Welcome to Bridgeways

I’ve decided to give you a tourist’s guide for your next destination: Bridgeways. This information is for your perusal on an as needed basis, and constitutes something like common knowledge imparted to you by a combination of your Captain and the first mate Taz, both natives of the island chain who are excited to be on their way home. Also, lots of credit to JWW who helped influence the development of this locale – benny for him. My hope is this will give you something to refer to when you have questions about local issues, as well as give you the proper feel for this location. Be sure to also review details in the book – those are still relevant – if you have questions about things on bridgeways. Obviously, this isn’t everything, and if you want me to elaborate on something, let me know.

Geography.

Bridgeways is an island chain of wind-scoured stone ranging in size from small building to a few miles in diameter. There are a few dozen major islands in this system, and over 100 smaller ones. A complex web of black unmortared stone connects them and each bridge is etched with a finely detailed cog: the sign of the Artificer’s Hand emblazoned for all to see. Just as visible are faces of the Lady, carved by wind into the underside of most if not all of the islands. Most island bear one or two of the aspects, but all five are carved into Chimes, the highest island and her presumed seat. These aspects are visible from the islands below. Few maps can do this system justice since the chain extends vertically as much as it does horizontally. A complete three-dimensional magical map of the system of islands does exist in the Anvil, the most famous Artificer temple, but most times if you need to get from A to B, you hire a local guide or take a small covered ferry gondola for a few cogs.

Most of the buildings on bridgeways are low stone affairs dug into the rock, with little exposed timber or cloth, as the constant chill winds would likely damage such materials. Most of these exposed structures have been rebuilt many times using scavenged materials, so mismatched stone is quite common, as are damaged decorative or ornate pieces from long-forgotten castles and temples. Shade is provided in most places by the other islands in the network. Waist- to shoulder-deep trenches are carved under these shadows as ‘roads’ for safety in the open air. On the highest islands where shade is scarce, cramped tunnels are carved to get from place to place.

The bridges themselves are smooth stone, typically several meters wide and often quite exposed. The require little maintenance, but its not uncommon for steampriests or engineers to be found tending or studying them. Traveling across these bridges appears to be quite easy for locals, but visitors often find the experience unnerving, and falls are not uncommon. Guides will happily help you across with tethers during business hours for a modest fee.

Population.

Bridgeways is a human island system, with a small permanent dwarf population of about 1 in 20, one of the largest such populations this far up in the skies.

Roughly half of the people on bridgeways at any given time are not permanent residents. Most are religious pilgrims who arrived to see the many holy sites of the Lady or the Artificer. The rest are merchants, traders and independent ship captains. The TC also maintains a large presence here, and anchors its Ice Isles fleet here for repairs. This makes them a major political force in the island chain along with the two primary religious sects.

Locals tend to be extremely polite, even by standards of the always glowmadness-weary skies. This is often found disquieting to travelers, who find their earnest and eager behavior off-putting.

They also tend to be a highly superstitious people. Their proselytizing is renowned in the skies, and most of the ‘common sense’ wisdom of merchant skysailors is thought to have root among this people.

While most islands farm their undersides for fungi and use these areas for graveyards, this practice is not found Bridgeways. Some argue that this practice fell out of favor after a particularly bad incident with ghosts or the undead, while others say that it is simply a recommittal of the dead to the Lady that drives the practice. Either way, calling a local a farmer is the social equivalent of declaring them godless necrophiliacs. It is one of the few things that would likely result in an aggressive response and thus a word best avoided.

Religion.

While small temples to most of the gods can be found on bridgeways, it is thought be the Lady’s chosen seat, as well as a high holy site for the Artificer.

Although there are dozens of temples, the lady’s most holy site is Chimes, the highest island in the system. In addition to the wind-carved faces along the bottom are hundreds of chimes made of every conceivable material. These chimes are tended by novices sworn to silence, Drafts, who perform this service until they ‘entrust’ themselves to the Lady and plunge into the Void. If she buoys them to safety, they may join the order of ‘her’ choosing.

The different orders are often in conflict, sometimes including violent confrontations. That said, a single matriarch, the Windtalker, is selected by their god to oversee the Lady’s interests. Windtalkers do not tend to last long, typically a year or less, but outside of the order, little is known of why they perish so readily.

The church of the Artificer serves its god dutifully, but perhaps not with the zeal found in the Dwarven Kingdom. The bridges require little maintenance, and with the relative scarcity of metal here, the steampriests’ rites are largely ceremonial instead of the more practical forms found in the Lower Reaches. However, the steampriests and engineers here find the high amount of trade does allow for some interesting innovations, and make an effort to improve the lives of those who live in the chain. The high steampriest of bridgeways is a dwarf of the Gemhammer clan, known for their opulence, love of intrigue (by dwarven standards) and general distaste for non-dwarves. He does not tend to get along with Bronzeye, his Engineer counterpart.

Politics.

While many of the islands in the chain deal with their own minor problems by themselves, Bridgeways has 3 major political powers that divide the chain into 3 politically equal parts, governing their segments independently. On occasion, these three powers work together to makes decisions that affect the entire chain, such as trade arrangements within the chain, defense and building regulations. As of last news, the Lady’s Temple and the Trade Council have been seeing eye-to-eye more often, but like the winds this changes moment to moment.

The trade council controls many of the lower islands, and the larger shipyards. These islands are largely given over to their use, and tend to have a higher number of traders and merchants than the other areas. TC footsoldiers are far less common than in Shadowhaven, instead the police force primarily consists of marines and other irregular troops from their anchored vessels. The ships anchored here tend to have first-rate combat crews, trained by engagements with pirates and orcish raiders. However, this also means they are highly pragmatic when it come to application of the law, often bending the official rules for expedient results. The trade council leader in Bridgeways is always the most experienced military commander currently in port, leading toward awkward changes in policy as captains of different minds come and go with some frequency.

A narrow band near the center of the chain is controlled by the steampriests of the artificer. Their primary temple and seat of government is the Anvil, which is only one bridge away from the famous Workshop. While of only middling size, the Anvil has more connections than any island in the chain, and is well trafficked. The steampriests tend to be more lax than the other regions perhaps to induce traders in relics and other plundered goods to their bazaars, but it also results in increased nonviolent crime. Engineers have outfitted a small but effective soldiery with decent equipment, making their constables dangerous to tangle with in an attempt to secure their trading hubs. Gemhammer represents the Artificer’s people to the factions as necessary.

The windpriests are the stern but fair authority in the highest reaches of the island chain. By far controlling the most area and having the most influence among the common people, they are often considered by outsiders to be the only rulers of the island. Since they do not believe in restrictions of freedom, The Lady’s guardsmen are all volunteers, often including layfolk, bearing a white sklyer feather as their badge of office. The church has a near constant series of rites for one aspect or another. The Windtalker serves as their representative to the other factions.

Culture.

Even though the islands are permanently connected, most islands have their own cultural groups representing their own local interests and trades. These neighborhoods are often quite competitive and meet often with their neighbors for sporting events and other competitions. Neighborhood colors are often worn by locals of that region to denote their civic pride, and often young men of an island will band together in competitive civic organizations that maintain the bridges at night, and look after their community’s interests.

The people of Bridgeways are renowned for being superstitious, often quoting parables and warnings to those around them. However, the thing that is most readily observed among the locals is a syrupy politeness that is hard to take for long. This is largely a defense mechanism – with half the folk on Bridgeways being travelers, glowmadness is a constant concern, and fear of being mistakenly tossed in one of the innumerable cells that dot the islands to calm down keeps them smiling.

The weather is often cold and always fickle, so most locals wear outer clothing made of long wrapped cloth, typically strips of old sails. This allows them to cover extremities as needed, without the need for hats, bulky coats or heavy pants. On calm days, this cloth is wound around their middles in a neat if bulky bundle.

Being a twice-holy city, the citizenry is also typically rather devout. Like all people of the skies, they worship the lifemother, but most islanders also worship one or more of the facets of the lady as their patron aspect. Public prayers are given throughout the day, and holy relics are found throughout the city. Festivals honoring each of the ladies aspects can last days, and tend to be accompanied by odd weather phenomena. The artificer is more distant, and his works, while obvious to all, are often overlooked by comparison. The steampriests still provide numerous blessings for his followers, and offer what technology they can with the limited resources at their disposal.

Trade.

While just about anything can be obtained somewhere on bridgeways, finding it may be quite a chore since there are dozens of bustling ports throughout the city. The lower island shipyards tend to deal with basic materials, while relics, artifacts and salvage are major commodities for the artificer’s people. A key resources can be found in the Hatchery, where windsilk worms produce their vital material.

The worms themselves are roughly the length of a man’s arm, a green-yellow color, and smell particularly pungent, like week-old barbequed pork. They are the larval form of a rather nasty breed of glimmerwing, and are typically killed after a single breeding cycle so as to minimize danger to the citizenry.

Food and water are major trade items in bridgeways; hoarding water is seen as a sin, a lack of faith in the Lady’s bounty, and food is not grown on the island for similar reasons. Trawler fleets are often immense, hunting skyler and collecting vegetation that travels on the airstreams nearby.

Much trade is devoted to ‘services’ for pilgrims and the skysailors that bear them. In addition to inns, troupes, small arenas, taverns and gambling halls, Bridgeways is known for its ‘Sand Castles’, bathhouses that have comely lasses ‘wash’ weary travelers with gritty pumice scoured from the rocky faces of islands.

Your captain informs you that you are arriving a day or so before the beginning of high holy festival of the Lady’s Daughter aspect: The Week of Eddies. The winds are expected to be unusually warm and calm for an entire week as ceremonies center around the daughter’s gentle blessings. In addition to the extensive religious feasts and public rites, there will also be extensive secular festivals as well, including footraces, dances and musical competitions. Additionally, Taz warns that trade will be all the more busy with the extra pilgrims arrived for the festival, so basic resources may be scarce.