XerAllCreation/Map

Local Region

http://exalted.anenris.com/maps/thornregion.jpg

Cities

• XerAllCreation/Thorns - See the Thorns section.
• Celeren - The 'capital' of the Marukani, much as they have such a thing, Celeren is a large city housing over a hundred thousand souls, many of them traders from around Creation looking to deal in Marukani steeds. Slavery, though known and accepted here, is a minor trade - most of that goes through Thorns.
• XerAllCreation/Coronen - One of the better known necropolises of the East, Coronen stands as a proud symbol of the beauty of death. It is a large fortress-city, housing a legion of souls unknown in number, but is believed by many to be in the hundreds of thousands. Hordes of skeletons and other creatures are routinely marched into the city, and rarely out.
• XerAllCreation/GherensTrace - A ruined city, or so many assume. Since the Shogunate, many have attempted to unlock the secrets within these walls, but no patrol has crossed the walls and returned, or even sent so much a flare up signalling that they made it inside. Gheren's Trace takes its name from the leader of the largest, best equipped and most skilled team from Lookshy, attempting to uncover the secrets of the ruins. No member who scaled the pristine 100-foot tall marble walls was ever heard from again.

Despite this, the obvious size and wealth of the city, and the clearly seen manses reaching for the sky within, have called many foolish adventurers to their dooms, whatever might await them on the other side.

Towns

• Metal Bay - A vassal city to Thorns, their borders touch slightly. It is used largely as an extra port, and a bit of a 'get away' location.
• Trance - Another vassal city to Thorns, Trance is home to a special fountain, though simple and of stone, its waters have forever been pure and they give off a gentle, eerie music, and have done so since the First Age.
• Edrash - One of many towns under the thumb of the Mask of Winters, Edrash is a spread out, poor farming community, which acts as a recruiting ground for the ever-growing forces of the dead.
• Night Always Falls - A town of the dead, several thousand ghosts call this swamp their home.
• Masteh - A small Marukani town, often a stopping point for travellers between Celeren and Thorns.
• Thetal Lake - This hot spring has a notoriously rude fire spirit within, but, despite this, is very protective of the Marukani village that surrounds it, and woe betide anyone who would muddy its waters.

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• Without Peace, Without Grace, Without Sorrow, Without Silence, Without Sight - The names are a perversion of an ancient word once used in the region, 'Ethut', which means 'Fortress', after a fashion. Though Juggernaut is clearly the Mask's most prominent Fortress, these four are also known holds. Vast, dead armies are rumored to wait silently in their halls, ready to move when their Master calls them.

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• Carthren - A large ruins, built around what is believed to be an underground manse. Largely picked clear, some scavanger lords still return alive with something to show for it.
• Matab - A scorched, burned plain, this town was burnt to the ground by the armies of Thorns.
• Levenen - Levenen was another Marukani town, flooded and washed away by a Dragon-Blooded sorceress during the battle with Thorns.
• Narsine Ruins - Dating from the First Age, these ruins were picked clean through centuries ago. The area is utterly silent - no noise mars the ears of those who visit.

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• Eye of Regret - A small, but well-stocked fortress under the control of Thorns.

The Guild

• The Guild maintains several plantations in the region, growing coca and opium. The three largest, most well-known ones are marked on the map, each with over two thousand slaves to their names. As such, the Guild does not hide them, but rather posts them as a well-guarded example.
• The Halls of Sweat is the local Guild Slave Citadel. It is actually located for trade with the barbarians of the Shattered Claw tribes to the South, who raid the Marukani, Varset, and other Jungle Tribes for slaves. Those they do not use or otherwise wish to sell come to the Halls.

Tombs and Buildings

• Hiadje - A ring of simple, unmarked stones surrounds a statue of a simple lady, smiling and in mid-spin from some ancient dance. She stands atop a small stone pillar, which has a door. No one is known to have opened it.
• Neance - A single spire, reaching over a mile into the sky. No entrance exists on the bottom, and active First Age defenses fire on skyships and other sentient creatures that approach.
• Sunken Tomb - During the daytime in the Bayou, one may see the entrance to the mausoleum that rests here. It is possible to enter, as the water will not, but no one who ventures into its depths has returned.
• Vacant Halls - They clearly aren't, but regardless, no known being has been able to gather the courage to approach the open gates of this ivory fortress.
• Isle of Penance - The entirety of this 'island' floats about two feet off the surface of the Inner Sea, resting on a seemingly invisible platform, even allowing small bits of sand to stream over its sides, though it has not yet eroded. In the small forest that sits atop the island, one may find a cave, and shattered corpses strewn about it, the shock of their death propelling them out.