Goujuen

Goujuen, the Infinite City

The raksha led by Farame Silvereyes travel between lairs, but currently take shelter at the fortress of Goujuen, the Infinite City. Farame is a minstrel whose voice could lure a baby from his mother’s breast. Young men and women come running to her, begging to be taken away to share her bed. The raksha of her entourage prize music. They treat skilled human singers and musicians well, pacting with them to learn new songs and even releasing them after a set period of entertainment. (Of course, the duration of that set period is likely to be decided by the raksha, and any promised reward likely contains a catch.) From the outside, Goujuen looks like a small walled town of obsidian and gold. Within its four gates, however, its streets and corridors go on forever and bend subtly at the horizon. It is actually an old Solar manse capping a four-dot demesne. Its architect designed it as an experiment in spatial recursion (perhaps inspired by, or inspiring, the city of Ilio Stara—see The Compass of Celestial Directions, Vol. II—The Wyld, p. 134). Goujuen can provide lodgings for an infinite number of people. Perhaps more importantly, Goujuen’s infinitude protects its center and the presumed stronghold of its builder. Farame’s is only one of the half-dozen raksha bands that live in Goujuen. All are of comparable strength. They constantly feud and make and break alliances while they attempt to discover the city’s secrets. None of them have yet mapped the manse’s full geometry or located its hearthstone. Farame’s band offers fealty to the Lapis Court. She parleys with Neshi of the Double Whips to organize an expedition that would pierce Goujuen’s secrets to the core and allow it to be converted into a freehold.