Whither

"Behind the great arch over the Bay, the Pale Wastes stretch, white and silent as the face of the moon. From here, you might almost imagine they were snow. North of the city, the salt-pools fizz with unlikely colour."

"Why are there so many questions in Whither?"

Whither is located very far north of London, located near the salty Pale Wastes.

No Answers

"The citizens of Whither enjoy questions: so much so that they always answer a question with another question. This can make intelligence-gathering frustrating."

As its name suggests, Whither is a place where questions are asked. The people of Whither communicate to each other by asking questions, and answering them without using questions too would have you exiled from the port.

Whithern and Iremi people are engaged in a rivalry of rhetoric at Frostfound to figured out the difference between a question and a riddle. This contest is known as the Game of Truths. Its winner are supposedly allowed to enter Frostfound without risking the wrath of the gods.

There is a temple to the three gods of the Zee in Whither, and one may gain and lose their respective favors here. It is also the only place where one can find an answer in Whither, though only if you asked them about the Drowned Man.

Codex

"Codex: a desperate caveful of mute exiles, and an inexplicable colony of shivering, bad-tempered monkeys."

Codex is a chilly island east of Whither. It is indeed home to a group of mute exiles and a band of grumpy monkeys. Most of them are Ex-Whithern that dare to answer a question.

Some of the exiles have a certain question, one whose answer they've been searching for for years. If they find the answer to this question, they will start speaking again.