Inspiration: The Blue World, Jack Vance
When sailing out of the City of Shuttered Windows into the Keening Sea not far beyond the outermost of the farms of the sea can be seen a great arc of ancient and half-rotten giant sequoias (perhaps from 02.07) that were long ago driven deep into the seabed.
A strange band of stylites live out there among the waters, clinging the the great wooden pillars. They feed on algae gruel and fish and eke out a precarious existence caught between the storms and the krakens that constantly harry them. They wear no leather but that of cured human skin, build their tools and huts out of human bone and make a few precious objects out of iron refined from their own blood. Whether this is due to simple poverty or some religious taboo is unclear as the captains who ply the Keening Sea stay well clear of the stylites for fear of contracting Jarmond’s flux, a terrible disease that is said to be endemic among the stylites.
As to how they came to live among the waves some say that they are the descendants of ancient exiled criminals or the last remnant of one of the many strange cults that flourished in the City during The Time of Schisms. But whatever the reason for their exile, the stylites serve Shuttered still. They light signal fires atop their great wooden pillars that tell of any boat or sea beast that approaches the City of Shuttered Windows so that it may never be taken unawares from the sea.
Hooks:
- -What’s the history behind the stylites?
- -Is there anything similar on the landward side of Shuttered to keep enemies from approaching the City from that side as well?
- -Does iron refined from the iron content of human blood have any special properties? Has anyone gotten their hands on any?
- -Do the stylites really all have Jarmond’s flux? What is Jarmond’s flux anyway?
