Whitestone

Whitestone is a city in the Alabaster Sierras mountain range on the northeastern edge of Tal'Dorei. It is ruled from Castle Whitestone, the home of the de Rolo family after it was reclaimed from the Briarwoods. Whitestone now serves as the home and base of operations for several of the members of Vox Machina.

Formerly a self-governed city-state, Whitestone joined the newly reorganized Republic of Tal'Dorei following the Chroma Crisis in 811 PD.

Description
Whitestone is nestled in the valley of the Alabaster Sierras. The walls of Whitestone are closely surrounded by trees of the Parchwood Timberlands. Whitestone maintains a small amount of farmland connected by trails to the south and west of the city. On a hill to the north of the city sits Castle Whitestone. The city is roughly split into four districts, the Northern Ward, Dawnfather Square, the Common Ward, and the newly built Southern Ward.

Whitestone's architecture is similar to that of the rest of Tal'Dorei, reminiscent of a real-world Tudor style, though its older buildings are more similar to the Gothic-esque architecture of Wildemount, particularly the city of Deastok. Many of the roofs of Whitestone's buildings are curved, reminiscent of ship hulls.

Northern Ward

 * Castle Whitestone: The seat of government in Whitestone and the home of the de Rolo family.
 * The Heart of Whitestone: Located within Forlington Square on the north side of the city, the Heart of Whitestone is an intricate clock tower of three stories in height, built and designed by Percival de Rolo, that was finished around 831 PD. The clock tracks the movements of the moons, stars, and spheres, and depicts famous moments and people in Whitestone history.
 * The Alcove: A magic shop owned and run by the Whisk family.
 * The Tipsy Quorum: A large tavern run by Shauna, a favorite drinking spot for Vox Machina.
 * Gilmore's Glorious Goods Whitestone Expansion: A small shop branch of the Gilmore's Glorious Goods in the city. It is located "a little bit" to the eastern part of the Nothern Ward.
 * Lord Trinket's Public Park: after the Whispered one's defeat, the section of the Parchwood to the west of the city was cleared, anticipating a major expansion. However, more of the Emonian refugees left the city than was predicted, leaving these plans untenable. At the request of Vex'ahlia, the space was transformed into a public park for Trinket to play. The park also features a marble statue of the Trinket in its center.
 * Galdric's Gate: The newest eastern gate of the city, leading to the Timberland Trail.
 * Beyond the Horizon: A curiosity shop, ruined during the Briarwood's rule in the city.
 * Pike's Cottage: Located on the northwestern side of Whitestone, Pike moved here after retiring from adventuring. The cottage has two floors and a pointed thatched roof, and is surrounded by a wild garden. The interior cluttered with nick-knacks and paintings.
 * Two manors temporary taken over by Duke Goran Vedmire and Count Tylieri, in the northeastern and northwestern directions respectively.

Dawnfather Square
The Square surrounds a small hill and was the central district of Whitestone in 812 PD.
 * The Sun Tree: A massive tree of the sun sacred to Pelor, created by the sun god at the intersection of powerful ley lines. Although it was almost killed by the unholy desecration of the Briarwoods, the Sun Tree recovered after their defeat.
 * Slayer's Cake: A bakery owned and partially operated by several members of Vox Machina.
 * Ziggurat: Located underground directly beneath the Sun Tree and connected to a tunnel leading to Castle Whitestone, the ziggurat was an ancient temple dedicated to Ioun. The Briarwoods defiled it in their occupation to complete a ritual for Vecna, creating a siphon that fills the cavern containing the ziggurat with antimagic.

Common Ward
Previously the southernmost ward of the city, it has since become the city's center.
 * House of the Lawbearer: A temple dedicated to Erathis, formerly called The Lady's Chamber.
 * Grey Hunt Manor: The estate of the Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt. Rarely occupied, it is sometimes used as a formal meeting place for the Grey Hunt.
 * Keyleth's home: Located near Grey Hunt Manor, close to a hidden Snowdrop Memorial Trail in the Parchwood Timberlands, Keyleth lives here when away from her home and duties in Zephrah.

Southern Ward
The Southern Ward was built after 812 PD, to accommodate Whitestone's growing population.
 * Horizon Temple, located near the very south of the city, the Horizon Temple is dedicated to worship Avandra the Changebringer.
 * Hearth of the Everlight: Built by Pike Trickfoot following the defeat of Vecna, this humble temple dedicated to Sarenrae holds monthly celebrations as part of their worship.

Unspecified locations
The following locations are left unspecified as to which ward they are in.
 * Skyport: Newly built as of 836 PD, the skyport allows docking and trade with skyships from around Exandria.
 * The Journey's End: A small tavern run by a man named Patrick.
 * An older brothel, located in the western part of the city before the Briarwood occupation. Julius, Percy's older brother, visited it at least once.
 * Undergrond acid pits: A part of a mechanism to distill whitestone ore into pure residuum. They are located about a quarter-mile north from the center square.

Parchwood Timberlands
The timberlands surround Whitestone. The forest is dense, thick and looming and completely encompassing the exterior of the city walls. Towards the south of Whitestone's walls, the forest is cleared for farmlands.
 * The Greyfield: The city's graveyard, located to the east just outside of the city's walls.
 * The Zenith: A temple of Pelor, located within the Greyfield.
 * Altar of the Raven
 * Snowdrop Memorial Trail: A private trail made by Keyleth through the woods connecting Grey Hunt Manor to the Altar of the Raven. Snowdrop flowers line the trail, dedicated to Vax'ildan.
 * Eastern Ruins: The first attempt at expanding Whitestone in 812 PD, these half-built ruins are the result of monstrous incursions that ended expansion of the city in this direction. Secretly, the Grey Hunt have made their base of operation in an undedicated temple in here.

Maps
836 PD= 812 PD=

Demographics
Whitestone was a small city in 812 PD with about 4,230 inhabitants. Most of the citizens are human (83%) with the rest of the population being made up of halflings (7%), dwarves (6%), and other races (4%).

Following the Chroma Crisis, Whitestone had a boom in population. By 836 PD, it has grown to 17,710 inhabitants. The majority population is still human (78%), with a notable increase in tiefling population (4%). The remaining citizens are made up of halflings (7%), dwarves (6%), and other races (5%).

Leadership
Whitestone was founded and ruled by the de Rolo family.

After a coup in 805 PD, Sylas Briarwood and Delilah Briarwood installed themselves as the Lord and the Lady of the Whitestone. They granted land and titles to several of their subordinates, particularly Countess Jazna Graben, Sir Kerrion Stonefell, Duke Goran Vedmire, and Count Tylieri.

After the liberation of Whitestone in 810 PD and on Percy's recommendation, the city adopted a council-based government rather than returning to de Rolo family rule. His initial thought was to compose the council from a notable member of each of the farming, economic, religious, trade, and citizen communities, as well as the noble one from the de Rolo family. Together, the council would make decisions with one vote from each member, and any tied votes would be resolved by the noble. Cassandra de Rolo agreed to serve on the council, as did Keeper Yennen, if the people of Whitestone consented to this new government. This ruling council is called the Chamber of Whitestone and currently includes seven members, among whom are Percival de Rolo and Vex'ahlia.

Acting on his own without consulting the council, Percy later granted Vex'ahlia a title: Lady Vex'ahlia, Baroness of the Third House of Whitestone and Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt. Percy did not at that time mention the duties, privileges, and relationship to Whitestone's ruling council that this title might include, if any at all, nor whether the council must officially approve the granting of such titles; however, the title seems to have been supported.

Due to the fear of magical espionage, the council began meeting within the anti-magic field underneath Whitestone around the Ziggurat.

Houses
There are three great houses in Whitestone that belong to the de Rolo family. Each one of them has an individual title that can be granted by the lord or lady to whomever they wish, although with the approval of the council:


 * First House of Whitestone: The original settlement connected to the title that goes to the head of the family and their consort.
 * Second House of Whitestone: Acquired by the de Rolos between 612 PD and 730 PD.
 * Third House of Whitestone: Established by Lady Melanie de Rolo to entice her cousin Ivan von Musel to remain in Whitestone. The house was taken from the von Musel family by the de Rolo after because of the conflict between Melanie and her husband Lord Wolf de Rolo, whom she murdered before establishing the house.

Illusory Barrier
Hastily constructed during the Chroma Crisis to hide the city from spies and roving wyverns of the Chroma Conclave, surrounding the city and Castle Whitestone are five obelisks carved from whitestone. When each obelisk is charged by a spellcaster, an illusion is cast over the city to make it appear as uninhabited Timberland, as well as mask any sounds created from within the city. The barrier hasn't been used since the Chroma Crisis, and becoming overgrown with plants and graffitied.

The Pale Guard
The Pale Guard is a combat and law enforcement unit in Whitestone, led by the Pale Lord of Wardship (or the Commissioner of Wardship), a position within the Chamber of Whitestone appointed by the de Rolo family.. They are granted with permission to carry three-barrel pepperbox revolvers if carrying out a task requiring one.

The Whitestone Rifle Corps
After the defeat of the Chroma Conclave, Lord Percival de Rolo decided to improve Whitestone's defenses by creating a special guard unit: the Whitestone Rifle Corps. Upon its founding in 811 PD, it was placed under the command of Kynan Leore who seems to have greatly appreciated the opportunity for redemption that being given such a responsible post implies.

Grey Hunt
The Grey Hunt is a cadre of hunters led by the Grand Mistress who, along with rest of the hunt, is tasked with protecting Whitestone from threats emanating from the surrounding Parchwood. The unit had become disorganized during the years when there was no holder of the office, but Lady Vex'ahlia has had a couple of decades to rebuild it.

Whitestone rock
The city gets its name from the Whitestone rock quarried in the nearby Alabaster Sierras. The rock can be refined to a green, glass-like substance called residuum. Although not inherently magical, this substance is particularly receptive to arcane energies and therefore may be used to create objects that retain more powerful enchantments, perhaps for longer periods of time.

Technology
It is Percy's dream that Whitestone become "a shining beacon on the hill of what mankind's future could be." After Delilah Briarwood had created an antimagic field below Whitestone, Percy began to worry about what a magical blackout could do to the city. As a precaution, he began modernizing Whitestone with non-magical technology.

His first major project completed by the end of 811 PD was a subterranean network of steam pipes underneath all of Whitestone's roads. The result would be heated roads that never needed to be cleared of snow or ice, as well as heating for the major houses. By 836 PD, Whitestone has 72 lamps on a primitive electrical grid that used the acid pits beneath the city as a makeshift battery, illuminating mild, greenish light.

Pre-Divergence
Beneath Whitestone lies an ancient underground ziggurat, a temple to the goddess Ioun. During the Calamity, Ioun baited the rampaging Tharizdun to her central temple there, but Tharizdun badly wounded her and nearly consumed her, causing her temple to sink underground in her sorrow. Pelor then defeated Tharizdun in a climactic battle that transformed the nearby region in its violence, and after chasing and banishing Tharizdun elsewhere, Pelor returned to the site of Ioun's wounding and blessed the land with his own tree of the sun directly over the site of her sunken temple. The land has been under his protection ever since.

The city's founding
The city of Whitestone was founded around the year 612 PD, "nearly" two hundred years before 812 PD, when a shipwrecked expedition from Port Damali in Wildemount, led by the de Rolo family, stumbled across Pelor's divine tree and decided to build their home around it. The first settlers named it the Sun Tree and quickly established a holy site in the northeast of the city to Pelor who planted its seed. Though the city was geographically isolated from most of Tal'Dorei and had farmlands that lacked fertile qualities, leading them to make trade agreements with nearby communities of the Turst Fields, the city managed to flourish on exports of whitestone ore.

Rule of Wolf and Melanie de Rolo
Wolf and Melanie de Rolo, cousins within the third generation of the de Rolo family born in Whitestone, entered into a political arranged marriage and became the fourth rulers of Whitestone. Melanie was openly unhappy with her marriage. In about 730 PD, she planted a garden behind Castle Whitestone where she secretly grew poisonous plants from Wildemount that she used to poison Wolf over a course of several years. Eventually, Wolf was severely injured in the Great Whitestone Fire, which destroyed a third of the city. With his health compromised from Melanie's poisoning, he could not recover and died a few weeks later. She became the sole ruler of Whitestone.

After the fire, Melanie took the opportunity to expand the city walls northeast into the Parchwood Timberlands to incorporate the holy site; plans were also made to build a temple there. The project was beset by various supernatural events: constant accidents, wild animal attacks on surveyors, strange sounds, phantom sightings, and visions of the late Wolf. All progress was halted except on the temple, which was completed without issue. Melanie sought help from her cousin Ivan von Musel, who had been studying in Whitestone over the past year to be a cleric of Erathis. He determined that Melanie disrespected Erathis by expending the city without first giving Erathis proper reverence. He meditated for days and awoke to a heavy fog over the Parchwood Timberlands. He had a vision of Erathis, journeyed into the forest, felled a dire wolf in the night, and was found unconscious the next morning lying on its body. He reported that Erathis allowed the city to be expanded up to the location where he killed the dire worlf. The city was expanded, and in apology to Erathis, it was decided that a citizen of Whitestone must venture into the forest when called so that they may be tested. This test would determine the opinion of Erathis about the city. To thank Ivan, Melanie created the title of Grand Master of the Grey Hunt. She further established the third ruling house of Whitestone to convince him to remain in the city.

She was eventually removed from her position for suspected witchcraft and raising of the undead.

Briarwoods occupation
In 805 PD, Whitestone was overtaken by the Lord and Lady Briarwood, known as the occupation of Whitestone. All members of its ruling family, the de Rolos, were killed except for Percival de Rolo, who escaped, and Cassandra de Rolo, who was captured. Due to the city's remoteness and isolation, the citizens of Whitestone suffered without external aid for six years under the oppression and necromantic horrors of the Briarwoods as they enacted a plan set forth by their master, the lich Vecna.

In Cuersaar of 810 PD, Vox Machina encountered the Briarwoods at a banquet with Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei II in Emon, from which they escaped. Percival de Rolo then spearheaded a return to his home city, where upon arrival Vox Machina instigated the Whitestone Rebellion and fatally deposed the Briarwoods, beginning a slow return to prosperity for the city.

Chroma Crisis
Shortly after the rebellion's conclusion, the Chroma Conclave attacked and devastated many cities around the Tal'Dorei Empire in the Chroma Crisis. Whitestone was spared and became a haven for refugees fleeing the ruins of Emon and other ruined cities. The refugees, ranging from peasants and farmers to merchants and nobles, bolstered the city's population and workforce, both of which had been decimated throughout the Briarwoods' reign. Whitestone became the base of resistance against the Conclave, as Vox Machina gathered allies and brought them to the city.

After Vecna was defeated, the city expanded to the east to accommodate its refugee population, but due to both social unrest and monstrous assaults the project failed and the potential ward was abandoned to ruin. The Grey Hunt, however, did established a secret base of operations there in the basement of yet inhabited temple.

Joining the Republic
Whitestone joined the newly reorganized Tal'Dorei Republic, to the benefit of both the city and republic, and by 836 PD, has become a major center of economic, cultural, and political power. Trade caravans running to Kymal, Westruun, and ultimately Emon are common, and the city has a new skyport that handles the most expensive goods.

Behind the scenes
Whitestone's architecture having roofs reminiscent of ships was first conceived for its visual depiction in The Legend of Vox Machina. This depiction made its way into Critical Role canon when Matt described the city in.

Footnotes and references
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