Book of Bone and Ebony

EXALTED • THE BOOK OF BONE AND EBONY
Stygia offers a great number of services for the dead,
everything from beautiful courtesans and delightful gaming
houses to dour mercenaries and a medium for the
exchange of Essence. By supporting the dead, rather than
caring for the living, Stygia promotes its usefulness to all of
the Underworld.
Stygia draws much of its wealth from trade. Standing
at the center of the Underworld, it is a natural destination
for many merchants, and ships often sail up the River Styx
to enter Stygian ports. Many of Stygia’s services cater to
the needs of those ghostly traders that enter the necropolis.
This considerable trade allows for markets where nearly
anything, from exotic grave goods to forbidden pleasures,
can be bought or sold. What Stygia cannot trade for, it
produces independently. The necropolis is home to some
of the finest artificers in the Underworld, with industries
that are second only to the facilities of the Thousand.
For the dead, prayer is of even greater importance
than material wealth. Prayer generates Essence, and Essence
fuels the society of the dead. For this reason, the
leaders of the Underworld demand worship from their
subjects, much as a mortal leader might demand taxes,
ensuring that the rulers can protect their people and, more
importantly, that they maintain enough power to keep
their thrones. While the worship of kings and rulers tends
to remain local, the Cult of the Dual Monarchs is universal,
spanning the entire Underworld. Temples to the Dual
Monarchy clutter the streets of the necropoli, and even the
simplest farmer’s hut has a small shrine in its corner. The
amount of Essence this worship generates is almost incalculable,
and all of Stygia thrives on it.
The Grand Necropolis itself was designed to serve as
a nexus for these prayers and to channel their Essence to
powering the Calendar of Setesh, as well as to perform
various other tasks. Many aspects of the city, from the
occult designs of the streets to the very nature of the
districts and their symbols, serve this purpose. Standing at
the center of Stygia, as both the metaphorical and literal
heart of the city, is the Palace of the Dual Monarchy. The
Dual Monarchs are the focal points of the Cult and the
linchpin of the Essence it generates. Without their ritual
lifestyle, the Essence Stygia enjoys would falter and wane.
The design of Stygia isn’t perfectly efficient, however, and
Essence leaks from its streets and structures, creating the
miasma of reverence that pervades the city.
Not even the Dual Monarchs can make full use of the
enormous amount of Essence generated by such pervasive
worship, yet they cannot afford to waste their excess. To
accommodate the overflow of Essence during bountiful
years, Stygia created a system of banks and repositories. The
Dual Monarchs, for example, adorn their clothing with
soulfire crystals so they can shed and store any surplus
Essence they might generate. These charged crystals are
removed and stored away in vaults at the end of the day, with
new, empty crystals being stitched into their clothes as
12
BREATHING PRAYERS
No place in the Underworld is as saturated with
reverence as Stygia. The prayers of the dead pour in
from all over the world, and every mausoleum and
temple hums with it. The very air is spiced with the
aromas of incense and scented oils. As a result of this
intense piety, the dead of Stygia can regain Essence
more quickly in their necropolis than they can
elsewhere, as if they possessed Underworld Cult ••
(see Exalted: The Abyssals, p. 153). This benefit is
inherent to all dead who have resided longer than a
few months within Stygia, and a Storyteller running
a ghostly chronicle in the Dark Jewel of the Underworld
should not require players to spend the
Background dots for this benefit. However, the extra
respiration is lost outside of the city.
replacements by a small army of tailors. Flows of Essence
across the city are diverted into vast crystal batteries where
they can be stored and processed. Over time, these institutions
have expanded their purposes to include making loans
and investments and supervising the general flow of Essence
across Stygia. The clack of abacus beads and the rustle of
papers fill these large and impressive buildings as accounts
are tallied and numbers are recorded. Stygia, enjoying the
riches of the Dual Monarchy, serves as the nerve center to
the Underworld’s economy. Along with a brisk trade in
grave goods and the creation of artifacts, the exchange of
Essence serves to bring wealth to all of the city.
THE CLERICS OF THE DUAL MONARCHY
Clerics are the foremost officers in the army of bureaucrats
that monitors Stygia’s Essence. Each wears long,
loose flowing leggings, sandals and a jade mask that denotes
his role within the bureaucracy. Each also wears a
white sash, the end of which is marked with dark bands
indicating the rank of the Cleric. Their torsos are bare, and
each carries a smoking censer and scroll cases that hold the
long, ribbonlike parchments upon which the cleric records
his accounts. While common in Stygia, they are also often
seen beyond the city, serving in the courts of other nations
as representatives of the Dual Monarchy. They are both
priests of the Cult of the Dual Monarchy, directing rituals
and overseeing worship, and tax collectors, ensuring that
the dead offer up the proper amount of reverence to the
Monarchy. Masters of the Essence-Measuring Thief Arts
and the Tenacious Merchant’s Way, these ghosts often
serve as local bankers and suppliers should the need arise.
Despite the apparent tedium of their tasks, they are held in
high regard as the representatives of the cult, and their
passions are dedicated utterly to the advancement of the
Dual Monarchy.