Shatterspire
45 miles south-southeast of Elos, atop a storm-lashed and distressingly forested clifftop, the Spire of Shattered Art Reforged is the third spire on this site. The first one sank into a swamp^H^H^H was destroyed by rampaging Spring magic. The second one burned down, fell over and THEN sank into a^H^H^H was burned by Emperor Nicovar. But the third one has stayed for these past twelve years, and this one looks like a keeper. It’s a research establishment really, or it started that way, a bunch of crazies living in the upper levels of a clifftop spire that actively tries to kill anyone who lives there, where you can’t really do much below the treeline because of the omnivorous trees, where the cress seed you grow on your windowsill will sprout legs and come for you in the night. The spire was envisaged a hothouse for Spring research, and its mana sites are spectacularly productive, but certainly for the first few years there was basically nothing else - like a more permanent version of a field trip.
Then the population started growing. People started moving there as a fresh start - it’s got what you might consider a pioneer atmosphere - it’s possibly the Urizeni equivalent of a Wild West frontier town, a tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone else, except that no frontier town was ever bound together with such an oath of loyalty. And it seems to breed and attract strong personalities and strong minds, the kind of person who sees a young spire as an opportunity, a stepping stone on the path to power, a place to stand and place a lever to move the world. The recent changes in Arbiter - from a Seer to a Mage to of all things an Architect - have thrown a new kind of energy into the spire, and the political connections forged by the spire’s delegates to Anvil have transformed the spire’s economy.
Magically, the spire is a recognised centre for Spring studies, but there has been a strong insistence by both the outgoing and the incoming Arbiter that a proper Urizeni education includes at least enough of the lore of Day to understand the conversation at dinner.
Militarily - though at the moment OOC we have precisely one of them - the spire’s sentinel cadre, the Gardeners, are an elite group of paranoid, somewhat traumatised veterans with a habit of dragging people out of trouble.
Politically, the spire has a bit of a reputation for breeding forceful personalities - we’ve hosted the first Urizeni Warmage, a controversial and confrontational Senator, the Grandmaster who pretty much defined the Celestial Arch, and the loudmouth Archmage of Spring. There was a period where we were wondering if we’d have to recruit simply to have more people to hold Imperial Positions, but currently we’re down to two positions again.
Lineage wise, currently we have one briar - we encourage lineaged members and may be able to offer makeup assistance with some warning
Fiction (cw: hygeine paranoia and (brief mention of) suicide)
empirefiction.livejournal.com/178142.html
Why would you want to join?
Any or all of -
*]You liked my fiction and wish to subscribe to this ethos. They weren’t there, man, they weren’t there
*]You want to be part of a relatively loose, fairly hyperactive group with a reputation and political contacts both inside and outside the nation
*]You want a place to stand and a lever long enough to move the world, and a bunch of allies to drag into it
*]You’re interested in this whole Spring thing but don’t want to play Navarri
*]You’d like to see if Conclave is for you
*]You’re interested in power. Any kind of power, to be honest with you, the only place we might have trouble is the Bourse
Vital statistics:
Province: Redoubt
Symbol: Mawrig and Evrom runes just touching one another, in green on a tan background.
Kit: white, tan, brown, grey and green, but there’s an active avoidance of a uniform look: two examples are here
profounddecisions.co.uk/empi … Ritual.png
profounddecisions.co.uk/empi … aching.jpg
Delegation to Anvil: 6ish
Imperial Positions: Senator for Redoubt, Archmage of Spring
Specialities: Celestial Arch matters, Spring magic, scrying, being forthright and competent with the emphasis on the first
Contact:
PM me or ChessyPig