Castille

“Castillians are stubborn. You can’t get them to do anything they don’t want to do unless you tell them it’s a tradition. Tradition can make a Castillian dance on the back of a horse, fight to the death because of a slight to her sister or give up her neighbor to the Inquisition.”

—Lalo Terrazas, Nahuacan expatriate in Castille

Knowing Castille’s history, you would think the nation would be a fragmented mess. Foreign incur-sions have pitted its inhabitants against one another—tribe against tribe, ducado (duchy) against ducado, Théan against Crescent, Inquisitor against heretic, Vaticine against Objectionist.

The people’s relationship with their government is similarly divisive. Castille has fallen from a scientific and economic pioneer to a limping, wounded and bank-rupted nation. The Inquisition has taken the King and sent many into hiding. Nevertheless, the people cleave together in spirit, faith and identity. They have supported one another through war and loss, worshipped together despite vast differences and said to every other nation: all these things, different as they may seem, are Castille.

In the 13th Century, when the Third Prophet moved the seat of the Vaticine Church to Castille in an explo-sive conflict with the Crescents called the Moonshadow War, he divided Castille into ducados. He granted noble titles to the officers of the Blazing Blade, his army. Each of the five noble houses which had served the Prophet bravely and loyally became a ducado’s Gran Duque or Gran Duquesa—or simply “Grande.”

Unity is the key to Castille’s recovery. Working together, Castillians will reclaim the safety, security and glory lost over the past hundred years. But Castillian unity is also the key to Cardenal Esteban Verdugo’s plan to subjugate Théah and then the world to his Inquisition. It is up to your Heroes to determine which of these outcomes lies in store for Castille.

## The War of the Cross and Modern Castille

Before the War of the Cross, Castille led Théah in science, research and quality of life and spirit. Castille marched into war with Théah’s most fear-some army, ready to impose Castillian faith and culture on its unprepared neighbors. By the end of the war, Castille was broke, humiliated and in thrall to Cardenal Verdugo and his tyrannical Inquisition. What could possibly have gone wrong? Ask a down-and-out tercio—a Castillian elite war veteran with a destroyed home, none of the salary he was promised and nowhere to go—returning from the war, and you might find out.

### The Castillian Army

Until 1618, Castille’s jinete (cavalry) was its most famous troop type. Mounted on warhorses from Aldana, she could fight as heavy cavalry like Théan knights or as light cavalry like a Crescent lancer and horse archer. The infantry was nothing to speak of.

Enter the tercios. Organized and drilled with geometric precision, these new troops consisted of veteran soldiers, hardened as mercenaries abroad or marines in combat on the Widow’s Sea. Many battle-scarred former pirate or notorious bandit went inland to take the King’s doubloon, attracted by promise of amnesty, a lavish salary and the opportu-nity for hidalgo status. A tercio's facility in using many different weapons—long pikes, modern flintlocks, short swords and shields—to support one another devastated Montaigne’s cavalry. His efficiency in battle led Eisen and others to adopt similar types of units, though Castille’s were always the fiercest and most deadly.

While everyone in Théah feared Castille’s front-line soldiers, one of the nation's greatest strengths was almost unknown to anyone outside the army. These were the galenos, who drew upon Castille’s consid-erable medical and scientific knowledge as combat medics. This individual used a cross of alchemical and scientific approaches, making her combat medicine the quickest and most efficient in all of Théah.

### A Costly Endeavor

The tercios' early success bought false hope for Castille. Overconfidence pushed the army further afield into Eisen, and soon the ground forces were stretched thin. Supply trains stretched from Castille into Eisen, but keeping those safe proved both difficult and costly. The longer the war raged, the more resources Castille devoted to the fight. Additionally, Cardenal Verdugo viewed the tercios' success as a threat. Many of the trained fighters in the tercio units were cutthroats and bandits, turned military soldiers.

During the war, Cardenal Verdugo secretly ordered hundreds of Inquisition agents to sabotage the flow of food, armaments and medical supplies to the front lines. Eisen and Montaigne forces mysteriously obtained maps and battle plans that enabled surgical strikes against baggage trains. Slowly, Verdugo isolated the Castillian army.

Three decades of unproductive war far from home drained Castille’s treasury and morale, the nation's early advantage becoming a frustrating deadlock. The Castillian Armada, a massive fleet of warships, was the nation's last hurrah, built largely on credit in hopes that a subjugated Avalon would pay off the debt. It did not. Bad weather and the Sea Dogs sank the ships. Every tercio waited for compensa-tion, which never came. When Montaigne invaded, the crown called on tercios again, with promises of land and riches for staving off invasion. Some believe Verdugo instigated the invasion, while others credit l’Empereur with enough strategic wit to see that Castille was failing. Either way, as the invasion forces turned away, a tercio once again looked towards his nation for payment he knew by now would never come. Many deserted, and had Montaigne known the half of it, it would have never recalled its troops.

Over time, Castille went from the richest, most advanced Théan nation to the most impoverished and indebted. The final added insults to injury were King Salvador Aldana’s death and Cardenal Verdugo’s removal of King Sandoval to Vaticine City.

## A Nation Founded on Tradition

A Castillian is as traditional as he is willful. To understand the person, you must first understand his traditions.

**Everything begins with family, and family begins with the mother.** The nomadic tribes who first settled Castille could only trace lineage through maternal lines. Paintings on cavern walls show elder matriarchs serving as chieftains, seeking marriage and alliances with other large, well-provisioned tribes. Placing women, especially mothers, on pedestals may seem attractive compared to Castille’s misogynistic neighbor Vodacce, but the weight of expectations and preconceived gender roles brings its own headaches.

**Castille was the ﬁrst Vaticine nation in Théah.** In the early days of the Vaticine church, when Emperor Corantine’s Empire stretched far and wide, the southern reaches of Castille hosted Vaticine churches. While the history of the Empire’s occu-pation of Castille is suspect, no one denies that the people of Castille have been Vaticine since the first Prophet, and the church has always been a large part of their life.

A Castillian who can claim an unbroken lineage to the first Vaticines in Castille never ceases to remind you of the fact. To this day, a Castillian displays public and fervent performance of his faith, to show his soli-darity with his neighbors and the Vaticine Church.

**To an outsider, one identiﬁes with Castille; to another Castillian, one identiﬁes with one’s ducado.** The ducados evolved from the five kingdoms that formed when the Old Empire dissolved—Aldana, Torres, Zepeda, Soldana and Odisea. Unwilling to risk their lives in the chaos at him in Vodacce, soldiers stranded in Castille threw open their castrum gates. They comingled with Castillian tribes, and in the south, Ifrian seafarers and settlers.

To the rest of the world, a Castillian is devoted to Castille. But to another Castillian, she is a patri-otic Aldanensa, Torreña, Zepedana, Soldanensa or Odisean, proud of her ducado’s dialect, history, char-acter and culture. She is perhaps derisive towards neighboring ducados and certainly enjoys the friendly rivalry each area has against the other.

Understanding and controlling these regions’ rela-tionships has always been the key to ruling Castille. Let them do as they please, and they fragment into independent countries, each one internally strong but too small to resist outside pressure from larger powers. But, roll them into a single indivisible entity, and the regions’ individualistic character and history of autonomy makes them stubborn, restive and rebellious.

## Important People in Castille

### The Good Kings Sandoval

Historically, the monarch has been Castille’s weakest Grande. Tasked with balancing power between Grandes controlling far more land, resources and military force, the King’s life was frustrating and stressful. As the Inquisition centralized power behind its cat’s-paw throne, the King’s ostensible power increased steadily—but, of course, the real power behind the throne is El Concilio de la Razón. Now the King is a new kind of powerless.

Considering this predicament, when Queen Almudena Sandoval bore King Salvador Aldana’s child in 1652, they carefully concealed that she bore two children: a boy, Amadeo, and a girl, Rocío. The twins’ similar appearance made them indistin-guishable to anyone outside San Cristóbal’s royal compound, where even the Inquisition could not go. The King and Queen knew whichever child inherited the throne would suffer constant surveillance and manipulation. They needed a subtle way to evade El Concilio and their spies, to discover the world beyond their throne…or to live with any truth, passion or freedom.

Using Amadeo’s name and gender, Amadeo and Rocío have occupied the same identity since long before their father died and their mother retired to Ducado de Aldana in order to draw off some of Verdugo’s surveillance. One twin sat on the throne, feigning childish incompetence, while the other went on little adventures in and around the capital, learning what was going on in Castille and gaining life experi-ence. They conferred with their twin by night before trading identities the next day.

But something went wrong. Maybe the Inquisition suspected when the King made just enough correct decisions to keep Montaigne from overrunning Castille. One year ago, El Concilio forcibly relocated King Amadeo Sandoval to Vaticine City for his own safety and protection to stave off the dark forces of heresy abroad in Castille. Rocío—his beloved sister, lifeline and key to piercing the Inquisition’s mask—could not come.

#### Portraying Amadeo Sandoval

The child monarchs had a good thing going before the throne’s relocation ruined their plans. Now Amadeo is trapped in Vaticine City. Gaining an official audi-ence requires going through el Concilio or Cardenal Verdugo himself. That isn't to say that clandestine visits can't be arranged.

#### Story Hooks

* The Inquisition has kept not only the title, but also the physical crown King Sandoval. Under heavy guard from the Inquisition, the crown is now moving from the royal court in San Cristóbal to Vaticine City, where Cardenal Verdugo will presumably lock it away forever. Unless someone steals it on the way.
* Almudena Sandoval has taken sick. The doctors don’t know if she is going to recover. In spite of the security risk, Amadeo wants to see his mother again, in case it is the last time. Someone is going to have to help him vacate Vaticine city for a short period of time.

#### Portraying Rocío Sandoval

Rocío Sandoval is holding up well despite the loss of her brother. She might be young, but she has a plan to save him, but she doesn't share that with just anyone.

When Rocío reveals the truth to the Heroes, what will they do? Sneak Rocío into Vaticine City to renew the grand illusion? Place Rocío on San Cristóbal’s empty throne, risking Amadeo’s safety to raise up a true Rex Castilium to defy the Inquisition? Or will they appeal to some unknown power—Odisean separatists, Ifrian powers or mysterious figures from the New World who have asserted themselves in Castille—to create a new Castille?

#### Story Hook

* Rocío was caught sneaking around the palace in San Cristóbal and is being held in the dungeon. Right now, no one recognizes the girl as the monarch, but it's only a matter of time before someone makes a connection. She needs help fast.

### Alfonso Sánchez

Don Alfonso Sánchez de Ilurdoz, Conde-duque de Angulema, Capitán de la Guardia de Fronteras y Obispo de Altamira was born during the War of the Cross to a noble family in a small Castillian town. He was raised as a leader, expected to take over his father’s role as city leader when his father was too old to do so. The people loved young Alfonso, but the small town life was not enough to satisfy his adven-turous soul. As soon as he was old enough, he left home and went to San Cristobal to study.

He enjoyed all subjects from the philosophical to the martial and dabbled in a bit of everything. Yet, he was enamored with the Vaticine Church and their dedication to knowledge and reason, and soon he joined the ranks of not only the students, but the church. His studies sent him from San Cristóbal to Vaticine City, and eventually to Altimira where he served as their Bishop until shortly before the Montaigne invasion. Sánchez heeded Colonel Bihotz’s call to arms when she mobilized her cavalry in anticipation of Montaigne troop movements.

He marched south to Barcino, and then to the Montaigne border, where he fought tirelessly to repel Montaigne troops, only to find out too late that Altamira was lost and the rest of the ducado was in retreat. Sánchez earned many distinctions during the war, but like most soldiers, never saw payment for his service. The only thing keeping him afloat was his noble title and the land his family owned. He returned home, but not to heal or lick wounds. Instead, he is raising funds to raise an army to retake Altamira from Montaigne, now that the war is over.

#### Portraying Alfonso Sánchez

Don Alfonso Sánchez is a man of honor and noble demeanor. He has light brown hair and dark skin and eyes, with plenty of scars from his time fighting along Castille’s border. He is a soldier at the moment, but he is still a priest at heart. He is a devout Vaticine, though he holds no grudge over Objectionists, under-standing their need to seek information as a path to Theus. Sánchez has plans for Castille, which tend to directly oppose the Inquisition. His attention is currently focused on Altamira, but he is likely to lend aid to anyone working to restore Castille to its former glory.

### Octavio Mzabi, the Dark Inquisitor

In 1658, a young Inquisitor named Octavio Mzabi led a raid on a renegade scholar’s house in Ciudad de Zepeda. On a whim, he kept one old leather-bound diary instead of burning it, as ordered. It was blank, he assured himself. He could use it for notes or poetry. Yet, it was not blank, and he knew that keeping such an artifact was against regulations.

Inside, he found entries from Inquisitor Aliénor Capdeville, devoted servant of the Second Prophet and skilled investigator, whose day-to-day oper-ations read like an adventure serial. She fought monsters, spied on church officials and rooted out true evil wherever she went.

Inquisitor Mzabi only realized the accounts were factual when he cross-checked them against previ-ously sealed records in the Hierophantic Library. Sure enough, an Inquisition existed well before the Third Prophet, and its purpose was vastly different from the one he knows today.

A week later, when Inquisitor Mzabi went to consult them again, but those records were gone. He was being watched—or the records were. He couldn’t be sure.

Since then, Inquisitor Mzabi has stepped lightly, guarding his reputation as a trustworthy Church official. However, he has also recruited discreet and dissatisfied Inquisitors and seminary students into the circles of the Inquisitio Aquila—a new Inquisition with the purpose to root out the evil in Verdugo’s organization.

Mzabi’s Dark Inquisitors use Inquisition resources to seek out and remove internal threats to the Vaticine Church—the purpose for which the Inquisition was first created. Inquisitor Mzabi’s goal is not merely to evade the Castillian Inquisition’s notice. He wants to replace it, accumulating power for the Dark Inquisition until it is ready to stage a coup and return the High Chancery to its orig-inal purpose.

#### Portraying Inquisitor Octavio Mzabi

Daring, magnetic, exuberant. Inquisitor Mzabi is a tall, broad-shouldered man with long dreadlocks, an athletic build and gray eyes as inviting as a warm bath on a frosty morning. He is handsome, charismatic and persuasive, and that is part of his problem: he is a natural leader, not a natural spy or detective.

He has gained quite a bit of a following in his endeavor to clean up the Inquisition, and all the work he does makes it easy to trace the organiza-tion's roots back to him. He knows he is likely to tip his hand to the wrong Inquisitor or get himself caught if he does not delegate some of his dirty work.

If he suspects that a Hero mistrusts or resents the Inquisition, he invites her to his cause—and asks her help in expanding the Inquisitio Aquila’s reach or striking against the Inquisition in ways he cannot.

#### Story Hooks

* Yet another splinter faction within the Inquisition has appeared, but so far, they are no help to Inquisitor Mzabi. They want the Hierophant’s seat returned to Vodacce, which means murdering Cardenal Verdugo and anyone defending him. If they fail, increased scrutiny will fall on the Inquisitio Aquila. If they succeed, the Church will devolve into chaos and people will die. Can the Heroes help Mzabi cut them off at their roots?
* An undead creature in human guise has infiltrated the Dark Inquisition, concealed within Mzabi’s infrastructure of secrecy—so efficient that it now works against him. Suddenly he cannot trust anyone near him…which means he needs the Heroes to help him pull off missions and find the culprit.

### Azra Uziel

No item is as celebrated a symbol of Castille as the Castillian guitar. No Castillian guitarist is as cele-brated as Azra Uziel. She is a scion of a converso family of traveling performers of Eclipses—Castillian people with both Yachidic and Dīnic heritage.

Azra’s bubbly demeanor and highly danceable compositions drew considerable attention since early childhood. This includes the Inquisition, who have been vying for her, but have a hard time coming up with a good reason to arrest her.

Señorita Uziel’s concert tours and sprawling entou-rage have groups of Eclipses—disguised as cooks, bodyguards and particularly dedicated fans—traveling through Castille towards ports whence they can depart for safety in Ifri or the Crescent. But the Inquisition remains suspicious of her. It is only a matter of time before the Inquisition infiltrates her organization somehow. The Rilasciare courts her to use her fame to overthrow the oppressive Inquisition, but the danger to her family is too high.

Señorita Uziel already has to deal with violently overzealous fans. So far, her bodyguards (and once, El Vagabundo) have managed to keep her alive, but she is looking for more security for her larger concerts. That is how she gets to you—help her out once, and suddenly she is wants you to help her move equipment, save secret lovers from the Inquisition, vet song ideas, hide Eclipses on your ship, be her date at parties…

#### Portraying Azra Uziel

Uziel is tiny, with long wavy brown hair, brown skin and a mischievous smile. She is the biggest personality in the room, with a voice like a bell and a handshake like a particularly eager terrier’s bite.

She keeps a five-course guitar hanging around her neck, and sometimes abruptly turns the last half of a sentence into a song lyric. She takes any excuse to get people dancing, and if you carry an instrument, she annoys you until you agree to play with her.

In public, Azra dodges topics such as religion or politics, feigning ignorance. But if you reveal to her that you are an Eclipse in need, she gets more focused, reaching out to you to allay your fears and promising to use her resources to get you to safety.

### Amanda de la Rosa

Amanda de la Rosa grew in San Cristóbal, under the care of various different orphanages. She dedicated her life to the sword. In the home, she played with the other orphans, using sticks as swords. Later, she found it easy to slip away from the orphanage to prac-tice in the empty guard’s square. The constant noise and bustle of the orphanage bothered her, and she much preferred solitude.

Once in a while, a guard would teach her a new trick, and she would spend the next month single-mindedly learning the new form, stance, or thrust. Such dedica-tion earned her ridicule from the other orphans, but they were never able to beat her in the yard.

Over the years, Amanda grew hungry for knowledge. She tried university, but her narrow approach to one subject at a time made it difficult. She applied for entry into a dueling school, but her lack of noble title hindered her. Finally, she applied with the city guard. They accepted her, and she rose quickly, eventually earning a place on the royal guard protecting the Good King Sandoval himself.

Amanda’s penchant for avoiding large groups led her to discover the Sandoval twins’ secret. She noticed Amadeo sneaking into a gathering, one she had known he attended earlier in the evening. His shirt was slightly different, and his hair was wrong. She started watching the boy and quickly realized that there were two children. It was Rocío who decided to bring Amanda into their confidence, making her personal guard to the King. When the Inquisition took Amadeo to Vaticine City, Amanda stayed with Rocío to protect her.

#### Portraying Amanda de la Rosa

Polite, quite, and a little bit shy, Amanda de la Rosa is anything but meek. She has black hair, olive colored skin and striking green eyes. She is tall for a woman, but remains unimposing by keeping to the corners of rooms.

She is skilled with a sword, but keeps her single-minded approach in combat, making her situation blind with multiple attackers. She learns from her mistakes, and cannot be caught in the same trap twice. She is loyal to Castille and the crown, and is dedicated to returning King Sandoval to San Cristóbal, just as soon as she can figure out a way to get past the Inquisition.

### Cardenal Esteban Verdugo

Esteban Verdugo does not talk about his childhood in Ciudad de Zepeda. He dislikes revisiting his memo-ries of a sprawling, well-established hidalgo family tearing itself apart over petty quarrels, which escalated into conflicting accusations of heresy. Ultimately the disputes and accusations lead the Inquisition to arrest everyone but Esteban himself, and sentence them to galley slavery. Esteban thus learned the lesson that defined his adult life: only in unity is survival assured.

The Church relocated Esteban to the Vaticine Orphanage, where he distinguished himself in scholarship. By age 20, he was an accredited doctor of Vaticine law. He could have taken a tenure-track position at any Théan university. Instead, he remained in the church, climing the ladder to the position of Cardenal. During that time, he joined the secretive Inquisition, eventually gainin the title of High Inquisitor.

His leadership metamorphosed the Inquisition from a straightforward investigative and judicial body into a political and military juggernaut. He was bent on consolidating all power under its auspices and replacing all ideologies, all moralities with Cardenal Verdugo’s (and therefore Theus’) unified dogma.

Verdugo’s Inquisition appeals to the Church’s lowest common denominator. Like the Third Prophet, he spreads fear with horror stories about sorcerers, Crescents and heretics, then promises to assuage them with the Inquisition’s watchful eye and strong hand.

He pushed Castille into the War of the Cross, claiming Objectionist philosophy is anti-Theus and deserves to be eradicated. His enemies even suspect he stood by and allowed Castille to lose so he could blame the monarchy for the failure. This tightened his grip over the Castillian government and robbed the tercios of their victory—one that would have brought money and power to threaten the Inquisition.

The Cardenal does have weaknesses. First, he is old, and needs a successor, but trusts so few people—espe-cially so few young people—that he struggles to find a candidate who meets his standards.

Second, in spite of the Inquisition’s uncompromising rhetoric, he does make concessions to get what he wants. He encourages certain hand-picked, high-ranking Inquisitors, to offer secret plea bargains to Inquisition targets who give up fellow heretics.

Finally, in spite of his intellect, decades of single-mindedness have weakened his lateral thinking skills. He no longer expects the unexpected as effec-tively as he used to.

#### Portraying Cardenal Esteban Verdugo

Cardenal Esteban Verdugo embodies the Inquisition. His whole being is calculated to advance its ends; even his longtime lover (not husband since they have not the time or inclination to adopt children), a senior lecturer at the Vaticine Seminary, keeps track of dissenting ideas on Verdugo’s behalf.

He calibrates every display of emotion to manip-ulate those around him: he is not actually in a murderous rage, but fakes it so well that only his closest associates know the difference. Cardenal Verdugo is a Villain’s Villain—he might be respon-sible for nearly any nefarious plot that does not yet have a Villain.

#### Story Hooks

* Inquisitor Estefanía Tapia de Tomás is one of those agents who escaped the knife after the War of the Cross. She is spreading rumors and presenting evidence against Cardenal Verdugo, though few listen to her. Either way, Verdugo has it out for the former Inquisitor, and finding her could be key to gaining leverage against him.
* Cardenal Verdugo’s younger brother, Curro, should have died in a ship's galley a long time ago, but he—or someone claiming to be him—has just surfaced in Five Sails. He threatens to spill every secret he remembers about the Cardenal’s upbringing unless the Inquisition pays him off.
* The Inquisition has invited Uziel to perform at a banquet honoring Inquisitor Verdugo, and she cannot say no without being accused of heretical leanings. She knows Inquisitors are going to use the opportunity to go through her belong-ings—and find the Eclipse family hidden among her entourage.

### Jentar Soldano de Gallegos

Don Jentar Soldano is one of many cousins to Diego Ruiz de Soldano, the Grande. While his position is not particularly vaunted, and he owns no land of his own, his relation to the Grande makes him recognizable as one of Castille’s preeminent courtiers. As a youth, he studied philosophy at the Maxentine Seminary in Vaticine City, majored in physics at the University of Rioja, and trained in the Aldana dueling school in San Crisotobal.

Now, Jentar lives in the port city of San Gustavo. The other nobles of San Gustavo believe Jentar is a layabout with too much idle time. He fosters this notion, but the truth is a different matter entirely. Jentar Soldano is a busy man indeed.

He heads the Mesta, a social organization made up of ranchers, all nobles with a political agenda. The Mesta’s membership is no secret, but Jentar strives to keep his role within it as quiet as possible. The group functions to increase Castillian prosperity, and while they do a great job of moving goods, they also move secrets. Jentar’s secrets being banned books and educational material. Most of the Mesta have no idea they aid and embed the activities of the Invisible College, and again, Jentar likes to keep it that way.

When he isn’t organizing shipments via the Mesta, Jentar is experimenting in his laboratorium. He is a skilled Boticario (apothecary) and spends a great deal of time in pursuit of his art. A great deal of the books  Jentar sends through the Mesta are to his brethren across Castille and into other nations. He imports books, information, experiments and new techniques keeping them safe from the Inquisition. He accepts students, but they must prove themselves first—passing tests designed to weed out Inquisition spies.

#### Portraying Jentar Soldano

Jentar Soldano de Gallegos is a man of impeccable taste and style. He prefers wears purple in some form, from slashes of color in his coat to full purple vests, waistcoats or pants. Most of his funds go towards Alchemia research, but enough of it goes to main-taining his wardrobe that few notice the ink stains on his hands, or the scorch marks on his cuffs.

His attitude as a disinterested, lazy noble is all a front to dislodge suspicion. He has a keen intellectual mind and once he catches wind of a problem, he won’t stop thinking about it until he has a solution.

### Zoraida Cortiñas de Luzuriaga

Her parents were a Montaigne knight and a Soldanensa army chaplain. The former took the latter hostage during a naval battle in the Doré Bay, then fell in love with her captive and deserted her post, fleeing to San Teodoro. They adopted new identities as a musician and dancer respectively, but when the Inquisition came after them for suspicion of harboring fugitives, they entrusted their daughter to a passing pirate captain. The captain raised her as cabin-girl on a Brotherhood of the Coast ship, which plundered the Atabean for a few years.

After a sea monster swallowed her and her captain and carried them back across the sea to Théah, Zoraida joined the Knights of the Rose & Cross and traveled Théah hunting monsters, defending the innocent against criminals, rescuing and then falling in love with kidnapped nobles and foreign diplomats; all the high adventure that she could throw herself into. She even served as a tercio in the King’s army during the Montaigne invasion. Finally, she located her parents again in an Inquisitorial prison camp and won their freedom by finding new evidence and speaking in their defense in a court case. She now lives with them and her longtime squire-turned-spouse in San Teodoro, supporting herself with best-selling novels and serials.

Luzuriaga’s best-known creation is Baronesa Berezi Batista, a thinly veiled analogue who experiences great childhood hardship, then remakes herself into an intense, dangerous anti-hero driven by vengeance and passion. She originally set out to pen a hero in her own image, but she found writing about a darker world, where good people had to do bad things in order to survive, more interesting.

Her work was controversial. She wrote what she wrote because it seemed more fun than telling her life like it was. But as her popularity grew, Baronesa Batista’s misadventures—murdering the unjust, lying to people to protect them, indulging in vice to run from increasingly difficult memories—became the focal point of philosophical discussions everywhere from seedy taverns to university seminar rooms. People debate the ethics of her character and thereby Luzuriaga’s own ethics for imagining such a morally grey character.

Some of her fans have taken a fanatical view of the Baronesa’s world, believing that their own Castille is represented therein. Real people take vigilante justice into their own hands while dressed as the Baronesa or other characters. Inquisitors assassinated. Courthouses burned to the ground. Personal secrets exposed to the public. And this is just the beginning.

#### Portraying Zoraida Cortiñas de Luzuriaga

Luzuriaga is Castille’s greatest living writer of fiction. Her stories, based on the real Castille but steeped in exaggerated misfortune and sorrow so strong that they turned a good woman into a monster, will be read and studied for centuries hence.

Luzuriaga has retired from the adventuring life; she is happy to recount her adventures or hear new ones from the Heroes, but right now she wants to spend time with her loved ones and write without drawing more Inquisitorial suspicion. She needs the Heroes to do her dirty work for her. But she will be happiest if the Heroes find a way to talk sense into a Baronesa mimic instead of just beating her up—otherwise, the Heroes risk validating the mimic’s pessimistic, over-serious worldview.

#### Story Hooks

* If these copycat crimes keep up, the Inquisition—which already has its eye on Luzuriaga—might decide to crack down on any Baronesa Batista fan, no matter how harmless, as well as Luzuriaga’s family.
* Luzuriaga suffers from writer’s block, but her publishers are pressing for another novel. She needs some new inspiration from the most reliable source: Heroes under-going a great adventure! She is looking to hire some adventurers and willing to pay handsomely.

### André Miguel da Fonte

André Miguel da Fonte was born in San Felipe as a hidalgo and a sailor’s son. Unlike other Castillians, for which noble title is an important aspect of life, Fonte never cared much for claiming nobility. The title gave him nothing but grief, and it was easier to live as a peasant than in disgrace as a poor noble. That, and his penchant for getting into tricky situations never sat well with his family, who summarily disowned him by the time he was a teen.

That adventurous spirit led Fonte to join more than one disreputable ship’s crew. He sailed in and out of San Felipe’s ports, sometimes in the employ of honest sailors, but often in the employ of pirates. André gained a reputation as a pirate for hire, and eventually landed a position on the Lady’s Grace. The ship sailed under writ from Uxía Serafin, Odiseo’s Grande, and often carried her letters and correspondences to far off places, when not stealing from merchants in her name.

It was through the ship’s courier services that Fonte met and charmed the Grande, leading to a secret love affair that has lasted for over a year. Of course, Serafin is not Fonte’s only lover, but she is his most important, as her good graces keep his crew’s writ up to date and the government off their backs. When Fonte learned of an Inqusition plot to kill Serafin to finally remove her influence from Odiseo, he knew he had to act to save her.

Knowing that a pirate could do little to help her, he turned to Los Vagabundos for aid. His introduction to the Society was as clandestine as they ever are; he dropped a note in an ally and a mask showed up in his ship’s quarters the next day. Donning the mask, he thwarted the Inquisition’s plan at just the last moment. Since then, Fonte has donned the mask two other times, each time in efforts to save various nobles and leaders throughout Castille.

#### Portraying André da Fonte

Adventurous, flirty, mischievous. Andre da Fonte appears to be just shy of 30, with long dark hair he keeps tied in a neat tail at the nape of his neck. He is muscular and tanned from long days spent at sea. He is quick of wit and action, often acting before thinking, which gets him into more trouble than he would care to recount. He is a polite man when necessary, but he always has a glint of mischief in his eye, or flirtation, depending on if he has taken a fancy.

### El Concilio de la Razón

El Concilio de la Razón is the highest governmental power in all of Castille. Eight cardenales sit on El Concilio: one from each ducado, one from the “Ducado de Ultramar” (the Castillian colonies in the New World), one from the Sandoval family and one representing Vaticine City. Members of the Concilio are a mix of Heroes and Villains and may show up to help or hinder Heroes moving through Castille.

#### El Cardenal de Ciudad Vaticinia

Nagore Loyola represents Vaticine City. Mentored in the Maxentine Seminary by the Cardenal’s lover, Inquisitor Loyola is the closest thing Cardenal Verdugo has to a protégée. She replaced him as Vaticine city's representative after the Hierophant died.

She has one major weakness: she genuinely likes King Sandoval. She doesn’t just make decisions for him; she ensures that he understands what she does and why. It is only a matter of time before someone goes above her head and reports her actions to her mentors, and she prepares for that by gathering as many allies as possible.

#### El Cardenal del Ducado de Ultramar

Itzamatul of Tzak K’an represents the New World, a position which requires him to keep up with many different countries and a great deal of information. An ardent convert and a talented writer, he is an extreme rarity in the Vaticine world, a popular Cardenal. The people genuinely like him, opening up to him where they might hide from other Church officials.

On those rare occasions when the Inquisition needs to defuse a situation with grace, Itzamatul is the best man for the job…if he can find time in his schedule.

#### El Cardenal del Ducado de Torres

The youngest member of El Concilio, Emilio Crespo de Torres has led the Inquisition’s new campaign to syncretize pagan figures with Vaticine saints. When Torres stubbornly resisted the Inquisition’s efforts to eliminate Castillian paganism, Crespo suggested a softer approach. He decided to convince Torreños that the old gods and their favorite saints are one and the same. The work is slow, but Emilio seems to enjoy roaming the Castillian countryside looking for converts.

#### El Cardenal del Ducado de Zepeda

Jafet Moreno de Zepeda is the most violent and extreme of the Inquisitors. A reformed pirate, he led the Prophet’s Sword—the militant branch of the Inquisition—in violent raids on the Inquisition’s most feared enemies until he lost the use of his legs in combat with a bruja.

A quiet man with glowering eyes, which never seem to blink, he is always quick to remind El Concilio that the only sure way to eliminate a threat is to see it die before you. He is not one to tangle with and is likely to cause problems for Heroes who attempt to move against the Inquisition.

#### El Cardenal del Ducado de Aldana

Pastora Losa de Aldana, a respected judge in the Prophet’s Hourglass, who has sent many a heretic to a fate harsher than he deserved, intends to retire within the year, with Cardenal Verdugo's blessing.

She served the Inquisition faithfully for seventy years and wishes to spend her remaining years with her grandchildren and her hobbies (painting pewter soldiers, mostly). With her seniority, she could appoint anyone she pleases to her vacated seat. She does not have anyone in mind, and she is looking for the right bribe to make her final decision.

#### El Cardenal del Ducado de Soldano

Patricia Abana de Soldano is the Cardenal most concerned with temporal matters. She comes from a family that has maintained the same gorgeous hacienda and bountiful fields since the beginning of Castillian history. She is one of the few members of el Concilio who is not a member of the Inquisition. A fact that chafes on Cardenal Verdugo, but he is loath to remove her when the people respond so well to her.

She maintains that the best way to earn the people’s loyalty is to make the Church indispensable to their daily lives—an approach made particularly effective by distributing food or medical care in these trying times. Someone with her ear could certainly direct aid to places in the most need.

#### El Cardenal del Ducado de Gallegos

Fátima Campos de Gallegos is the newest appoint-ment to El Concilio. She was a Bishop when Cardenal Verdugo hand-picked her over outrage from the Archbisops from her region. He was more interested in her ability as a spy, having worked for King Aldana in Gallegos. Verdugo’s move did little to placate the already volatile ducado, and Fátima walks a fine line with church officials from her home.

Fátima’s instinct is never to trust anyone—an approach that has transitioned poorly to politics.  She hasn’t quite gotten the hang of making potent connections or reaching across the aisle in the much more complicated political climate of Vaticine City.

However, she has assembled secret dossiers on all the other members of El Concilio “just in case.” She might not be sympathetic to King Sandoval’s position, but she is loyal. She could be a potent ally in bringing down the Inquisition, if she had enough motivation.

#### El Cardenal de Familia Sandoval

Modesto Mejía de Sandoval is an eccentric from the Sandoval Forest, with a shrub-like hairdo and beard and a rustic manner of dress. He once belonged to an obscure and small religious order, but after it disbanded, he entered the Inquisition…or, at least, that is what he tells people. The truth is that Inquisitor Mejía is a busgosu—a goat man. Under his messy hair are two short horns, and under his volu-minous robe are goat legs.

As a youth, like many busgosus, he loved to play cruel pranks on humans, the last of which involved dressing up as a priest and preaching a false gospel to unsuspecting Vaticines. To his great surprise, he proved a prodigy at sermonizing, inadvertently converting not only many humans, but also himself. Like Itzamatul, he is a well-liked Inquisitor, though more of a speaker than a writer. While he hides in plain sight, he has gotten in way over his head and fears discovery. He would happily abdicate his posi-tion if someone could help him escape without notice.

#### INTERACTING WITH EL CONCILIO

El Concilio de la Razon serves ostensibly as a group of advisors to the king of Castille. The King appoints these Cardenals and

the Hierophant approves them. They serve separately from the council of Cardinals, and were created as way to circumvent Vodacce inﬂuence over Castillian matters. The only member who serves on both councils is Cardenal Esteban Verdugo. In recent years, Cardenal Verdugo has warped el Concilio's original purpose to gain a stranglehold on the nation. They may disagree with him, and even argue points, but in the end, they bend to his will.

Generally, members of el Concilio serve until death, though one or two have retired of their own volition. Under Verdugo’s rule, members can only retire with his blessing, otherwise he replaces seats the traditional way, with a death.

Some of the Cardenals are sympathetic to King Sandoval’s plight, but all of them believe el Concilio is better served to rule while the king is still a youth. While individually the members may seem temperate, and even personable, together they pose a formidable threat to Heroes seeking to stamp out the Inquisition in Castille.

No matter how much Nagore Loyola cares about the king, she is still a proponent of the Inquisition and Cardenal Verdugo’s protegee. Modesto Mejia may have a secret he wishes to keep hidden, but it just means he follows Verdugo’s direction to the letter to prevent raising suspicion. Fátima Campos may not trust anyone, but it only means she is unlikely to trust the Heroes without sufficient cause.

When deciding to use el Concilio in a game, consider how the Heroes gain access to them, and how they can gain information on which ones are likely to help them. The Heroes may ﬁnd allies among el Concilio, but these people help at a great danger to themselves. A few are even happy to ﬁnally have support for their plans in deposing Verdugo. No matter what, stories involving el Concilio should be rife with danger, betrayal and daring escapades.

### The Grandes Ducados

While the term Grande refers to any landed noble in Castille, the most important are those who are the leaders of the ducados. For the longest time, these people reigned as the kings and queens of their lands and are still treated that way by the people. They live in palatial estates and dictate laws and justice for their people, as long as they do not interfere with King Sandoval’s order or the Inquisition’s plans. Heroes are likely to interact with Grandes in their own lands or as a consequence for overstepping bounds.

The five ducados are **Torres** in the northwest, **Soldano** in the northeast, **Zepeda** in the east, **Aldana** in the south and **Gallegos**—better known as **Odiseo**—in the far south and southeast.

**Almudena Oquendo de Sandoval**, mother of the King, controls Ducado de Aldana. She herself is actually a Sandoval by birth. The Sandoval family descends from Lord Ramón Sandoval, also known as Rimun ibn Basiti al-Sayyid. A minor noble with a Castillian father and a Crescent mother, al-Sayyid fought on both the Blazing Blade and Crescent sides during the Moonshadow War. His compli-cated employment history is little understood and much debated.

The family has most frequently occupied the Castillian throne, shoring up their weaker position with aggressive political marriages to everyone powerful. Almudena has not shed her mourning clothes since her husband, Salvador Aldana, died four years ago. She is shy, retiring, polite and probably one of the most talented political minds active in Castille today. Her subtle social maneuvering has ensured Good King Sandoval’s survival and the retention of a little political power from the Inquisition. Currently she has retired to her family compound in Ciudad de Aldana, in order to draw off the Inquisitorial agents spying on her and her offspring.

The elderly **Colonel Bihotz Arrigorriagakoa de Torres** is the reason her line has survived the wars. Bihotz was a third daughter who, knowing she was destined for the military, spent her entire life preparing for it. Her ruthless pragmatism during the Castillian army’s fighting retreat from her own lands was both derided as an evil and ugly sacrifice and lauded as the only reason Castille bounced back from defeat.

She has seen everything that raised up her family burn and bleed around her, but retains a sense of humor nonetheless. She now spends a great deal of her time traveling around Castille, imploring Grandes of more means than herself to send troops, in case l’Empereur happens to remember he is supposed to be prosecuting a war of conquest.

**Diego Ruiz de Soldano** has seen his star rise as Ducado de Torres’ has fallen. He controls the most productive vineyards and olive plantations in all of Castille; with the fertile soil of Ducado de Torres now salted with blood, his ducado’s products are in high demand indeed. Bihotz Arrigorriagakoa de Torres, who once had no time for Diego, now begs him to commit resources to the war effort. The Grandes of Soldano, contemptuous of the Torres family from long familiarity, may be inclined to let her stew.

As of just last week, **Llorenç Grec de Zepeda** stews in an Inquisitorial holding cell. At the end of a long nocturnal chase through Ciudad de Zepeda, the Inquisition found El Vagabundo hiding in Llorenç de Zepeda’s own manor house. Llorenç denied any knowledge of the infamous criminal’s presence in town.

A scandalous scene awoke all Zepeda as the eldest Grande in all Castille was dragged in his bedclothes through town and jailed. Since El Vagabundo escaped the Inquisitors by distracting them with a cloud of bats within the attic, it is now Llorenç’s word against El Vagabundo’s presence. Was he framed, or does he a truly support El Vagabundo in spite of his protes-tations to the contrary?

Ducado de Gallegos is the only ducado whose Grande is not recognized by the crown. The King appointed **Governor Carlos Pérez** to rule the ducado in an attempt to quell movements towards indepen-dence. While the removal of the Grande’s power impacted the movement in the short term, many of the ducado’s residents ignore Perez’s right to rule.

Try as he might, he even has trouble getting the people to stop referring to themselves as Odiseans, much less abide by his laws. The true power in Odiseo is the previous Grande, Uxía Serafin, who continues to push against Castillian rule, despite her lessened status.

## Secret Societies

### Knights of the Rose & Cross

Castillian Grandes’ financial difficulties have graced the Rose & Cross with too many Knight candidates and not nearly enough Benefactors. Many disgruntled tercios, now soldiers of fortune wandering Castille, number among those candidates. Established Knights frequently hire tercios as squires, aides or bodyguards, recognizing these warriors’ discipline, versatility and teamwork.

Knights in Castille occupy a precarious position since the clashing factions in Castille—religious, political and otherwise—are eager to obtain their aid. Rose & Cross higher-ups have directed Knights to be careful not to publically endorse one faction or another. Complicating the matter, many individual Knights already have strong opinions about which causes they do and do not support—and the wealthy members are even more opinionated.

Angry letters flood in, threatening the Rose & Cross’ leaders to cut financial support if the Knights back Odisean independence, oppose Odisean indepen-dence, help the Inquisition hunt Eclipses, stop the Inquisition from hunting Eclipses…you get the idea.

#### Favor in Castille

A Hero who belongs to the Knights of the Rose & Cross can earn Favor while in Castille in the following way:

* In Castille, finding a suitable Benefactor is worth 6 Favor, as finding a suitable Benefactor is more important and difficult than ever.

### Die Kreuzritter

The Castille–Montaigne war, like all wars, fostered and attracted monsters the way a wound fosters infec-tion and attracts maggots. Wars mass-produce ghosts and wights, attract ghouls and provide cover for murderous monsters such as werewolves. During the war, leaders on both sides hired Kreuzritter contrac-tors to keep military camps and battlefields free of the living dead. Both sides pledged not to target Kreuzritter agents among their enemies, though some still became casualties when soldiers failed to distinguish their identities. The armies have receded, but many of the monsters have not, especially wights.

### Inquisitio Aquila

The Inquisition’s continent-wide intelligence network, dedicated staff and treasury of information make it one of the most powerful international players in Théah. Yet all its resources point towards evil ends, enforcing a party line that grew from the seed of faith but remade in the Third Prophet’s image.

Although the Third Prophet claimed to have invented it, there has been an Inquisition nearly as long as there has been a Vaticine Church.

The First Prophet’s followers lacked the modern Hieros’ power, privilege and clout. Politically powerful polytheists hunted, persecuted and executed them. Spies, agitators and monsters in human guise infil-trated congregations and clerical hierarchies, betraying their compatriots to the Church’s enemies. Priests who designated themselves Inquisitors were the guards and detectives who rooted out and confronted these threats.

As the Vaticine Church grew more important, as temporal authorities became invested in the Church’s welfare, as “Vaticine” became synonymous with “good citizen,” the Inquisition lost importance and necessity. When news leaked to the rest of the Church in the mid-twelfth century of an Inquisitor who abused his power to seize Stern, the Inquisition lost its remaining support. When the Third Prophet ascended, he researched Church history in pursuit of a means to accomplish his goal of bringing everyone, everywhere, into unity with his dogma. The Church needed one indivisible truth. Such a truth demanded exhaustive self-reflection as well as a robust intelli-gence network to find threats. The records he found of the Inquisition’s early operations showed him the way.

Inquisitor Octavio Mzabi found these same records and vowed to reinstate the Inquisition’s original purpose, rooting out real monsters, actual evil wizards and other hidden threats to the Hieros. He sought help from Die Kreuzritter agents, who had more knowledge of real monsters than anyone else Mzabi could imagine. Through them, he realized that he could not reinstate the Inquisition’s original purpose without first removing the cancer which had become Verdugo’s Inquisition. Die Kreuzritter offered training and support, and Mzabi’s Inquisitio Aquila serves as a subsidiary of the Secret Society, hoping to eventually reform the Inquisition from within and return it to its forgotten original purpose.

The Inquisitio Aquila lurks within the existing Vaticine and Inquisitorial organization, but also outside it in lay people. The Inquisitio Aquila recruits sympathizers everywhere—from the town baker who eavesdrops on gossip to find out who plans to inform on whom to the Cardenal’s manservant who over-hears his boss discussing the next book to ban.

Inquisitio Aquila safe houses dot Castille, mostly in hard-to-find places: abandoned catacombs, mountain caves, hidden coves. There, Dark Inquisitors converse, plan or hide persons of interest and seditious books. The Inquisition has found and destroyed several of these hiding places, although so far Inquisitors blame the Invisible College for their existence. Still, it is only a matter of time before they come across such a hiding place with a Dark Inquisitor in residence.

Like the conventional Inquisition, the Inquisitio Aquila’s business largely involves disposing of those who are deemed a threat to the Hieros. It seeks out information and secrets on each member of the Inquisition, hoping to derail her plans or convert her where possible. Inquisitio Aquila must act with caution; the loss of too many key members could clue Verdugo in to its actions and bring the whole orga-nization toppling before it gets a chance to truly act.

Unlike Die Kreuzritter, from whom it takes a great deal of direction, the Inquisitio Aquila has a harder time rooting out evil, corrupt and monstrous people within its ranks. The job is big enough for more than just one actor, but the matter is delicate to handle. Killing people is not its way, but removing an Inquisitor from office or causing the populous to rise up in rebellion against her is within its code of conduct.

#### Earning Favor with Inquisitio Aquila

A Hero who belongs to the Inquisitio Aquila can earn Favor in the following ways:

* Gathering information on Inquisition movements gains 3 Favor, if the information makes it to the Inquisitio Aquila without the Inquisition’s agents finding out about it.
* Deposing an important Inquisitor—by removing her from her office, convincing her to abdicate, or replacing her with a member of the Dark Inquisition—is worth 5 Favor.

A Hero who belongs to the Inquisitio Aquila can call upon them for aid in the following ways:

* Securing a hiding place within one of the Inquisitio Aquila’s strongholds costs 2 Favor. The Society is always willing to protect someone targeted by the Inquisition, as long as he is willing to aid the Society while he is in their care.
* Requesting aid from a Dark Inquisitor costs 3 Favor. A Dark Inquisitor is martially trained and has a Strength of 8. She also has the Ordained Advantage and can have either the University or Miracle Worker Advantage.

### The Explorer’s Society

The Explorer’s Society, founded in Odiseo, remains popular and powerful throughout Castille. The Inquisition dislikes the Society’s open support for scientific research, university education and Castillian anthropology, but Inquisitors have bigger fish to fry most of the time.

Society members, such as the war veterans Celeste and Milo de Villenc, are concerned with preserving sites of archæological interest in war-torn Ducado de Torres before conflict flares up again and destroys them.

### The Invisible College

Ah, there is no place more exciting for an Invisible College member than Castille. World-renowned universities! Alchemical research! Legions of Inquisitors on their home territory who would like nothing better than to string you up as an example to all your friends! Maybe excitement is overrated.

The Invisible College has to the most to do in Castille, but it is also the most dangerous nation to operate in. The libraries in Vaticine City are ground zero for the work they do, as they copy, hide and disguise texts now deemed heretical by the church.

Society agents move carefully all over the nation, using dedicated smuggling rings that move and shift to evade Inquisition notice. The penalty for such activity is death, making recruitment within Castille difficult.

### Los Vagabundos

Both Inquisitors and Vagabundos are on their home turf in Castille. The game of cat and mouse continues apace with Los Vagabundos always a step ahead, leaving the Inquisition just enough clues that the Inquisitors ignore Eclipses and waste time chasing the masks.

Still, the risk of capture so close to the Vaticine headquarters has many Vagabundos considering relocating their base of power. Could Odisean inde-pendence give them someplace nearby to hide from the Inquisition?

### Močiutės Skara

Močiutės Skara arrived in Castille as relief workers for an impoverished populace. The Church welcomes their help distributing food, clothing and medicine to the needy, redistributing surplus in one region to others who need it most.

Little does the Church know Močiutės Skara has worked with Tamatama—nomadic groups from far to the East who traditionally adhered either to al-Dīn or to obscure Eastern religions—to establish a clandestine network of safe houses and sympathizers. The Shawl moves Inquisition targets from city to city or from Castillian ports to safety abroad.

#### Favor in Castille

A Hero who belongs to the Močiutės Skara can earn Favor while in Castille in the following way:

* Helping to smuggle marginalized groups out of Castille is worth 4 Favor. These can be ethnic or religious minorities, sorcerers from other nations living in Castille or any other group targeted by the Inquisition.

### Rilasciare/Sophia’s Daughters

As per the Society’s mandate that the Rilasciare never congregate in large numbers, most members outside Sophia’s Daughters have dispersed from Castille in order to diffuse suspicion. Those who remain work closely with their Vodacce “sisters.” Easily accessible by ship from Vodacce, Castille is an ideal destination for Fate Witches fleeing the country. Even their outfits fit in, resembling Castillian mourning garb.

Merchant Princes Vestini and Lucani, whose capitals are most vulnerable to Sophia’s Daughters absconding with their precious Fate Witches, have signed an agreement to figure out how to stop the disappearances. To this end, they have partnered with Inquisitors in Castille who promise to screen incoming Vodacce on Castille’s Eastern coast.

## Places

### Vaticine City

The Vaticine Island has been inhabited since well before the Numanari Empire invaded and controlled Castille. High, rocky cliffs characterize most of its coastline, occasionally punctuated with viable harbors. The cliffs are easily defensible against approaching ships, making the Vaticine Island a choice prize in conflicts between coastal peoples.

It changed hands between Numa, the Crescent Empire, Castille and Vodacce every few years of its history until the Third Prophet settled there during the Moonshadow War. The island prooved a choice location to launch a war across all of Théah.

The tribes inhabiting the Vaticine Island raised sheep and farmed wheat, supplementing those staples with oats, barley, olives and grapes. Artisanal cheeses made from local sheep’s milk and sold off the island at an appalling markup—primarily in Vodacce, Ifri and Castille—are one of the island’s most famous exports.

#### Founding a City

Fabio Dimas de Bello’s ancestors fled from Zepeda to northern Vodacce in the Crescent Empire’s early days. For five hundred years, the family accumulated power and influence but never quite reached Merchant Prince rank. Fabio, the man history knows as the Third Prophet, kindled fires in Vaticine hearts, as hot as the flames, which engulfed his sword. He accused Théah’s nobles of corruption, diabolism and worst of all witchcraft.

The purer Church he promised, with zero toler-ance for imperfection and a clear path to salva-tion, attracted a vast following in Vodacce from all social classes. His horde seized control of the Vaticine Church from the aristocratic cardinals. They devoured the Merchant Princes’ resources and ignored their authority. The Princes exiled Fabio to the Vaticine Island to rid themselves of extremists. From his new base of operations, the Third Prophet’s army, under the standard of the Blazing Blade, began the Moonshadow War to drive the interlopers out of Castille and remake it into a paradise of faith.

From those beginnings, Vaticine Island has grown in wealth and influence. The Hieros, the whole of the Prophet’s Church, looks to the Island for direction. Its coastal fortifications are always manned. The Church carefully controls its inland resources to keep it self-sufficient in case of war. The Church supplements its fortunes by selling locally made wine, cheese, olive oil and other luxuries, which endear the City to its customers as well as generate profit.

The City itself has grown as well, layers built atop existing layers like a giant mound of coral. In its center is the Hierophantic Basilica, a towering maze of chapels, churches and cathedrals built on top of one another, with the Hierophant’s Office high in the sky at its peak. The Basilica seen from afar is frankly a disturbing sight: the patchwork of architectural styles and geometries from generations of builders make it look like a surrealist painting, shaped like a growing quartz crystal.

The Hierophantic Basilica hosts most Church busi-ness, both sacred and secular. Rings of residential and commercial buildings expand outward from the Basilica’s base, housing the many workers who keep the Basilica and the Vaticine Church operational. Amidst these rings are the national embassies. Far out on the western and eastern edges of the city are the newly fortified High Chancery of the Inquisition and the Maxentine Seminary’s sprawling compound, respectively.

#### The Embassies

Every nation in Théah, and quite a few nations without, have embassies scattered throughout Vaticine City, carefully positioned as far from one another as possible since you never know when war will break out at home. The largest and best appointed are Vodacce’s, Rzeczpospolita’s (now the Sarmatian Commonwealth), the Crescent Empire’s and Montaigne’s, though Montaigne’s embassy is an odd place to be right now.

The Montaigne Embassy has grown into a large expa-triate community, full of deeply religious Montaigne nobles who did not feel safe returning home after l’Empereur’s ascent. L’Empereur has happily let it go to seed; he has no desire to keep up relations with Vaticine City after the excommunication.

#### The Hierophant’s Office

A now-defunct religious order dedicated to devotional architecture built Vaticine City’s highest point during the heyday of Church research. The Hierophant’s Office surmounts the spiraling tower that is the Hierophantic Basilica.

The Office has two floors. The lower chambers contain offices, apartments, kitchens and other organs necessary for the Hierophant to live, work and worship without ever having to leave the Office—in fact, towards the end of their lives, many Hierophants have done just that. The upper chambers, a grand panopticon with crystal-glass walls, let the Hierophant observe the entire Vaticine Island.

The Cathedral Hierophantic is a cathedral in the original sense of the term: a throne upon which the Hierophant traditionally sat while presiding over official functions. The Cathedral is an almost-com-fortable leather chair set into a mechanized armillary sphere. The sphere’s adornments represent the tradi-tional cosmology of Terra and its surroundings as imagined by ancient Vaticine scientists.

The mechanisms also include miraculous speaking tubes and spyglasses, which permit the Cathedral’s occupant to see and speak to the far reaches of the city. The sphere rises and falls smoothly (if noisily) on an elevator system that can lift it to the Office’s highest peak, far above the audience hall, or lower it to any floor of the Basilica.

For the past year, the King of Castille’s person and household have occupied the Hierophant’s Office. King Sandoval lives as a prisoner here, under guard by the Prophet’s Sword, “for his own good.”

#### The Maxentine Seminary

One of Théah’s largest universities, the Seminary accepts students from all over the world. First-year students may be as young as twelve. The seminary has a number of feeder schools on its grounds, which prepare students for admittance.

Operating right under the Inquisition’s nose, you would expect the Seminary to churn out endless ranks of students with ideas in lockstep with Cardenal Verdugo’s views. You would be wrong. Since wide-spread theological debate led Hierophant Maxentius to found it, the Seminary has always loved a good argument. Students and faculty here espouse myriad theological and political viewpoints on the nature of Theus and religion, the role of the Vaticine Church in personal and political life and the Inquisition itself. Indeed, the Inquisition’s most fierce and vocal critics are here at the Seminary; the institution’s age-old commitment to diversity of viewpoints (and endless debate) keeps them safe from a frustrated Cardenal Verdugo’s wrath. A student at the Seminary stereo-typically espouses extreme versions of the views she settles into later in life and priesthood…unless, of course, she becomes a professor.

#### Dueling Academies

The Church frowns on bloodshed in the Vaticine streets—it is hard to clean up and frightens the pilgrims. Accordingly, all the dueling academies on the Vaticine Island lie outside the city proper, on farmsteads near one another. The hard labor of agri-culture and husbandry strengthens aspiring duelists, while fields and woods provide a gorgeous backdrop for impassioned single combat.

Most major Théan dueling schools are represented here, including the signature Vaticine style, Rossini. This style teaches the use of heavy polearms, especially the halberd. A Rossini duelist learns to fight in close formation, his halberd's blade arching and thrusting at his foes while miraculously missing allies standing mere centimeters from his flank. He also wears short Numanari-style gladius, to run through enemies who bypass his halberd's head. The school’s current head-mistress is Gabriela Rossini, retired Captain of the Hierophant’s Guard and matriarch of the Rossini family, which has headed their school since its incep-tion in ninth-century Vodacce. The Hierophant’s assassination has troubled Rossini, as it happened under the watch of some of her finest, most reliable students—all of whom died with the Hierophant, presumably defending her. Gabriela’s advanced age and her responsibilities as Rossini headmistress keep her from investigating it herself, but she pays hand-somely for any information which may lead to the Hierophant’s murderer.

#### The Hall of Orders

A walled enclave at the edge of town, to represent its distinction from the Vaticine hierarchy, houses the Hall of Orders. The Hall liaises between the Hierophantic Basilica and the numerous Vaticine sects—cloistered, military and others—which serve the Vaticine Church, but remains formally separated from the organizational pyramid of Hierophant down to priest. Monks and nuns visiting the Vaticine Island may stay in the dormitories here, work in the offices or pray at the chapel.

Each religious order maintains its own idiosyncratic organization, which might mirror the main body of the Church exactly or might operate on some other model like democracy. The prototypical religious order germinates around a small body of individuals whose devotion to Theus takes the form of some special practice. The simplest are the cloistered orders, who live apart from lay Théans in monasteries or convents, to dedicate lives to Theus without distrac-tion. Others might be a gyrovague, ordained as a novice in a monastery or apprenticed to a senior monk before she wanders the world, teaching or preaching or healing those she meets and living off charitable donations. Artistic or artisan orders seek Theus in song, viticulture, architecture or other pursuits. Many orders restrict membership by gender; for example, the venerable Budorigan Order of Rzeczpospolita, which breeds warhorses for the Inquisition and the military orders (see below), only accepts members who identify as neither men nor women.

Monks from Military orders live in fortress- monasteries (commanderies), studying martial arts in order to defend the faith. The oldest surviving order, les Paladins de Cluny, formed in the ninth century to defend the Montaigne coast near Dechaine and Lierie from Vesten raiders. Many more formed during the Moonshadow War. One notorious order developed into Die Kreuzritter.

The Orders generally disdain Vaticine politics. Historically, orders that took sides in disputes within the Hieros met with sudden droughts of money and recruits.

#### The High Chancery

Historically, the High Chancery was the supreme court of Vaticine law. It still is, actually, but over the past four hundred years it has also become the Inquisition’s home base. Early in his tenure as Grand High Inquisitor, Cardenal Verdugo commissioned a Vodacce architect to rebuild the Chancery as a fearsome star fort in the Vodacce style. Verdugo then filled its interior with extravagant decor, priceless artworks and suites of new offices for the Inquisition’s use. The High Chancery’s fortifications point in all directions—both inward into Vaticine City and out towards the sea.

Vaticine courts deployed the original Inquisition, a department of internal affairs investigators and some-time witch hunters, to gather information or elimi-nate threats from within. The implication of Eisen’s highest-ranking Inquisitor in the Stern scandal (Core Rulebook, page 261) decimated the Inquisition’s support within the Vaticine Church. It was essentially nonexistent by 1157.

The Third Prophet’s Castillian Inquisition focused on external threats and heresy rather than monsters and priestly misconduct. Inquisitors were priests in the normal Vaticine hierarchy, albeit with special training and a special mission to root out Crescent sympathizers, secret sorcerers and other threats to Hieros unity. But these Inquisitors secretly answered to a Grand High Inquisitor hidden amongst the cardinals.

After the Third Prophet’s mysterious death in 1268, the Inquisition embodied his political and theocratic will. When he took control of the Inquisition, Cardenal Verdugo restructured it into three parts, each of which headquarters in the High Chancery somewhere.

##### Prophet’s Staﬀ

The Prophet’s Staff gathers information and investi-gates crimes against religious law. The Staff ’s oper-ations hew most closely to the original Inquisition’s mission statement—but Verdugo has also ordered surveillance campaigns against nearly every political power in Théah.

##### Prophet’s Sword

The Prophet’s Sword is the smallest arm of the Inquisition. Formed from Vaticine City’s elite profes-sional guards, traditionally recruited in western Eisen, the Sword has enforced the Inquisition’s will since the end of the Moonshadow War, including performing arrests. The Sword wears distinctive orange-and-purple outfits and carry halberds as their primary weapon when on guard duty. When arresting heretics, they prefer short swords, clubs and pistols. Unlike the other branches of the Inquisition, which are orga-nized from priest to cardinal the same way the rest of the Hieros is, the Prophet’s Sword has a military organization that goes from private to general officer.

##### Prophet’s Hourglass

The Prophet’s Hourglass is the judiciary branch of the Inquisition, often referred to metonymically as “the High Chancery” (the way Americans might refer to their Executive Branch as “the White House”). Ever since the Vaticine organization was founded, an arm dedicated to jurisprudence has tried offenders within the Vaticine organization and offered legal opinions on Church actions. The judicial branch has also processed heretics turned over to the Church’s justice. The judiciary has expanded extensively under Cardenal Verdugo’s watch, with the Cardenal himself sitting in judgment over the highest-profile crimes.

##### Recruitment

The Inquisition recruits adult professionals who have demonstrated distinctive skill to join its various branches, but at least half its ranks are educated in-house from youth. The Inquisitorial Academy lies within the walls of the High Chancery. Individuals can apply to join at any year, usually at the encour-agement of their local priest; many of its students are orphans who have wound up on the Vaticine Island. In the Academy, students lead a rigorous and secluded life, pure and uncorrupted by the outer world.

While the Sword and the Hourglass are the most obvious (and feared) arms, the Prophet’s Staff is larger than the other two departments combined. The Staff maintains Théah’s largest repository of information and records. All of its personnel, physical manufac-tory and resources are devoted to gathering, collating and processing information, which the Sword uses to evaluate and move in on threats and the Hourglass uses to deliver judgments. But although the Staff ’s information is meant to be used only to fight threats to the Hieros, practically speaking it has far more diverse utility.

Armed with athenaeum after athenaeum of analysts and archives, Ésteban Verdugo excels at recognizing not only overt and subtle threats to the Hieros, but also political fronts or ideological movements which could obstruct Inquisitorial duties or grant him opportunities. By analyzing guard rotation schedules from Charouse, crop prices from the Atabean or folk songs from Avalon, Verdugo has discovered l’Empere-ur’s latest love affairs, slave revolts in the Atabean and the Sidhe’s latest misbehaviors. He has that much information and that much help picking through it—and he is that good at what he does.

#### ECLIPSES

While the Vaticine religion is the most popu-lous in Théah, many other Theus worshippers still exist alongside them. The most notable are the Yachidi and Dīnist practitioners. The Yachidi people’s beliefs predate the First Prophet. Though they believe in Theus, they also recognize the magic in and around Terra and view lesser gods and spirits as servants of Theus. Yachidi can be found in pockets all across Théah, but primarily in areas closer to the Crescent Empire.

The al-Dīn religion is closer to that of the Vaticine, and they follow the teachings of the Second Prophet, believing the Third Prophet was not a true Prophet. They primarily reside in the Crescent Empire, though many either never converted after the Third Prophet’s invasion of Castille or migrated into other parts of Théah.

The Tamatama come from the east and are generally Dīnists, though they may follow other obscure religions.

Generally, the nations of Théah accept these groups, though these worshippers often ﬁnd themselves at odds with Inquisition goals. Castillians call these groups Eclipses, as a catch-all term for marginalized groups who may fall under Inquisition suspicion.

#### Operations of the Inquisition

While the Inquisition can technically declare anyone a heretic for any sin, witches are public enemy number one. Cardenal Verdugo particularly reviles brujas (practitioners of indigenous magic derived from Castillian paganism). The Inquisition has never really managed to stamp out Castillian paganism.

While Alquimia (see page 93) is science, not sorcery, the Inquisition formally opposes scientific research these days. Boticarios should be wary about practicing in the open or near the Inquisition’s spies. Alquimia’s association with the upper classes and Crescents—the Third Prophet’s favorite targets—leads the Inquisition to string many apothecaries up as witches pretending to be alchemists, regardless of the truth.

Objectionists are Vaticine, but are traitors to Castille according to the Inquisition. Despite the amount of rhetoric allowed within the walls of the universities in Vaticine City, Objectionists found outside the island are likely to become targets.

A royal decree in 1385, exactly a year before plague mysteriously struck down the entire royal family, decriminalized the Yachidi and al-Dīn heresies. Their long presence in Castillian culture has won them much support.

However, Castillians still heap social prestige on families who have followed the Third Prophet the longest, and grand public acts of Vaticine faith, which sometimes excuse Inquisitorial targets, are not exactly an option for a Yachidi or Dīnist suspect (unless, of course, she wants to convert). The Tamatama ethnic minority has been converting in large numbers because of their particular vulnerability to the Inquisition.

Of course, under Cardenal Verdugo, the Inquisition is a political organization as much as a religious one. Any threat to his sovereignty attracts scrutiny. No matter how pure you are, Cardenal Verdugo can find some evidence of heresy…or make some.

#### Saintly Aedicules

Vaticine saints are historical figures who demon-strated devotion to Theus above and beyond the line of duty. Before 1257, saints largely emerged from folklore: oral tradition grew to describe the Prophets’ most storied followers as saints, especially martyrs for their faith or miracle-workers. The Third Prophet ruled that only a council of cardinals could canonize saints, outlawing direct adoration of specific saints as idolatry. While the difference between veneration and worship is difficult to delineate, the Vaticine Church does encourage dedicating individual shrines (called aedicules) or churches to formally canonized saints (or informally canonized saints so popular they were grandfathered in). Most major intersections in Vaticine City have a saintly aedicule in their center, always featuring impressive statuary, sometimes with a built-in fountain. If a person asks you to come see him in Vaticine City, he will usually tell you “meet me at the Aedicule of Saint whichever.”

#### Church Politics

The Vaticine Church’s formal organization is a simple pyramid of regional authority. The Hierophant of the entire Hieros is chosen from and governs the Archbishops. (Cardinals are Archbishops assigned to special councils to advise a ruler such as the High King of Castille or the Hierophant.) Each Archbishop of an Archdiocese governs ten Bishops, each Bishop of a Diocese governs ten Monsignors and each Monsignor of a Parish governs ten High Priests, each of whom governs the Priests of their own church. Practically speaking, though, the clergy’s political and personal allegiances have nothing to do with geog-raphy or rank and everything to do with theological, political or networking constructs which may or may not match their regional ones.

The system of patrons and clients forms the core of this arrangement. In the Church, informal but significant networks of patrons and clients spider web across the entire Hieros. Patrons and clients link up sometime during education and maintain close  correspondence even across countries, which has only become easier due to the advent of the printing press. Patrons and matrons, of course, are clients to still older patrons and matrons; and so the Hieros has a practical and social hierarchy to match its formal one.

It is a matter both convenient and inconvenient. Client networks allow reassigned priests, or those who travel to unfamiliar countries, to transition into new duties with support and safety. They can help a priest uncomfortable with her superiors, or unsure what to do with difficult flocks, to seek guidance safely. But these networks can also feature stressful jockeying for attention and favor, pressuring an introverted priest to engage in social endeavors he finds unpleasant or scary. In recent times, the rise of Objectionism and the reli-gious wars wracking Théah have stressed this system. It is easy enough to make war on priests from another nation whom you do not know; but these conflicts often pitted patrons and clients against one another. Patrons’ and clients’ anxiety about their networks’ safety generated much early support for the Močiutės Skara during the War of the Cross.

Unsurprisingly, when an influential patron develops political opinions, her clients grow into political parties. Particularly in the Maxentine Seminary, these kinds of ideas cause a great deal of grief for Inquisitorial agents who want to advance Cardenal Verdugo’s party line. The four largest factions are the most likely to put forth a viable candidate for Hierophant. Even Cardenal Verdugo acknowledges Nature abhors the vacuum the Hierophant’s death has left. He cannot leave his own post to become Hierophant himself, and his backing on the Vaticine Island itself is actually far weaker than across the water in Castille. He cannot stall the cardinals’ inev-itable meeting to choose a Hierophant more than another year or so. It is time for these factions to start hunting allies.

* The Conservatives want to see a return to the pre-Reform Church. They appreciate opulent old-school art and architecture, which they see as more authentic as well as aesthetically superior. Conservatives warn that, despite their intent, the new reforms pollute and dilute the Church’s true message. Their enemies joke that rather than commis-sioning a beautiful statue, the Conservatives would rather see a simple, ugly icon next to a giant pile of gold.
* The Reformers lead the charge to reorganize and update the Church in response to the threat of Objectionism. They are behind the shift towards propaganda in Church art and music, following new styles and new orders meant to keep the sights and sounds broadly accessible but undeniably pure of sin. They have also spearheaded the sudden explosion of newly founded religious orders, which operate without tapping into the primary Vaticine budget. The Reformers’ adamant opposition to traditional Castillian dances is a source of endless hilarity to other political parties, who sometimes taunt Reformers when they pass them in the hallways with capering dance steps. You would be surprised at how many undignified brawls occur in the Basilica or Seminary halls.
* The Reconcilers believe that schisms within the church are the greatest threat facing the modern Hieros. Within this faction, there is a great deal of debate as to which worship-pers of the Prophets are beyond help or which need to be reincorporated as quickly as possible. Objectionists and followers of the First or Second Prophets are frequently cited as lost sheep who have to be brought back into the fold.
* The Extremists aren’t called Extremists anymore because they have become the dominant political faction. Based on an odd interpretation of some ancient Numanari political theory, Extremists advocate a monolithic Church, united under a perfect and charismatic Hierophant and expressing a single, specific ideology with no place for dissent against its dogmatic totalitari-anism. Cardenal Verdugo has adopted this view, with one small change: there is no Hierophant, and he takes care of that job. For now.

### Ducado de Soldano

Ducado de Soldano is Castille’s largest ducado, and the agricultural heartland of the country. Soldano was the last of the old Castillian kingdoms to acquiesce to Crescent interlopers, but has always resisted Crescent influence. In fact, many nobles from elsewhere in Castille, fleeing Crescents, resettled in northern Soldano or Torres until the Third Prophet. When the Blazing Blade swept in, they conquered Soldano first, even though it was farther from the Third Prophet’s home base than others. Soldano’s enthusiastic military support led the Prophet to ennoble many locals, such that four out of every five Soldanensa are hidalgos.

Haciendas, Castillian versions of the Vodacce villa rustica, appeared in Soldano and then spread throughout Castille. These expansive, self-sufficient agricultural estates produce olive oil, wine, cereals and livestock. Most have at least one workshop for a carpenter, blacksmith or similar. Farther from cities, they may also have chapels, warehouses, even mines in the highlands.

Vodacce influence on Castillian architecture persists in the atrio, an enclosed yard within a residential building, which features herb gardens, decorative plants, fonts of water, and open spaces for parties or duels to the death. Within this peaceful, decorated space, expatriates used to pretend they still lived at home in Vodacce.

It was on Ducado de Soldano land that Castille’s army finally halted the Montaigne advance. Montaigne sustained heavy losses trying to cross the heavily defended Sophie du Lac River, then wasted still more resources chasing Castillian guerrillas into the northern forest. When l’Empereur finally sounded the retreat, his armies fled to transport ships on the western coast rather than pulling back through Ducado de Torres. Soldano has become a symbol for Castillian defense—a fact which smarts to many Torreña, who gave so much so that Soldano could have a victory.

Proximity to Eisen has made Soldano a natural haven for Castillian Objectionists. The local Grande, Diego Ruiz, has publicly declared his opposition to such Objectionists and pledged that the Inquisition has the full cooperation of his government in rooting them out. Practically speaking, he has neither the inclination nor the ability to distinguish local Objectionists from Eisen-influenced Castillians.

#### San Gustavo

The port of San Gustavo, whence goods from Soldano head out towards the Vaticine Island or Vodacce, is named after Gustavo al-Hamid. Legend has it this notorious, rich corsair captured the Second Prophet at sea. While walking the plank, the Prophet spoke unto Gustavo a few lines of improvised sacred poetry that so moved Gustavo he converted immediately and dove into the sea to rescue the Prophet.

##### Cathedral of San Gustavo

The Cathedral of San Gustavo is Castille’s only row-in cathedral, though terrestrial access is also available. A pirate or sailor from the Vaticine Gulf can visit there for religious ceremonies, setting aside her predations and quarrels while she remains in the cathedral’s asylum. She usually rows a ship’s boat into the Cathedral to worship, then departs through the islands, moving a safe distance away to resume robbing and murdering.

To beseech the saints to preserve him at sea, a sailor whittles a small wooden votive ship in his own ship’s likeness, which the cathedral’s priests hang from the ceiling. The Cathedral presents the Inquisition with a frustrating paradox. Pirates are anathema to crown and miter both, yet they founded San Gustavo and built its famous cathedral, attracting pilgrims. If the Inquisition closes it to pirates, it loses its most famous draw. If the Inquisition leaves the cathedral open, it allows criminals to cavort under their noses. What to do?

The cathedral’s roof hosts Inquisitor Octavio Mzabi’s office. From this vantage point, the Dark Inquisitor can look out over the city, but no one on the ground can see him. Since San Gustavo is the terminus of many routes for moving herds across Castille and has an excellent harbor full of colorful characters, it has a lot of traffic, which suits him well: when he send a courier to other Dark Inquisitors, she is hard to find amidst the bustling crowds.

##### The Mesta

In Castille and its colonies, a cofradía is a social club of lay Vaticines who usually pursue some similar craft—something between a guild and a Vaticine religious order. The Mesta, a powerful cofradía of ranchers, is headquartered in San Gustavo. They treat not only with the Castillian government, but also with foreign governments; their clever negotiations with Eisen, Montaigne and Vodacce allowed Castillian ranchers to move herds along Soldano’s roads even during wartime.

Almost everyone in and around Soldano is some kind of noble, most with too much honor and not enough money. The farmlands around Soldano have the most fertile soil in Castille, though they require extensive irrigation. Since war despoiled Ducado de Torres, the vineyards north of Soldano have become Castille’s most productive.

##### Hamid’s Prayer

The islands off the shore of San Gustavo are lousy with pirate hideouts and fortresses, the oldest of which belongs to the Brotherhood of the Coast. The island called Hamid’s Prayer, rocky and forbid-ding, lies exactly halfway between San Gustavo and Five Sails by sea. Doctor Ainhoa Extandi, a galeno who joined the Brotherhood after the War of the Cross to escape Inquisitorial persecution, runs Hamid’s Prayer.

A local who lost a limb sometimes sticks it out without a prosthetic in hopes that the genius surgeon might graft him a new limb. The island also operates a kind of “ship exchange”: a local pirate can tempo-rarily “trade” his galley for longer-range galleons if he needs to make a long journey for some reason, and a foreigner in a tall ship can do the same if she has local business for which a galley would be more convenient. Unfortunately for the Brotherhood, their secret island is no longer a secret; the Castillian and Vodacce govern-ments both know exactly where Hamid’s Prayer is. As with Barcino in Ducado de Torres, each government tries to bait the other into making the first move to clear out the malcontents (but neither wants to commit any resources to the endeavor).

### Ducado de Aldana

Aldana’s bountiful coastline and warm weather made it Castille’s first settled region. In 1257, the Third Prophet installed the northwestern Casa de Aldana to replace the Crescent-friendly former Grandes. Abounding in open terrain and good harbors, Aldana is the capital of the Castillian equestrian tradition and the most economically stable in a financially troubled country. Horses, decorated horse-drawn calesas and fine leather saddles from Aldana used to be in great demand, back when more Castillians had the money for that kind of transportation. These days, the calesas are not so colorful anymore, since they are often full of Inquisitors.

In addition to Castillians, Crescents and Ifrians, Tamatama nomads are more populous in Ducado de Aldana than in other regions. The Tamatama origi-nated as a caste of traveling entertainers on a subcon-tinent far to Théah’s southeast, spreading across Crescent territory and into Théah over the course of centuries. They make a reliable living traveling from festival to festival and noble court to noble court, learning local songs and dances before performing them at their next stop.

#### San Cristóbal

San Cristóbal is one of Castille’s oldest cities. When the Crescent Empire took it over early in its conquest of Castille, it was already a bustling fishing village with a picturesque harbor, the River Sandoval heading into the interior and plenty of good eating and quality farmland. It was the perfect place for a capital.

The trouble is that it is not the most defensible of locations. With wide, open plains and a large natural harbor, holding off invaders had always been a problem for the fishing village. The use of short stone walls to cover archers and cavalry units proved effective for most purposes, as well as the use of stra-tegically placed battlements around the harbor with cannons inside. Only coordinated land and water attacks have any chance of taking the city, leading to the majority of Castille’s fleet calling San Cristóbal’s harbor their home.

With the royal palace inside, the place is a bustling hub of both political and social activity. Nobles of all stripes, both landed and not, make their home there, hoping to gain royal favor.

#### El Alcázar

Until a year ago, Good King Sandoval reigned from within el Alcázar, a soaring structure of Crescent design, replete with domes, towers and columns. The Amazigh architect Abd al-Majīd al-Mzabi, ancestor of Inquisitor Octavio Mzabi, originally named it “al-Qasr” after the castrum on which he built it. Now called simply “el Alcázar,” it underwent incessant reno-vation throughout the Crescent period, the fortifica-tions becoming more ornate and high-tech with every century, but has been frozen in time since 1257.

The palace was built with a relatively open plan, the better to allow a relatively small number of guards to survey the whole building and easily see threats coming. There aren’t many corners to hide behind, and quiet sounds echo through the grand halls. While the King was in residence, an endless series of academic lecturers and cultural performers cycled through the Palace. Every night brought something new—ballet dancers from Vodacce and Montaigne, the early pioneers of that art form, performed along-side Vesten skalds. Lecturers in political philosophy come from as far away as Cathay.

The sudden disappearance of King Sandoval, his court and his wake of nosy Inquisitors has created a convenient power vacuum in San Cristóbal and, there-fore, Ducado de Aldana in general. The local high-so-ciety scene has no desire whatsoever to follow the boy king to Vaticine City, and many of the ballet dancers and guest lecturers have not taken San Cristóbal off their itineraries in spite of the absent King.

The palace, now devoid of its royal, has exploded as a social locus, with people vying for power and control over the city’s social scene. The castle now finds itself hosting less than reputable characters, alongside the old crowd of nobles, with lots of title and little holdings. Crime bosses, disgraced expa-triates and merchants from the Nahuacan Alliance and Amazigh who may or may not be surveying the place in anticipation of a hostile takeover have flooded into el Alcázar, like suitors into the home of a Numanari king returned too late from war. The dinner parties and balls have gotten far less polite and far more interesting.

El Alcázar’s campus also hosts Castille’s most exclusive military academy and stables, as the Aldana countryside is famous in all of Castille for horse husbandry and horsemanship. The Aldana fencing school headquar-tered here bases its dance-like motions not on humans, but on the dancing gait of Aldanensa horses, from whose backs many local swordmasters prefer to fight.

#### Basílica of Matamoros

When the Third Prophet reconquered San Cristóbal, his rhetoric frequently mentioned plans to wreck the Imperial Mosque in San Cristóbal. But when the conquering army swept into San Cristóbal and saw the Mosque, they halted—as it was the most beautiful building they had ever seen. The geometry of stones and bricks set into its walls spider webbed across in a hypnotic pattern. Marble columns were inlaid with golden calligraphy spiraling down around them like vines climbing a tree. Even the shapes of the windows were perfect, patterned after leaves, aligned where the sun gleaming through them would highlight focal points in the art along the floors and walls. In the end, the army harmed not a single brick of the Mosque; instead, they reconsecrated the whole structure to the Vaticine Church as the Basílica of Matamoros.

The Basílica is beautiful, the site where citizens of every class go to worship. Now that most of the Inquisition has retreated to Vaticine City with the King, a skeleton crew of the devout minds the rectory—all of whom just happen to be schoolmates of Inquisitor Octavio Mzabi, making the Basilica of Matamoros the Inquisitio Aquila’s only real storefront.

So far Mzabi and his Dark Inquisitors have just been collating information there and figuring out how to convince the locals they are the scary Inquisitors and not the sympathetic do-gooders they truly are. Paradoxically, the Basilica is still—and was, even during Inquisitor Loyola’s tenure—an important pilgrimage site for followers of the Second Prophet. Many Eclipses come here to worship quietly and secretly amidst the bustle and activity of a major Vaticine cathedral.

#### The Market

San Cristóbal’s market square is vast, occupying an enormous forum, built by the Crescent Empire when it took over the city. Here, you can get cheap, low quality everything. Crime abounds, guards are few and the stalls and booths are all temporary—if you want to get the upscale version of something you see in the market, you generally have to indicate your interest to the merchant and then meet him at a more permanent location where the good stuff hides. Street performers appear in droves in the avenues of the market square, drawing large crowds…and lots of pickpockets, swindlers, forgers and fences, often forming guilds large enough to pay off the city guard.

The buildings ringing the square include a guard station (large, but not nearly large enough for the district), various expensive restaurants (each with a rotating cast of dancers and musicians), taverns, stores and dueling schools. All the major dueling styles are represented here as well as a number of lesser-known ones. Fencing matches in public view are common, with each day bringing a new series of duels, shifting allegiances and rivalries.

### Ducado de Torres

Bordering Montaigne to the west, Eisen to the north and el Ducado de Soldano to the southeast, the northwestern region (once called Bagaudak until about forty years ago) features high mountains on the Montaigne border and the coast near San Juan, with light forest everywhere else. The locals were shepherds, ranchers, vintners, fishers and foresters, with close cultural ties to Montaigne. But the War of the Cross and the Montaigne invasion devastated the region. Mountain citadels, the origin of the name “Torres,” replaced picturesque highland villages, hastily

constructed and just as hastily cast down. The sleepy countryside became battlefields salted with the blood of people forced to fight whether they wanted to or not. Divided loyalties tore families apart as some rushed to defend Castille and others refused to fight Montaigne soldiers they considered to be their own blood. The once-large family of the Grande de Torres in particular has been decimated. Many of their noble sons and daughters launched into combat before they were ready, willing or able.

Ducado de Torres proves particularly hospitable to society’s personae non gratae. Théans without the means to book passage to Aragosta or Fort Freedom can venture into the warzone that is Ducado de Torres, in order to avoid whomever is looking for them. There, they become petty warlords, ruling over ruined towers. Barcino is the best known and best reputed of these citadels, but many others dot the war-torn wastelands.

#### Barcino

The Third Prophet’s northern allies built the moun-tain fortress of Barcino at the beginning of the Moonshadow War as a stronghold to which they could fall back in case of retreat. It saw a little action during the War, but the Crescent Empire generally left it alone, rightly wary of attacking a fortified loca-tion in the mountains with a mostly-mounted army. Overlooking a fertile valley nestled among the peaks southeast of Altamira, Barcino was mostly abandoned after hostilities ceased. Too remote to attract nobles besides the family which historically lived there, it was forgotten by all except that family and the farmers and shepherds working the valley, who were both Castillian (Torreño) and Montaigne.

#### Independence

When the War of the Cross began, no one was more disturbed than the people of the mountains which divide Montaigne and Castille. Most of the families had mixed heritage between the two coun-tries, speaking both languages as well as a distinctive local dialect.

The locals avoided getting involved, desperately trying (and frequently failing) to keep their homes and fields safe from marauding armies, which they saw as easy sources of food or shelter, outlets for their aggression or anything else they needed. The War of the Cross’ end was a glimmer of hope at the end of thirty years of privation…and then Montaigne and Castille went to war yet again.

L’Empereur ordered Marshal Eulàlia Madariaga to lead an expeditionary force into the mountains, which she knew well from having grown up there during the War of the Cross, and secure the area for Montaigne. She agreed, so long as she could handpick a force of locals.

Marshal Madariaga and her force marched to a largely empty Barcino, secured the location and then announced, to Montaigne’s shock and horror, their defection from the Montaigne army. But not to Castille. No, they declared Barcino an indepen-dent city-state. Marshal Madariaga wrote an impas-sioned open letter to l’Empereur declaring his war a cruel abomination that ignored the feelings, histories and safety of the border region’s mixed families. Barcino would remain a safe haven for anyone who hated the war until a force dislodged her and her troops.

The letter also outlined all possible avenues of attack on Barcino’s fortifications, making it clear that any Castillian or Montaigne army attempting to besiege Barcino would indeed win, but only after a long and painful siege demanding more resources than Marshal Madariaga’s tiny force was worth. Rumor has it l’Em-pereur went into a week-long temper tantrum after getting the letter, which was fine because his actual military officers got to assume direct control during that period and actually make some progress in conquering Ducado de Torres.

#### Work with the ATC

Barcino gets financial and material support from, of all places, the Atabean Trading Company. When George Rourke, Company President, read Marshal Madariaga’s declaration of independence from the Montaigne and Castillian crowns, he identified Barcino as a symbol of his own anti-government philosophy which he could co-opt to disseminate his own ideas.

The Company sent agents up the Barcino River into the highlands, exploring the mountains until they found a way into Barcino. They now operate a secret tunnel route from the shore to the city through which they move food, water and Company-branded supplies into Barcino. If you attack Barcino and you get shot with an arrow, you can bet the arrowhead has the Company logo stamped on it.

#### Political Asylum

Barcino has attracted political asylum-seekers throughout the known world. Eclipses, Objectionists, Church-supporting Montaigne, anti-revolutionary Numanari and agitators from the pirate nations who made too many enemies are all here in small numbers. There is even a printing press, which churns out sedi-tious broadsheets the Atabean Trading Company gleefully scatters throughout Théah. General Madariaga would disagree with many of their causes if you pressed her; but given Barcino’s mission, she will not turn them away.

When foreign governments determine a person of interest has hidden in Barcino, they cannot exactly attack them directly. Eisen, Castille and Montaigne are all geographically close enough to besiege Barcino, but each one hopes one of the other two loses patience and commits the resources first.

Many governments, infuriated at the treason and embarrassment Barcino represents, have started going after the families of those holed up in Barcino. General Madariaga’s family had to disperse from their ancestral homeland near Altamira as Montaigne kill-teams hunted them down.

Other families might not even know they have a relative in Barcino. The city-state’s inhabitants now need contact and help from the outside world in order to keep their loved ones safe far away from its walls. You would be surprised how many Heroes have rela-tives they didn’t know about in Barcino.

#### The City and the Land

Very little of the land surrounding Barcino is arable, but that little land is spectacularly productive. Soon after explorers brought tobacco back from the New World, the locals built elaborate irrigation systems and planted tobacco. Trading it for food got Barcino more to eat than trying to raise crops themselves. Nowadays, all that tobacco goes to the Atabean Trading Company in exchange for food. Sheep farming is also an important occupation here, as it is in much of the surrounding countryside. Locals also raise cattle and goats.

The caves, tunnels and subterranean streams underneath and around Barcino were not origi-nally connected into a vast subterranean network, but the Syrneth evidently changed that. They sank tunnels and galleries deep into the mountains, shafts descending deep into zones that look like abandoned mines sitting on top of filled-in deep holes. The rein-forced metal and ceramic roof structures atop these tunnels, which seem unnecessary given the thick stone above them, have led explorers to speculate that these tunnels’ purpose was not originally transport so much as shelter. But what were the Syrneth afraid of that could hurt them even through hundreds of meters of stone?

#### The Xana Cult

If anyone knew the answer, it would have been the Xana Cult of Barcino. In the midst of the War of the Cross, the Inquisition received word that a diabolical cult met regularly in these tunnels, worshipping a figure variously described as a devil, a deity or a saint, with magical influence over weather and fertility. The most common Torreño term for her was “xana.”

A midnight raid allowed the Inquisition to trap hundreds of people inside. Many died fighting, some with actual sorcerous (or perhaps alchemical) means. The Church never found the alleged xana, though the Inquisitor leading the raid claimed to see a woman disappear into an ancient cave painting. This began of a witch hunt throughout Ducado de Torres that claimed seven thousand lives. The incident is still the center-piece of any argument over whether Castillian folk magic is pure wickedness or a positive part of Castillian culture. Barcino’s flag now features the painting into which the mystery woman disappeared.

### Ducado de Zepeda

At a glance, Zepeda is not much to look at. The picturesque islands in the northeast would be lovely places to build sumptuous estates or fish were they not swarming with pirate galleys.

The mountains in the heartland are forbidding and barren. The Vagabundo Swamps in the south were actually named not for the masked vigilante, but for the traveling riverboat folk who pole from one end to the other keeping bees and catching fish, snails, shellfish and frogs—though the depths of the swamp are rumored to hide El Vagabundo about as often as Sandoval Forest.

Yet these mountains are the jewel in Castille’s crown. Some of Théah’s finest iron short of drachen-eisen comes from these highlands. Zepeda is one of the most modern and technologically advanced of the ducados, with Rioja and the mountains nearby rumored to be lousy with secret Invisible College laboratories. A Zepedana engineer can find work anywhere in Castille, renowned for her work ethic, forthright sense of humor and knack for jury-rigging ingenious devices.

#### Rioja

Rioja is a cliff top city full of clockwork, glass and brass. It features some of Théah’s tallest buildings, constructed during the Church’s technological heyday in the early thirteenth century. Its advanced machinery and engineering libraries now lie dormant, controlled by the Inquisition.

Verdugo does not want anyone using the machines, but is afraid to destroy them in case he needs to turn them on a besieging force again. However, his Inquisitors have not been able to stop the steady disappearance of a few of the smaller devices each month, or the mysterious re-activation of certain large public machines, such as clocks, for short and unexpected periods of time. Are there ghosts in the machines? Or is the Invisible College somehow evading their notice?

#### University of Rioja

Originally founded as a Yachidi yeshiva, the University of Rioja was one of Castille’s first universities. It doesn’t really have a single campus; its ivory towers are scattered throughout Rioja, originally connected by a system of cable cars. Its science and engineering programs were the envy of the entire Castillian educa-tional system. But when the Inquisition replaced its headmaster, everyone in the hard sciences was abruptly and unceremoniously dismissed. Now, Verdugo-approved theology, philosophy and criminal justice classes dominate the university. The old hard science departments still exist, but they now offer classes in secret in crowded pubs and dusty basements, pretending to be parties, book clubs or calisthenics classes should the Inquisition show up. The Invisible College is not the only invisible college in town.

Every explorer dreams of finding the secret labora-tory of Professor Artemio Durante de Bessarion, the half-Castillian, half-Vodacce inventor responsible for many splendid devices in Rioja and Vaticine City. An angry mob drove Professor Durante from his tenured seat at the Royal University of Rioja because they tired of his contraptions exploding near them all the time. He built his new laboratory into a half-flooded cave at the base of a seaside cliff just north of town, but it is only visible or accessible at low tide. Inside are dazzling wonders guarded by automata with cross-bows: steam-powered galleys, advanced water purifi-cation systems and submersible ships and machines.

#### Guild Houses

As befits a city with the most impressive craftwork in Castille, the cofradías each have important Guild Houses here. The best-known, the Cofradía of Bladesmiths, specializes in fine folding single-edged knives better suited to Rioja’s narrow streets and close quarters than the heavier blades favored in the rest of Castille. A Castillian with no other valuables to his name may still carry a high-quality folding navaja from the armories here. Once a year, for the Feast of Saint Arabella of Rioja, each cofradía puts together a parade float that proceeds down Main Street (the only level street in the entire town). The guild with the best float receives, for the duration of the year, a special appointment to create items for El Concilio de la Razón.

### Odiseo  (Ducado de Gallegos)

The march of history brought most of Castille closer together with every passing era; but the southern peninsula of Odiseo just grows stranger and stranger. The Castillian crown has always coveted the revenue and resources from Odiseo’s dense highland forests and extensive coastline replete with natural harbors. While the other kingdoms of Castille have put aside their differences, subordinating their individual characters in the greater Castillian identity, Odiseo remains an outlier. Welcome to the land where the only natives are foreigners.

Odiseo’s seafaring tradition is Théah’s most robust. The country is mostly coastline, and the inland hills are densely forested with diverse species of chestnut, oak and pine. Odiseo has always been at the forefront of nautical technology: as soon as anyone built any kind of ship anywhere else, some damn fool Odisean started thinking about how he could get his own. The port cities in Odiseo (which is all of them) abound in foreign goods and foreign faces; if you brave the pickpockets and the press of the crowd, you can find Cathayan silk, Nahuacan feather work and Khemetic cotton, along with some pretty great stories about how they got here.

The power struggles that have washed over Castille have affected Odiseo somewhat differently. While the other four Kingdoms of Castille resisted alliance with the Crescent Empire, King Fúlvio V of Odiseo married an Amazigh princess and invited her to rule alongside him. His nation did not mind, and Princess Tajeddigt was good at her job. She and her successors built up enough goodwill that when the Third Prophet marched into Odiseo, the locals were resistant—the Prophet ordered them to bring out anyone who did not believe in him, but they refused. The Prophet stormed home, empty-handed.

World travel has made the Odisean into an adapt-able and mannerly person; yet his nation-within-a-nation has always existed on the edge of indepen-dence, even in the periods of greatest Castillian unity. Northern Castille’s greater military might and greater supply of iron ore would damn Odiseo in any kind of land war—at least, now that the ducado has no Crescent support. During the War of the Cross, the Rex Castilium increased taxes and commandeered ships for an Armada, which Odiseo advised against. A new independence movement caught fire in Odiseo, one which advocated reaching out to Ifrian powers for help against a Castillian army, busy in the  far north.

Officially, Odiseo’s seat of government is Lisso, on the northern coast, a city that covers a pair of penin-sulas, which point towards Ducado de Aldana’s southern shore. The ineffectual Governor Carlos Pérez rules here, though few Odiseans seem to have noticed. To Odiseans, the real capital is San Felipe.

Odiseo’s Grande, Uxía Serafin, no longer has polit-ical power like the other Grandes. When the Odisean independence movement gained enough traction to scare the late King Aldana, he appointed Governor Carlos Pérez to rule Odiseo. Mostly, everyone ignores him, and Serafin does as she pleases in San Felipe. With Cardenal Verdugo centralizing more power around his Inquisition, she has become Castille’s most powerful regional leader. A noted wit and poly-glot whose letters and essays appear in Katabanic, Castillian, Odisean and occasionally even Numanari, she entertains a bevy of eager suitors from all corners of the Widow’s Sea, from Numanari senators to Vendel financiers. If you are a gambler, the odds right now favor the highborn Amazigh adventurer Ihsan al-Ibādi, the rumored heir to a notable emirate in North Ifri. Such a match would have significant implications for Odiseo’s relationship with North Ifri and Castille.

#### San Felipe

The southernmost point of Castille is San Felipe. When the Numanari Empire collapsed, Odiseo was an independent nation, speaking its own language, resisting the drive to unify all Castille. When the Castillian king invaded, Odiseo’s comparative lack of mining resources made resisting the Castillian mili-tary a difficult prospect. So, Odiseo came under the heel of the Castillian throne.

San Felipe is once again a hotbed of dissent, trouble and headaches for the Inquisition. Castillians who need to get out of Castille for politically pressing reasons probably have to exit through San Felipe. The Inquisition has its share of Inquisitors there—but its job is nigh-impossible, since the entire population of San Felipe seems united in the pastime of making Inquisitors’ lives as difficult as possible.

For every reason, the Inquisition views Odisean independence as a catastrophic threat to its goals and its control over Castille. An independent Odiseo would only aggravate the Inquisition’s difficulties on the peninsula. The Prophet’s Sword is tough, but it is more police than army; and since Cardenal Verdugo betrayed the tercios, Castille lacks the military threat that used to keep Odiseo in line. Its only reprieve comes from the fact that the Odisean independence movement lacks central leadership. It is a grassroots front made of opinionated people without anyone to direct their energy. The Grande comes close, but at least until she finds a suitable candidate for a husband, she is tied up managing foreign affairs. So, the Inquisition cannot take out the leadership with a surgical strike, because there isn’t any…but the move-ment stagnates nonetheless.

##### Explorer’s Society Chapterhouse

While Leandra Souza founded the Explorer’s Society in Lisso, the chapterhouse here in San Felipe is actu-ally larger and busier. It overlooks the harbor and sits atop a well-appointed museum, which displays some of the Society’s most impressive relics (replicas, of course, since the real things hide in reliquaries accessible only to Explorers). Leandra’s son Nelinho is in charge here, though he frequently travels to Lisso to visit his mother, still active in the Society’s local affairs at age 92. Upstairs, the Society has meeting rooms, hotel rooms common and luxurious, and a combination bar and library. Technically, they forbid drinking near the really good stuff, but Explorers tend to develop a talent for drinking carefully and respon-sibly around expensive tomes.

##### Restaurante Salazar

The Restaurante Salazar is the real seat of government in Odiseo. Since its founding hundreds of years ago, the place has never stopped serving food and drink; not even for a moment. When war washed over San Felipe, the Restaurante kept operating, even if that meant mostly feeding soldiers on their way through. The Restaurante occupies all four corners at a major intersection between the port and the marketplace, with skyways connecting the individual buildings.

There, amidst the crowds, Grande Uxía Serafin meets with her wide-ranging spies, entertains foreign diplo-mats and numerous suitors. The social climbing and political maneuvering, which would normally happen in the ducal palace’s ballrooms, happens at the bar or amidst the whirling circles on the dance floor. As a result, a visiting noble must brave something his normal life might never face him with: ordinary people. The King’s officers keep trying to force their way in to figure out what the Gran Duquesa is plot-ting, but they can never get a reservation and a mob of random drunks just happens to crash into them every time they try to get in line for the door.

##### San Felipe Harbor

San Felipe Harbor is one of the largest and most active in Théah. The Odiseans have always been a seafaring people, and no part of Odiseo exemplifies that history better than San Felipe Harbor. Here, a giant shipyard, one of the largest on the continent, employs a full third of San Felipe’s population—more if you count the shops, taverns, doctors’ offices and other businesses, which serve the shipyard and the harbor exclusively. In addition to building new ships, San Felipe has the distinction of being the cheapest place in all Théah to get repairs done. The draw of cheap repairs brings many a sea captain well out of his way to get fixed up in San Felipe, generating a great deal of revenue for the city as the ship’s crew kills time and wastes money in the tourist attractions onshore.

In addition to the grand, modern sailing vessels that have become popular throughout most of Théah, San Felipe still hosts many galleys. Based on a design now hundreds of years old, these smaller craft, rising lower out of the water and inappropriate for deep-sea travel, are the favored transport of Numa, the Crescent and many North Ifrians who primarily travel around the Numanari Approach. They move on oar power, occa-sionally unfurling sails for a burst of speed. While a modern sailing ship outclasses a galley, there are a lot of old, cheap galleys sitting around. Galleys are also remarkably useful multipurpose ships: they can fire cannon at enemy craft, deliver a boarding party or move troops or cargo easily amongst the shorelines and islands of the Numanari Approach.

##### The Flower Quarter

The Flower Quarter houses an expatriate community from the New World, primarily Rahuri and Nahuaca. Gonzalo “Lalo” Terrazas, a Nahuacan merchant, administers it. An outer wall built in the Nahuacan style surrounds this sector of the city. The busiest area of the Flower Quarter is the ball court, as large as one from a major city in the Nahuacan Alliance or Tzak K’an. The local Ōllamaztli team, the Jaguars, is the winningest team in Théah, but some other Castillian teams are quickly catching up. On nights when they do not play, the court hosts markets, dances or wrestling matches. The Flower Quarter is one of the only places in Théah with authentic Nahuacan food, including insects lovingly and meticulously husbanded by chefs who brought them across the sea. The Nahuaca people have also eked out a niche for themselves as lawyers. After the rigor of law school in the Nahuacan Alliance, many find learning Castillian law a small price to pay for the relative lack of compe-tition in Théah.

Lalo frequently journeys out through Théah from his sumptuous home in the Flower Quarter, visiting foreign cities as far away as Kirk and Iskandar. Few Théans suspect Lalo has been sending coded missives back to the Nahuacan leadership via unsuspecting trading vessels.

#### Dueling Schools

San Felipe hosts many Théan dueling schools and a couple from the New World and Ifri. It is the modern home of Siqueira, a martial art developed (according to legend) by Odisean shepherds who sought to fight off wolves and robbers. Siqueira teaches the use of clubs, canes, quarterstaves and other cudgels, taking advantage of a stick’s versatility and range to fight off multiple enemy fighters. A Siqueira duelist is expected to practice standing, walking, seated in a chair, seated on the ground and even lying supine while attacks rain down on her from multiple sources.

The Gallegos fencing school also has an outpost here, as do two styles from the New World. The elderly Mestre Gavião, who spends most of his time in the Restaurante Salazar, is the only Jogo de Dentro—a fighting style which fuses combat and dance—teacher in Théah. Bring him a drink of his favorite ginjinha, and he might show you a thing or two.

## Alquimia

The Castillians—mainly thanks to the efforts of the Vaticine Church—are unique in Théah by not having any tradition of Sorcery. Instead, endless generations of their most brilliant minds have dedicated their lives to the pursuit and study of various other subjects, from anthropology to medicine, always producing the most radical and innovative advances in their field.

There is a secret knowledge, though, once consid-ered simply inappropriate, but now could cost your life if the Inquisition even suspects you are one of its followers. Even though its marvelous effects can be compared to Sorcery, it does not require any super-natural quality to be performed. On the contrary, Alquimia (alchemy) is the child of reason, equal parts philosophy and practical experimentation.

Although dangerous to its practitioners, the Great Art is not only still explored today, but thrives. In the shadows of Castille, a closed, underground network of Boticarios (practitioners of Alquimia) protects each other and continues with this ancient tradition. They connect mentors with prospective apprentices and pass down a thousands-year-old knowledge to worthy Castillians.

The basis of Alquimia is the idea of perfection. Although Boticarios explain the notion differently throughout the millennia, the basic concept is that every part of reality is both ordered and intercon-nected, from its rawest materials to its most elaborated combinations in one continuous flow of existence. In this sense, a Boticario carefully ponders different reac-tions that allows her to transform one basic substance into a more complex version, effectively deciphering the unseen connection between an imperfect form and its corresponding perfected version.

The fundamental theoretical framework for this experimentation is the understanding that all things in reality are formed, primarily, by the combination of four qualities—hotness, coldness, dryness and moistness—corresponding to the four elements most easily observable in reality—fire, air, earth and water. These terrestrial qualities are, in turn, balanced by the heavenly aether, a substance that exists only in a minor quantity in Théah, but fulfills an essential role in major alchemical reactions.

### THE SACRED SCIENCE

Despite having the most advanced exper-imental procedures of all sciences, what really distinguishes Alquimia from the other studies is its mystical dimension. Whereas archæology can help you connect with other cultures, past and present, and engineering can provide you with a practical orientation to problem solving, Alquimia is—at its core—an all-encompassing worldview with practical applications.

This means that even though a Boticario’s particular goal may seem trivial or mainly materialistic, the reality behind it entails

a transformation that aﬀects her as much as the substance involved. In this sense, Alquimia’s quest for perfection is both an objective, physical goal and a transcendental one. In other words, perfection is to be found both from without and from within.

This aspect of Alquimia grew out of Castille’s relationship to the Vaticine Church. A Boticario tends to develop an increasingly religious approach to her studies, to the point that many alchemical treatises clearly state the study’s main goal is to clear a path to Theus. She hopes to develop a science that allows people to understand the world, Theus and herself at the same time.

### How It Works

Though not a Sorcery in the same way as others (and a Boticario is not considered a Sorcerer in regards to in-game effects), Alquimia is purchased through the Sorcery Advantage (Core Rulebook, page 150). Each time you purchase the Sorcery Advantage, you gain access to one of the five Juvenilia. Additionally, each level of Alquimia after the first improves the laboratorium, allowing you to bypass requirements to create specific Juvenilia. You choose a single item or concoction from a Juvenilia your Hero knows that she can create in her laboratorium without any requirements.

#### The Laboratorium

All (often dangerous) Alquimia experiments must be undertaken in a safe, controlled environment. As a result, a Boticario possess a laboratorium, a carefully lit, well-ventilated underground facility where he can conduct his research away from probing eyes. These places usually include expensive, modified equipment, hard-to-acquire metals and other chemical substances, as well as voluminous, hand-written and mostly ciphered tomes where a Boticarios can record his inquiries and results.

To the uninitiated, a laboratorium may appear disorganized and messy. Of course, these apparently chaotic, senseless arrangements are purposefully so. This is yet another layer of secrecy that a Boticario uses, not only to protect his work, but to ensure that untrained eyes cannot discern the mysteries of his sacred science.

#### The Opera

The fruits of hundreds of years of study and experi-mentation are the Opera, the “Works” that distinguish Alquimia as the crown achievement of scientific explo-rations. These are the most secretly guarded mysteries of The Order, a group of Boticarios who oversee the initiation and training of new apprentices. As such, the uninitiated cannot duplicate these mysteries except under very special circumstances. But, what are they?

It depends on each Boticario.

Alquimia is, above all, a personal endeavor. Although a Boticario belongs to an Order and follows both a common philosophy and a method, his own findings are profoundly individual. Whereas one Boticario may be obsessed with the secret to immortality, another may try as many combinations as he can to turn lead into gold.

The result of this highly idiosyncratic science is that one can only talk about the Opera in general terms—the Juvenilia (minor work) and the Magnum Opus (major work).

### Juvenilia

Juvenilia, or “minor works,” are frequently temporary effects that last only for a short time (usually a Round or Scene). Each effect requires the user to spend a Raise during an Action Sequence or a Dramatic Sequence to activate.

Creating an alchemical item requires the expendi-ture of a Hero Point and the use of a laboratorium. Certain effects may call for one or more requirements, determined by the Game Master. A Boticario may try to create an effect from Juvenilia he is not trained in, but doing so requires an additional requirement to prepare correctly. Most requirements can be accom-plished as a Risk or a Story Step.

The following is a list of common requirements. Unless explicitly stated, each requirement can only be called for once in any given preparation.

* A rare, hard-to-come-by component. Can be chosen more than once.
* The help of an assistant that you have to hire. Can be chosen more than once.
* A vast amount of raw materials (effectively costs 1 Wealth Point).
* Endangering you and your assistant(s).
* The guide of a mentor.
* Acquiring a specific Alquimia treatise on the matter.
* Several failed attempts before it works (effectively increasing the time required to complete the compound to the next level: minutes > hours > days > weeks). Can be chosen more than once.
* A process that creates an unstable compound (effectively requiring an extra Raise in order to function as intended).

A Boticario may store two alchemical items in his laboratory for each time he has purchased the Sorcery Advantage. He can carry one alchemical item on his person for each time he has purchased the Sorcery Advantage. If a Boticario carries more items, the GM can spend 1 Danger Point to create an appropriate inconvenience, such as the alchemical compounds exploding or one activating in an untimely fashion.

### Wai Dan

The “External Elixir” Juvenilia focuses mainly on the purification of one’s spirit and body. This is achieved through the consumption and use of various concoctions known as elixirs made from substances found outside the body, each of which has a different purpose.

Example elixirs include:

* Longevity. Drinking this elixir allows you to withstand damage that would kill lesser people. Until the end of the Scene, you are no longer Helpless when you have 4 Dramatic Wounds. Instead, when you have four Dramatic Wounds, any Villain who takes a Risk against you gains 3 Bonus Dice (rather than 2). You gain an additional tier of Wounds. When you have taken your fifth Dramatic Wound, you become Helpless. Preparing this elixir takes 1 Requirement.
* Memory. Drinking this elixir allows you to enhance your memory greatly. For a Scene, you remember everything you see and hear with perfect detail, allowing you to memo-rize documents, faces and conversations in the blink of an eye. Preparing this elixir takes 1 Requirement.
* Intelligence. Drinking this elixir allows you to unlock the most powerful mind processes. You gain 1 Rank in Wits for a Scene. Preparing this elixir takes 2 Requirements.
* Youthfulness. Drinking this elixir allows you to restore the perfect adaptability of days gone by—or still to come. You can immedi-ately change your Approach without penalty. Preparing this elixir takes 1 Requirement.
* Excellence of luster. Drinking this elixir allows you to display your inner beauty for everyone to see. You gain the Fascinate Advantage for a Scene, without requiring a Hero Point to activate it.

### Rasāyana

The “Path of Essence” Juvenilia focuses mainly on the preparation of essential salts, alloys, inks and powders, generally designated as “compounds.”

Example compounds include:

* Light without Heat Salt. You prepare a compound that produces enough light to illuminate a room for a Scene without any combustion and/or heat.
* Unbreakable alloy. You prepare a compound that transforms even the most base metal into an unbreakable material. One inorganic object becomes effectively unbreakable for the rest of the Scene unless under special—i.e., Sorcery-related—circumstances. Preparing this compound takes 1 Requirement.
* Soporiﬁc Ink. You prepare a special ink that puts a victim under a powerful, unnaturally deep sleep if she comes in contact with the ink. When a target comes into contact with the ink, she becomes Helpless for one scene, or until some outside circumstance awakens her (such as another character vigorously shaking her, suffering Wounds, an explo-sion, etc.). Preparing this compound takes 2 Requirements.
* Anesthetic Powder. You prepare a compound that makes the target immune to all physical pain. Until the end of the Scene, the character can spend a Hero Point to ignore all negative effects from Dramatic Wounds—the Villain does not gain Bonus Dice if you have 2 Dramatic Wounds, and you do not become Helpless at 4 Dramatic Wounds. Preparing this compound takes 1 Requirement.
* Essential Lodestone Salt. You prepare a compound that, when poured in a zone, creates a magnetic field that functions as a force field, deflecting any foreign object and force for 1 Round. Anyone attempting to fire a projectile at the user of essential lodestone salt must spend an additional Raise to over-come the magnetic field.

### Chymystry

This Juvenilia includes all studies focused in analyzing, synthesizing, transforming and producing mate-rial substances.

These preparations include, but are not limited to:

* Boticario’s Cement. This preparation is able to join two otherwise disparate objects. Breaking this union costs an additional Raise beyond what it would cost if it used an ordi-nary glue. Usually, this means that breaking the bond requires 2 Raises, rather than 1.
* Light as a Feather. This preparation reduces an inorganic object’s weight by half, while still preserving its other properties. This makes it easier to carry (carrying the object requires no additional Raises), but worsens its accuracy (throwing the object costs an additional Raise).
* Water to Ice. This preparation crystallizes up to 1,000 cubic feet of water in 1 Round until a proper solvent is applied to the frozen water. Preparing this substance takes 1 Requirement.
* Positive Universal Solvent. This prepara-tion can dissolve living organisms, severely damaging them. Any organic material that comes into contact with it (through touch, ingestion or splash) suffers 1 Wound each Action spent in contact. A character who has this solvent thrown onto him can spend one Action to remove the effect. Preparing this substance takes 1 Requirement.
* True Lead. This preparation makes any one inorganic object immune to any Sorcery-related effects for a Scene, as lead efficiently hampers the flow of magical energies.

### Spagyrics

Spagyrics is one of the most recent developments in Alquimia and it focuses on herbal medicines produced by alchemical procedures. These procedures involve fermentation, distillation and the extraction of mineral components from different plants, each of them specifically suited to treat a particular disease.

Some extracts include:

* Amaranth. This extract is used to treat blood diseases, as well as to stop hemor-rhages. The target regains 1 Dramatic Wound after drinking the extract and spending 1 Hero Point.
* Betony. This extract imbues whomever drinks it with an unnatural strength. The target gains 1 Rank in Brawn for a Scene. Preparing this extract takes 2 Requirements.
* Celandine. This extract makes anyone who drinks it unable to fight or resort to violence. Until the end of the Scene, the target is under Pressure to perform any aggressive actions, such as causing Wounds to another character.
* Euphorbia. This extract grants its drinker the boldness and determination of the Heroes of old. For a Scene, the character who drinks this extract is immune to Fear, and any Action using an Intimidate Approach against this character requires 2 Raises to succeed. Preparing this extract takes 1 Requirement.
* Sunﬂower. This extract affects the target’s sense of judgment, making her unable to conceal her true intentions and forcing her to answer all questions as truthfully as possible. A character who drinks Sunflower cannot lie for a Scene. Preparing this extract takes 1 Requirement.

### Takwin

This Juvenilia refers to the creation of synthetic life in the laboratory, up to and including human life, as well as different mechanisms that imitate movement, sensory organs and other functions typical of living organisms. Such devices function properly for a Scene unless otherwise noted. After that they require main-tenance equal to 1 Requirement to function again (2 Requirements if Takwin is not a known Juvenilia).

Examples include:

* Long-Distance Amplifying Lenses. This device allows its wearer to perceive other-wise unnoticeable details and irregularities. As long as you have a clear line of sight, you can see perfectly out to a distance of one mile. If you make a Risk that relies heavily on your vision, you gain 1 Bonus Die if you use this device.
* Underwater Breathing Apparatus. This device mimics the functions of respiratory organs, allowing you to breathe underwater as if you were in air for a Scene.
* Night Vision Detector. This device, an imitation of some animals’ night vision apparatuses, allows the wearer to detect solid objects in his vicinity, up to 60 feet in any direction no matter how much light is present.
* Mechanical Arm. This device functions in the same way as a human arm. The device straps to the Boticario and can hold any one object with its hand indefinitely. This use does not require a Raise to activate. Additionally it can perform other reasonable functions an arm could, such as wielding a sword or shaking a hand. You may take a single Action using this arm as if you had spent one Raise, but the arm then ceases to function. Preparing this device takes 1 Requirement.
* Simple Construct. This device imitates the movement and behavior of one small crea-ture. The construct can perform any of the following commands: attack, carry, defend, fetch, follow, guard, go to and seek. If the construct performs an Action that would require a Risk, it rolls 4 dice. If the construct suffers 4 Wounds, it is damaged and requires repairs before it can function again. Preparing this device takes 2 Requirements.

### Magna Opera

Even though the alchemical processes gathered under the Juvenilia are quite powerful, most Boticarios consider them to be mere diversions from the true aim of the Great Art. In this sense, all these effects pale when compared with the Magna Opera (singular, Magnum Opus), the “Great Works” that all practi-tioners of Alquimia aspire to achieve.

Completing a Magnum Opus requires a five-Step Hero Story as described in Core Rulebook, pages 159 through 163. In this case, the Reward depends on your Hero’s particular vision of the ultimate goal of Alquimia. This could be any range of effects, but in general, the effect supersedes what could be created with Juvenilia. Some examples include the creation of a unique alchemical reagent that embodies (or violates) the natural laws, allowing you to use effects in a Juvenilia without spending a Raise; the distilla-tion of an alchemical mixture that is not subject to the normal carrying rules of Juvenilia; the creation of an alchemical item that is permanent and does not require further maintenance; the discovery of a new prime element that leads to the creation of a sixth Juvenilia.

What follows are some examples of Magna Opera taken from the legends told among Boticarios.

#### Chrysopoeia

The ultimate goal of Alquimia is to perfect any substance, even allowing something as base and worthless as lead to reveal its true value and final iteration as gold. As a result, a Boticario dedicates his life to see the perfection where others only observe defects.

Example endings include:

* My Hero discovers the philosopher’s stone, but the cost of creating it means he can only ever use it once.
* My Hero fails at his search, but instead finds a new alchemical material, which has proper-ties never before researched.
* My Hero is able to discover the true secret of perfection, one that embraces reality as it is instead of trying to change it.

#### Panacea

The ultimate goal of Alquimia is connected to life and existence in general. According to the Boticario’s understanding, nothing is more important than to preserve life, the greatest Work of them all. As such, she focuses her studies on prolonging the existence of living creatures, especially against sickness and death.

Some example endings may include the following:

* My Hero discovers the cure to a great number of diseases but, in the process, creates a terrible, incurable sickness.
* My Hero grants herself, accidentally, ever-lasting life. She has now become a legend—sought out both by those who want her blessing, and those who would kill her to take it for themselves.
* My Hero finally unravels the mystery of the panacea, the cure to all sickness and the fountain of never-ending life and youth, but must decide how to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

#### Alkahest

The ultimate goal of Alquimia is to find the alkahest, the universal solvent capable of dissolving every other substance. Such a revolutionary discovery would prove invaluable not only for Boticarios, but for all manner of experimental scientists. Apart from that, the alkahest could reveal the components prima materia, the origin of all material existence.

Example endings can include the following:

* My Hero suffers a terrible accident while trying to find the alkahest, one that perma-nently disfigures her.
* My Hero distills the alkahest, the universal solvent, but an apprentice steals it, together with the corresponding research annota-tions—and the final formula.
* My Hero fails to distil the alkahest, but finds a dissolvent more powerful than sal alkali, earning him fame and fortune.

## Leyendas of Castille

Although Castille and the Vaticine Church seem almost synonymous, since time immemorial the Castillians have been a very superstitious people—to say the least. The mix of beliefs, stories and languages due to the various invasions, wars and occupations of the nation has resulted in a rich and diverse folk-lore, one that permeates everyday life. Because of this, almost every place in Castille—from the smallest villa (hamlet) to the largest city—has at least one legend (if not more) associated with it.

In fact, it would be impossible to summarize the vast array of leyendas (legends) that a Hero can encounter if he traverses the land. Instead, these examples—some of the most well-known and widespread—give you a glimpse of the Castillian mindset and worldview when it comes to the supernatural.

### Maestre de Campo

According to the leyenda, there was once a powerful warrior who fought in a number of wars to defend her Grande’s territory. Her prowess on the battlefield and the art of war was so great that both allies and enemies alike respected her and gave her many honor-ific nicknames. The most famous of them all that of Maestre de Campo, which in the tongue of the Old Empire means “the Battlefield Master.” As a result of the Maestre de Campo’s loyal defense, the Grande not only retained his territory but enlarged it through an enduring peace and a most fruitful reign.

After many years, the Grande died, and his daughter succeeded him. She was a petty young woman, however, and had envied the Maestre de Campo ever since she had come into the service of her father. As a result, her first edict as the new Grande was to strip the mighty warrior of her lands and titles, sending her into exile under penalty of death if she ever chose to return. Many whispered their concern for the well-being of the kingdom and the new ruler, but the Maestre de Campo behaved as honorably as her legend, leaving the court without muttering even a word of protest.

When news broke about this incident, the old enemies arose again against the new Grande. This time, though, there was no Battlefield Master to defend the people, and the kingdom was on the brink of being defeated. The new ruler, having learned a painful lesson of humility after losing her husband in the conflict, offered not only a full pardon but a bountiful reward for the Maestre de Campo if she chose to return home and defend her kingdom. She did so, although she refused the reward and left the land as soon as the people were safe.

To this day, the stories have condemned the fool Grande to oblivion—not even remembering her name—and have preserved the nickname and deeds of the Battlefield Master.

#### Nowadays

The leyenda of the Maestre de Campo is a cautionary tale about envying the qualities of others instead of valuing them. Apart from that, the Battlefield Master has become a source of inspiration for all people in difficult times. In this sense, people consider her the embodiment of all the qualities that Castillian people admire: loyalty, honor and resolve.

Besides this common wisdom, however, there is a supernatural dimension to the Maestre de Campo. Some tell tales of nearly lost battles turned around by a figure dressed in black from head to toe, one who fought with the grace and will of times long past. Others declare a mysterious figure saved them from bandits and outlaws, defending them when no one else dared to.

Finally, some say the fabled El Vagabundo is, in fact, inspired by and founded on the tradition of the Maestre de Campo, as a way to ensure people’s protec-tion against those who abuse their power.

### Anjanas

Most settlements established near any body of water—especially rivers—have one or more stories about the anjanas, the beings that dwell everywhere there is pure water. These creatures are usually slender and delicate and are often seen walking—some would say floating—through the forest paths or resting on the bank shores.

People describe them as female, probably due to their generally willowy appearances rather than to any femi-nine feature, since they are almost universally acknowl-edged as being from out of this world. Other tales depict them as miniscule winged creatures, as fragile as a flower.

The stories about the anjanas, accordingly, are as contradictory and confusing as any attempt to describe them. One person tells of watery maidens who rescued him from the direst of dangers, while another complains that these creatures have stolen her money and other valuables—or even her chil-dren! Yet another says people cannot touch them, while still another affirms he can and has engendered children with one. A person claims they saved her from drowning, while another insists the anjanas were responsible for the watery deaths of his loved ones.

The stories are as conflicted as their are varied. Nearly everyone knows someone who had encoun-tered one of these creatures, a friend or a cousin, though the veracity of those claims is suspect. Someone who says he has met one of these creatures himself swears on his honor that his accounting is true and accurate, no matter how disparate from the generally accepted stories of his region.

The truth of the matter is difficult to discern, but the consensus is that the anjanas are dangerous enough to avoid rather than encounter. Of course, not all heed this popular wisdom, and the most naive—or desperate—risk their lives by trying to spy on these enigmatic creatures. Some even try to capture one, hoping it might bestow good fortune on them. Few people tell tales of capture though.

#### Nowadays

As expected in these cases, the truth about the anjanas encompasses all the aforementioned stories. Although this seems to defy all logic, there is actually a very simple explanation to these apparent contradictions.

The term anjanas describes two different types of creatures; namely, the anjanas and their sworn enemies, the ojáncanas. The former are the ones responsible for all the good and fortuitous encounters. They are the ones that save mortals from drowning, help them when they are in need and even offer them wealth when they need it.

The ojáncanas, on the other hand, are the ones from whom all the misfortunes arise. They cause trouble and mischief. They consider mortals to be playthings and are more than willing to use their charm to abuse them at any and all times, even going so far as killing if it suits their whims.

They do not consider such acts as torture or murder, however, because they are the descendants of those anjanas who were, in turn, used and abused by mortals. As when an anjanas uses its magic in an abusive way, it transforms into an ojáncanas.

The result is that most anjanas treat a mortal fairly, especially if he is honest and truthful. Sadly, a mortal can still trick an anjanas into using its powers to his benefit, corrupting the innocent spirit of the anjanas and turning it into ojáncanas. This only bolsters the ranks of the hateful creatures who go to any extreme in order to avenge this ancestral grudge against their kind.

While anjanas are unlikely to attack people, they defend themselves if someone attempts to capture or abuse them. They are Strength 5 Monsters with the Shape-shifting and Winged Qualities.

Ojáncanas are Strength 5 Monsters with the Fearsome and Winged Qualities.

### Estantigua

The Estantigua (Ancient Host), more than a leyenda, is a common belief observed in most parts of Castille. The Estantigua is different in every villa and city, but there are some generalities shared by most manifes-tations of it.

According to the belief, the Ancient Host is indeed a procession of the souls of the dead (some say souls in torment) that crosses a village at midnight, guided by a living man or woman cursed with that task. Many argue the purpose of the Estantigua. Some say it is a way of ensuring the final rest to the souls of the dead, while others claim that the Host marks the houses of those about to join their ranks.

When asked, the living leader of the Estantigua has no recollection of his nightly activities. In fact, some say that if a person leads the Host for too long, he becomes more dead than alive, reflected by his pale-ness and sickly complexion. Others affirm that the curse only passes on to another living person while leading the dead. In this case, an unexpected cauldron appears in the new leader’s bedchamber, marking her as the one in charge of leading the Host from now on.

#### Nowadays

An unintended result of the Estantigua belief is that most people in Castille avoid going out at night, espe-cially after midnight. Anyone forced to do so, however, resorts to a number of practices in order to avoid the curse of leading the Host. Some of these include lying face-down while the Estantigua passes by, drawing a protective circle with chalk or salt around oneself or performing various warding gestures, the most famous of all these being the horn gesture, by extending the index and little fingers while putting the rest under the thumb.

The problem, however, is that apart from the leader, the rest of the Host cannot be seen or heard and can only be perceived by a sudden shiver or shudder when they approach. Other signs of their passing include an abrupt silence, a distant sound of bell tolling and the desperate howling of dogs. Considering these, most people who have to go out at night in Castille do so in numbers and avoid any lonely figures, fearful of receiving the curse of crossing their path unaware.

Afterwards, people shun the houses that receive the Estantigua and consider their inhabitants marked by the dead as one of their own. The mark of such visits is the living leader—and the invisible procession—circling around the house three times, from west to east. After someone in the household dies, though, the people are free from the mark and welcomed back in the community.

The Estantigua count as a Strength 10 Monster Squad with the Unliving Quality. Their leader is a normal person, enthralled by the group and under their direction. Until the end of the night or if the Host is destroyed, the leader does not respond to physical or social stimuli.

### Brujería

In Castille, brujería (witchcraft) is often considered the primary cause of any misfortune or malady—and the one that is, more likely than not, false.

According to conventional wisdom, a bruja (witch) is a woman who has exchanged her virtue and soul for a transcendental power that allows her to perform wicked of deeds. The source of that power varies from place to place and legend to legend, but Castillians all agree that brujas are to be feared and avoided at all costs. The result is that people shun and circumvent any place identified as the residence or gathering site of brujas at all costs.

Regarding their powers, most leyendas distinguish at least two broad categories: mal de ojo (curses) and and amuletos (blessings). The former relates to what most people imagine what magic is like: spells, incan-tations, the brewing of potions and unguents, shape-shifting into animals and the like. Out of all this, the most commonly feared practice is that of aojar or mal de ojo, roughly translated as “to put the evil eye on”. This type of curse especially affects babies or children related to someone who has incurred the bruja’s wrath. As a result, most newborns in Castille wear at least one piece of red clothing, their underwear inside out or both; popular belief considers these customs as powerful ways of protecting oneself against the brujas’ powers.

Fetichismo, on the other hand, relates to good brujería, otherwise referred to as “white” witchcraft. These are mostly amulets or talismans created by brujas to protect somebody from any kind of brujería. As such, these objects are expensive and highly valued, passed down from generation to generation as heir-looms and protective items. These amuletos can be anything, from collars to earrings and even weapons and armor, and can only be used effectively by those who acquired them in the first place—or those who received one as a true gift from their original owner.

#### Nowadays

Whereas currently in most parts of Castille, a woman who lives alone—especially an old widower or unmar-ried woman—is considered a bruja, most of them are simply lonely people with tragic pasts and a bad temper. She lives in isolation and hardly ever leaves her residence, but she has stricken no pact with the supernatural nor has any special power. In fact, nine out of ten stories about brujas and their wicked deeds are just that: stories told by someone to entertain—or by mothers to put fear in the hearts of their children.

Brujería, however, is very real—and very dangerous, particularly for those in the receiving end of it.

Although no one can say for certain, one thing is true: brujas do indeed obtain certain unearthly powers in exchange for a service to an otherworldly being. What those services entail vary from master to master, but all of them involve the bruja submit-ting her will and existence to carry out her master’s designs. A real bruja, however, is not only aware of the folklore about her, but profits from it. Every time someone accuses another of being a bruja, those in the know almost always suspect the accuser rather than the accused, especially if the accusers are men.

This is so because, in reality, brujería can be prac-ticed by both men and women. Indeed, the only real requirement to become a bruja is the submission of one’s will to that of a creature beyond this world.

Regarding their powers, a real bruja tends to have an unnaturally long life (if undiscovered), can indeed shape-shift into animals and even other people and subtly wreaks havoc wherever he goes. As a result, he is one of the most formidable and challenging Villains any Hero (or group of Heroes) can encounter. The most difficult part about defeating him, however, is not his otherworldly powers, but his guile and subtlety when it comes to facing a threat.

A bruja avoids revealing himself—by using his powers—under any and all circumstances, barring a life or death situation. Instead, he lies, tricks and tries to seduce a Hero to mislead her if possible and, if that does not work, he resorts to turning the community against the Hero before even attempting to use his “gifts” to solve the problem.

A bruja is always a Villain. He varies in strength and power and always has the Sorcery Advantage. The powers given to him by the creature he works with can mimic any of the following Sorceries: Glamour, Mother’s Touch or Sanderis. He conscripts monsters from his demonic allies and can have any number of monster minions whose total Strength is equal to twice his Influence rating.

### The Aquelarres

Why does a real bruja go to such lengths in order to avoid detection? The truth is that her ability to communicate and receive blessings from her masters is bound to specific geographical locations, the so-called aquelarres (covens). This term translates roughly as “meadow of the male goat,” as one of the most common supernatural beings associated with brujería is that of the male goat (as the material incar-nation of powerful primordial beings).

Aquelarre, then, makes reference to both the gath-ering of brujas in one place of power, as well as the place of power in and of itself. Although popular belief points to a number of places as aquelarres, the truth is that real aquelarres are unholy places protected by powerful incantations and, as such, are very hard to locate for non-brujas. This, then, is the main reason why a bruja goes to any lengths in order to protect her secret. Once revealed, she has to leave not only her residence, abandoning a place secured by many supernatural protections, but has to find a new aquelarre from which to communicate with her masters. This often entails striking a bargain with another bruja, as each of them is as protective and jealous of his aquelarres as his own secrets.

### The Burlador

There was once a man, the stories go, who had no soul and cared not for any mortal rules and considerations. Some say that he was not of this world, while others claim that he was a child stolen by some evil creature.

Be as it may, the stories about the Burlador (Mocker) composed a leyenda that most Théans have a diffi-cult time believing, but is common wisdom among Castillians. The tale tells of a terrible man putting various people under his spell, forcing a faithful wife to sin against her husband, a maiden to surrender her virginity and a chaste man to forget his vows and responsibilities—just to name a few examples of his foul deeds. Although all his victims assumed he bedazzled them with brujería, the truth is that the Mocker had no supernatural abilities, but simply a way of seducing and sweet-talking people into ruin.

For too long this creature disturbed honest men and women with impunity. So long that when a lord confronted him about his wicked actions, the man simply smiled and answered mockingly, “When Death comes to dine with me, to her I’ll ask for forgiveness.” And so, She did.

When Death came, as a stony figure demanding payment for the Burlador’s deeds, the man first tried to seduce Her. When Death declined his affections, the Burlador knew fear for the first time in his exis-tence and tried to force Her out of his house. When Death refused, the Mocker knew that the end was near and there was no ruse he could work on Her. At long last, he asked for forgiveness for his wicked deeds and to have some more time on his life to atone for everything he had done. Finally, it was Death’s turn to smile.

“No,” She said and took the Burlador with Her to the afterlife.

#### Nowadays

Yet another morality tale, the Burlador story is one that has become progressively more relevant in today’s Castille. After decades of war, ambitious Grandes squabbling for every ounce of power they can get their hands on and a Church (especially the Inquisition) increasingly more interested in expanding their own influence instead of serving Theus, most common folk believe that it is payback time.

That is why a Castillian endures difficulties and injustices with a tenacity that few other Théans can muster: he knows that, sooner or later, Death comes for us all. She cares not about last minute confessions or pardons. She does Her job and takes with Her any and all sinners, judging them on their lives’ actions.

Nowadays, many disdain this story as mere folklore. Those who have lived longer—and grown wiser—know that it is not prudent to dismiss a story as old and true as this one. But, as per usual, youngsters tend to laugh and ignore the warnings…until Death Herself comes to visit them.