I got a little lazy with the coloring and failed to finish rendering her mallet! Hopefully the lineart gets the idea across.
The Signal Bearer
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| The Signal Bearer Artstation |
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Title: Southmarch - Questions and More Questions, Vol. 5
ID: SQLP05933 - 991270
Creator: Maker, Judica O.
Date: October [step] 1, 3101
Physical Description: Magnetically sealed rectangular case (6'' x 2'' x 2'', filleted edges, polished stone (pale) paneling, aquamarine (rich) padded interior) [data received via ingrained-access burst, encoded in a complex knit texture woven into the padding material]
Citation: Square Archival, Bunk 007, Query Packet, Corner Clive, #8211 - "Starbank, Region Specific (Year Agnostic)"
Restriction: Dense O.T.
Content:
“... It became necessary in Southmarch’s early years to develop a countermeasure for these massive storms. The sight of its pallid girth roiling over the peaks, down the midbanks, of the Part-Said Range was enough to cause rioting in the streets. Before the establishment of the Signal Bearers, such an event would mean the deaths of some 97% of the non-Bastion populace. The frigid winds, their crystalline grip, fell into the valley - the streets - mere moments after cresting the ring of mountainous structure encasing the city. No time to escape.
Some important points about the Signal Bearers:
- It is not by some Outer Magic that the Signal Bearers detect the presence of an approaching storm. It is, rather, that they are able to see over the lip of the border peaks from their towers, which stand some 1,500 feet tall and are said to be among the tallest buildings in all of Starbank. From this vantage, they are able to note a storm’s advance well before it makes crestfall with the city.
- The great, booming note of the Signal Bearer’s flat-drum does not travel to the ear as other sound does (through the curious quivering of unseen air). Rather, it gathers about the tower’s upper levels like some windswept burst held still, then falling as a clumping, dewy mist that wets the earlobe and brow.
- The Signal Bearers do not, like the typical Southmarch citizen, shelter inside to protect themselves from the storm’s icy bite. The height of their towers makes this impossible - when the winds envelop the upper chambers, those resting within sit scant few feet removed from the very heart of wintry madness. To avoid certain death, the Signals Bearers shunt their Inner and Outer selves into the three-tunneled redwrit inscribed on their vestments. This text is clip-anchored (or fall-deadened) by the twin bands of pure roseway wrapped about the Signal Bearer’s right and left arm. The severity of the resulting Handshake Collapse is enough to send their mortal forms into a deep, protective slumber.
- There are three towers - Clarion, Met, and Leo.
Clarion
- Clarion, so named for the Signal Bearer’s booming drum note, is the tallest and oldest of the towers. With its base rooted in the Lake of the Lower City, it stands as a monument to an older, more brutal Southmarch. Clarion houses most of the Signal Bearers - they have, in the echoing halls of this place, built a nest of shadow politics and ritual competition. Only the strongest among them are permitted to sound massive flat-drum at the tower’s terminus.
- Clarion is home to a number of uninvited but uninhibited tenants. Notable among these is the exiled Princess Hail of Silkensleep and her plentiful, jubilant court.
Met
- Met, the second largest, is rooted in the Lake of the Middle City. Colloquially known as “The Palace,” it is the most welcoming of the towers. The ground level houses a licensed (and quite popular) port officiated by a legion of lay-persons and a solitary, infallibly tyrannical, Signal Bearer overseer. Career sailors, away-imperial clades, simple fisherwomen - you will find these and more doing business on the wharf’s sheer ramparts and narrow docks.
- For those of the Winefever, Met is a mandatory stop on the pilgrimage to the Grave of Saint Isabel.
Leo
- Leo is the youngest and smallest of the towers. Its pillarwork rests deep in the bedrock below the Lake of the Upper City. This is the only tower funded by a private individual - the Second Heiress and Arm of the Robintree Gate, Mopen Durnot - in honor of her brother’s (Leo Durnot) great sacrifice. Leo is also the only tower with upper levels open to the public. A mysterious evil lurks in that place - alabaster and scuttling. The city issued an open contract some years ago - kill the thing. None have succeeded, though many have tried. Records indicate that only two Signal Bearers lived in the tower at the time of its infection. Leo’s high drum still sounds at the coming of a storm, even after all these years. Many (including the author) wonder: what has become of those two stranded souls?
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