Island of Adamant Cliffs
The Island of Adamant Cliffs is an island of the open seas in the Western Threshold, to the east of Wavecrest. The island is ringed by sheer cliffs of stone, polished smooth by the constant crashing of the waves, an insurmountable natural barrier to protect the island from attack.
Only a single gap in this sheer cliff exists, just wide enough for the passage of seafaring vessels and leading into a sheltered harbour with docks and markets. The clifftop above the passage is equipped with siege weapons and even a couple of First Age artillery pieces, able to sink any hostile vessel trying to gain the harbour. The channel beyond the cliff is carpeted with the refuse of dozens of vessels which have attemted to raid or invade over the centuries, but none have succeeded.
And gain the harbour many wish to do: the economy of the island is prosperous due to the valuable Jade deposits mined within the cliffs. Adamant Cliffs jade is traded to the Blessed Isle, The Guild, and the various markets of the West, a steady supply that has brought great wealth to the inhabitants.
Adamant Cliffs is a Satrapy of the Scarlet Empire, under care of House Sesus. This arrangement was arrived centuries ago, when the island faced increasing danger from those thirsty for its valuable mines. While the natural defenses of the place meant it might have held out against the Imperial Navy for some time, resistance would cost much for little gain, and the island’s leaders accepted tributary status to the Realm.
Imperial control on the island is based around Sesus House troops rather than a garrison of the Imperial Legions. The agreement to establish the satrapy included a provision that Imperial troops would not be stationed on the island in times of peace, a clause used by the Scarlet Empress to force House Sesus to bear the full costs of defending an otherwise lucrative holding. Since Her disappearance, this cost has transformed into a benefit for the Sesii, keeping rival Great Houses from establishing footholds in their valuable domain.
Today, Sesus troops and local soldiers man the clifftops above the harbour, and crew cutters which deter pirate vessels from moving against merchant ships in the immediate vicinity of the island, there being little need to station troops elsewhere due to the impregnability of the cliff face. Further out, ships tend to form into convoys, well aware how tempting a target a cargo of jade could prove to buccaneers. While, by the terms of the agreement between Adamant Cliffs and the Realm, the Imperial Navy cannot establish a station on the island, the Imperial Merchant Navy, drawn as it is from the merchant marine of the Scarlet Empire, has been able to skirt this stipulation by having its vessels enter port as merchantmen and then sail as warships when they reach open waters... merchant marine ships are thus protected as they carry jade back to the Blessed Isle, and for a small percentage of cargo they will open their convoys to the vessels of independent traders and other Great Houses... for agreeing not to protest this skirting of the law, House V'neef treats the ships of House Sesus as if they were the Realm’s own.
While the strong presence of Imperial institutions and the Thousand Scales can deter trade with powers who are rivals of the Realm, House Sesus has proven much more willing to turn a blind eye if it means more jade flowing to their own coffers, and so vessels from The Guild, the Coral Archipelago, and Skullstone pass through Adamant Cliffs seeking to obtain precious jade, though even with a ready supply the quantity is often less than the demand... the tribute paid to the Realm is entirely in jade, and the Sesus satrap’s influence sees his own House obtaining the finest share of the Magical Material that reaches market.
Recently, unbeknownst to nearly all, a hole has been opened in the defenses of the island. Demand for jade has caused miners to dig and blast ever deeper and ever further towards the cliff face in search of new veins, though the integrity of the cliff has been carefully maintained. However, in early RY768 a mine overseer by the name of Euphoric Class, left behind in his career by luckier and more hardworking peers, attempted to blast a new passage close to the base of the cliff. When the rubble was cleared, disaster: the mineshaft had intersected an underwater cave whose entrance led outside the cliff face. Terrified of the punishment that would await his mistake, and leaving the cave unexplored, Class filled the end of his new passage with rubble, and has told no one of this new and glaring vulnerability in the islands defences. Were an invader to discover the opening, forces might ascend through the mines to attack the clifftop defenders from their unfortified rear, before they could bring their potent weapons to bear, and the island would be left near-defenceless against an invading fleet.
Source: Adapted and expanded from concept by BrilliantRain on the unofficial Exalted wiki.
