The Golden Reef
As she stepped out of the gate tunnel into the city proper, she couldn’t help but stare up at the grandeur of the Marble City. Built by angels centuries past, the capital of the Isle of Spheres, all perfectly white high walls and tall balconies where Seraphs and their orders had once basked in sunlight, sealight, perfect golden light from the glowing alder trees and the divine warmth of the golden fountain turning in the center of the garden district.Off the northwest coast of Sof Sator is the archipelago of the Golden Reef, which for centuries hosted divine powers before becoming the dominion of blood-drinking sanguinates.-Blood Queen and Vermillion Beast: From Amaranth to Encyclia
Geography
About a hundred kilometers off the coast of Sof Sator, the archipelago of the Golden Reef was a reliable landmark for a thousand years. Like a great lighthouse on the sea, the Reef was an ceaseless beacon of warm, yellow light that pierced night and storm. This was thanks in large part to the blessed architecture of the angels who lived there, with walls, palace, and sculptures ever aglow. But this was also the light of the land itself and the nature that grew upon it, with supernaturally glowing gold veins shining from beneath yellow soil and luminescent alder groves lining the seaside cliffs. As of the year 1090 CR, this light has waned as the magic of the now-extinct angels fades and the archipelago's current rulers clear the glowing forests to make room for agriculture. Thanks to its place close to the world's equator, the Golden Reef spent recent centuries as a reliable source for much of the world's sugar, tobacco, and coffee, as well as many nuts and fruits. It was easily reached by sea by any nation along Sof Sator's western or northern coastline.
Natural Resources
The Golden Reef is abundant with gold and pyrite, though the royal lines of sanguinate rulers have traditionally protected these resources, refusing to mine them or let others mine them. The yellow grass that grows across the archipelago makes an excellent, cheap cloth, and most of the Golden Reef's lower class is dressed in some form of brilliant yellow clothing made from this grass. Alder groves cover the islands likewise, and its wood is the basis for all modern construction on the islands. The magical glow of the grass and trees fades shortly after it is harvested, though high-class sanguinates can enchant this to remain. Fish and other sea life are unnaturally abundant around the archipelago, and Revan has negotiated the right for its fishers to sail and fish from the waters.
History
by Jack O'Shadows
The Angelic Age: From time immemorial to year 692 CR
As long as Anthral nations have recorded history, the Golden Reef glowed off the coast of Sof Sator. Though no contact was ever made with the angels that inhabited the archipelago, many ships sailed close enough to attest to the presence of angels, and descriptions of the structures are consistent across millennia of testimonials. Even in texts old enough to discuss Jeimr and the Vedrfol as current events, the angelic inhabitants of the Golden Reef are treated as ancient and unchanging. What few accounts exist of attempts to reach the Marble City are limited to sailors who arrived at the archipelago's outlying islands and from there turned away. Most speak of some preternatural force pushing them away, a deep-seeded and instinctive fear, or else a feeling of unwelcome so powerful that it could not be resisted. Observations made by the sanguinates that would later conquer the Golden Reef under the leadership of King Al'uy speak of a society built around a hierarchy of Spheres, each one led by a Supreme Seraph who commanded a Host. The Marble City was built with these Spheres in mind, with different districts or structures being overseen by a single Sphere and ordered according to their hierarchy. The First Sphere dwelt in the Marble City's palace, its southernmost structure, and its Seventh Sphere dwelt in a number of angular towers made of gold-veined stone at the island's far north end. The other Spheres dwelt in their own structures between them. Each Host was observed to number seven thousand angels, and they seemed at this time to spend their time interacting with one of the seven masses of light which occupied the sky above the Golden Reef, though their observers could not tell whether these actions were rituals of worship or acts of magical conjuration.The Vampiric Age: From 693 CR to Present (1090 CR)
After being expelled from the western coast of Sof Sator, a company of just of 1000 sanguinates anthrals led by then-admiral Al'uy sailed to the Golden Reef, accompanied by a "livestock" cargo of around 3000 other anthrals that also served as an enslaved workforce. The sanguinates were surprised that their landing on the Isle of Spheres was not marked in any way by any angelic Host, and they do not attest to any feeling of instinctive fear or preternatural repulsion. They gained entry to the City of Marbles through its northernmost extent, though their entry also did not warrant a reaction from the angels. A small number of sanguinates were able to isolate and feed on a member of the Seventh Sphere. Because of the peculiar anatomy of sanguinate anthrals, the ingestion of angelic blood granted them access to divine magics which enabled them to capture more angels and feed more blood to their contemporaries. They also experienced an increasing immunity to divine magics, which became key to conquering the isle as a whole. By the time the angels acknowledged the presence of the sanguinates, and indeed tried to repel them, the sanguinates were already largely immune to the magics the angels attempted to employ. In martial combat, the sanguinates overcame the angels, and over a campaign of some months the angels of the Isle of Spheres -- the only angels known to exist in this world -- were completely exterminated. Records of the time state that no angels attempted to retreat, none surrendered, and it was impossible to capture them without killing them. As far as any knowledge exists of them, angels in this world are now extinct. King Al'uy inhabited the palace of the Marble City and ordered his sanguinates according to the hierarchies of the angels, declaring himself Supreme Seraph of the First Sphere and drinking enough stored angel blood during his lifetime to lend this some credence. Jealously guarding supplies of angel blood inside the palace, the sanguinates raided kingdoms along the western coast of Sof Sator, an act of vengeance which provided them with a slave laborforce that doubled as livestock on which to feed. Since this time, the Golden Reef has accepted sanguinates from all across Sof Sator, granting them not only a safe haven but also a society in which they are assured a place as soldiers or servants of the palace, if not outright nobility and a stable of anthrals to feed on. There have been three lines of royalty in the Kingdom of the Golden Reef. The line of Al'uy lasted three rulers from 693 CR to 920 CR, the line of Al'muth had four rulers from 920 CR to just 960 CR, and the line of Al'ain has had six rulers from 960 CR to, at present, 1090 CR. The most recent ruler, Queen Aetha'al'ain, established a diarchy of co-rule by establishing her sister, Eiri'el'al'ain as sister-queen. Close allies of Revan, the Al'ain line has taken part in many of Revan's military campaigns and has favorable trade relations with many of Revan's other allies.
The Golden Reef, map by Jack O'Shadows
Type
Archipelago
Included Organizations
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