Marin Lighthouse
Rating: •••• Aspect: Water. Hearthstone: Seacalm Gemstone Bearer: ? Attuned: Hane Namiko, ?
The Marin Lighthouse is a massive manse and navigational aid constructed in the early years of the Shogunate Era following the Usurpation, incorporating surviving sections of a Golden Age naval base which had been damaged beyond the ability of the Terrestrial Exalted to repair.
The Lighthouse served to guide vessels across the breadth of Marin Bay, and the harbours at its feet served as merchant and military ports, with a populous city arising on the surrounding coast. The manse changed hands frequently during the constant conflicts of the Shogunate, its facilities of some value to any of the River Province daimyo planning a crossing to push for the title of Shogun. By the end of that Era, the city had fallen on hard times due to the deployment of First Age Skulking Stunfish in Marin Bay, though the Lighthouse continued to shine.
In the wake of the Great Contagion with the Skulking devices swept away as the Scarlet Empress called on the seas themselves to push the Fair Folk from Creation, the Lighthouse and port at last returned to use… it was a key target of both House Iselsi and Seventh Legion forces during the Calibration War, and was granted to Lookshy in the aftermath so they might raise the Marin Bay Redoubt around it. It continues to serve as the heart of that Redoubt and a major facility for Lookshy’s naval forces.
The manse itself sits on a thin spit of jagged rock which juts out to divide harbours to the north and south. Sitting at the end of this spit, the manse is a massive pyramid of white sandstone, marbled with veins of black jade, smooth save for grooves that guide rain and sea spray in constant rivulets down its surface. Here and there, if the eye is keen, one can pick out windows of white Adamantine Glass, opaque from without but transparent from within to allow those inside to watch over the surrounding waters.
Atop the pyramid, a tall tower rises. Essence Vents, guiding the energies not bound within the manse, light the top of the tower, a pulsing beam of white and blue. The unleashed essence showers the air about the tower in sea spray, becoming a constant rain down upon the pyramid below.
Through the manse’s heavy stone gates, an antechamber of carved stone benches welcomes visitors, spiraling channels guiding away the water they inevitably carry in with them, where it pours into deeper streams circling the chamber’s edges. Through the doors on the other side of the room, one enters the great hall, a vast open space occupying the bulk of the manse’s ground floor. What to most would seem to be stone from the outside is revealed as Adamantine Glass, rendering the walls transparent to those within and allowing unfettered views of the harbours to north and south. Tables for dining and couches for relaxation are spread across the hall, with the eastern and western walls hung with tapestries depicting scenes from the history of the Lookshy and Shogunate navies.
A further door leads off to the West, and at the hall’s center a broad spiraling ramp ascends to the ceiling, a constant waterfall descending down the space through its middle to vanish into a deep well below. Both of these are kept under constant guard by marines of Lookshy’s navy, and none save Seventh Legion officers are permitted to pass through to reach the barracks, armouries, and other chambers of the manse, as well as the lighthouse tower far above.
Source: Adapted and expanded from content in Outcastes and expansion by JesseLowe (see unofficial Exalted wiki).
