Adelstrad City climbs the whole of Mount Adelstrad above the Northern Ocean: three hundred thousand souls behind three walls and three keeps, from the Harbour District and the Lowers up to the Uppers. The Baron's Crimson Palace, a blood-red spike reached only by smokeship, crowns the peak. The Grand Cathedral hangs on chains over the Stone God's chasm. The First Baron built it all with slaves, and the old name still sticks.

 

The Nameless Barons rule here by fear. The Guild of Corpses raises the dead as shamblebrass labourers, ground pixies give up red smokestone for fuel, and convicted blackclads are penned in the Lowers. The worst sentence is to be brassed alive.

 

Viktor is the city's executioner. None dare ask where he came from, or what sin got him sentenced to the black hood. He is no one's slave. He is only biding his time.