Narada - The Ruined Barony

        During the era of the war between Spiral and Solinar, some five centuries ago, Narada was the staging point of the Solinar siege against the undead capital of Arborat. The order of knights had begun to abandon any hope of destroying the conduit, as their numbers and resources shrilveled under the encrouching desert, and plans were made to evacuate the city as it become clear that the Spiral was turning the tide of the siege towards Narada's shining walls. However, as the Spiral armies gathered to march on the city, and the dark priests gathered their power, a catasrophic event took place, an event which would change the face of the entire war. Nigh descended upon Arborat, and laid the conduit to ruin. Until that day, no mortal eyes had ever beheld the power of the ancient war machine, the power unleashed to destroy the greatest of the gods, Halus. It decimated the Spiral conduit in a blinding instant, and reduced twenty thousand undead soldiers to dust.

        In the end, it didn't make a great deal of difference. The poisoned winds spread by the impact of Nigh's weapon quickly consumed the surrounding region, including the city of Narada, and killed all it touched. The citizens became infected with hideous diseases, and the entire city was placed under quarantine. They mistakenly believed that the poisoning was merely a plague, one that their curative magics could not affect. A rotting sickness. Thousands died, and those few that escaped lived bitterly short lives, and all the while, the desert continued to expand, devouring crops and irrigation canals, ruining the once-fertile soil. In the end, Narada became a tomb.

        In recent years, an enterprising gorg guildmaster approached the Decider with an offer. He would be willing to fund the reconstruction of the old city, in exchange for Barony rights upon the project's completion. Thinking the gorg a complete fool, but nontheless amused, she granted him permission to undertake this great task, and for five years, teams of engineers, builders, and masons flocked to the ruined city. The rest of the gorg merchant community began to question the sanity of the baron-to-be as he expended his great fortune on the city's ressurrection, and indeed, a certain lunacy had become commonplace among the workers as well. Much of the architecture grew twisted and nonsensical - buildings without doors, staircases that went nowhere, meaningless archways, all radiating outwards from the baron's half-built palace. Enticed by the promise of cheap dwellings and no taxes, eager citizens poured into the bizarre city, and for a few years, things seemed relatively normal, and quite profitable for the eccentric gorg baron. As time went on, however, the new citizens of Narada became known for their madness. Strange new art forms, discordian music, and all other manner of strangeness came to be associated with the brightly-colored city, along with physical deformities, pale skin, and hair loss. Gradually, the entire barony descended into insanity and violence, gruesome public executions, bizarre fornication, and a more subtle but clearly familiar rotting disease. Eventually, the city was once again declared off-limits, only this time, the Decider personally sent a legion of her troops to ensure that no Naradan citizens could escape their awful fate. It is said that Narada is still inhabited by inbred clans of horrific humanoid things, which no longer seek to escape. Consequently, the garrisons positioned around the dying city have long-since been abandoned, leaving the ruins to the 'things'.

        The ruins are mildly radioactive, and lethal doses can build up over time, causing many types of cancer in those who remain for long periods. The 'citizens' that remain are the product of generations of inbreeding, mutations, and other hideous regressions, and they're more than happy to devour each other, or any strangers entering the city. These nightmares of flesh and disease spawn very quickly, and generally subsist on nothing more than others of their kind. Most have irregular numbers of arms, eyes, or even heads, their flesh fused together like molten wax. Due to their deformities, they tend to shamble or drag themselves very slowly, and none are capable of rational discourse. They are occasionally referred to as the Children of Narada.

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