<div align="center"><span class="bbc_u">Player-Run Factions:</span></div><br/><strong>The Former Tribe of the Stag:</strong><br/>d6 Action Die<br/>Power 1, Cohesion 1, Trouble 3/6<br/>Features: Strong sense of community. Skilled survivalists, scouts and hunters.<br/>Problems: Some traditionalists doubt this new leader (1), no permanent abode (1), distrusted or resented by many civilised folk (1)<br/><br/><br/><div align="center"><span class="bbc_u">Setting Info:</span></div><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Overview</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>The Region:</strong><br/>Hacre sits on the coastal lowlands on the northern shore of the Azure Sea. This small sea sits at the entrance of the network of seas and great lakes that divides the Scavenger Lands from the South. The closest large neighbours are Jiara to the north and Harborhead to the southwest.<br/><br/><strong>The Sea:</strong><br/>Hacre sits on the northern shore of the Azure Sea, a small inland sea that links to the Inner Sea and the bodies of water that allow sea travel most of the way towards the Dreaming Sea. The value of the trade passing through here means piracy is common, though kept under control by Peleps naval vessels and "pirate hunters" from Hacre itself who are often little more than privateers in their own right. One area of sea that is carefully avoided is the Drowned City, the site of Hacre's sunken twin that now rests at the centre of a shadowland. <br/><br/><strong>The City:</strong><br/>The city itself is a bustling trade hub, with relatively little industry to speak of. It is organised around the great market and providing for the needs of sailors and merchants who stay over. The fine goods of the Realm flow one direction and the exotic wonders of the Dreaming Sea flow the other--along with a less glamorous trade in drugs and slaves.<br/><br/><strong>The Farmland:</strong><br/>The plantations that line the fertile coastal lowlands once provided Hacre with food, and goods for export. Under the leadership of the Good Kings, more and more of the plantations have been converted to opium farms. This is bringing in more money, but also making the state less self-sufficient. Along with financial mismanagement, this is entangling the Good Kings deeper and deeper with the local Guild.<br/><br/><strong>The Hills:</strong><br/>The hills form a natural barrier to the north, notable for their hazardous and broken terrain, with few routes that a wagon can be taken along--and even those are subject to landslides and flooding. For this reason, most travel to and from Hacre is by sea. The raiding beastfolk tribes that call the area home, the poor soil that makes it unsuitable for farming and the presence of small shadowlands mean that the region is seen as undesirable, and is only lightly settled. Though nominally part of Hacre, the small towns and villages that dot the hills are very much their own culture, with an ingrained tradition of ancestor worship. Beastman tribes with the features of lizards inhabit the harsher regions of the hills and the cave networks below them, irregularly raiding the villages and being pushed back every now and then. They are considered a nuisance more than a serious threat, and are dismissed for the most part as uncivilised brutes, closer to vermin than intelligent beings.<br/><br/><strong>The Gods:</strong><br/>The leader of the local spirit court is Maur-Azur, god of the sea and guardian of the shipping that passes through Hacre. He is fairly distant and seldom seen by surface dwellers, but his children (strange and exotic individuals said to be half-spirit and half-human) often come ashore to negotiate with the Good Kings and make sure the flow of offerings and sacrifices is undisturbed, lest he withdraw his protection from storms and the ghosts of the Drowned City. The most popular goddess among the farmers is Bel-Sirin, goddess of flowers, health and fertility. She is often prayed to for good harvests, safe births, and good health. Seeing one of the "petals", her tiny leaf-winged servants, is considered a very good omen. Immaculate missionaries have a temple in Hacre itself, at the invitation of the Good Kings, but it has not made much impact on the local traditions.<br/></div></div><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">City Locations</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>The Seat: </strong><br/>The first of the major Manses within Hacre, the domed palace survived the change of power relatively intact and since then, has been remade to the tastes of the Good Kings. <br/><br/><strong>Fivefold:</strong><br/>Forming its own tiny community within the city, this line of opulent townhouses was provided by the Good Kings at great expense to house visiting Dragon-Blooded from the Realm. For very reasonable rents, visiting Dynasts will want for nothing while they are here, and will even have personal staff and slaves provided--most of which report anything juicy back to the Good Kings. In particular, it is a popular spot for young Dragon-Blooded venturing outside the Blessed Isle for the first time and eager to sample the “savage delights” of the Threshold.<br/><br/><strong>The Cinder Spire:</strong><br/>This Fire-aspected Manse sits in the centre of Hacre. Though the actual core of the Manse is sealed off to everyone except the ruling family, the structure is always hot to the touch. As such, it has become the premier source of hot water for the city, with a public baths abutting the Manse, and with piping set up to channel water to the palace and the dwellings of the rich.<br/><br/><strong>The Dragon’s Nest:</strong><br/>This old temple was reputed to be cursed and lay sealed and unused during the reign of the Old Kings. When the Good Kings began to court the Realm they refurbished it and offered it as a gesture of goodwill to the Immaculate missionaries. <br/><br/><strong>The Grand Market:</strong><br/>Despite the growing unease, Hacre remains for now a trade hub where the riches of the Blessed Isle cross over with exotic goods from the Dreaming Sea. Fortunes are daily spent, made and lost in the Grand Market, the true heart and biggest battleground of Hacre. A rough equilibrium has developed between the merchants, the Guild, the Good Kings and various criminal gangs to keep the conflicts and turf wars low-key enough that they don’t disrupt business. A wide open area where transient merchants sell their wares is ringed by more established stalls and vendors.<br/><br/><strong>Meat Market: </strong><br/>This dismissive term is the nickname for both the animal and slave market. The former mostly sells draft animals and exotic pets. The latter mainly imports slaves, except for a trickle of lizardfolk captured in skirmishes in the hills. Most people sold here are either employed in Hacre or shipped off elsewhere. Slaves who remain in Hacre after being purchased are mainly used to labour in the plantations, imported to the brothels, or used as servants in the dwellings of the Dragon-Blooded. Even when the enlightened refusal to engage in slavery is a thing of the past, many citizens of Hacre still like to keep the trade relatively out of sight, tucked away to a side of the city that people won’t stumble into on their way to somewhere else. <br/><br/><strong>Bliss:</strong><br/>The only part of Hacre more infamous than the Market, Bliss is the pleasure district of the city, catering to visiting sailors and tourists alike. Mostly under the thumb of the Guild, the two big moneymakers of the district are the brothels and the drug dens. The district projects a glamorous and sophisticated image, like walking into another world. And so long as you don’t look too closely at the insensate addicts propped against the walls in the alleyways or behind the scenes in the slave-brothels, it mostly holds. The temple of Bel-Sirin is located here, renowned as a center of healing.<br/><br/><strong>The Street of Dreams:</strong><br/>Housing a dizzying array of drug vendors, this strip of the market which abuts onto the Bliss district proper is where the cash crop drugs of Hacre are sold to wider markets. As well as locally grown drugs, more exotic fare from the shores of the Dreaming Sea comes this way along with the Guild standbys. There are also a steady population of slightly more reputable vendors selling medicines, painkillers, alchemical supplies, maiden tea and so on.<br/><br/><strong>The Keg:</strong><br/>This small district is named for the large breweries that make up most of the actual manufacturing of Hacre. Other small manufacturing concerns exist here, producing weapons, armour and building materials. About one in six workers here is a slave.<br/><br/><strong>The Dock Ward:</strong><br/>As the workers here like to joke, this is the place that makes Hacre work. At all times of day and night, it is bustling, with goods of all kind pouring in and out of the markets. The temple of Maur-Azur is the grandest building here, having grown rich upon offerings from sailors seeking the sea god's favour, or at least cooperation. The story of how Maur-Azur left Heaven to better tend to his favoured people in Creation is one every child in Hacre knows.<br/></div></div><br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Historical Events:</div><div class="spoiler_body"><strong>During the Contagion:</strong><br/>The sister city of Hacre sinks into the sea, supposedly after the Shogunate governor tries to use sorcery to drive back the Fair Folk. The people of Old Hacre are largely wiped out, and subsequently abandon the city, believing it to be accursed.<br/><br/><strong>After the Contagion:</strong><br/>Hacre is resettled by refugees trickling in from Harborhead and the Hundred Kingdoms, who turn the city from a refugee camp into a trade hub, ruled by a plutocratic council.<br/><br/><strong>60 Years Ago:</strong><br/>Kairos and Shreya kill their employers and declare themselves the "Good Kings" of the city. Over time, their children (Bronim, Suura, Tairo and the un-Exalted Memuria) occupied the positions of power in the city. Many of the old plantation owners are slain or exiled and replaced with "peasant heroes" chosen for loyalty rather than competence.<br/><br/><strong>22 Years Ago:</strong><br/>The largest coca plantation is destroyed in a slave rebellion led by a teenage girl known as White Feather. They burn several other plantations before the Good Kings brutally put it down and kill White Feather, displaying her corpse and those of hundreds of her followers along the city walls as a warning against further rebellion.<br/><br/><strong>Present Day:</strong><br/>???<br/></div></div>