>>5670049>art: Bart tyraknifesaurus. Kēlen language & concepts: Sylvia Sotomayor.>Alt-text: A Mexica- style map of a Peninsula with an Island in the upper left. Snowmelt from a Mountain pours into irrigation gears, producing a river network that flows through a city and into grassland villages. To the right a large desert stretches off the map, dotted with settlements. Words written in Kēlen label five regions and the ocean.Your parents ruled The Island before you. Masters of politics and intrigue, Chiefs across your tribe paid them respect and dues. When The Island unified, they were at the core of a faction that kept the young nation together. Until they weren’t.
The swaying tides of opinions are the <span class="mu-i">real</span> masters of your homeland. You tried riding those waves. It didn’t work out.
“If this place is as bad as you say, we need to do something about it.”
Nizax and Lani give you stares of disbelief.
“You know, for the Loa.”
Nizax: Um..whatever action we take, it's important we know what we’re getting into. Lani, what’s the situation here?
Lani: This land like ours is divided, each of its five realms has its struggles each an opportunity to bring glory and honor to a people without any.
>The BindingFormerly a barren island where outcasts and “criminals” were sent, rumor tells the Seeker’s Guild has turned it into a shipyard and is using its prisoners as slave labor in an attempt to reproduce our fleet.
>The MountainThe Mountain is home to the Great Machines that provide water to the lands below. The workers there have long been exploited and some say an uprising is imminent. The water is how the Fountain Guild keeps its power over this land, if it was disrupted their regime would be severely weakened.
>The SpringThis city of sin is the headquarters of both the Guilds and the Great Anyaten Temple. As well as Freetown, a community of the formerly enslaved that has started a campaign against the scourge of bondage. Resentment is building in the Guilds themselves as the advisors who actually run them see the wealthy Guildmasters sink into debauchery. And who knows what motives the Anyaten have.
>The Plains.The rivers controlled by the Great Machines water the farms the people live on. The farmers are in eternal debt to the Fountain Guild who charge them everything they own in exchange for the water. I have been preaching the way of the Loa among them, and although the advisor of the Guild hates it, they cannot move against me because the Guildmasters are addicted to the sacred Dreamdoor I have been shamefully ordered to sell.
>The DesertThe Great Sands are home to countless people the Guilds have long exploited. The Fountain Guild send the Anyaten to raid their cities. Those not killed are enslaved and sold to the Kitchen Guild, who grow wealthy trading them across the river system. The City claims dominion over the whole of the desert, but it stretches beyond the horizon and holds societies as ancient as the sand itself.
