Petalfolk

The peoples of the eastern principalities—known collectively as the Petalfolk—hail from a chain of radiant riverlands, jungle-filled hill-kingdoms, and island realms ruled by the Lotus Princes. Their cities gleam with lacquered spires, flowering gardens, and reflective colonnades, but behind this beauty lies a long history of rival courts, dynastic rituals, and turmoil.

The Petalfolk are famed for their refinement: elegant speech, intricate etiquette, and devotion to learning and craft. Many are raised from childhood to understand their place within the grand cycles of life, duty, and transformation. Their aesthetic sensibilities, marked by patterned silks, gold-inlaid blades, and sacred tattoos, are complicated by their many moral codes.

Most follow the ancient faith of the Celestial Wheel, which teaches that the world turns through twelve great phases, each governed by a guiding star or enlightened entity. Souls are born, rise, fall, and return in accordance with their virtue, carried ever forward by the spinning of the Wheel. To act in harmony with one’s phase is to be at peace. To resist the turning is to bring suffering upon oneself and others.

Temples of the Celestial Wheel often contain mirrored halls, starlit domes, or pools inscribed with the names of the vanished. The most sacred pilgrimage is to ascend the high plateau of Yulain-Katra, where it is said the first lotus bloomed when the stars touched the earth.

Petalfolk encountered abroad come from all walks of life, despite the scholarly stereotypes. Some come west seeking visions, omens, or relics lost during the Age of Woe. A great many others are either attempting to escape, or having been abandoned during the War of Chains and Petals.