gorgenmast

Empire of the Dead

I really dig this setting and the characters that have already been submitted. While my writing skills are a bit rusty, I would love to give this a go.

A few questions that may or may not be necessary to answer:

1. How do you, and can you kill an undead?
2. What is the source of necrotic power in this world?
3. Are there any gods/religions of note?
4. What currency if any is circulated?

Thanks!

@Polybius

First of all, it is great to see you again Poly! Sybax is gladly accepted and being so close, I hope to interact with him regularly. In response to your questions:

1. Undead are exceedingly difficult to "kill" as one would expect. Hacking an arm off will almost certainly kill a living warrior due to blood loss and shock, but an undead warrior will continue fighting. This is why the undead were able to conquer all of Leria with only a handful of notable defeats. Decapitation is perhaps the easiest way to dispatch undead - the body will collapse but the head may still continue to function. Complete destruction of the head is the only way to actually kill an undead with purely physical means, and is wonderfully illustrated in Oraculum's first post. Theleden, as a living warrior against the undead, used fire to destroy large swathes of undead at Esteline and Sour Bridge, either by completely immolating them or burning them to the point that they were no longer capable of fighting. There may also be some magical means of destroying undead. Perhaps there is a way to siphon the necrotic power out of a cadaver. I haven't considered such a possibility until now, but am open to such a thing so long as it is extremely rare/difficult to accomplish.

2. Undead are reanimated by the power of the Ritual of Undeath. Eagoth first discovered this phenomenon and recognized its potential. It is a very magic-intensive spell, and so only very powerful wizards like Eagoth are able to accomplish it. Eagoth eventually was able to delegate the Ritual to his undead lackies by supplying them with crystals imbued with arcane power. Eagoth saw handing over what were essentially batteries full of arcane energy as a liability, and stopped doing this. He now collects energy from the Spire of Rutile to continuously pump necrotic power into the earth via the lightning strikes illustrated in my first post.

3. Cyclone's first post mentions Zealots in a realm called Luminara, which implies some sort of religious crusade against the Undeath. There is also Incredible John's quasi-religion that depicts Eagoth as a messiah of sorts. Additionally, my first post shows that there was some sort of religious institution in Leria prior to the Undeath. The God(s) it revered, or what it stood for, are probably almost completely forgotten by the undead.

4. Cyclone has hit the nail on the head and I will refer you to his answer on this.

Empire of the Dead

This is Hell, he thought to himself once again. I am dead, and this is Hell.

His thoughts echoed through the void. Even silence can reverberate through such interminable darkness. He couldn't say for sure what he had done to deserve an eternity of solitude in the endless void; he couldn't even remember his name. An unknowable amount of time was spent trying to recall his life before this. It was much like trying to recall a dream long after awaking: he could only faintly recall an unrelated collection of memories and sensations, unable to make sense of any of it.

Fleeting snapshots of scenes from his life were projected upon the empty blackness. Illuminated by candlelight, he watched his hand scribble into an open tome with a ratty quill. Another memory from early in his life: a flock of cackling seagulls scattering into the sky ahead of him as youthful feet splashed into seafoam on some pebbly beach. In one more mundane memory, he recalled evening twilight shining through multicolored facets of a window of stained glass. Nothing about any mortal sin that would condemn him to an eternity of maddening solitude.

As he tried to peer deeper into what little recollection he possessed of his life, the perpetual silence of the void was interrupted. A distant crunch, followed by the tearing of earth somewhere up above him. The sound gradually grew closer and closer, until a resonant thud reverberated right before him.

“Careful now,” he heard a voice call out somewhere above him. “These are old graves. Coffins are all half-rotted away by now and we don't want to hurt whatever's in there.”

A second thud, as loud as the first, rang out through the darkness.

“Enough! Gimme the shovel, Grumble. I'm not letting you get us sent off to the Locus 'cause you busted up another corpse. Dumb ghoul..."

The pittering of loose soil and gravel could be heard just before him. A groan and subsequent popping of nails as the coffin's lid was pried open, and for the for the first time in a long time indeed, he could see.

Staring down a freshly-dug grave were two half-rotten wights against an overcast sky. Both caked in thick mud from the grave they had just dug up. One was missing its jaw; its tongue lolled out from under the skull as it stared dumbly down into the old casket. The other wight was better preserved, save for a missing right eye. With his remaining eye, he studied the contents of the coffin that they had just unearthed.

"This one's in rather good condition. Let's get him out."

The two wights extracted the contents of the unearthed casket, pulling a half-mummified cadaver by the shoulders out of the muddy pit up onto the earth, unceremoniously depositing him face-down onto the scraggly grass of an overgrown and forgotten cemetery. The disinterred corpse surveyed his new surroundings, too stupefied to even pull himself onto his feet.

"Where am I?" The cadaver croaked with much difficulty, having almost forgotten how to speak.

"Hmmm, this one can still think," said the one-eyed ghoul. "Been a while since we dug up one who can think."

"Where am I?" He asked again. "Is this Hell?"

"Hell?" The one-eyed ghoul gave a thoughtful scratch of the jaw with the tip of his shovel, leaving a smear of soil on his half-decayed chin. "I don't think so. I think the master said this place was an old priory... whatever that is." The jawless ghoul gave a nod of affirmation, causing his tongue to waggle back and forth.

The freshly-exhumed ghoul pushed himself up off the ground and gave a look around. They were in a clearing in the middle of a dense wood of gnarled, overgrown trees. It hosted a dozen or so ancient gravestones, piled high beside each was a tall mound of muddy earth; tailings from the wide pits dug directly in front of each grave marker. The mud-caked lids of caskets were tossed carelessly about the graveyard, unwanted husks cast off of from the prize within. And at the far end of the clearing, some distance away from the graves, was a moss-covered mass of rubble sprouting with weedy maple saplings - too large and too square to be a natural outcropping of boulders. In the dim light of the overcast sky, the exhumed ghoul noticed a few shards of stained glass amidst the rubble and vines.

The sound of hoof and footfalls drew the attention of the ghouls away from their surroundings. Approaching from a rut path in the woods came a procession of living dead toting shovels and other digging implements. Leading the procession was revenant minor seated upon the back of a withered horse with shreds of leather and sinew hanging loosely from a snout of exposed bone. A cuirass of rusted chainmail clinked faintly with each step of his steed. Two undead hounds flanked the rider, sniffing the crisp air regularly as they went along with their master.

"Did you find anything useful?" The revenant asked, trotting up toward the three.

"Yes!" The one-eyed ghoul exclaimed, casting a glance with his remaining eye to the corpse they had just unearthed. "This one still thinks."

"This region has rich soil and I am surprised to find bodies in good condition here. Surprised, but pleased."

"You there," snapped the revenant, turning in the saddle toward the new ghoul, "Do you recall anything from your life?"

"I recall this place," the exhumed ghoul said, remembering the shards of stained glass from the ruins of the nearby building. "I do not know how, but I recall this place and little else. I do not know how I came to know this place nor who I was."

The revenant glanced quickly to the headstone marking the grave from which the exhumed ghoul was dug. It was little more than a nubbin of weathered limestone poking out of the grass and moss like a worn, rotten tooth. Any name or markings had worn off a hundred years ago.

"Typical. Few of us remember anything from life," said the revenant. "This place appeared on some old maps as an abbey of some sort. Perhaps you were an abbot, which leads me to believe you are a mite smarter than this lot of dumb ghouls."

"Ah-uh?" The jawless ghoul moaned, trying to sound out 'abbot'. The horsed revenant gave a roll of his white eyes.

The abbot looked down to his hands once again, and noticed that his fingernails had fallen off of his grayed and desiccated digits.

"What happened to us? Are we dead?"

"Oh, right! We'll need to give this one the talk." The one-eyed ghoul remembered. "We need to tell him everything that's happened."

"The talk can wait," the revenant said dismissively. "Give him a shovel. For now, he digs."

---

Intermittent flashes of green lightning illuminated the land for brief moments in a sickly glow - the closest thing to sunlight that the gloomy environs of Necron ever saw. So dark was this country that all trees and vegetation had died long ago for want of sunlight. Barren snag trees sprouting polypores were all that remained of the verdant woodlands of the Rhanean hill country, and mushrooms and dense lichen beds covered the bare soil in lieu of wildflower-riddled grassland. The lichens and fungi, prolific as they were, did little to check the erosive damage of the frequent rains that fell upon this bleak country. Rain furrows carved deep gorges into the land all the way to slate bedrock which terminated in fetid, muddy ponds. Not that the erosion mattered; these lands were too sun-depraved to grow crops of any use to the undead who had ruled this country for so long.

Difficult though it might have been to imagine, this depauperate, utterly-exhausted country was in fact the nexus of the undead empire. Indeed, the ebon towers of Necron could be seen rising out of the eastern horizon like skeletal fingers up to the roiling tempest that hung perpetually above the city. Easily dwarfing all the other edifices of Necron's skyline was the Spire of Rutile, which served simultaneous as fortress, Eagoth's residence and library, and also as a mammoth lightning rod. Even here, some three leagues out of the sprawling undead metropolis, the Spire could still be seen. It illuminated the surrounding lands with stochastic flashes of lightning that struck it so frequently along with the the only other structure of import in this otherwise empty place: the Westward Way.

This was the main overland route into and out of the undead capital. It was a wide stone-paved highway that wound through the gentle hills west of Necron before turning south toward Comiriom and the Neck. Typically, the Way received a considerable amount of traffic - wagons full of supplies for the myriad industries of the undead capital passed couriers and others on official business for the Great Necromancer. Today however, the Way was traveled only by Theleden and his entourage.

Shod hooves clattered upon the slimy cobblestones over the distant rumble of thunder from the Spire of Rutile as Theleden's destrier cantered along. His steed, though unliving - of course, had few signs of decay and most of those were covered under a sheet of fine horsemail. Flanking the Theleden on either side were a cadre of mounted revenants. Each held high a lance affixed with a banner of black grubsilk. Embroidered on the fluttering banners was the right hand of white skeletal bone: Theleden's sigil. And behind them, on foot, were the halberd-wielding Skeleton Guard clad in their heavy platemail. With impossible synchrony, the Skeleton Guard marched in unison - their bootfalls sounding all at once as they kept pace behind Theleden and the horsed revenants minor. Some revenants major found the unified march of the Skeleton Guard maddening, particularly when accompanying them on long journeys such as this. Theleden, however, appreciated their rhythmic footfalls and much preferred it to the random peal of thunder that was heard constantly throughout Necron. He found their marching more conducive to thought.

Not that Theleden had any trouble with that. After all, it was thoughts that had prompted this journey from Necron to begin with: disconcerting thoughts that the Right Hand of Eagoth could simply not forget. Or perhaps 'vision' was a more appropriate word? Such distinctions were far outside of his area of expertise. Theleden knew his duty was to govern Necron and the subordinate provinces of the undead empire in his master's stead - nothing more. But to serve Eagoth in this function, Theleden needed total concentration. It was a challenging charge that the Great Necromancer had left him with and there was no room for distraction.

But what were these visions? Some were memories from life, vestiges left behind that the Cleansing had failed to remove, and those were unpleasant enough for Theleden. But some visions Theleden was quite sure were not from his life before. Were these visions of things that had yet to come? Or things that might have been? Theleden had to silence these thoughts, if not know their meaning.

Ostensibly, Theleden had undergone this journey to check the progress of Eagoth's revenants major and ensure that the collection of resources for the war against the living was proceeding smoothly. There had been no dishonesty when he reported his desire to make this journey to the Great Necromancer. But most important to Theleden was to end these maddening visions. Theleden had omitted that detail. Certainly not out of dishonesty - but for the sake of brevity. The Great Necromancer need not concern himself with such trivial things. Instead, Theleden would seek the counsel of the authority among the dead in matters of visions.

On the right side of the road came an old granite milestone from before the Undeath. A thick blanket of frilly orange lichen covered much of its surfaces, but the inscribed distances had been wiped clear either by ghoul laborers or travelers. It seemed some alterations had been made since the time of Eagoth, as some locales had been crossed out and others crudely added by an uneducated ghoul.

Narren - 18 Leagues
Comiriom - 54 Leagues
Vardo's Bridge - 72 Leagues
Ludire - 88 Leagues
Yzen - 109 Leagues
LOKUS - 152 LEAGES

"How far is it then, master?" Asked one of the horsed revenants.

"At this pace," Theleden paused for a moment to consider, "it will take ten days to reach the White City."

Empire of the Dead

Working through post #1 atm. Have not had a lot of time on my hands lately but I think I can get it out today or maybe tomorrow.

Empire of the Dead

To anyone interested in this check, this was cross-posted in both NRP and Advanced. The Advanced check received much more interest, and so that is where the roleplay has been posted. You can find it here.

Empire of the Dead

Question @gorgenmast. Can the revenant majors give their minors the same level of autonomy as themselves? I plan on Urgun giving his circle as much free thought as he does if that's alright.

Oh and do you mind if I wrote a sheet for a revenant minor I'd play in the background? Just to mix up the Order of the Savior.

@The Incredible John

Revenant minors are autonomous, yes. Even ghouls can have autonomy. I have no problem with that. As for a sheet on one of your Revenant minors, not necessary at all, but you are absolutely welcome to do so.

@Terminal I really dig Rixis. I appreciate how you have baked in some serious character flaws. Really intrigued by the concept of the Dead Sea. Seems like a potential superweapon/Achilles Heel for Eagoth that opens up some great plot directions. No need to change anything at all, full steam ahead!

Empire of the Dead

Theleden

Theleden, Warden of Rhanea. Right hand of Eagoth

Rank: Revenant Major

Description: Prince Theleden of Esteline was rather handsome in life. His mane of curly blonde locks and golden beard were once the envy of young men across the land. But when Eagoth finally captured the Lion of Esteline, he was subjected to years of strange and horrific torments. The being that emerged from the Eagoth's dungeon was unrecognizable from the young prince that entered eight years earlier. Theleden's body is now wrinkled and pale as the moon, as if the very life was sucked out of him. His beard has fallen from his chin, exposing gaunt and sunken cheeks. His curls of thick blonde hair are now a thin and pitiful collection of translucent white strands. Theleden's lips are frozen into a perpetual grimace from entire months of agonizing torment, so much such so that his lips are scarred and split open. He is typically clad in a thick black robe and cloak. Ostensibly, the purpose of these vestments is to protect Theleden from the damage caused even by what anemic sunlight that shines on the perpetually-darkened lands of Leria. One must wonder, however, if Theleden yet retains some recollection of his former self, and covers himself out of shame.

Background: Many years have passed since Eagoth's conquest of Leria. And even after many years, little is known about the Great Necromancer. His ultimate motivations are often an enigma even to his inner circle of advisors and deputies. However, one aspect of Eagoth's personality is very well known: the Necromancer Lord is legendarily vindictive.

Theleden became the object of Eagoth's wrath when the young prince came to lead the living armies of Leria against Eagoth's undead hosts. Theleden was the prince of the small kingdom of Esteline when Eagoth's undead first overran the Kingdom of Rhanea and began marching across the borders into the neighboring lands, including Esteline. The disjointed counter-attacks against the undead legions were as demoralizing as they were disastrous. Panic erupted across Leria as Eagoth's undead inflicted defeat after crushing defeat upon the armies of the living. Small Esteline - a peaceful realm with a small, unseasoned army - seemed especially helpless against the inexorable army of the dead. Theleden's father, overwhelmed with despair, took his own life rather than see his people murdered and risen as Eagoth's minions. It was under such hopelessness that Theleden became the king of Esteline.

Unlike his father, Theleden was decisive in the face of the impending doom. He knew holding Esteline against tens of thousands of ghouls was hopeless, so he didn't attempt it. He instead ordered the populace to abandon the capital and flee. When the undead inevitably overran the city's ramparts, Theleden and his forces set fire to his own capital before escaping, destroying many thousands of undead.

Theleden and his army rode to Comiriom. At Theleden's request, lords from across the continent had gathered to plan a common defense against Eagoth's forces. Theleden proposed abandoning central Leria, destroying the great Bridge of Vardo, and amassing all of Leria's remaining warriors at the marshy chokepoint known as the Neck of Leria to prevent the undead from advancing south. The plan was unpopular with many of the lords - particularly those hailing from central Leria. It was the King of Yzen, powerful and enigmatic, who convinced many of the gathered lords and kings to agree to Theleden's proposal. While Theleden was placed in command of Leria's armies, the southern realms were to prepare every seaworthy vessel in Leria to evacuate refugees across the White Straits if Theleden and his forces should fail.

The undead host encountered the living first at Sour Bridge, where the north-south road through the Neck crossed a shallow, stagnant river through the marshes. Perhaps as many as 300,000 ghouls had been mustered to crush Theleden's army. At the sight of such a vast undead army, the living seemed to quail in fear, emboldening the dead to march through the marshes. It was not until the vast bulk of the undead horde was trudging across the marches to the high ground across the bridge that Eagoth and his revenants noticed a thick, oily sheen under the reeds. A hail of fire arrows arced across the sky and plunged into the oil-slicked marshes, setting the marshes - and the dead wading through them - alight. Eagoth and his forces rushed across the burning marches, immolating or badly burning tens of thousands of ghouls. Those undead that made it to the high ground on the southern bank had little time to prepare for Theleden's army charging back toward them. Too late, Eagoth realized, the rout was a feint.

Eagoth's legion of undead was nearly destroyed before the Great Necromancer ordered a retreat back to the North. A quarter of a million ghouls - almost half of all of Eagoth's undead - were destroyed at Sour Bridge. It was by far the single greatest defeat Eagoth ever experienced.

For a time, it had seemed that Theleden could turn the tide of war against Eagoth. But it was a betrayal by King Callidus that doomed Theleden and his army. The Great Necromancer relished Theleden's capture and tormented him mercilessly for many years. But years of torment were not enough to sate Eagoth's wrath. For not only was Theleden tormented, but he also received extensive brainwashing that erased much of his memory of who he was in life. All of his hatred for Eagoth was erased and in its place was left unwavering loyalty to the Great Necromancer and his mission to spread the Undeath across the world. And by appointing Theleden as his minister in the city of Necron, Eagoth’s revenge over his defeated nemesis is absolute. In undeath, Theleden has been made a commander of the Undeath he devoted his life to stopping.

Wards:
Rhanea - Rhanea was Eagoth’s homeland when he first raised his undead army. It’s capital city, rechristened as Necron, became the defacto capital of Eagoth’s undead empire. As the epicenter of the Undeath, Rhanea is the most established portion of undead Leria. As a result, many of its resources have been exhausted. Theleden and his minions have been working to extract every last resource from this depleted realm.

Empire of the Dead

I felt like Hrein was somewhat boring and edgy at the end of the day, so I pulled off the old switcheroo.

I think Faustus will be a much more interesting figure, and that he will have more opportunity for interaction with all the other various characters.

@Cyclone

While I did not feel that Hrein was boring and had plenty of potential, I agree that Faustus is even better and has so much more potential than Hrein. Faustus will be a very important character as one of very few undead spies at Eagoth’s disposal - even if espionage is not Faustus’ true passion. Very excited to see where you take him. Gladly accepted!

On the road now, but I’m going to try to bang out my character sheet

Empire of the Dead

If anyone wants to go ahead and get started on their first IC posts, feel free to do so. I will be posting my character sheet and first IC post tonight or tomorrow.

Empire of the Dead - a spooky Nation Roleplay in time for Halloween

The OOC has been posted here. If you've posted your character sheet in this thread, feel free to post it in the character tab. Thank you all for your patience.

Empire of the Dead

Empire of the Dead

---

There are a great number of tales of undead hosts terrorizing the living. Literature is replete with these stories of necromancers and armies of zombies laying waste to civilization, carrying out horrifying atrocities against all living things. Inevitably, however, the forces of righteousness ultimately emerge victorious against the forces of death itself. But in this story, the valiant efforts of the living defenders ultimately prove futile.

This instead is the tale of Death triumphant.

Several decades have passed since the warlock Eagoth first raised his army of cadavers and waged war against the realms of Leria. Eagoth's undead legions took the continent by storm; his armies multiplying after every single battle. His undead warriors were unburdened by fear, hunger, or weariness and were motivated only by mindless subordination to the necromancer lord. For all their valor, the mortal armies of Leria were hopeless against the endless undead legions. A year after the start Eagoth's conquest, the numerous and mighty kings and lords of Leria were reduced to a handful of isolated holdouts trapped within the walls of their own castles, besieged by swarms of howling ghouls. Two years later Eagoth's conquest was absolute; every single Lerian - down to the last man, woman, and child - was a walking corpse. Leria had become an empire of the dead.

While Eagoth had proven himself a capable warlord, he found managing his vast undead dominion intolerably tedious. Eagoth granted to his most capable ghouls the capacity for free thought and introspection, that they could use their ability to think for themselves to take on the tasks of governing the various wards of Leria in the lich's stead. These Revenants Major served as governors and generals, ruling large portions of Leria in Eagoth's stead. The Revenants Major in turn appointed the cleverer ghouls as Revenants Minor, who served as deputies, leftenants, and taskmasters over the slavering, mindless ghouls. And it was the lot of the vast multitudes of mindless ghouls to toil unquestioningly to advance Eagoth's continuing war effort against the mortal kingdoms beyond Leria, who had now united in common defense against Eagoth's undead legions.

The combined armies and fleets of the living have managed to contain the undead to Leria's shores. Numerous invasion fleets have been sent out across the White Straits to establish an undead foothold on the lands of the living, but none have succeeded due to enduring naval superiority of mortal men. And though the living control the seas, they dare not attempt to field any foray onto Leria's shores lest their armies fall against the undead hordes and join their ranks in death. The resulting stalemate between the undead of Leria and the mortal men beyond has held for over twenty years now.

Over the course of such time, the undead dominion has had time to stabilize. A society of undeath, with its own strange polities and economies, has emerged. Eagoth, bored by the governance of his undead empire, delegates nearly all control to the Revenants Major. Not even death can prevent rivalry and intrigue. Infighting is strictly forbidden by the necromancer lord, but is not unheard of. Even open rebellion has a precedent, though the last uprising was stamped out ruthlessly many years ago and has not been attempted since.

Though the undead realm of Leria has ossified to a degree, this is a period of change and potential. The Revenants Major that carry out nearly all of the governance of Leria are beginning to realize the extent of Eagoth's apathy and have started to test the limits of their own authority. The undead legions are not the hivemind once previously thought and the monolithic undead realm begins to show signs of fracture.

In this story, you are a wight in any stratus of Eagoth's dominion. You may be a Revenant Major governing one of the wards of Leria or a legion of walking dead, perhaps you are a mere ghoul recently exhumed by the gravediggers with no power nor recollection of who you were in life. Or perhaps you find yourself somewhere in the middle.

That choice is yours to make, as is the path you lead in undeath.

---

Empire of the Dead is a freeform, literate roleplay with some optional nation roleplaying elements. As with most Advanced Roleplays, the goal here is not to "win" but to engage in collaborative storytelling and worldbuilding. Creativity is the number one priority here. I have therefore only sketched out the backstory and the setting so as to offer plenty of blank space for players to fill in. For the same reason, the plot of this roleplay is not on rails. I may have a general idea for an overarching plot that I might nudge the players along, but if something else develops naturally, I am perfectly fine with that. Players may focus on a single character, or play through the point of view of multiple characters in the Nation Roleplay fashion.

Regular RPG rules apply, but beyond that anything goes - within reason.

If it isn't clear already, the setting is generally medieval middle-fantasy (if such a term exists). Roughly halfway between Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings in terms of how present fantasy themes are. Magic is present but fairly uncommon (save for the dead walking around). Standard fantasy races (orcs, dwarves, giants) may be present, but are not the focus. The level of technology is roughly that of Europe circa 1300 AD sans gunpowder. Wizards and destruction magic exist, but are either few enough or weak enough that castles and wall fortifications are still relevant.

---

Application

Character sheets should be kept relatively brief and posted initially on the OOC thread. If I've given you the go ahead to proceed, please feel free to paste it onto the character tab and jump into the IC. You may add additional fields to the character sheet if you like, but remember that brevity is key for character sheets. Those who have posted their character sheets on the interest check may skip ahead and post directly to the character tab.

Name:
Rank: (Revenant major, minor, or ghoul?)
Description: (Missing a limb or eye? Well preserved, or a skeleton? Male, female, or is it even possible to tell anymore?)
Background: (Don’t feel obligated to spell out every last detail of your character’s background, as you can - and should - tease this out slowly over IC if possible. Just give us a quick rundown of who your character is, and who they were in life if they know. Most ghouls have little to no recollection of their former life.
Wards(If applicable): (For those characters that are higher-ranking wights. Briefly describe the region of Leria that they have charged with managing. Does it have a name? What is the industry here that supports Eagoth and his legions? Notable undead cities, ruins, etc?)

---

Snippets on the Undead, the Living, Leria, and the wider world

On the Undead

The undead are the deceased peoples of Leria that have been resurrected by the necromancy of Eagoth to serve in his legions of walking dead. Be they man or woman, prince or pauper, all Lerians whose deceased body was mostly integral during Eagoth's Conquest (i.e. not burned or hacked into many pieces) became one of Eagoth's undead minions.

Corpses do not immediately rise up in Undeath. A corpse takes three days to become a ghoul, during which time the corpse can be burned or otherwise destroyed to prevent it from becoming a ghoul. The Undeath is not a virus or plague; a living human can be bitten, scratched, or otherwise wounded by a ghoul and make a full recovery without "turning" a la George Romero. The Undeath is instead necromancy magic, and effects only those corpses slain upon or buried in ground that has been cursed by the Ritual of Undeath (virtually all of Leria at this point).

Undead rise with the same physical capacity as the corpse. A powerful warrior in life will be a powerful warrior in Undeath. A frail, old woman in life will be a frail ghoul in Undeath. Undead do not age; a child that rises in Undeath will not grow into an adult, and will remain a child for the duration of their undeath. Because undead do not grow, they cannot ever grow stronger. Physical training is useless for an undead and is in fact deleterious. The wear caused by intense exertion cannot heal as it would in a living human. In other words, a ghoul is as only as strong as it was when it died and will gradually weaken over time.

Corpses can also become ghouls when the ground they were buried in becomes cursed by the Ritual of Undeath. In order to rise and walk about, these ghouls must have some flesh left on their bones. In some areas of Leria - particularly in the North - climatic factors and soil chemistry have left even very old bodies very well preserved, resulting in extensive reserves of high-quality ghouls just waiting to be dug out of the ground. These areas are of significant strategic value to the undead. Completely skeletonized bodies cannot rise up, though this is not to say that skeletons cannot be ghouls. It is possible to graft ribbons of flesh onto the joints of a skeleton that allow it to move about. While this can be done, it is a very labor-intensive process even for skilled meatworkers. Skeletons are usually only "stitched-up" when decent corpses cannot be sourced from local cemeteries.

The undead are theoretically immortal, and will persist as long as their body does. However, as previously stated, the undead degrade over time due to wear and tear as well as environmental factors. Ghouls that routinely perform strenuous work or engage in combat will not last more than a few years while very sedentary undead could last for perhaps a hundred years or more. The degradation process can be further slowed with the application of embalming fluids, which stave off decomposition and can also keep undead flesh supple and elastic. The most common embalming fluid in Leria is aqua vitae: high-proof grain alcohol. The enormous demand for potent spirits with which to make aqua vitae which has rather-curiously forced the undead to begin farming again. More exotic embalming fluids requiring advanced alchemical knowledge to produce are reserved for some Revenants Major or the strange endeavors undertaken in the Meatworks of Necron.

Geography of Leria

Map of Leria

Leria is not terribly diverse in terms of biomes. Most of Leria is comprised of temperate forests and grasslands. In the northern reaches beyond Vardo's Bridge, the deciduous forests gradually transition into coniferous forest and windswept tundra with peaty bogs. In the southern extremities, the climate is dry and warm. Broadleafed evergreens like cork oak, laurel, and the occasional palm tree grow on the windswept headlands carved out by the tumultuous seas of the White Straits - named after the numerous whitecaps of these treacherous waters.