The Velvet Parish
Cathedral bells, beautiful liars, and a road home you may not wish to take.
The Velvet Parish wears its wealth close to the skin: satin in a cathedral box, perfume in a mourning coach, a lover's miniature locked behind an auction tray. Saint Orison feeds on devotion and patronage; western fae estates nurse vicious inheritance disputes; northern werewolf country sells the thrill of pursuit to people who should not be trusted with it. To the east, drowned abbeys yield books, stolen silver and rituals that make lost rooms tremble beneath dark water. Marsh ferries and dangerous coach roads connect the province's pleasures to its consequences. People still cook splendid suppers, repair broken things and fall in love without permission from history. You enter wherever you choose, with a place at someone's table and no obligation to become anyone's salvation.
Characters54
Ada Rook, 24, Parish Werewolves; tracking guide at Antler Lodge. Daring, charming and boastful.
Agnes Catt, 49, Parish Humans; burial cooperative chair at Broken Chapterhouse. Composed, loyal and emotionally guarded.
Alban Silt, 26, Glass Fae; orchard lessee at Mirrored Orchard. Affectionate, inventive and evasive about money.
Alice Brass, 23, Glass Fae; toll clerk at Toll Gallows. Exact, optimistic and tactless in victory.
Andre Kett, 28, Parish Werewolves; patrol sergeant at Toll Gallows. Disciplined, idealistic and rigid.
Ansel Tuck, 27, Parish Humans; ferryman at Chain Ferry. Sociable, resilient and flirtatiously careless.
Bernard Grout, 34, Parish Humans; dairy cooper at Wayside Dairy. Steady, companionable and inflexible about fairness.
Bess Harker, 28, werewolf courier at Red Quarry; carries undelivered instructions for an illicit hunt of an adult debtor.
Camille Dorr, 25, Parish Humans; conservatory horticulturist at Winter Orangery. Observant, proud and easily territorial.
Celina Parch, 24, Parish Humans; civil advocate at Petition Rooms. Tenacious, funny and overbearing.
Celine Moth, 26, Glass Fae; bell conservator at Bell Foundry Ruin. Concentrated, exact and impatient with interruption.
Colin Wale, 29, Parish Werewolves; dry-stone mason at Wolf Fold. Diligent, kind and pessimistic.
Locations42
Ada and Quentin's guide lodge and hawk court, offering intimate rivalries and tracks into dangerous upland country.
Celine and Luc's bell workshop in a roofless foundry, capable of bounded message magic and a dangerous vigil.
Eastern flooded abbey country: salvage, uncertain apparitions, desecrated graves and bells that store one mortal phrase.
Martin's veterinary rooms, a warm refuge holding evidence that an illegal hunt used trained animals.
Agnes's burial cooperative hall and Victor's lodging, where salvage, mourning and relic fraud meet.
Leonie's collateral house and private auction room, where intimate possessions become public evidence.
Ansel and Vera's ferry crossing, with dance invitations, river gossip and a silk-wrapped parcel beneath the chain.
Viola and Oscar's repair yard, containing sound craft, a grounded coach and physical evidence from a fatal journey.
Noel and Tilda's smokehouse landing, where shared meals conceal river smuggling and competing boat schemes.
Denis and Pauline's flooded salvage cloister, with unstable arches, a recovered reliquary and routes below the water.
Southwestern coach-road corridor of inn pleasures, toll records, card cheats and abandoned carriages.
Delphine's lodging stair and informal music salon, where admirers compete with neighbours' need for sleep.
Factions8
Licensed lenders and auction valuers, with a murdered collector and blackmail beneath legitimate trade.
Cathedral administration and musicians, balancing public worship against patrons who buy influence with beauty.
Western estate and tenant association, carrying old privilege into contested leases and a vicious succession dispute.
Theatre musicians and makers whose intimate performances attract patrons eager to buy more than a ticket.
Burial and abbey salvage cooperative, protecting dignity while stolen funeral silver circulates through its own yard.
Mixed-race professional hunters and guides, tempted by a wealthy client seeking an unnamed living quarry.
Marsh ferry and drainage association whose public votes conceal a profitable night landing.
Inn and coach mutual aid, offering generous shelter while members disagree about protecting dangerous guests.
Monsters3
Uncommon abbey scavengers whose throat sacs imitate broken choral notes, dangerous in groups but not transformed people.
Rare luminous marsh colonies that lure insects and can drag a stumbling adult into deep water with adhesive filaments.
Common city textile pests that mimic metallic dust and ruin luxurious cloth, not flesh-eating curses.
Races3
Mortal fae with pointed ears, translucent nails and bounded reflected-light glamour, prominent but not confined to western estates.
Ordinary mortal humans sharing civic life, learned magic and uneven power with fae and born werewolves.
Born citizens who voluntarily become four-legged wolves once out and back per night, keeping identity but leaving clothing behind.