Dice Chronicle of the Scavenger Lands (Exalted 3E) - Lore

jaydude · Mar 18, 2019

NPC's

Solars

Calarel is a Twilight-Caste Solar from the First Age. An accomplished sorcerer-engineer, she created numerous artifacts and warstriders for the Solar Deliberative, and regularly took to the field herself, devastating Creation's enemies with her immensely powerful sorcery.

Calarel was one thousand and five hundred years old by the time of the Usurpation, and thanks to the Great Curse, obsessed with creating great work after great work, seeking to make each project more magnificent, more potent, more perfect than the last. Like the Incarnae with the Games of Divinity, she ignored events taking place outside of her factory-cathedral, until the Dragon-blooded and Sidereal betrayal finally got her attention. Learning that the Solar Deliberative was being torn apart around her, and that it had come about thanks to the corruption of the Solars was a sobering experience for the Twilight Caste, restoring her to the person she'd been before the Great Curse had taken hold of her.

The Copper Spider was killed by the Wyld Hunt while attempting to rescue her brother and fellow Solar from them. Anticipating such an outcome, Calarel used her sorcery to leave behind an immaterial copy of herself within her Circle's old castle of Nelmanor, one that was bought into being by Quill. Seeing something of herself within the far younger Twilight (or perhaps recognizing him as her current reincarnation), Calarel became a mentor of sorts to him.

She possesses ratings of 5 in Craft (Artifacts), Craft (First Age Artifice), Lore (First Age) and Occult. While once an Essence 5 being capable of Celestial and Solar Circle Sorcery, such things would now be beyond her abilities were she somehow given a more solid form; she was never a perfect copy of the original Calarel, and her exaltation has long since passed on.

Appearance 4, Resolve 4, Guile 4

Dragon-blooded

A young woman with fair skin, sea green eyes and black hair that reaches just past her shoulders. Though she once wore Black Jade Lamellar Armor, that has been taken from her following her capture, and she now wears a brown shirt, gray trousers and brown leather boots provided for her by the crew of the Silver Mermaid. She also bears a huge scar going down her torso, as a result of Ganzin near-mortally wounding her.

A Lookshyan Dragon-blooded of the Water Aspect, she participated in the Wyld Hunt that destroyed Ganzin's village, and was later assigned to help guard a river checkpoint. She was wounded in battle with the Circle, only to be saved from the brink of death by Zedradon. She was taken prisoner, but Ysandre took her on as one of her lieutenants.

Arumi wields a Black Jade Daiklave named Black Lash (Artifact 3), which possesses an Evocation that transforms it into a bladed whip, allowing Arumi to use it for reach and grappling. It was forged fifty years ago for Arumi's mother, another Dragon-blooded of Lookshy, and largely used for engagements with pirates and beasts of the Scavenger Lands rivers, though the last time it was used by her mother was in a battle against a Solar of giant size, during which she was stomped to death. This perhaps explains why Arumi briefly got involved with the Wyld Hunt.

In addition to this weapon, Arumi is also a martial artist, capable of performing all the Charms of Even Blade Style up to Floating Nymph Grace Evasion, even with her unorthodox sword.

Appearance 3, Resolve 3, Guile 3
Intimacies:
Defining Principle - I want to make the Scavenger Lands a better and safer place for all who live in them
Major Tie - Evildoers (Contempt)
Major Tie - Masaru (Sisterly love)
Major Tie - Lookshy (Loyalty and Duty)
Major Tie - Sworn Kinship (Camaraderie)
Minor Principle - I will take the side of justice whenever I can
Minor Tie - Immaculate Philosophy (Skepticism)
Minor Tie - Ysandre (Loyalty)

An outcaste Dragon-blood of the Earth Aspect, and the head of the bodyguards at Lyla's villa. He wields Vigorous Striker, a White Jade Grand Goremaul with the power to strike with force beyond its (already heavy) weight, without ill-effects. He also wears a White Jade Reinforced Breastplate that can share its protection with another individual (typically Lyla).

Appearance 3, Resolve 5, Guile 2

An outcaste Dragon-blood of the Fire Aspect, and the leader of a gang of bandits in the Scavenger Lands. Wields a Red Jade guandao (Grand Grimcleaver).

Prior to his exaltation, Ganzin lived in a small farming village that was beset by bandits, monsters and corrupt gods. One day a wandering Solar came by, and decided to stay in the village. A great warrior, he drove away the bandits, slew the monsters and beat the spirits into not abusing their powers, while also training the villagers and helping them form a militia, to that they could better protect themselves. Ganzin, by this point a teenager, joined the militia, and soon came to idolize the Solar.

One day the Wyld Hunt came to the village, looking for the Solar. The villagers refused to believe the claims that their guardian was a consort of demons, and the Solar stepped forth to battle them. He fought well, but was overwhelmed and killed by the Dragon-blooded of the Wyld Hunt, some of whom hailed from the Realm or Lookshy. With the Solar dead, the Wyld Hunt destroyed the village and butchered the militia, along with the rest of its residents. Ganzin was knocked out early on in the battle, and woke up the only survivor, the shock and rage he felt causing him to Exalt in an explosion of fire.

Following his village's destruction, Ganzin became a wanderer and joined a group of bandits, soon becoming its leader.

After some time, he and the bandits were recruited into Ryan's service. He possesses Command 2 (Former bandits turned soldiers), and also wields the Enflamed Halberd, a Red Jade guandao (Artifact 3, treat as Grand Grimcleaver) with fire-based Evocations. He also possesses a Red Jade Reinforced Buff Jacket (Artifact 3), taken from a Lookshyan river checkpoint.

Appearance 4, Resolve 4, Guile 4

Essence: 1
Willpower: 5, Join Battle: 6 (+2 for 2m)
Personal motes: 12; Peripheral motes: 27
Health Levels: -0/-1x3/-2x3/-4/Incap

Combat
Attack (Red Jade Grand Grimcleaver): 11 dice (+6 for 6m, Damage 18, minimum 2)
Combat Movement: 5 dice (+2 for 2m)
Evasion 5, Parry 5 (+2 for 4m)
Soak/Hardness: 11/7

Offensive Charms:
Stoking Bonfire Style (1m per dice; Supplemental or Reflexive; Instant; Dual; Fire; Excellency) - When landing an attack against an enemy or blocking an attack, the cost of using this Charm against the enemy is cumulatively lowered by one mote on subsequent rounds. Missing an attack or failing to parry resets the discount, as does attacking or blocking against another enemy, or going a round without using this Charm.

Burning Fury Wrath (3m; Supplemental; Balanced; Decisive only; Fire) - Ignore 2 points of Hardness, plus an additional point for every 10 on her attack roll. In Fire Aura, double the Hardness ignored.

Elemental Bolt Attack (4m, 1a; Simple; Instant; Dual) - A withering or decisive attack against an enemy within short range. Can spend a level of anima to extend to medium range. Damage is lethal, and decisive attacks double 10s on damage.

Raging Firestorm Blade (6m, 3a; Supplemental; Instant; Dual) - While anima is at bonfire, discharge it to convert all post-soak damage dice of a withering attack to successes, or one die on a decisive damage roll to a success. Resets anima to dim.

Defensive Charms:
Threshold Warding Stance (2m per +1 Evasion; Supplemental or Reflexive; Instant; Fire; Excellency) - Ignore environmental penalties to evasion or dodge roll.

Presence Charms:
Glowing Coal Radiance - The blazing power that radiates from the Dragon-blood’s every word and gesture is enough to humble those who stand before her. She may add automatic successes to a Presence roll for two motes each, and rolls an additional non-Charm die for every 10.

Intimacies:
Major Principle: I like being my own boss
Major Tie: The Wyld Hunt (Hatred)
Major Tie: Arumi (Enmity)
Minor Tie: Ailera (Outlaw Camaraderie)
Minor Tie: The Immaculate Philosophy (Distaste)
Minor Tie: Lookshy (Distaste)
Minor Tie: The Realm (Distaste)
Minor Tie: Ryan (Loyalty)

An outcaste Dragon-blood of the Water Aspect, the captain of the ship Resplendent Dolphin of Sparkling Waters, and the leader of a crew of mercenaries and adventurers known as the Cerulean River-dragons.

Appearance 3, Resolve 4, Guile 4

Intimacies
Defining Principle - I will never be tied to anything or anyone besides my ship and crew.
Major Tie - My crew (Protectiveness)
Major Tie - Catseye (Protectiveness)
Major Principle - I like flirting and being flirted with, even if it doesn't go anywhere.
Major Principle - I like money, specifically being able to spend it.
Minor Tie - My ship (Affection)

God-blooded

Another God-blooded descendant of Wun Ja (though of a long distant line to the royal family), Regis is a man who looks to be in his mid-sixties and possesses a bald patch and a grey mutton-chop beard. His expression is usually one of benign friendliness, and he typically wears austere, navy-blue robes when on duty.

Regis serves the King (or in this case Queen) of Nalia as the Royal Chancellor, assisting and advising them in handling the kingdom's governance, finances, foreign relations and other bureaucratic matters. For these tasks, he possesses a Bureaucracy rating of 4.

Appearance 3, Resolve 3, Guile 3

Intimacies
Defining Principle - My duty until death is to serve Nalia and its people.
Major Tie - Nalian Royal Family members (Affection)

Mortals

A jeweler working in the city of Marita, and a member of the Jade Contemplation. Quill and Ysandre met him while looking for information on Nalia.

The landed warrior Ryan squired for before his Exaltation, Gavin Tannis now serves as the second-in-command of the Crimson Fangs.

Intimacies
Defining Tie - Ryan (Loyalty)
Defining Principle - I will assist Ryan in retaking our homeland.
Major Tie - Alsein (Love of homeland)
Major Tie - Crimson Fangs (Care)
Minor Tie - Northborn (Hatred)

A wealthy merchant and member of the Guild who operates within the Scavenger Lands and sees profit in supporting the Circle, and a lover of Ryan. She has Backing 3 (Guild), Contacts 3 (Scavenger Lands), Influence 3 (Scavenger Lands merchant princess), and Resources 4 (Incomes from various business and mercantile interests).

Appearance 4, Resolve 4, Guile 4

Intimacies
Defining Principle - Profit's all that matters at the end of the day.
Defining Principle - I love living the high life.
Major Tie - The Immaculate Philosophy (Skepticism)
Minor Tie - Ryan (Affection)
Solars

Melisande is a woman in her early twenties with light blue eyes, and long black hair that she has combed straight. As befitting her role as a duchess and queen, she usually wears jewellery, gowns and dresses of dark colours and clearly exquisite quality, and more often than not has an air of haughtiness about her.

Melisande was born in the Duchy of Bayonne, a small but wealthy city-state located northeast of Nalia. The daughter and only child of the duchy's ruler, she grew up in luxury with access to a high-quality education, and inherited her father's title at the age of twelve, when her parents both died in mysterious circumstances. Because of her young age, a regency was established to rule in her name, but the regent formed a conspiracy with three other members of Bayonne's nobility and became the de-facto ruler of the city-state. Melisande found out about the conspiracy soon after her eighteenth birthday, and soon discovered that the conspirators would never allow her to wield any real power in her duchy, at least not without making plans to kill her.

Many in Melisande's position would have bitterly resigned themselves to becoming a puppet ruler. And perhaps there was something special in the young duchess's feelings of stress, frustration and resentment, for the Unconquered Sun marked her as one of his Chosen, specifically one of the Eclipse Caste. And just like that, Melisande became a master of statecraft and intrigue overnight.

She wasted little time once she had figured out what had happened to her. Two of the conspirators were tricked into thinking they had been betrayed by the other, and both strangled each other to death at the same time. The third was set upon by his political enemies - of which he suddenly had many - who stabbed him in the back with daggers several times and threw the corpse into the river. As for the regent, he was driven to madness and hysteria by the deaths of his co-conspirators and his inability to figure out who was responsible (Melisande had naturally covered her tracks far too well for him), and eventually Melisande had him arrested for high treason and thrown into the dungeons of the ducal palace. She chose not to have him executed, believing that leaving him a mad wreck was a far worse punishment than killing him and allowing him to reincarnate.

Now able to rule in her own right, Melisande sought to increase her power and influence within the Scavenger Lands, while simultaneously concealing her nature as a Solar. She worked out favourable trade agreements with the Guild, Lookshy and Greyfalls, and began courting the Nalian prince Quincel. Soon after the king of Nalia took ill and died, and Quincel drove out his sister to become king, Melisande married him.

Appearance 5, Resolve 4, Guile 6

Sidereals

One of the Chosen of Secrets, this old man is the figure responsible for the events surrounding Ailera's Exaltation and the deaths of her friends. He intends to have her serve as his disciple for the good of Creation, regardless of what Ailera wants.

Intimacies:
Major Tie - Ailera (Obsession)

Gods

Baphinol appears as a musclebound man of giant size with cerulean blue skin, glowing white eyes, a short sea green beard and hair of the same color, which he styles in a queue. He wears a pair of light brown trousers, as well as boots and a girdle of brown leather, both accented with gold trim.

As with all river gods, Baphinol is tasked with maintaining a river, in his case the Nalian River. He makes sure it doesn't flow out of season, has a proper number of fish and other life, doesn't become home to demons, and so on and so forth. Although the ability of the Immaculate Order to police gods outside of the Blessed Isle has become lax as of late, Baphinol does not unduly extort the mortals who rely on his river, but he will accept gifts and bribes of worship in exchange for granting boons and benefits, such as allowing certain ships to travel faster along his river.

As his sobriquet might suggest, Baphinol is very fond of alcohol, with his favorite kind being wine from Nalia. That said, he will be appreciative of any gift of alcohol he receives, the costlier the better. Despite his love for drinking, Baphinol is always sober enough to do his job.

Wun Ja appears as a tall, slender woman made entirely of glass and metal, but she can take more humanoid shapes when the occasion requires it, especially when she walks Creation.

Wun Ja was one of the greatest of the gods in the First Age; her domain was the concept of the perfect city, a marvelous wonder which the Solar Exalted frequently achieved. She began to fall in power after the Usurpation and lost much of what remained when the greatest cities collapsed during the Contagion. This loss of power was one of the primary reasons why the Bureau of Heaven was able to steal so many gods from under the Bureau of Humanity’s jurisdiction. Wun Ja is terrified her Bureau will continue to shrink and is willing to break any law of Heaven to prevent this from happening. She is the primary proponent of the Bureau’s plan to work with the Sidereal Gold Faction and any Solar Exalted who can be convinced to cooperate equally with the Bureau. She is also Director of the Department of Human Habitations and is reluctant to give up the position to anyone who might attempt to replace her as Director of the Bureau.

As relations between the Realm and the Threshold continue to deteriorate since the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, Wun Ja is working to convince more gods to take control of cities. Her current major project is to convince Grandmother Bright of Chiaroscuro (see The Books of Sorcery, Vol. IV—The Roll of Glorious Divinity I, p. 52) to openly take control of the city and rebuild it to its ancient glory. Grandmother Bright (a member of the Bureau of Humanity herself and a former member of the Department of Universal Human Affairs when she was still Bright Sanguine Saber, Goddess of Vengeance) has resisted so far, but she might be convinced if Wun Ja could provide Celestial Exalts and other powerful allies to help. Wun Ja is also actively looking for Solar Exalted willing to take control of large cities—but only if they agree to avoid destroying other large cities and are willing to ensure worship of her and of other major deities from the Bureau of Humanity in the cities they control. Since cities in the Realm aren’t providing her with any influence over mortal prayer, she is eager to help with any plans to conquer the Realm, assuming those plans align with her agenda.

Intimacies
Defining Principle - The Elemental Pole of Fire will freeze over before I give up any more heavenly power and influence.
Major Tie - Amoth City-Smiter, God of Tumbled Ruins (Enmity)
Major Tie - Gold Faction (Mutual interests)
Minor Tie - Jagalza, Satrap of the Realm (Love)

Dragon-blooded

An outcaste Dragon-blood of the Fire Aspect, and a member of the Jade Contemplation. A former Scavenger Lord, he is now the owner of Feren Mine, and has refused to save it even as its problems erode his profit margins.

Appearance 3, Resolve 5, Guile ?

Intimacies
Major Tie - Lyla (Animosity)
Major Tie - The people at my mine (Care)
Major Principle - I prefer to take more profitable options over easy ones.

God-blooded

The present ruler of Nalia, having usurped the throne from Ysandre, the designated heir. Officially he justifies his actions on the basis that it would have been improper for Ysandre, a woman, to inherit the throne, and the claim that she had a hand in the previous king's illness and death. Whether or not he speaks the truth is as divisive a topic among the people of Nalia as the Usurpation is among the Sidereals.

Like his sister, he is a descendant of Wun Ja, Goddess of the Shining Metropolis, though he is believed to be descended from Venus, Maiden of Serenity.

Appearance 4, Resolve 4, Guile 4

Mortals

A handsome (Appearance 4) and young-looking man with neck-length black hair and ice-blue eyes.

A Nalian Count, member of the King's Men and a vassal of Duke Montiel, Raoul had a reputation as a cruel and unpleasant man, but no-one had any clue of how bad he was until Quincel took the throne and became dependent on the support of men like him. With free reign to engage in his cruelties, Count Aliker now serves as little more than one of Duke Montiel's henchmen.

A dashing and handsome (Appearance 3) man in his early sixties with short grey hair and a neatly groomed moustache.

One of the most powerful men in Nalia below the monarch, Laurent was a good friend of the king before Quincel.

Unknown

A beautiful, yet mysterious woman whom Ailera met in Marita, and who provided her with information on the situation in Nalia.

Appearance 4, Resolve 4, Guile 6

Actions:
Larceny: 10 dice
Stealth: 10 dice

jaydude · Jul 13, 2020

World Details

A loose alliance of Scavenger Lands nations spread across most of the region, chief among them being the military stronghold city of Lookshy and the trading metropolis of Nexus.

The Confederation of Rivers is theoretically ruled by the Council of the Concordat, a governing body that bases itself in the city of Marita. In practice however, the council is largely ineffectual and has little to no control or influence over its member states, to the point that relations between them are breaking down and some are even at war with one another. That said, once enough of the member states decide that the Scavenger Lands are under threat, they can quickly form a unified front.

Motivation: If the members of the confederation have a mutual goal, it is to prevent the Scavenger Lands from being subjugated by the Realm, the Fair Folk, or any other great power. Otherwise, each member state has its own unique motivation.

Enemies: The Confederation, Lookshy in particular, observe the Realm and the city of Grey Falls with a wary eye, waiting for the next great invasion.

The spirit court that presides over the rivers of the Scavenger Lands. In the time following the Scarlet Empress's disappearance, it operates akin to a quasi-feudal system. It is ruled by Vadall, the God of the Yellow and Yanaze Rivers, and current bearer of the title of "Yellow River King", with the gods of the Grey River, the Maruto River, and the River of Tears serving as his direct vassals. Below them are the river gods of the other, smaller rivers that flow into the river of the "main god", and so on and so forth, with each river god served by many Sobeksis and Fish-Mothers, female mermaid spirits who manage fish numbers within the rivers. In addition, the larger rivers can have multiple gods, each one managing a particular stretch of the river, and answering to the god of that river.

Motivation: The main goal of the Thousand Rivers Court is to maintain its control over its mortal worshipers on and around the rivers of the Scavenger Lands, and encourage them to give more worship.

Enemies: The Thousand Rivers Court is at odds with the Immaculate Order, which limits the amount of worship its members can receive; while Vadall and his fellow river gods generally do not extort worship from mortals, they are not above taking bribes of worship from them. After Vadall was assaulted and nearly killed by a quintet of Dragon-blooded Immaculate monks, the spirit court defers to the Immaculate Order on most matters, though it is said that Vadall, stewing with anger after being attacked, is merely biding his time until he can have his revenge.

Alsein is a minor kingdom in the Scavenger Lands, located near the source of the Rolling River. It was founded around three generations ago, by the civilized descendants of local barbarian tribes, many of which still exist today. For the last few years it has had a somewhat antagonistic relationship with the local gods and spirits, in particular Tenrann, the God of the Rolling River. Finding his domain lightly watched by the Immaculate Order, Tenrann has taken to extorting the people of Alsein, demanding worship and sacrifices in exchange for him providing the river with fish, allowing safe water travel, and preventing flooding and river dragon attacks.

Recently, Alsein was invaded and occupied by a large band of Northborn, civilized and martially-oriented descendants of Icewalker tribes who migrated to the Hundred Kingdoms an aeon ago. The King of Alsein and his family were all killed over the course of the invasion, and the Northborn leader has been crowned king in his place, with his warriors going on to stamp their control over the kingdom, stripping the old nobility of their wealth, lands and titles, reducing the Alsein peasantry to serfdom and enacting a systematic persecution campaign of Alsein natives able to bear arms in an attempt to stamp out resistance. Immaculate monks who travelled with the Northborn warriors have since bought Tenrann to heel, beating him to a bloody pulp in the process and forcing him to stop extorting the people of Alsein, on pain of being made into Starmetal.

Motivation: At present, the Northborn rulers of Alsein hope to bring the land more firmly under their control. Rebellious elements of the native Alsein population, however, naturally seek to drive them out. Meanwhile, it is rumored that Tenrann, still stewing after his humiliation and beating, is conspiring to have his revenge on the Immaculate monks who struck him down so thoroughly, as well as the Northborn he considers responsible for bringing them to Alsein.

Enemies: Though the Northborn king doesn't yet know it, the only external foe of any concern to Alsein at the moment is Ryan Shepherd, a warrior of the old king who exalted as a Dawn Caste during one of the last battles of the conquest. Ryan is currently planning to raise an army of his own to drive out the Northborn and take back his homeland.

Nalia is a minor kingdom located in the east of the Scavenger Lands.

History
Coming into existence a few decades after the Realm and Lookshy, it was founded due to the influence and machinations of Wun Ja, Goddess of the Shining Metropolis, who wanted to both establish a bastion of civilization on the border of the Far East, and start replacing the great cities that had been lost during the Balorian Crusade. To this end, Wun Ja not only watched over Nalia's future capital of Elua, but also added a small number of her God-blooded children to the population, trusting in them to be able to manage things once they came of age. One of them became the first King of the emergent nation, and the ancestor of the current royal family, while the others became lesser nobility, often taking on administrative roles within the kingdom.

Around the time Wun Ja was busy with this procreation, Nalia was visited by a Chosen of Serenity who had been sent to the kingdom as part of an assignment. This Sidereal had taken on a resplendent destiny of such beauty, she was said to be Venus herself in human form, and many of the God-blooded children born later - including the king - were attributed to the goddess. Wun Ja, for her part, was content to let this misconception go uncorrected, for not only would it conceal her role in Nalia's development - which could result in legal trouble if discovered - the knowledge that one of her mortal descendents ruled from Elua would likely prompt Amoth City-Smiter to focus his efforts on destroying the city, simply out of spite for Wun Ja. And so, even to this day, many Nalians believe their rulers and parts of their nobility to be descended from Venus.

The Present Day
The majority religion of Nalia today is the Immaculate Philosophy. As a result of the mistaken assumption regarding their divine patron however, the people of Nalia pay particular attention to Venus with regard to worship - though this is of course opposed by local adherents to the Immaculate Order - and daily life, with Nalians renowned for their parties, festivals and musical skills. But anyone assuming that Nalia is a nation of idle pleasure-seekers would be sorely mistaken. Wun Ja worked hard to ensure that Elua would be able to survive in the post-Balorian Crusade, and after resisting attacks from forest tribes, wyld barbarians and even Fair Folk on many occasions; the people of Nalia know how to fight.

Nalia traditionally operates under the feudal system, the king sitting at the top of the kingdom's hierachy and possessing near-absolute power, but being responsible for ruling the kingdom. He is aided in this task by a council of advisors, the most senior figure of which is the Royal Chancellor. Below the king are four dukes, each one ruling a fifth of the kingdom (the last share, consisting of Elua and the surrounding lands, is ruled by the king). Each duke is permitted to maintain a personal army of no more than a thousand men, and rule their domains as they see fit, subject to the edicts of the king. Below the dukes are a number of counts, and below the counts are a larger number of barons. Like the dukes, the counts and barons are permitted to rule lands and maintain armed forces, though these are much smaller than those of the dukes.

Below the barons are the commoners, who can be anything from peasants, craftsmen, merchants and village leaders. Important religious individuals - typically Immaculate monks and priests of Venus - fall outside this system.

Inner Turmoil
At present, Nalia is in the middle of a disputed succession. Traditionally, the eldest son of the previous king inherits the throne on his father's passing, but the previous king broke from this tradition by naming princess Ysandre, his eldest daughter and firstborn, as his successor. When Ysandre was 18, the king suddenly became ill and passed away, and his eldest son, Prince Quincel, refused to accept being passed over. With the help of members of the Immaculate Order, Quincel forced Ysandre to flee for her life, the rightful queen stealing the family's ancestral Daiklave and exalting as a Solar in the process. Her brother took the throne and became King Quincel in her absence, but his actions have sharply divided the kingdom.

While roughly half of the people support the present king, only half of this group do so out of a belief that he should have been the designated heir from the start, and that Ysandre is an Anathema who murdered the previous king. The other half are mere opportunists, who don't care who murdered the previous king, and are supporting Quincel simply for his favor, and because they know he needs support. As for the rest of the populace, they seek to put Ysandre on her throne as per her father's wishes, and believe Quincel to have murdered the previous king and used Ysandre as a scapegoat.

To keep his power, Quincel has entered into a marriage alliance with Melisandre, the ruler of the nearby Duchy of Bayonne, and a woman who just so happens to be an Eclipse Caste Solar; fate is not without a sense of irony. With the country divided, the current king and queen have been forced to rely upon support from more corrupt and unscrupulous lords of Nalia.

Motivation: With the current turmoil that engulfs it, Nalia's main concern is coming out of the crisis as undamaged as it can, with King Quincel seeking to consolidate power and retrieve his family's ancestral Daiklave.

Enemies: Nalia's foes generally come from the east, though King Quincel currently keeps a wary eye on anyone likely to aid his sister.

Map:

A secretive coalition of scholars, merchants and scavenger lords spread across the Scavenger Lands.

Motivation: The Jade Contemplation seeks to discover and document relics of the past, such as ancient ruins and artifacts, for both knowledge and profit.

Enemies: Few of note, though the Jade Contemplation sometimes runs afoul of the Guild whenever their respective operations and goals interfere with one another.
The capital city of Nalia. Built on the edge of the river, it is a large, wealthy and well-defended settlement, surrounded by a high stone wall with numerous towers. The two largest and most important structures of note in the city - all of which can be seen from a mile away - are the Royal Palace, and the Grand Temple of Venus.

The Royal Palace is a vast and opulent building from where the King rules the country and lives with his family, and features a number of lavish bedrooms for the royal family and their guests, as well as a grand ballroom and dining hall, and large and beautiful royal gardens. Besides these comforts, the palace also features an attached military compound with a barracks, training grounds, archery range, stables and smithy, for training and equipping Nalia's armed forces. Both the palace and the military compound are surrounded by another stone wall, this one with a moat.

The Grand Temple of Venus is the biggest temple in the city, and one of the largest and grandest temples in the Scavenger Lands. Also surrounded by a stone wall, it features large temple grounds, as well as a grand altar to Venus herself, inside a stone hall big enough to hold hundreds of supplicants. Within the grounds are dormitories for the priests and acolytes, with grander apartments for the senior priests and the High Priest.

Other places of note in the city are the Lookshyan embassy, which serves an additional role as one of Lookshy's outposts in the eastern Scavenger Lands, and the Temple of Wun-Ja, the biggest and greatest besides the Grand Temple of Venus. An Immaculate Temple is also located a few miles northwest of the city.

The home of the Council of the Concordat, Marita is a large, yet otherwise unremarkable city on the north bank of the Yellow River. Ryan, Ysandre and Quill first came here following their escape from the Twinskull bandits, and it was here where they first encountered Ailera, Captain Mara, and Catseye.
White as Northern snow with eyes that glow an unearthly blue, bearing an iridescent horn that glitters in cold sunlight, graceful beyond the finest poetry — a unicorn seems like a dream given life. Unicorns have served as war mounts for raksha nobles for ages, and as the subjects of stories and nightmares for many a mortal. A unicorn’s horn, while lovely, is a deadly weapon, and those who approach unwisely find their blood staining the snow. Masterless unicorns run solo or gather in groups of three to ten in the northern Wyld’s bordermarches, defending fantastical lands of pristine allure from any who would despoil or reshape them. Some unicorns boast glorious wings, with massive spans and feathers as pure white as their coats. Unicorns are highly intelligent, and happily converse with those who don’t offend them; but they’re Wyld creatures, not animals, with alien drives that make them highly unpredictable.

Unicorns obsess over harmony and pleasing aesthetics. Unity, symmetry, and wholehearted dedication — to anything, be it love, wealth, or the basest cruelty — attract them. By contrast, contradiction and turmoil are unspeakably ugly to them. Beauty, too, draws a unicorn, but its idea of beauty is as strange and ever-shifting as the Wyld itself. A unicorn smiles upon a blood-spattered battlefield as often as a sublime flower arrangement, as long as the latter doesn’t mar the former; it would stamp the flowers into pulp to keep them from spoiling war’s gruesome elegance.

Unicorns are proud, haughty beings who spare no mercy for any who insult or mistreat them; they view captivity as the worst offense of all, and those held against their will sicken and die quickly. But unicorns don’t stay dead: They rise again from the ice in Wyld lands after a year and a day, and hold grudges that last centuries.

Essence: 3, Willpower: 8, Join Battle: 8 dice
Health Levels: −0x2/−1x2/−2x3/−4x2/Incap.

Intimacies:
Defining: “I must preserve perfection in all its forms.”;
Major: “Insults are forever.”; Myself
and My Kind (Pride)

Speed Bonus: +5

Actions:
Feats of Strength: 8 dice (may attempt Strength 3 feats);
Fly: 10 dice (winged only);
Inspire: 9 dice;
Northern Navigation and Survival: 7 dice;
Occult Knowledge: 12 dice;
Persuade: 6 dice;
Read Intentions: 5 dice;
Resist Disease/Poison: 10 dice;
Senses: 8 dice;
Threaten: 8 dice;
Tracking: 5 dice
Appearance 5, Resolve 5, Guile 5

COMBAT
Attack (Horn): 12 dice (Damage 16)
Attack (Kick/Stomp): 9 dice (Damage 13)
Combat Movement: 10 dice
Evasion 4, Parry 3
Soak/Harness: 7/0

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Gore: Decisive horn attacks add extra successes to damage against enemies with lower Initiative, as long as the unicorn hasn’t taken any other actions (including reflexive movement actions) that turn.

Sky Runner: In Creation, unicorns can run across the surface of snow or water without sinking in. In the Wyld, they can take to the sky, galloping over clouds and mist as though they were solid ground. Winged unicorns can fly normally in any environment.

MERITS
Cold Iron Bane: Weapons of iron deal aggravated damage to unicorns.

Glorious Aura: A character must pay one Willpower to attack the unicorn as long as it hasn’t attacked her yet this scene; once she spends a Willpower, she may attack at will for the scene. The unicorn’s Inspire rolls have a target number of 5, as long as the emotion it’s inspiring aligns with its Intimacies in context.

Hearts Unmasked: Unicorns can sniff out the stench of dissonance and asymmetry. The unicorn may use its Senses and Tracking pools to detect conflict of any kind, including physical combat, arguments, or internal turmoil such as clashing Intimacies. They can also sense magical conflicts, such as the use of Wyld-Shaping Technique (Exalted, p. 335) to carve reality out of chaos.

Oaths Eternal: A unicorn cannot go back on its word once given; its pride is a magical force that prevents it from doing so. However, it doubles 8s on non-attack actions to uphold a promise or agreement.

Storyteller Tactics
Unicorns are quick to slay those who offend them, and focus single-mindedly on destroying these offenders before moving on to other targets, regardless of relative danger. They leave injured kin to die if the wounded can’t recover quickly — to see their perfection marred thus is disgusting to them. Many unicorns now serving as mounts for the Chosen were abandoned this way, only for an Exalted champion to rescue them. Such acts win the fae creatures’ undying loyalty, as long as their masters live up to their high expectations.

A unicorn is a 3-dot familiar.
During the time of the Shogunate, the Wyld Hunt fought and killed a Solar near Feren Mine, shattering one of his Orichalcum Bracers during the battle. The remains were entombed near Feren Mine, but were later taken by Quill.

Crafted during the early Age of Sorrows at the behest of the shogun Yumina, it served as the weapon of choice for her lover and personal assassin Asari, as she took the lives of Yumina's enemies until her own untimely death. Since then, the Death Ring has been the favored weapon of countless professional killers, from Shogunate and Imperial agents to freelance assassins.

If one focuses on a target they intend to kill with the weapon, Death Ring can fly far, curve and weave mid-flight, and even home in on its target once thrown. If dodged or deflected, Death Ring can vanish in a dim flash and reappear in the wielder's hands, without giving away their location to their quarry.

Defiant Golden Bulwark was crafted in the First Age by the Twilight Caste Solar Velaria, as a wedding gift for her husband, the Dawn Caste Mikael. To this end, Velaria wove the magic of her anima into the breastplate, allowing Defiant Golden Bulwark to generate a thin layer of translucent golden Essence around its wearer's body, with the capacity to not only protect them from harm, but prevent them from being moved by the force of their opponent's attacks. A hundred years after the wedding, Mikael was killed in a battle with an aquatic behemoth of the Inland Sea, his lifeless body sinking to the seabed, along with his breastplate and bracers. Both of these were eventually recovered some time after the Usurpation, and sealed away in a Solar Tomb.

Some time later, Defiant Golden Bulwark was found in the possession of three outcaste Dragon-blooded who'd all died while attempting to fight through a Lookshyan checkpoint. It would have undoubtedly been sealed away somewhere else, but for the Dawn Caste Solar Ryan Shepherd leading an attack on the checkpoint and taking it for himself.

Evocations
WIP

Once, during a particularly violent time in the Shogunate's history, a Dragon-blooded doctor saved the life of a Dragon-blooded smith who had been wounded trying to defend his village from attack, and let his wounds become infected. In gratitude, the smith crafted this armor for the doctor as he operated in the area, imbuing it with the power to draw life energy from the world and transfer it into either the doctor's patients or his own body, healing whatever wounds they might have acquired in the process.

The Healer's Aegis was eventually acquired by an Outcaste Dragon-Blooded of the Wood Aspect, who was killed when trying to force his way past a Lookshyan river checkpoint. Before the Artifact could be shipped back to Lookshy, it was taken by Zedradon.

Evocations
The Healer's Aegis can store up to (the wearer's (Essence + Stamina) x 2) units of Life Energy. By placing a hand on the body of a wounded individual, the wearer can use this Life Energy heal wounds in a fraction of the time it would take to treat them. It costs one unit of life energy to heal a level of bashing damage, two for a level of lethal damage, and four for a level of aggravated damage.

Life Drawn From Earth
Cost: 4m; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 1
Type: Simple
Keywords: Dissonant, Resonant
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None

Through concentration, the wearer can draw Life Energy from the surrounding environment, assuming it currently sustains a significant amount of life. Examples of such environments would be forests, grasslands, oceans or populated settlements.

Special Activation Rules: This Evocation awakens immediately upon attuning.

Dissonant: Plants wither, and living beings feel themselves weaken within the surrounding environment when this Evocation is used. They don't suffer any levels of health damage, but they can instantly tell where the Evocation's user is.

Resonant: This Evocation can be used in lifeless or inhospitable environments, such as deserts, snow-covered plains, ruins or shadowlands, drawing on power from the magical currents that run through Creation.

Plant Meditation Method
Cost: _; Mins: Medicine 4, Essence 2
Type: Permanent
Keywords: Dissonant, Resonant
Duration: Permanent
Prerequisite Charms: Life Drawn From Earth

The roots of any plant, from the smallest flower to the tallest tree, constantly draw nutrients from the soil around it. This Charm will allow the Healer's Aegis to automatically generate Life Energy at a rate of one unit per hour, as long as they are in an environment that sustains a significant amount of life.

Dissonant: A character dissonant with jade cannot awaken this Evocation.

Resonant: This Evocation benefits from the same Resonant bonus as Life Drawn From Earth.

Cathak Falu was never well-loved by her comrades or her commanders in the house legions. She was an adequate but unexceptional officer, never equaling the martial glory of her fellow Dragon-Blooded no matter how doggedly she practiced weapon drills with her daiklave or memorized strategies from The Thousand Correct Actions. Perhaps this could have been forgiven, if not for her lack of social graces, her standoffish demeanor, and her taciturn brooding. She was most comfortable on the battlefield, and spent the rest of her time isolated from the women and men of her legion. Her fellow Dynasts often wondered why she hadn’t been married off quietly and never spoken of again, and rarely cared whether or not she was in earshot of their questions.

It was at the Rainbow Scales that Cathak Falu, for once in her life, won the admiration of all in her house. The Dynasty lost a soldier, but the invaders lost a vanguard. House Cathak recovered her blade from the boiling river that had been the Rainbow Scales. Now celebrating the former reject as the pinnacle of soldierly virtue, Cathak elders show the blade called Pyre of Legions to their young heirs in its resting place before Cathak Falu’s tomb, her burning handprint still visible upon its hilt.

Or at least they did, until the weapon somehow found its way to the Scavenger Lands. Arumi later explained to the Circle that it had been found in the possession of an outcaste Dragon-Blooded who had tried to force his way past the river checkpoint she was stationed at, along with two other outcastes. All three of them were killed in the subsequent confrontation, so Arumi never had the opportunity to learn how its wielder had obtained it, but she did come to suspect that it had taken by a member of House Cathak for use in the Scavenger Lands, from whom it was later stolen by the outcaste.

Whatever the reason, House Cathak will most certainly want it back.

jaydude · Jul 13, 2020

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Dice Chronicle of the Scavenger Lands (Exalted 3E) - Lore

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