This is an Exalted 3e campaign that takes place among the four very tall lads of Palanquin.

Palanquin, the Giant's Isle

Amid the isles linking Ysyr to the mainland stands the city of Palanquin. Four colossal inhuman statues, their features long since weathered away, hold a stony, edifice-encrusted landmass far above the sea — titans lifting an island from the waves. Webs of pier and quay stretch out from their feet through mats of merchant ships, fishing junks, and houseboats inhabited by the poor and by excommunicates seeking re-entry into the city above. Switchback stairs climb past entire neighborhoods carved into the bodies of the statues or clinging to cantilevered platforms.

Palanquin is a city of towering pagodas and vibrant shrines; the air is filled with chanting, singing, and the ringing of temple bells. Palanquin’s folk are deeply religious, seeing themselves closer to Heaven than lesser peoples trapped below. This attitude is reinforced by the elemental cloud-folk of the windborne City of Blue Gauze, who visit Palanquin to trade with mortals. The city’s noble families carry cloudfolk blood, giving them an otherworldly beauty and a capricious nature. But their power is not what it once was—Ysyr conquered Palanquin a century ago.

At Palanquin’s heart stands the source of the people’s piety, a defunct magical gateway said to lead to Heaven itself. But sealed beyond the portal is no place ever visited by the Sidereals. Instead, it leads to the ruins of a Heaven older by far than Yu-Shan—the celestial capital of fallen Zen-Mu, where the ancients dwelt in majesty before they ever dreamed of Creation. Woe betide those who behold the gods that dwell there now.

A 'Map' of Palanquin

'Map' Of Palanquin

Somewhere in the middle of the archipelago that leads out from the coast of the Dreaming Sea to Ysyr is a large set of four promontories, or rather, four large crags that jut out of the sea. Effectively, four islands making up a circular pizza that each juts violently up towards the center. In the center is the large hole in which the four great statues kneel. (Incidentally the very center, underneath the bowl, is a weird and mostly dark mini-sea in which extremely strange and delicious fish live.)

Generally speaking, the four crags reach up, at their tallest points, to somewhere vaguely around the four Butt Towns. From the peaks of these crags some additional (and somewhat terrifying) rope bridges are attached to the bowl, a very long walk if you aren't scared of heights. There are also many stairways and small towns cut into the stone of the four statues. This is how most actual goods travel up, by caravan.

Greater Palanquin is big enough to house several million people. It is huge. But it doesn't have nearly that many people there. It is ludicrously oversized for the number of people its infrastructure can support. (Which is one reason why so many martial arts dojos are able to find space to hold classes.)

The city is primarily a trade city. Boats dock at each of the four crags, at the eight Feet, and even at dock-towns in the Underbowl. Goods travel from across the Dreaming Sea. It's a major center for that sort of thing. (In particular, it's where most of Ysyr's goods come from because traders hate actually going there.)

That said, a fair amount of farming goes on there. The palanquin is ludicrously fertile, although actually getting space to farm away from all the gods is a struggle. You can also do quite a reasonable amount of terraced farming on the Backs. In the various nooks and crannies there's some really serious mushroom gourmets doing things with giant caverns full of shit.

Thirdly, if you have cloud person blood you can walk on clouds. You can even farm on clouds. Weird plants grow on clouds but they're all suprisingly edible if you like sweet foods.

Lastly and leastly, there's the God Market. This is where the people who actually do all the work have to go to get, like, fed. This is at the center of the palanquin. It is called that for multiple reasons. It is mostly run for gods but to a lesser degree run by gods. Its main function is to be the trading hub for all the goods that somebody had to walk up every goddamned flight of stairs to get to you and your fucking temple. The God Market also has a few stalls run by gods.

Incidentally, the market is also built precisely around the Gate to Heaven, and presumably one reason for that is to make sure that people can't just pop in and out of that gate without someone noticing. (ps: this plan did not work.)

Life in Palanquin

As a First Age construction originally intended for many, many more people than currently live there, Palanquin has some extremely unusual amenities. For example, there's an opera house. Absolutely fucking huge. Incredible sea view. Seats thousands. Largely unused. The gods, the Council of Families, and the Ysyri all support the rules that forbid using any ancient structure for any purpose other than the original one, so it remains an opera house. Sometimes, operas happen! If you get it into your head to do an opera, nobody's really going to stop you. But nobody is allowed to turn it into low-income housing. Same goes for stuff like all the museum spaces.

Ultimately, Palanquin has inequality problems, but they mostly have to do with the resources required to get things to you. It's logistics. There's plenty of room for everybody in Palanquin to live in a reasonably nice First Age dwelling (albeit the equivalents of electricity and running water don't work, if they ever did). It's just that most of those houses are not within walking distance of work, or a reliable source of food.

Hunts

The Realm has historically sent Wyld Hunts even to fucking Palanquin to kill Solars. Ysyr's reaction is basically "sure, whatever." They don't have a set policy on Solars but historically letting the Scarlet Empress kill them was the easy option. Prasad does this kind of thing, too, but not as predictably and they kind of have to be motivated to wander into Ysyr turf to do a murder.

That said, yeah:
A) Lunars are a much lower priority when they're in the ass-end of nowhere bothering people she doesn't like.
B) the Empress is currently running a noodle shop in Whitewall.

Wyld Hunts are possible, but unpredictable.

Player Characters

• Kukla:
  • Blue Scribe is an apothecary viper who uses internal alchemy to produce his medicines and poisons.
• TestPattern:
  • Relentless is a weaselman who is still coming for you long after he should be dead, long after you thought you were safe.
• PNMimic:
  • [No One] is an Islander of the Dreaming Sea, of a hidden assassin's guild that exiled him for breaking their code. With a nondescript blade he carves an unname for himself among the violet tides; it brings dreams of a forgotten secret on the Giant's Isle, where he now takes up residence. ( *a.k.a. Jeph, a humble retainer of the party. )
• Benhimself:
  • Fenris: Wolf-totem lunar with more shapeshifting charms than is probably a good idea and some good-in-a-fightness (mostly "physical attributes all at 5 and 16 pts of mutation in wolf-out mode")
• Clooby:
  • The Beefiest Lad An ex porter who has exalted as a priest of the Sun God.

House Rules

• Flat XP Costs

The Guilds Of The City

• The Guild of Porters
• The Guild of Apothecaries
• and others

Major NPCs

• Ch'an is a monk from the Abbey of the Toadstool. They venerate mushrooms in some way? He went missing during the initial monolith deluge incident, and so did the entire Abbey, if it ever existed. In fact, we have no idea who or what this person is/was and their entire motivation is a mystery right now.

• Sadida ja Wunlo is a cloud person who is a relative of several important people and is the grandmaster of the Harmonious Doctrine school of martial arts, which is affiliated with the guild of actors, performers, and musicians.
  • Blue Scribe treated her nephew for a bad sprain once, so there's some good history there.
• Sembie is a porter. She is about one hundred years old and is the most jacked old lady you have ever seen.

• Misthorn is an Orchid Mantis/Octopus chimera-totem No Moon with a Tell of silvery elk antlers, which basically tells you most of what you need to know about him. He never wears one form when he can blend the aspects of two or more, and claims staying in a single shape for more than the span of a few breaths to be intensely uncomfortable. Reclusive and eccentric, Misthorn rarely gets involved in Silver Pact politics, although he may take on as students those who can provide him with a gift of a living animal whose form he has not yet tasted. This is well worth the increasingly difficult effort it takes: he is widely regarded as among the best shapeshifters in the Silver Pact, and a knowledgable historian and occultist to boot, well-respected even if viewed slightly askance by the other Elders.

Pedantic Questions

• Where do people get water?
  • There are springs of fresh water on the surface of the statues themselves that provide necessary water to the people who live there. There are now also four large rivers on the palanquin.
• Where do people get food?
  • Much of the food is not brought up from below, but rather, brought down from on high. Most of the island held by the statues is dedicated to agriculture, the surrounding cloud cover is cultivated with gardens by cloud-folk, and the statues themselves have gardens where-ever possible. The surrounding sea is likewise heavily fished.
• How long does it take to walk from the foot of one statue to the foot of another statue?
  • Like 14 hours? Based on how long it takes to climb Pikes Peak. That's an ~8000 foot climb (as compared to our 11000 foot climb). A hiker can do it in 6-10 hours. And an 'all day' thing makes sense for why a rest-stop would develop half-way up.