Sarnath

Sarnath

Sarnath City is the capital of the Southern Provinces. Situated between the Sarn River and the Sarnspire Mountains, it is dominated by the imposing Black Keep. Here, the poor and powerful tread the same foggy cobbles, but all learn quickly to keep their heads down. Justice is dispensed by the Army, the Crimson Brotherhood, and public hangings in Marshall Square – the city’s bustling heart. From Sarnath, the Lords of the Black Keep have ruled the Southern Provinces with brutality and authority.

Now frequent murders have thrown the city into panic and Lockdown, and every quarter feels the strain.

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Darion Quince

From the Black Keep, Darion Quince rules the Southern Provinces with discipline, hard faith, and superstition. He distrusts his brother Eramos, hunts the Storm-Touched with growing obsession, and treats unrest as something to crush, not manage. He has little respect for the weak Grand Council of Highwater, seldom attends its meetings, and is quick to ignore its demands.

jacks

Jacks treats Sarnath like it belongs to her, and in many ways it does. Through the Crimson Brotherhood she controls secrets, protection, and fear across the city, all with a grin. Mischievous, fearless, and deeply dangerous, she is a wild card in the Lockdown.

Saban Derath

Saban Derath commands the Sarnath Army, certain that soldiers are the only solution to almost any problem. He despises Jacks, distrusts Talcon, and knows both would gladly use the Lockdown to push the Army aside. As the murders spread, Saban is watching his rivals as closely as he watches the city.

Talcon Lind

Talcon Lind is the cold voice of faith inside the Black Keep. He turns doctrine into policy and fear into obedience. He knows exactly how to feed Darion Quince’s religious certainty, pushing him toward harsher order while making it sound righteous, necessary, and wise.

Inspector Silas Graves

Inspector Silas Graves has been left to deal with the rising body count that pushed Sarnath into Lockdown, but every lead seems to go nowhere. As the murders spread, his methods have grown harsher. He is starting to see enemies, lies, and hidden links everywhere he looks.

Explore THE REGION

The Sarnath Army

The only standing army in all of Tidefall, giving the rulers of Sarnath a level of military power no other region can match.

Permanent, organised, and controlled directly from the Black Keep, it is as much a blunt tool of authority as it is a force of war.

With the city under Lockdown, it now enforces military order within its walls while reclaiming the ruined Iron Ring forts to re-establish control of the Southern Provinces.

THE MAGPIES

Before the Crimson Brotherhood flushed them out and dismantled them, Sarnath’s Thieves Guild ran the underworld from Fellmarch to Highwater.

The few survivors have reorganised as the Magpies. Secretive and vengeful, they are determined to hit the Black Keep to reclaim their wealth, rescue their friends, and send a message to the city.

Market Menagerie

A travelling cart-and-cage show stranded by Lockdown days after arriving in Marshall Square.

Herry Biskin’s Menagerie has captured beasts from far across the Southern Provinces for coin and spectacle. But monsters staying in one place hungry and captive may soon become a disaster.

DRAIN NETWORK

Beneath Sarnath is a hidden undercity of the poorest. Where once the faith and charity gave hope, The Pilgrims of Kiam offer opportunity within the ranks of the radical.

The Wormways afford travel across Sarnath and have even unearthed something below that, in the right hands, is enough to throw the whole city into chaos.

THE CITY STREETS

Lockdown has ground the city to a halt. Curfews shut the roads early, armed soldiers patrol every quarter, and the frequent murders and unrest have left even the safest places feel dangerous and tense.

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Industrial Quarter

Sarnath’s engine and the bastion of the old guilds who once ruled the city. In abandoned warehouses the underworld plots and the Pilgrims of Kiam plan violence. Meanwhile the last remaining guilds bear grudges with the Black Keep and each other.

Quag End

At the edge of the Back Lanes, Quag End sprawls through mud, fog, and shifting planks in a way that looks ready to collapse but somehow never does. Beneath the stink and the sludge is a place full of small deals, sharp tongues, odd characters, and hard survivors who know the city better than most of the people pretending to rule it.

Sodden Pulpit

In the Shining Courtyard, outside the Temple of Divine Virtue, the Sodden Pulpit is where ministers, and street preachers fight for the public ear. Now, with Lockdown in force and Storm Worshippers defying faith law in public, even a sermon on a crate can spark a riot.

Vauna Degore

A bejeweled socialite, Vauna is elegant, haunted, and never quite sincere. Though she gives generously to the Temple, her real power is in secrets and the control they bring.

The Temple of Divine Virtue

The Temple of Divine Virtue stands at the heart of Sarnath’s religious life as one of the city’s main houses of the Order of Divinity, the faith followed across much of Tidefall. Its ministers teach the paths of Grace, Reason, and Mercy, while prayer, charity, and public oaths give those virtues daily shape. Richly supported by the Quince family, the temple is both a place of devotion and one of the clearest public faces of their rule.

The Shining Courtyard

Shining Courtyard is one of the prettiest corners of Sarnath, a small square of clean cobbles, clipped greenery, black-stone houses, and quiet daily bustle at the eastern end of High Street. With the Temple of Divine Virtue, the Paper Buildings, and the Sodden Pulpit all gathered around it, the courtyard is full of sermons, notices, errands, and passing conversation, giving this hard city one of its few touches of grace.

Sir Percival Cupthorne

Sir Percival Cupthorne is a fallen knight with a courtly tongue, a bad tab, and just enough skill left to still be dangerous. Though hired to escort a local merchant for a dangerous meeting, he is currently avoiding the task in a fog of drink, wounded pride, and excuses.

The Backlanes

The Back Lanes run behind High Street in a tangle of narrow alleys, damp cobbles, open gutters, and crooked little corners. They are rough, lively, and full of character, with gossip, hidden rooms, cheap drink, and enough petty crime to remind you that Sarnath always has another face just out of sight.
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The Shining Courtyard

Shining Courtyard is one of the prettiest corners of Sarnath, a small square of clean cobbles, clipped greenery, black-stone houses, and quiet daily bustle at the eastern end of High Street. With the Temple of Divine Virtue, the Paper Buildings, and the Sodden Pulpit all gathered around it, the courtyard is full of sermons, notices, errands, and passing conversation, giving this hard city one of its few touches of grace.

Industrial Quarter

Sarnath’s engine and the bastion of the old guilds who once ruled the city. In abandoned warehouses the underworld plots and the Pilgrims of Kiam plan violence. Meanwhile the last remaining guilds bear grudges with the Black Keep and each other.

Sir Percival Cupthorne

Sir Percival Cupthorne is a fallen knight with a courtly tongue, a bad tab, and just enough skill left to still be dangerous. Though hired to escort a local merchant for a dangerous meeting, he is currently avoiding the task in a fog of drink, wounded pride, and excuses.

Sodden Pulpit

In the Shining Courtyard, outside the Temple of Divine Virtue, the Sodden Pulpit is where ministers, and street preachers fight for the public ear. Now, with Lockdown in force and Storm Worshippers defying faith law in public, even a sermon on a crate can spark a riot.

The Backlanes

The Back Lanes run behind High Street in a tangle of narrow alleys, damp cobbles, open gutters, and crooked little corners. They are rough, lively, and full of character, with gossip, hidden rooms, cheap drink, and enough petty crime to remind you that Sarnath always has another face just out of sight.

THE CRIMSON
BROTHERHOOD

The authority in the underworld with a monopoly on crime. These extortionists, informants, and knives, are known for their swagger, thug-like tactics and distrusted by citizen and soldier alike.

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The Brotherhood

To most people the red hand of the brotherhood is the sign of thugs, extortion, and the underworld, though its true ties run far closer to the Black Keep than many dare say aloud.

The Ruddy Cloak

A riverfront drinking den with just enough legitimacy to stay open and just enough danger to keep strangers out. This is where the Crimson Brotherhood conducts its underworld business, between beers and betting on bareknuckle boxing.

Arvenya Dassain

Arvenya Dassain is called the Poison Needle by her Crimson Brothers. Ruthless, solitary, and unknown outside the Brotherhood, Jacks employs Arvenya where subtlety and cunning are needed, like rooting out Magpie agents, and their families, trying to cross the city walls.

Felix Morrison

The smiling handler of vice at the Ruddy Cloak, Felix is out for himself and knows there’s money to be made where citizens and Crimson Brotherhood meet. Less a brawler than a bookmaker and fixer, Felix turns violence into commerce and knows how to pull strings.

Arkal Thorpe

Arkal wants one simple thing — to keep Jacks alive through the Brotherhood’s internal power struggles. An ex-Darkore blacksmith, he is Jacks’ personal shield standing one pace behind her with his mace, and lovingly referred to as “The Anvil”.

Red marked backstreets

It is an open secret that Darion Quince uprooted the criminal underworld to replace it with his own. The Brotherhood are thugs with the organisation, resources, and authority to make them far worse than the average outlaw. Even the Army avoids places they mark with the red hand.
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The Brotherhood

To most people the red hand of the brotherhood is the sign of thugs, extortion, and the underworld, though its true ties run far closer to the Black Keep than many dare say aloud.

The Ruddy Cloak

A riverfront drinking den with just enough legitimacy to stay open and just enough danger to keep strangers out. This is where the Crimson Brotherhood conducts its underworld business, between beers and betting on bareknuckle boxing.

Felix Morrison

The smiling handler of vice at the Ruddy Cloak, Felix is out for himself and knows there’s money to be made where citizens and Crimson Brotherhood meet. Less a brawler than a bookmaker and fixer, Felix turns violence into commerce and knows how to pull strings.

Arkal Thorpe

Arkal wants one simple thing — to keep Jacks alive through the Brotherhood’s internal power struggles. An ex-Darkore blacksmith, he is Jacks’ personal shield standing one pace behind her with his mace, and lovingly referred to as “The Anvil”.

THE
BLACK KEEP

The city is dominated by the overlooking fortress atop its hill. Below it, in the martial square, the hanging Statue of Mercy stands in the rains to show whose grip the city is in and what happens to its enemies.

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The Black Keep

The Black Keep looms over Sarnath from the top of Helyon’s Hill, a fortress of dark stone, hauled from the Ebstone region, where law, coin, and fear all meet under one roof. It holds the Court of Mercy, the Vault of Dies, and the halls from which the Southern Provinces are ruled. Although it is the personal home of Darion, it feels less like a noble residence than the hardened centre of a regime.

Ves Legenlarke

For a thief like Ves Legenlarke, a heist against the Black Keep is the prize: the Magpies know where their old friends have been imprisoned and where to strike. When the time is right, they intend to send the whole city a message, and get rich in the process.

Darion’s Inner Circle

With his mind focused on his brother’s schemes in Veloria and how to master the Storm, Darion Quince leaves Sarnath to be governed by his competing advisors, Talcon Lind, Saban Derath, and Jacks. So long as the Black Keep holds his authority, Quince is more interested in the mansor than the Lockdown.

Gogan Fickens

Gogan is the utilitarian, heavy hand that makes sure prisoners stay where someone puts them. Woe befall those who try to trick his extreme wit, or think they can free their friends alive, unchanged, or unflayed.

Court of Mercy

The keep’s criminal court, tightly controlled by the rulers. Before a bench of law, army, and faith, the very unfortunate are sentenced to the worst punishments imaginable. The lucky few are found hanging from the Statue of Mercy by dawn.

The Maw

The Maw is the cold black prison beneath the Black Keep, feared across Sarnath as much for what is heard there as for what is not. Prisoners are dragged down its wet stairs and through its iron corridors, but only a handful ever return, and those who do rarely speak of what they suffered under the care of Moridic the Jolly.
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The Black Keep

The Black Keep looms over Sarnath from the top of Helyon’s Hill, a fortress of dark stone, hauled from the Ebstone region, where law, coin, and fear all meet under one roof. It holds the Court of Mercy, the Vault of Dies, and the halls from which the Southern Provinces are ruled. Although it is the personal home of Darion, it feels less like a noble residence than the hardened centre of a regime.

Court of Mercy

The keep’s criminal court, tightly controlled by the rulers. Before a bench of law, army, and faith, the very unfortunate are sentenced to the worst punishments imaginable. The lucky few are found hanging from the Statue of Mercy by dawn.

Ves Legenlarke

For a thief like Ves Legenlarke, a heist against the Black Keep is the prize: the Magpies know where their old friends have been imprisoned and where to strike. When the time is right, they intend to send the whole city a message, and get rich in the process.