[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/raw3xpc.jpg[/img][/center][right][hr][color=gray][b]Guixiang, City of Living Rubies[/b]
RY 768, EARLY DAYS OF RESPLENDENT WOOD. SUMMER HAS COME.[/color][hr][/right][sup][sup][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4uNWzFz97c]I was but fifteen when I left my friends
For distant climes to fight our Country's foe,
And now I'm eighty — back for the first time
To see the home I left so long ago.

Where is the house? I should be near it now,
Yet possibly I may have gone astray;
Long years abroad have blurred the youthful brain,
I'll ask this countryman to point the way.[/url][/sup][/sup]
[color=gray]Guixiang, or as it is better known, the City of Living Rubies.

Once at the forefront of the Solar Deliberative, Guixiang now stands as a popular trading city within the East, seemingly unharmed by the worst that the Usurpation had to offer. Quite like Lookshy, the city stands as a reminder of an age long past, filled with ancient relics and artifacts of when the Anathema ruled Creation. Although once designed as an impassable fortress, centuries of disuse has forced a great many of these artifacts to falter, failing to a lack of repair that no mortal, terrestrial--even those with the blood of elementals or the gods themselves--is certain on how to fix them. Rather than rot in a failing castle, the inhabitants opened the gates, bringing prosperity through a bountiful trade.

Yet not all is well as the ancient stories and myths would suggest. It is said that every civilian wears a ruby necklace, and greets travelers with weary, longing eyes. Whilst strangers are quite able to leave, those sworn to the ruby necklace are seemingly unable to leave, forever bound to the city-fortress. Whether they desire to leave or not, the inhabitants find themselves stuck--unable to act of their own free will, and certainly unable to remove their "cursed" necklaces unless the source of such powerful chains is destroyed. Should it be destroyed, the free will of the people will be restored, free to do as they would wish or desire.[/color]

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4uNWzFz97c][sup][sup]The house is yonder — midst those grassy mounds,
Beneath the shade of fir and cypress trees,
And there lie buried all the kith and kin
Of former tillers of these fallow leas.

The veteran sighed and wandered to the house,
And found it overgrown and desolate;
A startled hare fled through the kennel's hole,
And pheasants flew from ceiling beams ornate.[/sup][/sup][/url][/center][color=gray]You--a promising hero of Creation.

Each of you likely have various and numerous reasons to visit Guixiang. Perhaps it was to sight see, or perhaps it was to take part of the thriving trade that the city presents, or even something more outlandish. Whatever your reasoning, each one of you would soon find themselves in quite a predicament, surrounded by the guards of the ancient city-fortress. The guards appear battle ready, as if prepared for a confrontation, yet they press with words, rather than blades. [i]Come,[/i] they demand. [i]Follow us,[/i] they ask. [i]Our leader wishes to speak with you,[/i] they say. Holding whatever beliefs you may have about the guards' request, each of you are brought to the inner sanctum, to meet with the supposed leader of Guixiang.

Ushered into the sanctum, the large interior appears rather empty outside those brought inside. Not a mouse stirred, with the only movement being the idle shuffling of several strangers and the occasional fluttering of a ruby felt banner. Still, soon enough, a [url=https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/typemoon/images/f/f7/FGOAltera1.png/revision/latest?cb%5Cu003d20161001151618]youthful woman[/url] finds herself stepping into the throne-like room, ready to address the gathered strangers before her. The woman's eyes seem to linger on the [abbr=Zehn might have some odd memory towards the woman's weapon, as if she remembered creating the light-refracting sword]twin tailed girl[/abbr] among the group, hesitating as if her body had tensed up. Perhaps it would be wise to press as to why, or perhaps it would not be so wise, but nonetheless, the woman went forth with addressing the group.[/color]

[b]"Welcome to Guixiang!"[/b] [color=gray]The woman spoke.[/color] [b]"Are you here for citizenship, to trade... sightseeing... or perhaps even pleasure?"[/b]

[right][sup][sup][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4uNWzFz97c]Exhausted by the journey and his grief,
The old man plucked some grain from patches wild,
And mallows from around the courtyard well,
As in the days when but a little child.

But when the homely fare was cooked and spread,
And not a friend to cheer the lonely place,
He rose, and going out to eastward gazed,
While tears flowed down his worn and furrowed face.[/url][/sup][/sup][/right]

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/tEh8ysT.png[/img]

[@Inkarnate][@HokumPocus][@Kirah][@Letter Bee][@Lord Orgasmo][@LordVoldemort][@Raijinslayer][@Sloth][/center]