Whitestone
Nearly two hundred years ago, the de Rolo family helmed an expedition from Wildemount to the shores of Tal’Dorei. When their vessel wrecked upon the stones of the Shearing Channel, the de Rolos and their remaining crew survived for weeks in the Alabaster Sierras despite the tempestuous weather and slavering beasts. After a time, they stumbled upon a glowing tree—the majestic Sun Tree, a blessing from the Dawnfather himself—and built their home around it. Since then, the de Rolo’s pioneering settlement has grown into a robust, if isolated, city. The cityscape varies from quaint homesteads to dingy hovels, and the majority of the populace sits somewhere in between. Limited in fertile farm land, locally grown produce is scarce, leading to the necessity to develop a good trade relationship with the rural communities of the Turst Fields. Though the region’s scarcity of vital resources made for a harrowing first few years, the de Rolo family stumbled upon a miraculous mineral they called whitestone.
This geological marvel both gave their city its name and quickly became its most important and sought-after export. Before long, the de Rolo’s sale of whitestone allowed them to quickly amass a significant fortune and construct a princely keep within their city.
Demographics
(83% Human, 7% Halfling, 6% Dwarven, 4% Other Races)
Government
For many years, the de Rolo family ruled Whitestone with dignity and justice—though perhaps their reign is viewed now with some nostalgia. The line of de Rolos was broken when a pair of vampires from Wildemount known as the Briarwoods slaughtered the family, took over Whitestone, and plunged the city into despair. Six years later, Vox Machina returned with Percival, the only known de Rolo heir, and discovered that his sister Cassandra also still lived. The heroes defeated the Briarwoods
and expunged their evil from Whitestone, and the de Rolo siblings founded a new system of governance: the Chamber of Whitestone.
This council consists of members appointed by the Guardian of Woven Stone, who is to remain a member of the de Rolo bloodline as long as it exists, or the rest of the Chamber unanimously agrees there are no suitable de Rolos to accept the position. Order within Whitestone is enforced by the trained sentries called the Paleguard who answer to the Pale Lord of Wardship.
Crime
The community of Whitestone has seen much hardship in recent years, from the iron rule of the Briarwoods to the threat of the Chroma Conclave, and much of the populace has been more concerned with survival and rebuilding their community than the pursuit of fast profit. However, unsavory criminals have begun to slip in under the pretense of aiding the reconstruction efforts in hopes of lining their pockets with relief money. The Clasp has some surveillance in Whitestone, but the Myriad is beginning to make a full-scale underworld infiltration.
Defences
Aside from the strong city walls, the legions of soldiers, whispers of the Seekers find perceptive ears in taverns and alleys and many speak with relief and securtiy about the magic wards that protect the city from evil eyes.
Industry & Trade
Imports: Industrial and precious metals, cloth, livestock, grain
Exports: Granite, limestone, whitestone
Infrastructure
Whitestone Clocktower
For the last 15 years, Lord Percival has been constructing a monumental clocktower for the city of Whitestone, both as a symbol of power and of technological advancement. He believes this to be the first clocktower of its kind in Tal'Dorei, possibly in all of Exandria! He commissioned many of the lands finest artisans, inventors and tinkerers to aid in the process of building the clocktower as well as generally "modernizing" the city.
Guilds and Factions
The Seekers
The Arcana Panosophical
The Clasp
The Myriad
The Houses of Kraghammer
The Golden Grin
History
Scars of the Briarwoods
Lady Delilah and Lord Silas Briarwood are no more, but the evil they committed still lingers. The six years they ruled Whitestone sapped life and hope from its people. Though homes have been rebuilt and the Briarwoods’ undead monstrosities have been eradicated, the trauma of the vampires’ reign of terror will linger for generations. Some people of Whitestone were so deeply affected that they turned to necromancy themselves, and have fled into the Alabaster Sierras to learn the secrets of the Briarwoods’ foul magic and emulate their takeover of Whitestone. There are even whispers of escaped vampiric spawn from the Briarwoods’ rule that wander the outskirts of the city, seeking to spread their influence and their curse.
Geography
Geography
The city was originally constructed around the discovery of the Sun Tree, and expanded outward over a few generations. Castle Whitestone was built against the Northern face of the city atop of small hill to overlook the city and the surrounding forest. The southwest and southeast ends of Whitestone have cleared enough farmland into the Parchwood to sustain the citizens of the city, but the dense forest is thick and looming, completely encompassing the exterior of the city walls. The cemetery is kept separate from the city’s main walls, instead held outside the eastern section via dirt road.
Dawnfather Square
Dawnfather Square is the central district of Whitestone. The square surrounds a small hill, and the golden glow of the revered Sun Tree that sits atop it can be seen throughout the city. Many of Whitestone’s original settlers already worshiped the Dawnfather, and discovering the Sun Tree was seen as a sign. Today, Dawnfather Square is filled with quaint, bustling shops and small townhomes built as the city expands and wealth returns to the people of Whitestone.
Landmarks
Castle Whitestone
Castle Whitestone was erected not long after the city’s founding, and has long been the royal seat of the de Rolos, though it has recently been home to dark masters. Now the home of the Chamber of Whitestone, the castle stands as a symbol of justice for the people of Whitestone once more. The castle’s interior has a certain stark
regality to it. While the hunting trophies and tapestries that decorate its walls are clear signs of the de Rolos’ wealth, there is a solemn, beautiful hollowness to its corridors. Cassandra de Rolo says that something of her brother’s melancholy seeped into its whitestone walls, and the castle will always carry the edge of his sorrow—
and the Briarwoods’ evil.
The Corrupted Ziggurat
During the violent throes of the Calamity, before Whitestone existed, the god known as the Chained Oblivion broke free from its prison beneath Gatshadow and rampaged across Tal’Dorei. Seeing the mad god’s devastation, the Knowing Mistress baited it towards her central temple in the Alabaster Sierras and confronted
him. She was nearly destroyed in the encounter, and her temple sank deep beneath the earth in her sorrow. This temple was left abandoned for centuries until it was rediscovered by the Briarwoods and excavated. With dark knowledge gifted to them by the strange entity known as the Whispered One, the Briarwoods twisted the uncovered temple into an engine of dark magic, preparing a blasphemous ritual of the Whispered One’s own design. Though the Briarwoods were defeated, the corruption lingers still, all traces of the Knowing Mistress faded and forgotten.
The Sun Tree
After the Chained Oblivion nearly consumed the Knowing Mistress during the Calamity, a furious and vengeful Dawnfather pursued the fleeing Oblivion across the mountaintops and over the sea to the peak of Gatshadow, where the mad god was eventually defeated and imprisoned once again. The land wept with pain as the two wrathful gods laid waste to Tal’Dorei. After his victory, the Dawnfather returned to Whitestone and placed a single seed into the ground where the Knowing Mistress was nearly destroyed. The god wept and from the seed grew a symbol of protection—a massive tree that became a beacon of light within the dark forest that surrounded it. While the extent of the tree’s divine power remains a mystery, it stands as an emblem of unity and hope both within the city of Whitestone, and upon its
official crest.
The Greyfield
The Greyfield has become the local name for the eastern graveyard on the outskirts of the city that harbors generations of Whitestone’s buried dead, watched over
and respectfully maintained by the priests of the city. A number of mausoleums house the passed noble families, though the last generation of lost de Rolos were not recovered following the rule of the Briarwoods. Elements of necromantic desecration still linger within the Greyfield, and the Paleguard are ever vigilant at night to quell
any unresting dead that occasionally claw their way to the surface.
The Illusory Barrier
Haphazardly constructed during the time of the Chroma Conclave to avoid detection by their roving wyvern armies, 5 whitestone obelisks mark the perimeter of the city and castle grounds. These obelisks form a domelike illusion between them when powered by an arcane spellcaster, hiding the city under the guise of continued, undeveloped Parchwood, and shielding everything within from arcane detection. For each spell slot that is siphoned into an obelisk, 2 hours of illusion is powered per spell level sacrificed, and the cover of the illusion barrier is incomplete unless all 5 obelisks are powered simultaneously. This siphoning is a very taxing experience, and for every 30 spell levels sacrificed within a 24 hour period, the arcane caster suffers 1 point of exhaustion.
Natural Resources
An Enchanting Export
During the conflicts of the Calamity, a climactic battle between the stalwart Dawnfather and the engine of mad destruction known as Chained Oblivion came to a dramatic and explosive conclusion in the Alabaster Sierras. The unstable arcane forces unleashed in their battle created the valley that now houses the Parchwood, thrusting the surrounding mountains upward and infusing them with incredible amounts of residuum—the residue of arcane energy. The sheer amount of leftover arcane power within the so-called whitestone of the mountains is incredibly receptive to enchantment. Anyone enchanting a piece of whitestone, or an item infused with whitestone dust, reduces the time required to enchant the item by 75%. Some alchemists in Emon have discovered that dissolving whitestone with specific acids can leave behind pure residuum, which can substitute for expensive spell components when such materials are not readily available. If a spell has a component cost that consumes the component, its caster can substitute the required component for an amount of residuum of an equal value. One pound of pure residuum is worth approximately 500 gp in most Tal’Dorei markets, though difficult to come by the further from Whitestone or Emon one travels. This same residuum, if heated into a green glasslike state, can expedite localized enchantment rituals. Enchantment Altars using this residuum glass as a primary construction component are extremely expensive to produce and generally only found at places of higher arcane learning or homesteads of powerful archmages. Any attempts to enchant a magical item atop such an altar decreases the time required to enchant the item by 50%.
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