Tender

Tender is a small city and river port in the Scavenger Lands, located where the Cloudy River flows into the Yellow River, just west of the Shadowland of Walker’s Realm.

The surrounding area, before it darkens into those shadows, is pastoral and agrarian, what some might call the image of idyllic River Province farmland. This is reflected in Tender itself, which is home to little manufacture or industry. Instead, Tender’s market sells agricultural goods and serves as home to traders from along the river as they barter their wares. The city is also home to many inns and other forms of accommodation to house passing caravans and ship crews seeking a break as they make their journeys, though scant few who pass through are tourists seeking it out as a destination in its own right.

Politics

Tender was founded only a few centuries ago, when a farming village developed into a more significant trading post. It is governed by two monarchs, the Day Monarch and the Night Monarch, advised by a council of local notables and supported by a militia, whose duties include both policing and civil defense, and who in times of trouble are supplemented by hired mercenary companies. The duties of each Monarch are divided according to local Tenderian tradition concerning activities which ought occur under the light of the Sun and light of the Moon & Stars: the Day Monarch’s purview includes such things as trade, public works, and commercial & civil law. The Night Monarch’s responsibilities encompass matters such as war, criminal law, and dealings with the dead. Proximity with Walker’s Realm means that Tender sits under the influence of the Deathlord known as the Walker in Darkness, whose agents are often seen in its streets along with traders from the shadowland. This association has kept Tender from seeking membership in the Confederation of Rivers, though with the emissaries of the Deathlord Mask of Winters now calling on Confederation councils some wonder if the Walker will not dispatch his own agents through Tenderian proxies. The Guild maintains a factory at Tender, its establishment one of the reasons for the city’s growth. The factor wields significant influence over trade and the city port, and some have mused that the Guild established a base here either for clandestine trade with the shadowland, or as a redoubt in case the Council of Entities in nearby Nexus turned too far against Guild interests and its headquarters there.

In terms of faith, Tender is like much of the River Province in embracing the Hundred Gods Heresy, though direct worship of the Incarnae is extremely rare. Instead, those powerful spirits are seen as too distant for mortals to worship directly, with any prayer due them passed on by much more local and regional gods whose cults dominate Tender’s theological landscape. Ancestor Cults are also common, and while its presence is minor the Immaculate Order maintains a shrine and barracks for its itinerants just south of the city along the bank of the Cloudy River.

Source: Adapted/Expanded from work by Jesse lowe on the unofficial Exalted wiki