Second Age Locations
Beauties and Horrors
The legends of the Second Age take place in many strange, mysterious, and stunning locations.
The North[edit]
The Heart of Ice: an unnavigable frozen mass of icebergs and stalagmites in the north of the White Sea, home to cultists, monsters, and sky pirates
The East[edit]
Rose - the last living village to the north before Sijan
Tolman - small Scavenger Land kingdom whose culture revolves around swordplay
The House of Imperfect Angles - a nightmare house in Nexus designed by mad architects to deliberately flout the laws of Creation
The Phantom Bazaar - a huge underground marketplace in Nexus, much frequented by the underfolk and others with secrets
Theos - tiny kingdom in the far East in the shadows of the vast aionos trees, with a society built around suspicion and paranoia, due to the threats from shape-shifting infiltrators from the deep woods. Theos was turned into a Guild colony which was then overthrown from within, and little remains of its culture.
The Pagoda of Spiders - a towering Manse hidden among the aionos trees of the far East. Tiger has taken it over and it is now used as a dojo and headquarters by her followers. Those who can find it may seek instruction from those Tiger left to study there.
Azure Day - First Age flying island, prison and artifact trove.
The West[edit]
The Fractals –an archipelago of islands on the very edge of the Wyld. Sailing around them took just three days, but one could sail forever from island to island within the Fractals. The only island inhabited by humans was the Isle of Lost Things, where strange treasures and mysteries washed up on the shore every day, and a rough and tumble community of beachcombers and prospectors had established themselves to harvest them. The Fractals have now sunk beneath the waves.
Dragon Rock – a single lone peak standing above the waves in the utter West, used as a navigational aid by sailors to avoid sailing on into the boundless oceans beyond.
The Isles of Distant Solitude – a barren, rocky and sun-blasted archipelago, the traditional place of exile for many abdicating potentates and disgraced officials
Atlas - a town built on the hand of a huge bronze colossus standing waist-deep in the western ocean
The Elidoh Archipelago – a chain of islands divided among many different tribes. The dynasty in possession of the Table of Small Stones underneath the City of Ash control the entire archipelago.
The South[edit]
Chryselephantine - southern mountain city known for its elephants and gold mines
Marmoreal - southern mountain city known for its marble and poetry
Porphyry - southern coastal city known for its vast underwater labyrinth. It is ruled by the Hypnogogue, a sleeping woman who is only awake and capable of dealing with the affairs of her state for one day each month.
Mirage, a desert city that may be an illusion. One of every group that passes through Mirage must stay there forever.
Ziggurat – a deeply hierarchical civilization based entirely within a colossal First Age arcology. Their ruler, the Slave King, is never permitted to leave the confines of his rooms or meet the subjects he rules.
Candle and Abram - coastal towns on the outskirts of Chiaroscuro
The Tavern of Green Lanterns - a tavern in the Foreigners’ Quarter of Chiaroscuro much frequented by spies, poets, and dreamers. Green was the colour of mystery in the colour language of old Chiaroscuro.
The House of Glass and Jade – a Fire-aspected Desmense, a lethal maze of red jade and razor-sharp, near invisible glass shards forged by the heat of the noonday sun. Once the headquarters of the Many and more recently the scene of an epic battle between Solar and Abyssal Exalted.
Cereus - remote and little-known mountain state ruled by a hereditary class of Terrestrial Exalted who are revered and almost worshipped but who wield no real power
The Republic of Slaves – a mountain-top fortress city founded by escaped slaves. Their society is formed around their belief that all human beings are slaves to one thing or another, and that the only dignity to be found is in recognising and formalising this fact.
Azimuth Canyon – a gigantic canyon located in the very deep South, on the Border Marches of the Wyld. The Canyon’s connection to Creation is only one way – it is possible to leave it, though it involves years of gruelling travel through the desert, but it is not possible to travel to it. Due to its location in the Wyld, the flora, fauna, and tribal societies of Azimuth Canyon proverbially defy description in their colour, diversity, and strangeness.
The Peacock Kingdom – a realm with a highly stratified social hierarchy, whose inhabitants believe they continually swap bodies with one another as easily and regularly as breathing.
The Blessed Isle[edit]
The Piazza of Coins -a vast and ancient marketplace in the Imperial City, presided over by House Ragara
The Masan – a cracked and blasted expanse of rocky ground along the Coast of Storms. A remote and mysterious corner of the Blessed Isle. It is encrusted with red jade, and a mining commission has recently been set up there, sponsored by the banker Ragara Anchavis.
Thalassa – a First Age island city built on a volcano off the Coast of Storms, now hundreds of feet below the surface of the water in the underwater caldera known as Daana'd's Abyss. The Lunar Soo Koon Lasach is fused with the city after it assumed a form capable of surviving the volcano’s eruption and became trapped under the lava.
The Spider: an ancient, gigantic war-machine capable of wading across the Inner Sea, once used against Lookshy by the Realm and stopped in its tracks by Thunderbolt Laughter, Lookshy's First Age defence mechanism. The rusting hulk still stands in the Inner Sea, and a community of smugglers and fisherfolk have built a ramshackle town on its back.
Factions and Orders[edit]
The Esperance College: also known as the House of Hope and Joy, a sect of barefoot pilgrims who wander from place to place, pondering the cryptic words of their First Teacher
The Order of the Pen and the Rose: an ascetic monastic order required to spend much of their time climbing the perpetually ascending stairs around the walls of their monastery
The Asutrans – a community which spend their entire lives sailing up and down the Yellow River on their pyramid barges, believing that if they so much as touch solid ground, they will turn to water and melt away.
The Scarlet Veil – a monastic order of sorcerer-assassins, masters of the deadly Flying Guillotine Style
The Order of the World Memory: an order of scholars who believe that Creation is being continuously destroyed and remade, and that their archives provide the only blueprint for each new incarnation. Their monastery is based on Mount Koa, in the lands of the Haslanti League.
The Sodality of the Unlocking Moment: a brethren of philosophers who believe that all time passes in a single moment
The Dwellers in the Splendid Present Instant -Immaculate heretics who believe that only the present instant is real, and that the past and future are illusions
The Blue Dragon Company –a Lookshyan mercenary company led by Captain Karal Jaingha
The Blood-Drinkers –a Theosi mercenary company made up of former Sacred Dancers
The Brass Legion – a Southern mercenary company armed with firewands
The Storm Crows –a mercenary company exclusively employed by the Guild
The Sky Wolves – a Haslanti mercenary company who specialize in aerial raids using gliders
The Sky-Priests –a monastic order who believe that life itself is an unwinnable game whose rules can be understood and codified, and whose ultimate goal is to turn the terms of the game from competition to cooperation
