The City of Lugal
Zuag-Si, The City of Quarrels
"There is evil on Earth, evil distilled by time; Earth is dying and in its twilight' - Jack Vance, The Dying Earth
Government Type: Hegemony , A council of ichor-addicts known as the "The Skinless Ones"
Faction Specie(s): Ethnic Salisheds, Drathans, Valoths, Trollkin, other various Beastkin, Mutants and Barbarians
Species Descriptions:
Humans Outcasts from all across Azoth. Descendants of the Murderous Army of Chella.
DrathanLocation:
Lugal is a city on the edge of wilderness and Empire, a fortress on the border of civilization. A seemingly inconsequential bastion of debauchery, salaciousness, and refuge for the outcast, insane and discarded. It is a home to the dregs of society, mad cults, deformed free-men and beastkin. Racial prejudice is cast aside in favor of the freedom to pursue whatever vice one finds pleasing... 
Faction Religion/Ideology:
No one religion or ideology is represented in any great number in Lugal, instead serving as a haven for various fringe societies, sects and cults. The dissonant ideologies have given the city its well known alias: The City of Quarrels. From the ichor-crystal ingesting cult Leviity Sin, to the Fever-Dream obsessed Somnambulists, the Murderous Gorgon Sect or the weird Flesh & Beastkin fringe Augmentites, Lugal is known across Azoth as a haven for heretics, lunatics and madmen... Augmented Abmen It is a rare thing to find an Abmen that has not altered his physical body, whether by crude street-transmutations (piercings, flayings, skin stretching, etching, burning) or by alchemical or ichor ingestion or mutilation. It is suggested that the proximity to the Gardens of Chella, (and the residual whisperings of the Old Ones) have left a hint of insanity in the peoples minds, and drives them to alter their worldly flesh, others attributing the fad to the Skinless Ones themselves, who wear painful cloaks of ichor that continuously rends the flesh from their bones in exchange for arcane prehension.
The Somnambulists"In fever dreams we walk'd , towards scarring light..." The sporadic cult of dream-chasers dwell in the Mourning Quarter, an adjacent tower to the city proper, where the diseased and sick are quarentined. The fevers and subsequent hallucinations brought on by some of Azoth's more tremelous and rare sickness are harnessed (along with powerful narcotics) to breed visions of distant lands.
The Sect of GorgonsThe amateur assassins guild known as the Gorgons were invited to Lugal by the Skinless Ones to hone their craft, and rid the city of undesirables in the process. If
Fear is the word used to describe the actions of the Gorgons, it is used in the sense of a botched, painful execution, as the Gorgons have been known to miss vital organs in the initial thrust, miscalculate the necessary quantities of toxin (leaving the target writhing in agony for hours-even days after the hit) or most commonly, mistaking an innocent for the target.
The origin of the Gorgons methods of murder, subsequent 'Ashing' where the victim's body is burned (assumedly in sacrifice) and namesake can be traced to bastardized legends of the
Mountain Wisdoms,
'monstrous crones said to lurk high in the Godsfang Mountains..' that some say could turn a man to ash with one gaze.
Leviity Sin Lead by an outlaw half-Drathan, half-beastkin, 'Flay' as he is known among certain circles has refined a process whereby the narcotic properties of lesser-ichor crystals are brought to the forefront in the distillation process, sacrificing latent power for mere pleasure. A dozen or so followers have followed Flay down to the Slain Quarter with the promise of endless ecstasy in return for , where they are holed up in an abandoned cistern from time immemorial. Every once in a while, a few of the ashen faced followers will venture to the merchant quarters to purchase more ichor. Regarded as simple degenerates by everyone but the Skinless Ones, rumors abound that Flay is in fact practicing an ancient pleasure ritual in an effort to summon a particular salacious and tenebrous Red God.
The Skinless Ones The Membrane The membrane is the occult society obsessed with Lugals ruling class, the Skinless Ones. They are the destitute, the poor and addicted. They are fanatical in their devotion to the Masters of Lugal.
Faction Description:
...a black spear jutting from the scabrous wilderness of the valleys around the Godsfang Mountains, the road lined with the disemboweled, the crucified, the vivisected, and the punished, all product of the feared Skinless Ones. One particularly abused Drathan had his lips curled back from his face and pierced with....
...at last reaching the fabled gate of Zuag-Si, carved in the likeness of the moment of The Mad King Chella's Death, eyes wide and black teeth gnashing. His horrible death glare fixed upon all that pass through across that threshold..
....immediately found myself accosted by all manner of vagabond, reject and mutant upon entering the Slain Quarter; the narrow halls of the Salished Empires revered (ha!) dead. I found instead a cesspool of debauchery, robbery and sex. For a moment I doubted the sovereignty of the Skinless Ones but this sentiment was fleeting, and would be laid to rest upon greeting the Masters of Lugal...
-From Travails and Travels At the Borders of Empire, By Mertron Golb,
published posthumously by Rex, Rox, and Chyron,
Rising from the low hills footing the ominous Godsfang Mountains and the scabrous wasteland Erg is the fortified merchant city Lugal, once a Cairn-Tower for long-dead Salished Rulers. From the lower quarters that house the sepulchres and tombs of long dead royalty, to the prospering merchant quarter above, the city of Lugal has a multitude of conflicting populations, cultures, races and
The city reaches into the sweltering sky, a tower of strange cyclopean architecture and improbable geometry, with cruel, pointed spires and thick tangles of barberous wire at its feet. The cities only gate is carved in the likeness of Zuag-Si, one of dozens of Warrior-Death dieties of the ancient Salished Empire, his black stone fangs threaten to gnash down at any who cross the threshold.
The lowest quarters of the city are walled with rough hewn stone, pulled from quarries along the Godsfang Mountains centuries ago. Some are carved with glyphs and runes of protection, the secret to activating long since lost...
The ancient, blood stained stone walkways of the terrestrial quarter are a labyrinthine complex of guarded tombs, graves and temples devoted to Salished Royalty. Many of these tombs were robbed centuries ago, but a few lay untouched, guarded by horrors even Lugal's masters fear. In the narrow corridors of the Slain Quarter a turf war has broken out between a particularly voracious Gobbler known as Stain and Abmen..
Faction History:
Founding of Zuag-Si, The Cairn of Mad Kings
It is said that Chella, a mad King of the ancient Salished Empire, upon crossing the Godsfang mountains with his army ordered scouts into the desolate wasteland known as the Erg. None returned and Chella ordered the army to camp in the low hills of the Godsfang. It is said that a Tomb Lord beckoned Chella into treacherous caverns beneath the Godsfang, where his lieutenants discovered their King whispering in the dark. At sunrise, Chella ordered every other soldier in his army to slay the man next to him. Many men fled into the Erg and were seen no more. For those that remained, the murderous work took all of that day and as twilight descended, an army of beastkin descended upon the remaining soldiers. In a fit of bloodlust, Chella's own bodyguard, severed the Mad-Kings head from his neck. This he carried into the caverns below the Godsfang and neither the assassin or Chellas remains were recovered. The tomb of Chella was begun where the Mad King fell, and over the centuries became a border fort to protect against invading hordes of mutants and beastkin arriving from distant lands across the Erg.
Middle Period: Fortification of Zuag-Si
...in which Beastkin Hordes are continuously broken upon the cties back.
Recent History: Rise of the Skinless Ones
...With the Trollkin slave revolt bloodily put down, the Salished Empire regained control of the city once more, but failed to rebuild Lugal to its former glory, due largely to economic depression within the Empire. Lugal would see a long succession of short-lived rulers, minor lords and sorcerers who were often dispatched by angry mobs, assassins or driven to madness in some form or another.
Important Characters:
Flay,
Gorgon,
Stain,
The Skinless Ones
Important Holdings/Territory/Possessions:
The city of Lugal and surrounding lands, including a portion of an old Salished Empire trade road.
Relation to other Factions:
Edits/Notes:
- Changed the drathan slave revolt to Trollkin Slave revolt.
- Added The Somnambulists & The Sect of the Gorgons
Shadow Dragon