So I got really bored today and decide to make a city. I was Researching a lot about the dread necromancer and the idea came to me while just trying to imagine what my character's goal would be if i ever play a DN. So i would like your opinion on this city. The description is pretty long. I know this city may break some things, specially with Wee Jas. The purpose of this city is to create break throughs in magic. Also I don't mind grammar nazis. I am horrible when i comes to spelling and grammar in general. So any suggestions would be helpful and i don't mind if you guys use this in your adventures. I tried to make it so that it can be used across different games like greyhawk or pathfinder and of course d&d. Also any moderator that thinks this should be in a different thread i don't mind it being moved.
Beginning
Basis of City
This city is based on the idea that negativity energy is not inherently evil. Using voluntary undead (people who volunteer to become undead) to protect the city and what ever other profession, like black smith or any crafter. Crafters that do not tire would be in high demand. The ultimate goal of the city would be to expand the boundaries of negative energy and to find applications for the use of good. Using a combined magic of arcane and divine, they would push the boundaries of negative energy in the hopes of producing things that the common man can use in day to day life. This city would work a lot like DARPA with a main focus on necromancy.
Origins
This city was once simply a small village that was under attack by something (orcs, goblins, bandits really doesn’t matter). A traveling dread necromancer came through the village on a off day (no attacks that day). The villagers thinking he was simply a wizard pleaded with him to save them. He agreed with one condition, he would raise the dead as the undead. Desperate the villagers agreed. When (lets say bandits) attacked the next day they were greeted with powerful undead (the dread necromancer had all the corpse crafter feats and he was epic level). The bandits were killed to the man.
The DN (dread necromancer so things are kept simple) then proposed a deal with the villagers, let him experiment and he and his undead would protect the village the villagers and any caravans that became of the village. It took a few weeks but they had come to an agreement. The DN would experiment, he would not touch any of the villages dead without the families permission or persons permission. The villagers would keep him a secret. He would protect them with all his power but do it as subtlety as possible.
He was not a evil man, he was lawful neutral who followed the god Wee Jas. He did as he promised. He had intelligent undead so no need to use the villagers. But he still trained the villagers. His reason was that the living could guard during the day and the undead guard the night. He also had undead help with what ever manual tasks they needed. Farming, blacksmithing, building new house, and the like. The village prospered under this agreement. It did take a long time before the villagers were comfortable with it. When new people came it took years before the secret was revealed to them, but they came to understand that the DN was not evil and the undead were a boon.
After awhile the village graveyard grew very slowly as most villagers gave their corpse to the DN. After awhile most at least paid homage to Wee Jas. The village grew to the size of a small town with walls. The crafters of this village were well known, being able to produce things faster then most if not all towns its size and even able to out produce some cities. Some times paladins and the like would come and try to “cleanse” the town. If these could not be convinced to stop they would be killed. When this happened the whole town mourned. The bodies where returned to whatever church they came from and were told they help stopped some threat. They built a monument to the misguided.
As time passed what became known as the Night Guard grew. These Night Guards were spellstiched undead that were awakened and taught (game mechanics to rise their INT) to guard their city. Not everyone became an undead after they died, but it was considered an honor to join the undead. The general belief was that when the soul left the body the body was simply an empty husk. Better to let the husk by used then to let it rot, but it was left to the individual to decide. About 25% of the people agreed to become undead after they died.
Soon Wee Jas took notice of this town and sent her priests to it. They met the town leaders and the DN. They said that Wee Jas was pleased about their arrangement and offered their services. They village and the DN agreed and they formed a council that included the elected leader who had overall saying, the head priest, and the DN. With the council at the head the town boomed. With the DN and Wee Jas’s priests (the priest were known as the Karuth) created many awakened undead. Wee Jas’s influence has a great boon for the town for it brought neutral and good liches to the town to help in its cause. The awakened undead were not used as slaves, quite the opposite.
Once they were educated and taught about there former lives they were made full citizens. Many magical items that disguised the undead (no smell) were made from this town. Each newly created awakened undead was give a chest full of items that hid their identities. Many other items were created to speed up this process. From wands that animated and awakened, to rods that animated dread warriors, and to the great thought bottle which speedup the crafting of magical items considerably. Soon the town turned into a city with a booming economy of crafting magical and mundane.
This city was stationed at the base of mountain. eventually they moved the labs from Wee Jas temple into the mountain. The city guarded it’s secret almost zealously. Many adventures came to the city to uncover it’s secrets. Those that did were either bribed with treasure or even offered jobs. Those that refused were cut down. When this happened a mark was inscribed on the monument of the misguided as it unofficially came to be known, it’s official name was the Stone of Remembrance to honor all those who gave their life for the city.
A school of magic was established by the Karuth and soon mages were a common sight. This was not a random move. The purpose of the school was to give an excuse as to all the magic in the city, as any high level magic or cleric could tell that magic permeated the city. This was also away for the city to gain more mages for its research labs. The school it self focus on creation, golems and magical items. Many questioned as to how could the city be as big as it is. Because over half the city were awakened undead the food supplies were no where near what similar cities had.
The city was carefully planned so that houses that housed what became known as awakened citizens were stretched over the the city. There were no awakened districts. This was explained away by a new part of the magic school was added to increase the food storage. They shrunk the food and preserved it. They also helped the farmers grow there crops quicker. The clerics of Wee Jas helped with this too.
Soon the questions stopped. The city grew quickly because more and more of its citizens gave their bodies to the city. They city had normal sized graveyards because every time a citizen gave their bodies to the city they buried an empty coffin. The awakened were given new names and identities. Every so often the awakened were given new faces and they buried yet another coffin. This helped in two ways. The school of illusion grew in this town as new magical items and spells were invented to help the awakened, such as ageing illusions. Second the awakened could pursue new professions and still retain the knowledge of their previous professions. This lead to awakened mastering many professions that would normally take a life time to learn. This proved to be a small problem though. As the awakened lived their life the gather many items and knick-knacks. So many of the houses were bigger then most other cities.
There were no poor or beggars in this city either. There was plenty of food and many jobs. Because this city was known for its crafting it never lacked any money. Many people flocked to this city. Merchants gladly peddle its goods, because when a merchant tra[vel threw its gates with it gained 2 spellstiched undead to escort it to the next city.
The city also came to be know for its magic. For it seemed that most of the guards at least some knowledge in magic. Many of the undead volunteered to become spellstiched. The Night Guard, although they no longer guarded the night alone the name stuck, had many different classes of spellstiched or “talents”. This ranged from artillery, which was AoE spells like fireballs and such. To snipers that used long range spells like lighting bolt.
Most crafters used more day to day spells like telekinesis and such. This city also boasted (secretly) a large number of necropolitan. There were rules to become a necropolitan. You had to be either 45 years old or 25 years old and have at least two children. This way the living equaled or outnumbered the undead.
Not all intelligent undead were welcomed. Any undead that was evil had to repent and become good. Any undead that required upkeep aka vampires ( vampire need blood to live and they only came out at night) were not welcomed at first. After awhile, as they soon come to be known as, the keep citizens were welcomed but were watched carefully. Any upkeep they need, like blood, were collected from people a little at a time. Because of this city and its small number of vampires the syringe became a widely used medical tool.
The city would collect from citizens that knew of the cities secrets. As the city crew it became harder and harder to keep its secrets, leading to many rumors. Following the rumors many more adventures came to seek and plunder its secrets. The city used its bribe, convince, or kill plan on anyone who tried to “cleanse” the city. That plan worked very well. At this time it was a sprawling metropolis. Many invaders tried and failed to breach it’s walls. It’s Night guard, as the whole of the guard was now know by, was legendary. Many outside influences tried gain foot holds in the city for various reason. None have truly succeeded. Some have little power but they do not know it’s secrets or know very little.They are little more then model citizens or wealth merchants. This is because of the loyalty of its true citizen and their protection of its secrets.
This cities main deity is Wee Jas and thus follows all its holidays and such, but it allows other deity they just aren’t accepted as the cities religion. One could petition to have a parade and the like for their deity and the deities holidays, but only Wee Jas and her holidays were celebrated through out the city. Because of Wee Jas the city was always watched carefully by the other religions. The Karuth did tone down a lot of the death side of the religion (at least publicly) as to not scare away people. Wee Jas did not mind this because it served the ultimate goal of the city.
Still many clerics and paladins of good deities roamed the city carefully watching for any signs. This was of course useless because the combined strength of the mages and the Karuth made it possible for the undead to hide even in the presence of an high level paladin or cleric.
This city’s magic school was renowned. It had a program that it would fund any research for 5 years no matter how strange or impossible it might sound (basically a carbon copy of the DARPA). This lead to many inventions. One more popular was the stream line and cleaned up version of flesh grafting. This helped many that had accidents and were left without limbs. This also translated into half golems, although half golems were more expensive and rarer to see. Because of its origins and the cities secret goals it preferred flesh grafting then half golems, but they didn’t discriminate. Every project was given the same amount of attention.
Because of the surge of new citizens the population of the living boomed and now were the overwhelming majority of the population. This did not stop the plans or goals of the city. In fact it just gave them more to work with. The new plan was that they would select only families that they belive could be trusted with their secret. This resulted with only about 20% of the living population knowing enough of its secrets. Like how the Night Guard was mostly undead or how they could donate their bodies to the city after they die.
This left 80% of the living population not knowing what their city truly stood for. The rumors caused many problems for the city but nothing that the city couldn’t handle. Because of it’s secret goals the city didn’t go to war very often, most of the time it was defending itself. To date it has yet to march to war. That is simply because of if they did it would reveal many of its secrets and while the Night Guard is known for its magic they couldn’t go to war because the reason for its magic is due to the spellstiched undead. They are researching magical tattoos that simulate spellstiched.
Some of the undead leave the city to go on to do whatever it is that they wanted to do. They were allowed to keep their magical items that hid their identities and were taught how to enchant mundane items to hide undead. This was mostly so that they wouldn’t have to wear just one set of clothes. They will always be citizens of the city and thus it’s gates are always open to them.
Over the city’s 400 year history it stream lined some of the more complicated rituals to create intelligent undead and even create some new ones. Wee Jas is very proud of this city, she considers this city to be her second greatest city. The first being the city of Cauldron. Although she is considering changing this city to be the site of her main temple.
END
Beginning
Basis of City
This city is based on the idea that negativity energy is not inherently evil. Using voluntary undead (people who volunteer to become undead) to protect the city and what ever other profession, like black smith or any crafter. Crafters that do not tire would be in high demand. The ultimate goal of the city would be to expand the boundaries of negative energy and to find applications for the use of good. Using a combined magic of arcane and divine, they would push the boundaries of negative energy in the hopes of producing things that the common man can use in day to day life. This city would work a lot like DARPA with a main focus on necromancy.
Origins
This city was once simply a small village that was under attack by something (orcs, goblins, bandits really doesn’t matter). A traveling dread necromancer came through the village on a off day (no attacks that day). The villagers thinking he was simply a wizard pleaded with him to save them. He agreed with one condition, he would raise the dead as the undead. Desperate the villagers agreed. When (lets say bandits) attacked the next day they were greeted with powerful undead (the dread necromancer had all the corpse crafter feats and he was epic level). The bandits were killed to the man.
The DN (dread necromancer so things are kept simple) then proposed a deal with the villagers, let him experiment and he and his undead would protect the village the villagers and any caravans that became of the village. It took a few weeks but they had come to an agreement. The DN would experiment, he would not touch any of the villages dead without the families permission or persons permission. The villagers would keep him a secret. He would protect them with all his power but do it as subtlety as possible.
He was not a evil man, he was lawful neutral who followed the god Wee Jas. He did as he promised. He had intelligent undead so no need to use the villagers. But he still trained the villagers. His reason was that the living could guard during the day and the undead guard the night. He also had undead help with what ever manual tasks they needed. Farming, blacksmithing, building new house, and the like. The village prospered under this agreement. It did take a long time before the villagers were comfortable with it. When new people came it took years before the secret was revealed to them, but they came to understand that the DN was not evil and the undead were a boon.
After awhile the village graveyard grew very slowly as most villagers gave their corpse to the DN. After awhile most at least paid homage to Wee Jas. The village grew to the size of a small town with walls. The crafters of this village were well known, being able to produce things faster then most if not all towns its size and even able to out produce some cities. Some times paladins and the like would come and try to “cleanse” the town. If these could not be convinced to stop they would be killed. When this happened the whole town mourned. The bodies where returned to whatever church they came from and were told they help stopped some threat. They built a monument to the misguided.
As time passed what became known as the Night Guard grew. These Night Guards were spellstiched undead that were awakened and taught (game mechanics to rise their INT) to guard their city. Not everyone became an undead after they died, but it was considered an honor to join the undead. The general belief was that when the soul left the body the body was simply an empty husk. Better to let the husk by used then to let it rot, but it was left to the individual to decide. About 25% of the people agreed to become undead after they died.
Soon Wee Jas took notice of this town and sent her priests to it. They met the town leaders and the DN. They said that Wee Jas was pleased about their arrangement and offered their services. They village and the DN agreed and they formed a council that included the elected leader who had overall saying, the head priest, and the DN. With the council at the head the town boomed. With the DN and Wee Jas’s priests (the priest were known as the Karuth) created many awakened undead. Wee Jas’s influence has a great boon for the town for it brought neutral and good liches to the town to help in its cause. The awakened undead were not used as slaves, quite the opposite.
Once they were educated and taught about there former lives they were made full citizens. Many magical items that disguised the undead (no smell) were made from this town. Each newly created awakened undead was give a chest full of items that hid their identities. Many other items were created to speed up this process. From wands that animated and awakened, to rods that animated dread warriors, and to the great thought bottle which speedup the crafting of magical items considerably. Soon the town turned into a city with a booming economy of crafting magical and mundane.
This city was stationed at the base of mountain. eventually they moved the labs from Wee Jas temple into the mountain. The city guarded it’s secret almost zealously. Many adventures came to the city to uncover it’s secrets. Those that did were either bribed with treasure or even offered jobs. Those that refused were cut down. When this happened a mark was inscribed on the monument of the misguided as it unofficially came to be known, it’s official name was the Stone of Remembrance to honor all those who gave their life for the city.
A school of magic was established by the Karuth and soon mages were a common sight. This was not a random move. The purpose of the school was to give an excuse as to all the magic in the city, as any high level magic or cleric could tell that magic permeated the city. This was also away for the city to gain more mages for its research labs. The school it self focus on creation, golems and magical items. Many questioned as to how could the city be as big as it is. Because over half the city were awakened undead the food supplies were no where near what similar cities had.
The city was carefully planned so that houses that housed what became known as awakened citizens were stretched over the the city. There were no awakened districts. This was explained away by a new part of the magic school was added to increase the food storage. They shrunk the food and preserved it. They also helped the farmers grow there crops quicker. The clerics of Wee Jas helped with this too.
Soon the questions stopped. The city grew quickly because more and more of its citizens gave their bodies to the city. They city had normal sized graveyards because every time a citizen gave their bodies to the city they buried an empty coffin. The awakened were given new names and identities. Every so often the awakened were given new faces and they buried yet another coffin. This helped in two ways. The school of illusion grew in this town as new magical items and spells were invented to help the awakened, such as ageing illusions. Second the awakened could pursue new professions and still retain the knowledge of their previous professions. This lead to awakened mastering many professions that would normally take a life time to learn. This proved to be a small problem though. As the awakened lived their life the gather many items and knick-knacks. So many of the houses were bigger then most other cities.
There were no poor or beggars in this city either. There was plenty of food and many jobs. Because this city was known for its crafting it never lacked any money. Many people flocked to this city. Merchants gladly peddle its goods, because when a merchant tra[vel threw its gates with it gained 2 spellstiched undead to escort it to the next city.
The city also came to be know for its magic. For it seemed that most of the guards at least some knowledge in magic. Many of the undead volunteered to become spellstiched. The Night Guard, although they no longer guarded the night alone the name stuck, had many different classes of spellstiched or “talents”. This ranged from artillery, which was AoE spells like fireballs and such. To snipers that used long range spells like lighting bolt.
Most crafters used more day to day spells like telekinesis and such. This city also boasted (secretly) a large number of necropolitan. There were rules to become a necropolitan. You had to be either 45 years old or 25 years old and have at least two children. This way the living equaled or outnumbered the undead.
Not all intelligent undead were welcomed. Any undead that was evil had to repent and become good. Any undead that required upkeep aka vampires ( vampire need blood to live and they only came out at night) were not welcomed at first. After awhile, as they soon come to be known as, the keep citizens were welcomed but were watched carefully. Any upkeep they need, like blood, were collected from people a little at a time. Because of this city and its small number of vampires the syringe became a widely used medical tool.
The city would collect from citizens that knew of the cities secrets. As the city crew it became harder and harder to keep its secrets, leading to many rumors. Following the rumors many more adventures came to seek and plunder its secrets. The city used its bribe, convince, or kill plan on anyone who tried to “cleanse” the city. That plan worked very well. At this time it was a sprawling metropolis. Many invaders tried and failed to breach it’s walls. It’s Night guard, as the whole of the guard was now know by, was legendary. Many outside influences tried gain foot holds in the city for various reason. None have truly succeeded. Some have little power but they do not know it’s secrets or know very little.They are little more then model citizens or wealth merchants. This is because of the loyalty of its true citizen and their protection of its secrets.
This cities main deity is Wee Jas and thus follows all its holidays and such, but it allows other deity they just aren’t accepted as the cities religion. One could petition to have a parade and the like for their deity and the deities holidays, but only Wee Jas and her holidays were celebrated through out the city. Because of Wee Jas the city was always watched carefully by the other religions. The Karuth did tone down a lot of the death side of the religion (at least publicly) as to not scare away people. Wee Jas did not mind this because it served the ultimate goal of the city.
Still many clerics and paladins of good deities roamed the city carefully watching for any signs. This was of course useless because the combined strength of the mages and the Karuth made it possible for the undead to hide even in the presence of an high level paladin or cleric.
This city’s magic school was renowned. It had a program that it would fund any research for 5 years no matter how strange or impossible it might sound (basically a carbon copy of the DARPA). This lead to many inventions. One more popular was the stream line and cleaned up version of flesh grafting. This helped many that had accidents and were left without limbs. This also translated into half golems, although half golems were more expensive and rarer to see. Because of its origins and the cities secret goals it preferred flesh grafting then half golems, but they didn’t discriminate. Every project was given the same amount of attention.
Because of the surge of new citizens the population of the living boomed and now were the overwhelming majority of the population. This did not stop the plans or goals of the city. In fact it just gave them more to work with. The new plan was that they would select only families that they belive could be trusted with their secret. This resulted with only about 20% of the living population knowing enough of its secrets. Like how the Night Guard was mostly undead or how they could donate their bodies to the city after they die.
This left 80% of the living population not knowing what their city truly stood for. The rumors caused many problems for the city but nothing that the city couldn’t handle. Because of it’s secret goals the city didn’t go to war very often, most of the time it was defending itself. To date it has yet to march to war. That is simply because of if they did it would reveal many of its secrets and while the Night Guard is known for its magic they couldn’t go to war because the reason for its magic is due to the spellstiched undead. They are researching magical tattoos that simulate spellstiched.
Some of the undead leave the city to go on to do whatever it is that they wanted to do. They were allowed to keep their magical items that hid their identities and were taught how to enchant mundane items to hide undead. This was mostly so that they wouldn’t have to wear just one set of clothes. They will always be citizens of the city and thus it’s gates are always open to them.
Over the city’s 400 year history it stream lined some of the more complicated rituals to create intelligent undead and even create some new ones. Wee Jas is very proud of this city, she considers this city to be her second greatest city. The first being the city of Cauldron. Although she is considering changing this city to be the site of her main temple.
END
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In a world where undeath isn't inherently evil, I could see this working.
