Cthulhu_Wakes
Black Sun in a White World
2nd Resplendent Air, RY 770. Northwest on the Stone Road, well within sight of Shalebridge's Walls.
There, on the low lying floodplain lies the Rock of Shale, a giant promontory of fused and warped rock surrounded on three sides by pillars and shards of a granite mountain that once stood there. Centuries past, people and refugees of the Contagion gathered on the wide and spacious plateau created by the shattering of the mountain and the redirection of Lesser Rock River. They say waiting there on the mountain were representatives and survivors of the surrounding elemental courts and lesser gods of the old prefecture.
"Here," they told the people, "shall you find safety and peace." Jokun of the Granite Minds gave the people stone to build their walls, water elementals in a rare show of goodwill toward man and earth elemental dug the deep wells and aquifers that lie under the city to this day. The people began to build and till the rich earth off of their plateau of safety. The God of the savaged Lesser Rock reputedly gave his blessing to this tiny nation of people for reasons known only to himself. So goes the creation of Shale in popular myth.
And two weeks of travel have brought you to the wondrous and creek-crossed lands of Shalebridge County (through your travels, you've learned the country is divided into counties). The sky is a shimmering blue overhead with a few whisps of young clouds in it. Before you sprawls the wide Gods Plain, spotted with mills, villages, and those mysterious shards of rock standing tens of feet tall. Villages and even Churches are built around these shards of rock. The largest clusters of them are around the huge city upon the plateau, firmly in the center of this region.
Atop some of the shards are banners of note. Old things, banners of Shogunate Legions long since wiped out. Remnants of the Fae Invasion and more recent ones as you pass by the suburbian villages outside the city to reflect the Realm Wars and conflicts only decades old. The people of Shale honor the Glorious Dead. And for that, most of this region is considered part of the Hundred God Heresy.
Immaculate abbots are seen here and there, missionaries mainly. Not one of them Dragon-Blooded as you've seen. But they're there on occasion, screaming fire and ice and root of the earth.
But regardless of worries, the wonder of the area seems to come to life before you. Heliograph towers are built onto some of the wider and large shards of rock. Every so often a flash of light appears at the top of one of the weathered pillars, words on the wind. Tracks of caravans, wanderers, farmers with stores of grain, corn and fruits, and massive caravans from the Eyes carrying metal ore and stone pulled by yeddim clog the highways leading to the city and all the way up the guarded and fortified switchback road leading to its massive gates of iron and granite.
It'll be midday before the caravans holding your groups are let into the city, onto the wide and immaculate Avenue of Four Thousand Steps. The city of Shalebridge seemingly bursts from the ground, almost all of it carved of gleaming white limestone and red marble and supported by rich teak and iron. A massive tower of heavy granite, capped in limestone stretches to the heavens from the center of the city. Quite the marvel...and a wild thrust back into true civilization.
There, on the low lying floodplain lies the Rock of Shale, a giant promontory of fused and warped rock surrounded on three sides by pillars and shards of a granite mountain that once stood there. Centuries past, people and refugees of the Contagion gathered on the wide and spacious plateau created by the shattering of the mountain and the redirection of Lesser Rock River. They say waiting there on the mountain were representatives and survivors of the surrounding elemental courts and lesser gods of the old prefecture.
"Here," they told the people, "shall you find safety and peace." Jokun of the Granite Minds gave the people stone to build their walls, water elementals in a rare show of goodwill toward man and earth elemental dug the deep wells and aquifers that lie under the city to this day. The people began to build and till the rich earth off of their plateau of safety. The God of the savaged Lesser Rock reputedly gave his blessing to this tiny nation of people for reasons known only to himself. So goes the creation of Shale in popular myth.
And two weeks of travel have brought you to the wondrous and creek-crossed lands of Shalebridge County (through your travels, you've learned the country is divided into counties). The sky is a shimmering blue overhead with a few whisps of young clouds in it. Before you sprawls the wide Gods Plain, spotted with mills, villages, and those mysterious shards of rock standing tens of feet tall. Villages and even Churches are built around these shards of rock. The largest clusters of them are around the huge city upon the plateau, firmly in the center of this region.
Atop some of the shards are banners of note. Old things, banners of Shogunate Legions long since wiped out. Remnants of the Fae Invasion and more recent ones as you pass by the suburbian villages outside the city to reflect the Realm Wars and conflicts only decades old. The people of Shale honor the Glorious Dead. And for that, most of this region is considered part of the Hundred God Heresy.
Immaculate abbots are seen here and there, missionaries mainly. Not one of them Dragon-Blooded as you've seen. But they're there on occasion, screaming fire and ice and root of the earth.
But regardless of worries, the wonder of the area seems to come to life before you. Heliograph towers are built onto some of the wider and large shards of rock. Every so often a flash of light appears at the top of one of the weathered pillars, words on the wind. Tracks of caravans, wanderers, farmers with stores of grain, corn and fruits, and massive caravans from the Eyes carrying metal ore and stone pulled by yeddim clog the highways leading to the city and all the way up the guarded and fortified switchback road leading to its massive gates of iron and granite.
It'll be midday before the caravans holding your groups are let into the city, onto the wide and immaculate Avenue of Four Thousand Steps. The city of Shalebridge seemingly bursts from the ground, almost all of it carved of gleaming white limestone and red marble and supported by rich teak and iron. A massive tower of heavy granite, capped in limestone stretches to the heavens from the center of the city. Quite the marvel...and a wild thrust back into true civilization.
