Kurulham/StormsRest
The island of Storm's Rest is in the Inner Sea, fairly close to the Threshold coast but fairly far from any major city. It is five miles long, three miles broad, and roughly teardrop-shaped. It is fertile enough, but has steep and rocky terrain dominated by a massive, craggy peak with sheer cliff faces on three sides and a single treacherous trail leading up the fourth side. It has a small port town, of the same name, which is situated at the only natural harbor (or even beach) on the island, at the narrow eastern tip, and is a fairly common place for merchant ships sailing along the coast of the Inner Sea to take on water. The tourist trade is miserable, due to the unimpressive scenery and unpleasant climate; as such, it is moderately affluent, but still fairly sleepy. It is ruled by Ragara Marakis, an elderly unExalted scion of a lesser branch of the house. He governs well, if not brilliantly; the peasants of the island work in the rocky vineyards and goat farms; the merchants come and go; the sailors get drunk and make trouble; and the entire island is pretty much forgotten, except when House Ragara does its accounts every year. The biggest event that's happened in the last decade is that old man Marakis seems to finally be going a bit peculiar.
That, and the arrival of three Celestial Exalted.
The local Immaculate mission is tiny and not at all loved. The senior remaining Immaculate, Staring Glacier, is a degenerate Cynis scion who was sent into the Order as a political maneuver. He is overbearing, obnoxious, and utterly arrogant. The locals will treat obvious Immaculates (including monks and anyone who openly wears Immaculate iconography) civilly, but coolly, and Dynastic Dragon-Blooded will get a similar, though less obvious, treatment. The head of the Realm's talon-strong garrison will be unwilling to speak with visitors; bribes will not help, though if the visitors somehow know his name Kurulham/PelepsDankis) they may be able to obtain audience on false pretenses. He will deny any knowledge that anything fishy is going on, and be offended if pressed.
The true ruler of Storm's Rest isKurulham/StormOnGold, an Illuminated Solar of the Zenith Caste who lives in a supposedly-abandoned fortress atop the island's central rock, which he calls Storm's Retreat and which doubles as the temple of the Cult. Storm on Gold, an Exemplar, rarely leaves the fortress, unused as he is to the need for subtlety. Instead, he lets the other Solar of his Circle, a Night Caste Inquisitor namedKurulham/Lessif, act as his "face" to the outside world (i.e. those unaware that the Cult of the Illuminated is taking over Storm's Rest, who actually still number in the majority among the island's populace). To this end, Lessif has taken the place of Ragara Marakis, who is now the manager of Storm on Gold's household. Lessif appreciates irony. As Ragara Marakis, he lives in the island's sole Manse, called Eleara's Gift, in town. The third Celestial is Storm on Gold's wife, a Lunar assassin known only as theKurulham/BlackRazorWind. She has made something of a name for herself with her trademark assassinations all over the coast, but nobody (at least, nobody who opposes her, or who lives to tell about it) has traced her to Storm's Rest.
Other figures of note include Peleps Dankis, the sorcerously brainwashed Dragon-Blooded commander of the "garrison" of tiger warriors; Mother Marit, the steadfastly unIlluminated owner of the only brothel in town (which is not to say that there aren't plenty of other whores; they just aren't organized); and Cynis Damin, an insane, degenerate little weasel who can't see what's going on on the island for his own schemes (Storm on Gold plans to have him messily killed).
The Fair Folk Freehold of Tower Rock lies under the central peak. It is populated by some four hundred Fair Folk commoners and three nobles:Kurulham/LongLeggedPavan, the Eightfold Crystal; the Alabaster Sinner, his consort; and Japche, the Motionless Storm, his champion. The Realm is aware that something lives under the mountain, but presumes it to be an enclave of Mountain Folk or perhaps of elementals. Long-Legged Pavan has done precisely nothing to disabuse them of this notion. Storm on Gold is blissfully unaware of the spider who sits in his web, plotting to remove him from the island for his own inscrutable reasons.
