New Chartres is a prosperous, if small, city a few hundred kilometres from Talmen, the capital of Leminkainen.
Overview
New Chartres is a prosperous, if small, city a few hundred kilometres from Talmen, the capital of Leminkainen. Although not a major political influence on the planet, Count Zacharias Hawkwood, the ruler of New Chartres is a close friend of the emperor's and New Chartres has therefore recently been in the limelight. It is heeded as an example of prosperity and sensible rule, as well as an example of successful co-operation between church and state. In reality, many things are not as they seem in New Chartres and under the public mask of happiness and wealth lie many dark secrets and shady dealings.
The Purple Hills is the area that surrounds New Chartres. The name comes from a characteristic purple hue of the rock and soil in the region. The soil if fertile and the climate relatively clement so that agriculture is quite developed, although the hills make the harvests difficult (mechanical machinery can hardly be used and only the biggest farms can afford to own or rent automatic machines to do the job) Therefore, the type of crops has been adapted to the terrain : fruit trees and rooted crops are favoured because they are not too likely to be taken away by the rain, but the most popular crop by far is grapes, both black and green as well as a local purple variety. Wine is therefore one of the main productions of the city and is exported far and wide, not only on the planet but in various other worlds as well. A Canal links Talmen to New Chartres and other towns upstream. It is not remembered if the valley that allows the canal's existence was terraformed or is natural but it is always a surprising fact for travellers that such a canal can even exist in a hilly area like the Purple Hills. Crops like wheat, barley and corn are produced further down the Canal Valley, where the area is flatter and thus more suited to that type of culture.
Access to New Chartres can be done through the canal, which requires paying a fee to one of the several Guilds established in the city or in the capital, or through the road, either by foot or on horseback (horses have been 'imported' into the ecosystem and have adapted admirably). The roads are too small and too harsh for any form of vehicle other than horses and chariots (and even those sometimes have trouble passing through).
The various roads that lead to New Chartres arrive on the eastern bank of the canal through the vineyard covered hills overlooking the valley. The view from the top of the last row of hills is quite stunning : New Chartres looks a bit like a city out of a fairy tale : the heavy stone buildings are rarely more than two-story and both the Castle and the Cathedral stand out. The purple stone gives an eerie feel to the town and the vantage point is used for many reproductions sold to tourists. Arrival by barge is slightly less spectacular but much more convenient as the barge guilds compete to make it as easy as possible on the customers. The harbour is well maintained and there are only a few town guards overlooking the activity whereas the bridges are under a much heavier scrutiny : after all, people who come by boat have money, and are therefore assumed to be much less likely to be criminals.
The city is unofficially divided in five quarters. Guilds is the area where the League owns most territory and the affiliated guilds are situated. It is a busy but well organised part of town. Wines is the artisans quarter and its name comes from the main entrepreneurs established there. The wine industry employs lots of people, not only in the wine making and selling proper, but also through all the related activities : coopers, glassblowers, etc. The Cathedral overlooks a quiet part of town where pilgrims and tourists abound. Many shops can be found there, selling religious paraphernalia as well as souvenirs. Two monasteries are also established there. Purple Rock is the original name of the rocky hill on which the Castle stands and by extension has become the name of the area on and around the hill. The quarter is mainly residential and fairly quiet. Finally, as in every town of a certain size, there has to be a run down area where the less well-off live. In New Chartres, this area is nicknamed Bogs, because the ancient sewer system that used to dump the refuse in the canal has stopped working and water from the canal has started to filter through under the houses, thus creating a distinctly insalubrious area where only those who cannot afford to live anywhere else dwell.
The Market Square is at the frontier between the five quarters, right in the middle of town. A big market is held there every morning reaching until mid afternoon. Many stalls can be found, selling practically anything, although items of luxury are more likely to find their way to the Purple Rock market. The market is also the ideal place to establish shady contacts and for the savvy there is not much that can't be negociated for in there. Lining the Marketplace are numerous inns and restaurants of various styles and quality, The most famous are 'The Paradise of Wine' in Wines, 'The Bishop's Cross' in Cathedral, 'Seng Chang's Exotic Palace' in Guilds, 'The Muddy Waters Bar' in Bogs and 'The Count's Arms' in Purple Rock.
Guilds is a small town district that borders the harbour. The land is fully owned by the League of Merchants and only League affiliated guilds can rent space in here. It is also well known that the League looks after its own, so by an arrangement with the Count (special services are provided to him in exchange for this privilege) the count'd guards never patrol the area. Instead, the League pays a militia and has its own tribunal of law to maintain order in the quarter. Criminals who try and escape the Count's Guard by fleeing into Guilds are usually shipped back straight out on being caught (unless they are League affiliates, that is, in which case the situation is examined beforehand). Guilds is constituted of low buildings crammed together with very narrow streets and alleyways coming from all directions. Only those who have lived here a while dare enter the maze of paved alleys that sprout from the two main arteries, Harbour Street and Guild Lane.
Many Guilds are established here, but the two most important ones are the Charioteers and the Musters. The Charioteers own the harbour and have exclusive control of all the circulation on the Canal. They make lots of money from Wine manufacturers and traders, Musters and local entrepreneurs. They have found it in their interest not to try and control the small businesses that have flourished around New Chartres these last few years. When these businesses grow, they are forced to use the Charioteers' services to expand geographically, and that give the guikd effective control at no cost ! The Musters' official side of business is that they provide all the labour for the grape plucking season, and it does represent a considerable number of people and a lot of money. Unofficially, though, they use New Chartres as a base to launch independant slaving expeditions on the barbarian tribes that have established themselves inside the forests of Leminkainen. Guilds also houses small branches of the Scravers and Reeves and a few minor Guilds which have local importance, like the Society of Rangers, the Guild of Masons and the Cruisers. Of course the grounds are also rented to dozens of smaller guilds with very specialised interests and/or services.
The League : The League's official headquarters in Guilds is a small building on the harbour that looks very well maintained and has a big sign above it sayong 'League of Merchants'. The local branch runs all the estate's maintenance and rent collecting as well as the organisation of the League militia. For all intents and purposes, a crime commited in Guilds is a crime only if the League considers it to be a crime. There is in effect a local law completely independent from both the count's law and the churches edicts. For major crimes or indeed any situations where the league needs to react as one, a 'guild council' is gathered in the headquarters and votes on the issues at hand. This implies a bit of politicking but things generally run smoothly. Grendel is the local League official and he runs things efficiently and unemotionally. His job is to keep things running, and he doesn't care if the Musters use the harbour to ship slaves out of the area as long as they pay their usage fees.
The Charioteers : As might be expected, the Charioteers own a large portion of the buildings by the side of the harbour. Warehouses, repair facilities, a few cranes for really big jobs, an office and a resthouse for their members exclusively. They also sponsor the local tavern 'The Sailor's Wheel', and the barman there is commisioned to sell passage tickets on the Charioteer's barges outside hours or for customers who wish for something slightly less official. The local Charioteer branch is run by Master Jonah, a veteran of the Emperor Wars who has an exceptionnaly avute business sense. in particular, he has very quickly realised that, while it was fine to make the most of the de facto monopoly that the Charioteers have on all transportation from and to New Chartres, it was wise not to abuse the situation or local customers might try to find alternative solutions or become aggressive. In fact, there have been a few cases of sabotage on some of the Charioteer's barges, and these situations are increadibly costly as a barge that sinks generally blocks the Canal, stopping all transportation until it is clear.
The Musters : The Musters officialy own only a small office a few streets removed from the harbour. There they keep all their paperwork on casual labour and their advertisements for people looking for jobs. The business for temporary labour is quite good in New Chartres because the grape farmers and, to a lesser extent other fruit farmers need lots and lots of labour at harvest season and practically none at all at other times. And indeed, before the arrival of Omar a few years back, that was the only activity of the Musters around New Chartres. Now he has established a parallel activity which consists of capturing people from the barbarian tribes that have established themselves in the forests around New Chartres and selling them in other major towns as slaves for menial jobs. Most of the people who work for the official branch of the Musters are not aware of that and would be very disturbed to learn about it as most of them are the kind of people who would fiercely deny the Musters are Slavers and dismiss such accusations as being only fairytales. The Musters ship the slaves out on night barges in big cages covered in Tarpaulin and all the slaves are drugged to the eyeballs so they won't attract attention. The gathering and capture of slaves is not usually done by Musters but rather by local groups hired unofficially by Omar. (See Gahn)
The Scravers : The local scravers are few but they live well. In a city this size there is always money to be made scavenging. Recent rumours of Ur-Artifacts found in the hands of some barbarian shamans have attracted quite a few curious members.
The Reeves : The Reeves business in New Chartres is purely aimed at big customers : the three main Wine Merchants (Dalaney Wines, Kaloffi Bros. and Tanaki Wines), the bishop, the count and The Musters. Business is dealt quietly in a typical Reeves fashion : nobody cares where the money comes from and where it goes to.
The Society of Rangers : Because the forests of Leminkainen are not safe places to be, and because certain animals and substances in these forests are very valuable indeed, there is a lot of business to be made in helping people in and, more to the point out of the forest. The Society of Rangers is a reputable body of finely selected guides who know the dangers of the forest better than anyone but the best of the Count's hunting retinue. Their services don't come cheap, because there is only a limited number of them, but they are also supposed to do all they possibly can to get you where you want to go and back alive, even if their lives are at stake. You're unlikely to get such an offer from the barbarians...
The Guild of Masons : This body of architects and builders is a high profile group whose existence dates from the building of the Cathedral. These men guarantee quality, durability, made to measure buildings and, more to the point, absolute confidentiality. And in their vault they have indeed lots of secrets on the Cathedral itself but also on many other buildings in the city. Their business now has been mainly in the development of the city (the city has nearly doubled in size since the Cathedral was built) and they are trying to lobby the count and other Hawkwood authorities in Talmen to encourage big businesses to move their headquarters in New Chartres.
The Cruisers : The Cruisers' real name are the River Company, but everybody locally calls them the Cruisers. They buy the services of Charioteer boats to ship people up and down the river as well as organise pleasure cruises on the canals around the planet. They encourage tourism all they can and would be very happy for anything spectacular to happen in New Chartres for it would surely attract more tourists.
Seng Chang's Exotic Palace : This establishment is more a restaurant than a tavern although some people just go there to sit at the bar sipping a strange drink and enjoying the unusual atmosphere. In a town so much out of space routes, the exoticism of the Palace is even more striking and few people ever get jaded about the strange dishes, music and atmosphere. Seng Chang is a middle-aged man of oriental appearence (some whisper he is a Li Halan noble who fled the restraining life of his family) and increadible cooking talent. People who have known the establishement for long say that you can give any ingredients to him and he'll make a tasty dish out of them. To the great pride of the owner, the count is known to come here for an unusual meal once in a while. Local nobles, especially the younger ones, also favour this place over the more stuffy 'Count's Arms' the other side of the Marketplace.
Wines is a heavily guarded area, mainly because it is the most profitable district of the city. The patrol duties are shared by the count's guards and a militia, called the wine guard, established by the three main wine manufacturers. This militia just ensures that nothing unusual is happening and has communication methods in order to reach the count's guard nearly instantly.
Competition between the three wine manufacturers is fierce but in no ways unethical. They are all long established families of the city and they would suffer immensely if they were seen to behave in an uncommercial manner. Smaller wine manufacturers are also part of the picture mainly because they generally address a specific need of the market and because they rarely have the means to expand anyway. Generally, the main companies can be considered to be commercially driven in the modern sense : they sell wide range of products and, at the end of the day, their concern is their bottom line, whereas small companies usually produce higher quality products in smaller quantites and therefore address a more upmarket clientele.
The wine production sustains the economy in many ways, especially since any contracts with the main three wine producers usually covers huge volumes. Coopers, glassblowers, coal merchants, local transports and many other businesses rely solely on the wine industry for their survival. Apart from the three main Wine companies, most of the remaining activity is directly under control of the Count, although a few local companies a League affiliated.
Dalaney Wines : This is the biggest of the three wine companies and their success is due mainly to their excellent trading. They have managed to secure stable off-planet contracts for Purple New Chartres and this constitutes their main source of income. In fact, for this very reason, the company is considering a move of its headquarters towards Talmen. Although theoretically a Free-Trader as the League would describe it, Dalaney Wines is so dependant on the Charioteers for transportation that they are in effect controlled by them. Currently, it owns sizeable warehouses all over Wines, but no shops as they do not sell to customers directly. Dalaney Wines is owned and managed by the Dalaney family and has been for decades. Currently Elona Dalaney is the managing director but she is old and her health is not very good. There is doubt as to which member of the family will follow after her and there are rumours of intrigue in the family to attract her favours.
Kaloffi Bros : Kaloffi Bros. was originally a small family business that sold wine locally. Ethan and Noel Kaloffi were the founders and managers and they saw their great opportunity when the cathedral was built : guessing that the monument would attract not only pilgrims but tourists as well, they secured a deal with the local Orthodoxy to depict the cathedral on the labels and call their wine 'Cathedral'. They also became affiliated to the Charioteers. Their business hunch was justified and they prospered beyond their expectations. They trade their wine mainly to souvenir shops around the cathedral and to Talmen central and various other places around the planet. They produce and sell red, white and purple wine. They also have a shop in Wines where they sell special vintages and old preserves as well as a few liquors and spirits brewed from their wines. His brother Noel died a few years back so Ethan Kaloffi is now the owner of the company. He is an old but jovial man who has remained fairly open and simple despite his success.
Tanaki Wines : This company is mainly big due to local success : instead of producing high quality wines that they export, they produce average to good quality wines which they sell locally in enormous quantities, as wine has very much become part of every meal for locals in New Chartres. They own several shops around town, not all in Wines, where they sell mainly their own wines, but also certain famous vintages produced by smaller companies and various other alcohols, like beers and ciders that they import from Talmen. They have also secured contracts with many bars, taverns and restaurants for their wine to be sold there. The business is run by the whole family, with various members in various areas of responsibility.
Saint Geladi : This small company produces one of the most famous wines in Leminkainen. The grapes used are articularly fine, but also various spices are added in the brewing process which makes this puple exceptional in many ways. It ia a favourite of wine collectors as it ages very well and certain old and rare vintages can fetch upwards of a 1000 firebirds. The company only produces a limited number of bottles each year (namely 3000) and they are all numbered. The first bottle is sold on auction every year and can also sometimes reach increadible prices. St Geladi is ran by Ullan Thresmin, a middle aged winemaker who prides himself on the quality of his wine and does not wish for more success than he already has. Although the recipe is a well kept secret, some believe that he could produce more wine each year and only keeps the production low to make his vintage a rare luxury.
Tulmann Glassblowers : Tulmann is a big glassblowing company that produces bottles for most wine manufacturers in New Chartres. It's essentially a huge manufacturing building with furnaces running all day and all night and is considered a very reliable company by its clients. What the clients don't know is that the production facilities are currently stretched to their limits and that their have recently been some indutrial accidents. The owners have covered them up but if the news was to spread the company would probably loose business. There are plans to start a second manufacturing unit but this will take at least two years. In the meantime the managing council cannot reach an agreement as to what they should do.
Derek's Glass Curios : Following an industrial accident in which his left leg was burnt and mangled, Derek Manson lost his job but earned a sizeable pension from Tulmann's who don't want him to publicize the circumstances of his accident. Using this money he set up his own furnace and shop where he sells strangely shaped glass objects. In the few months since he opened, his vases and bottles have become very popular with the upper class ladies and he is making so much money that he's considering getting an apprentice.
The Paradise of Wine : This Restaurant/Wine Bar is the best place to sample the variety of wines produced in New Chartres. Merhan Koff, the owner, prides himself on not favouring one 'brand' over another : 'As long as a wine is tasty and adapted to one's meal, it deserves to be drunk.' This philosophy has made the establishement very popular not only with wine afficionados but with tourists also because there are items on the menu for all ranges of expense and tastes. When served with meals, the wines accompany local cheeses or delicatessen, and one is always well advised to listen to Merhan's suggestions. All kinds of people frequent the place except one which Merhan does not tolerate : drunkards. 'Wine is for the delicate palate and should be drunk in moderation' as Merhan keeps saying.
The origins of the cathedral have nowadays become a myth, even though it happened only a few decades ago and the main actor of the story still lives. The stories generally agree on the fact that young Brother Claytas had a vision and that the Pancreator told him that he would be the one to build the greatest monument in his name. Claytas travelled the land gathering the faithful and reached the provincial town of New Chartres. There the gathering started working and built the Cathedral in a bit less than a year. The truth is slightly more realistic : Claytas reached New Chartres and negociated with the Reeves to finance the building of the Cathedral from which they would benefit greatly as a side effect of the inevitable increase in popularity of New Chartres. The Guild of masons designed the plans and directed the work and during the earlyt stages of construction, a lot of prople arrived to help with the building in exchange for food and shelter. This helped with the construction which lasted a little under 5 years (still a miracle in many ways !) Soon after the completion of the cathedral Claytas was named Bishop and became the youngest Bishop to be ordained on Leminkainen. The Cathedral quarter (generally called just 'The Cathedral') grew around the holy building quite fast, first to accomodate pilgrims and tourists and later through the settlement of two monasteries, the Brothers of the Holy Gate and the Purple Monks. It is now a busy area, although there seems to be an aura of serenity around it and rarely do troubles occur in the area. The streets are cobbled and closed to any vehicles except on church business, and the whole area has the feel of a medieval town (or at least what people believe to be the feel of a medieval town).
The Church maintains its own guard, mainly to keep its buildings secure but sometimes to apprehend people that the Church authorities would not see falling into secular hands. By a tacit (if grudging) agreement between the Church and the Count, the Church Guards have effective policing authority in the Cathedral quarter, although legally the Count's guard has precedence and is entitled to step over the Church Guards.
Saint Gildas of New Chartres : The Cathedral itself is a superb building made entirely og purple stone. It stands in the middle of a large square of cobbled stone where there is often souvenir merchants and artists performing for the public and the tourists. Above the entrance door is an immense rosace of stained glass which, on a sunny day, illuminates the whole of the inside of the cathedral. Many sculptures adorn the inside and outside walls of the cathedral and it is rumoured that many of the architectural oddities were designed using great masonic secrets...
The priests that attend to all the church business and celebrations live in quarters lying under the cathedral and indeed the bishop has big living and business quarters there. These can be accessed from the cathedral itself but are guarded by members of the Order of Saint Gildas, a group of the Brother Battle who are dedicated to the safekeeping of the Cathedral and its relics. The latter have been donated to the cathedral over the years and include the hand of Saint Gildas, and a piece of cloth from the Prophet's robe.
Recently, Bishop Claytas who is getting very old has not been seen publicly. Services are held by other priests and people think that he is very ill. Some of the young priests though are surprised by the fact that the bishop seems to live in complete seclusion and sees only a few priests and the head of the Order of Saint Gildas, Brother Antonius. The novices know better than to question, though and whatever mystery is hidden there remains so.
The Brothers of the Holy Gate : The Brothers of the Holy Gate are an orthodox order of contemplative monks. They live in a monastery closed to mundanes on one of the sides of the cathedral square. Their rule is harsh and involves long periods of silence, fasting and various penences for the sins of mankind. The Brothers' rule is rumoured amongst well-informed church members to develop the soul and therefore facilitate the emergence of theurgical powers. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that Father Renaldo, the previous head of the monastery, was considered a theurge of increadible power. Father Renaldo disappeared in mysterious circumstances and no one in the monastery or the church hierarchy in New Chartres likes to discuss this with outsiders. The current head of the monastery is Father Lebrun. Note that the monastery is not the only one of this order and there are several others both on Leminkainen and off-planet.
The Monastery of the Purple Monks : The Purple Monks are an odd lot, even by Church standards. Not that their behaviour is anything but holy, but they do not seem to fit into any clear church family and although they adhere to the orthhodoxic dogma, they are completely misunderstood by other branches of the Church.
The Purple Monks have inherited their name from the fact that they wear dark purple robes at all times. The monastery was opened and led by Brother Django a few years only after the completion of the Cathedral. Brother Django and several other priests had helped a lot in the latter phase of the cathedral's construction and therefore when they asked the bishop to open a monastic order in his diocese, he accepted.
The monks are perceived by churchmen and laymen to be odd. They speak in very cryptic fashion, quote the scriptures in cicumstances when one would not expect, suggesting that their interpretation is not quite canonical. But they spend most of their time on the streets in The Cathedral quarter or in Bogs helping the poor and doing charities which, generally, most other churchmen in New Chartres would have them do. Many think that there is a mystery behind their strange behaviour, but no one so far has delved too deeply into it.
A few years after the monastery opened, Bishop Claytas started to regret having given his blessing to this order : the monks were behaving in odd ways, sometimes downright provocative and yet they were beloved of the population because of their charitable works and an arbitrary close down would have driven whole flocks away from the Church. The Bishop had been waiting eagerly for one of the monks to step out of line and be tried for heresy, but this is yet to happen.
The Inn of the Glass Rose : This Inn is located opposite the Cathedral front and is a very prosperous place indeed. It is a major tourist spot for its view on the Cathedral and rich pilgrims generally sleep there, as it is very comfortable (as well as expensive). It performs as a tavern during the days and evenings and as an Inn during the nights. The owner is Lady Amanda who has ran the place as long as its been up, and she makes sure that everything runs smoothly. The employees working for her don't like her very much but the pay is better than in most Inns, so they don't complain.
The Pilgrim's House : After the Cathedral was built, some people were quick to realise that your average pilgrim was more likely to be a poor man with a few clothes and worn sandals than a rich one with a horse. Unfortunately, these people rarely have much money. Originally, they had nowhere to stay which meant that they had to sleep in the streets. The pilgrims didn't mind but the good people of New Chartres did, so the Count offered grants for people to run shelters. Leon Small was one of the first to grab the opportunity. He was a pilgrim himself but he was waiting for an excuse to settle down. His place is cheap and clean, which is more than can be said of other shelters, and therefore very popular. The rooms are very small, though, and have nothing but a bed with a blanket and a chair.
The Pilgrim's House has become the number one choice for most pilgrims and therefore it is very often full. In fact it is so appreciated that sometimes priests from sects other than the Orthodoxy prefer to stay there than go in the Cathedral living quarters where they tend to feel ill at ease.
The Bishop's Cross : The Cross, as most locals know it, is a quiet, traditional looking place with (as might be expected) heavy emphasis on religious artwork. Reproductions of the greatest scenes of the Prophet's life hang on the walls and the general atmosphere is one of reverence. The menus are sober, if tasty and there is non of Seng Chang's wild abandon in the cooking here. The owner and chef is Maltin Bod, a middle-aged man who aspired in his younger years to become a priest but could not withstand the pressure of the seminarium. Once he had come to terms with his failure he decided to help do the Pancreator's will in his own little way : by putting his only clear talent, cooking, to the service of the church. He opened the Bishop's Cross and has had some measure of success, although Churchmen rarely go there. A few of the younger priests of the diocese have become regulars, though, sipping a quiet tea or discussing fine points of theology over a sober meal. This is Maltin's great pride !
In every city there is an area where people who have little or no money settle down, because they have nowhere else to go, or because at least there, they don't feel diminished. What is today the district of Bogs used to be a decent, if poor area of town. In those days it probably wasn't called Bogs but something a bit nicer. Unfortunately, that name has been forgotten along with the decency that no one remembers. About fifty or sixty years ago (about the time the Cathedral was being built) the sewer system under this part of town started to decay rapidly, due to lack of maintenance. Gradually, sewage water started filtering back upwards into the streets until the whole area became a stinking muddy ground. If it had happened overnight, the rulers of the city would probably have done something, but things went slowly and nobody noticed at first. The price of properties started to go down, and people who were struggling to pay their rents in other parts of town settled there. After a while, small-time crooks followed, illegal gambling houses were established, and within a ten-year period, the district had become the Bogs of today.
When the real causes of the decay were discovered, Count Xerxes tried to do something to rebuild the sewer system, but at the same time the engineers hired by the Count to survey the system discovered that the decay was spreading into other areas of town where it was still possible to prevent further damage. The credits were spent in prevention rather than repair, and Bogs continued to sink slowly...
As one might expect, a stroll in Bogs is anything but a pleasant experience, The smell is overpowering, most streets have a few inches of mud at the surface, but in certain areas it's more like half a foot to a foot ! Locals know all the areas to avoid and they also know where one can cross relatively dry. But they're not telling. One of the great pastimes is to give wrong indications to strangers and watch them fall into mudpits.
The locals are dirty, poor and fairly mean-spirited, mainly because they (rightly) feel that they have been let down by the successive counts. The only official presence of the Count's authority is the jailhouse, and patrols are confined to the main arteries of the district. The League, on the other hand, has a strong hold on the area, especially the Scravers and the Musters. The Scravers own most gambling houses, loan-sharks, debt collection agencies, pawnbroakers and the all powerful Sewer Company. The Musters have their headquarters in Bogs and use the district as a base for their expeditions into the forest.
The Cain : The Cain is a gambling house, the only one that has an official license in Bogs. The Scravers own it and run it, and the reason they do it above board, as it were, is that they can attract all the tourist business that way. The place apparently used to be called the Casino, but the neon sign at the front has two letters missing so it now looks like CA(s)IN(o), and people have started calling it the Cain.
This building is located on the edge of Bogs, not far from the marketplace, so the area around it isn't excessively bogged down. The Scravers have paid dearly to be authorised to repave the road from the marketplace to the Cain so that it is the only usable road in Bogs. This road has become known as Scraver Street, and most shops and businesses in Bogs are along that street (and most belong to the Scravers.)
Inside, The Cain is much more upmarket than the area suggests. It's a far cry from posh casinos elsewhere in the Known Worlds, but by New Chartres standards, this is still luxury. Most games that can be played for money are available on the main floor, but many more are on display in the basement, only accessible to 'special' customers. In there, bets can be placed on seriously illegal things like naked slave fights. Obviously, security is extremely tight and it is a tribute to the guards' efficiency that the operation has been running smoothly for the last twenty or so years.
The Cain is ran by Florian Zweiger, a high ranking Scraver, who ensures in many ways that everything goes according to plan. His efficiency is increased by the fact that he himself has very conservative tastes but absolutely no scruples. What he puts on offer, he never indulges in !
The Jailhouse : This is the place where criminals who are sentenced to imprisonment by the Count's justice are kept. It is not one of the harshest jails one could imagine, but neither are the conditions idyllic. In fact, the discomfort of the prison is due more to local conditions (humidity, etc.) than a deliberate attempt to make the inmates lives a misery. The jail is run by Anatoly Zuchiansky, a veteran of Count Xerxes' garrison. He's a very pragmatic man and a very good judge of people, so he'll give a good-hearted prisoner a break (within the limits of the law of course). A special jail garrison is kept here at all times and not many have escaped over the years. Anatoly's men are generally very loyal to him, and he recruits new guards personally. There are rarely more than a hundred convicts in the jail at one time or another, since the Count always tries to find other ways to deal with petty crimes and more serious offenders are used in forced labour in the local mines or executed.
The jailhouse itself is a sturdy and tall black stone building that seems to be slightly less affected by the local decay (Count Xerxes did make sure that the jail didn't sink like the rest of the area) There are always two guards at the front (and only) entrance and a patrol of four circles round the building. The local criminals know better than to do any crime within earshot of the jail guards as those have been known to arrest people.
The Sewer Company : Theoretically, the Sewer Company is just a Scraver owned group of plumbers, masons, etc. who rent their services to the Count and to any other private parties that need the help of sewer specialists. This vision is true inasmuch as the main parts of the city are concerned, but the truth in Bogs is very different : in fact the Sewer Company survives mainly because it rackets the inhabitants of Bogs : its power over the people is tremendous. Someone who refuses to pay can suddenly find their house stinking and sometimes even sinking slowly into the quagmire ; their local water supply stops functioning, etc. If they relent, suddenly things get better ! They exact monthly rents off most people and the 'collectors' as they are known locally usually travel by three, heavily armed and protected, so no one dares to attack them.
The Sewer Company is run by a small group of Scravers : Anna Lissova, Jeremy 'One-Eye' Jones, Heinrich Buttel and Draim Itchov. These four are the main profit makers in the set-up and they stand to loose everything if the Count decided to act against them. They are fairly confident that he knows nothing, but they remain very cautious nonetheless.
The Expedition Society : Officially the Expedition Society is a cheaper competitor to the Society of Rangers. In fact it is just the headquarters of the 'illegal' muster activities of New Chartres. It is from these headquarters that Omar and his men plan the slave expeditions in the Leminkainen forests. Omar is surrounded by quite a few tough men (and even a few tough women) and is currently considering using them to reap profit from the local inhabitants, even if it means starting a covert war with the Scravers (see Politics below)
The Count's castle is built on a rocky hill called Purple Rock. As the city developed, the Count's castle became the centre of a district of big houses where the rich and influential people live. The district looks like it comes straight out of a fairy tale : Tall purple houses bordering a spiral road that leads up to the castle.
The atmosphere in Purple rock, though, has little to do with fairy tales : no matter how much Count Zacharias would like things to be more equalitarian, he needs the nobles and the influential merchants to keep his city running, and these people don't want the rabble in their district. Therefore Purple Rock is guarded day and night and bordered by low barricades. People visiting are only let through if they look reasonably clean and if they bear no weapons. The exception is specific guests of the Count and nobles wearing their family weapons.
Purple Rock has very few shops and most of these are high class establishments, mainly tailors, perfume shops and various artists stalls. Once a week, the Purple Rock market is held on a quiet square halfway up the hill. The atmosphere is very different from the main market : it's clean, relatively quiet, the food sold is spotless but also very expensive (and probably tastes bland...), non-food items are usually expensive pieces of craftsmanship like ornate bottles, handmade dolls, etc.
Count Zacharias' Castle : Seen from afar, the tall purple spires of the Castle are reminiscent of fairy tale artwork. A closer look unveils the tight security of the edifice. The Castle is a masterpiece of architecture, combining aesthetic qualities with an efficient defence.
Legend has it that the Castle was built by Zacharias' great- grandfather Leopold during a time of fierce battles against the barbarians that had invaded Leminkainen. An outpost was needed to shelter the men and the best Hawkwood strategists were put on the case. Using the best technologies available, the castle was built in secrecy over the course of a year. No sooner had the Hawkwood Garrison settled in that the barbarians discovered the castle and laid siege to it. Leopold Hawkwood and his men managed to fend them off for months (there are, some say, secret passages leading from the Castle to the forest where the besieged stocked up on food and water) until reinforcements arrived.
The Castles most advanced defences are not visible to the naked eye but there are several laser cannons on the parapets that can be uncovered in a matter of seconds in case of an airborne attack. A special unit of Count Zacharias' men have also been trained on the usage of portable rocket launchers. All this is, of course not known to the population who would worry needlessly should they think that there is a reason why the Castle is so heavily defended. Apart from these special precautions, the Castle features a normal guard, men wearing studded leather armours and swords. Officers are equipped with guns as well, and there are several caches around the castle containing medical supplies and Elixir injectors. Residing in the Castle are the Count (50), his wife Eleanore (47), the Count's two young daughters Pricia (19) and Rapunzel (17), his son Leopold (26), his son's wife Selima (24) and their two sons Alexis (3) and Sharl (1). The living quarters are in the eastern aisle of the Castle and, although comfortable, they aren't luxurious. The Count and his family travel through Purple Rock generally unescorted and they only take a few guards with them if they travel to the main parts of town.
The audience chamber is a large hall with a dais on which the count has his seat (he doesn't like to call it a Throne...) Anyone is entitled to bring up their cases to him, from concert hall for famous and non-boisterous music. The Count is a great admirer of this form of Art and grants the Theatre some form of finance on specific projects that arouse his interest. He has a reserved box in the Theatre so he can come at a moment's notice.
The Theatre's management resides in special accommodation under the Theatre hall, but most of the regular actors can't afford to live in Purple Rock and so reside elsewhere. The Theatre does his best to maintain a steady stream of entertainment, at least one representation a week. If no wandering troupes show up, the resident actors perform some plays or local musicians are given a spot.
The owner of the Theatre, Landra Masseri, is one of those Masseri who know that their family is doomed. The bitterness that she resents, though, is expressed through the plays that she writes. She doesn't dare stage them here because she believes that their heavy political content would put the Count in an awkward position, and not only is he the main patron of the Theatre but also, she is secretly in love with him. She hates herself for harbouring such feelings, but she cannot help them. So she does her best to hide them, as she understands that this could be used as a political tool against the count, should there be any suspicion of adultery.
The Count's Arms : This Inn is just as much a restaurant for local nobles and rich merchants than it is a hotel for visiting high class customers. The prices are very steep, but the clientele is select and the luxury provided cannot be found anywhere else in town. One can generally find visiting Nobles staying at the Inn at all times, but in order to visit anyone staying there, one has to get passed the 'staff' who is instructed to only let in people who are obviously well-off, polite and clean (i.e. not scruffy adventurers !) The personnel is polite at all times, though, even when they kick you out !
New Chartres is laid south of the Canal, with only a few city dwellings on the northern shore. The northern road spires through the Purple hills, crossing many smaller roads that lead to great Wine farms. The Wine farmers are mostly serfs who work specifically for the Wine companies following agreements between the Count and the companies. They still legally belong to the Count but for all intents and purposes their masters are the companies. The matter of ownership of these serfs remains important though, because they can still appeal to the Count's justice, which forces their masters not to abuse them too much.
Because of the easy growth of grapevines on the Northern side of the Canal there are very few farms who produce anything else. In fact the situation is such that a sizeable proportion of New Chartres' food consumption must be imported from other fiefs, a situation which the Count does not like a bit. Recently he has started a discreet investigation on the reliability of certain farmers, intending to make them freemen provided they change their crops to food products and work for him not as serfs but as employees. Nazul Keddah, the Count's advisor, is in charge of finding these farmers. To the east of the city there are numerous villages surrounded by acres of farmland all used to feed the City. Unfortunately, these farmlands could only expand south, into the forest, but all the attempts that have been made at cutting the trees for farmlands have been cursed by adverse weather conditions, machines breaking down, peasants being frightened by ghosts, etc. The Count being a rational man is convinced that there is some explanation for these strange occurrences, but he hasn't had time to investigate fully, and in the meantime, development in this direction has stopped. In fact, such is the fear that the peasants have for the forest that they rarely venture more than a few hundred yards into it. They say that strange creatures live there, ready to skewer them and eat them raw if they venture too far. They are not entirely wrong : There are settlements of Barbarians living inside the forest south of New Chartres. They have been tolerated for centuries because they are uncivilised and do not own any technology.
In fact, for all intents and purposes, everyone has forgotten the Barbarians; everyone except the Musters, that is. A few years ago, when Omar took control of the local branch of the Musters, he tried to see where he could find slaves to sell on faraway markets. Unfortunately, with Count Zacharias' humanitarian principles in the way, he quickly understood that abducting a few peasants here and there would only get him into trouble. Fortunately, he heard about the Barbarians who had settled in the forest and quickly understood that no one would be missing them. He set up groups of thugs who unofficially work for him and these operate regular raids in the forest. They use stunner guns and similar non-lethal weapons against the Barbarians and bring back anyone they capture, male female or children. For two years his operation worked perfectly, and on average he would easily shift 20 to 30 slaves a month, discreetly getting them into specially appointed Charioteer barges and quickly getting them out of the city. Recently though, it has become more difficult and several of the thug groups have not returned...
Count Zacharias has ruled New Chartres for fifteen years now, since his father Xerxes' death, and by all accounts he has been a good ruler. His people love him and under his direction, Church, Nobles and Merchants have prospered and co-operated. Or at least this is what it seems like to the average inhabitant of New Chartres. The truth is more complex and unveils rifts between the factions and amongst the factions themselves.
The Count and the Church : The Count is first to recognise that the Cathedral is a great source of wealth for the City. He is also a devout believer and so their should be no disagreement between him and the Church. Unfortunately, things are not that simple. By Church law, the diocese is allowed to levy tax on all believers to maintain its estates and provide basic facilities for its essentially unproductive members. The levels of tax are determined by the local Church representatives (ie. the Bishop) and no secular power has a say in that respect. Unfortunately, the Count, who wants the best for his people, thinks that the tax levied by the Church are horrendously high. They have forced people who were on the fringe of poverty straight into homelessness and there is very little relief the Church produces. Furthermore, the Count does not understand where all this money goes : by all accounts the Cathedral is in need of a few repairs, but nothing that requires so much resources. This subject has become a bitter argument between the Bishop and the Count, and even though openly they seem to get on well together, the Count distrusts the Bishop more and more every time they meet, and the Bishop hates the Count for meddling in his affairs. The fact that the Count and his family seldom attend religious ceremonies in the Cathedral anymore does nothing to ease the tension.
The Church and the League : The Church is in dire need of the League in New Chartres, more probably than anywhere else in Leminkainen : a great majority of the pilgrims who visit the Cathedral and therefore contribute to its notoriety and wealth come by boat, a means of transportation exclusively controlled by the Charioteers. Very early on, the Bishop relieved the Charioteers of Church tax, a situation that soon extended to all the League businesses when the Reeves offered him huge loans at low interest rates with no questions asked. The arrangement is profitable to all, but the Bishop sees it as a failure of his not having been able to maintain his hold on the League. He would love to find an alternate means of shipping the pilgrims in and then excommunicating a few of the Charioteer leaders for various reasons.
The Count and the League : The Count has very little power over all League business. Guilds is an enclosed quarter where his guards cannot go without Grendel's authorisation. The Count doesn't like the situation because he feels it weakens the grip of his law enforcement forces, but there is not much that he can do about it. The Charioteers are the main power behind the League presence and their monopoly of transport ensured their continued presence. Master Jonah, the head of the local Charioteers has ensured a very good working relationship with the Count, though, as he understands that it is better for his guild to have good conditions and cooperate with the Count rather than to ingratiate him and bring a situation of potential conflict. Therefore he always pressures the Guild Council to hand back escaped criminals to the Count, for example.
The Count, unhappy that he is about the situation, tries to make the most out of it rather than wasting his time. A secret agreement with the Charioteers ensures that they keep him informed of any nobles who come into the city and that they act as spies in order to warn him of potential troubles. The Charioteers are only too happy to perform this task for him, although they do not tell him everything. Recently they have been divided as to whether they should inform the Count about large shipments that the Bishop has secretly brought in and stored under the Cathedral.
Another problem on which the guild council is divided is whether to help the Count in his attempt to make Bogs salubrious and inhabitable again. The Count hates to think that part of the City he rules is so run down and inhospitable. He also realises that Bogs is the centre of all criminal activity in the town and hopes that through the process of completely redesigning and rebuilding it he will manage to clamp down on criminals. This is where the problem lies : such a great project would bring lots of money into the guilds funds, as well as potential affiliations if new businesses establish themselves in a renewed Bogs. Unfortunately, the Musters and the Scravers are perfectly happy with Bogs as it is, because there is very little police there and they control most of the illegal activities (gambling houses, whorehouses, local Mafia, etc.) So far there have been several 'delays' to the Count's plans but the Council will soon have to reach a decision...
The Charioteers and the Musters : Although there is full commercial agreement between those two factions, tensions are now rising due to various factors : first of all, Master Jonah and Omar hate each other with a vengeance. Master Jonah sees Omar as a greedy pig who has no morals whatsoever, whereas Omar sees Master Jonah as a weepy republican with no guts. They are both professional men, though, and try not to let their personal feelings overcome their business senses. There have been situations when tempers have flared during Council meetings, though.
Furthermore, it has become more and more difficult for the Charioteers to ignore the Slave trade that Omar has developed, and some of the Pilots are starting to refuse shipping the cages full of slaves (they are generally drugged to the eyeballs and camouflaged as primates during transport). The fact that more and more children are being shipped is no stranger to the outcry either. Master Jonah is worried that if the Count discovers the Slave trade he will rescind any ties with the Charioteers and try to find an alternate solution. As for Omar, he feels the wind turning and thinks it high time Master Jonah was out of the picture.
The Scravers and the Musters : Omar has decided recently that he could use his slaver task force to reap other profits by using strong methods to racket people in Bogs. Unfortunately, this activity is currently the strong point of the Sewer Company, but Omar sees the profits he could make, and considering he already has the personnel, he thinks he can start pressuring people. He's fully aware that the Scravers aren't just going to let the cash cow pass to another, but he's prepared : first of all, he has secretly hired a specialist sewer engineer and some masons and has managed to repair and protect his headquarters from any unfortunate 'sewer accidents'. His men are ready to start getting heavy handed, visiting people and 'protecting' them against the Sewer Company, in exchange for a financial contribution, of course…
Hawkwood Politics : Because of the historical origins of New Chartres, there is no land currently owned by anyone outside of House Hawkwood. The Count owns most of the lands around New Chartres but there are a few fiefs that have been granted to other family member : The village of Bauce is located some 10 miles east of New Chartres along the Canal and is a prosperous burgh ruled by Alexander Hawkwood, a Knight who performed well as Zacharias' right hand man during the Emperor Wars. The village of St-Quentin is nested in the purple hills north of New Chartres and lives mostly from the exploitation of an iron mine that was discovered some 50 years ago. Recently the old ruler Anton Hawkwood died of old age and with no descendants (his two sons died during the Emperor Wars) so the land reverted to the Count. Several Hawkwood nobles are vying for the rights to this land, but the Count hasn't made any gesture to grant it anew, to the surprise of many. During the Emperor Wars, Count Zacharias distinguished himself as a precious advisor to Alexius, and they became fast friends. Since Alexius has accessed the throne, there has been very little overt contact between the two, but a recent rumour has started to spread, according to which Alexius is about to call Zacharias to Byzantium Secundus for him to be one of his personal advisors. No one really knows where the rumour originated, and the Count says he hasn't heard anything, but there is a hidden fear amongst his people that he will leave. This is one of the strongest topics of conversation in taverns and bars lately.
The noble caste is represented mainly by members of House Hawkwood, but there are a few other nobles around, some who have close links to the Count or his family and some who are here for more dubious reasons.
Count Zacharias Hawkwood : Much has been said about this exemplary man. He takes the Hawkwood values to heart and tries to exemplify them both in his rulership and his personal life. Zacharias is 50 years old but he leads an active life and doesn't look his age. His hair are only now starting to grey and his deep blue eyes are as sharp as ever. He likes to dress in semi-military style clothes and always looks impeccable. He is a keen judge of people and generally knows after a short while whether to trust them or not. He is rarely wrong and that is what made him so valuable to Alexius during his ascenscion to the throne.
Countess Eleanore Hawkwood : The Countess is a mistress woman and although she deeply loves and respects her husband, she is no mean leader of men herself. During the three years her husband was serving alongside Alexius she maintained New Chartres in good order and even brought several improvements to the way the city was run. Although much less outgoing than her husband she is very much loved by the people. Countess Eleanore is tall and slender with long silver hair tied in a complex fashion above her head. Her dressing sense is the height of sober elegance.
Sir Leopold Hawkwood : To his father's pride, Sir Leopold earned his title not by being a Count's son but by serving Alexius as a Questing Knight. For two years he traveled the worlds righting wrongs and serving the Emperor, only coming home occasionnaly to visit wife and children. When his second son was born he decided to come back for good and has settled down with his family ever since. Leopold has many of his parent's traits but he has more of an adventurous spirit. His wife Selima is an al-Malik and some Hawkwoods frowned upon the union, but after having met her once, Zacharias had only praise for her and blessed their union. Leopold's dress sense is unusual for Hawkwoods : more flourished and free flowing, probably under the influence of his wife. He is a young athletic man with short dark hair and his father's piercing gaze. He always carries by his side a sword that was given to him by Alexius wheb he joined the Questing Knight.
Lady Selima al-Malik Hawkwood : Lady Selima is a charming and chatty woman who has instantly seduced most of the Hawkwood court after her wedding with Leopold. She is a petite woman whose main physical feature is her smile. She wears brightly coloured ample robes which would normally clash in Hawkwood surroundings but are worn with such grace that no one bears her grudge for it. She is completely uninvolved in family politics and in fact comes from a small branch of the al-Malik and therefore does not represent much of a political pawn. What very few know besides her husband is that she is a potent psychic. Her personal code of honor stops her from abusing these powers but if her husband or children were in danger she could become a relentless foe. She has detected psychic sensibilities in her younger son Sharl and has started to make him aware of his powers.
Pricia Hawkwood : Pricia is a quiet and graceful girl who remains very much in the background. She can get involved in conversations and is very intelligent, but she finds the backwater life of New Chartres uninteresting and dreams of leaving for Alexius' court where she could be lady in helping of some great Hawkwood Lady and have a chance at last to meet her Prince charming. She hopes that her father will finally realise this and send her away but the thruth is he likes her very well and is reluctant to let her go, knowing like he does that Alexius' court is far from being the fairy tale court that his daughter imagines. Pricia is a tall slender girl with long auburn hair. She likes wearing long dark robes and make-up and is never boisterous like her younger sister is. Despite their differences, the two sisters love each other very much and share their every secret.
Rapunzel Hawkwood : Rapunzel Hawkwood is the absolute opposite to her sister Pricia : she dresses like a boy and spends her time in rides and visiting the rough parts of town for a thrill. She has also had several relationships with boys and indeed men who have never suspected her identity (she looks completely different on public occasions !), but nothing serious. She dreads having to one day go to court and therefore hopes that her father will never send her. She dreams of joining the Questing Knights like her brother did, but suspects that her father wouldn't be in favour of that. Her parents know nothing of her expeditions because she has discovered one of the old passages to the forest and uses it to get in and out of the castle unnoticed. Only her sister Pricia knows about this and she would only tell if she though Rapunzel was in danger. Rapunzel has long blonde hair that she wears in a pony tail when she's on her own. Her eyes are deep and troubling and she always wears a sword by her side (and indeed, she knows how to use it very well !)
Alexius and Sharl Hawkwood : Leopold's two sons are as different as Zacharias' two daughters : Alexius, who is now three, is a loud and adventurous toddler who is under his nannies' constant surveilance. Sharl, on the other hand, is a quite baby, so much so that doctors have suggested he might have some hearing problems. Lady Selima, his mother, suspects that the reasons of his quietness are other, but she's not telling...
Sir Gerard Hawkwood : Veteran of the Emperor Wars, Sir Gerard Hawkwood now leads the Count's guard. He is a hardened but fair man whose manners and appearence are a bit gruff, but whose efficiency no one questions. He is often seen by the side of the Count and unofficially acts as one of his most trusted advisors. He is great friends with Roman Tannhausen, the Count's official advisor and they are known to spend evenings together in the guard room or in various taverns playing chess.
Roman Tannhausen : House Tannhausen was a minor house before the Emperor Wars and was wiped out completely during the conflict. A few members of the house remain, scattered throughout the galaxy, for all intents and purposes they are now freemen. Roman Tannhausen is an old man who has been by the side of the Count ever since Zacharias saved him and his family during a Decados raid in the early parts of the Emperor Wars. His wife died of old age a few years ago and his son and daughter are travelling the Known Worlds, so he does his best to counsel the Count in his affairs and acts as a gentle old friend to the Count's grandchildren. Roman doesn't think he has much left of life to live and if it comes to it he will gladly sacrifice his life for him or any member of his family.
Sir Gunther Decados : Gunther is a young and devious Decados who has recently settled down in New Chartres, much to the disappointment of many a Hawkwood. He has proved himself to be charming and witty, though, and does not present any of the outward repulsiveness that some of his House are famous for. In truth, he is the most devious of the lot, a trained infiltrator and spy, member of the Jakovian Agency and is currently trying to find ways to get to the Emperor through his good friend Zacharias Hawkwood. Sir Gunther has made many contacts and friends amongst the lowlife of New Chartres as well as an interesting working relation with the Bishop, but he has kept a very low profile and is thus unsuspected.
The main presence of the Church is, of course, Orthodox, although a few other branches have settled in New Chartres and around it. The Bishop has managed to maintain a majority vote in the Inquisition Synod, but only barely and he must sometimes make concessions to keep up his power there. This means that there has been no major opposition to the presence of several Temple Avesti representatives who stamp out the influence of barbarian beliefs on the local faith.
Bishop Claytas : Bishop Claytas was always an ambitious man. Those in the know may say that his ambition has always by far surpassed his faith, but they would not expect to live long after that... Indeed, everything seems to have gone the right way for Claytas, from his early preaching for a Cathedral in New Chartres to the increadible resources that the local Chirch has had to handle in later years. The truth is, until a few years ago, Claytas was essentially a ruthless and efficient manager who ran his church like the Reeves run their banks, with one objective in mind : profit. Very few people realise this, of course, and the Bishop's personal history is shrouded in Legend, some spontaneous or true, and some invented and spread by the Bishop's minions. Some in the Church itself suspect, or know the real aims of Claytas, but he is too popular for anyone to dare move against him.
In the last few years, the Bishop's incisive mind has dulled a bit and become slower. He has started enjoying the pleasures of life in an excess comparable to his early austerity, and the need for money has risen accordingly. This is why he has been pushing for higher tithes against the Count's will.
These days, the Bishop is seldom if ever seen by the populace, and only a few of his trusted advisors see him on a regular basis. His quarters lie under the Cathedral and are heavily guarded. Deacon Jones is his 'right hand man' and deals with most requests to meet the Bishop (people are generally not allowed to see him)
Deacon Jones : Deacon Jones is a fierce and violent man, a man with a grudge. He always wanted to become an inquisitor, but even Temple Avesti found him too violent and he was refused entry in their ranks. He undestood then that showing his inner rage openly would only get him into trouble and he joined the Orthodoxy. Early on in his training he was spotted by Bishop Claytas who saw in him a man who could support him and be easily manipulated. Deacon Jones is a strong and martial man, with a crew cut that emphasizes the angular features of his face. He always carries a sword by his side and has an energy shield on his at all times. He is authoritarian and sometimes downright violent with novices and that probably explains why he is not best liked by them.
Brother Django : Brother Django is an old and odd man. Many would say that the Head of the Order of the Purple monks is senile but for the fact that he has always behaved in such a way, even when he was 20. His age does not show, though, and even though he is as old as the Bishop, he looks no older that 50.
A few years after the Monastery of the Purple Monks opened, Bishop Claytas started to regret having given his blessing to this order : the monks were behaving in odd ways, sometimes downright provocative and yet they were beloved of the population and an arbitrary close down would have driven whole flocks away from the Church.
Brother Django himself is often seen wandering through the streets of Bogs or the Cathedral quarter, and he is a man that many both fear and love. He seems to know things about people that only they know, even though he has never met them. He rarely speaks of those things in public but sometimes, people have taken offense at his comments and tried to kill him. Somehow, though, no one seems to have ever been able to do so. The Scravers have learnt to live with his preaching, although unconsciously they have probably toned down the shadiest aspects of their affairs out of guilt. As for the Bishop, he seems to have avoided Brother Django in the last few years following a conversation that no one overheard but seemed to have shaken Claytas considerably.
Django is a tall pale man with fiery black eyes, now bald but still strong looking. His expression is always one of gentle understanding, and he never speaks louder than a conversational tone, yet he is always heard.
Sister Theodora : Sister Theodora is an Amalthean priestess who moved to New Chartres following a request by Count Zacharias to the Amaltheans for a personal priest. The request enraged the Bishop and the Amaltheans nearly relented for political reasons, but then Sister Theodora received a vision of herself protecting the Count's children of a great plague, and she was sent anyway. Theodora is a gentle middle-aged woman with silver grey hair whose beauty has not so much faded with age as changed her into a motherly icon. She loves children and has earnt the affection of the Count's daughters and grandchildren. She reads more into Rapunzel's confessions that the child would like, but she says nothing.
Theodora is also a theurge of no mean powers, especially as related to healing and soothing. Her vision haunts her and she has tried to understand, through prayer and information, the meaning of this vision. She is also aware of a benevolent holy power in the forest, but she instinctively understands that this power wishes not to be disturbed.
The Old Hermit : Members of the Society of Rangers know that somewhere deep in the forest lies an old hermit who seems to have lost his mind and ignores them completely. Because he is unimportant and irrelevant to their tasks, they ignore him in return and thus this has not become common knowledge.
What nobody (apart possibly from Brother Django...) knows, is that the Old Hermit in question is none other than Father Renaldo, the founder and first Master of the Brothers of the Holy Gate. His theurgical powers are increadible and in fact could very well be unequalled in the Known Worlds, but as soon as his reputation spread amongst the inner echelons of Church power, he became a political tool against his will. After a few years, the pressure was more than he could bear, and he fled to become a hermit in the forest. His powers have stopped anyone from finding him, and the only company he gets these days is that of the local tribes of Barbarians who have slowly converted to his faith while keeping some of their traditions, a sort micro-Church which the Orthodoxy would very probably deem heretical.
The most important Guild in New Chartres is, of course, the Charioteer guild. It's not the most vocal one though, mainly because a large part of their business actually comes from the Musters' slave trade so that, in effect, the Musters are buying the Charioteer's co-operation.