Embrace 03: Atrium Part 3

These Flimsy Rituals

“After their worldly Guidance, Tovak, died and Rialla’s Harbour was left without leadership, who else but Lena would dare say that they’re going to lead it as its new, folk-chosen head? Then to start harboring the likes of us - rebels and dissidents, maybes and ginnels - while her right to be there was still being questioned. Well, I guess shame on us for not seeing the day they built those barricades and declared themselves a free ward coming. That really was the start of things...”

~~~

After the death of the High Priest Tovak and the disappearance of the worms from the fleshwood, Atrium is left with nothing but bleak omens. The people here though are resourceful. In the face of hostility from other parts of the city, they band together. They begin to build new foundations, praying that they’ll hold strong when something comes to test them.

We continue our game of The Ground Itself by Everest Pipkin, exploring the neighbourhood of Atrium.

~~ PLACES ~~

Atrium: An old neighbourhood near the docks, once home to wholesale markets and cafes. It is bordered by the Castings, the Tear and the headquarters of the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers.

Embrace: An island city, built on the corpses of the remnant’s Caerdroia and Rodella. It serves as one of the only crossing points of the river Trill.

~~ FACTIONS ~~

Bismuth Bands: A rough group of semi-official treasure hunters, who have built their base by a tear into the cut. They are experts at navigating Caerdroia’s maze.

Dodgers: A group, mostly teenagers, who make their money in the Castings. They find and sell trinkets uncovered by the worms.

Parsant: Embrace’s main religion. Built on a denial of the remnant’s divinity, it centres humanity in its teachings.

Umbral Provenders: A legitimised organisation of smugglers, who use the cut to smuggle contraband into and out of the city. Based in Atrium, they use criminality to enforce their hold there.

Jackals: More formally known as the Tenders of the Dawn’s Embers, the Jackals are an organisation of remnant hunters guided by strange divination.

~~ PEOPLE ~~

Caerdroia: A vacant, said to be of labyrinths, whirlpools and destiny. Upon its death, the river Trill’s water became roil; a strange maze, known as the cut, unspooled beneath Embrace.

Rodela: An echo, said to be of dawn, renewal and growth. Upon its death, the dawn and the stars broke; its body would not lie still, strange flora erupts across the island.

Lena Fisher: The self-declared Tether of Rialla’s Harbour. A former sailor turned radical priest, who teaches a doctrine focused on community.

~~~

Follow the show on twitter @flimsyrituals

Find our website at flimsyrituals.com

Chat to us on Discord

~~~

Hosted by Adam Dixon. Starring Beck Michalak, Elizabeth Simoens, Ryan Evans, Steve Martin and Thryn Henderson.

Produced by Thryn Henderson.

Series art by Ben Swinden.