Licc

''The tallest mountains upon Hearth tower here, forming almost a barrier across the equator. ''

''On its eastern plateaus lights flicker far brighter than a torch or lantern might, but almost with that of day. Individual plateaus number in the dozens, the largest a hundred miles across or more, linked by bridges of immense size and strength. Atop many of these peaks, lit only by flashes of lightening, are enormous pagodas, many stories tall and flickering with light and snow. Into the very heart of the mountain they spiral down. Down until it reaches the levels of the plateau, exits and entrances open all over the side of the carved rock, fortified with metal layed over the rock. In some manner these enormous sheets have been bent or carved with intricate scenes of great beauty and detail.

Around these entrances is a veritable city of stone and metal, as beautiful as it is sturdy. On the outskirts the stone and steel give way to more graceful homes of wood and cloth, paper and bamboo. Here there are terraced fields down the hills and mountains as far as the eye can see, as yaks clomp down along the well-maintained roads of bricks that are neither stone nor metal, but some kind of ceramic. Each brick is carved with a portion of the design that runs down the entire street in the semblance of some kind of river deity. In the overcast skies the road glows softly with a steady, faint blue-white light. Every where the street winds, and those that branch off of it, is a luminous glow that reminds one of veins through a body, or the roots of a great tree.

Here and there are tall structures shaped in various designs that compliment the surroundings, inside which are hundred of people tending plants in an indoor, climate-controlled fields of produce.

All in all it an oddly beautiful scene of the very sophisticated along-side the very primitive. ''

Licc is the largest city in the world, and by far the most advanced, along with being the most ancient still standing. It has stood since long before the comet and was almost completely unravaged by the effects of the fall.

It is one of the few human civilizations completely separate from the Empire, and refuses to even see ambassadors sent from Gelid Falls. In fact, Licc had only been rediscovered 500 years before, forgotten to time. Located in some of the mightiest, most treacherous mountain ranges, it is likely it might never have been discovered. Only a choice slip of the tongue by a Kenku trader speaking about a visit to the area revealed the fact that it existed at all. Self-contained and nigh unconquerable, even if Emporer Laffin felt the need to make the attempt it is likely that its isolation will remain forever unbroken.

Located on nearly the opposite side of the world from Gelid Falls, and and in the northern areas of the Ring, only the most persistent or desperate travelers and merchants visit. Even then, travel is usually provided by Blue Phoenices, which charge great prices for the monarch of Licc is as likely to turn a weapon upon them as not.

Inhabitants of Licc are actively discouraged from leaving, being told stories of the dangers and dishonorable ways of outsiders, and all are raised to retain extreme xenophobic tendencies. A minority however feel smothered by the realization that not even their earliest recorded ancestors have ever left Licc and have a need to know what the rest of the world is like.

Unlike all other human cities, Licc retains the knowledge from times before the come. The construction of grand structures of their ancestors still stand as a monument, and their technology has improved upon it to a startling degree. Massive bridges and walls are their trademark as well as strangely sophisticated devices of incredible subtlety and design. Masters of mechanisms and the principals of weight and balance, outside of Licc only dwarven experts can even guess at the subtleties.

They are lovers of tradition and aesthetic, so most of what they craft often looks primitive or purely artistic in design, but at its deepest level is very sophisticated. As well craftmanship is as important as the final product which is often a work of art. For example a carpenter of Gelid Falls would use pegs to keep together the beams of a home. A craftsman of Licc would never deign use nails but have the home fit together like a natural growth or jigsaw puzzle. A Liccan craftsman could also take a year to finish what an Imperial carpenter could do in a month, but what the Liccan built would last for centuries longer.

Banner/Colors: In their banners, art and symbols, Licc has displayed a black or dark red background with a jagged, many-pointed star-like pattern of white or yellow with streaking lines ending in irregular circles towards the bottom.

Population: 580,000; 100% Human (liccan).

Primary Language: Taegel (Licc Common)

Year of Establishment: 11,018 WT

Desire of the Edge
So long has the Iron rules of Licc been adhered to that few know why they were begun in the first place. Instead a culture was built up around it, of rigid adherence and honor to those who stayed to them. Already a people with a love of tradition, tradition became the most important facet of their lives. To never deviate from it, to remain strong, resolute and fixed. Unlike most strict cultures, the ways of Licc are adhered to with an almost fanatical devotion. From the crib it dominates their lives.

How did their society develop such a fevered following?

It all began with a flower.

Humans had lived in the area for many years, in a relatively fertile vale miles a few score miles to the south. A wiseman and herbalist of the people went out on a gathering journey every few months for the herbs that he used in his practice. A rare storm had built, and he knew better than to return off the mountain he had climbed until it had passed. All day long the storm raged and he huddled in his lean-to against the falling sleet. Shortly after dusk the clouds thinned and he poked his head out. He was surrounded by the ice, and every tree was coated in it. Only one thing threw back colors to his lantern. A small grove of spiky blue flowers growing from a crack in the mount and protected by a shelf of overhanging rock. Never having seen such a plant before he plucked one and tasted it. While the stem and leaves bit his tongue unpleasantly, the flowers were incredibly sweet smelling and tasted like heaven to his tongue. Gathering a number, he then returned to his lean-to for a night's sleep before his return. Upon awakening he looked for the flowers, though there was no sign, they had finished their bloom and were wilting with the morning light. Noting the place and details in a small book, he then began his way home. Several days later he returned, and wishing to relax after such a taxing journey he decided to see what a tea of the blooms might taste of.

Records are sketchy of what all occurred several days later when he was awoken from his stupor, but it is said that the herbalist was possessed by a demon of incredible power. With the opening of his eyes his entire home exploded outward and his waker froze into a stature before burning to a cinder. The herbalist screamed in horror at what he had done, but as he screamed, laughter was also heard on his voice. In the end, through accident or purposefully, much of the city was destroyed. As the remains lie smoking about him, he seized his head and the strange twists of light about him dimmed. The eyes that opened were not the blazing clarity they had been, but the terrified eyes of a gentle man. Grasping the blade of a soldier he had killed, he struck across his belly, spilling his bowels out across the street.

The ruling emperor ordered all contents of the herbalist's home be brought to the palace. Reading through the herbalist's notes, the Emperor sent men to search for everything the herbalist noted on his journey and forced a slave to drink or eat each one. They watched as he slumped into slumber after the ingestion of the flowers. Whispers began to be heard through the halls, and the standing guards started as they saw something out of the corner of their eye. They turn back around to see the slave standing, his restraints crumbling into dust. At a command from the Emperor they cut off his head before the slave realized what was occurring.

The Emperor hid the notes and had all knowing of the experiment killed.

For centuries only rumors were heard of this blossom from which could be brewed an Ambrosia. Many went seeking it, but none were successful until a young emperor made a desperate personal quest that was to be told for centuries. The Empress, a woman of no great beauty or station, but an orphan raised amongst the monks, with a voice as lovely as a loon and a love for her people, lay dying from an illness none could cure. The Entwined Emperors as they were known, had brought a golden age to their people, and their love was poetry in the lands. He found the flower and fed it to her. She slept for a week, before awaking on her own. The scribes took down the gasped words, though hard were they to understand. She spoke of prophesies and power and secrets, as she seemed to battle with herself in her bed. Then a calm settled over her that the Emperor did not like.

I must leave, my husband. I cannot battle this forever. I cannot hold onto myself. It... the inside... is too strong. I WILL BE MYSELF. I WILL FOLLOW THE PROPER PATH.

The husband begged her not to leave, and she begged him not to ask her to remain while such misery gripped her. He ignored her, for though he loved the empress, it was ultimately a selfish love. She realized what he was, and as a tear rolled down her face all life seemed to leave her. Beating his own head with his fists in emotion, the Emperor ordered the ambrosia be brought and he drank. Seizing his wife he shook her and her words seemed to moan through the heads all about in protest. A silent mental request to let her leave but the Emperor would not listen.

Like all those before him he was intoxicated by his power, the only exception his wife. She rose up and saw what he had become. They ascended above the mountains and fought for a month, the clouds changing colors as gold rained from the sky. Houses grew wings, the dead regrew their flesh, and music issued from the rivers. Then there was silence.

Neither able to win, the Empress had finally embraced her husband, but instead of becoming as he, she had tempered him, and let him see through her eyes. He in turn however had hardened her.

As they came down from the heights of the ambrosia they recalled all they had learned, and grew frightful of what they now knew. Their grandchildren, many generations along the line would die as the dying ember gave one last spark before going cold. Together they thought up a plan to save their people and the world. It would not be pleasant, and their would be great cruelty involved, but in the end they were forced to harden their hearts. Sometimes one must be cruel to be kind. And thus they became the first Emperors in the Iron Body of Licc. They passed on their knowledge by tradition and the ways of honor, only the Emperors knowing the truth behind the methods. Mankind was too weak, too undisciplined. Nowhere close to the will required to master the powers of the ambrosia without destroying themselves. Even with her great love and training within the monastery the Empress had only won out for a few moments. They must all be strengthened.

The first of the Iron Houses were built nearby the mount that housed the flowers. Then began the great cleansing. It started off small at first, but as the generations went by it became a rigid requirement. The weak, the deformed, the mentally unstable. All that showed the slightest deviance from perfection was either killed or banished from the lofty plateaus and mountain ranges. Instead they were forced to seek life from the blasted badlands where Hearth spat its bile from below.

With only the strongest, smartest, and ultimately 'balanced' of the people, progress increased as freedom and variance waned within Licc. As reason replaced superstition, and experimentation began, the current Emperor designated the people strong enough to begin experimentation with the flower. The tiniest of the substance was extracted and administered as powerful mentals joined their minds. After many years it was discovered that deep within all man are barriers and blocks. Valves that cut down upon the inner potential lest it be released. Even the most advanced psionicists lived with these blocks, but strengthened and learned from a lifetime to control larger and larger flows. Beyond these blocks however was the true depths of the mind, from which none could return, and no mind, no matter how disciplined would willingly throw itself down. The ambrosia, as it once had been known, was but a weakened and watered down application that led man to the edge of this hole and allowed them to peer within. Developed was a concentrated of the flower extract. The results were frightening, even to these Liccans who had by now thought nothing was beyond their reach, no mountain too high.

The mind of those who took the drug not only lost all fear of the deeps, but seemed to seek it eagerly, hurling themselves down it with a sort of passion. They named the flower and the drug it derived from in their typically poetic fashion; Desire of the Edge.

Power erupted over this edge, but with no mind to tap it, it was like a well of water and no bucket to draw it up. Volunteers seeking to regain their honor from crimes that would have them sent to the Bilelands were given mental training. Reflex and mnemonic conditioning that they hoped would allow them access to this power. It took years of study and experimentation before the discipline was perfected. Machines were devised and then designed to make use of the power that fairly bubbled up, though their true minds lost forever. A sort of cold fusion could be triggered and a new age began within Licc.

The current Empress, Dowager Deki now reigns and watches eagerly as advancements continue. What her people don't know is this is but one more step. Someday they will know how to reach down into the well of their own accord and bring it back. They will have discipline and a sense of honor to steady them. To not be driven mad by the power they posses. Then, when they are ready, mature in mind and body, and dedicated to the tradition and civilization that raised them, they will join together. They will reach out to the Dying Ember, and breathe life into it. They will bring youth to the sun.

See Far Realm for additional information on The Edge.

Government
Government: Licc has been ruled by dynasties for as long as Licc history as been written, though family lines have changed repeatedly. The current family has been in power for eight generations, though only the daughter survived to take the mantle of Emperor; an uncommon situation, but not one without precedent.

The Iron Body of Licc Licc is divided into five central sections that focuses on specific aspects of their society. They are the Hand, Heart, Mind, and Soul, ruled over by the Head, the Emperor or Empress. They are each small cities of their own, which overlap at the edge with the others. Those in the higher ranking offices test the Desire of the Edge drug, improving upon and testing it. From these main houses they branch into dozens of others that report to themselves, but ultimately to the Masters of the Houses, and they to the Head. It is a strict hierarchy that is carefully maintained.

Hand The Hand of Licc deals with the more physical aspects of its community. The military, the builders/mechanics, the servants and the slaves are dictated by the Masters of the Hand.

Hand/Heart - Prosthetics, surgery Hand/Mind - Kineticists, strategy, military college, applied philosophy Hand/Soul -

Heart The Heart of Licc are the doctors, sanitary workers, caretakers of children and elderly, morticians and overseers of the general health and growth of the city. Heart/Hand - Prosthetics, surgery Heart/Mind - Psychometabolism, natural sciences, biological research Heart/Soul

Mind The Mind of Licc run the universities and study the science of teaching. They are the inventors, astronomers, philosophers, librarians and researchers into clairsentient abilities. They study psionics and its potential. Mind/Hand - Kineticists, strategy, military college, applied philosophy Mind/Heart - Psychometabolism, natural sciences, biological research

Soul The Soul of Licc is much less defined than the other parts of the Iron Body, and many find them to be whimsical at best, but they play the most important part of all. They are the psychiatrists and spiritual advisers of Licc, as well as the artisans and musicians. They deal with that which cannot be measured, labeled or quantified. All children visit the monks for emotional training and psychological evaluation. There they learn ways to control their emotions, to be rid of phobias, and meditations to stabilize themselves in general. As such, nearly all Liccans are, to a degree, far more mentally stable than the other people of Hearth. Those that show relapses visit the monks after childhood from time to time, but if even that cannot quell their mental difficulties they are banished from Licc to the Bilelands. They are also the ambassadors, peacekeepers and diplomats of Licc. All told they are the oil that keeps the cogs of the society turning smoothly.

Government popularity: The Emperors and Empresses of Licc are considered nearly unto gods, and their power is absolute. They are not so much popular as raised to have no thoughts of ever questioning them.

Army and Enemies: Samurai are the common military man within Licc, who have dedicated themselves to protecting against anything that threatens Licc as a whole.

Paladins of Tyranny guard the royal families, the Masters of the houses, and those that can afford to pay them, protecting them from other families or heads who may wish to remove them due to rivalries, house infighting, and similar. These paladins have no compunction against doing anything that protects their ward. Many say they are soulless enforcers of the laws.

Ninjas are the assassins and spies of Licc. They are trained to battle the Paladins of Tyranny that guard those they would seek to kill. They are a gray area amongst the warriors of Licc, and the head Ninja is usually the Emperor or Empress themselves. They will not take a contract that the head does not approve. And then, she only approves if the death would not impact the smooth working of the city. There are rogue ninjas that answer to no one, but they must always be on the lookout of all the warriors and parts of the body.

A sect of monks are the peacekeepers of Licc, and enforce the laws. There task is to apprehend and incapacitate instead of kill, and thus rarely take up arms. In the event that a number of monks cannot deal with the danger the samurai are called in for a much rougher keeping of justice and peace.

Defenses: The heights of most of Licc alone is enough to deter nigh any enemies, though great walls and traps at the bases of these heights deter most. Licc also possesses energy weapons that can decimate anything of flesh and bone, wood and simple steel. Batteries of energy filled by those taken under the influence of Desire of the Edge.

Fighting Style: Weapons long forgotten by other peoples of Hearth are often in use by the people of Licc, such as nunchuku, shuriken and bolas. Ninja in particular are fond of this more primitive weaponry, along with poisons.

Samurai tend to bastard swords, short swords and large firearms, including Edge-rifles.

Paladins of Tyranny tend towards the larger blades and small firearms, including edge-pistols.

Society
Slavery: Slavery exists in Licc, though in no great numbers. They are generally the descendants of families who gravely dishonored themselves. Slaves of dishonored families will one day be allowed freedom once their debt has been paid.

Constabulary: Laws are generally upheld by a LN sect of peacekeeping Monks who if at all possible take lawbreakers alive and see they are brought forth before the courts.

Method of Execution: Executions are often as simple as shoving the condemned off steep cliffs, and quite a few spots are reserved for this very purpose. If even by freak chance they survive, the barbarians below are likely to find the injured criminal and either kill him outright or take them as slaves or food.

In a number of cases, if they show remorse or wish to remove their family from taking the dishonor of their deeds, it may be allowed that they kill themselves with any weapon they request. This is called the Ritual of the Thorn.

Organized Crime: Crime is not common, but there are always those who laugh at honor and spit in its face. Rogue assassins are the most common of these, generally ninjas who have been dismissed from their orders or lords and refuse to take other occupations. Organized crime is almost impossible within the rigid law system of Licc.

Various Laws: 

Commoners are not allowed to wield Edge-weapons unless they may prove themselves of particular loyalty to Licc and its monarch or have a long line of honored ancestors.

Common skills of inhabitants: Everything from fusion physics, arc welding and hydroponics to poetry midwifing and carving is to be found in Licc. They possess a greater range of learning than any race upon Hearth. Many tend to a simpler life, but all receive and education that rivals other peoples.

Clothing: Common citizen's attire varies widely, though those living within the mountain itself, and the city usually wear beautiful elaborate robes and dresses with scenes of incredible beauty stitched into it. In the outskirts where more time is spent outdoors, they often wear living coats of leather, fur, or even feathers grown as clothing in the needed size. There is not the slightest mind to these coats, possessing no nervous system. They live off special electrical current provided by miniscule cells within the coat that usually outlast the wearer themselves. As these coats are self-healing, they are cheap and plentiful, rarely requiring replacing or repair.

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The Plateau

The Plateau is a vast, flat area upon the tallest mountain within the boundaries of Licc. Upon it lives Tah Gaden, a monk who has inhabited it since time immeasurable, and is the founder of the ancient organization of Cloud Anchorites. Within his home he trains and teaches the dedicated capable of attaining its heights. It is said he can sense everything that occurs upon his mountain's surface and knows every crag and cleft in its surface.

Granted immortality by his mountain, he never leaves and has been known to say that if once a student can throw him off that person will become the new master of the mount. Few indeed have the skill to make the attempt and none the heart to do so.