Exalted: The Cinder Isles

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For the cultures that live here, see Cultures of the Wreckers Coast. For the significant people who live here see NPCs of the Cinder Isles
== The Grey-Eye Peninsula ==
Former home of the many peoples that now make up the Bronze Tide. At the centre is some form of anomaly known as The Grey Eye, from which the Fair Folk are believed to have broken through into creation. Surrounding this were the homelands of the Issyk tribes, and to the south were the homelands of the Yensei, to the North the plains of the horse-lord Pelith, and lastly on the Western shore were the island kingdoms of the Mygdons. To the south is the Delta (see section below).
== Major Islands ==
=== Heciana ===
A rocky island of small fishing hamlets and nesting grounds for various seabirds, and little else.
==== The Shipyards ====
The only major settlement on the island, a large bay of piers and warehouses where ships dock for repairs, and drinking halls for their crews to while away the time and trade news while they wait for those repairs. Daxi Ong Mao and the crew of his ship The Eye of the Panda made land here during their maiden voyage and sought news of the Bronze Tide's activities. Crystal Breaks the Waves was last seen heading to this settlement in order to scout ahead of the Bronze Tide's advance.
==== The Serpent's Head ====
An outcrop of rock facing South to Marrull Vaar that is roughly shaped like a serpent's head, and some past inhabitants of the island painted and decorated the "head" of the serpent to accentuate this further.
=== Baruntulga ===
==== Bay of Baruntulga ====
The Confederacy of Baruntulga City-States, to give it its full title, is more commonly simply referred to by the name of the region, the Bay of Baruntulga, or many who are simply unaware of local history just Baruntulga, to the chagrin of the neighbouring regions. This resentment is well-earned, and the confusion actively courted by the people of the City-States, as in ages past the major settlements made war upon one another for control to the only easy access to both the Golden Fields of Mesynthos and the most viable harbour region of the Bay, complete with its Shogunate-era fortifications. Eventually prevailing over their neighbours, the City-States unified into a Confederacy under the rule of a Senate made up of representatives from (usually, though not necessarily the rulers of) the 30 "City States", though these are a mixture of ports, villages, townships and small cities. Together the Confederacy dictates mutual trade policy and protection, and neighbours such as Ostia and Leotha are forced into disadvantageous trade deals and Nulbaram is limited to fishing and sustenance farming, while the people of the Bay reap massive rewards and are more than happy for outsiders to see them, essentially, as Baruntulga. 
The entire Bay is currently blockaded from the sea by the Bronze Tide's vanguard, who are soon to make landfall in a full-scale invasion that is sure to be costly on both sides. 
==== Leotha ====
A settlement on the Northern tip of Baruntulga. The "poor cousin" of the Bay of Baruntulga, it has reportedly fallen to the Northern Wing of the Bronze Tide, and will soon be under attack by the Northern forces of the Wyld in turn.
==== Ostia ====
A walled city deep in the jungle on the eastern side of Baruntulga. From its elevated and protected position it appears the city's residents have elected to settle in for a long siege, in the hopes that the Tide either passes them by or is too spent from taking nearby towns to bother storming their position. From the shape and orientation of the city's gated walls (made of the same mysterious white stone as other ancient structures in the area) the Circle hypothesized that Ostia may have been some kind of communication relay between the ancient city now under the sea and other surrounding ancient sites. Since then most of the insides of the settlement have been cleared out over the centuries and replaced with local buildings of mundane stone, the central building - now the palace of Queen Lectra - still holds a mysterious marble plinth with a hole for some kind of key card.
==== Nulbaram ====
A large settlement on the southern tip of Baruntulga. Home to many famed sailors in its time, at the centre of Nulbaram is a longhouse drinking hall lined from wall to wall with trophies of various sea-creatures, from skulls to mounted fish and skeletons to a strange crustacean humanoid's shell and claw-arm. Mostly evacuated during the Bronze Tide incursion, save for the town's mayor Saltbreeze and a garrison, after repeated attacks by a team of Chameleon-men from the Bronze Tide the last of the armed inhabitants have made for the Bay of Baruntulga to aid in rebuffing the tide while the civilians were carried in a Tidemare to Marrull Vaar.
==== Golden Fields of Mesynthos ====
Lush, fertile farmlands on the Western side of Baruntulga. Are likely to be stripped bare if the Bronze Tide manage to conquer the islands.
=== Iliona ===
A pastoral island, home to many small cities and towns. Currently under attack from the Southern Wing of the Bronze Tide.
==== Settlements ====
===== Pharosia =====
Originally home to the Maidens of Iliona, a sect of seeresses that lived in a cave in the hills where they practiced their rituals. Famed for being both wise and beautiful, the invading Mygdon forces saw them as a great prize to be taken. Sacking and burning the village outside the cave, King Brasidus' forces raided the temple and slaughtered any elders or children among the maidens, taking the rest as "wives". They now wait offshore for the King's son, Basra, to finish sacking Ohemaku and re-join them as they continue down the coast to Chimuul.
The last surviving Maiden, the elder Philea, has taken it upon herself to bury the bodies of her fellow maidens, under cover of dusk so that the Mygdons don't see her and come back.
===== Dacot =====
An idyllic settlement in the mountains of the island, home to the wealthy aristocracy. Seems strangely untouched by the armies marching across the island below.
===== Chimuul =====
A port city to the West of Iliona, which is now cut off by the scouting ships that now cut off the strait between Iliona and Baruntulga. Once King Brasidus' fleet finishes at Pharosia they intend to move to besiege Chimuul from the sea.
===== Qalana =====
A port city to the South of the island. Is currently fighting off the Bronze Tide coming from inland.
===== Kietanno =====
A port city on the Eastern side of the island. Appears to have been conquered by the Bronze Tide.
===== Ohemaku =====
The Eastern side of Iliona is a region of rolling grassland & tiny farming hamlets known as the Windland for the pleasant sea breezes that play through the long grasses. This area has now been thrown into turmoil as a branch of the Southern Wing of the Bronze Tide led by Basra, son of King Brasidus of the now-destroyed Mygdon kingdom of Castio, has sacked and burned its way through the farmlands and chased the fleeing population back to the only defensible settlement in the Windland. This is Ohemaku, an outcrop on the face of a cliff over a ravine, accessible from the outside only by a rope bridge, that is walled with a palisade of wood and contains a few buildings and a watchtower.
This tiny settlement is now home to all the refugees from the Windlands, crowded behind the walls where a group of warriors known as The Knights of the Windlands, are helping them hold off Basra's forces. What they do have on their side is some kind of essence user that is blasting the forces camped out in improvised earthworks outside. The last letter from Crystal also suggests this is a possible place that the Circle's former comrade Dirty Bull Meng may be located.
=== Ginan ===
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=== Aralun ===
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=== Callerian ===
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=== Maelion ===
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=== Noliona ===
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=== Clio ===
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=== Jheroth ===
Former home of Skyfather & the Birdman of Jheroth, and location of the Great Ocean Road. Currently at risk from both the Bronze Tide and the Wyld.
==== Settlements ====
* Kakapo
* Itoi
* The Bird-Man's Hut
=== Kanilah ===
An island to the North of the Cinder Isles, south of Jheroth and west of the Grey Eye Peninsula. Has been overrun by the Bronze Tide, who are now finding themselves overrun by the Wyld following them.
==== Settlements ====
* Kaunanua
* Hokiku
* Kibari
=== Lathe ===
A Realm-Affiliated island, now the sole major Realm settlement in this region between Zhaojun and the Caul.
=== Capstone & Darkheart ===
Twin cities and a former Satrap of the Realm. Evacuated of Dragonblood presence after the disappearance of the Empress, a convoy of which was ambushed and a member of the royal family abducted.
== The Delta ==
=== Guimen and Hontari ===
Two small settlements along the coast near the mouth of the delta. Were known for being an insular people, untrusting of outsiders. In past generations they were Animist ancestor worshippers, but were converted to the practice of "true" Ancestor Worship by Bal Sho. Inhabitants have made mention of, in times past, fighting off "lizard people" to the Northeast and "other things" from the sea.
These settlements have effectively been wiped out by the Song of Flesh and Blood passing through their settlement and absorbing all but a handful of its inhabitants into itself.
== Geographical Features ==
=== Salt Farmer's Point ===
Little more than a sandbar on the outskirts of Marrull Vaar, where salt farmers lived and harvested sea salt to trade in the city. After leaving the city, Mei Fang and her circle of Lunars stayed here while they tended to Gharial-who-lies-in-Wait's sickness.
=== The Foot ===
Resembling a large, upturned foot, this outcrop of land shelters the estuary from the West. While preparing the defences of Marrull Vaar, the Circle decided to build a series of watchtowers passing along The Foot to signal back to the city in the event of an attack.
=== The Estuary ===
An estuary that for half of the year is deep enough for ships to land, and the rest of the time is shallow enough that a Swamp Strider can walk across it with little difficulty.
=== Little Peninsula ===
So named for the fact that it is a small, insignificant peninsula in the shadow of the much larger Grey Eye Peninsula, this ridge of steep hills leading down to the bay between Iliona and the settlements of Guimen and Hontari was the site of the Circle's first encounter with both the Yensei refugees and the Clockwork Caliphate.
=== Trenshe's Tower ===
An ancient tower, incredibly high and seemingly inaccessible to any who cannot fly, this tower comprises a round, roofed veranda on the top of a long thin column. Inside, according to Reeds' hypothesis, would have been an outpost for the place that now formed Merido Trench along with three others at opposite corners of the bay, with some ability to travel between them now long since lost. Now, however, it was only home to nesting seabirds, but briefly it was home to another. When Hephastia and Oakheart first came to the tower they found a desiccated body of a reptilian humanoid with batlike wings, a beak and a head crest, that some decades earlier had succumbed to a wound caused by a strange coral-tipped spear. The only clue to his identity was a paperback book that fell apart in Hephastia's hands save for a cover written in an old Northern tongue with some reptilian humanoid on the cover picture and on the inside a name inscribed with excellent penmanship - "Trenshe". Was this the name of this winged humanoid, which the other Solars hypothesized was a descendant of the ancient Dragon Kings race? Seemingly the only one in the Cinder Isles who could have confirmed it is him, and his story seemingly has died with him.
=== Merido Trench ===
A blue hole of singular size and depth in the centre of the bay. When looking upon it and the tower on the peak of a hill on Iliona with Charm-empowered sight the Solar Circle perceived the cyclopean ruins of some ancient structure at the bottom of the Merido Trench, still thrumming with the afterglow of whatever essence it used to run on. The Solars hypothesized that the tower they stood in was once one of a set that acted as watchtowers for this ancient ruin in its prime, and that the geography of the surrounding isles suggested a cataclysmic explosion had swallowed up whatever now lay in the Trench and sunk it and the other towers to the bottom of the ocean, forming the bay between the Grey Eye and Baruntulga.
=== Raukivu & Tongakepa ===
Two smaller blue holes in the bay closer to the Delta at the base of the Grey Eye Peninsula, to the Northwest of the Little Peninsula.
== Map ==