Exalted 3ed Campaign, The Neighbors

Luijing
Capital of Takmar. The city was recently rebuilt by the Spiral Folke as a gift to The Emira. The city has never been as large and beautiful as it is now. The streets throughout the city are clean from trash and mud, sparkling bright brown sand sprinkled on the stone roads. The lower lying parts of the city are mostly made of white materials or painted with white and grew flowers. There is a wellspring of water fountains and bath houses from the old city, most of which gives of a nostalgic sense of home. In a few carefully selected places the old city has been preserved. Here lies the old temples and landmarks, most of which cannot be entered by outsiders, but impressive even from a distance. Of importance can be mention the recently renamed Temple of the Heaven's Grace, where the golden rays of the Sun itself, burned away the tyrant God Zoothar. A large river also snakes its way into the lower parts of the capital, the glittering blue water filled with trade ships. Nearer to the center of the city lies the Passing Field, more commonly known as the Burning Grounds. It is here the deceased of Takmar are burned on the grey days, often chosen because the whether won't be ruined by the black smoke. The higher lying parts of the city are recognized by the amount of flourishing flowers and colored walls, making it an impressive display of artistic gardening. Purple is the most dominant color among the flowers and wall paintings, but many exotic plants are tended by the people who live here. The roads are wide and the alleys few and far between, most of the buildings organised in circles around market squares or grand monuments. Most buildings also sport multiple floors, some owned by a single family, while others are shared. The only issue in the capital seems to be the high rate of crime. Few visitors come through the city without being mugged and the people are hesitant, occasionally hostile, to letting foreigners into their houses. A careful eye will also notice a great deal of security measures, such as armed guards and brightly painted steel bars guarding easily accessible windows.

Chongjian
Chongjian is the greatest of the harbour towns in Takmar. Most of the city shows impressive wealth, towering buildings and golden statues lining every road. The city is most impressive at the harbour and near the road to Luijing. Every buildings seems to have been made as an individual structure, regardless of the buildings nearby. Strangely enough the different buildings fit perfectly together, creating a splendour of different shapes and sizes. It is also said that regardless of where a visitor may hail from, there will be a building in Chongjian that'll remind her of home. From the hanging gardens to the underground manors, Chongjian is a picture of perfection where cultures come together. Four great watch towers oversee the harbour, each of which with a supporting warehouse. Until recently every merchant could feel safe that their goods where safe in the Royal Warehouses, but soldiers from the capital broke in and laid claim to the property of some of the wealthiest merchants, who have now fled the city. Regardless of the beautiful exterior, the city is suffering and the people are hostile. While the cultures blended seamlessly in architecture, the people are seclusive and rarely venture into the other districts. A vast amount of thugs can also be spotted prowling the city, and people obviously fear them. This has lead to many tight communities, who help each other against the thugs. The merchants work together to make sure their goods reach the Royal Warehouses, while the common people share guard duty and occasionally fight back the thugs when they attack.

Ruins of the Mountain (City of the Mountain)
The city rises like a mountain on the horizon, raised upon and encompassing a small mountain. The blackened streets that was once City of the Mountain lie silent during the day. The buildings are scorched and cracked, many fallen to bits, while only the most durable still stand. When the wind sweeps through the city it whirls up great clouds of ash that darkens out the sun and burns flesh upon touch. A great atrocity was carried out and no life remains in the city. The mighty displays of strength and power that once dominated the city have been torn down. Many a stone head from a decapitated statue can be found rolling across the barren ground as if haunted. The remains of the city blend together in grey and greyer, the only difference being how thick the black ash lies. A giant, The Titan of Orzes, patrols the city during the day, its great body ten men tall and its broad shoulders wide like a house. Its head is a large grey blob of flesh, fat stacked upon the incredible amounts of muscle that is its body. A large grey nose with massive warts sprouts from between its small beady eyes, while a ragged and broken set of teeth spill from it open mouth. Two large floppy ears hang to its shoulders, swinging with every step it takes. Its arms are like great trunks of dead trees, occasionally scraping the ground searching for food. While the thing eats, walks and talks, it is dead and has been for years. Many dark green and reddish spots show that it is rotten through and through. At night is disappears into the city, only to reappear the following morning. During the night the city comes alive with screaming and howling. The streets come to life as hungry ghosts leave their host bodies still trapped in debris. In the middle of the city where the noble quarters once where, lies a freshly opened shadow land. Through it spills the creatures of darkness and it becomes surrounded in a massive battle as echoes of the atrocity slaughter each other. The Ruins of the Mountain is a desolate ruin now, ravaged and jealously guarded by the dead.

The Fault: Shadowland, Home of the Queen (?)
A city state of ghosts supported by a warghost army, warmachines and a necromancer by the name of Trifling Star. It is ruled by the Betrayed Queen, a figure of much mystery. From here her armies defend the ghosts that aren't inherently evil and fight against the Nephwracks in a war she can never win.

Last Retreat(s): three areas inhabited by the ghosts of those citizens who died.
Three camps of non-aggressive ghosts. They hide inside at night and venture out at day to offer the Titan of Orzes gifts so it doesn't kill them. One of the camps work tirelessly at restoring the Final Home of Orzes, another works on the Queen's siege machines and the third camp produces weapons for both the Nephwracks and the Queen, being under pressure from both.

The Slaughtergrounds: The eternal slaughter
A constant slaughter of a thousand ghostly echoes. They keep dying, screaming and fleeing into the city, but upon being killed they return to the slaughtergrounds and repeat.

The Quagmire: Fortress of Zukzar, The Blackhearted King
A camp made on the fringes of the shadowland, it is essentially a wall build around a great manor amidst a quagmire. Great rotworms lives in the swamp and the fortress can only be approached when the rotworms are busy feeding or dominated by the Blackhearted King. Many corpses lies buried beneath the muck, ready to assault any trespassers.

Caverns of Deceit & The Field of Holes: the market square surrounding the Quagmire.
Surronding the Quagmire is a plane covered in holes. Some of them where dug by rotworm, other by Dwellers In The Darkness a strange, secluded, cannibalistic and all together evil people. They serve the Blackhearted King from beneath the mountain.

Burdened Fastness: Fortress of Maeus, The King Without Reason (No Point)
The Burdened Fastness is a fortified version of the palace, located near Orzes's Final Home. The palace is manned by highly trained warghosts and roaming mortwights, each a deadly enemy in their own right.

The Walk of Death: The land surrounding the Burdened Fastness
The Walk of Death was once a garden surrounding the palace in the city. Now it is a rotten and mostly empty field that physically and mentally drain those who walk across it. The land has been enchanted so it takes one full day to cross (24 hours) and the journey can only begin at dawn. Otherwise the traveller will just waste time walking in circles. If a character dies on rout to the Burdened Fastness they will return as a mortwight.

Pain Spire & The Slave Dens: Abandoned fortress of The Sunscorched King
Pain Spire is a manse built on the very top of the city, a large pale grey monument to the Sunscorched King's master. The spire once held a machine transformed peaceful ghosts into evil beings of the underworld, but the machine was destroyed by the Queen. The machine wasn't completely destroyed and can be restarted. It has also been gathering power over the years, making it a bomb of necrotic essence waiting to happen. Not even the Nephwracks know what this sort of power would do if unleashed, and so all fear to detonate it. Atop the spire also sits a corrupted sun crystal. It covers the city in a shroud that stops all scrying and opposes light sources the closer they are. Nearby lies the slave dens, where no living slave remains. There are plenty of captured ghosts however, waiting for their cages to be destroyed. Some hope to join the Queen's service, while others just wish not to be consumed by the raving pack of hungry ghosts.

Orzes's Final Home: A large temple and the only structure to remain whole in the city. Dedicated to Orzes.
A large mausoleum for a man that once roamed the lands. The Final Home is older than the city and untouched by the passing of the decades. Undisturbed by the war the Final Home still stands mighty, defended by the now dead Titan, its divine resurrection corrupted by the foul Nephwracks. Only the heir to Orzes can command the Titan, but he past to Lethe centuries ago.

An-Teng
South of the Takmar region lies the Principalities of An-Teng.

An-Teng is ruled by three princes, subservient to the Realm. An-Teng and its people have long been known to bend their back to any oppressor, but as of recent, rumours of a hidden army flourish among their neighbours.

An-Teng is a fertile region with many tradeable goods, of which a great portion is sent to the Realm. This is a cause of some resentment among Tengnese, and rumour has it that they would break free if they could finally claim their own freedom.

Half a Realm legion is located in Dragon's Jaw, one of the major trade ports.

The city known as Adorned with Wisdom as a Sapphire houses many savants and great schools with many varied topics.

The City of the Steel Lotus is the capital of An-Teng, Many an important Dragon Blooded can be found living or travelling through this city.

The City of Dead Flowers is a shadowland deep within An-Teng's region.

Trade goods:
Diamonds, rubies, sapphire, topaz, iron and gold, silver (believed to ward away evil spirits), tea, rice, lumber, silk.

Ragara Soras Jor:
Realm ambassador and satrap in An-Teng.

Prince Laxhander of the Glorious Reign
The youngest of the princes and ruler of the lowlands (shore lands).

Prince Kiotaran
Rules the middle lands.

Prince Josei
Oldest and possibly wisest of the three, Joseit rules the high lands, while his daughter administers it.

General Shuri the Scarlet
Dragon-Blooded commander in Dragon's Jaw.

Deities:
No amount of Immaculate Philosophy could convince the Tengnese to abandon their deities, The Golden Lord and The Pale Lady.

The Golden Lord:
- order, decorum, honesty, doing one’s duty and justice tempered by compassion.

The Pale Lady:
- darkness, chaos, selfishness and crime.

The Spiral Folk / The Vermin of Underdeep
The beastmen of Split River have two names, the one they gave themselves and the one most others use. South-east of Takmar, in the mountain range east of An-Teng, a people lives on and under the great mountains. This people consists of child and man sized ratmen, who labour hard and live short lives to create great structures and appease their ruler, whoever might hold the throne.

Not long ago the Spiral Folk were ruled by the Chosen of the Moon, that created their race hundreds of years ago. His birthname was Moonlight Sewage, but those who remember the man he became, know him as Tall Stride. He created the Spiral Folk to satisfy his own ambition and sate his loneliness. He made a nation with beastmen shaped from the lowliest of animals, and threw them on a path much like his own, so that they would eventually overcome their limitations.

The Spiral Folk got their name for their excessive use of spirals in all their creations. Great spiral stairs lead to their deep mines and hidden cities, while they build great towers, that reach towards the skies, turning and twisting as they are ever made higher.

The Spiral Folk has little in the way of tradeable goods since few people are willing to trade with them. They do sell work force, lending their workers to other nations, raising great buildings over the course of few nights, without the people ever knowing that large rats walked among them. They also practice the art of writing so that they might write letters to unknowing humans, requesting trade goods or knowledge.

Ways Run Deep is their capital.

Trade goods:
Workers, dirt and various metals.

Tall Stride
The now-deceased Chosen of the Moon. It is said his ghost still wanders the spiral stairs.

Five Paws
A ratman of great ambition.

Council of Peaceful Succession:
(Look at the NPCs list) The five temporary rulers of the Spiral Folk.

Five Point(ed Gold Blade)
A small and extremely warlike city state just east of Takmar, the Five Pointed Gold Blade has only existed for a little over 30 years. Founded by Gold Blade, the son of the Golden Lord, the Five Pointed Gold Blade is his personal tool for waging war with his neighbours, mainly Takmar. Gold Blade has an ambition of becoming a great warlord, but has so far been incapable of defeating Takmar, firstly because his armies and resources are so insignificant and because the Takmar has no lack of intelligent generals.

NPCS:
Gold Blade

As the son of the Golden Lord, few dare strike - or the gods forbid it - kill him, and he abuses his priviliege to seek conflict with all his neighbours (excluding the Realm).

Bluehaven
Home of the Lintha pirates. +++ Largely Unknown +++

The Dominion
A cluster of islands with little contact to the nations surrounding them. +++ Largely Unknown +++

Wavecrest Archipelago
An island nation that trades with An-Teng. Ruled by The Feathered One. +++ Largely Unknown +++

The Realm
Greatest of the realms in Creation and home to the Dragon-Blooded.

Mijasu
Known for their hostility towards foreigners and their exceedingly complicated etiquette. The city state of Mijasu stems from a Realm re-attempt to colonize an otherwise desolated area. Afterwards the Realm forgot about them and they never complained. Their army fit their tiny city, but it hasn't been used for a long time, since few have interest in conquering the middle of nowhere.

Bravasso
A natural home to scoundrels and the Guild, Bravasso was created originally as a port where ships would port before travelling deeper into the west. As the Realm drew back and another leader came, Bravasso fell to decadence and corruption. Now it is a city of free men and women, where one can legally find what is illegal everywhere else.

Felion
Proud o proud Felion. A home to an strong and clever people, Felion's cities prosper more than fair is. Many a nation desires rich and fertile Felion, but the Realm holds its rich yet tiny gold mine close. While Felion doesn't have a legion stationed, it is within relatively short travel distance of several great houses. The proud people of Felion suffer only from one thing: the terrible secret that the Realm cares more for the land than the people, and so the Realm could not care less who controls the land .. as long as the gold keeps flowing.

Akatar
The nation of Akatar was not great, but it was home to many people. Through hard work and dedication the people of Akatar had forged their own place in Creation. Alas it was not to last, and not long ago the Golden Legion marched into their capital. The people of Akatar considered fighting, but the Golden Legion proved its superiority by decimating the nomads. Now the people of Akatar serves Gold Blade loyally, for they value their homes more than their freedom.

Knark
Knark is a new nation. It sprung into existence during the time where Takmar was without a leader. Nothing is known, but dark rumours have begun to spread. The people of Knark deal with the dead.