many needles 
  were even designed to grow back with the hollow for a 
  new workshop already formed. Over the centuries, many 
  of the workshops have broken off and been replaced, 
  but some still hold remnants of experimental projects, 
  such as a (never completed) device to transfuse Lunar 
  and Solar Essence into a single Exaltation.
  The city’s creator planted the tree so its roots wrapped 
  around several small ingots of the magical materials. With 
  the distortion and expansion of space in creating the city, 
  those ingots—none weighing more than a pound—became 
  large enough to supply all the moonsilver, orichalcum, 
  starstone, soulsteel and jade the researchers could ever 
  need. Unfortunately, anything removed from the city 
  does not expand with the departing person.
  In the Pinnacle of the White-Robed Justiciar, the 
  city governor’s office near the top of the tree, stands a 
  wooden statue. It depicts a slender four-and-a-half-foot 
  man whose robe hangs strangely from the odd crooks in 
  the arms and neck. This is what remains of Tsen-Usen, 
  god of the bonsai and city father of Ilio Stara. His devo-
  tion to his Solar friends made him the first target when 
  the Usurpation came to the city. A weapon froze him in 
  place for an unknown duration (it was yet another experi-
  ment), during which time his wooden Essence crept over 
  his form until he appeared as he does now.
  Tsen-Usen’s altered nature slowly made the city unliv-
  able, and the population gradually dropped throughout 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  the Shogunate. The few who remained slowly became 
  wooden—emotionally and physically—just as Tsen-Usen. 
  Either its low population or cloak of spatial distortion 
  protected Ilio Stara from the Balorian Crusade. But from 
  then to now, the Wyld has inexorably crept inward.
  Historians think Ilio Stara is just another tale about 
  the lost wonders of the Old Realm. Nevertheless, some 
  people still call the city home… even if they have changed 
  since the First Age. Between the Essence of Elemental 
  Wood that permeates the city and the Wyld energies 
  seeping in through aged protections, the Starans have 
  become more elemental than human.
  Starans look humanoid, with two legs and two 
  arms, but their consciousness resides within the masses 
  of needles that grow atop their hard, knotty bodies. The 
  city’s inhabitants spend their time growing meager crops 
  in the vast gardens between roots that used to feed tens 
  of thousands, maintain what few conveniences they can 
  and otherwise huddle behind the protection of the Staran 
  Gate. Instead of dying, a Staran simply slows down and 
  eventually plants herself outside the city to become a tree 
  forever. True death only comes if the Staran ends life in 
  a place where she cannot set down permanent roots.
  About 30 years ago, a young Lunar called No 
  Trouble Zhang rediscovered Ilio Stara. In short order, 
  Zhang acquired enough influence among the Starans to 
  begin his own experiment in social reconstruction. Ilio 
  Stara changed from a dwindling remnant of a city to a 
  growing city-state with influence in its region. Under 
  Zhang’s command, the Starans taught diplomats and 
  dispatched them to local Wyld societies and Fair Folk 
  courts. No Trouble Zhang trained soldiers and officers 
  himself and created military doctrine to take advantage 
  of the people’s mutations, enabling the city to defend 
  itself against aggressors. (See p. 154 in Chapter Seven for 
  Zhang’s statistics.) Today, Ilio Stara exercises some influ-
  ence in nearby waypoints of the Middlemarches.
  Despite the centuries of occupation and the Starans’ 
  recent labors to rebuild their city, miles of corridors and 
  hundreds of workshops remain unexplored. Zhang does 
  not overestimate his ability to understand and safely 
  examine many of the remaining experiments. On the 
  other hand, he is not yet ready to reveal his prize to other 
  Lunars, either. He wants to keep the glory of Ilio Stara’s 
  reconstruction for himself, instead of risking older and 
  stronger Lunars taking over the project.
  STARAN DEFENDERS
  Description: These are the staunch guardians of the 
  city, as No Trouble Zhang trained and organized them. 
  The soldiers paint their wooden bodies with various bark-
  staining dyes to mark their duty and rank. Their natural 
  toughness ensures that they don’t need to wear armor.
  Commanding Officer: Varies
  Armor Color: Gold and silver streaks
  Motto: “As the city stands!”
  General Makeup: Heavy infantry. They carry spears, 
  weapons that are easy to make in the surroundings and 
  inflict little damage to the Starans themselves if picked 
  up by enemies on the battlefield. Most weapons are made 
  of wood, reverently harvested from the dead wood of the 
  warrior’s ancestors.
  Overall Quality: Good
  Magnitude: 3 (multiple units)
  Drill: 2
  Close Combat Attack: 3 
  Close Combat Damage: 3
  Endurance: 6 
  Might: 1 
  Armor: 3 
  Morale: 2
  Formation: Units of Staran defenders are ready at most 
  times to march out of the Staran Gate and stand against 
  intruders. They do not need to scout because of the great 
  Ilio Stara, a Magnitude 3 Dominion
  Military: 2 
  Government: 2 
  Culture: 2
  Abilities: Awareness 1, Bureaucracy 2 (Dealing 
  with Fair Folk +1), Craft 3, Integrity 3 (Resisting 
  Fair Folk +1), Investigation 1, Occult 2 (Cutting-
  Edge Research +2), Presence 1, War 2 (Endurance 
  Tactics +1)
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 2
  Virtue Flaw: Compassion 
  Current Limit: 6
  Willpower: 8
  Bonus Points: 15 
  External Bonus Points: 2
  Notes: Ilio Stara is a near-human dominion. Right 
  now, Zhang is the only sorcerer with Legitimacy in 
  Ilio Stara, and he is often absent. The Starans’ old 
  chieftains provide savants who could act in his stead 
  when he isn’t around. Ilio Stara’s external bonus 
  points come from trade deals and culture interaction 
  with nearby Wyld communities and are tied up in 
  specialties. (Its specialty with Cutting-Edge Research 
  is largely potential at this point, and requires the 
  city to gain a greater number of people who have 
  the Abilities to use its remaining laboratories.)
  Try as they might to be an active society, the Starans 
  have a difficult time rousing themselves from the 
  comfortable diminishing they experienced before 
  Zhang’s arrival. Ilio Stara’s Limit Break causes its 
  people to cease making real effort, instead allowing 
  the citizens to simply relax and do as they like.
  
  136
  perspective lookouts have from the high points of the 
  bonsai. They have still not been tested, as the city has 
  not been attacked.
  THE DEEP WYLD
  In the Deep Wyld of the East, the other elements of 
  Creation fade to leave a landscape composed entirely of 
  wood and twigs, flower petals and fungi, pollen, roots 
  and leaves. Here visitors can find duplicates of everything 
  from the dense jungles of the Southeast to entire streets 
  from Juche, all composed of layers of flowers, twigs and 
  leaves. Some trees bear miniature copies of famous manses 
  as fruit or fir-cones, while others have maps of the streets 
  of Whitewall or the tunnels of Gethamane etched into 
  their bark. The Deep Wyld also holds native creatures 
  made from wood, flower petals and leaves.
  Waves of vegetation sweep through the Deep Wyld, as 
  trees and plants expand and contract, grow and die, swell 
  and fade. No space is certain and no track is sure, because 
  there is no sky to navigate by and no earth beneath the feet, 
  only the endless masses of vegetation. Two people could 
  pass by each other and never know it, one walking on a layer 
  of branches directly above the other. Scale and direction 
  shift so that a traveler can never find the ground; she can 
  climb along a branch, reach a trunk, find it is yet another 
  branch and crawl along to discover she is apparently in a 
  huge patch of moss where every stalk is a tiny tree.
  However, there is one benefit to having a freehold in 
  the Eastern Deep Wyld, as opposed to any other quarter of 
  Creation: the freehold can be very well hidden. The Deep 
  East holds Fair Folk who have hidden for centuries now, 
  from even before the time of the Balorian Crusade, who 
  stole across the border of reality and nestled themselves 
  among the trees and leaves, or who retreated here to lurk 
  in refuges crafted from deep-buried roots.
  At least one group of Fair Folk have gone hungry here for 
  the last four centuries, bereft of mortal slaves and too fearful 
  to go out and steal more, jealously guarding weapons once 
  used by Balor himself but afraid that other raksha will steal 
  them away. Their leader, Entanel, sings his people to sleep 
  every night; his voice was acclaimed as a marvel once, but 
  now only the leaves and the blossoms hear it. Their freehold 
  is hidden deep inside a huge tree that remains stable only 
  because Entanel wishes it so, and few even suspect it exists. 
  These raksha have become childlike in their simplicity, but 
  also extremely cruel, and play with any elementals or other 
  living things that the raksha can capture, tearing them apart 
  and decorating the walls with their remains.
  UNSHAPED RAKSHA
  One of the most prominent unshaped raksha who 
  haunts this quarter of the Deep Wyld is Loshirata, That 
  Which Devours. She is at the same time the tree whose 
  roots break the earth beneath her, and the darkness hidden 
  beneath a single leaf. She walks through the forest and it 
  parts before her, and yet when she is seen she has always 
  been growing there. Her leaves whisper madness, and 
  her pollen is rank insanity for all who breathe it in. The 
  birds that nest in her branches are rooted in her wood, 
  and sing as the wind blows through their green feathers. 
  She is a contagious cancer in the Deep Wyld, spreading 
  further each year. Other unshaped raksha devour her 
  parts when they can, as she is sweet to the taste.
  In the Northwest lurks Shirrduname, the Colossal 
  Walker Among the Trees. However far up one climbs, his 
  face and torso can never be seen, only his striding legs 
  and his long-fingered hands—and, sometimes, a whip-
  ping tail that brings down forests in its wake, though 
  the Deep Wyld soon grows them again. Shirrduname 
  can be heard from far off, but it does little good to flee, 
  because wherever he can be heard is within a single stride 
  of his legs. He abhors noise, and tramples anything that 
  he hears make a sound. Lizard-like creatures live in the 
  hollows of his body and crawl up and down his legs, 
  deathly silent, chewing on anything they find.
  Another unshaped raksha is Semiramis, the Whisper 
  in the Leaves. She is the drought-wind that steals the water 
  
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  CHAPTER SIX: THE EASTERN WYLD
  from the roots and the strength from branches, the killing 
  hunger that makes trees turn on each other, the sound of 
  fruits drying on the vine and crumbling to ash. Where 
  she blows, she leaves desiccation and malice behind her, 
  and she delights in seeing others destroy each other. All 
  who witness her know they have feared her all their lives. 
  Semiramis is profoundly untrusting, and will always betray; 
  it is not in her nature to tolerate alliance with any other 
  being, be he unshaped, shaped, human, divine or Exalt, 
  though she always pretends that she will keep her word. 
  Semiramis prefers the Southeast, though in high summer 
  she sometimes drifts further westward, seeking prey.
  THE ELEMENTAL POLE 
  OF WOOD
  Creation’s Eastern limit is an eternal world of green 
  thought and green shade. However far one climbs, one 
  cannot reach the sky or the ground—nothing but trunks 
  and branches, vines and smaller plants, going up and 
  down forever. The very light is green, filtered down 
  through countless leaves above.
  Animals and birds of living wood and leaves move 
  silently through the foliage and among the trees. Giant 
  serpents woven from vines and withies slither among the 
  branches and between the roots, rising to swallow anything 
  nearby. Everything here is quiet, except for the rustling 
  of leaves and the whisper of reeds. The sound of voices 
  carries for a long distance and draws anything nearby.
  This is the pole of growing things and abundant 
  life, where nothing dies except when it is eaten or as-
  similated into something else. All things change their 
  shape, alter, grow and decay, but nothing can escape 
  the cycle of vegetable life. Moss and molds grow on the 
  unprotected clothing and bodies of travelers, leaves and 
  fruit sprout from human skin and flesh and sleepers may 
  be overgrown, waking to find themselves living masses 
  of wood and flowers, their bones threaded through with 
  vines. A visitor requires at least two Charms to survive: 
  a general Charm such as Element-Resisting Prana and 
  a Charm against Shaping effects, such as Integrity-Pro-
  tecting Prana, lest the Pole of Wood consume her and 
  maker its own.
  The Elemental Dragon of Wood does not come here 
  often, as events elsewhere in Creation keep him busy. In 
  his absence, a lesser elemental dragon of Wood named 
  Kotomaro the Hidden Lightning has set up dominion 
  here, claiming that as the most spiritually evolved entity 
  in the neighborhood she has the right (and indeed the 
  moral duty) to take command. Her every scale is a per-
  fectly shaped leaf carved from ironwood or ebony, her 
  eyes shine the pure green of spring willows, and her claws 
  have the strength of a thousand oak tree roots. Kotomaro 
  does not mention that she had to flee Heaven on short 
  notice due to the investigations of an auditing Sidereal 
  team—or that she had previously accepted bribes from 
  the minions of the Deathlord known as the Dowager 
  of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils—or that she 
  now hides from the attention of both Heaven and the 
  Dowager. Instead, she lords it over the lesser elementals, 
  ruling firmly and harshly. She gives instructions that any 
  visitors be brought to her palace of copperwood and 
  flame trees for her inspection.
  Other elementals and spirits in the area grow weary 
  of Kotomaro’s rule. None yet suspect that she is anything 
  except haughty and sadistic—traits that are not unknown 
  among gods and dragons. However, a couple of the lesser 
  spirit courts now plot against her. They hope to lure a 
  powerful Exalt to their domain, and then bribe the Exalt 
  to dispose of her. The spirits have much to offer, since the 
  Elemental Pole of Wood has all the potential treasures of 
  its element. The one thing these spirits do not want is to 
  draw the attention of Sextes Jylis, the Elemental Dragon 
  of Wood himself: they do not wish to find themselves 
  under a possibly more tyrannical clawed heel, or sent 
  out into Creation.
  
  138
  
  139
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  CHAPTER SEVEN
  CHAPTER SEVEN
  WYLD PRODIGIES
  WYLD PRODIGIES
  The previous chapters have concentrated on descrip-
  tions. This chapter offers the game mechanics: the way 
  people use the Wyld, and try to resist it; more Wyld 
  mutations, adding to the basic list from Exalted; sample 
  characters, creatures and races that live in or near the 
  Wyld; and a guide to playing characters from half-human 
  races, or who begin play with Wyld mutations.
  USING THE WYLD
  Cultures that live with the Wyld as facets of their 
  everyday life interact with it in many ways. Some people 
  see the Wyld as an antagonist, others consider it a god 
  and more simply call it home. They struggle against it to 
  survive, fighting its dangers and enjoying its rare boons. 
  Brave or foolish people can try to steal more benefits from 
  the Wyld at the risk of personal disfigurement or derange-
  ment. These are vision-questing and power-questing.
  Of course, not everyone who enters the Wyld seeks 
  something special. Some visitors only want to get away whole. 
  Any traveler from Creation is in danger of gaining mutations 
  through simple exposure to the Wyld. To escape it, a character’s 
  player must roll (Willpower + Essence) at a frequency and 
  difficulty determined by the region. The chart below extends 
  the table found in Exalted, on p. 283, to include Pure Chaos 
  and covers the entire range of mutations. Remember than 
  any mutation may manifest as a derangement.
  VISION-QUESTING
  The Wyld is a realm of unbound possibility and danger-
  ous, warping chaos. Occasionally, a resourceful character 
  can use the Wyld to see subtle aspects of the potential 
  future or events far away. When the need is great and times 
  are desperate, a character may travel out of Creation and 
  seek meaningful visions in the swirling chaos. As the Wyld 
  
  140
  breaks all boundaries, a strong-willed person can sometimes 
  pull information about other places and other times from 
  its kaleidoscopic reflections of Creation.
  Visions-quests often answer more questions than 
  the quester asks, if he is perceptive enough to recognize 
  them. The Lunar Exalted sometimes use vision-quests 
  as a method for increasing their Essence, Intelligence or 
  Integrity ratings, among others. Most characters enter the 
  Wyld with a ready supply of hallucinogens, which tend 
  to accelerate the process of finding the proper vision.
  A character wanders for days, weeks or sometimes 
  months before he finds himself back in Creation, some-
  times wiser and sometimes just madder. The drugs may 
  muddle the entire experience into one blurred fog, the 
  quester might retain a memory sharper than anything 
  before experienced or anywhere in-between.
  To perform a vision-quest, a character must remain 
  in the Wyld long enough that the Wyld Exposure table 
  (see Exalted, p. 283) has called for three rolls. This 
  might be three months wandering the Bordermarches, 
  two months in the Bordermarches and one week in the 
  Middlemarches or any other combination of locales. 
  Using powerful hallucinogenic drugs at frequent in-
  tervals reduces the period to two rolls. Most cultures 
  that practice vision-quests add various trappings—drugs, 
  rituals, sacrifices, talismans and the like, which gener-
  ally add one die to the roll—but this is the core of it. 
  If the character survives that length of time, his player 
  rolls (Perception + Occult) to determine the result. 
  Charms may not enhance this roll: the character sub-
  mits to the Wyld; he does not try to force it through 
  his own Essence.
  Expanded Wyld Mutation Table
  Terrain 
  Difficulty 
  Interval 
  Success 
  Failure 
  Botch
  Bordermarches 
  2 
  Monthly 
  — 
  Pox 
  Deficiency
  Middlemarches 
  3 
  Weekly 
  Pox 
  Debility 
  Deficiency, Debility
  Deep Wyld 
  5 
  Daily 
  Affliction 
  Deformity 
  Debility, Deformity
  Pure Chaos 
  7 
  Minute 
  Blight 
  Abomination 
  Deformity, Abomination
  
  141
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  • Botch: What the character sees is maddeningly 
  uncomfortable, impossibly disturbing or otherwise ter-
  rible. It may be relevant to the question, but it provides 
  no answer. Instead, the character develops a derangement 
  of the Storyteller’s choice (debility-level if the character 
  quested in the Bordermarches, deformity-level in the 
  Middlemarches or deeper). He may try to vision-quest 
  again, but he suffers a -6 penalty on all rolls to resist 
  exposure and find his answer. This penalty drops by one 
  for each month clear of the Wyld.
  • Failure: The character grows ever closer to the 
  answers he needs but they stay continually out of reach. 
  He gains a derangement of the Storyteller’s choice (de-
  ficiency-level in the Bordermarches, debility-level in the 
  Middlemarches, deformity-level in the Deep Wyld or 
  worse). Just as on a botch, he may immediately try the 
  vision-quest again, but the penalty is only -4.
  • 1-3 successes: The character encounters a scene or 
  series of scenes in the Wyld that pertain to the question 
  he asked. At one success, the vision vaguely directs the 
  character to a source of information in Creation, requiring a 
  great deal of interpretation. Additional successes clarify the 
  matter to the point where, at three successes, the character 
  receives clear directions where to seek his answer.
  • 4-6 successes: The character’s experience in the 
  Wyld answers the question he posed when he entered. 
  Four successes are as one success, providing a vague an-
  swer but at least the character doesn’t need to look any 
  further. Six successes provide a clear, direct answer.
  • 7+: The vision-quest answers the character’s original 
  question and supplies hints about some related questions, 
  or questions that develop from the answer.
  During the vision-quest, characters still have encoun-
  ters in the Wyld and must deal with Wyld exposure. Any 
  of these might kill the character or drive him back into 
  Creation before the quest ends.
  POWER-QUESTING
  Similar to vision-questing, power-questing is when 
  the character enters the Wyld seeking not an answer but 
  a tangible boon. Cultures where Wyld mutations are not 
  abnormal, or even where they are expected, frequently use 
  power-questing to gain their beneficial disfigurements. 
  Wyld shamans, or instance, often quest in hopes of 
  gaining an enlightened Essence.
  In short, a character willfully exposes herself to the 
  Wyld in an effort to gain a desired mutation. The most 
  difficult part of the process is guiding the mutation. 
  Questers accomplish this by seeking out Wyld encoun-
  ters that seem more likely to provide a certain sort of 
  mutation, with the force of their wills or through many 
  other rituals and methods.
  Trying to control the mutation actually makes it 
  more dangerous. While a character traveling through the 
  Bordermarches may gain a pox should she fail to resist 
  exposure, a power-quester in the same area might earn the 
  desired pox on success but a deficiency on failure. After a 
  character has spent enough time in a section of the Wyld 
  to trigger a single roll against exposure, her player rolls 
  (Willpower + Essence) and consults the table.
  Characters can also use the power of the Wyld to 
  remove that which it bestowed. The Wyld is fickle and 
  dangerous, but some people are desperate enough to try. 
  Power-questing to remove a mutation rather than gain one 
  uses the same chart, except that the character removes a 
  pox, affliction and so on after a successful roll and the 
  difficulty of the roll increases by one.
  TREASURE-QUESTING
  The vision-questing procedure can also apply 
  to attempts to locate specific items or places within 
  the Wyld. Just about anything might exist; whether 
  the Wyld creates a desired location or merely guides 
  a character to it may be a distinction without a 
  difference. The more successes rolled, the closer 
  the quester comes to whatever she wanted to find, 
  whether diamonds or a double of her lost love. 
  If a character seeks artifacts, demesnes, magical 
  materials or other supernatural treasures, add 
  the relevant Background rating (at least one) to 
  the difficulty for the (Perception + Occult) roll. If 
  the roll fails because of this added difficulty, the 
  character has merely found a Wyld-phantasm that 
  quickly evaporates within Creation.
  Power-questing Table
  Terrain 
  Difficulty 
  Success 
  Failure 
  Botch
  Bordermarches 
  3 
  Pox 
  Deficiency 
  Debility
  Middlemarches 
  4 
  Affliction 
  Deficiency, Debility 
  Deformity
  Deep Wyld 
  6 
  Blight 
  Deformity, Debility 
  Deformity x 2
  Pure Chaos 
  8 
  Abomination 
  Abomination, Debility 
  Abomination, Deformity x 2
  
  142
  PROTECTION FROM THE WYLD
  More often than people want to use the Wyld, they 
  want protection from it. Since jade obelisks and reality 
  engines are in short supply, all of the peoples that live 
  near the Wyld have devised ways to protect themselves 
  from its effects. Even Wyld mutants seldom wish to gain 
  harmful mutations, or in fact, any new mutations at all. 
  The methods of protection are quite varied. Thaumaturges 
  can craft warding talismans. Shamans and summoners 
  can call upon local gods and elementals whose Charms 
  can protect a tribe from the effects of the Wyld.
  TALISMANS
  The thaumaturgical Art of Enchantment can create 
  warding talismans against the Wyld. One common sort of 
  talisman is carved from hard, fine-grained stone such as 
  agate or jade. These talismans look like plum-sized globes 
  or palm-sized plaques bearing stylized images of humans, 
  maps of Creation or sigils of Gaia, Autochthon, Luna 
  or other supremely powerful entities. Another common 
  type of talisman consists of fine cloth embroidered with 
  metal thread. When the Delzahn tribes of the South lived 
  near the Wyld, they embroidered copper, silver or golden 
  sigils and arabesque borders on their robes, the metal 
  depending upon the wearer’s status and the potency of 
  the robe’s protection. The Delzahn of Chiaroscuro now 
  live thousands of miles from the Wyld, but they retain 
  the custom. Either form has the Resource costs and 
  difficulties to create of any other warding charm (see 
  Exalted, p. 379).
  CREATING TALISMANS AGAINST THE WYLD
  One degree of Enchantment allows characters to 
  create talismans that provide +1 die to rolls against both 
  mutation and Wyld addiction. These talismans also add 
  their bonus to all rolls for power-quests and vision-quests. 
  Two degrees of Enchantment let the thaumaturge increase 
  this bonus to +2 dice, and three degrees of Enchantment 
  raise the bonus to +3 dice. The bonus from a talisman 
  stacks with any bonus gained from protection by spirits. 
  However, multiple talismans are not cumulative: only 
  the higher bonus applies.
  Masters of Enchantment can also create talismans 
  that provide complete protection against mutation and 
  Wyld addiction within the Bordermarches unless the 
  wearer botches the mutation or addiction roll. However, 
  because these talismans specifically protect bearers against 
  Bordermarches, the talismans offer no protection against the 
  deeper levels of the Wyld. Also, this protection does not 
  stack with ordinary talismans against the Wyld: a character 
  may wear one or the other, but not gain the benefits of 
  both. Such talismans count as one-dot artifacts.
  HOUSE OF REFUGE (ARTIFACT •)
  The most powerful protection available from thau-
  maturgy can block the mutational and addictive effects 
  of the Middlemarches, and reduce Deep Wyld exposure 
  to Bordermarches level. These wardings, however, can 
  only protect a small, fixed location such as a hut. The hut 
  itself must be specially constructed with protective sigils 
  worked into its walls and ceiling. Small fetishes crafted 
  from wood, stone, shell, feathers and other materials 
  face each cardinal direction (with one on the center of 
  the roof), while a miniature obelisk incorporating a bit 
  of jade or moonsilver is buried beneath the center of 
  the floor. The House of Refuge covers (thaumaturge’s 
  Essence x 100) square feet. An entire hamlet might pack 
  into a House of Refuge during a Wyld storm or (for Bor-
  dermarches communities) on nights of the full moon. If 
  the community is too large to fit in a House of Refuge, 
  the protection is usually reserved for the children.
  WYLD WATCHES
  Communities living in or near the Wyld often pos-
  sess a talisman known as a Wyld horn or a Wyld watch 
  that warns of the Wyld’s approach, or (if used within the 
  Wyld) of the approach of a deeper level of the Wyld. Even 
  tribes of Wyld mutants who worship the raw power of 
  the Chaos do not want the roiling madness of the Deep 
  Wyld to sweep over them without warning.
  All of these talismans are at least as large as a man’s 
  head and have a variety of methods of providing warning. 
  PROTECTION RATINGS
  Tribes that survive in the tainted lands or the 
  Wyld for more than a few years may combine both 
  talismans and blessings by spirits and generally 
  enjoy a +2 bonus to all of their rolls to resist the 
  Wyld. Often, chiefs, shamans, renowned warriors 
  and war bands that deliberately travel deeper into 
  the Wyld win or are awarded additional protections 
  that grant them between a +3 and a +5 bonus on 
  all rolls to resist the effects of the Wyld. One result 
  of these protections is that the shamans and the 
  leaders of tribes of Wyld mutants and beastmen 
  can go on vision-quests and power-quests into the 
  Middlemarches and return bearing both valuable 
  knowledge and a variety of deliberately chosen mu-
  tations instead of coming back with blasted minds 
  and twisted bodies.
  
  143
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  Wyld watches made in the South often contain small, 
  ever-burning fires that suddenly leap, crackle or roar 
  when the Wyld nears, while Northern Wyld watches look 
  like vessels whose flutelike openings emit an unearthly 
  shriek or moan. All of these warnings become stronger 
  and more insistent if an actual Wyld storm approaches. 
  Regardless of the talisman’s power or design, groups 
  who live near the Wyld always dread this warning and 
  have learned through bitter experience the necessity of 
  moving themselves and their possessions within minutes 
  of their Wyld watch’s alert.
  Wyld watches made by initiates of thaumaturgical 
  Enchantment warn when the Wyld comes within 100 
  yards. Watches made by Adepts of Enchantment warn 
  when the Wyld is half a mile away, and those rare devices 
  made by Masters of Enchantment warn the members 
  of the tribe when the borders of the Wyld move within 
  half a dozen miles.
  RITUALS AGAINST WYLD ADDICTION
  Wyld mutant tribes that dwell within the Wyld can 
  use thaumaturgy to avoid the dangers of Wyld addiction. 
  Once a month, on the night of the full moon, their 
  shamans lead the tribe in rituals to channel the Wyld’s 
  deadly call into a brief bout of frenzy. For most of the 
  night, both young and old scream and dance, run wild, 
  eat and drink to excess, and engage in acts of carnal 
  abandon. They avoid harming one another, but may 
  hunt, kill and even devour any outsiders they encounter. 
  If attacked in this state, the members of the tribe fight 
  to defend themselves.
  Geomancy Procedure: Wyld Blessing (2, Intelligence 
  3, six hours). If successful, this procedure prevents Wyld 
  mutation on the night of its performance and cures ad-
  diction to the Bordermarches. Also, for the next month, 
  the procedure reduces the level of Wyld exposure by one 
  stage for purposes of Wyld addiction (so Bordermarches 
  cannot addict at all) and reduces the difficultly of rolls to 
  resist unwanted mutation by 1. During this procedure, the 
  Temperance of all participants is temporarily reduced to 
  zero, and they automatically succeed in all Valor rolls.
  SPIRIT CHARMS
  Spirits that operate near the Wyld have a few common 
  Charms rarely seen among other gods. Most users are 
  terrestrial gods with limited domains, usually touching 
  on the Bordermarches. The god of a river or a tree near a 
  Bordermarch may have one of these Charms, and the god 
  of a small town such as Farhold may have two or three. 
  Celestial gods, such as Omashi, the Arbiter of Territorial 
  Disputes, whose domains reasonably include the Wyld, 
  might have some or all of these Charms.
  Wyld Armor—With this Charm, the spirit protects 
  itself against the ravages of the Wyld. Few gods need to 
  enter the Wyld, but occasionally some feel a motivation 
  to do so. Others have the Wyld thrust upon them, as it 
  erodes Creation. For three motes, the spirit adds (Essence) 
  dice to its resistance against the Wyld for a full day. For 
  every two motes committed to the Charm, the god can 
  extend this protection to one other person.
  Wyld Shield—This stronger version of Wyld Armor 
  protects a large number of people, but to a lesser degree. 
  The group of people must be defined in some readily 
  understood and limited fashion, such as “all the people 
  who live in this village” or “that war party there.” Every 
  recipient must have prayed to the god, and the Magni-
  tude of the protected group cannot exceed the god’s 
  permanent Essence. On the other hand, the recipients 
  gain bonus dice equal to only half the god’s permanent 
  Essence (round up) to all rolls to resist Wyld addiction 
  and mutation. The spirit must commit five motes and 
  one point of Willpower to extend this protection for 
  one day.
  Wyld Barrier—Another improvement on Wyld Ar-
  mor offers greater protection to a small number of people. 
  By committing 10 motes and two points of Willpower, the 
  spirit can protect a number of people equal to twice her 
  permanent Essence for a week. The Wyld Barrier adds 
  (spirit’s Essence x 2) dice to all rolls to resist the effects of 
  the Wyld. This bonus does not apply to vision-questing, 
  but can apply to power-questing.
  Fortress of Creation—Only gods with Essence 5 
  or higher, or gods of borders and protection, are likely 
  to possess this exceptionally powerful Charm. The god 
  commits Essence and Willpower to bar the Wyld from 
  an area around its sanctum. The more intense the Wyld’s 
  influence, however, the smaller the area the spirit can 
  protect—and the Fortress of Creation does not reverse any 
  taint already wrought by the Wyld. For 10 motes and two 
  points of Willpower, a god can purge the Wyld from an 
  area of Bordermarches (Essence) miles in radius. In the 
  Middlemarches, the god can protect an area (Essence x 
  300) yards in radius, costing 20 motes and four points 
  of Willpower. For 30 motes and six points of Willpower, 
  the spirit forces an area of the Deep Wyld (Essence x 50) 
  yards in radius to remain as solid Creation. The Charm 
  has no effect on Pure Chaos; a spirit needs some trace 
  of Creation to reinforce.
  Virtuous Guard—Without sources of sustenance, 
  some Fair Folk see no reason to invade the spirit’s territory. 
  
  144
  For every two motes committed to this Charm, a god 
  can protect a single person against being emotionally 
  ravaged. To all Fair Folk senses, the person is completely 
  without thought, dream or emotion and cannot be 
  supped upon at all.
  MUTATIONS AND MADNESS
  Traveling in the Wyld can be a mistake that few 
  will ever forget making. People exposed to the chaotic, 
  warping energies of the Wyld change, often in terrifying 
  ways. They return home with mutations, they return mad 
  or they never return at all. The following mutations and 
  derangements expand on the Wyld mutations found in 
  Exalted, pp. 288-290. They can also be used to describe 
  the inborn powers of beastmen, the animalistic war-forms 
  of the Lunar Exalted, hereditary Wyld mutants, unusual 
  God-Blooded and other characters.
  pp. 288-90, extending them to different power levels 
  or providing options when a character gains the same 
  mutation two or three times.
  MUTATION COSTS AND VALUES
  For certain purposes, it is useful to assign point 
  values to Wyld mutations. Most notably, the point 
  total of a character’s mutations determine whether 
  he can still live in Creation (see “Too Wyld to Live 
  in Creation,” pp. 150–151). These point values also 
  enable beastman, Wyld mutant and other half-hu-
  man characters to buy their nonhuman features 
  and aptitudes with bonus points (see “Playing Beast-
  men, Wyld Mutants and Relic Race Characters,” 
  pp. 157–160). You also need these point values 
  when you select animal features for a Lunar Exalt’s 
  half-human war form (see The Manual of Exalted 
  Power—The Lunars).
  The point values of each class of mutation are 
  as follows:
  Mutation 
  Cost
  Pox, Deficiency 
  1
  Affliction, Debility 
  2
  Blight, Deformity 
  4
  Abomination 
  6
  In some circumstances, you treat all these 
  numbers as positive. In other cases, you may add 
  the values for poxes, afflictions, blights and abomi-
  nations, but subtract the values for deficiencies, 
  debilities and deformities. See descriptions of each 
  application for details.
  NEW AND REVISED MUTATIONS
  Most of these mutations are new. Some of them 
  present revised versions of mutations from Exalted, 
  STACKING POXES
  Some poxes change people in ways that can easily 
  be stacked—that is, the mutation could go further and 
  increase its bonuses. Generally, such poxes can be 
  taken no more than three times in total, and each 
  additional purchase moves them from “pox” to 
  “affliction” and from “affliction” to “blight.” This 
  basic structure can be bent—some mutations can 
  be taken to the “abomination” level, and not every 
  mutation that can be purchased multiple times has 
  its base as a pox.
  POXES
  Hooves: The character’s feet become hooves more 
  appropriate for a horse, a goat, a boar or some similar 
  creature. The character adds +2 damage to his kicks. This 
  mutation does not stack.
  Large: (This mutation is appended from Exalted, p. 
  288.) This mutation functions as already written, but if a 
  character gains it multiple times, the Storyteller can either 
  upgrade the mutation to an affliction or blight, or replace 
  it with a deficiency. See Large, Giant and Rotundity.
  Longevity: The mutant ages half as fast as normal. 
  Characters born with this mutation can expect a lifespan 
  of 100 years + 20 years per point of Stamina (barring 
  violence, disease or accident, of course). Such characters 
  mature at the normal rate, enjoy a long, almost change-
  less maturity and enter middle age around 80. They age 
  slowly from then on, becoming definitely elderly around 
  age 120. Exalted characters cannot possess this muta-
  tion. While this mutation can stack once, a quadrupled 
  lifespan jumps to a blight—and such mutations must be 
  accompanied by obvious physical changes; negative mu-
  tations such as Diet combine well with extraordinarily 
  prolonged lifespans.
  Night Vision: The mutant’s eyes are adapted to see in 
  the dark like a cat or an owl. The mutant can see as easily 
  on a moonless night in a city or a deep forest as ordinary 
  humans can on an open plain or leafless forest on the 
  night of the full moon, and can see as well under the full 
  moon as well as ordinary mortals can in full daylight.
  Small: (This mutation is appended from Exalted, p. 
  288.) This mutation functions as already written, but it 
  may be purchased multiple times. Each purchase stacks 
  the benefits of the first. See Tiny and Miniscule.
  
  145
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  Wolf’s Pace: The character’s legs become longer and 
  contain more power. Often, they take on a digitigrade 
  shape similar to that of a dog or deer. Add two to the char-
  acter’s Dexterity for the purpose of calculating movement 
  during combat, and add two to the character’s Strength 
  for the purposes of jumping distances. The character adds 
  one die to single rolls representing competitive running. In 
  long-term movement (see Exalted, p. 264), the character 
  may move as quickly as a drawn carriage.
  This mutation may be taken multiple times. Each 
  purchase stacks the mutation’s benefits, but if it is taken 
  more than once it can never be hidden. See Gazelle’s Pace 
  and Cheetah’s Pace.
  SPECIAL POX: ELEMENTAL ADAPTATION
  The mutant has become adapted to a specific el-
  emental region. Since the Earth Pole is in the center of 
  the Realm, far from the Wyld, there are only four types 
  of elemental adaptations: air, fire, water and wood.
  Air Adaptation: This pox renders the mutant resistant 
  to natural cold. The character can remain comfortable 
  and unharmed walking naked through a freezing blizzard 
  or swimming in icy water (see “Numbing Cold” from 
  the Environmental Effects table on p. 131 of Exalted). 
  Not all characters with this mutation must come from 
  the North: a character changed by the Southern Wyld 
  might develop a flame burning in his heart that protects 
  him against cold.
  Fire Adaptation: This pox protects the mutant from 
  all natural extremes of hot weather. The character does 
  not require additional water in hot weather. He can 
  remain comfortable and unharmed walking naked un-
  der a blazing desert sun (see “Blistering Heat” from the 
  Environmental Effects table on p. 131 of Exalted). This 
  mutation does not protect the character from forest fires, 
  lava or other extreme sources of heat. Not all characters 
  with this mutation need come from the South; a character 
  changed by the Northern Wyld might develop veins of 
  ice in her bones that protect her from heat.
  Water Adaptation: This pox allows the character to 
  drink salt water without harm. In addition, the character’s 
  skin suffers no harm from continuous immersion in salt 
  or fresh water. While the character cannot breathe water, 
  when underwater, he can hold his breath for four times 
  as long as normal (Stamina x 2 minutes + an additional 
  two minutes per success on a Stamina + Resistance roll). 
  
  146
  The character also reduces the difficulty of Athletics rolls 
  involving swimming by 1 (to a minimum difficulty of 1) 
  and doubles the character’s swimming speed.
  Wood Adaptation: This pox grants the character the 
  same resistance to all plant toxins (but not serpent or insect 
  venoms, demonic or alchemical poisons or poisons created 
  by Charms) as all Exalted possess and grants Exalts complete 
  immunity to plant toxins. In addition, the character can 
  move through forests, jungles, and other wooded areas 
  with exceptional ease. The character can climb easily and 
  with great speed—reducing the difficulty of Athletics rolls 
  involving climbing by 1 (to a minimum difficulty of 1) 
  and doubling the character’s climbing speed. The mutant 
  also possess green skin that allows her to make food as 
  plants do: if the character receives water and at least eight 
  hours of sunlight each day, she reduces the difficulty of 
  any Survival or Resistance rolls involving finding food or 
  enduring hunger by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
  Regardless of which version of this mutation a 
  character possesses, her appearance changes to match 
  the environment to which she is adapted, which may 
  include having vines instead of hair (wood), blue skin 
  and webbed hands (water), lightly furred, ice-white skin 
  (air) or a smooth, lightly-scaled hide (fire). A character 
  can possess only one of these adaptations.
  DEFICIENCIES
  Allergy: The character develops a new, strong al-
  lergy—perhaps to something as normal as fur, but Wyld 
  allergies more often tend toward the odd, such as bronze, 
  animal skin (including cured leather) or salt. Allergies to 
  iron and white jade pop up frequently as well.
  Smelling the allergen causes sneezes or coughing. 
  Even brief contact with it induces hives and rashes for a 
  scene, inflicting a -1 internal penalty to all actions. Touch-
  ing the material for more than two actions (consecutive or 
  within a single scene) deals one level of bashing damage 
  for each subsequent contact.
  Hungry: The mutant needs extra food, perhaps to 
  fuel a positive mutation and perhaps due to less efficient 
  digestion. The character must consume 25% more food 
  than normal. Without this, she quickly becomes wan and 
  starts to waste away. Halve the number of days a character 
  with this deficiency can endure hunger before penalties 
  begin to set in, and penalties increase every half-day. The 
  character suffers a -1 internal penalty to all Survival rolls 
  to find sufficient food.
  Lost Sense: Characters suffering this mutation lose 
  either their sense of hearing, touch or the paired senses 
  of smell and taste. (Blindness is a debility.) This loss 
  usually cannot be repaired, even by the most skilled 
  chirurgeon: the eardrum has become daffodil petal, the 
  constant taste of day-old oatmeal overwhelms all other 
  odors and flavors or the character suffers something 
  equally inexplicable.
  Rotundity: The mutant becomes 50% more massive, 
  without gaining height or strength. This deficiency can 
  result from gaining the Large pox twice, or as a deficiency 
  in its own right. The mutant loses one dot of Dexterity 
  outright; the Storyteller may impose a -1 external penalty 
  to some Strength rolls, when the character’s bulk becomes 
  a hindrance (he wastes muscle power just moving his own 
  body). The character does not so much run as waddle: 
  Dash actions move the character only (Dexterity + 4) 
  yards. For what it’s worth, the character’s threshold for 
  knockback or knockdown checks increases to (Stamina 
  + Resistance +2).
  This deficiency can stack, becoming a debility 
  or deformity.
  Temperature Sensitivity: The mutant is unusually 
  sensitive to heat or cold (choose one). This increases the 
  difficulty to all Survival rolls by +1 when the character is 
  within one particular extreme of temperature. The mutant 
  also increases the difficulty of all Resistance rolls to avoid 
  damage from either extreme heat or cold, or dangers such 
  as fire or supernatural ice storms by +2.
  AFFLICTIONS
  Exalted Healing: The mutant heals wounds at the 
  same rate as an Exalt, including recovery from crippling 
  wounds. Taken twice, this becomes the Regeneration 
  abomination. Exalts cannot take this affliction.
  Gazelle’s Pace: This affliction is equivalent to tak-
  ing the Wolf’s Pace pox twice. For long distance travel, 
  the character can move overland as quickly as a horse. 
  However, the character cannot possibly hide this muta-
  tion—his legs aren’t remotely human-looking.
  Huge: This mutation is equivalent to taking the 
  Large pox twice. The mutant becomes half again as large 
  as any normal example of his species and has obviously 
  been altered by magic. This mutation adds two dots to 
  the character’s Strength and Stamina and provides one 
  additional -0 and -1 health level.
  Impossible Joints: This mutation makes all the 
  character’s joints reversible and increases her flexibility 
  overall. She can fold herself up into remarkable posi-
  tions, often fitting into places most people consider 
  impossible. This mutation adds two dice to appropriate 
  Athletics and Stealth rolls and has many potential non-
  rolled applications.
  Inexhaustible: The mutant is an endless wellspring of 
  energy, even when starved and moments from death. He 
  
  147
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  never suffers fatigue (see Exalted, p. 130) from any source, 
  giving the character the ability to run for hours without 
  rest or stand under the hot sun in full armor unbowed.
  Short Gestation: Mutants with this trait spend little 
  time in the womb. They go from conception to birth 
  in as little as one to three months. People who get this 
  mutation after birth typically pass it on to their children, 
  so a woman who has it generally spends much less time 
  on a given pregnancy.
  Talons/Tusks/Horns: (Revised from Exalted, p. 289.) 
  The character sports dangerous talons, tusks, horns or 
  some other hard growth that can be used as a natural 
  weapon, inflicting lethal damage through Martial Arts 
  attacks. Depending on the growths’ locations or natures, 
  treat them as punch or kick attacks that inflict lethal dam-
  age two greater than normal (i.e., a “punch” deals +2L, the 
  “kick” +5L.) They remain natural weapons and cannot be 
  disarmed, but they can be cut off with a crippling attack. 
  This mutation cannot be stacked or hidden.
  Thick Skin: The character’s skin becomes denser 
  and heavier than the Fur/Feathers/Leaves pox. The skin 
  might be thick and horny, it could be covered in bark 
  and knots or it could have heavy, crocodilian scales and 
  bony nodules. The character gains +2L/2B soak. If a 
  character gains the Fur/Feathers/Leaves/Scales pox twice, 
  replace it with this affliction.
  Tiny: This mutation is equivalent to taking the Small 
  mutation twice. The character is smaller than anyone of 
  her race or species should be—half normal size, at most, 
  and a character could be mistaken for a small child. 
  Increase the mutant’s Dexterity by one dot, but reduce 
  her Strength by two and her Stamina by one. Her Move 
  and Dash actions become (Dexterity – 1) and (Dexterity 
  +4) yards, respectively, and the character loses one -1 and 
  one -2 health levels. She also become harder to hit, which 
  levies a -2 external penalty on all attempts to strike her 
  in combat. Immobility reduces the penalty to -1. A Tiny 
  character is too small to use most weapons: add 1 to the 
  effective Strength minimum for any weapon.
  Wyld Assimilation: The character becomes part of 
  the Wyld. He no longer risks mutation or damage from 
  directly harmful Wyld energies such as frozen fog or 
  the waters of chaos. However, this immunity comes at a 
  price. The character is now a living embodiment of his 
  chosen story and as such, loses the mental and emotional 
  flexibility possessed by both mortals and Exalted. He is 
  also addicted to the Wyld and wants to stay in a region 
  where he can live out his story.
  The Storyteller must determine what the mutant’s 
  particular story is. If it is a tale of honor and bravery, 
  then the mutant can never act or even consider acting 
  in a cowardly or dishonorable manner. If it is a story of 
  treachery, the character cannot keep a promise for long, 
  even if he has nothing to gain and everything to lose by 
  betrayal.
  This mutation only happens to characters who 
  were either born and raised in the Wyld or who visit it 
  repeatedly for long periods. Because they are inherently 
  tied to Creation, Exalted characters cannot possess this 
  mutation.
  DEBILITIES
  Blindness: The character’s sight no longer works be-
  cause his eyes may have become opaque crystal or vanished 
  completely, he could see nothing but the fantastic vision 
  of beauty the Wyld revealed to him, or any other reason. 
  The character suffers all penalties described on p. 152 of 
  Exalted. This is never a medically reparable problem.
  Deterioration: One of the character’s Attributes con-
  stantly weakens over time to the point of the character’s 
  death if she does not act to strengthen it. Each month, 
  the afflicted Attribute decreases by 1. Only a dedicated 
  regimen of preventative exercise or medicine—lifting 
  weights for Strength, practicing riddles and puzzles for 
  Intelligence, cleansing the skin regularly for Appearance—
  can alleviate this degeneration. The regimen consumes 
  two full weeks of training time in each month, during 
  which period the character can do little else. After three 
  months at one dot, a character’s deteriorating Attribute 
  drops to zero, at which point almost nothing short of 
  Exalted-level medical aid can return it to one dot. The 
  character is also Incapacitated and losing one Dying 
  health level each month, until dead.
  Fragile: The character’s bones are weak, offering less 
  protection than those of a normal human. Perhaps they 
  have become chalk or glass. Half of all bashing damage 
  the character suffers becomes lethal damage instead, as 
  bones fracture.
  Lame: One of the character’s legs has warped to 
  the point of near-uselessness, or both have become 
  shriveled and weak. A mutant who suffers this debility 
  twice has legs that cannot be used at all and may even 
  have withered and fallen off. See Exalted, p. 152 under 
  “Sample Amputation Effects” for what happens when 
  a character cannot use one or both legs. This mutation 
  cannot be hidden.
   Slow Healing: The mutant does not recover well 
  from injury. Wounds take a long time to disappear and 
  diseases linger. Double the length of time necessary to 
  heal any given wounds, and increase the difficulty of the 
  treated and untreated morbidities by 1.
  
  148
  BLIGHTS
  Cheetah’s Pace: This blight is equivalent to taking 
  the Wolf’s Pace pox three times. For long distance 
  travel, Cheetah’s Pace provides the speed of a simple 
  horse relay. The mutation alters a human recipient’s 
  entire body: when running at full speed, including 
  Dash actions, the character must go to all fours. 
  This is not compatible with carrying weapons ready 
  for use, or any other activity that requires hands; 
  when the character stops running, she must spend 
  the normal amount of time to draw weapons or 
  otherwise prepare to use her hands again (typically 
  a Miscellaneous action or a Join Battle roll, as cir-
  cumstances warrant).
  Enlightened Essence: The Wyld tears away the 
  character’s blinders, revealing the truth about Essence 
  and the nature of Creation (and other places). Shamans 
  seek this mutation more than any other when they go 
  power-questing in the Wyld. The character gains an Es-
  sence pool equal to his permanent Essence x 10. From 
  then on, he can increase his Essence trait by spending 
  experience points at the normal rate for heroic mortal 
  characters. Only the first third of this pool is accessible 
  unless the character spends a point of Willpower to free 
  up the rest for a scene.
  Some mortals can learn select spirit Charms, Ter-
  restrial Circle sorcery or supernatural Martial Arts, if they 
  have willing tutors. Exalted characters cannot acquire this 
  mutation, and the process of Exaltation overwhelms and 
  burns away this mutation.
  Giant: This mutation is equivalent to taking the 
  Large pox three times. The creature grows to twice the 
  size of the tallest normal example of his species. Some 
  Giant animals might be mistaken for larger species of 
  their class (a Giant housecat for a panther, for instance) 
  but most cannot be mistaken for natural creatures. The 
  mutation confers three dots of Strength and Stamina, as 
  well as additional health levels: -0x1, -1x2 and -2x2.
  Miniscule: The Wyld reduces the character to no 
  more than one-fourth her normal size. Reduce Strength 
  by three dots and Stamina by two (to a minimum of one); 
  the character can only go 1 yard on a Move action and 
  (Dexterity) yards on a Dash. (This does not affect move-
  ment rates for flying creatures or characters, however.). 
  The creature loses one -0, one -1 and two -2 health levels, 
  but any attempts to hit her suffer a -4 external penalty 
  due to her size (immobility reduces this to -2). All Stealth 
  rolls gain a +3 bonus. Tools and clothing not made for the 
  character’s specific size impose significant penalties—she 
  cannot use most weapons at all.
  DEFORMITIES
   Short Life: The mutant ages quickly and has an ab-
  normally short lifespan, though the degree varies. Some 
  mutants age twice as quickly, dying in their 30s or 40s. 
  Extreme cases die of old age only a few years after birth. 
  They reach maturity at similar speed.
  Surrendering Flesh: The mutant’s body refuses to grow 
  or repair itself as normal. Children who develop this 
  mutation cease to mature. Anyone who suffers it never 
  heals lethal or aggravated damage, and even bashing 
  damage takes five times as long to heal. Only healing 
  magic can repair the character’s wounds, though some 
  rare medicines can give him temporary health. Sweet 
  cordial heals one level of damage and allows the char-
  acter to heal normally for a month, celestial wine heals 
  one level per glass and three glasses heals three health 
  levels and allows the character to heal as normal for a 
  full year and a day.
  Wracking: The character suffers excessive pain when-
  ever he consciously activates a mutation. The retractable 
  claws tear through his skin when he calls upon them, or 
  hawking up a toxin causes his own glands to pulse pain-
  fully. Each such use inflicts one level of lethal damage 
  on the character and is accompanied by such terrible 
  pains that he loses two dice from all pools for his next 
  two actions.
  ABOMINATIONS
  Dragon’s Breath: The mutant develops a form of attack 
  that she may project at nearby enemies from her mouth. 
  The attack may be flame, acid, shards of ice, stinging 
  candy-wasps or whatever else the Wyld inflicted on her. 
  The attack requires a (Dexterity + [Archery, Athletics or 
  Thrown]) roll, has a base damage of (Stamina + Essence)L 
  and a maximum range of 10 yards. The character’s mouth, 
  lungs and internal organs all change shape to accommo-
  date this strange bodily function. Some mutants develop 
  external organs to contain the attack, which may only be 
  used once every 10 actions (as it needs to recharge).
  Stone Body: The character’s entire body becomes some 
  very hard substance—if not through and through, then 
  very nearly so. Whether his body now consists of crystal 
  lattices, carved teak, cooled lava rock, never-melting ice 
  or something stranger, the character loses one dot of 
  Dexterity (minimum 1), but gains one dot of Stamina, 
  +6L/+6B soak and four bonus dice to Survival rolls.
  DERANGEMENTS
  Sometimes, the Wyld damages the mind instead 
  of the body. Scenes in that fabulous Chaos can change 
  
  149
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  people completely without affecting their looks: walking 
  through the forest where every leaf looks like your mother 
  or fighting your way backward into your childhood can 
  provide trauma enough for any number of psychoses.
  Wyld-induced derangement is not the same as 
  when a character becomes a living archetype. Wyld 
  Assimilation forces a character to play a role in a story 
  (and is discussed on p. 147), while derangements inflict 
  portable madnesses. Not to say that the two mutations 
  are incompatible—the mad thaumaturge and delusional 
  liege are both common archetypes.
  Derangements have different levels of severity. Each 
  mental malfunction ranges from the merest deficiency to 
  a controlling deformity. Also, derangements don’t count 
  as mutations for the purposes of determining whether a 
  creature can survive in Creation—meaning that people 
  can go completely mad and still return to Creation for 
  a “normal” life.
  Though this chapter separates derangements from 
  physical mutations, it is only for ease of use. They may still 
  be acquired as deficiencies, debilities or deformities.
  Derangements do not only come from the Wyld. 
  They can be caused by normal events in Creation, too. 
  Also, keep in mind that derangements can be mixed and 
  matched. For instance, auditory hallucinations fit well 
  with multiple personalities. Virtue Flaws (see Exalted, 
  pp. 102-105) can serve as inspiration for inventive de-
  rangements. The Exalted may be more likely to develop 
  derangements in ways similar to how they suffer the 
  Great Curse, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
  Some Charms might heal derangements. The Dragon-
  Blooded’s Purity of Mind Method is one such Charm.
  AMNESIA
  The character forgets fragments of her life because 
  of physical or mental trauma.
  Deficiency: Mild amnesia suggests that the character for-
  gets significant parts of his life or loses the last few hours.
  Debility: The derangement erases large sections of 
  the character’s life and identity, such as where she lives 
  or everything that happened since her Exaltation. The 
  player must roll (Intelligence + [Integrity or relevant Abil-
  ity]) at difficulty 2 to remember details not prearranged. 
  Remembering something that should have been lost costs 
  one point of Willpower.
  Deformity: The most potent amnesia cuts most of 
  a character’s life. Characters may even begin life anew 
  with little more than their muscle memory and ingrained 
  reflexes, remembering only brief flashes. The amnesiac 
  may continue to forget, requiring successful (Intelligence 
  + Integrity) rolls to recall even things learned after the 
  traumatic event. For instance, a character might progres-
  sively forget everything that happened more than one 
  hour ago.
  DELUSION
  The character believes things that are not true, despite 
  attempts to convince him otherwise.
  Deficiency: This manifests as minor unreal expecta-
  tions, such as stones being able to float or a personal 
  ability to drink without getting drunk. When a belief is 
  debunked, the character becomes a little confused but 
  proceeds as normal—until the delusion returns.
  Debility: These delusions are broader beliefs. A war-
  rior who fought a phantom horde in the Wyld might 
  believe himself invulnerable to blades, leading to valiant 
  (if foolhardy) actions. Another character could be cer-
  tain that fire quenches thirst. Resisting such a delusion 
  requires one point of Willpower, which few spend until 
  they have proof, such as a cut or a singed mouth. Then 
  they realize the truth for the length of a scene.
  Deformity: The worst delusions cannot be shattered. 
  A person who believes himself the Scarlet Empress could 
  insist that “her” foes betrayed her and changed her shape, 
  or that it is a wide conspiracy—Anything to avoid the 
  truth. Realizing the fake nature of her belief costs two 
  points of Willpower for five minutes, and even then, the 
  delusion quickly returns.
  HALLUCINATIONS
  The character senses things that aren’t there. These 
  hallucinations may trigger any of the senses, from sight 
  to touch, though the derangement is often consistent 
  for a single character.
  Deficiency: These hallucinations affect only a single 
  sense at a time and appear when the character is stressed: 
  (at two temporary Willpower below normal). The char-
  acter might see things moving out of the corner of her 
  eye, or hear people call her name. The hallucinations 
  could lead the character astray or strangely reveal true 
  information—but since the source of the hallucinations is 
  the character’s head, their truth is always coincidental.
  Debility: This level of hallucination often registers only 
  in one sense but may spread to as many as three when they 
  grow strong. The character suffers hallucinations when 
  down two temporary points of Willpower and stronger 
  hallucinations when down four Willpower points. The 
  hallucinations are undeniable to the character and seem 
  fully real. They often become complete characters of 
  their own to the victim. Spending a point of Willpower 
  reduces the hallucinations to the least severe kind, but 
  only for a scene.
  
  150
  Deformity: Hallucinations consume the character’s 
  life. He sees and hears things all the time. They become 
  worse when he’s down at least two points of Willpower 
  and color everything he senses when he’s spent four or 
  more Willpower points. Examples include watching the 
  walls run with melting rainbows and hearing the satrap 
  speak only to you with her second face. By spending a 
  point of Willpower, the character can reduce the hal-
  lucinations by one severity for a scene.
  OBSESSION
  The character becomes increasingly focused on a 
  single goal or object.
  Deficiency: The derangement causes little more than 
  distraction. When the subject of a character’s obsession 
  is present, she suffers a -1 internal penalty at any action 
  not directly related to achieving the obsession’s goal.
  Debility: The obsessions become grander in scope. In-
  stead of collecting pretty stones, he collects jade weapons; 
  rather than lighting every candle she sees, the character 
  wants to start bonfires whenever fuel is available. The 
  obsession should be more dangerous or more common, 
  and the penalty to resist it increases to -2.
  Deformity: The character’s obsessions rarely leave 
  her time to think about anything else and easily get her 
  in a great deal of trouble. She suffers a -3 penalty when 
  resisting an obsession.
  TOO WYLD TO LIVE IN CREATION
  Excessive mutation can render a person, plant, animal 
  or spirit too strange to survive any longer in Creation. In 
  extreme cases, a creature might not even survive in the 
  Bordermarches. Storytellers can decide for themselves 
  which of the Wyld’s own inhabitants can live in Creation, 
  based on the mutation’s style.
  Creatures that merely offer unlikely combinations of 
  different aspects or parts of people, animals and plants 
  usually survive in Creation without any trouble. Even a 
  creature as bizarre as a buck-ogre is still just a collection 
  of ordinary, flesh-and-blood parts.
  Anything that cuts across kingdoms of life, or 
  combines organic with inorganic parts, generally do 
  not thrive in Creation but can live in Bordermarches 
  or tainted lands. The hatra trees of the East cannot live 
  in Creation because they combine plant and animal 
  characteristics (though their hatra offspring can live in 
  Creation, since they are entirely animal unless they enter 
  their reproductive cycle.)
  Creatures that cut across states of matter, such as 
  trees of solid fire or beasts of living gold, are not improb-
  able; they are flat-out impossible. They can survive only 
  in the Middlemarches or Deep Wyld. The Fair Folk 
  and Lunar Exalted have Charms that can bring such 
  creatures into Creation for a while—but without such 
  protection, these creatures usually sicken and die even 
  in the Bordermarches. The exceptions, such as flame 
  gryphons, resist Creation’s quelling influence through 
  their own will and Essence.
  In cases in which characters or animals suffer mu-
  tation, Storytellers can use the number and severity of 
  mutations as a guide to whether they can live in Creation. 
  Add the point values of all the characters’ mutations, as 
  described on the table on p. 144, but leave out derange-
  ments. Treat all the values as positive. Compare the total 
  to the character’s Willpower.
  Willpower or Less: The character (or other creature) 
  can live in Creation indefinitely. The mutations are 
  not heritable outside the Wyld—but within the Wyld, 
  creatures with similar mutations may breed to generate 
  a new species or a new race of humanity.
  (Willpower x 2) or Less: The character can no lon-
  ger live in Creation indefinitely. Such creatures can live 
  and reproduce themselves in Bordermarches or tainted 
  lands, but are sterile within Creation. After (Stamina) 
  months in Creation, however, the character or creature 
  sickens and loses one unsoakable, unhealing level of 
  bashing damage every day until it returns to the Wyld. 
  The Wyld-spawned offspring of such creatures might 
  survive in Creation, though. Characters this severely 
  mutated also suffer a one-die penalty to Temperance 
  rolls—added when the player rolls to resist gaining Limit, 
  or subtracted when trying to resist temptation or other 
  cases in which a high Temperance is desirable. The Wyld 
  infects its victims with a taint of mad passion more subtle 
  than any derangement.
  More Than (Willpower x 2): The creature cannot live 
  for long outside the Middlemarches or Deep Wyld. After 
  (Stamina) months in the Bordermarches, or (Stamina) 
  weeks in tainted lands, the mutant suffers one unsoak-
  able level of bashing damage every day that cannot heal 
  until it returns to the Wyld. Such a character or creature 
  can survive only (Stamina) days in Creation, then suffers 
  the above damage every hour until death or return to 
  a suitably Wyld region. The mutant also takes a 2-dice 
  penalty (plus or minus, whichever is appropriate) to 
  Temperance rolls. Once a person becomes this severely 
  mutated, however, Wyld Assimilation becomes extremely 
  likely, and the character no longer desires to leave the 
  Wyld anyway.
  Remember that these penalties only apply to char-
  acters or animals that have been directly mutated by the 
  
  151
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  Wyld. These penalties do not apply to creatures born 
  with mutations, such as beastmen or Wyld mutants, 
  though Storytellers can use the mutation totals as an 
  additional guideline when deciding if a Wyld-beast can 
  live in Creation.
  INHABITANTS OF THE WYLD
  Many unusual people… or person-like beings, any-
  way… live in the Wyld. What follows are a few of them.
  FLAME GRYPHON
  Flame gryphons are one of the most beautiful and 
  deadly threats of the Southern Wyld. They can live 
  indefinitely in Creation, but cannot breed there; flame 
  gryphons move freely from the Bordermarches to the 
  Deep Wyld. They look like lions the size of aurochs, 
  with the heads and forelegs of eagles, claws and talons 
  of glittering gold and eagle-like wings of gold and scarlet 
  flame. Although flame gryphons can speak in voices that 
  combine the tones of a lion’s roar and eagle’s scream, 
  their personalities remain animal: most of the time, they 
  show no interests beyond food, a warm den and the joy 
  of the hunt.
  However, flame gryphons have three personality traits 
  that go beyond animal concerns. They hate all horses 
  and horse-like beings and kill them whenever possible, 
  beyond what the fame gryphons can eat. Flame gryphons 
  cannot accept any other creature as their master; they 
  defend their Rookery (see p. 114) so fanatically because 
  they cannot bear the idea of their chicks raised to serve 
  another. Any power sufficient to compel a flame gryphon’s 
  will causes it to tear and claw themselves to death. Lastly, 
  they are vain: flame gryphons love to be seen, to inspire 
  wonder, fear and awe.
  Now and then, a flame gryphon agrees to let a raksha 
  (or other powerful being) ride it. This is not service, but 
  a partnership of equals. The character gains a powerful, 
  flying steed and ally in combat; the flame gryphon gains 
  a partner to assure it of regular meals and chances to 
  amaze the dull, boring folk of Creation.
  Motivation: Stay free, look glorious, kill horses.
  Attributes: Strength 9, Dexterity 4, Stamina 8; Charisma 4, 
  Manipulation 2, Appearance 4; Perception 4, Intelligence 2, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 1, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, 
  Valor 4
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Dodge 4, Linguistics 2, 
  Martial Arts 4, Presence 4, Stealth 2, Survival 4
  Essence Powers:
  Command Beasts: Flame gryphons can reflexively com-
  mand any non-intelligent animals except familiars. 
  Controlling a mount or other animal that is currently 
  with its owner, his player calls for a resisted roll of the 
  flame gryphon’s (Charisma + Presence) vs. the owner’s 
  (Charisma + Survival). This effect costs two motes and 
  lasts for a full scene. A flame gryphon must use this 
  separately to command multiple animals.
  Immunity to Command: These intensely supernatural 
  creatures are immune to all effects that force them to 
  obey someone, including shaping attacks. They do not 
  need to expend Willpower to resist unnatural mental 
  influence. If a flame gryphon becomes the target of a 
  controlling effect that is defined as irresistible, the flame 
  gryphon immediately dies rather than submit.
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Bite: Speed 5, Accuracy 10, Damage 16L, Defense 8(4), 
  Rate 1
  Claw: Speed 4, Accuracy 12, Damage 13L, Defense 12(6), 
  Rate 2
  Wing Buffet: Speed 6, Accuracy 10, Damage 17L, Defense 8(4), 
  Rate 2
  Soak: 12L/16B (Tough Hide, 8L/8B)
  Health Levels: -0x3/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 5 
  Willpower: 7
  Essence: 3 
  Essence Pool: 30
  Other Notes: A flame gryphon’s wing buffet inflicts 
  damage through fire. If a target is immune to fire, the 
  wing buffet deals an equal amount of bashing damage 
  instead.
  Flame gryphon allies are Familiar •••••.
  
  152
  IWAU TAMOTSU, 
  THE WATCHER WITH EYES OF STONE
  The Watcher with Eyes of Stone rests beneath the 
  Weeping Maiden in the far West. The island is a thin 
  cone of stone tapering down into the water, and Iwau 
  Tamotsu is a vast coral reef spreading miles around that 
  island. The island, in fact, is a gigantic spike piercing 
  the Watcher’s heart and pinning the guardian to that 
  place in the ocean. When ships or large creatures near 
  the Weeping Maiden’s isle, Iwau Tamotsu rises from the 
  depths to crush and devour the ship or creature.
  Little is known about the Watcher with Eyes of Stone. 
  Even its name is secret and lost. For reasons unknown, 
  anything consumed by the Watcher washes up on the 
  shores of the Blessed Isle the next day. The Watcher 
  once did this to deliver intruders to the gods who lived 
  on the Blessed Isle. Today, the Watcher only confuses 
  the locals. Living creatures it endeavors to eat whole, 
  delivering them to the Isle alive.
  Motivation: Protect the Weeping Maiden from all 
  who approach.
  Attributes: Strength 57, Dexterity 1, Stamina 37; Cha-
  risma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 5; Perception 4, 
  Intelligence 2, Wits 1
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 5, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 5
  Abilities: Athletics 1, Awareness 6, Linguistics (Native: Old 
  Realm; Others: Seatongue) 1, Martial Arts 6 (Ships +3), 
  Presence 5 (Scaring Others +2), Resistance 6, Sail 5*, War 4 
  (Navies +3)
  *Iwau Tamotsu cannot actually sail a ship, but has vast knowl-
  edge of sailing ships and could serve as a wise tutor.
  Backgrounds: None
  Essence Powers:
  Coral Life-and-Death Encouragement—The Watcher with 
  Eyes of Stone may instantly re-grow or repair parts of 
  its coral structure. For four motes per health level and 
  one point of Willpower, Iwau Tomatsu heals one level 
  of damage it has taken or temporarily adds one -0 health 
  level. Phantom health levels disappear when filled with 
  lethal damage or at the end of the day.
  Encircling the Maiden—Iwau Tamotsu spends 10 motes and 
  one point of Willpower to create an impenetrable shell 
  of coral over the island on which the Weeping Maiden 
  rests. The shell cannot be harmed as long as the Watcher 
  spends one mote each action to keep it intact. Otherwise, 
  it has Hardness 10 and 20/40 health levels. The shell 
  slowly crumbles after one scene.
  Guardian Birth Division—If properly motivated, the Watcher 
  with Eyes of Stone may split off a fraction of its bulk to 
  create a new guardian. This costs 40 motes and two points 
  of Willpower and reduces Iwau Tamotsu’s Strength and 
  Stamina permanently by one each. The new guardian has 
  its own identity and must soon be connected to something 
  as a guardian. It must also grow in power before it can 
  become as powerful as its parent. This has happened three 
  times before—one such guardian was destroyed just five 
  years ago when it failed the Bronze Faction.
  Ripple-Sensing Quiver—Nothing in the sea remains hidden 
  from the Watcher. This power costs three motes and may 
  be activated reflexively. It makes all things within 40 
  miles of the Weeping Maiden and touching the ocean 
  a valid target for the creature’s Awareness-based action, 
  regardless of magic.
  Tsunami Wave Eruption—The Watcher activates this power 
  when beset by many intruders. Heaving its body from the 
  ocean floor, Iwau sends a massive wave rolling outward 
  from the island. This is an attack on everything on the 
  ocean within 100 miles. The attack automatically hits, 
  barring special defenses.
  Join Battle: 7
  Attacks:
  Coral Strike: Speed 6, Accuracy 7, Damage 26B, Defense —, 
  Rate 5
  Coral Crush: Speed 8, Accuracy 63, Damage 57B, De-
  fense —, Rate 1
  Tsunami Wave Eruption: Speed 9, Accuracy —, Damage 80B, 
  Defense —, Rate 1
  
  153
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  Soak: 24L/49B (Steel-hard coral, 6L/12B; Hardness: 6L/12B)
  Health Levels: -0x10/-1x25/-2x20/-4x5/Incap
  Dodge DV: 0 
  Willpower: 10
  Essence: 5 
  Essence Pool: 90
  Other Notes: As an enormous creature, the Watcher 
  may engage in mass combat as a Magnitude 9 unit for 
  the purpose of offense and defense (but not for health 
  levels). Coral strike represents long branches of coral jut-
  ting from the ocean to pierce hulls and sink ships. The 
  coral crush is when many branches surround a target 
  and close on it to crush. When attacking targets smaller 
  than a ship, Iwau Tamotsu attacks with an accuracy of 4 
  (coral strike) and 20 (coral crush). Tsunami Wave Erup-
  tion strikes any creature or object on the ocean’s surface, 
  no deeper than 100 yards or no higher than 500 yards 
  above, regardless of size.
  SEM SEM, CHILD OF THE WIND
  Sem Sem is one of the children of the wind. Similar 
  to all others of his kind, he is a child-sized old man, 
  wrinkles and all, who wears dense robes of sky-blue silk. 
  The children of the wind maintain the breath tunnels in 
  the Northern Middlemarches and create new ones; Sem 
  Sem performs his task as well as any other.
  Still, Sem Sem has ambition. Many children of the 
  wind do. He wants to find a way to spawn breath tunnels 
  that connect the Wyld and Creation. His attempts have 
  always failed thus far, and frustration may drive him to 
  make odd alliances. Other children of the wind do not 
  consider Sem Sem odd; such unique desires are common 
  enough to make it a quirk rather than a real peculiarity.
  Motivation: Keep the breath tunnels in repair; bind the 
  Wyld and Creation through breath tunnels.
  Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3; Charisma 4, 
  Manipulation 3, Appearance 2; Perception 3, Intelligence 3, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, 
  Valor 1
  Abilities: Athletics 1, Awareness 3, Craft (Air) 4, Craft 
  (Earth) 4, Dodge 3, Integrity 4, Investigation 3 (Breath 
  Tunnels +2), Lore 2 (Wyld +2), Martial Arts 3, Occult 2 
  (Wyld +2) Presence 2, Resistance 3 (Elements +1, Travel +1), 
  Stealth 2, Survival 3
  Backgrounds: Artifact 2
  Essence Powers:
  Death of the Dragon—Sem Sem spends five motes, and all 
  air within five yards of him ceases to move. This condi-
  tion persists as long as the motes remain committed. 
  The sphere of dead air travels with him. It follows the 
  normal rules of Creation, acting as a wall to create a lee 
  downwind of Sem Sem.
  Drawn from Above—Sem Sem can create an unlimited 
  number of air seeds (see p. 79) at no cost. He requires 
  only a miscellaneous action to draw one from beneath 
  his robe. While he can give Air Seeds as gifts, Sem Sem 
  (and most children of the wind) give them sparingly, 
  mostly out of concern for the breath tunnels.
  Healing the Earth—This power allows Sem Sem to repair 
  damage done to objects made of stone. Sem Sem caresses 
  the wound, which fills in as though it were never harmed. 
  Each health level repaired costs four motes of Essence. 
  Children of the wind use this power to keep the breath 
  tunnels whole.
  Shivering Shorn—Sem Sem may spend eight motes to deaden 
  all sound within five yards. This power only functions if 
  Sem Sem is currently using Death of the Dragon.
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 2B, Defense 7 (4), 
  Rate 3
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 7, Damage 2B, Defense —, 
  Rate 1
  Soak: 3L/6B (Sky-blue robe, 2L/3B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x3/-4/I
  Dodge DV: 5 
   
  Willpower: 5
  Essence: 2 
  Essence Pool: 21
  Other Notes: As one of the creatures that maintain the 
  breath tunnel network, Sem Sem has an instinctive knowl-
  edge of where the nearest several termini are and where 
  they lead. He is happy to share the information, which 
  he can also use to escape threats when necessary.
  
  154
  NO TROUBLE ZHANG, LUNAR EXPLORER
  No Trouble Zhang is young… for a Lunar. He’s at 
  least 70 now, and many older Lunars tell him he’s doing 
  something wrong. Zhang ignores them. Joyful and strong, 
  Zhang wandered the world for a while to figure out what 
  he wanted to do with his Exaltation. His discovery of Ilio 
  Stara helped him figure it out. Now, even as the Child of 
  Luna tries to remake his city-state into a self-sufficient, 
  sustaining community, he also searches the Wyld for more 
  societies to put on the road to their own inner strength. 
  No Trouble Zhang is sure that these people can push 
  back the Wyld with just a little help from him.
  Zhang looks like a thin man of average height with 
  a bush of white hair on his head and a thin white beard. 
  In his true form, the expected silver tattoos whorl from 
  around his eyes down his body in occult patterns. His 
  spirit shape is that of a raccoon with a silvery mask. No 
  Trouble Zhang is friendly with all and light-hearted about 
  everything, especially when the situation is serious.
  Motivation: Bring lost societies to their feet to strengthen 
  Creation.
  Caste: Changing Moon
  Anima: Raccoon backed by subtle silvers, whites and blues
  Tell: Silvery mark around eyes
  Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3; Charisma 5, 
  Manipulation 3, Appearance 4; Perception 4, Intelligence 3, 
  Wits 3
  Virtues: Compassion 4, Conviction 3, Temperance 1, Valor 2
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Bureaucracy 1, Craft 
  (Water) 2, Dodge 4, Integrity 3, Larceny 3, Linguis-
  tics (Native: Forest-tongue; Others: River-speak, Old 
  Realm) 2, Lore 1, Martial Arts 3, Medicine 1, Melee 3, 
  Performance 4, Presence 5, Resistance 2, Socialize 3, 
  Stealth 4, Survival 2, Thrown 2
  Backgrounds: Cult 1, Influence (Illio Stara) 5, Manse 3, 
  Resources 4
  Knacks: Changing Plumage Mastery, Humble Mouse 
  Shape, Luna’s Hidden Face, Prey’s Skin Disguise, Subtle 
  Silver Declaration
  Charms: Culling the Pride, East Mastery Technique, False 
  Burrow Pursuit, First Charisma Excellency, First Dexterity 
  Excellency, First Manipulation Excellency, Foot-Trapping 
  Counter, Golden Tiger Stance (Dodge), Herd-Strengthen-
  ing Invocation, Instinctive Memory Insertion, Irresistible 
  Silver Spirit, Lunar Hero Form, Mask of White Jade, New 
  Friend Aroma, One of the Herd, Perfect Symmetry, Rabid 
  Beast Attitude, Relentless Lunar Fury, Second Appearance 
  Excellency, Thousand-Claw Infliction
  Combos:
  Force of Personality (Culling the Pride, First Charisma 
  Excellency)
  Attention-Grabbing Distraction (False Burrow Pursuit, 
  First Manipulation Excellency)
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 8, Damage 2B, Defense 9 (5), 
  Rate 3
  Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 7, Damage 5B, Defense 5 (3), Rate 2
  Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 7, Damage 2B, Defense —, Rate 1
  Staff: Speed 6, Accuracy 9, Damage 9B, Defense 9 (5), Rate 2
  Soak: 4L/7B (Buff jacket, 3L/4B)
  Health Levels: -0/-1x2/-2x2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 6 
  Willpower: 7
  Essence: 3
  Personal Essence: 17 
  Peripheral Essence: 32
  Other Notes: While No Trouble Zhang can handle himself 
  in a fight, he prefers to find more creative solutions to his 
  problems. He is friendly, earnest and hard to dislike.
  BEASTS OF THE WYLD
  The beasts that live in the Wyld are more… in-
  teresting… than most creatures of Creation. Their 
  characteristics are more varied by far, and the chaos of 
  their home bestows many exotic features upon them.
  A few people in Creation value selected Wyld 
  creatures as strange pets, or for some trait that makes 
  them valuable in business or home defense. Wealthy, 
  security-minded individuals cultivate hatra trees to dis-
  courage intruders, while daring animal breeders make 
  
  155
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  money by raising jewel-horned elk. Only creatures that 
  can survive away from the Wyld’s comforting energies 
  can be captured and used in this way, and some are 
  completely untrainable.
  CREATURES OF THE EAST
  Arm Tree
  The trees in the Forest 
  of Arms do not have solid 
  wood and bark. Instead, they 
  consist of clustered arms and 
  legs that rise up from the 
  ground and spread out like 
  branches, watching visitors 
  with embedded human eyes. 
  The arms have every skin 
  color known in Creation, as 
  well as skins that clearly have 
  been warped by the Wyld. 
  The eyes likewise vary.
  Arm trees try to grab 
  anyone who comes near, 
  because of their method of 
  cross-pollination: when branches touch, they grab hold 
  while other hand-fruit and arm-cones detach and scuttle 
  across to attach to the other tree. Sharing in this way 
  keeps the trees healthy.
  Arm-beast
  These crawling, scrab-
  bling arms detach from 
  parent arm trees and seek 
  to join with other trees. 
  Unfortunately, they don’t 
  differentiate between arm 
  trees and anything else in the 
  Wyld. By clinching a target 
  and continuing to clinch 
  it for (target’s Stamina) 
  consecutive actions, the arm-
  beast merges with it. Targets 
  so affected gain the Multiple 
  Limbs abomination.
  People protected against 
  Wyld effects (as by the Solar Charm Integrity-Protecting 
  Prana) cannot be “merged with” in this fashion. That 
  doesn’t stop the arms from trying, which inflicts basic 
  clinching damage.
  Great Cat-Tree
  Great cat-trees are the massive, tree-like cats that 
  are the other sorts of trees in the Cat Forest. Each leg of 
  the giant cat makes up a single tree trunk and the body 
  is a leafy canopy. It is hard 
  to attract the attention of 
  a great cat-tree, but these 
  enormous creatures do not 
  hesitate to crush something 
  harming the forest—espe-
  cially at the direction of the 
  Magnificent Suzerainess of 
  the Celebrated Wood.
  CREATURES OF THE 
  SOUTH
  Abacasteri
  These large, lion-shaped creatures have skin of solid 
  gold, molten gold for blood and shining topazes for 
  eyes. They eat carrion, and their corrosive saliva burns 
  through even the toughest dead skins to reach the feast 
  within. Similar to their relatives in Creation, abacasteri 
  run in prides.
  Abacasteri saliva is so 
  acidic that it inflicts ag-
  gravated damage, and their 
  blood is so hot that it 
  instantly sears anyone who 
  touches it (one level of ag-
  gravated damage). When 
  an abacasteri dies, its body 
  disintegrates into worthless 
  yellow dust, foiling pre-
  cious-metal hunters. Only 
  by draining the animal of 
  all its burning blood while it still lives, allowing it to die 
  only after it loses its last drop of blood, can preserve its 
  golden corpse. Few people know this, and fewer could 
  actually accomplish it. An abacasteri corpse can be sold 
  for Resources •••••.
  Coal Nomad
  These single-minded 
  travelers have a human shape 
  but are completely made of 
  coal, from their wandering 
  eyes to their braided hair. 
  They like to wear very bright 
  clothing, though. They wan-
  der the Southern Wyld and 
  occasionally the South of 
  Creation, taking everything 
  that isn’t nailed down. Luck-
  ily for adventurers who don’t 
  mind losing their gear, the 
  
  156
  coal nomads never harm a living creature. If someone 
  attacks them, however, they try to bind him and carry 
  him into the Wyld with them. Abductees who are not 
  soon rescued are never seen again.
  Jewel-horned Elk
  Both the male and 
  female of this impressively 
  large Wyld species sport 
  enormous antlers they never 
  shed. More important to 
  Wyld scavengers, these 
  antlers are entirely grown 
  of a single gemstone: ruby, 
  diamond and emerald elk all 
  exist, as do more exotic jew-
  els never seen in Creation. 
  Jewel-horned elk act more 
  aggressively than normal elk, 
  but they are usually content 
  to graze on the crystal plants 
  of the Southern Middle-
  marches. Antlers could be sold for Resources ••••.
  CREATURES OF THE WEST
  Razor Bear
  These amphibians are 
  shaped like bears but cov-
  ered in three layers of fish 
  scales. Their faces sport 
  lidless eyes and barracuda 
  jaws, giving them a truly 
  frightening appearance. 
  Razor bears cannot stand up 
  on their hind legs, but they 
  can cover ground rapidly on 
  land or in the sea, where they use their short, flattened 
  tail to swim more quickly.
  Sea Horse
  These are the steeds 
  of the sea. When on solid 
  land, a sea horse looks like 
  a normal equine, albeit one 
  displaying all the colors of 
  the calm and raging oceans. 
  When sea horses are fully 
  submerged in the water (a 
  state they do not shy from), 
  their hindquarters melt 
  into giant, scaled fishtails, 
  reminiscent of the classical 
  mermaid. With this, they 
  can swim as quickly as they can run on land, and carry 
  riders with them.
  In some places in the Wyld, the sea horses run in 
  enormous herds, galloping over living islands and then 
  swimming as a school through the water. Raksha often 
  use them as mounts and playthings, and the Exalted and 
  daring mortals can capture and tame them for use. Sea 
  horses are about as intelligent as a child and can learn 
  many tricks. One counts as Familiar ••••.
  Vapor Hawk
  These predatory birds 
  coalesce from steam in the 
  far Southwest, where water 
  and fire run together. Re-
  fractions of the sun through 
  the droplets of water of 
  which they consist give each 
  vapor hawk beautiful and 
  unique plumage. Some of 
  their feathers have been 
  preserved and form inimi-
  table parts of the renowned 
  cloak worn by the Wavecrest 
  Archipelago’s Feathered One. The sight of a non-native 
  thing aloft in their boiling territory enrages the vapor 
  hawks, making them dangerous to most creatures that 
  dare the Steam Tides.
  CREATURES OF THE NORTH
  Carnivorous Moth
  Viewed from a dis-
  tance through the uncertain 
  perspectives of the Mid-
  dlemarches, one of these 
  monsters might look like 
  an ordinary moth in the 
  moonlit snowfall. A closer 
  view reveals a big moth with 
  wings constructed from 
  shining ice and antennae 
  dusted with frost. And then 
  the monster really comes 
  close: the carnivorous moth 
  is huge, and its head is a dry 
  human skull with crystalline compound eyes. Its jaw can 
  stretch several feet and is full of shining icicle teeth, and 
  the entire head moves on a flexible neck almost a yard 
  long. Their six legs end in skeletal human hands tipped 
  with long ice-claws.
  Worse, travelers seldom see only one carnivorous 
  moth. These horrors travel in packs of between six 
  
  157
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  and 20. They attack by swarming prey until it is weak, 
  then tearing off hunks of meat for their own family 
  groups. Their brilliantly sharp teeth tear every shred of 
  sustenance off of prey, leaving nothing for scavengers. 
  Even raksha fear hungry swarms of carnivorous moths, 
  because the monsters eat Fair Folk flesh as happily as 
  they do human.
  Carnivorous moths are too small for most raksha to 
  ride, but some Fair Folk train them as guardians, hunting 
  beasts or steeds for their smaller minions. A carnivorous 
  moth qualifies as Familiar •••••.
  Snow Wyrm
  Snow wyrms look like 
  enormous, white-furred ser-
  pents with dozens of fan-like 
  fins for maneuvering while 
  they fly. The youngest are 
  30 feet long, and they can 
  grow up to 200 feet long 
  and seven feet in diameter. 
  A grown wyrm’s mouth 
  stretches wide enough to 
  swallow a cow with a little 
  bit of work, and the teeth 
  are a foot long. Luckily for 
  most travelers, snow wyrms 
  are omnivorous. They hap-
  pily eat warm creatures for 
  nourishment, but they are just as content living on ice and 
  stone. Raksha do not tame snow wyrms, but do harvest 
  them for their teeth, which make excellent daggers.
  These creatures nest and breed in immense glaciers, 
  but grown snow wyrms travel throughout the Northern 
  Wyld. They lay their eggs in large clutches. The eggs are 
  each about the size of a man’s head and are nearly indis-
  tinguishable from cloudy ice. The slender, 10-foot-long 
  infant wyrms eat snow and ice and make easy prey for 
  many Northern predators and hunters. The snow wyrms 
  that live do so by burrowing into solid ice for safety. After 
  a few decades of growth, snow wyrms become competi-
  tive creatures ready to face the outside world. They can 
  burrow through solid ice as quickly as they fly through 
  the sky. A snow wyrm flies about as fast as a man can 
  run and is very maneuverable.
  Every decade, most snow wyrms migrate to the El-
  emental Pole of Air for some unknowable convocation. 
  Adventurers who have traveled there say that a snow wyrm 
  much larger than any other holds court at the pole; it 
  may be the god of their kind. Swarms of snow wyrms also 
  visit Northernmost Creation about once a decade. Most 
  Northern cities have emergency military procedures for 
  when the sky-monsters come to visit. Icewalker tribes, 
  on the other hand, usually hide.
  Wind Whale
  Wind whales are more 
  than 200 feet long and 40 to 
  50 feet wide. Internal blad-
  ders of a hot and flammable 
  gas keep them aloft. Dense 
  fur helps them stay warm in 
  the frigid, rarefied air miles 
  above the North, where they 
  fly. This fur is often yards 
  deep, and sometimes serves 
  as home for other airborne 
  creatures. The fins and flukes of wind whales are all very 
  wide and flat, the better to catch and direct the wind, 
  and they make superb sails for sky- or water-borne ships. 
  Wind whales feed off of other, smaller creatures that live 
  high in the Northern sky.
  Raksha tame the gentle whales and use them as liv-
  ing sky yachts or battle platforms. The raksha mahouts 
  stand on the lip of the beast’s projecting lower jaw, giving 
  commands and holding reins that merge with its flesh. 
  Characters with Sail •• and Ride •• may act as mahouts 
  for wind whales after minimal training.
  PLAYING BEASTMEN, MUTANTS 
  OR RELIC RACE CHARACTERS
  Players who want their characters to start play with 
  mutations can do so. Possessing one or more of these 
  traits does not necessarily mean that the character has ever 
  been exposed to the Wyld. They might be beastmen, the 
  children of Wyld mutants, the God-Blooded, characters 
  cursed or blessed by gods or the Fair Folk or members of 
  unusual races such as the people of the air and the people 
  of the sea. Regardless of the characters’ actual origin, 
  these aberrations are purchased from the list of Wyld 
  mutations in Exalted (pp. 288-290), in this book, or from 
  The Manual of Exalted Power—The Lunars. You or your 
  Storyteller can also design your own mutations.
  Beneficial mutations cost as many bonus points as 
  the point values given in the table on p. 144. Harmful 
  mutations can reduce the cost of beneficial mutations: 
  subtract the point values of deficiencies, debilities and 
  deformities from the point total of the other mutations. 
  However, harmful mutations do not give characters ad-
  ditional bonus points: the points they provide cannot do 
  anything other than offset the costs of beneficial muta-
  tions. If somebody wants her character to start play with 
  
  158
  a negative mutation, the player can do it for the sheer 
  joy of the roleplaying challenge.
  For example, a character with a single affliction would 
  need to pay two bonus points, but if this character also 
  had a single deficiency, then the total cost of possess-
  ing both mutations would be one bonus point. If the 
  character had a deformity instead, the cost would be 0 
  points: a deformity is worth -4 points, but the “extra” 
  two points disappear.
  Characters with an Essence pool may spend two 
  motes of Essence in place of one Willpower point to 
  fuel any activation costs required by mutations. As 
  always, the Storyteller may veto or modify the cost of 
  any mutation. In addition, beneficial mutations such 
  as the Large pox (see Exalted, p. 288) purchased in 
  this manner never increase the character’s Attributes, 
  although these traits provide all of their other listed 
  benefits. (Their benefits to a character’s Attributes are 
  presumed to be factored into the character already. The 
  starting character still gains extra health levels from the 
  mutation, though.)
  Hereditary mutations purchased with bonus points 
  also do not count as actual Wyld mutations and so do not 
  interfere with a character’s Temperance rolls or ability to 
  survive in Creation. Both heroic mortals and the Exalted 
  can freely possess any of these traits and suffer no penalties 
  for purchasing them. However, Exalted characters cannot 
  take some mutations, and a few mutations act differently 
  when possessed by Exalted. See the descriptions of the 
  various mutations for details.
  BUILDING BEASTMEN AND 
  RELICS OF THE PAST
  With the permission of their Storyteller, play-
  ers can play beastmen and relics of the past. These 
  characters usually appear as heroic mortals, but they 
  Name 
  Str/Dex/Sta Per/Int/Wits/WP Health Levels Attack 
  Dodge DV/Soak
   
   
   
   
   
  (Spd/Atk/Dmg/Rate)
  Creatures of the East
  Arm Tree  
  4/3/6 
  3/—/3— 
  -0x8/-4x2/I 
  Punch: 5/8/4B/2,  
  0/5L/8B
   
   
   
   
   
  Clinch: 6/8/4B/1
  Abilities: Martial Arts 5
  Arm-Beast  
  4/3/2 
  3/—/3— 
  -0x2/-4/I 
  Punch: 5/8/4B/2,  
  0/5L/8B
   
   
   
   
   
  Clinch: 6/8/4B/1
  Abilities: Martial Arts 5
  Great Cat-tree  
  9/1/9 
  2/1/2/3 
  -0x8/-1x10/ 
  Trample: 5/4/11B/2,  
  1/4L/9B
   
   
   
   
  -2x8/-4x4/I 
  Pin: 6/12/9B/1
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 2, Dodge 1, Integrity 3, Investigation 3, Martial Arts 3, 
  Presence 4, Resistance 4, Stealth 1, Survival 4
  Creatures of the South
  Abacasteri  
  6/4/6 
  2/1/3/5 
  -0x3/-1x3/ 
  Bite: 6/7/5A/1,  
  3/7L/10B
   
   
   
   
  -2x3/-4/I 
  Claw: 5/8/8L/2
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 2, Dodge 1, Integrity 3, Investigation 3, Martial Arts 3, 
  Presence 3 (Intimidation +2), Resistance 3, Stealth 3, Survival 3 (Desert +1)
  Coal Nomad  
  3/2/4 
  3/2/3/6 
  -0/-1x3/ 
  Clinch: 6/8/—/1 
  3/4L/6B
   
   
   
  -2x2/-4/I
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 3 (Objects +1), Dodge 4, Integrity 1, Investigation 3 
  (Things +1), Martial Arts 4 (Grapple +2), Presence 2, Resistance 3 (Travel +2), 
  Stealth 1, Survival 3 (South +2)
  Jewel-Horned Elk  6/2/5 
  3/1/2/3 
  -0x2/-1x2/ 
  Gore: 5/6/10L/1, 
  2/2L/5B 
   
   
   
   
  -2x2/-4/I 
  Kick: 5/5/8L/2 
   
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 2, Integrity 1, Martial Arts 3, Presence 2, Resistance 1, 
  Stealth 2, Survival 2
  
  159
  CHAPTER SEVEN: WYLD PRODIGIES
  are human enough to receive Exaltation. Each race 
  shares a specific set of Traits appropriate to that 
  breed. However, Exalted beastmen and relics of the 
  past have the same lifespan as any other Exalt: the 
  cost for the mutations Increased Longevity and Short 
  Life drop out from the package of mutations. Exalts 
  also automatically lose the Wyld Assimilation and En-
  lightened Essence afflictions and need not pay bonus 
  points for them.
  The following is a list of the various mutations 
  possessed by various breeds of beastmen and the base 
  cost in bonus points for that racial package of muta-
  tions. In addition to players using these rules to create 
  characters, Storytellers should also use these rules as a 
  guide for creating antagonists. Some races have unique 
  advantages or disadvantages: these can be represented 
  as unique poxes, deficiencies or other mutations. The 
  ambidexterity of the tree folk is an example of a unique 
  affliction, just as the sun sensitivity of the dune people 
  is an example of a unique debility. Unique mutations 
  should almost never be as powerful as blights, deformi-
  ties or abominations.
  BEASTMEN
  The most common beastman breeds roaming Cre-
  ation include the following:
  Chiropterans: (7-9 Bonus Points) Poxes: Claws, En-
  hanced Hearing, Fur, Night Vision. Abomination: Wings. 
  Deficiency: Ugly (their bat-like features make them unattract-
  ive to most mortals). Southeastern vampire-bat chiropterans 
  have the debility Diet (the blood of mammals or birds).
  Dolphinmen and Whalemen: (3 Bonus Points) Poxes: 
  Elemental Adaptation: Water, Enhanced Hearing, Large.
  Elkmen: (10 Bonus Points; or 6 Bonus Points for 
  Exalted) Poxes: Enhanced Smell, Fur, Hooves, Large; Afflic-
  tion: Antlers (as Horns); Blight: Enlightened Essence.
  Name 
  Str/Dex/Sta Per/Int/Wits/WP Health Levels Attack 
  Dodge DV/Soak
   
   
   
   
   
  (Spd/Atk/Dmg/Rate)
  Creatures of the West
  Razor Bear  
  9/3/10 
  2/1/2/4 
  -0x3/-1x3/ 
  Bite: 6/11/14L/1, 
  3/8L/14B 
   
   
   
   
  -2x3/-4/I 
  Claw: 5/9/9L/2 
   
  Abilities: Athletics 1, Awareness 3, Dodge 3, Integrity 1, Investigation 2, Martial Arts 4 
  (Bite +2), Presence 2, Resistance 3, Stealth 3, Survival 3
  Sea Horse  
  6/3/6 
  3/1/3/5 
  -0x2/-1x3/ 
  Bite: 5/6/6L/1, 
  3/4L/7B 
   
   
   
   
  -2x2/-4/I 
  Kick: 5/7/8L/2 
   
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 2, Dodge 3, Integrity 1, Investigation 2, Martial Arts 3, 
  Presence 1, Resistance 2, Stealth 1, Survival 2
  Vapor Hawk  
  1/4/1 
  4/1/3/3 
  -0/-1/-2/-4/I 
  Talon: 5/7/3L/2 
  3/0L/2B
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Dodge 3, Integrity 2, Investigation 1, Presence 2, 
  Resistance 2, Stealth 3, Survival 3
  Creatures of the North
  Carnivorous Moth 7/5/6 
  4/1/3/4 
  -0/-1x3/ 
  Bite: 5/12/14L/1 
  5/10L/13B
   
   
   
   
  -2x5/-4/I 
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 3 (Sight +3), Dodge 4, Integrity 2, Investigation 2, Martial 
  Arts 5, Presence 2, Resistance 2, Stealth 1, Survival 3
  Snow Wyrm  
  12/4/6 
  2/1/4/7 
  -0x4/-1x4/ 
  Bite: 5/10/15L/2 
  4/10L/12B
   
   
   
   
  -2x4/-4/I 
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Dodge 5, Integrity 3, Investigation 1, Martial Arts 5, 
  Presence 2, Resistance 3, Stealth 1, Survival 3
  Wind Whale  
  16/3/18 
  1/1/2/3 
  -0x6/-1x5/ 
  Bite: 6/7/19L/1,  
  3/9L/18B
   
   
   
   
  -2x4/-4x3/I 
  Ram: 6/6/24B/1 
   
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Dodge 3, Integrity 1, Investigation 3, Martial Arts 3, 
  Presence 1, Resistance 2, Stealth 1, Survival 3
  
  160
  Gazellemen: (7 Bonus Points) Poxes: Enhanced Smell, 
  Enhanced Hearing, Fur; Afflictions: Gazelle Stride, Horns.
  Hawkmen: (10 Bonus Points) Poxes: Claws, Enhanced 
  Sight, Feathers, Tail; Abomination: Wings.
  Hyenamen: (3 Bonus Points) Poxes: Enhanced Smell, 
  Enhanced Hearing, Fangs, Fur; Deficiency: Ugly.
  Owlmen: (10 Bonus Points) Poxes: Claws, Night Vi-
  sion, Feathers, Tail; Abomination: Wings.
  Sharkmen: (2 Bonus Points; 3 Bonus Points for 
  Exalted) Poxes: Elemental Adaptation: Water, Enhanced 
  Smell, Fangs, Shark Hide (as Fish Scales), Large; Afflictions: 
  Gills (no lung atrophy), Wyld Assimilation; Deficiencies: 
  Atrophy (Intelligence), Ugly; Debility: Diet (Raw Meat); 
  Deformity: Short Life.
  Snakemen: (4 or 6 Bonus Points; 3 or 5 Bonus Points 
  for Exalted) Poxes: Elemental Adaptation (East, South or 
  West), Enhanced Smell, Fangs, Increased Longevity, Night 
  Vision, Snake Scales (as Fur); Deficiencies: Temperature 
  Sensitivity (cold), Ugly; some have the affliction Toxin.
  Spidermen: (11 Bonus Points) Poxes: Fangs, Fur, 
  Enhanced Vision (Four Eyes); Affliction: Toxin; Blight: 
  Wall-Walking; Abomination: Multiple Limbs (Arms); 
  Deficiency: Ugly; Debility: Diet (Raw Flesh).
  Wolfmen: (5 Bonus Points) Poxes: Enhanced Smell, 
  Night Vision, Fangs, Fur, Large.
  RELICS OF THE PAST
  People of the Air: (8 Bonus Points; 7 Bonus Points 
  for Exalted) Poxes: Enhanced Sight, Increased Longevity; 
  Abomination: Flight.
  People of the Sea: (6 Bonus Points; 5 Bonus Points for 
  Exalted) Poxes: Elemental Adaptation (Water), Increased 
  Longevity; Blight: Gills.
  The Tree Folk: (3 Bonus Points): Pox: Elemental Ad-
  aptation: Wood; Unique Affliction: The tree folk are fully 
  ambidextrous, and all have fully prehensile toes. They never 
  suffer an offhand penalty for any task and can hold weapons 
  and tools with their feet as readily as their hands.
  The Dune People: (0 Bonus Points): Poxes: Night 
  Vision and Enhanced Sense (Smell). The dune people 
  have eyes with red irises and unusually large pupils, 
  however, their noses appear normal. Unique Debility: 
  The dune people are total albinos whose skins burn 
  under bright sunlight and have difficulty seeing in 
  bright sunlight. Dune people are at -1 on all dice pools 
  in direct sunlight and suffers one die of unsoakable 
  bashing damage for each hour of sun exposure. Char-
  acters bundled in heavy clothes or otherwise limiting 
  their direct exposure, such as under an overcast sky or 
  darting from shadow to shadow double the interval 
  necessary to inflict damage.
  
  ISBN-13: 978-1-58846-693-8   WW80216   $24.99 U.S.
  PRINTED IN CANADA
  www.white-wolf.com/exalted
  Outside the bounds 
  of Creation, there 
  exists an infinite 
  expanse of roiling 
  chaos that breaks 
  upon the shaped 
  world like a storm-
  tossed sea against the 
  shore, threatening to 
  wear it away. Where 
  it does wear away, 
  reality breaks down 
  and savage denizens 
  of the chaos beyond 
  Creation dwell.
  The second of five Celestial 
  Direction books devoted to 
  fleshing out the bare bones of 
  Creation’s supernatural locales 
  presented in the Exalted core 
  book, this book includes:
  • Details of the dangers of 
  the Wyld, the kingdoms of 
  the Fair Folk and the savage 
  Wyld tribes
  • Full rules for power-quest-
  ing and mutations
  • Traits for the Wyld’s native 
  inhabitants
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Exalted/Unsorted/Exalted 2E - Compass of Celestial Directions Vol. 2 - The Wyld.pdf