Editing Lost in Jianghu/Loresheets/Other (section)

===The City Above===
'''(2 Destiny)'''

High upon the cliffs, far above the noise and bustle of the merchants and laborers below, there is a veritable paradise. Here are the wealthiest residents of Bird's Progress – the heads of the largest trading concerns, a few aristocratic families, and officials grown fat on bribes and kickbacks – living lives blissfully free of the lower city's muck and mire. The roads from the lower city to the upper are few and tightly guarded; the City Above's streets are impeccably clean and well-patrolled.
*'''1 Fortune''': You can pass between the two cities without trouble; perhaps you possess a pass (obtained licitly or otherwise) that permits you to use one of the official gates, or perhaps you know of a secret route.
*'''2+ Status''': You have made a name for yourself in the high society of the Cloud Happiness District; this doesn't mean you're thought of as 'one of them', necessarily, but you're known.
**'''0 Bonus''': You get the '''Politics''' specialty '''High Society''' for free.

:'''''Cloud Happiness District'''''<br>
:Perched high atop the cliffs that ring the lower city are the mansions of the city's wealthiest residents: the very best families, the most successful merchants, and of course the officials who enrich themselves on the trade flowing through the city. 
:*'''2+ Involvement''': The families that make Cloud Happiness their home are in constant, vicious competition to outdo their neighbors: to build more impossible homes, to throw more fabulous parties, to sponsor the more praiseworthy temple, or artist, or whatever fashion might demand. These are generally low-stakes affairs, but occasionally they spiral into something ... bigger. You've found yourself embroiled in just such a circumstance!
:*'''3+ Fortune/Treasure''': The small group of architects (known as '''The Blue-Sky Goose Guild''') employed to build the gravity-defying homes in which the wealthy dwell are at the very forefront of their art in Shen Zhou; Daoist principles are married to the bleeding edge of Mohist mathematical studies in order to produce these marvels. You have either come to know one of these architects, or have come into possession of their valuable plans.

:'''''Archer's Lament'''''<br>
:While it does not quite rise to the standard of the Willow Districts in Magnificent Ink or Notably Picturesque, for sheer spectacle, Archer's Lament, the upper city's Willow District, is hard to match. Like the grand homes of Cloud Happiness, the inns and theaters of the Overlook hang over the vertiginous cliffs, but instead of looking down on the city below, they sit on a promontory over the Bohai Bay itself. At the point where the promontory reaches farthest out into the bay stands a massive statue of the legendary archer Houyi, his bow pointed up into the sky to aim at his beloved Chang'e, whom he cannot bear to shoot though it means she will float away to the moon. The tip of the arrow is in fact a giant lantern, and the statue in fact a (suitably grandiose) lighthouse.

:'''''Yang's Last Bastion'''''<br>
:Long ago, when Bird's Progress was a small fishing town, a mighty fortress called Stone-Conquers-Sea sat upon the high cliffs that now house the wealthy & powerful, watching over the same waters that now carry treasures into Shen Zhou. In the chaotic days after the fall of the Han but before the arrival of the Jin, the Yang Kingdom occupied this fortress to safeguard the naval approach to their lands. When the Xiongnu invaders who would become the Jin did come to the East, they tried, without success, to lay siege to Thrashing Minister; as long as the Yang controlled the naval approach, the capital could be supplied indefinitely. So the Xiongnu came to the fortress, and the battle that commenced shook the very foundations of the earth - in the climactic battle, a great Xiongnu warrior named Thunder-Shakes-the-Earth cast down Yang Lide, daughter of the Yang King and the last of the defenders, and with her the better part of the fortress collapsed, falling to the marshy ground below.

:The castle now known as Yang's Last Bastion is what remains of that fortress. It now houses the imperial military detachment assigned to Bird's Progress; among those in the know, it is widely believed that the feared Liquid Metal Delegates maintain agents stationed here.
:*'''2 Destiny''': The legend of the battle between Thunder-Shakes-the-Earth and Yang Lide is among the most popular in Bird's Progress (and across the whole of the East), and forms the basis of many popular songs, plays, and poems. You are somehow connected to this story, either by ancestry, martial tradition, or something more mystical.
:*'''3 Fortune''': You are so inspired by this story, it has instilled in you a Minor Paired Chi Condition, likely an Inspiration to follow the example of one the heroes and a Passion involving hatred, fear, or contempt for the other. Work with your Sage to determine the details.

:'''''Silver Bough Park'''''
:Beyond the northern gates of the city, a magnificent park is maintained for the pleasure of the well-born; it is best known (and named) for its magnificent and rare silver-barked scholar trees, but placid pools and well-tended flower gardens can also be found by those who wander its many narrow paths. For all its beauty, however, a pall hangs over the woods: it is said that demons haunt the park, waiting to entrap unwary visitors. There are all too many stories of people going off for a stroll and never returning, or found hanging from one of those scholar trees, or coming back ... but somehow fundamentally changed.
:*'''2 Fortune''': You have walked the paths of Silver Bough Park and returned, (mostly) unscathed. When and if you return, you will always Laugh At and never Fear any challenges or obstacles its strange influence presents.