Embrace 24: 'Neath the Proud, Proud Veins

These Flimsy Rituals

c/w bribery, death threats, family conflict

“Within a matter of weeks all manner of scandal and blackmail, violence and assassination incident brought the council to its knees. And we were left unsure as to whether to celebrate its demise, or fear what appeared in its place. The nim Shifs ascendant, a dictatorship ruled by Valour and Vigor. The Sunspear banners like summer’s flowers blooming on near every corner.”

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The streets of Acreage are broad and open. Despite the many-storied towering of the terraces, golden light always seems to bathe the ward.

There was a time when living in this ward wasn’t much coveted. It was a place of field, farm and vineyard; most of those who lived here worked on those estates. Limbus and Holm, both close to the bridges and markets, were the preferred wards of Embrace’s burgeoning middle classes.

But as fortunes grew and the city’s economy shifted, as political power diffused from Crown’s Ait to the Marrow, houses amongst the greenery seemed preferable to those amongst the new-raised factories.

It’s inside one of Acreage’s terraces that Neah Gorse waits. A trap closes around saim. Power’s hand extends from Crown’s Ait, to place a dagger against sair neck.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Altara nim Shif: Scion of the nim Shif family and their trusted enforcer.

The nim Gorse’s (Cherib and Zedek): Neah’s parents. They are respected members of Embrace’s upper-middle class.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

nim Shif: Embrace’s newest great family. Plotting to take over the city with silvered tongues and bloody blades.

~~ PLACES ~~

Acreage: Filled with farmland and vineyards growing crops for the city’s elite. Terraces on the riverbank house the upper-middle classes.

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Episode title from Lofticries by Purity Ring

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Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson

Series art by Ben Swinden

Music taken from Kai Engel’s Satin