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Every visible power and what you know about them.

Amber Champion · Dragon

Last seen: H02.-01

Perks (public)

Armies you can see

Amber, Fire Dragon rank 4 · Personal Army · Valiant · Slayer · H02.-01

Luciva Skybreath of Manus, Walled City of War City · Sovereign

Seat: H01.01

Appearance

Around every town of Manus is its Wall. By brick or stone, carved border markers of flapping crimson banners, Manus marks its territory well. Enter in peace, and past the wall hear citizens debating war and politics loudly. See workers laboring in perpetual competition with the next neighborhood over, smell foods from diverse cultures overlapping. Enter in war or deception, and in every hand find a weapon and on every face a xenophobic snarl. Citizens of Manus look for loyalty, strength, and martial excellence in their leaders. Lucivia is a source of hope to many; her military record and perceived valor and might are what Manusians expect of a good leader. Others feel Lucivia is a symbol of Manus’ growing decadence and loss of martial virtue. She is one of many elites who could not stem the Antinium tide. Lucivia does not bear the Fang of Manus, traditional symbol of her office, a fact many consider a grim reminder of Manus’ decline. Manus orders the towns under its control like its capital, with a strong focus on maximizing military potential, civic order, and external defense. Manus divides its people into neighborhoods and industries headed by small councils or local magnates, who must both be acclaimed by their subordinates and approved by their superiors; usually one of the two groups chooses the leader and the other approves or disapproves of the choice. These local leaders are trusted to order land, people, industry, or other valuable commodities, balancing local conditions with the dictates of their superiors, who they in turn have a right to petition for aid if needed. Even in gnollish tribes under Manus control, a strong division is made by law and culture between citizens-those behind the Wall-and untrustworthy outsiders. Outsiders are delegated authority of any kind only in exceptional circumstances, unless they take oaths at the Wall and swear in to Manus citizenship. Lucivia holds the Citadel of Manus, its innermost fortification and the highest point in the city. Shaped live a twelve-pointed star, the towering black stones are festooned with banners and shining soldiery that partially disguise its stark design. Past the fortified gates of the Citadel, petitioners will meet Lucivia in her audience chamber, an open stone hall with nine chairs at one end, Lucivia raised slightly above her peer Councilors. Courtiers instructed petitioners how close they may stand to address the Council; towering guards and a variety of trophies that used to be alive imply the consequences of disrespect. After all the imposition, Lucivia herself is a contrast; usually dressed in light military equipment and inclined to laconic jokes, she deliberately presents herself as generous beyond the needs of her powerful station; the light at the end of all the tunnels petitioners just walked through.

Emissaries

The Emissaries of Manus are a service of the City government. The Emissaries handle both internal communication within the City’s territory and foreign communiques, with at least small Emissary houses located in the territory of all other major powers except the Antinium. The Emissaries employ pairs of highly-skilled messengers of most long-range communication, usually Red-Throated Garuda. These winged sapiens have lived in Manus for centuries, the core of the Emissaries for nearly as long. The Garuda work directly for the Council, with only an act of that body or the Wallkeeper’s personal order allowed to dispatch them. Garuda Emissaries dispatched by the Council have broad authority to negotiate on the Council’s behalf, and so affect the course of Manus. The Garuda have long enjoyed material plenty in exchange for this trust, as well as the threat of execution for treason if the Council takes particular umbrage with a Garuda’s negotiations.

Perks (public)

Moderately Skilled
Royal Head — Lucivia Skybreath’s family are Oldblood Drakes who stood over the Wall for a century. Lucivia walked the traditional path of military accolades for Manus nobility, from courier to quartermaster to commander. She parlayed her exceptional service into political power in Manus, ultimately being acclaimed to the Council just before the 1st Antinium War broke out. Lucivia served first on the home front, then in the Hivelands during the 1st War. She commanded her veterans during the Drowning of the Desiccating Hive’s Queen, and saved the coalition’s supply train during the Battle of Rutgers Vale. When Navoluv Swordheart, the previous Wallspeaker, perished by ambush during the final month of the war, Lucivia was acclaimed as the new Wallspeaker by the army in the field, and invested in that position (by a narrow margin) by the surviving Councilors upon her return. Lucivia inherits a tired, exhausted nation. Not a single Manus citizen has gone without sacrificing during the 1st War, and Lucivia has sacrificed more than most. Worse than her scars are her lost daughter, who died on the front lines in the 1st War, and the exhaustion of her estate, which she sold piecemeal as a show of solidarity with every decree she passed to raise taxes. Lucivia was largely spared Navoluv’s burdens, however; now that she is Wallspeaker, she must shoulder Manus’s history of necromancy and blood magic, and face starkly the true face of the city she gave her life too.
Proficient Heirs
Isolationist Past
Ancestral Defense
Ancestral Tithe· Unity
Specialized Magic· F
Starting Claims
Ancient Crafts
Starting Armies
Starting Resources· experience, coin
Lordly Commandments

Claimed towns

Manus (T08, annex, senior) · Cellidel (T01, annex, senior) · Weatherfur Tribe (T10, annex, senior)

Armies you can see

Luciva's Marching Wall rank 4 · Loyal · Royal Guard · Wallkeepers · Valiant · Vanguard · Cooks · H01.01
Muster of Manus rank 2 · Wallkeepers · Fearful · H01.01

Holdings you can see

Manus Gnollsgrant Fields farm · T08
🎭 Yula
Yula Landspeaker

Gruff, patient, mystical

Yula is the elected Landspeaker of the Gnollsgrant. He works quietly and patiently to improve and expand the Gnollsgrant and bring in more Gnolls to the it. Yula adopts the garb and forms of a Gnollish Druid, though it is unclear if this is religious devotion or if he really has some mystical abilities.
- “I smell a long winter and a bitter spring. A good year for rye.”
Manus Yrir's Scrimshawers guild · T08
🎭 Zyzal Echobone
Zyzal Echobone Skullkeeper of Yrir

Energetic, Ambitious, Calculating

Before the 1st Antinium War, Zyzal Echobone was a middling scrimshawer whose ravenous ambitions constantly outpaced his skill. During the war, his innovations found their patrons on the council, and as the war turned desperate, Zyzal was elevated to leadership among the Scrimshawers on promises to treble production. His ambitions unquenched, Zyzal now aims for a council seat.
- “Yrir’s bones rest heavy on me, Wallspeaker. Since I donned them I even dream only of how to serve the city.”
- “If the Bonekeepers dislike extending another twentieth of our profits to me, consider what your personal stakes were like before I took Yrir’s skull? Have I not made us more profitable every year, even in war?”
- “Every paworker will double their shifts tonight! We will meet our quota!”
Manus Stormdueler Yard training_grounds · T08
🎭 Gotza
Gotza Hunt Commander of the Council

Elderly, frightening, watchful

Gotza is a veteran gnoll covered in scars. A hero of her tribe in her youth, she now mentors future heroes as the master of the Stormdueler Yard. Gotza usually moves with arthritic slowness, which has led many soon-to-be-enlightened recruits to underestimate her. Her teeth have been replaced by dragonbone dentures, recently upgraded by a new dentist in town with vicious enchantments.
- “Wormling, I’m not half as scary as what’s outside your Walls. Stop sniveling and hit me!”
- “My mother climbed up your big fancy Wall in the night and stole little drake babies out of their cribs. You think the Ants won’t do the same?”
- “”
Manus Mint of Manus bank · T08
🎭 Kial Whitetongue

Kial Whitetongue Walllord and Treasurer of Manus

Paranoid, loyal, horde-keeping,

Kial is a middle-aged Drake who was acclaimed to his position because, while serving as an army quartermaster, caught his predecessor embezzling the City’s funds. Kial quashed all such fraud in the Mint once he ascended, though his paranoid leadership style and never-completely-controlled horde-keeping tendencies have alienated most of his peers and subordinates.