Whitestone (Tal'Dorei)

Formerly an independent city-state, Whitestone joined the newly reorganized Republic of Tal'Dorei in the years after the Chroma Crisis of 811 PD.

Description

Whitestone is nestled in the valley of the Alabaster Sierras, its walls closely surrounded by the trees and hills of the Parchwood Timberlands. The roofs of its buildings extend outward, resembling reworked, long-disused ships. On a hill to the north of the city sits Whitestone Castle.

Whitestone maintains a small amount of farmland connected by trails to the south of the city. The city is roughly split into four districts: the Northern Ward, Dawnfather Square, the Common Ward, and the Southern Ward, which was created between 812 and 836 PD.

Northern Ward

• Whitestone Castle: The seat of government in Whitestone and the home of the de Rolo family.
• The Heart of Whitestone: An intricate clock tower in the Forlington Square, built and designed by Percival de Rolo, that was finished around 831 PD. The clock tracks the movements of the moons, stars, and spheres, and depicts famous moments and people in Whitestone history. It stands almost three stories high.
• Lord Trinket's Public Park: After the Whispered One's defeat, the section of the Parchwood to the west of the city was cleared, anticipating a major expansion. However, more of the Emonian refugees left the city than was predicted, leaving these plans untenable. At the request of Vex'ahlia, the space was transformed into a public park for Trinket to play in. The park also features a marble statue of Trinket in its center.
• Galdric's Gate: The newest northwestern gate of the city, leading to the Timberland Trail.
• Beyond the Horizon: A curiosity shop, ruined during the Briarwoods' rule in the city.
• Pike Trickfoot's home: In 843 PD, Pike's thatch-roofed cottage was located in a beautiful neighborhood in the northwest side of the city. It sat on a small hill surrounded by a garden, was covered in ivy and flowers, and was topped by a symbol of Sarenrae. The interior was warm and welcoming.
• Gilmore's Glorious Goods: This establishment is run by Jerry while Shaun Gilmore is away.

Dawnfather Square

The Square surrounds a small hill and was the central district of Whitestone in 812 PD.

• The Sun Tree: A tree sacred to Pelor, created by the sun god at the intersection of powerful ley lines. Although it was almost killed by the unholy desecration of the Briarwoods, the Sun Tree was recovering by the time Vox Machina returned to Whitestone. After it recovered, the Sun Tree grew radiant orange leaves and small white flowers at its crown.
• Slayer's Cake: A bakery owned and partially operated by several members of Vox Machina.
• The Tipsy Quorum: A tavern run by Shauna.

After the deaths of Darius and Frida de Rolo, the founding lord and lady of the city, a statue of them, made of whitestone, was built in the center of town.

Common Ward

Previously the southernmost ward of the city, it has since become the city's center.

• House of the Lawbearer: A temple dedicated to Erathis, formerly called The Lady's Chamber.
• Grey Hunt Manor: The estate of the Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt. Rarely occupied, it is sometimes used as a formal meeting place for the Grey Hunt.
• Keyleth's home: Located near Grey Hunt Manor, close to a hidden Snowdrop Memorial Trail in the Parchwood Timberlands.

Southern Ward

The Southern Ward was built after 812 PD, to accommodate Whitestone's growing population.

• Hearth of the Everlight: Built by Pike Trickfoot following the defeat of Vecna, this humble temple dedicated to Sarenrae holds monthly celebrations as part of their worship.
• Horizon Temple: Built between 836 and 843 PD, this temple dedicated to the Changebringer is placed on the southern edge of the city-state, in the intersection of five different streets; each exit leads to a road, including the one leading to the southern exit of Whitestone. Inside the cylindrical temple there is iconography of the Changebringer, and people leave trinkets and small treasures as offerings.

Parchwood Timberlands

The timberlands surround Whitestone. The forest is dense, thick and looming and completely encompassing the exterior of the city walls. To wards the south the forest is cleared for farmlands.

• The Greyfield: The city's graveyard, located to the northeast just outside of the city's walls. It is surrounded by iron gates, and contains multiple graves, statues, and mausoleums, as well as some temples.
  • The Zenith, also known as the Temple of the Dawn: A temple of Pelor.
  • Altar of the Raven: A temple honoring the Matron of Death and the Champion of Ravens
• Snowdrop Memorial Trail: A private trail made by Keyleth through the woods connecting Grey Hunt Manor to the Altar of the Raven. Snowdrop flowers line the trail, dedicated to Vax'ildan.
• Eastern Ruins: The first attempt at expanding Whitestone in 812 PD, these half-built ruins are the result of monstrous incursions that ended expansion of the city in this direction. Secretly, the Grey Hunt have made their base of operation in an undedicated temple in here.

Demographics

Whitestone was a small city in 812 PD with about 4,230 inhabitants. Most of the citizens were human (83%), with the rest of the population made up of halflings (7%), dwarves (6%), and other races (4%).

Following the Chroma Crisis, Whitestone had a boom in population. By 836 PD, it had grown to 17,710 inhabitants. The majority population was still human (78%), with a notable increase in the tiefling population (4%). The remaining citizens were made up of halflings (7%), dwarves (6%), and other races (5%).

Leadership

Prior to the Briarwoods, Whitestone was ruled by the de Rolo family.

During the Briarwood years, Sylas Briarwood and Delilah Briarwood installed themselves as the Lord and the Lady of Whitestone. They granted land and titles to several of their subordinates, particularly Countess Jazna Graben, Sir Kerrion Stonefell, Duke Goran Vedmire, and Count Tylieri.

After the liberation of Whitestone and on Percy's recommendation, the city adopted a council-based government rather than returning to de Rolo family rule. Percy's initial thought was to compose the council from a notable member of each of the farming, economic, religious, trade, and citizen communities, as well as the noble one from the de Rolo family. Together, the council would make decisions with one vote from each member, and any tied votes would be resolved by the noble. Cassandra de Rolo agreed to serve on the council, as did Keeper Yennen, if the people of Whitestone consented to this new government. This ruling council is called the Chamber of Whitestone and (as of 836 PD) has seven members, among whom are Percival de Rolo and Vex'ahlia.

Acting on his own without consulting the council, Percy later granted Vex'ahlia a title: Lady Vex'ahlia, Baroness of the Third House of Whitestone and Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt. Percy did not at that time mention the duties, privileges, and relationship to Whitestone's ruling council that this title might include, nor whether the council must officially approve the granting of such titles; however, the title seems to have been supported.

Due to the fear of magical espionage, the council began meeting within the anti-magic field underneath Whitestone around the ziggurat.

Houses

There are three great houses in Whitestone that belong to the de Rolo family. Each one of them has a specific function and an individual title that can be granted by the lord or lady to whomever they wish, with the approval of the council:

• First House of Whitestone: The original settlement connected to the title that goes to the head of the family and their consort.
• Second House of Whitestone: Acquired or created by the de Rolos between 612 PD and 730 PD.
• Third House of Whitestone: Created by Lady Melanie de Rolo for her cousin Ivan von Musel, and for a time it belonged to his family, but eventually the de Rolos claimed it again.

Nobility

The de Rolos were the founders and ruling family, having a position similar to royalty in the city-state of Whitestone. The city also has had several noble families with their own mausoleums in the Greyfield. The Klossowskis and the von Musels had influence in the city-state when Lord Frederick and Lady Johanna were still having children. The Anders were among the lesser nobles of Whitestone, but after Byron Anders disgraced the family they became, in Percy's words, "forfeit", and their crypt was given to Zahra Hydris to create an altar for the Matron of Death there. By 836 PD the noble houses who owned the mausoleums were considered "long-forgotten", implying those families are now extinct in Whitestone.

The Forlington family was one of the first that settled in the city-state, and they still have a Square named after them in 836 PD; there is no other indication that they became nobility.

According to Percy, the nobles of Whitestone who rule its three houses usually receive the title of Baron or Baroness.

Defense

Illusory Barrier
Hastily constructed during the Chroma Crisis to hide the city from spies and roving wyverns of the Chroma Conclave, surrounding the city and Whitestone Castle are five obelisks carved from whitestone. When each obelisk is charged by a spellcaster, an illusion is cast over the city to make it appear as uninhabited Timberland, as well as mask any sounds created from within the city. The barrier hasn't been used since the Chroma Crisis, and has become overgrown with plants and graffitied.

The Pale Guard

The Pale Guard is a combat and law enforcement unit in Whitestone, led by the Pale Lord of Wardship (or the Commissioner of Wardship), a position within the Chamber of Whitestone appointed by the de Rolo family.. They are granted with permission to carry three-barrel pepperbox revolvers if carrying out a task requiring one.

The Whitestone Rifle Corps

After the defeat of the Chroma Conclave, Lord Percival de Rolo decided to improve Whitestone's defenses by creating a special guard unit: the Whitestone Rifle Corps. Upon its founding in 811 PD, it was placed under the command of Kynan Leore, who seems to have greatly appreciated the opportunity for redemption that being given such a responsibility implies.

Grey Hunt

The Grey Hunt is a cadre of hunters led by a Grand Mistress/Master/Champion. They're tasked with protecting Whitestone from threats emanating from the surrounding Parchwood, and the leader specifically manages the city's relationship with the world beyond the wall. The unit had become disorganized during the years when there was no holder of the office, but Lady Vex'ahlia has had a couple of decades to rebuild it.

Whitestone rock

The city gets its name from this rock quarried in the nearby Alabaster Sierras. The rock can be refined to a green, glass-like substance called residuum. Although not inherently magical, this substance is particularly receptive to arcane energies and therefore may be used to create objects that retain more powerful enchantments, perhaps for longer periods of time.

Technology

After Delilah Briarwood had created an anti-magic field below Whitestone Castle, Percy began to worry about what a magical blackout could do to the city. As a precaution, he began modernizing Whitestone with non-magical technology. His first major project was a subterranean network of steam pipes underneath all of Whitestone's roads. The result would be heated roads that never needed to be cleared of snow or ice. ^{[citation needed]}

It is Percy's dream that Whitestone become "a shining beacon on the hill of what mankind's future could be."

By 836 PD, Whitestone had 72 lamps on a primitive electrical grid that used the acid pits beneath the city as a makeshift battery.

The trial of the Lawbearer

At times the city-state has offended the Lawbearer, the goddess of civilization, and it has been necessary to appease her by passing a test. Similarly, for any slight against the goddess, a citizen of Whitestone must answer the call and go to the Parchwood, where they will be tested. The outcome of said test determines the Lawbearer's disposition.

Spring festivals

There is at least one annual event in Whitestone in which people celebrate the end of winter and ask the Dawnfather to bless the crops with favorable weather.

Typical drinks

There are four types of liquor that are brewed in Whitestone: two different distilled liqueurs (Dire Heart and Green Tear), one type of mead (snow mead), and one type of infused liqueur (Courage). The latter, Courage, is made every year, so it is the most abundant.

Background

Beneath Whitestone lies an ancient underground ziggurat, a temple to the goddess Ioun. During the Calamity, Ioun baited the rampaging Tharizdun to her central temple there, but Tharizdun badly wounded her and nearly consumed her, causing her temple to sink underground in her sorrow. Pelor then defeated Tharizdun in a climactic battle that transformed the nearby region in its violence by killing everything living, and after chasing and banishing Tharizdun elsewhere, Pelor returned to the site of Ioun's wounding and blessed the land with his own Sun Tree directly over the site of her sunken temple. The land has been under his protection ever since.

The city of Whitestone was founded around the year 612 PD, when a shipwrecked expedition from Port Damali, led by the de Rolo family, stumbled across Pelor's divine tree and decided to build their home around it, after a priest confirmed the holy origins of that site. Because of this seafaring background, its buildings resemble a ship's bow coming out of the ground, and the rooftops have a sloping ship's hull shape. Though the settlement was geographically isolated from most of Tal'Dorei, it managed to flourish on exports of whitestone ore, which became one of the reasons why the people decided to settle permanently; even then, the process of building the actual city took many years. After they discovered how to create residuum from the whitestone, other political factions established diplomatic relationships with the city-state, including Kraghammer, Emon, and Syngorn.

After Lady Melanie von Musel caused the premature death of her husband, Lord Wolfe de Rolo, soon after the 730s PD, when he was injured in the Great Whitestone Fire, she made an expansion of the city, although she accidentally displeased the Lawbearer by doing so, so the goddess had to test one of her own clerics, Ivan. After that Whitestone was allowed to grow until it reached the point of the Parchwood Timberlands where Ivan killed a dire wolf sent by the Lawbearer.

In 805 PD, the evil Lord and Lady Briarwood led a coup d'etat in which all members of the city's ruling family, the de Rolos, were killed except for Percival de Rolo, who escaped, and Cassandra de Rolo, who was captured. The Briarwoods took over the city, and during this occupation of Whitestone, due to the city's remoteness and isolation, the citizens of Whitestone suffered without external aid for six years under the oppression and necromantic horrors of the Briarwoods as they enacted a plan set forth by their master, the lich Vecna.

Campaign One

In Cuersaar of 810 PD, Vox Machina encountered the Briarwoods at a banquet with Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei II in Emon, from which they escaped. Percival de Rolo then spearheaded a return to his home city, where upon arrival Vox Machina instigated the Whitestone Rebellion and fatally deposed the Briarwoods, beginning a slow return to prosperity for the city.

Shortly after the rebellion's conclusion, the Chroma Conclave attacked and devastated many cities around the Tal'Dorei Empire in the Chroma Crisis. Whitestone was spared and became a haven for refugees fleeing the ruins of Emon and other ruined cities. The refugees—ranging from peasants and farmers to merchants and nobles—bolstered the city's population and workforce, both of which had been decimated throughout the Briarwoods' reign. Whitestone became the base of resistance against the Conclave, as Vox Machina gathered allies and brought them to the city.

After Campaign One

Whitestone joined the newly reorganized Tal'Dorei Republic, to the benefit of both the city and republic, and by 836 PD, had become a major center of economic, cultural, and political power. Trade caravans running to Kymal, Westruun, and ultimately Emon were common, and the city had a new skyport that handled the most expensive goods.

After Vecna was defeated, the city expanded eastward to accommodate its refugee population, but by 836 PD monstrous incursions had made the project fall into ruin, although the Grey Hunt did create a secret base of operations in the basement of a yet-godless temple.

As of 843 PD, the city was expanding again. After the apogee solstice Whitestone became one of the three cities gathering armies for the Exandrian Accord, along with Vasselheim and Ank'Harel; many citizens of Whitestone, including the children of the Lord and Lady de Rolo, were present when they and other members of Vox Machina crossed a portal in the Sun Tree to go help in the frontlines themselves. A small group of members of the Pale Guard also traveled to the Dawn City to join the army. Since they were specialty fighters, they and other Rifle Corps were sent to different regiments following the instructions of Lord and Lady de Rolo. After a brief but intense battle in which Lady Vex'ahlia was killed and resurrected, she, her husband, and the rest of Vox Machina returned to Whitestone triumphant, accompanied by the rescued Champion of Ravens.

When the Era of Reclamation came to a close after the conflict between the Exandrian Accord and the alliance of the Kreviris Imperium and the Ruby Vanguard, it was decided that, since most of the inhabitants of Ruidus were innocent and deserved a chance to know Exandria, there would be exchange programs and ways to integrate them if they decided to visit the planet, or if any Exandrian wanted to explore the red moon. Whitestone was one of the places that agreed to help in this endeavor, with Lord Percival being particularly interested in Ruidian technology.