Wine, Waves and War

Wine, Waves & War

Theme Song: Tomorrow Never Comes, by VNV Nation

Heaven help us, we've lost control.

This should be our finest hour.

But we're racing toward the end of days.

House V'neef: The youngest of the Dynastic Houses of the Blessed Isle.

V'neef herself is a Dragon-Blooded of exceptional bloodline, a Wood-aspected matriarch at the tender age of sixty. Her house, made up of six Exalted children, their spouses and the few grandchildren sired so far, is tiny but influential. V'neef had the favor of the Scarlet Empress, and was clearly being groomed for something major before the Empress disappeared without a trace.

But V'neef has no illusions: the Scarlet Throne is beyond her grasp. She simply wishes to make sure that she rides the tide well, and maintains the prosperity of her growing house, a sure thing considering its interests. V'neef owns the only vineyards in the Blessed Isle, and the vintage they craft is in high demand. They also have managed to hold on to their Satrapies in the South, and their coffers continue to fill from those endeavors.

But the biggest point of power for the V'neef is also the biggest source of contention among the Great Houses. In effort to shake up the status quo a bit, the Scarlet Empress granted House V'neef control over the Imperial Merchant Navy, a massive trading fleet that oversees the huge majority of commerce between the Blessed Isle and the Threshold. As a result, V'neef coffers overflow dramatically...and the jealousy of the other Great Houses burns brightly.

The characters will begin on the Threshold, tending to the needs of the Satrapies and the Merchant Fleet.

Player Characters

• V'neef Atufu: Wood Aspected Master Vintner and Maker of Babies. Played by A.J.
• V'neef Jiana: Wood Aspected Satrap of the Varang City-States. Played by Link
• V'neef Kenet: Fire Aspected Child of Shameful Origins. Played by Mandy
• V'neef Tatewaki: Water Aspected Bastard of the Admiral. Played by Chillos
• V'neef Ashuru: Wood Aspected Legionnaire. Played by Keith
• V'neef Aola: Air Aspected Tempestuous Demonologist. Played by Chris.

Storyteller Characters

• House V'neef

Setting

The South (Threshold)

The game begins in the Threshold, in the area south of Chiaroscuro known as the Great Southern Hills. Some of the settlements and civilizations of this region include:

• The city of Asherta, a city-states whose main industry is war. Asherta's prosperity is based on its ability to supply and provide armies, with great forges and mercenary companies based out of it.
• Alom Vilag, a tiny nation well and truly under the thumb of the Guild, though technically ruled by a royal house and its council of god-blooded mandarin-eunuchs.
• The Varang City-States, one of the V'neef Satrapies. A strange civilization noted for its love of clockwork mechanisms, and its rigid caste system based on astrological horoscopes cast at birth.
• The Mattahuk Alliance, a small collection of allied city-states allied by a court of small gods. Currently a focus of the Immaculate Order, who seek to lessen the influence of the gods on the city-states and possibly establish a new satrapy for the Realm here.
• The Tamas City-States, a collection of independent cities that flank the Tamas River.
• Tribes of the Great Southern Hills, including a handful of Delzahn clans and the Djala panda-folk.

The Blessed Isle

• The Vineyards, in the Qishi Prefecture, the closest thing the V'neef have to a home province.
• V'neef Wing of the Imperial Palace, Imperial City

Resources

• Wine, Waves and War Character Creation Rules