The Ageless Promise

The Daughter of Black brought the group to Vyre after two more weeks at sea. They found that people already knew them, thanks to a scandal booklet called “Journey to Vigil”; they accepted Serelis’s deal, uncovered the den of Cross and Wheel, and left for Kintargo.

The city of masks, where secrets are currency and identity is a choice.

Vyre is not a city that shows itself: it is a city you wear. Every inhabitant wears a mask, not by law but by a social convention so deeply rooted that it has become second nature. Masks range from simple velvet dominoes to elaborate creations of lacquer and feathers, and their style speaks of rank, profession, mood and lies in equal measure.

The architecture is theatrical: palaces with facades decorated with carved faces, narrow alleys opening onto squares lit by coloured lanterns, covered bridges between buildings. By night Vyre is beautiful. By day it is just tired.

Secrets are the real currency. Knowing something others don’t is worth more than gold. The scandal booklets, anonymous printed sheets passed from hand to hand and full of true secrets about real people, are the most feared political force in Vyre. Nobody knows who prints them. Everybody reads them.

The Promises

Five rules, carved near statues throughout the city, govern residents and visitors alike:

1. I Shall Honor All Coin: all transactions are final and binding, all prices are negotiable, and theft is forbidden.
2. I Shall Speak Many Names: everyone accepts any name a person gives in Vyre, true or not, and never reveals a concealed identity.
3. I May Wound Yet Shall Not Kill: enemies must be left alive, to give them a chance at revenge.
4. I Know None Are Below Me: no form of prejudice or discrimination.
5. I Shall Let Closed Doors Remain Closed: private secrets and acts stay private, and a broken promise is assumed intact unless there is sufficient proof.

Each Promise is enforced by a self-styled King or Queen, whose identities are secret. Those who break the law end up in Dunrock Prison, and many never survive their sentence. The city guard, the Blade Masks, wear grey iron masks and dark cloaks, and apply the law with a discretion that elsewhere would be called corruption.

Districts

• Villegre: the upper residential district, villas and noble palaces.
• The Market of Voices: the central square, where goods and information are traded.
• The Dark Alleys: the slums, where masks are thicker and knives faster.
• The Stage: the district of theatres and clubs, the cultural heart of the city.
• The Lower Port: the mixed harbour district where the Daughter of Black docks.

Places the group visited

• The deconsecrated temple of Aroden on Heretic’s Row, where the booklets were distributed.
• The headquarters of Cross and Wheel.

People

Serelis, Armand Axley, Vanessa Macow