conversations.from: system
conversations.value: ROLEPLAY_MODE: Develop the plot slowly, always stay in character. Describe all actions in full, elaborate, explicit, graphic, and vivid detail. Mention all relevant sensory perceptions. Keep the story immersive and engaging.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: GryffonDurime: The city of Diamond Hearth has no sparkle. Oh, at its outer rim there are vaulted lodges and mansions carved into the mountainside, but the closer one gets to the city's center, the more ramshackle it becomes--the innermost districts are a collection of log cabins and tin-topped rundowns. This is a city built on the diamond trade: when explorers first settled the northernmost city in all of Creation, they were little more than a handful of prospectors and indentured servants backed by Guild speculators. In the century since, most of those first settlers and their families have become the ruling powers of Diamond Hearth, paying back their Guild loans and becoming an economic force in their own right.
  
  For all the wealth the city earns, it is in the hands of the few: the Doma council, descendants of the founders and owners of the major mines, rule the city with growing efficiency. Still, the city has a myth: that this is a place where a man can make a fortune if he has wits, heart, and a set of bronze ones that even Ahlat would envy. There are more than diamonds to be found in its mines: amethyst and emeralds, feathersteel and even trueice.
  
  But there are rumblings of unease in the air as you enter the city of Diamond Hearth: winter is almost upon them (Ascending Air in the Immaculate parlance, though the nominally Haslanti inhabitants have little love for the Realm or the Immaculate Faith), and the city braces for the roughest season they've ever known. Already, early frosts have decimated the surrounding farms, nestled as they were in pockets of ancient geomantic magic...magic that is beginning to waver. Worst of all, the scent of death wafts in the air, and the ghosts of Diamond Hearth grow restless and bold. The Doma have issued a standing edict: the city of Diamond Hearth needs heroes.
  
  In short, it needs you.
  
   
   Spoiler 
  
  So, this is the starting point. Whenever you finish your character sheet, you can post. This is truly sandboxy--I've got some plots started here, but you've got complete suzerainty in adding your own material. To help ease us into things, here's the rundown on particularly interesting or famous locations in Diamond Hearth and the surrounding environs:
  
  The Temple - The only temple in Diamond Hearth has no name of its own; it's carved into the sheer face of the mountain that forms a natural wall around the city. The Temple is fairly recent, constructed about thirty years ago by the Doma council after the first Abominable Winter as an offering to the Ennead, the Haslanti national pantheon. Despite being an astonishing work of architecture, with entire mosaics studded with diamonds and statues of the Nine executed in trueice, the Ennead have rarely graced the city. A small conclave of shaman-priests tend the Temple, and act as brokers for a select group of local gods and elementals who offer their services for hire.
  
  The Doma Lodge - Humbly named but extravagantly designed, the Doma Lodge is the seat of all real power in the city. It is a vast palace of pine polished with shimmering thaumaturgical resin, set in a small pocket of geomantic bounty in the city's eastern reaches. Almost every other such fertile pocket is dedicated to agriculture--that the Doma command one for their comfort alone is a show of power and pride. The Doma council meets only once or twice a week unless otherwise needed, but four of the five families live in the same district anyway.
  
  Ranaheim - The mansion of Arven Rana, current head of the Rana bloodline and perhaps the richest and most powerful of the five Doma. Unlike the other Doma houses, Ranaheim is carved from granite and limestone, striking a stunning profile on the western edges of Diamond Hearth.
  
  Darkreach - A pine forest just west of Diamond Hearth, beyond Ranaheim. Rumors speak of an ancient witch who lives within the forest; peasants are sometimes desperate enough to seek her out for rare medicines or thaumaturgical talismans. Some disappear; others return with her boon but remain tight-lipped about the Witch of the Darkreach, saying only that she calls herself Matya--an Old Realm nickname for "mother."
  
  Thunder Ridge - The tips of the northern mountains are called the Thundering Ridge because they are often wracked by storms--storms which the mountains themselves often protect the city from. A small tribe of Thunderbirds have made their roost here, though even the priests of the Temple are loathe to treat with them.
  
  The Market - The Market is exactly what it sounds like--a market. A few of the booths have slowly built up into full-fledged stores. The most prominent pavilion--one of worked tin and jadite--belongs to the Guild, and is often empty. Right now, however, the Guild has a strong presence in the city, selling winter supplies at triple their usual price.
  
  The Pole of Air - Diamond Hearth is a short three hundred mile jaunt from the Pole of Air itself, and sometimes Immaculates or other pilgrims stop in the city on their way to the holiest place in the North.
   