Purestall, holy capital on the eve of war

The blood of the royal line is so holy that it transforms even shit into gold. At least, that's the theory.

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 Notable locations

1. The Plague District. Six centuries into the benighted past, before God cut off half of Her indivisible Being to become flesh, the wicked demon-emperors decreed that a thousand people must die here each year to fuel a magic which ordinary men are best not knowing. But the blood of the royal line is so holy that it transforms even shit into gold. The First Mortal Empress declared that the soil on which this tribute was demanded would become a hospice grounds for all the world. The old sacrificial pits and torture chambers were placed under interdict as the Necropolis of the Old Martyrs, and the dying given the honor of repose in the Necropolis of the New Martyrs. Riots run through the District on the latest decree that residents are to be drafted into a Blighted Legion "to enjoy two martyr's crowns for one death and put down the lese-majeste of the impudent southern Viceroy." Even still, many have signed up, providing one lens on this neighborhood of the damned; the districts numerous temples provide another; still a third is provided by the straightforwardly named Drink Yourself to Death Inn.
   
2. Sick Daughter's Rose. When a crown princess four centuries ago visited the Plague District, receiving the kisses of its residents, she fell ill. Heaven could not tolerate this pollution of the royal line, but nor could it condemn her deep humanity and compassion, and so she bloomed into a rose. Since the Southern Viceroyalty has kidnapped the royal family and is issuing false interpretations of their murmurings, the College of Oracles is consulting the openings and closings of the flower to determine God's Incarnate Will.
3. The Pansophistic Lyceum, long the Medithallassian region's premier academy of arts magical and mortal, has been closed after student demonstrations against current policy. Pons Asinorum, a student bar under a magical null field (do you really want that many drunk apprentice wizards together under other conditions), is now even more of a nest of freshly-unemployed young radicals.
4. The False Palace looks over the city. Even when the royal family did reside in Purestall, it did not expose itself by staying here, but in an invisible castle in the near countryside. (It is forbidden for anyone within a day's pace of Purestall to venture off the main roads, lest they reveal the True Palace.) The true and secret palace is a marvel, but the False Palace is itself a center of power and wealth - an important social space of the cadet branches of the Holy Line and center of administration.
5. Greenlodge is home to the Imperial Conistory of Druids. Just as the Imperial Consistory of Clerics negotiates with various gods and demons on behalf of the state, so does the Druidic Consistory do so with respect to nature. In practice, this mostly means maintenance and expansion of the canals projects that link the Great Northern Lake to the Southsea, and form the basis of the realm's material wealth. Like other institutions the Druidic Consistory has become less adept at its primary job as various cadet and merchant families have carved up its offices amongst themselves. 

Timetable

Absent PC intervention, tensions between the so-called Protectorate (based in the holy city of Purestall) and the so-called Viceroyalty (having kidnapped, or rescued, the royal line to safekeeping in or about Dogsmead) will explode into outright war within 2d12 months. 

A leapfrog system of canals connects the Southsea to Dogsmead to its rival city to the Great Northern Lake.