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The Undercities

As time goes on, the cities grow higher. Steel and glass flow like bone and blood, and the cities are the new biospheres of Creation. Technology is an ever-changing force, and the world is changing with it. Those who understand this fact will use it to reach ever-growing heights, while others will only be left behind in the dust of a bygone age.

The Undercities are a growing faction among the Lunar Exalted, who hold that the principles of adaptation and survival should not scorn the cities, but embrace them. Embracing technology and change, they push for ways to increase their strength and meld new technologies with old magics for a new way of looking at the world.

Membership

About two-fifths of Creation's Lunars are followers of the Undercities. The Undercities have also tattoed free Lunars, some of whom remain in partial contact with the organization. The Undercities have enclaves throughout every major city in the world, hiding in plain sight under Sidereal and Terrestrial noses. They always keep an eye out for instances of Lunar Exaltation, and tend to act quickly to bring their charges into their care; sometimes with the help of Luna herself. The Undercities have fewer Lunar elders than the Pact, but still count many old First Age Lunars, including both Lilith and Rakshi, the Queen of Fangs.

The Undercities have entwined themselves far farther into the World of Steel and Glass than anyone outside the organization realizes; most Undercity Lunars have networks of contacts and informants, and their knowledge could make or break many careers. In some areas, a constant cold war exists between local Sidereals and the Undercity; in others, the two groups co-operate to protect their cities, leaving areas of influence strictly defined. Regardless, the Undercities don't count literal groups as under their control, but instead exert a web of influence.

Undercity Lunars consider their ways superior to the ways of the Pact, and to the lack of connections of the Free, but while they try to exert influence over such Exalts, they will not hesitate to support their comrades-in-arms. After training, they will freely release Lunars to make their own way in the world, confidant that they will one day return to them. The only core precept that they try to make these Lunars understand is that power must be earned and maintained; if you allow yourself to become weak and decadent, long in the tooth, you will be overthrown. This law is the same in the city and the jungle.

Territory

The Undercities live within the major nations, their courts held in abandoned buildings, places that only rats and mice can enter but that have been hollowed out with magic, towers only reachable by flight, or similar hidden nooks and crannies, forgotten by most city dwellers. They live throughout the Blessed Isle, Deheleshen, Chiaroscuro, the Western League, even New Estasia. If most of the old Shogunate knew how many Lunars live within their borders, they would never sleep again for fear of being slain. The constant struggle for secrecy has honed their capabilities, and the Undercities are skilled at quashing rumours of their existance.

Special mention needs to be made of Rathess and the Balmori Republic. In Rathess, the Undercities have a single representative, who helps to keep the nation informed of goings-on elsewhere in the world. The Dragon Kings and the Undercities have a generally good relationship. In the Balmori Republic, it is known that there is something frighteningly wrong with the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. The Undercity knows of at least two Lunars that have gone to register with the Bureau, neither of which was ever seen again. As such, the Bureau is considered to be an enemy, and the Undercity has spent decades trying to investigate it without revealing themselves to it; thus far, an impossible task.

Organization

In general, the organization of the Undercities is one of social credit. Anyone who asks for something must be willing to offer something in return; of course, higher-status Undercity Lunars are correspondingly able to offer more, and are therefore more likely to get favours done. In this highly political manner, Lunars of the Undercities work together or apart to further their own aims and those of the organization. Some try to better the lives of all humans, others their favorite peoples, and still others only themselves. Some consider themselves urban builders, others urban predators. It is difficult to judge one Undercity member by another; all work for the official betterment of the world, but they all have different ideas of what that entails.

Like the Silver Pact, the Undercities follow Renown; the only differences are becoming Uf-Ya (Face 3) and Shahan-Ya (Face 9). The Uf-Ya must have at least 8 dots combined in their Allies, Connections and Spies backgrounds - only the well-connected can become true members of the Undercities, and must have at least one of the above at 3 or higher. To become Shahan-Ya, a character must be a master of the world, and have at least 50 dots worth of Allies, Connections, and Spies, including at least one area rated 6 and three more rated 5. Only true masters of the world lead the Undercities.