Endland

ENDLAND (The Fallen Realm)
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Capital:
Population:
Majority:
Government:
Religions:
Exports:

Vauz
Unknown
Undead
Autocracy
Koz (the Eater)
None

It was the great celestial leviathan, Halus, who finally came to fight the Creators during the last days of the War. His bretheren dead, his spiritual realm in ruins, he descended upon the world he had created with the grief and fury of a deity, seeking to destroy the City Mind. For days, Halus and Nigh fought high above the world, and their titanic battle rained disaster down upon the Creators. Too late, they came to understand that their City Mind inteded to win at any cost, regardless of whether or not their race endured its efforts. Halus' death marked the end of the Twilight War; the impact of his crash shook the very world.

When Halus died, his body fell into the sea and formed what is now called 'Endland', destroying most of the hyperspan causeways that bridged the southern islands in the process. The entire region is littered with the leviathan's remains, and barely a scrap of life can be found amid the crumbling fragments. Dunes of sterile bone dust form powdery white deserts amid the great, mountainous vertibrae that dictate the basic layout of the islands. The unnatural circular formation is actually Halus' tail. To the north, across the skeletal reefs and whalebone graveyards, the borders of Midland slowly buckle under the Spiral's steady encroachment. Even those few slavers brave enough to sell their captives to the Spiral rarely venture past these faltering borderlands, trading their wares in the slum town of Harrow.

It is here that the Spiral sport their greatest influence, amid the ruin and despair. They chose this region to build their last collector, the salt hive, Vauz. Of all three alien structures, Vauz is the most difficult to reach, and surely the most difficult to attack. Koz influence runs unchallenged through the entire island chain, and it is possible that their power is further strengthened by the residual hatred of the long-dead god. The white dust, awzil (ow-zil), is a combination of Halus' spinal bone powder and an alchemical agent that allows it to dissolve into the blood of living beings. Like the black dust, chith, awzil is used to subvert minds, infusing even the most innocent soul with a breath of the dead god's fury.

DYING VELDT
The corruptive sickness spreading from the southern lands has reached the ancestral home of the skoles, and as the years go by, the Wasting has caused this terrain to slowly lose its hues. The life here is listless and infertile, its vibrance growing dim as the Eater's taint soaks into the land. Ruins of ancient skole cities dot the veldt in many places, most now overrun with czath.

BONE DESERT
Bone desert occurs in regions where Halus' skeleton have been most heavily erroded. Unlike conventional rocky or sandy deserts, these dunes are composed of light, gritty calcium powder. Due to its nature, it can be animated and controlled to some extent by the Eater's minions, conjured into shambling elementals known as Dust Hulks. Bone deserts support no life at all, save the twisted servants of the Spiral.

POISONOUS OCEAN
The Salt Hive has been contaminating these waters for centuries, killing a widening radius of marine life with clouds of mineral toxin washed from its surface. The area around the Collector and a great portion of the reefs to the north have become lifeless and barren, and any who venture into these waters unprotected will quickly sicken and die.

REGIONAL ARCHITECTURE

Endland is a desolate waste, poisoned by the fallen god and the undead horrors that feed upon him. These fell creatures, the Spiral and their ilk, are the only beings that can survive here for long, and thus the only ones to settle this region. Spiral architecture is unlike anything else on Rym, their spartan cities linked by dusty supply trails that stretch across the bone deserts and searing wasteland. Their minimal living requirements allow the undead a disturbing level of efficiency, their tireless efforts evident in the consistant, orderly movement of supplies throughout their kingdom, carried on the backs of undead slaves. Spiral buildings show no individuality other than dimension, without windows or decoration of any kind. Only the most basic identification marks can be found. This sterile organization gives Spiral cities a very stark, alien look, even if one doesn't take into account the gaunt, skeletal inhabitants.

Necropolis: Spiral cities are unusually compact and efficient, usually nothing more than rows and rows of identical stone structures. From high above, they look almost like computer chips, with thin networks of necril-paved roads interconnecting a rectangular arrangement of smaller rectangles, all maintained by skeletal slaves. There is no need for elaborate architecture, or shops, or taverns - Spiral citidels are both sterile and devoid of originality. Only their centrally-placed shrines show any sign of splendor, housing the surrounding city's energy focus and allowing the priests within to maintain their vast supplies of undead laborers. Spiral cities are generally surrounded by high necril walls.

Collector: Also called siphons, these dread towers are a sort of necromantic terraforming device. Even small traces of ambient life energy harm the Eater's minions much like radiation, and in order to survive, they must utterly destroy any environment in which they settle. The collectors 'inhale' liberated life force and combust it before it can re-enter the ecosystem in a new form. This combustion generates great quantities of necromantic energy, steadily deepening the Spiral's stranglehold on Rym. These collectors are typically surrounded by a sprawl of considerable size, and numerous defensive encampments to protect the Spiral lords who govern them.

Melter: To produce the vast quantities of necril required for their constructions, the Spiral build dedicated smelting stations, usually surrounded by death camps of burned-out slaves. The bodies of these slaughtered slaves are fed into huge vats of black, acidic sludge, which melt down bone and tissue into a fused mass similar to plastic. Most melters contain two to four of these vats, all connected by twisted ironmongery which allows the mixture to be poured into molds of various kinds. Melter slave pens are generally fenced and surrounded by a field of ground glass and sea salt, meant to cripple any who manage to escape the grounds.

Extractor: Spiral priests sustain themselves with the energy of decay, and have discovered that the thick black residue of dead matter suits them well. They drink oil like mortals drink wine, and have devised many ways to extract it from deep beneath the earth. These tall iron constructions are found in small clusters throughout Endland, tended by the undead slaves who cart the oil casks to the nearby cities. They pump the black sludge manually, but the shifts never end, bringing in a substantial volume day after day. Like farms, they are rarely guarded unless there is a known threat in the region.

Bone Vault: With their ability to manipulate the fading anima of mortal remains, the Spiral have taken to hoarding bones of all kinds, and storing them in huge silos for use as reserve workers whenever required. They will also bolster their military effort with this undead fodder, and even repair their broken troops with spare pieces. Bone vaults are generally cylindrical necril towers with numerous ports along the sides, allowing them to open and flood the immediate area with skeletal remains.

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