<div align="center">(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/4e/ac/bd/4eacbd89991b3c7c84b817e8afdf40a0.jpg)</div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">The City</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div align="center">(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/aa/09/34/aa0934e54c43732aa812d42346369345.jpg)</div><br/>The City of the Steel Lotus unfurls amid a thousand green rivers teeming with round, bobbing coracles. Vivid towers climb into the sky as if to greet the sun, wrapped in flowering vines. Birds of a hundred colors float on breezes redolent of strange and sensual flowers, filling the air with their cries. A sage could journey for a thousand years and not find a more beautiful city.<br/><br/>   The Princes of the Earth travel ten thousand miles to reach the City of the Steel Lotus, when the delights of the Imperial City begin to bore them. They arrive aboard magnificent ships shaped by ancient hands, or astride the finest stallions; the greatest arrive borne by whirling winds, or travel the streets of Heaven itself to reach their destination.<br/><br/>   Once they have reached the City of the Steel Lotus, sailed its winding streets, tasted its sweet fruits and watched the beautiful birds fly, their steps invariably turn away, toward a slender winding path, that crawls along the banks of the Black Knot River – the path that leads to a lilac-roofed palace. This shrine to hedonism lies far removed from the crowded bustle of An-Teng's largest city. Its curving shapes rise from the middle of a river, atop a series of gentle rapids, overlooked by a dozen monoliths – the hard, sharp corpses of mountains whittled away by the rains and rivers, covered in flowering green shrouds. This is Plum Blossom House, midwife to intrigue.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">The Politics</div><div class="spoiler_body">   The wreck of the <em>Irreverent Heretic</em> still lies at the edge of the City's harbor, its broken masts jutting from the water's edge. Forty-five souls, including its captain, lie buried within its shattered bulk, torn asunder by the fire-tongues of the Imperial navy, on the orders of Shuri the Scarlet, general of the Imperial garrison and acting satrap. Perhaps the captain of the <em>Irreverent Heretic</em> dared too much in naming his ship, or perhaps he really was a pirate, but he was not the only one to suffer. A dozen more ships lie hidden and broken beyond the port, enormous coffins for their doomed crews. All ships that come in and out of the harbor submit to Imperial inspection now, and the inspectors take their pay from the ship's cargo. Imperial infantry patrols the river routes that lead to the city; rumor says incoming caravans are sometimes taxed two or even three times by different patrols. At least the infantry have taken down the corpses of those they made an example of.<br/><br/>    Though the Tengese bow their heads and smile when Imperial soldiers, tax collectors, and tourists pass by, unrest travels up and down the City like a deep current. In time, it may even touch the Plum Blossom House.</div></div><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">The Players</div><div class="spoiler_body"><div align="center">(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8b/fd/ee/8bfdeecf85d550a6125aebfa3c6d4167.jpg)</div><br/><br/>Currently a small number of Dragon-Bloods make their home here, paying the proprietor a nominal rent. Each has a reason for living within its walls, but none have realized – or are willing to realize – the true reason for their choice of home -<br/><br/>The House likes them.<br/><br/><strong>Current Cast:</strong><br/>Crimson Dove, Lady of the Evening - played by Copper Lily<br/>Nellens Daga, Imperial Magistrate - played by Rishon Tam<br/>Kochaku Ryuken, Foreign Merchant - played by HairyHeretic<br/>Assorted Extras and Antagonists - played by Synecdoche17<br/></div></div>