Jasmine Bloom Teahouse

Established in the early days after the Shattering, the Jasmine Bloom teahouse has been a fixture of Carridan society for over 700 years. It is frequented by the wealthy and powerful of Carrida, and deals affecting the future of the city and continent have been made there since its founding.

In addition to serving as a meeting place for the rich and powerful, the teahouse is known as a locus of Fate. The proprietor of the teahouse is said to be connected to Fate, with that connection being passed on from each owner to the next. The current proprietor, Yara Nasir, will assist anyone who can pay her fee to know their own relationship with Fate and what may be done to alter that relationship. Her cost is only known to those who have engaged her services, and those that do so range from the wealthiest merchants to the lowest beggars.

The teahouse was originally a one room building, consisting of an open walled structure with seating surrounding the central kitchen where the tea was brewed. Over the centuries, the building has expanded to become more luxurious, matching the expansion of the city itself. The original room has been walled in and serves as the heart of the teahouse where the tea is processed from leaf to ready to brew, food is made, and the employees gather out of sight of the guests. Rooms were attached to this heart to give guests places to meet privately while balconies have been added on to give places to cool off.   Lifts to take people from the docks to the teahouse have been installed by the teahouse, used by all of the businesses on the island. Other comforts have been installed unsing the water wheel power - ceiling fans throughout the building to move air about, misting stations to push water through fine nozzles to create a cooling mist, and several ice pits that funnel hot air out and cool air down to allow for stoarge and the creation of ice in the desert.

When the Shattering happened, most of the city of Helgora was wiped away in massive floods. When people returned to the delta and founded Carrida on the bones of Helgora, the river was found to have several new islands of bare stone, assumed to be pieces of the mountains that fell during the shattering. On one of these islands, a holy woman named Qadarin Nasa built a camp and began serving tea to those who sought her advice. She had abandoned any Deities she may have worshipped before the Shattering, instead talking about the Eye of Fate watching the people of Carrida and the Hand of Fate directing them.   Her small camp eventually became the open walled structure that was the first incarnation of the Jasmine Bloom. It was named such due to the natural jasmine that had begun growing on the island after the camp had first been built. That jasmine was the first plant to take hold on the island and still grows there, although the amount is miniscule compared to the jasmine fields farther into the delta.   With the building established, Qadarin began to take in other women from the city to help her run the teahouse. The women she hired were all escaping something, and Qadarin provided them with a safe shelter to begin their lives anew. While this caused some problems in the early days of the teahouse, Qadarin had made a number of powerful friends who had visited her to learn more of Fate. Those who made trouble for the women of the teahouse found themselves as pariahs among the community and were eventually run out of town. The teahouse remains a haven for such women, and is often cited as a reason that women are as powerful as they are in the city.   After running the teahouse for over fifty years, seeing the city grow around her, Qadarin sought an heir to take over for her. She selected on of the women who worked in the teahouse and taught her how to run the business side of it. When she passed away, her heir took over running the teahouse and providing guidance on matters of Fate. The new owner had not shown knowledge of Fate prior to taking over, but she clearly had as much knowledge as Qadarin had, and was quickly accepted into the role. When asked, she would simply say that it was Fate that called her to the position.   With each new proprietor, the teahouse grew larger and its fame grew wider. The additions to the building were generally funded by some client of the proprietor, saying thanks for the advice or otherwise paying off a debt to the house. Each new proprietor showed increasing skill and connection to Fate, and after hundreds of years it became common for people to claim that the proprietor was the true power in the city. In some ways, this was true, as many of the wealthy and powerful of the city would be sure to seek advice from the teahouse before proceeding. But the proprietor does not, and perhaps cannot, wield that power to their own ends.

The Jasmine Bloom is the most famous commercial establishment in Carrida, and most visitors to the city attempt to spend time there. It is not easy for most visitors to reserve time at the teahouse, as the wealthy of the city have generally reserved most balconies months ahead of time. Visitors who have come to town and attempt to walk in to the teahouse or even get a reservation in a short amount of time almost always walk away disappointed. The lucky few who do find themselves admitted usually did so through a series of lucky coincidences, although believers attribute it to the Hand of Fate creating an opening.