Influencias en la Filosofía de Simone de Beauvoir

Long ago, the island called Lintha Ng Oroo was wide and circular with high hillocks and endless trees. The hills and trees have long ago sunk into the sea, however, and all that remains is a dying, bleeding land, oblong and crescent-shaped. In the aftermath of the Great Contagion, when the Fair Folk ravaged Creation and mortal men lost their lives like so many leaves

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Fifty feet wide and extending into the bay 1,000 feet, the docks are always a bustle of activity, with goods being loaded and unloaded at all times. Anywhere from 100 to 500 ships can be found docked here.

Passage can be obtained here by dealing with cap- tains directly, if they can be spotted. Lintha crews are a famously rough, close-minded lot and, generally, do not take well to the presence of foreigners on their docks. Consequently, this place is a dangerous one for foreign- ers to spend very much time in. More than a few have been “accidentally” thrown to the sharks.

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Lintha, of course, have little trouble coming and going to and from Bluehaven. But what of foreigners with business there? It should come as no surprise that it is no simple business to secure passage. Some Lintha captains will outright refuse, while others will demand impossible sums to trans- port unknown foreigners to their hidden home. Still other captains may be more receptive, espe- cially if one or more of the characters can offer favors or valuable information. Stowing away on Lintha vessels bound for Bluehaven is possible but presents other problems, as illustrated below. All foreign passengers headed for Bluehaven are treated like prisoners. They are blindfolded and bound until their destination is reached to keep Bluehaven’s location a secret.

Once arriving in Bluehaven, foreigners may only enter the Commons unaccompanied. If found elsewhere without an escort, a swift death is the likely punishment if a truly astounding explana- tion isn’t immediately forthcoming.

Leaving Bluehaven can be as difficult as en- tering it. For the right price, passage can be obtained on many of the docked ships, though the passen- gers will be expected to take on menial duties as well (unless the price is better than right). Such captains will rarely take their ships out of their way for the sake of passengers and will usually refuse to alter their plans to deliver individuals to a specific destination not on the itinerary.

dropping from trees, Lintha Ng Oroo became infected by Wyld energies that pierced her with a thousand poison- ous curses and left her bleeding and near death. Her cryptic viscera spilled, and in time, her mind was left irreparably wounded, as the Lintha noted her curious silence. Now, she speaks only in discordances and only when she is in the most pain. Every year, Lintha Ng Oroo sinks a little deeper into the sea.

The Wyld remains and continues to infect the island and its inhabitants, producing gills and sometimes fins on truebloods and even stranger anomalies on mor- tals who stay in Bluehaven for too long. Because the Wyld remains in Bluehaven in such force, various Fair Folk pay periodic visits.

The island itself is concave on the top and bottom, so that the puzzle of ships sits practically flush with the island, ramps leading from the ships and meeting the streets of the island almost seamlessly.

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Two narrow canals run through the island, with several bridges traversing their width. On normal days, seawater flows through the canals, but roughly once per moon, Lintha Ng Oroo bleeds, and dark blood seeps out of the land and into the canals, where it flows out into the sea.

Due to the Wyld energies rife throughout the area, the canals appear to the observer to have no inlet. At each of the four places where the canals meet the sea, the water flows out into the ocean, doing so with such force that craft small enough to enter the canals are pushed back by the current. The water is fresh, and seems to have no source. Where the canals meet, the waters are still.

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At night, soft wails and laments emerge from Oroo Hill. Most cannot hear — or do not wish to. At times, she speaks, but her words have no meaning, her voice filling the air powerfully and with fearful authority, but in a mad language only she understands. The Cult of Dukantha has spent centuries attempting to decipher her periodic ramblings, but has met with no success other than to surmise the obvious conclusion: the Lintha’s sister island is mad and slowly perishing.

A four-foot-high, two-foot-wide crevice, called the Mouth of Oroo, leads to a small cave, around which the religious life of the Lintha centers. Dukantha first emerged Exalted here, rising up out of the stone and leaving behind a black cavity, which serves as his pathway into and out of Malfeas (though mad Lintha wishing to see Malfeas for themselves have found disap- pointment upon leaping into the pit and finding only seawater and darkness). Dukantha’s feast begins and ends here, and weekly rituals of sacrifice have their

culmination with acolytes distributing their forfeitures into the dark crevice.

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The Gajui and Haquen Greatsepts occupy the two largest areas of Lintha Ng Oroo.

Giant spires and massive, colorful structures greet those entering the Gajui District through the Sea Lion Gate, a pearl-and-jade arch set into a 30-foot-high white-and-azure marble wall that surrounds the entire district. The 25 acres of opulence and privilege within the walls are off limits to everyone but the Gajui and that Greatsept’s own honored guests.

A mere 70 feet from the Sea Lion Gate stands the entrance to the Haquen District, a gleaming white quarter with stone buildings and an enormous square edifice housing the academies of the Sword Brother- hood. The 19 acres of this district are surprisingly Spartan, with only the residents themselves and their garish and tawdry fashions standing out among the bleached stones. Both districts stand in stark contrast to the lives of bloodshed and cruelty most of their residents engage in every day. They serve to underline the dichotomy of the Lintha — the fierce and bloodthirsty pirate and the refined, cultivated noble.

METEOROLOGY

Unbearably hot during dry days, with frequent cool- ing rains, and chilly, though bearable at night, with cold showers, Bluehaven seems to have an average climate for its part of the world.

The rains barely cease for long in Bluehaven. The Wyld energies infusing the area make the rain a trivial concern, however. Sometimes, in fact, the rain is not water at all, but tiny black crystals broken off from the canopy of the night sky, or dry, red sand that comes together to form strange crustaceans in the sea.

Just to the south lies the Wyld Typhoon Belt, which even the Lintha avoid when it is active. No one has ever returned from excursions leading through its storms.

WILDLIFE

The shrinking island portion of Bluehaven has little space for animals to live. The ancient hillocks that once rose so high and accommodated deer and sheep have diminished with the island’s ill health. Only one hill of 30 feet remains, the Mouth of Lintha Ng Oroo, from which only occasional creaks and keens emerge. Few trees remain, and no natural ani- mals dwell there apart from the quetzals and egrets, who now make their nests in attics and in abandoned sections of ships, and the black mibini parrots dwell- ing in Oroo Cave. The only other animals to be found in any great numbers on the island are the scrawny

red-and-blue lizards that infest some of the dwellings and warehouses.

Sharks and brine curs can all be found in great abundance in the bay, as well as all manner of saltwater fishes. In the shallows, giant snakes and poisonous sea toads threaten those daring to leave their vessels.