« Nex » : différence entre les versions
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Les menaces de mutants gauchis par la mana et de bêtes horribles échappées des forges de chair Nexiennes découragent tout le monde sauf les audacieux et les téméraires, qui abandonnent la prudence pour suivre les rumeurs de trésors et d'anciens coffres perdus dans les ravages des Terres de Mana, qui n'ont pas été touchés par l'ancien conflit entre le Nex et le Geb. Les mages de tout Golarion ont cherché à étudier, contenir et manipuler les énergies sauvages des Terres ; ceux qui ne tombent pas dans le découragement face à la tâche ou ne meurent pas en essayant se retrouvent trop souvent dans les bars de Quantium, regardant avec avarice les monuments de puissantes magies qui pourraient ne plus jamais embellir le monde. Nombreux sont les aventuriers avistanais qui osent braver les Terres désolées ou qui servent de protecteurs à ceux qui ont plus de courage à leur actif, tout cela par manque d'armes de guerre forgées dans les usines à canon d'Alkenstar. | Les menaces de mutants gauchis par la mana et de bêtes horribles échappées des forges de chair Nexiennes découragent tout le monde sauf les audacieux et les téméraires, qui abandonnent la prudence pour suivre les rumeurs de trésors et d'anciens coffres perdus dans les ravages des Terres de Mana, qui n'ont pas été touchés par l'ancien conflit entre le Nex et le Geb. Les mages de tout Golarion ont cherché à étudier, contenir et manipuler les énergies sauvages des Terres ; ceux qui ne tombent pas dans le découragement face à la tâche ou ne meurent pas en essayant se retrouvent trop souvent dans les bars de Quantium, regardant avec avarice les monuments de puissantes magies qui pourraient ne plus jamais embellir le monde. Nombreux sont les aventuriers avistanais qui osent braver les Terres désolées ou qui servent de protecteurs à ceux qui ont plus de courage à leur actif, tout cela par manque d'armes de guerre forgées dans les usines à canon d'Alkenstar. | ||
==Introduction== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 00.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Few would disagree that Nex was, if not is, Golarion’s greatest wizard. His arcane influence on the world—and in some ways, beyond—is contested by Old-Mage Jatembe alone, though the contributions Nex made to the world were often as happenstance as they were calculated. The archmage wizard-king is recognized as the tremendous force responsible for a nation of great impact. The extent of that greatness only comes into full relief four millennia after his disappearance from the Material Plane, and that greatness has limits. | |||
The sprawl of Nex’s consequence is a different story. With each year that passes, the wrinkles of his ambition and ego mark Golarion. Ironically, the country of his namesake looks the most weathered through time by his actions. Nex, the country, is wound of ancient wonder and woe alike. | |||
Nex presents a surreal romance to newcomers. Quantium, a capital whose handsome visage flows from subterranean depths to skies of unusual color, brandishes a dizzying array of wonders conjured from hither and thither. Oenopion is less showy, but an intrepid traveler can find a world within themselves as complex as the enchanted warrens of the Bandeshar palace in the capital; all it takes, in the alchemical city, is cleaning a plate of Ghoran cuisine and reaching the bottom of an exceptionally potent glass. Few who live in the military hold of Ecanus care if it isn’t the nation’s most charismatic city. It’s formidable, and because it’s formidable, so is Nex. | |||
Staying in the nation exposes its preexisting cracks. Everyone knows not to traverse Nex’s countryside, a scourged area nearly as dangerous to traverse as the Mana Wastes, blasted from the archmage’s war with Geb 4,000 years ago. Dangerous miscreants, harsh wild things, cold desert-like nights, and waywardly inconsolable fleshforged titans menace the countryside. What few will tell you in the countryside is what nobody will tell you in Oenopion: if you’re new to the city, there’s a better chance you’ll vanish there than in the wastelands. | |||
The capital is built of secrets reaching a bureaucratic tipping point. The people of Quantium fend for themselves for the sake of provoking—or preventing, depending on whom you ask—the reignition of war with Geb. Each secret revealed, ancient or new, weighs the scales more heavily to the former. Ecanus is supposed to defend its two fellow cities from threat, but it’s a literal festering wound of a city, which only causes the wider nation to bleed internally. What dealt the blow that led to the Evisceration of Ecanus is unclear, but if it wasn’t Geb’s doing, then Archmage Nex’s dream is more self-sabotaging than his rival necromancer could ever have wished. | |||
Oenopion poisons not only itself with the great, sentient mass of oozes known as the Bath beneath the city, but also assists in a wider poisoning of the region’s waters with irrigation that leaches water from the rivers to its south and north. This is nothing compared to the Miasmere, a horrendously polluted bay made so by years of willful neglect of Quantium’s arcane activity, which contaminates any water entering the nation from the Obari ocean. The Miasmere runs westward down the Elemion and Ustradi rivers, poisoning them both in the process. Valkus Isle is a dumping ground for prisoners and enemies of the nation, but more than a few officials bringing them there end up trapped on the island with Nex knows what else. | |||
In the Mana Wastes, the last gasps of Nex’s continued expansion (which started the war with Geb over an age ago) are fading as the technocratic Grand Duchy of Alkenstar forms into a territory of its own and crawls out of Nex’s grasp. In the capital, the last person to know the archwizard—and the oldest member of the ruling Council of Three and Nine—has gone missing. The nation’s leadership fights a newly cold civil war as it prepares for the resurgence of a literal, deeply scarring ancient one. | |||
In the west of Nex is the aptly titled Well of Lies, a vast dungeon near the foothills of the Shattered Range. The instruments of Nex’s rise to power are often traced to this mysterious complex that predates even this ancient nation. Once closed by the wizard-king’s order, the Council of Three and Nine is too preoccupied with national turmoil to maintain that ancient edict. Because of the boldness of the occasional adventurer, keen to consult the enchanted (but duplicitous) scrying pools within for power and fortune, the complex has been reopened. | |||
Those intrepid souls aren’t who reemerge, but instead a steadily increasing procession of individuals who refer to themselves as the “Keys of Nex” as they make their way to the capital. Navigating the city while bearing the guises of many whom Nex apparently killed, they speak in cryptic messages that only those with the most intimate knowledge of the archmage could know. They say Nex remains in his arcane refuge because his inevitable return will be Nex’s fall. It’s a hard notion for the Council to concede, but the cracks expanding through the nation make the portent difficult to deny. | |||
People come to Nex because it’s amazing. Such a place reforms those who visit. How could it not? The process of creating his dream to the fullest of his wishes didn’t change Nex himself; it exposed him. The nation is a fertile ground for everyone who follows him, to discover, and, even in unexpected ways, to grow. Nex might have created much in the world, but the people who traverse his domain always find themselves asking: what good did he actually accomplish? Then they do the magical thing that Nex was meant to do, and they accomplish something new. | |||
[[Fichier:WELL OF LIES.jpg|vignette|alt=WELL OF LIES|WELL OF LIES]] | |||
'''Isle of Black Palms''' | |||
Though technically claimed by Nex, few pay any attention to the small chunk of land to the north of Varkus Isle. Known as the Isle of Black Palms, there is nothing to be found on the locale aside from dead palms and the lonely minaret of a ruined building. Fishers who stray too close report occasional signs of life, but no indication of who might have left them. No one who has set foot on the island has ever returned, discouraging further research. | |||
==GEOGRAPHY== | |||
Nex’s geography is a perfect encapsulation of its marvelous and mercurial history. The nation’s countryside is barren and necrotically blasted due to the prolonged conflict with Geb. Its lands are a less treacherous version of the Mana Wastes that lie south of the nation, sandwiched between Nex and its rival, but still treacherous all the same. The sands and rocky topsoil don’t provide much for the bandits, brigands, and clans who roam the land. They often meet traders migrating between the major Nexian cities freckling the wizard-king’s domain with trade and calculated turmoil. Perusing the west edge of the Mwangi Expanse’s tangle often yields little or costs more than | |||
the Nexian outlanders bargained for. | |||
The other borders of Nex are little better, when it comes to travel. The deserts of Katapesh, while more hospitable than the unpredictable Mana Wastes, do not make for a pleasant trek. The Shattered Range and Brazen Peaks on Nex’s western border forms an imposing barrier that limits any reliable contact with cities in the Mwangi Expanse, though travelers and caravans still periodically make their way through the Ndele Gap. Most in Nex travel by river or sea, sending massive ships down the northern Elemion and the southern Ustradi. | |||
THE CIRCULATION | |||
For all of Nex’s magical pedigree, many of its troubles are entirely mundane. The bandits who dwell in the wastes and waylay caravans throughout the nation aren’t unique in any way; like brigands across the cosmos, their lust for plunder is outweighed only by their personal losses and compounding rage in the face of desperation. Many descend from scorned and broken bloodlines when the walls of the great city-states shuttered their ancestors to a cruel fate of exile. Generations spent hunted by the fleshforged creations of their former homelands and treated as common detritus to be scraped off a Quantium aristocrat’s boot have left these malicious souls without compassion or mercy. | |||
The largest of the wasteland clans, the Manymen, continue to map the region under the discretion of their representative on the Council of Nine, Elemion. They chart all the safe roads that run through the nation, starting west of the Ndele Gap and the notoriously treacherous Shattered Range below it. Amidst the wider chaos in the countryside, the Manymen, in coordination with Nex’s government, have created numerous safe waystations along their reliable roads in exchange for uncontested entry to the nation’s three major cities. These roads, built and maintained by the Manymen and Nex’s military, have become the most reliable routes linking the territories of Nex. | |||
Collectively, these trading roads—as well as the roads connecting the nation’s own settlements—are referred to as the Circulation of Nex. The original network of roads took almost a decade to build after Nex’s vanishing, as most prior attempts during the war with Geb were destroyed by invading forces and magics on the necromancer’s order. When the war ended with Nex’s disappearance, the Council of Three and Nine created a few trade routes flowing to and from Geb as an initial reparative step in an attempt at brokering a tenuous peace. | |||
The largest three roads of the Circulation are referred to as the “arteries” of Nex and were completed in 588 ar. These three roads link Nex’s most critical cities: the economic backbone of Oenopion, the military hold of Ecanus, and the resplendent capital of Quantium. The road leading from Quantium southwest to Ecanus is known as the Barapara Damnu, or Road of Blood, as it was the most heavily contested and sabotaged during the war. Some say there are still spots in the barren soil along the Barapara Damnu that smell of iron and copper. Sometimes winds from storms along the Obari Ocean spread a heavy crimson dust throughout the countryside, which many claim are ghosts of conflicts past. | |||
[[Fichier:ELEMION.jpg|vignette|alt=ELEMION|ELEMION]] | |||
The second road of this inner triangle is the Barapara Uchafruu, or the Road of Dirt. This road crosses the middle of the Ustradi river from Ecanus and travels north until it reaches Oenopion, halfway in the northwestern wastelands of Nex. It’s a double reference to both the place of the dead (and undead) in Nex and its alchemical foundations. | |||
The final road was the first road established in the region around –731 ar in the midst of the war. The Barapara Dhahabii, or Road of Gold, links Oenopion to Quantium. The Road of Gold is farther north than the Road of Blood, so the wizard-king was more easily able to protect it during the war. The Barapara Dhahabii is one of the few places in | |||
the countryside to again show signs of the region’s former fertility, thanks in no small part to Ghoran tending. Though it was the first road established, it was the last to be named. Its moniker references Oenopion’s material importance and the alchemical effects of time. | |||
These three roads are enchanted with protections that ward against wayward fleshforged terrors, though the enchantments must be renewed every 20 to 30 years. The smaller veins and arteries of the Circulation receive no such arcane protections for the most part, despite being a complex link to the rest of the region. As a result, there’s little security off the beaten path of the Circulation in Nex’s modern era. | |||
===THE MIASMERE=== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 01.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Significant veins link the Miasmere—the large bay that joins the east coast of Nex to the Obari—to the capital, though Quantium also has its own port that feeds directly into the polluted waters. Magical pollution makes the waters’ effects on its citizens unpredictable and dangerous. The Council of Three and Nine has wrangled their most skilled alchemists and arcanists to work endlessly on mitigating the waters’ effects within the nation’s major cities, so far seeing only limited success. The Miasmere is so magically toxic that as its waters evaporate, they create surreal and beautiful clouds over Quantium and Nex’s eastern rim that pour somewhat acidic rain for which only the capital has formal protections. Boats making port in the bay or at the city have similar trouble with acidity if they aren’t | |||
properly constructed for the Miasmere’s alchemical corrosions. As Quantium continues in its excesses, the Elemion river forming the northern border of the nation and the Ustradi river at the south carry the cursed arcane water west through the rest of the region, still full of wartime flotsam from more than 4,000 years ago. The water further isolates the arcane prison of Valkus Isle (and the haunted Isle of Black Palms north of it) from the rest of the nation. Nex’s leadership largely neglects the isle in favor of other lands. Like Nex’s ego, his nation struggles to temper its reach, even in peaceful times. With his disappearance, Nex’s namesake slips through his fingers due to his heirs’ tacit overextensions. | |||
===VALKUS ISLE=== | |||
A large island off the eastern coast of Nex, Valkus Isle was once a popular resort for the nobility of Nexian society. It also once hosted a palace for the archmage Nex, who used the sanctum as a private place for his earliest experiments. Unfortunately, these magical experiments went awry, blasting the entire isle with planar energy and unleashing horrific monsters. Nex was forced to solve the problem by creating an impenetrable magical barrier known as the Stalwart Wall, which locked everything on the island inside permanently. With Valkus Isle now an inescapable prison, it now serves as an oubliette and dumping ground for Nexian undesirables of all kinds. | |||
==Quantium== | |||
:''Historians claim the archmage who founded Quantium, the capital of the nation of Nex, freely used wish spells to improve the life of its citizens. Though the wizard-king vanished thousands of years ago, his city remains, a masterpiece of marble and magic.'' | |||
Quantium is a city made to eclipse all others. | |||
Imagine a city of a circular plot, 15 miles in diameter and encircled by a wide “c”-shaped road. Upon the road is set two golems the size of three-story buildings, patrolling back and forth ceaselessly. Both wear the blank countenance of the wizard-king who made them to defend his dream of a city. | |||
The eastern city terminates at a mile-wide port that lets in water from the Obari Ocean, allowing traders to dock with goods from abroad. Hidden below the waves of the city’s portside lies the mouth of a complex aqueduct running beneath the city and into its heart—a 2-mile-diameter lake. Here, water gets cycled in, through, and out of the city in a similar fashion to the irrigation beneath Quantium’s westward sibling, the city of Oenopion. The grand palace and crown jewel of the capital and nation, known as the Bandeshar, sits with its surrounding campus on a half-mile-wide triangle of an island in the middle of the city lake, elevated 200 feet above the domes and peaks of the highest buildings. No bridges connect this island to the rest of the surrounding city. Any arcane thing could be an entrance to the Bandeshar, but its entrances and exits to and from the rest of the capital are strictly need to know. | |||
The rest of the surrounding metropolis is more than colorful enough to distract anyone who walks through its streets, with its constant hustle and bustle and the variety of people and creatures in its streets. Gathered and curated flora and fauna are sown through the city’s surface and the deep layers that fill its scattered parks and plazas, and the numerous statues, reliefs, mosaics and inscriptions of the wizard-king—and occasionally, his formative cohort as well—decorate every other surface of the capital. | |||
Travelers marvel at the two layers of the wider city. Quantium’s numerous visitors and inhabitants enter the capital from the gates at its north and south rim in their open hours, through the 15-foot, miles-around wall inscribed with illustrations of the nation’s mythic history. The wall fences the visible city in and extends out and over the portside. | |||
[[Fichier:THE BANDESHAR.jpg|vignette|alt=THE BANDESHAR|THE BANDESHAR]] | |||
Visitors are then met with the first of many staircases leading up to the Juali—Quantium’s “Sun”—or down into the Nwezi, the capital’s “Moon.” These two levels make up the layers of the city. The Juali is partially visible from the treacherous Nexian countryside, constantly circled by the 20-foot Quantium Golems who patrol to and from the Obari shores and who occasionally peer over the wall, placidly checking the city of their charge. The Nwezi lies beneath the Juali, lit up with unusually hued arcane lights throwing dazzling colors from their glass sconces where visitors descend. Purposeful, circular gaps in the Juali expose the neighborhoods below to the natural light, and the complex, beautiful architecture built in the Nwezi below support the equally impressive city blocks above. Both are connected by patterned pillars, buildings, supports, and archways, and the deeper city is run through with canals and pipelines that make for small cascades and waterfalls from its aqueducts. All of it is hewn from handsome marble, precious minerals, jewels of floral hues, and elaborately shaped glass in colors to match. | |||
Quantium is the perfect metropolitan representation of a man who disappeared into himself. As the capital city of Nex, the utopia the country’s namesake imagined is metaphorically following his suit. This city, spun of cadres, circles, and coteries, lit up with magic and glued together with a lifetime’s worth of wishes, is threatening to collapse under its figurative weight like the rest of the nation. The water that churns from the ocean into the city near the ports is more toxic than the Bath in Oenopion, thanks to the pollution Quantium’s citizenry bleed into it with abandon during their day-to-day. The consequential Miasmere bay, which churns in and out of the city, has none of the Bath’s sentient wisdom and twice its threat. All the splendor of Nex can’t hide the stain of Quantium’s collective ego. | |||
The capital is a beautiful thing—and beauty hewn of ego is the most fragile sort. | |||
==A DAY IN QUANTIUM== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 02.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Without any sort of timepiece, the days blur together in Quantium’s sprawl. Its arcane hustle and bustle is ever fueled by intrepid minds that cast any normal sleeping schedule to the streets while they look to the stars, shadows, and beyond for deeper and deeper mysteries. Lanterns of all sorts of unnatural color stay lit day in and day out. The luminous white marble of the main streets and many of the official buildings of Quantium refract the lights’ dizzying array of prisma into the sky, to a degree that its true color is often blotted out. From the city streets the sun often looks like another star, and the stars simply melt into the luminous atmosphere. Only the moon makes any kind of consistent appearance in the city’s view of the sky. The people below are far too wrapped up in their day-to-day to take notice. | |||
The unexpected is almost commonplace to a destabilizing degree for visitors and travelers uninitiated to Quantium’s arcane, plane-spanning metropolis. One might share freshly brewed qahwa with a dweomercat in a café at morning, then barter for extraplanar materials to study with a glass golem tending its master’s component salon in the afternoon in one of the Nwezi’s many strange bazaars. Next, one might spend the evening reading inside a living library more than happy to share incisive opinions on its visitor’s taste. Around each turn, the capital buzzes with idiosyncratic activity, overwhelming those within its latticed belly with new stimuli and information. Magic isn’t rote here, but it’s pervasive enough in every aspect of the city’s construction that the locals almost have to blot it out of their registry to function. | |||
Living in Quantium by coin alone is too expensive for most to weather without familial wealth and status in and beyond the nation. Consequently, Quantium is aggressively stratified, but many locals try to hustle through the material struggle dealt to them to enjoy the city’s arcane treasures. The average local lives and breathes their work, a perfect distraction from the city’s lack of significant civil support. Domestic tenure in Quantium is ephemeral unless a person is materially thriving or suffering—and the commotion of the city obscures the latter until it’s too late. | |||
In truth, a good amount of Quantium’s civilian traffic is rather transient. Some are knowingly so, and have taken to the streets of the deep city to try to redefine the dynamic between “owner” and “owned” of property in Quantium, in protest of its elite’s neglect. Many are impermanent by consequence of a scenic visit or esoteric personal business. They enter its walls one day, leaving overstimulated but full of colorfully sacred (and profane) anecdotes in the next. More than a few use Quantium as their momentary door into and out of the Material Plane. | |||
Much of Quantium’s busiest activity happens within the Nwezi. The day disappears in its elaborately layered smear of arcane lights, beautifully ornate doorways, askew warrens, festive alleys, and constant crowds full of denizens mundane and magical—all backed with the most gorgeously alien music one could imagine physical instruments forging. It easily makes up two-thirds of the capitol’s infrastructural density, and four-fifths of its stable populace. The Nwezi is a dense, artful urban labyrinth of people trying to get each other’s attention, selling their way up the chain to escape the sensory overload within the city’s midst. | |||
The polluted water from the Miasmere cycling endlessly into and out of the capitol lends the entire Nwezi a chemical scent that stings the nostrils, similar to the scent of ozone and a pinewood or maple tree fried by lighting. When Quantium’s lake and aqueducts aren’t running into the local’s homes, interiors smell better, often helped by Oenopional aromas or floral candles. The Nwezi quakes considerably to the shake of each of the great golem’s footfalls outside of the city—though the architecture rarely rubbles and never collapses from this. Still, the metronome-like sound is enough to drive those living under it to the surface just to think. The novel beauty of a brief visit can become a nightmarish daily life under Quantium’s Sun. | |||
Many try to climb their way up to the Juali through their daily trade and grift, but more often, in recent years, there have been protests bubbling up from within Quantium’s urban depths. The past decade has seen the city’s most frustrated, exploited, or neglected increase their displays of unrest to a near-daily occurrence, cutting through the Juali’s calm and clarity. Otherwise, the Juali is serene and pretty, with the sharp ozone smell below dissipating as the scent drifts through the windows to the open air. The heavy thud of the golems that quakes the Nwezi is a soft, soundless bounce in the Juali above; the heavy metronome is a handily ticking clock up there. | |||
The discontent is starting to stick more above the surface in Quantium. The folk in the outer city above or below often cast their eyes to the Bandeshar as it sits largely undisturbed by the quakes of the wider city’s ramshackle bustle. A few manage to wonder, in between their distraction, what could be so important within the palace to keep it so segregated from the city it’s the center of. Yet the days of those who make it there are somehow more ill at ease in the palace’s contrasting placidity. Many can feel the tension within the palace they’re privileged to work within—can feel Nex’s disappointed gaze more in the campus around the palace than when his marble imitations stare at them from four different vantages in an underground Nwezi grotto. | |||
Those who have worked hard enough to earn a position in the Bandeshar are also offered lodging to accommodate them. They rarely make the move. | |||
'''QUANTIUM SETTLEMENT 20''' | |||
N METROPOLIS | |||
Government council | |||
Population 60,000 (45% humans, 13% gnomes, 3% catfolk, 2% ratfolk, 2% fleshwarps, 1% ghorans, 34% other) | |||
Languages Kelish, Osiriani, Taldane, Vudrani | |||
Religions Abadar, Abraxas, Calistria, Irori, Mahathallah, Nethys, Norgorber, Pharasma, Sarenrae | |||
Threats civil unrest, political intrigue Nothing’s Weird Anymore Quantium residents regularly see extraplanar beings, travelers from afar, constructs, fleshforgers from Ecanus, oozes from Oenopion, and more walking their streets. Nothing surprises them at this point. Whether a character is a monster or a member of an obscure ancestry, heritage, or class, residents of Quantium are unfazed and rarely treat those characters differently than they would a human in the same circumstances, other than respecting the power of any being that’s obviously dangerous. | |||
Iranez of the Orb (N female human witch 20) member of the Council of Three Agrellus Kisk (LE male human arclord 19) leader of the Arclords of Nex Elder Architect Oblosk (LN male kasesh ancient 21) castellan of the Bandeshar | |||
==A YEAR IN QUANTIUM== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 03.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Much happens in the Quantium year. For those who can find a way to cut through the city’s distractions—or find music in the noise—Nex’s capital city offers a wonderful refuge to shape themselves in. A year in Quantium can be so relentlessly busy that it resembles a month to locals, while a traveling neonate spending a month in the city might feel like they have aged a year from the amount of information they’re exposed to. | |||
Of the cities within Nex, Quantium is the most inviting to the outside weather and elements. Most days in both the warmer or cooler seasons are pleasantly sun-kissed—but since Quantium is a coastal city, it garners its fair share of prismatic storms and occasionally acidic rain in the course of a month, rather than falling into the more generalized dry and rainy months the region subjects the rest of the nation to. The city’s plan openly welcomes the elements from the coast, and the magic that swirls in the Obari Ocean that’s leached in from the Miasmere’s pollution often catalyzes arcane storms that brew to considerable size. The city’s magical protections largely keep the sometimes-cursed rainfalls to negligible impact on the architecture and negligible discomfort for the city’s inhabitants. After a year it goes unnoticed, or one learns to wear an enchanted hat or hood with a wide cover. | |||
While torrential downpours and thunderous crashes do nothing to threaten the complex marble lattice of the city, these coastal storms are still a rather startling monthly occurrence. Though they’re beautiful to see from the Juali, being within the Nwezi is more of a roulette. The pouring water that cascades down steps and through complex networks of aqueducts through the two layers of the city can be a joy to listen to and watch—but thunder reverberates to a deafening volume in the Nwezi. The wet months of Rova to Calistril only increase the frequency of these storms. | |||
The city’s inhabitants commonly use three calendars. The first is Golarion’s standard metric, acknowledged more for the sake of travelers coming into the city than any other reason. That said, Quantium is quite internationally tinged, and it is also deeply festive, so the city holds many holiday celebrations—though they are frequently reduced from their religious and historical context in favor of the celebration itself and its accompanying aesthetics. More generalized holidays that are re-interpretable or centered around revelry for revelry’s sake enjoy the most enthusiastic celebration. Holidays that engage with matters of the dead see a tension run through the city, though private celebrations in the Nwezi provide the rare culturally scandalous thrill. A theatrical interpretation of the Day of Bones is the embraced exception because of Pharasma’s prominent clerical presence in the city, though real corpses are swapped with elaborate props and costumes to exalt the dearly departed. | |||
The second calendar that finds common use in Quantium is the exchange calendar. This calendar is used by the capitol’s entrepreneurs—particularly the ones who live in the Nwezi near the port side of town. The exchange calendar is 369 days—four days longer than the common calendar detailed above. Its segments are planned around the Network of Nineteen’s opening (page 264) because of the amount of unique goods and clientele that come from outside of the Material Plane to shop during these days, not to mention the people who choose to land at port to peddle their wares. What results is a calendar of 19 segments, each of 19 days. Often, one of these periods of time is a rest period roughly aligning with the end of the region’s wet season, and the other 18 segments through the year are split between selling locally or traveling through the doorways in the Network of Nineteen. | |||
Finally, the Bandeshar and those under its employ use a calendar devised by the Council of Three and Nine, which is planned across an almost-standard 365-day year but is mapped to the fortnight rather than to the approximate month. The first day of each of these two-week periods is marked by a meeting of the Council of Three and Nine, assessing the city and wider nation. The seventh day of each fortnight marks a private meeting between the Three, which is documented by one of the Nine (typically Pharasma’s High Cleric). The 14th day of these cycles is a rest day. Between those three markers, it is assumed that those who tend obligations within the Bandeshar are exceptional enough individuals to autonomously pursue bureaucratic matters of city, state, and beyond. | |||
The Arclords of Nex claim that this method of scheduling is the same that Nex used in his early days of conceiving the nation, and in times of great stress he would use this two-week format to re-center himself through a formidable focus, accomplishing a great feat by the end of this rigor and taking a full day to indulge in and marvel at his accomplishment. The odd day of this calendar is actually the last of the year, Invigoration Day, in which Nex and his followers would go to a place completely new to them with the express purpose of enjoying themselves in an unprecedented sensory excursion. There they would unravel the further mysteries of existence in—as the Elder Architect describes—an “occasionally hedonistic” way. His explained purpose, according to some of the wizard-king’s few published notes, was to carry an invigorated verve into the new year of invention and ambition. Since his vanishing, it has become Introspection Day, a day many locals of notable repute observe, as they fast in memory of their wizard-king and in contemplation of themselves. | |||
'''all work and no play''' | |||
Rumors persist that students at the city’s Seven Veils magic academy have learned a trick for making simple illusory images of themselves independent, allowing themselves to form study groups with magical copies of themselves. Sometimes students who attempt this return intrinsically different, fixated on solving their issues through any means necessary. Despite several notable incidents, Schoolmaster Denungar Neev has so far prevented any investigation into the matter. | |||
==PEOPLE OF QUANTIUM== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 04.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Quantium’s citizenry is anything but expected. The city overflows with oddities that walk its streets. Ghorans spread their seeds in preparation of their next life. Constructs walk around with a consciousness or two stuffed into their body. Catfolk and ratfolk chase each other in the warrens of the Nwezi. Fleshwarps and mutants from the countryside lobby for provisions to their clans and circles. Disgraced devils and demons run quaint businesses selling secrets and sorceries. Changelings search for purpose in a city they understand as a font for it. To top it off, Quantium’s definition of “pet” might melt the minds of residents | |||
in most other places. If it’s strange somewhere else and can fit in the capital streets, one will meet it here—so long as it isn’t undead. The determinate net of the word “people” in Nex’s capitol carries a dizzyingly wide definition. It demands its visitors to expect, and accept, the alien. | |||
The more internationally common ancestries within Quantium’s citizenry rest upon a considerable human minority of heavily Garundi, Keleshite, and some Vudrani backgrounds. Some of the eldest and wealthiest of the Keleshite diaspora have significant representation within Quantium’s walls. A healthy number of locals of Bonuwat and Bekyar descent immigrate from the Mwangi Expanse. In a city full of accomplished arcanists, sorcerers and wizards, some of the most impressive mages the city welcomes unsurprisingly hail from Nantambu, though the city’s wanton nature rarely agrees with the Mwangi scholars’ more egalitarian dispositions. Often, their presence is a temporary, academic one in official terms—usually a sign that the Magaambya is investigating some arcane Nexian malaise or is there by Bandesharite request. Distant and unusual genetic unions in the history of this plane-crossed city’s elite see many families of significance living within the Juali who superficially register as human but are revealed as various varieties of tiefling or aasimar descent with closer inspection. | |||
Another notable minority that fills Quantium is the Keenspark gnome population. Their numbers have blossomed in the last millennium because of the diverse selection of arcane and mundane materials acquirable within the city walls, which act as a magnet for their technical curiosity. Their particular and iconoclastic nature largely agrees with most of Quantium’s intrepid self-made fleshwarped—but the veneration of Nex in the city often sees their stereotypically precarious disposition sour. Even with this thinly veiled distaste for the wizard-king’s cult, Keenspark arcanists find fast success in the city, often staying in the subterranean matrix of the Nwezi to study for themselves in urban hermitage. | |||
[[Fichier:DAY OF BONES.jpg|vignette|alt=DAY OF BONES|DAY OF BONES]] | |||
By contrast to humans, planetouched, and gnomes’ prominence, halflings, dwarves, orcs, and especially elves tend to be somewhat sparse in the capital, preferring the quieter demeanor of Oenopion—though elves are even rarer residents in Oenopion than anywhere else within the nation’s cities. The infrequent representatives of these ancestries residing in Quantium are usually of Avistani or Casmar origin rather than of Garundi background. The Mualijae-descended elves from the Mwangi Expanse find the whole of Nex, especially Quantium, a distastefully wanton place, often only setting foot in the city with specific, reluctant intent. They share this reluctance with mutants of the countryside and Mana Wastes, who are often ignored or overlooked when their physical appearance is too “distracting,” or their demands are too loud—an absurd claim in such a strange city. The outsiders who are sometimes part of these wayward clans find far more success in procuring support from the government, though this struggle is far less an issue for the Manymen mutants (page 248) due to their official representation within the Nine. | |||
Djinni are of pervasive, if not prominent, presence, having helped construct the city by Nex’s wish and will. In tandem with the Elder Architect’s work, they are likely the reason the capital hasn’t capsized to its ancient infrastructural impossibilities. They inhabit the elements of the city, pulling wishes when they want to from Quantium’s numerous desperate. Some do take on a more pedestrian tact in their navigation of the city—and a more carnal exploration of its social circles. Consequently, there is a notable selection of geniekin in the city, many of whom carry blood relation to Quantium’s aristocracy. | |||
'''Nexus House''' | |||
Founded by the Pathfinder Adolphus and the radical Bhopanese princess Ganjay, Nexus House is the second-oldest and second-grandest Pathfinder Society lodge. Luxurious and gorgeous, Nexus House hosts a regular series of lectures, garden parties, and other gatherings—most of these events are decades or even centuries old and are woven into the social tapestry of Quantium. Recently, however, creatures from the Spellscar Desert in the Mana Wastes have | |||
been targeting Pathfinders, leaving the current vash-vatom increasingly worried. For more information on Nexus House, see page 94 of Pathfinder Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide. | |||
==FACTIONS== | |||
[[Fichier:MANYMEN.jpg|vignette|alt=MANYMEN|MANYMEN]] | |||
Quantium possesses a somewhat formal social hierarchy guided predominantly by the families who have inhabited the city the longest—and the Council of Three and Nine—in the wake of Nex’s disappearance: in order of most to least influential, the Bandesharite, the Populasi and Rastrashi, and the Galisite. Though nowhere near comprehensive, the following are some of the most notable groups and factions across the capitol’s social strata. | |||
The Bandesharite: The well-known and reluctantly well-regarded rulers and delegators of the city (by design) and nation (in practice), having forged and maintained longstanding institutional power. A Bandesharite’s votes and words are often the ripples that evolve into the norms of Quantium for the next century, and as such those of this group spend the majority of their time going to and from the great palace of the class’s namesake. The individual members of the Council of Three define the parameters of this space. Some of these individuals have pulled their associated social families up with them—like Praavi Skriiphuveti’s work in establishing the Merchant’s League of Nex. Others have kept their factions at a visible distance to attempt to shield their street-level machinations from the scrutiny of their colleagues. Gen Hendrikan (page 259) is a sterling example of one such personality who’s been keen to maintain public separation with the Keepers of Abraxas. | |||
Her Most Keen Eye: Councilor Iranez’s network of spies and informants, who seek out plots against the nation. Her most immediate concern (which some within the Council would consider oversight) centers the Evisceration of Ecanus rather than the capital itself. In a city where the citizens are on average in three places at once, Iranez’s agents take this tenfold, and she herself one hundred. If they wish to be identified, officials of the Eye—often called the Keen—wrap their heads in turbans in a way that covers their eyes like a half mask with no eye holes. The fabric matches the color of their dark, tailored djyllab, the suits often embroidered with patterns of eyes that are visible only upon close inspection. When investigating, the Keen opt to make themselves completely discreet. | |||
Her Most Keen Eye has the most direct, official ties to Nex’s military in Ecanus. One of their main fronts in the city are His Future Witnesses: skilled artists and artisans who decorate the city with surveillance tools for the Keen, often with iconography of Nex and the mythology surrounding him. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 05.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
The Breath: The most prominent organization of assassins in Nex, organized by Master Phade (NE male invisible stalker), a member of the Nine. Their operation is rarely personally or economically motivated—such pettiness is left to hedge murderers of Galisite quality. Instead, the Breath are interested in whose words balance the city and state, and whose whispers must be silenced before hampering it. For most outsiders, members are supremely hard to discern unless one is made in the know (or is about to meet one’s fate), often because they keep their dress and cover within agreeable guises, or in rarer cases are literally invisible. A cautious friction has evolved over the past 500 | |||
years into a fruitful alliance between Iranez’s keen eye and Phade’s keen blade. | |||
Quantium’s Wish: Something of an anomaly amidst the Bandesharite, Quantium’s Wish is a semi-formalized union of the djinni and aristocratic families run by geniekin in the capital. They occupy this station because of their ancient collaborations with both Nex and Oblosk in realizing Quantium and are instrumental in maintaining the city’s construction in the current age. Because of this, this group is one of the networks of entities with a knowledge of the city’s geography approaching—if not quite equaling—the Elder Architect’s. | |||
The Arclords of Nex: Under Agrellus Kisk’s guidance, the internally conflicted Arclords of Nex are the most overtly propulsive faction across the nation, claiming to know and represent the wizard-king’s vision best of anyone by guidance of his journals, protected and passed down between countless generations of his servants and their descendants. The Evisceration in Ecanus has earned back some needed goodwill for the Arclords after a millennium of their warmongering without justification started to wear on Nex’s citizenry. Members of the Arclords can usually be identified by their (often closed) third eye. The group takes some petty umbrage with Her Most Keen Eye for what they see as a purloined motif—and actual frustration with Iranez’s political disagreements regarding war. To contest the Keen’s authority of national security, the Arclords cling to a rough-hewn station as enforcers of Quantium’s nebulously defined laws and norms in the capital streets. | |||
The Populasi and Rastrashi: The common glue of Quantium, which most forget are necessary for the city’s function and thriving. The Populasi, or “popular interest” of the capital, are the citizens of Quantium of enough wealth, reputation, and energy to lobby for what they see as necessary political measures. What they lack in political push they make up for in community sway and threat—and the Bandesharite are keenly aware of the consequence of crossing groups and individuals who lie within this class. The Rastrashi, or everyday people, are often the most underestimated in their importance to Nex and Quantium’s financial health. Much of this perception likely comes to this designation referring to the average citizen of Quantium—insomuch as anyone can pretend there is a particular standard—and their transient visitors. It’s often overlooked that the cash flow that moves through the city and region from elsewhere keeps the international affairs of Nex’s elite afloat. These are common folks with no larger enterprises of any notability, though some make the transition from passive citizen to engaged occupant and find the threads they’ve stitched in their time in the city comprise a quilt that casts a large shadow. To this end, one may say the difference between the Populasi and Rastrashi comes down to how much one cares about flouting one’s status rather than wielding it. | |||
The Merchant’s League of Nex: This collaborative group organizes the trade of any major commercial entities operating through the nation, giving license to their trade if they have a storefront or transaction site across the nation, imparting taxes if a certain amount of income is earned, and enforcing and settling disputes and unreconciled barter after each season. Because of this diplomacy, high ranking Vendra of the Merchant’s League often serve as civic judges for the wider city—a point of umbrage and threat from Agrellus Kisk and the rest of the Arclords of Nex. Much of this business is officiated outside of the Bandeshar no matter where in the nation it starts, despite the League’s main advocate, Paavi Roh Kenavrii (N female tiefling human barrister), occupying one of the seats of the Nine. Officials of the League wear tailored achkan in simple colors or creamy white. Higher-ranking officials bear handsome sherwani patterned in gold. The Galisite: Every angel battles their demons, every light is sculpted by its shadows, and every city street is connected by its alleys. The Galisite, or alley people, are the perceived beckoners of Quantium’s dark side. Few things are marked as illicit in a city with such apocalyptically renaissance verve as Nex’s capitol, but the Galisite are understood to deal in illicit intent, larceny, murder, trafficking, and other nefarious crimes, with the notion that they fill the alleys with most of the city’s unnaturally dead—and invite them to rise again. In public forums, the groups shoehorned into their ranks are decried and persecuted for their services, but if the ambitions that moved Quantium to action were made more transparent, almost all from top to bottom would be this class. Coming to this realization, the Galisite purveyors of Quantium have often managed to weave their own considerable tapestries of influence and power through the entire strata of the capital. If they aren’t misunderstood or punitively stereotyped, they’re savvy enough to keep in mind that everyone has a bad day and a worse side and because of this, terrible business will always be good and abundant. | |||
Passages of Nex: The most mysterious influences in Nex are various people who resemble slain enemies and victims of the wizard-king himself, who claim to speak for the absent ruler. These individuals are hunted by the Bandesharite, yet find surprisingly dogmatic exultation in the wider citizenry’s talk. They often migrate from the Well of Lies across the country, but more recently have emerged from doorways leading to the Refuge of Nex—which those most in the know take as a harbinger of Nex’s return. The Passages agree, but state that his return will be the end of his nation. | |||
The Keepers of Abraxas: Those who act as the librarians of ruinous secrets and are servants of the Demon Lord Abraxas—knowingly or otherwise. Gen Hendrikan (CE male human priest of Abraxas), chief Keeper and Cleric of Abraxas, often posits that Nex himself was the second Librarian of Abraxas, implicating that many of the wonders gluing the capitol together are in fact edges of the Final Incantation the demon lord himself imparted on the great wizard. Today, the Keepers tattoo each other with their lord’s arcane secrets, with certain members being almost exclusively indigo with esoteric ink shrouding their skin. | |||
'''Scepter of the Arclords''' | |||
An unfinished artifact constructed by Nex, this magical scepter was claimed by the Arclords after the archmage’s disappearance. Renamed the Scepter of the Arclords, the large rod aided the Arclords in their rise to power in Nex and followed them to their exile in Jalmeray. It was the scepter that enabled one of the greatest crimes in Nex’s history, obliterating the Sunghari people living on Kaina Katakka and reducing much of the island to ash. The Arclords sequestered the scepter in a remote stretch of jungle afterward, and then lost access to it when they were expelled from Jalmeray. With rising fears of war approaching, some among Quantium’s elite now scheme ways they might get the artifact back. | |||
'''A Skilled Haggler''' | |||
There are downsides to Quantium’s remarkable tolerance, and while Her Most Keen Eye and the Breath keep wary eye on dangerous visitors, they can often be bribed to let well enough be. Aslynn, an infamous night hag who has made enemies of the Pathfinder Society and sorceress Hao Jin among others, has been a known buyer and trader of magic in Quantium for nearly a century. The hag has never been connected to a magical incident and has been quick to provide gifts of rare magic to local officials, and so her presence has become well established. | |||
==CULTURE== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 06.jpg|vignette]] | |||
Quantium is the most picturesque city in Nex, and its beauty attracts and inspires creation of all sorts, whether that be art, music, writing, or most frequently, magical exploration. The city of Nex’s dreams taught the rest of its inhabitants that they could make their own fantasies a reality. Here, the sacred and profane overlap fiercely, the personal and public blur dangerously, and the obliteration of these boundaries that pervade other, less ambitious cities instead opens doors to something that the wizard-king himself would see as a divine challenge. Find—no, make oneself in the adventures of the arcane: that is Quantium’s charge to all who set foot in it. | |||
[[Fichier:DEATHSEALER.jpg|vignette|alt=DEATHSEALER|DEATHSEALER]] | |||
The second binary is far clearer cut—that of the dead, and the undead. Should someone be rendered dead in the city, as is true through the rest of Nex, they are also quickly made gone in body and spirit so as to never rise again. A proper death in Quantium leaves behind only a memory, and any dead thing rising again prompts suspicions of Gebbite subterfuge. Finding a decomposing body of anything larger than a house cat in the city once spurned Quantium’s citizenry to request the services of Ecanusi Deathsealers with such frequency that they eventually were stationed within the city at several specially built disposal facilities, now known as Crossings. | |||
Because of Quantium’s competitive and often agitated local politics, a thriving lifestyle in the city is one best assured through a reliable web of association and renown. The locals know this, and they have centered their culture around the actualization of ego. Outside of Nex himself, one’s own being is the most sacred—and such vanity is rarely discouraged among the most powerful residing in the city, when paired with bold ambition and bright aptitude. Attention isn’t inherently good or bad in Nex’s capitol, but it catalyzes whatever web its subject is spinning. Whether they find themselves tangled in their own net or ensnaring their quarry depends on how they use their persona. It’s wise to find one’s mask in Quantium, and only take it off around those one trusts. Through this social game, Quantium’s culture often leads to the creation of various cults of personality from the most voracious egos within the capital. With near as much regularity, the frictions and full-blown conflicts that vibrate through Quantium’s streets see many others possessing weaker wills and murkier visions fall into an actual cult behind them, though the larger groups would rarely admit to it. The city is a den of cadres, circles, and coteries. For all the voracious pursuit of individual dreams, Quantium’s inhabitants find their stability in subscribing to one of its countless factions, whether large or small. With a well-enough-calibrated guise, the most adroit of the capital’s ranks may even forge support for themselves through multiple groups. The most reliable currency under the capital’s social makeup isn’t gold but bartered favors. Expect to pay this way with anything more than rote and think of it as investing in the account of one’s reputation. | |||
Even if Nex was vain, he was—and to the nation’s knowledge, remains—powerful. That power inspires respect and fear in tidelike turns. It’s hard for such a thing not to, with every third person vying to announce their distant ties to the wizard, every second door being decorated with inscrutably romanticized abstractions of his face, and every building being watched over by a larger-than-life statue of him. The pervasive message of the city is simple: be yourself, like Nex was. | |||
With such a focus on the prowess of the self, faith often trends toward gods who preach a means rather than an end. Nethys is as close to a national religion as can be found, without the dictates of the state officially decreeing it. On the darker side of the coin, both Abraxas and Mahathallah find prominent public adherents, though the cruel truths of Mahathallah are somewhat more acceptable than the cutthroat ruthlessness demanded from the demon lord of magic. Irori, with his focus on personal improvement, also finds a popular following among Nex’s nigh-solipsist elite. Among the lower echelons of society, fleshforgers and those who seek to mutate themselves turn to Lamashtu, asking her to guide them toward new and glorious forms. Calistria’s passions and lust for life guide many a Nexian on a path of glorified personal appetite. There are exceptions to this rule, where even the most jaded of residents will put aside their personal aspirations and pay their respects to a higher power. Sarenrae’s kindly tenets might be looked down upon by the more world weary, but her prowess against the undead is not, and no one in Quantium dares publicly blaspheme the good name of the Lady of Graves. | |||
The food in Quantium, at least in restaurants and sit-down spots, is beautiful to behold. The flavors, especially in comparison to the pace set in Oenopion, is less reliably impressive. A large reason for this is the quality of ingredients that come into the city. In theory, seafood is a prominent staple in the capitol due to it being a port city, and the mutated and transformed sea life make for wondrous presentations—and often acquired tastes, although the street food in the Nwezi is a more reliable source of joy for locals than the sit-down eateries in the Juali. Ghoran is even more scarce an ingredient because of the more niche populace than in Oenopion, as there are fewer plantfolk who reseed and offer their discarded body for consumption than in Quantium’s alchemical sibling. There are some specialty chefs who are willing to take on extremely exclusive and expensive dishes for private clients—if a person has ever wanted to eat young umbral dragon, someone here can prepare it and keep the shadow in its blood from suffocating the diner. Just expect a steep price for the service, as the chef likely hunted down the entrée themselves. | |||
The garishness and resplendence of this attitude extends to the aesthetic of the city. Like the colorful, layered, precisely fashioned, and artful architecture of the buildings that wind through—and sometimes, in the Juali, float over—the city streets, the fashions of Quantium’s citizenry carry a similarly dramatic flair. One is bound to see many styles of clothing on the street because of the amount of foot traffic the city attracts, from not only the rest of Nex or Garund but the globe and other planes. Those who choose to live in the city, however, tend to adopt some common hallmarks of Quantium fashion. | |||
Most common of fashions in the capitol is the genderless djyllab as a standard piece for most who wander the streets in a more-or-less humanoid frame. It is a somewhat loose-fitting robe that typically terminates at just around the ankles and slips over one’s head. Often the djyllab is hooded and is worn over other clothing—though a common jape at galas and soirees held by confident socialites is for the host to wear nothing underneath. For some beings, the djyllab is adorned with secrets; spells are embroidered around the neckline and down the front and back or stitched into the seams connecting the robe’s arms to its plunging middle. Whether robes, coats, vests, or cloaks, one can tell a Quantium garment by its embellishments and decorations, and these details are almost always enchanted as well. It’s appropriate fashion for a city whose people have almost as much to hide as they are keen to show. | |||
'''Mahathallah''' | |||
One of the Queens of the Night, Mahathallah and her followers meditate on the mysteries of the cosmos and seek out fate-changing knowledge. They are known to cruelly veil or reveal the truth at their own whims, though they typically view themselves as above others. Due to Mahathallah’s allegiance to Hell, her worship is discouraged in most nations, but the people of Nex welcome the insights of her clergy. | |||
'''Preserved Lemons''' | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 07.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
Salted lemons imported from Katapesh make a strong addition to many Quantium dishes and help cover some of the aftertastes caused by magical pollution. The following recipe can be used to create preserved lemons to add a sharp, but not overpowering, element to a meal. | |||
Ingredients | |||
Lemons | |||
Salt | |||
Quarter and seed whole lemons. Cover the bottom of a large glass jar with salt. Press the lemon quarters firmly into the jar to create a layer of fruit, then cover them with another layer of salt. Repeat until the jar is full, ending with a layer of salt. Leave the jar in the pantry for one month before using. | |||
==GOVERNMENT== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex08.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
The Council of Three and Nine, established in 578 ar, is the ruling government body holding Nex together through internal contention as much as it is through collaboration. It defines the nation but is shaped by bureaucracy and its own members’ stratagems—frequently as self-serving as they are in service to Nex’s whole. The Nine are representatives of various significant entities who are the movers and shakers of the arcane machine Nex has become. Two- | |||
thirds of the currently composed Nine live within Quantium, though they and their affiliated groups by | |||
proxy presume to represent the entire nation. Their seats are in hot contest, and nomination to the Nine is subject to the explicit discretion of the Three. | |||
In stark contrast to the Nine, the Three of the Council take a more stable role in Nex’s composition—serving their tenure until either confirmed death, resignation, or otherwise comparable incapability to rule. While the Nine can voraciously lobby for their issues and concerns to the Three, the former’s station is ultimately to perform the tasks delegated to them by the latter. The Three are the true final word in Nex, and any contentious decision that comes to a vote for the nation’s fate is kept within their own private rapport, with the results announced by Bralza (N female elf priest), the High Cleric of Pharasma and the most reliably impartial of the Nine. This impartiality, combined with her attentiveness to all exchanges of the Council within the Bandeshar, has made her the unofficial speaker of the nation. | |||
To deal with each other and massage the nation into the shape they think is best, the Three attempt to disguise their own agendas through clandestine politic and leveraging different aspects of their subordinates and national charge against each other. In theory, they embody the continuing word and intent of Nex, but this goal is only reality in stops and starts. In any age of Nex’s history, at least two of the elected Three work predominantly from their own ambition, and often the Nine become reluctant proxies of their agendas. The people of Quantium and the wider nation have acclimated to what appears as inaction as a result, despite the amount that truly happens behind closed doors to continue changing—without improving—Nex. | |||
The Council has kept the shape of its concept from some four millennia ago, but the details are less stable. To the outsider, the most consistent aspect of Nex’s ruling body in the last two centuries are the aforementioned Three. The first is Elder Architect Oblosk, the famed castellan of the Bandeshar and chief author of Quantium’s major architectural identity, besides Nex himself. Next is Iranez of the Orb, who serves as the prime and divinatory eyes and ears of the city and its larger state. Finally, the ambitious Agrellus Kisk, the preeminent member of the Arclords of Nex who seeks to revive the ancient war with Geb as he and his fellow Arclords surmise the wizard-king would have intended—they see the tenuous mercantile relationship slowly forged over the last two millennia as an egregious affront to Nex’s wishes. The present Nine have largely stayed stable for the greater part of this present decade. The master alchemist and prime fleshforger’s seats have nary been in question, nor have those of Gen Hendrikan, Master Phade, and the High Clerics of both Nethys and Pharasma. This is perhaps because this current body works as a more direct means to guide the nation than the Three contending with each other. | |||
In function, council meetings yield to more violently shifting sands when held under the glass for examination. Iranez of the Orb has long massaged the nation toward more and more functional and regular trade with Nex’s once-dire rival Geb from her seat of supremacy amid the Three. She has often found support from the Elder Architect in the last millennium for forging true stability in a new age for a city and nation that will never see its progenitor’s return. Agrellus Kisk has been near-universally outvoted in his comparably slight 100-year tenure during council meetings in the Bandeshar, and he’s turned to abusing the Nine to his own ends. He, as well as most of the Arclords of Nex, have wanted to reawaken the arcane war once waged against Geb. The past 5 years have seen the Arclord more vocal about his and his fellow Arclords’ self-righteously bloody ambitions in both the largely apathetic public eye and amid his colleagues of the Council. | |||
More concerning still, Elder Architect Oblosk has failed to attend the last four years of seasonal council meetings at the Bandeshar. With a mind that seemed to only sharpen with his ancient age and his peerless knowledge of seemingly every nook, cranny, and shadow of Quantium—let alone the Bandeshar, which he directly governs—it’s become an uneasy joke amidst the Nine that the exalted kasesh (page 330) may be lost somewhere in the palace walls, city streets, or even the Crux of Nex. This poses an acute question holding many dark truths as an answer: what keeps the Elder Architect indisposed if he is not, in fact, deceased, and why do his colleagues of the Three continue to maintain the facade of his involvement in the nation’s affairs? | |||
While the ever-changing roster of representatives who comprise the Nine of the Council attempt to chip away at the mystery, Iranez of the Orb and Agrellus Kisk seem to have forged an uneasy truce in their negotiations, using the Elder Architect as their negotiation tool and speak for him in their interests. Whatever the reasoning, more concrete evidence of Oblosk’s true absence would provoke a divine appointment—a failsafe the Council itself devised in 580 ar to maintain itself and the hypothetical peace among Nex’s rulers—where the gods Pharasma and Nethys themselves establish new members of the Three to replace any they see unfit with members of the current Nine, by that ancient agreement’s esoteric arrangement. At the least, this explains why the Council has near always had the High Cleric of both gods within the Nine’s rank. This circumstance, should it occur, would be the first time it has happened in the nation’s history. The Nine and other Quantium people and factions of significance have noted Oblosk’s likely absence. Many moderate-scale personalities in the city have set to investigating the kasesh’s whereabouts in the hopes of forcing the divine appointment and consequently climbing their way into the Nine. | |||
All of this is to say, regarding Quantium itself, that the capital has had little real governance from its leadership and a large amount of exploit. The people of the city have been largely left to self-govern day by day with only the absolute of the Council’s wishes as their true boundaries of regulation, and the city’s culture acting as its policy. With a possible divine appointment on the horizon, the city presents a powerful ladder to climb for its most ambitious agents. | |||
'''The Nine''' | |||
[[Fichier:ELDER ARCHITECT OBLOSK.jpg|vignette|alt=ELDER ARCHITECT OBLOSK|ELDER ARCHITECT OBLOSK]] | |||
There’s considerable competition for places among the Nine, and seats that prove unstable often wield less leverage with Quantium’s movers and shakers generally expecting them to be replaced. The current members of the Nine are as follows. | |||
Bralza, high cleric of Pharasma Elemion, representative of the wasteland clans | |||
Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar, representative of Ecanus | |||
Gen Hendrikan, senior cleric of the demon lord Abraxas | |||
Master Alchemist Borume, representative of Oenopion | |||
Master Phade, an invisible stalker known for his full-body leather armor | |||
Paavi Roh Kenavrii, advocate for the Merchant’s League of Nex | |||
Taraneh Mazdani, djinn representative of Quantium’s Wish | |||
Tatleen, high cleric of Nethys | |||
==LOCATIONS== | |||
The following are a sample of some of the most prominent locations found in Quantium. | |||
===THE BANDESHAR=== | |||
The highest point of the city is the tallest minaret extending from the top of the Bandeshar’s most central dome. The administrative palace is the most iconic feature of the city, a sprawling form seemingly carved from the silver light of the moon and often lit in dancing arcane illuminations of pink, blue, and turquoise. Unsurprisingly, it is near peerless in its architectural form and beauty. Outsiders are never allowed in without express permit, even if they could find their way in to traverse the Bandeshar. If they were, they would likely be lost within its labyrinthine plan, and even officials who answer directly to the Council often need appointed guides to navigate the space. | |||
Though secrets abound that have been built into the city by Nex, his contemporary followers, and the ever-tacit Elder Architect, some of his most potent are rumored to lie within the palace itself. Three of those secrets are the location of three of the eight remaining cubes of force created by the great wizard over four millennia ago—those of the schools of evocation, necromancy, and transmutation. Its construction continues deep into the earth for a rumored half mile below the lowest point of the Nwezi. Within the deepest dungeons of the Bandeshar is the long-sealed entrance to one of the original gates to the Refuge of Nex. The rest of the city has seen yet-undiscovered (and possibly new) doorways to the demiplane after the original gates’ reopening, with all sorts of denizens coming forth from each doorway carrying messages they claim are from a reawakening Nex. | |||
===THE NETWORK OF NINETEEN=== | |||
A colorful cluster of doorways and portals run through the intermittent flats and storefronts of the Nwezi, as well as the doorways, windows, crisscrossing steps, and colonnade that connect them. Every nineteenth day, any alcove of these deep-set urban warrens at the east quarter of the undercity may double as a numerous network of passages between all the known planes of existence, and countless other demiplanes both well established and made by the citizenry’s hand. Most of these planes and the travelers between them are officially recognized and permitted, but certain passages are deemed illegal by the Arclords of Nex and aggressively sought out by Her Most Keen Eye for closing by the former faction’s agents. The Maelstrom, Abaddon, and the Shadow Plane are marked as the most dangerous and punishable avenues that see regular use on any given Crossing Day, but it isn’t hard to bribe one’s way out of such trouble with arcana brought back from these places if the curio proves useful to the Bandesharite. | |||
===THE SCRIVENBOUGH=== | |||
[[Fichier:Quantium map.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Quantium map|Quantium map]] | |||
Most peoples’ knowledge of the infamous Scrivenbough only scratches the surface of the controversial library. Abraxas’s library, which operates in service to the Material Plane’s most niche arcane knowledge, can be found easily in the east side of the Nwezi, near where the docks open into the city’s under-layer. Its unmistakable brick-red, four-story cylinder is anchored in the Nwezi’s architectural sea of blue, purple, turquoise, and white; the sight seduces many esoteric connoisseurs. As a library, the Scrivenbough is excellent, but its best service is reserved for those willing to procure wayward secrets from across the globe and planes to contribute to its collection—a task often involving some purloining from owners ranging from nobles to gods. | |||
Those who’ve performed such favors often are offered a place as a Keeper of Abraxas, having a new, unique segment of the Final Incantation a word that Abraxas claims can annihilate the existence of magic—tattooed upon them as a reward. These Keepers of Abraxas learn how expansive the library truly is (many of the interconnected structures in the network of doors and windows that are Quantium’s above and below are punctuated with buildings of red resembling the original Scrivenbough, which were not present even 300 years ago), and they are designated as custodians and librarians of the Scrivenbough proper. | |||
Rumors persist that a few extremely lucky or unlucky visitors to the Scrivenbough have encountered the demon lord Abraxas himself. Those who claim such an encounter note the demon was uninterested in fighting and instead sought to discuss magical theory with his visitors (although presumably those who found Abraxas in a fouler mood would fail to return to tell of the tale). Notably, every person who claims such an encounter believes they revealed an important secret to the demon lord, but now has no recollection what that secret is. | |||
===WARLOCK’S WALK=== | |||
[[Fichier:Juali map.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Juali map|Juali map]] | |||
Quantium’s most popular park stands in stark contrast to the shrouded, dark secrets of the palace. Spanning a swath of unparalleled supernatural biodiversity, this outdoor park at the west rim of the Juali serves as the primary parade ground for the city. The Walk, as it’s often called, takes on a vast array of rotating guises through the course of a year due to the array of holidays Quantium entertains. Artists and performers, living just north of it in a series of neighborhoods that have become informal creative communes, don’t hesitate to capitalize on the revelries. The Walk is one of the most calming locales of Quantium on days without celebration, often filled with young adepts studying their notes and sharing their secrets over picnics in the sunlight. It’s also one of the few places not overwhelmed by lamplight in Quantium, even above the Nwezi. | |||
The most consistent draw is the simple pleasure of watching the Vizier’s Fountain, a massive marble creation matching the materials of the palace, where the waters within dance in graceful, hypnotic gouts. Near annually, there are claims to a wish being granted to altruistic souls assisting more impoverished individuals than themselves, leading the Walk’s most frequent visitors to speculate that the Vizier refers not to Nex, but a long-trapped noble djinni who tried to contest the wishes of the Council of Three and Nine. | |||
'''Abraxas''' | |||
The demon lord of forbidden magic, Abraxas is the patron of those who seek knowledge at any price. His clergy in Nex is somewhat more pragmatic, in exchange for their faith being tolerated within the nation; massacring rivals and performing murderous rituals is generally frowned upon, as it attracts the wrong sort of attention from powerful figures. His worshippers instead keep their rites and secrets within the depths of the Scrivenbough, presenting a pleasant public face as they provide the rest of Nex with rare books and scrolls. | |||
===WASHPORT=== | |||
[[Fichier:OORINE.jpg|vignette|alt=OORINE|OORINE]] | |||
The mile-wide series of ports that welcome ships sailing in from the Obari, as well as the swill from the Miasmere, are collectively referred to as the Washport. As it is the most open gap in the city’s plan, stepping straight into the Nwezi at the east rim of the city, it’s heavily guarded by Ecanusi Wards. Complex aqueducts built into the port’s landing and through the middle layers of the Nwezi move water through the city by seemingly impossible routes. The most critical waterways have marids who purify the water as it moves into and out of these sections. The rest works through intermittently effective filtration that needs replacing near annually from the caustic pollution of the Miasmere. The port is bifurcated by a wide, tunneling channel that carries ships of special cargo straight to the Bandeshar under many layers of the surrounding city. It is managed by a shahzada—a noble marid—named Oorine, who is one of the prominent members of Quantium’s Wish and a distant grand aunt of Imirh the Amaranthine (page 285). | |||
==IMPORTANT FACES== | |||
Elder Architect '''[[Oblosk]]''' (LN male kasesh ancient; page 330) is the designer of the Bandeshar and its governor—as well as the architect behind much of the city planning in tow with Nex himself, designing many of the city’s most instrumental civic buildings. The Elder Architect holds significance for three clear reasons in Quantium and Nex as a whole. The first is that he is the eldest member of the current Three within the Council, and indeed the only one within the Three and Nine to know the nation’s wizard-king personally. The second is that the wise kasesh was often the most civic minded of the Three, no matter who else shared the other two seats with him. He often speaks of himself as the gravity in Nex’s dreams, and the evidence of his influence over the capital city leaves an undeniable impression that this representation of himself is accurate—and that attentiveness to the nation’s needs within the Three has only started to be matched by Iranez in the last half-millennia of Nex’s history. | |||
The most significant thing about Oblosk, however, is his recent absence in the Council of Three and Nine’s meetings, which have seen his colleagues speaking in his stead under the guise of private meetings that are only need to know for the trio. These kinds of discussions are not abnormal for the Three, but Oblosk’s lack of semi-public appearances or even direct conference to the Nine are a point of concern. His whereabouts and status have become the door to Nex’s political future to many outside of the Three. His cohorts who speak for him currently share the key. | |||
'''Historical Mystery''' | |||
The incident that led to Alkenstar’s founder, Ancil Alkenstar, fleeing from Quantium remains a source of curiosity among some—despite Ancil Alkenstar being long dead. Few doubted the ingenuity of Alkenstar, who had contributed to many of the most spectacular inventions of Quantium in his decades of service to the Council of Three and Nine, and many saw his escape to the Mana Wastes as an event odd enough to warrant further attention. | |||
[[Fichier:IRANEZ OF THE ORB.jpg|vignette|alt=IRANEZ OF THE ORB|IRANEZ OF THE ORB]] | |||
'''[[Iranez of the Orb]]''' (N female human witch) is a powerful witch who runs on secrets, and the rare example of someone who has become more mindful in her hold of systemic power as the years pass. It would be hard to not gain some perspective after living over 4,000 years—and more importantly, in the undead-averse nation of Nex, having died once only 30 years into her mortal lease. Such a secret in this place would bring with it a level of wisdom and caution that few could ever expect to match—but Iranez’s cause of death was also her bridge into the service and eventual governance of Nex, and her brief demise was at the hand of the wizard-king’s Elder Architect. | |||
Iranez was originally a Gebbite witch who would watch the memories of her former rival nation’s most significant dead | |||
through complex divinations and devise plots against Nex for the necromancer Geb. She found an opportunity to take a direct chance on the Archmage’s life, which led to him creating the Refuge of Nex in 209 ar because of the effectiveness of her attack. It was the Elder Architect who eventually trapped her within the most secret architectural shiftings of the Bandeshar in the Archwizard’s stead, and in a great struggle had her killed. Oblosk realized both her aptitude and her potential asset to his kingdom and made an esoteric deal with Pharasma (with Nex’s unexpected permission) for her to live again in his service. | |||
The goddess complied after much negotiation of Nex’s mysterious offers—supposedly to cease his empty prayers when she had graver things to tend to. Iranez’s death remains her little secret with Oblosk today, as well as her method of hiding it from Ecanus’s Deathsealers. | |||
Though it was clear that Nex could defeat the witch again, if need be, he was quick to offer her more significant status and purpose than her former necromantic liege, by proxy of Oblosk. In 210 ar, Iranez’s career as a significant representative of the Nexian government began as she became the first Spiritforger of Ecanus’s Prime Body. Her aptitude for espionage of the magical and mundane saw her hold that position for three millennia, setting up many defenses to obscure any divinatory vulnerabilities that the nation’s necromantic rival could angle. In 3302 ar, she would briefly be brought into the Council of Three and Nine after establishing Her Most Keen Eye. A decade later she would be brought to the seat of the Three. | |||
The last hundred years have been a strain on the complicated friendship she and Oblosk have hard forged over the past four millennia, after she reluctantly agreed to Agrellus Kisk’s promotion to the Three a century ago. The Arclord’s voracious pursuit of war has coincided with some convenient justifications for reigniting war in the region (such as the Evisceration of Ecanus), which have affirmed Kisk’s trustworthiness to the nation he claims to serve. Unfortunately, if her old friend Oblosk retains his silence, she must speak for some approximation of him until she finds something to confirm her suspicions in the Arclords’ leader’s hand in the Architect’s thinly veiled disappearance—as well as his sabotage of Ecanus and the nation’s wider security. | |||
[[Fichier:AGRELLUS KISK.jpg|vignette|alt=AGRELLUS KISK|AGRELLUS KISK]] | |||
'''[[Agrellus Kisk]]''' (LE male human arclord) is the leader of the often-discordant but powerful Arclords of Nex, and the prime reason that a significant amount of the nation still wants to reignite war with Geb. After the Evisceration of Ecanus, he was the first to assume that the accident was in fact a Gebbite attack, despite Iranez’s thorough investigations in concert with Principle Fleshforger Palovar proving otherwise. Her Most Keen Eye’s iris is fixed heavily on him, as Iranez holds Kisk under intense scrutiny and considers his assertions suspicious given the recent peace between the two nations. | |||
Even more suspiciously, Kisk has been working closely with Master Alchemist Borume to create new fleshforged soldiers through the Oenopion Fleshforges Guild after Dunn Palovar denied him (with the other two of the Three’s support). Still, Kisk has continued to mobilize the agenda of war within the country to startling effectiveness, even seeing the Arclords at the most coherent they have been in centuries under his pursuit of a largely rote conflict. Despite being the youngest and newest member of the Three, Agrellus Kisk’s presence in Nex’s ruling body has been exposing and exploiting cracks that run many millennia deep into Nex’s scourged soil. | |||
'''[[Mistriine Ohnza]]''' (LN female velstrac escort) runs the Hands of Varied Touch: a network of pleasure purveyors coordinated by the unusually mobile and public velstrac. Appointments and arrangements can always be made in one of the lobbies of their Handhouses between each Crossing Day, but any arrangement with one of the Handhouses starts at one Crossing Day and ends at the next—ample time for her and her Ritehands to extract the secrets of the capital from Populasi to Galisite one pleasure or pain at a time. If she’s being compensated for it, she’s willing to act as Quantium’s preeminent gossip as well. | |||
The time managing a broad staff of employees from the Material Plane may have softened her just enough to make her a bit of an anomaly to her kin, with the euphoria and despondency becoming less and less life threatening with each year. By contrast, her staff and the city’s commoners have suggested that she’d make for a wonderful member of the Council. She often reminds them with good humor that Nex doesn’t work that way, but the rumors that drift her | |||
way from the occasional Bandesharite visit tell her that could change very soon. | |||
'''Smuggled Goods''' | |||
With the trade nation of Katapesh a simple river ride north of Quantium, the capital provides an attractive base for smugglers. While these caravans are only mildly illegal, Nex’s merchant league spends a reasonable amount of effort on curtailing such operations, and the Council of Three and Nine occasionally break up contraband rings out of general principle. | |||
===Ecanus=== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 09.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
:''The military heart of Nex, Ecanus was the war engine that churned out golems and flesh-wrought horrors to clash against the legions of Geb. It remains stalwart to its purpose of defense to this day, fighting a war against the consequences of the atrocities the citizens’ predecessors committed.'' | |||
The stench of freshly exposed viscera, digestion, and rolling magic wafts across the fortress city of Ecanus. The source isn’t the active fleshforges once responsible for manufacturing the monumental terrors mobilized against Geb’s forces, but a wound in the city. Fourteen years ago, a district-wide spill of gore burst out from the southeast wall of the military holding and spilled into the corresponding quarter. The explosion of consuming flesh had erupted from one of the eight war factories bordering the city in an event known as the Evisceration. Since then, the viscera spilling from the ruptured fleshforge has spread from its point of origin like a sore infection. The district-wide mass of living tissue might appear fresh as newly spilled guts, but this corruption at the base of the nation’s otherwise marvelous and terrifying military frontline makes for an apt metaphor: something is devastatingly rotten in Nex. | |||
Other aspects of the city reinforce this theme. Ecanus, now known for producing the towering, terrifying flesh constructs and titans that menace Nex’s countryside, the Mana Wastes, and even the eastern rim of the Mwangi Expanse, solidified Nex’s martial might through two avenues: deeply formidable battle mages and the crafted horrors created from the nation’s fleshforges. The latter is starting to fail, first with the oldest fleshforges sputtering in their sparser use, then with the newest erratically churning out horrors without any known command. With one of the assumed reliable forges erupting in the Evisceration, the strain to save face has begun to weigh on Ecanus’s leader, Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar, and the army who works under him to protect the magical nation. | |||
He isn’t alone in the endeavor. The two other members of Ecanus’s internal ruling body have given the Principle Fleshforger the bandwidth to recalibrate in this turbulent era of the city and wider nation, but the tensions are starting to crack Dunn Palovar and his supports. Thus far, he has managed to maintain the delicate balancing act between each major Nexian city’s magical protections, placating or eliminating any rogue fleshcrafted thing threatening the roads of the Circulation between the cities and steering through reluctant peace with Geb—but Dunn Palovar’s subordinates bristle for war after the Evisceration, even over a decade later. With the possible return of the nation’s wizard-king being foreshadowed through the magical ether, many in the nation are eager to please their ruler through reigniting Nex’s obsolete conflict. Dunn Palovar knows that war, especially given the vulnerable state of the nation’s first line of defense, is untenable with Geb. How many of his own must he silence, banish, or kill to stop a war abroad before his own colleagues wage one against him? | |||
The recent and grievous wound in the city poses a dire set of questions for the nation’s survival: what or who caused the Evisceration? Was it an act of terrorism from some forgotten enemy of Nex? Was it a Gebbite attack? Many citizens believe the latter even as they hope it isn’t the case. The Prime Body of Ecanus thinks differently, and Dunn Palovar is one to look inward. His mind tells him the threat comes from within. His ego moves him to accuse his Master Alchemist rival in Oenopion, but that’s too convenient an answer. He and his city might have to look elsewhere within Nex to save the nation. Whatever the wound is in Nex, it falls to Ecanus and its people to heal—again. | |||
==A DAY IN ECANUS== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 10.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Ecanus rises early and sleeps as promptly. It rouses by the day’s fourth hour, with Skirmish School students running through their morning conditioning to a tolling bell chime. They extinguish the street torches that hang at the corner of each block across Ecanus’s grid. By sunset, strict quiet hours are enforced with fines, lashes, or custodial duties for any disturbances of peace. The placid environment is instrumental for the vigilance that Ecanus strives for. These hours provide the space for city guards to keep up their watch to the hilt. Most of the city is a place of practiced quiet, even after the Evisceration, but tension runs through the streets thicker than blood. Ecanus’s militant composure quakes with paranoia. The city now walks a terse, teetering march. | |||
A day in Ecanus is largely defined by the residents’ rank and station within Nex’s military. The city isn’t a place that can be easily traversed without a guide. This isn’t because it’s a difficult place to navigate—its wide boulevards and simple grid make getting around comparably easier than Oenopion and Quantium—but because it has so many areas meant for official traffic and no one else. Trying to enter numerous residential buildings in the city without a permit or appointed escort sees many travelers refuted, if not interrogated and investigated. The latter reaction is especially common since the Evisceration turned a fourth of the city into a living, growing organ. | |||
Most locals are quiet, and there’s a sense that many of the common Wards who cycle the streets have blinders on toward a purpose. The more colorful a passerby in Ecanus, the more likely they either have a specific goal that should be left unimpeded—as they likely hold high rank in the military and specific agendas than the more plainly uniformed Wards patrolling in trios along the roads—or they’re likely to be arrested and dismissed from the city, on a good day. | |||
Initiates going through their “shaping” in the Skirmish School spend their time predominately in its campus and dorms in the northwest quarter of the city. Their morning is devoted to physical conditioning and both martial and magical combat training once the extinguishing ritual is completed. The afternoon and early evening are devoted to study and theory, and the late evening can be spent in leisure on campus provided the initiate is where they’re expected the next day and functioning effectively enough to internalize their lessons. Any prolonged unimpressive performance is made up for with the traumatic and dangerous Mindstreaming process to compensate the compromised time and effort of an underperforming initiate. | |||
Fully shaped Wards still have a rigid schedule. Most of it involves guarding the city or guiding civilians, but often a Ward will be scooped away for missions by superiors—usually searches or even preemptive attacks against suspicious parties approaching the nation. When not out on assignment for a mission, many Wards also act as couriers for officers within the city walls or are set to working and maintaining the fleshforges or guiding those still suggestible fleshwarps headed toward Ecanus back into the countryside. Most Wards don’t have much time to cook for themselves and sleep at erratic hours due to shifts that keep them energized but not on a particularly normalized schedule. In rare unstructured moments, they dig into the provisions they often carry on their person due to the likelihood of having to leave the city for their duties. | |||
The days of high ranking Wards (and officials who hold positions outside of the conventional hierarchy governing the Ecanusi military) are led more by tasks scheduled to be completed by a set time rather than the more rigid schedules of their subordinates. They largely enforce the schedules for the rest of the Wards in the city and coordinate other personnel of Ecanus, such as the cooks, custodians, and miscellaneous laborers referred to as Ecanusi “Shapesiblings.” These Wards have leeway to manage their duties as they see fit. If a Flesh, Spirit, or Mindward—the Ecanusi terms for administrative Wards of various types—is organized enough to keep their own affairs sorted and keep the cohort they oversee on task as well, they find themselves with a surprising amount of free time to use as they will. | |||
Both low and high-ranking Wards tend to become rather insular because of the pressure to be constantly alert and attentive while working for Nex’s military. In private moments between delegated duties, Ecanusi military personnel speak of their anxieties, fears, hopes and memories through their tenure—even if it means sacrificing some of their sleep for this kind of rapport. The food in Ecanus might not be the most flavorful of the nation, mostly dried ghoran-provided rations and easily prepared grains, but it’s shared during some of the most intense communal bonds forged in Nex. An outsider wouldn’t suspect it from the rigidity and tension often displayed by the Wards, but behind closed doors, in the wealth of shared lodgings of the dorms of the Skirmish School or the many shared apartments housing the Ecanusi populace, the military’s claims to family deepen one night at a time. | |||
That connection extends up the ranks, as higher-ranking officials do what they can to maintain their familial connection with their colleagues and charges. The most wholesome manifestation of this effort is the tradition of higher-ranking Wards cooking once a week for the teams they’re responsible for—or commissioning someone else to do so if they never had the chance to learn such a skill. This communal care is a tacit expectation that runs through Ecanus’s military, hoping that the created sense of family will lead to a loyal military force. | |||
'''ECANUS SETTLEMENT 15 | |||
LN CITY | |||
Government appointed administrator | |||
Population 23,400 (90% humans, 3% gnomes, 1% ghorans, 6% other) | |||
Languages Kelish, Osiriani, Vudrani | |||
Religions Aakriti, Abadar, Irori, Nethys, Pharasma | |||
Threats military discipline, rogue fleshforged, the Awful | |||
Major Militarization The overzealous and often intentionally traumatized military police of Ecanus impose strict curfews, ask for papers, and just generally don’t trust anyone. The military police’s attitude toward anyone they don’t immediately recognize, especially foreigners, is one step worse than usual. | |||
Dunn Palovar (N male human alchemist 16) principle fleshforger of Ecanus | |||
Hectela Djaq (LE female human psychic 15) principle mindforger of Ecanus Imirh the Amaranthine (CN male undine socialite 11) principle spiritforger of Ecanus | |||
==A YEAR IN ECANUS== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 11.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Wards from Ecanus have an immaculate awareness of time and date drilled into them to support both the magical processes they’re taught and to maintain the detailed tasks that define active duty—day to day, month to month, season to season, and year to year. To simplify the learning curve of their schedules, Wards of Ecanus work on active duty for half the year, alternating their service between each season that passes by Golarion’s standard calendar. A newly shaped Ward who starts their tenure in the fall will see their next active duty in the next year’s spring, and then the next fall after that. Should too many neonates finish their shaping or Mindstreaming to make them fit for their responsibilities at the same time, the organizing Wards work with Watchers—Wards who record and convey data and information in Ecanus—to restructure new schedules so that some have time off before their tenure begins, though they’re encouraged to stay in the city and get to know its rhythms well. | |||
Off-duty Wards aren’t exempt from their responsibilities. Part of their shaping in Skirmish School is in cursory divination practice, supplementing their heavy evocation curriculum and allowing off-duty Wards within Nex to be contacted for their assistance no matter where in the nation they are. The sensation of being contacted is often likened to gravity shifting in the pit of one’s stomach until it feels like the arrow of a compass pointing in a particular direction. This is the Call of the Ward, which high-ranking Wards can employ to rally their subordinates to action. Unless they’re part of the Prime Body, it isn’t typically possible for a call to tug at a Ward’s senses beyond the bounds of Nex. Because of this limitation, all of a Ward’s national and international travel while on duty must be carefully documented. While off-duty, permission to travel is very selectively granted, and even then, only after approval of a Watcher. Of course, anyone who was brought into Ecanus’s military family as a government deal to evade imprisonment in the Valkus Isle can’t leave the nation while they’re off-duty, as the expected default. | |||
As a result of this thoroughly scheduled rigor, the weeks and months of the Ecanusi year proceed smoothly. The regimented obligations assigned to each inhabitant of Ecanus keep the Wards and their Shapesiblings from distraction, and the shifting duties for on-duty Wards from week to week keep them from stagnating. Tasks for a freshly initiated on-duty Ecanusi Ward are usually divided between time spent in the city and outside it. City duty usually lasts twice as long as time outside Ecanus—or roughly two months within the city’s walls balanced by one month spent traversing the Mana Wastes or the treacherous Nexian countryside. | |||
As Wards continue to serve as defenders of the nation, they’re eventually promoted, most commonly to the status of Krata—or guardian—which yields greater responsibility and more flexible schedules. Nwilikrata, or Fleshguards, spend nearly all of their time on duty within the walls of Ecanus unless on a very specific assignment. They’re the city’s last line of defense and thus the most potent magical infantry Ecanus can deploy in a crisis. Often, Nwilikrata spend their time assisting the Attendi in tending to the fleshforges, patrolling the city, working as medics, and, more recently, leading Scabs in their attempt to quell and heal the Awful. Dunn Palovar technically oversees the Nwilikrata schedules, but lately he has left it to Nwilikrata officers below him as he focuses on the theorized return of Nex and the question of active threat from Geb. | |||
Akilikrata, the Mindguard, are seen as the strategists of Ecanus and the middle managers of Nex’s military configuration. The Chief Mindforger of Ecanus acts as the representative and proxy of the Akilikrata to Dunn Palovar. Because of their involvement in the well-being of the wider nation, Akilikrata spend the most time outside of Ecanus, but they spend almost as little time as the Nwilikrata outside the nation. Their obligations carry them from city to city and claimed territories before pulling them back to Ecanus intermittently to report on the state of Nex. Some deeply experienced Akilikrata do end up stationed at satellite outposts—bunkers in the wastes or in the wilds of the region staffed with a contingent of handpicked Wards—but they rarely are used for more roving travel throughout or outside of the nation. The purpose of a Mindguard’s working year is to investigate and convey information to the rest of Ecanus to help them in their military preparations. | |||
Rohokrata, the Spiritguard, are the speakers for Nex’s military, and their chain of command is designated directly by the Chief Spiritforger. As liaisons, diplomats, merchants, and spies, the Rohokrata are the most well-traveled members of Ecanus’s forces. Their natural charisma makes them hard to spot outside of the city unless they want to be seen, and that same charisma makes them popular within its walls. Because the nature of their work keeps them up to date on affairs within the nation and the broader whole of Garund, they often bring small revelries and holidays from their travels back into Ecanus, which the wider city is remiss to officiate due to the ongoing security needs of the nation and the tensions that have started to climb after the Evisceration. Most Rohokrata spend about a fortnight of each of their months on duty in the city—and that pocket of time is rarely consecutive, as there’s always a new diplomatic truce to broker or a suspicion of foreign interference to investigate. | |||
'''Useful Vocabulary''' | |||
Attendi: The technicians of Ecanus, who tend to the fleshforges. | |||
The Awful: The lethal fleshforged viscera that covers a large potion of the city of Ecanus. | |||
Mindstreaming: The dangerous and traumatic process of training a soldier by psychically forcing memories of combat experience into their mind. Prime Body: The Principle Mindforger, Fleshforger, and Spiritforger, who make up the first authority on government matters in Ecanus. Scab: Wards who spend their terms undertaking the dangerous work of trying to quell the Awful. | |||
Shaping: The process of being trained into a soldier; “boot camp.” Shapesibling: A person who helps directly support military personnel through cooking, cleaning, and other necessary functions. | |||
Ward: A member of Ecanus’s military. Watchers: Wards who record and convey data and information in Ecanus. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 12.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
'''The Darklands''' | |||
Perhaps due to its highly educated and magical populace, or perhaps due to its exceptionally tolerant nature, the Impossible Lands tend to be in much greater contact with the subterranean societies that stretch across most of Golarion. Most notably, drow aren’t an odd sight in the region, though their sensitivity to sunlight means the majority still prefer to remain underground. | |||
==PEOPLE OF ECANUS== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 14.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Nex isn’t a nation that places value on traditional definitions of family, but the people of Ecanus who choose to live in the city see their fellow citizens as siblings and their wider countryfolk as close cousins. They’re the officially recognized Wards of Nex, and while it’s a responsibility that they project onto the residents of the other cities of the nation, they often take their responsibility very seriously, going to the lengths of their abilities to perform their duty. Any questioning of the state has been drilled out of them by their tenure and replaced with a chorus echoing concerns over Nex’s stability and solace. That’s how it has been for a long time, since open war with Geb had subsided to frigid placidity. | |||
Because there’s still prevalent enthusiasm in Nex for a reignited war with Geb, Ecanus is never particularly starved for more volunteers. People from across the nation, motivated by fear or excitement at the prospect of renewed conflict, steadily trickle into Nex’s first line of defense, saying that’s what Nex would expect of them—and implying that his nation should be doing more to stop the undead threat of Geb before that nation’s hostility rises from its grave. Then again, there are also miscreants taken from across the nation and presented with the choice of either magical imprisonment on Valkus Isle or their fealty to the Nexian military. Even with the traumatizing rigor that the latter holds, most jump at the opportunity to become a Wasteward to avoid the eldritch horrors of the imprisoning isle. | |||
Ecanus’s resulting demographic pool is wide. Unsurprisingly, a prominent number of the city’s inhabitants are humans, gnomes, and plane-touched, just as in Quantium, but Nex’s first line of defense is less varied—mostly because it accepts a far narrower sampling of its stranger citizens due to its relatively standardized military resources. Tieflings and orcs often make their way into wider acceptance in Nex by first becoming Wards in Ecanus, while the occasional drow—or stranger denizens like plane-bound, low-grade devils, and other extraplanar denizens—are folded into Nex’s military as a means of keeping tabs on these mistrusted parties when they enter the region. | |||
Ecanus offers many other roles to play in the defense of its nation. Shapesiblings take up domestic stations in the city to support the Wards within Ecanus’s boundaries. Watchers accompany Ward patrols to document their exploits or record the daily workings of the city. There are many other titles that the residents fall into, just as a family has many different designations to organize its relatives, but they all serve to keep Nex a cohesive body rather than a chaotic bramble. | |||
After their initiation through the Skirmish School, a Ward might live within Ecanus’s walls without lodging or living expenses so long as they tend to their duties faithfully. The trade is worth it for most. Wards from Ecanus are bound to encounter danger during their tenure: quelling the dangerous wild and magical beasts that threaten Nex’s three most instrumental cities, subduing wayward mutant clans from the wastes that threaten travelers within the nation, or—most dangerously—defeating the gargantuan fleshwarped monstrosities roaming the country when they start to spiral into visceral frenzy. These experiences all crystallize Wards into some of the most tense and serious folk in Nex, eager to fulfill their duty for the thrill it provides and the camaraderie it builds. | |||
Yet in the decade since the Evisceration, Ecanus’s leadership has been increasingly sparse on the ground, leaving much of its civil workings to the discretion of its middle management. The lack of clear vision has led the recent generation of low-ranking officials amid Ecanus’s social strata to become disillusioned at their muddied duties. The past decade has seen a consequential uptick of spark-happy groups of Wards nominally going to the wastes to look for Gebbites to lay permanently to rest. These derelict, renegade Ward groups often become a task to be dealt with by more trusted members of the Ecanusi military family. In contrast, high-ranking officials who interact more regularly with the plans outlined by the Prime Body of Ecanus’s tightly coiled demeanor understand that the Principle Fleshforger would rather respond to the clear threat of war from Geb than be responsible for starting the conflict. | |||
Some veterans of Nex’s army who chose to reside within the defensive city contemplate the possibilities of brewing up another war. Younger officiates of Nex’s forces, shaped by Ecanus’s imposed obligations, question their station in the world and have spiritually abandoned their obligation by the time they return home after their first respite from Ecanus’s defensive duties. The city harbors a largely depressed force full of evocative power with little clarity of how to employ it. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 13.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
The great wizard’s infrastructure around which the city was built has become more perplexing as the city’s great fleshforges have begun to break down, faltering and going inactive or stuttering to life unexpectedly. What was once a haven of a city—a simultaneous front line of defense from invasion and an intimidating arcane presence for the rest of Garund to witness—has devolved into a self-defeating threat whose existential flesh decays more rapidly than the corpses of the subordinates lost to the Awful. Ecanus, for many recruits, has become a source of disillusionment and shame. | |||
Still, the city offers prestige across the region. For some mercenaries, it even offers the promise of competitive pay for an Ecanusian’s evocative skills if they decide to move on from their Warding career. Enough walk this path because of such security: steady pay and assured food and lodging in exchange for ensuring that Nex’s front line of defense has formidable numbers. Those who investigate crime across all three major Nexian cities are likewise pulled from former Wards who largely learned their skills in Ecanus. Ecanus is stratified into a precise social rank and file to such intense degree that some of its import bleeds from the capital’s complex strata. Many who want to stay in the nation but leave behind Quantium’s insecure toil are drawn to the more structured labor and security Ecanus provides. | |||
Most Wards are well-traveled. During their active seasons, they often venture into the Mana Wastes or through the barrens of Nex to the other cities in the nation. On occasion, more experienced Wards are sent to Geb in diplomatic negotiations or even as spies to keep tabs on the nation’s enemy and their tenuous peace. In the last decade, many Wards have been sent—begrudgingly, along with Oenopion accountants and Quantium negotiators—to Alkenstar to either assert Nex’s assumed dominion over the region or to buy and bring back industrial tools and armaments in case Nex’s magical defenses fail to quell Gebbite aggressions. These teams occasionally bring back inventors from the technocratic Grand Duchy who are willing to make a lucrative life within Ecanus’s walls. If Wards aren’t traveling on duty, it isn’t uncommon for them to travel beyond the bounds of their nation during their off-duty season, so long as they can receive clearance. | |||
What results often is a civil militia full of excitable neonates hungry to defend their small world. The trials, hardships, and anxieties of their shaping might cause this desire to deepen but might also quell their aggressive edge. Many veterans hold a burning hate for Geb, though their experiences as soldiers have brought a sobering nuance over the years. The processes that trained them exist solely out of the fear of another conflict, and this knowledge can prove illuminating for explaining why the city’s leadership and the wider nation haven’t reignited the violence in the region as well as why their rivals haven’t done the same—presuming they weren’t responsible for the Evisceration. The duties of Ecanus’s inhabitants reveal the history the region has suffered, and if a few trips through the scars of the Mana Wastes don’t quell the taste for magically drawn blood, the experiences of a Mindstreaming quickly do. | |||
Certain high-ranking personnel might find themselves stationed beyond the bounds of Ecanus with a contingent of seasoned and levelheaded Wards, placed at different outposts a few miles from the city as a first line of aggressive defense from any impending threats. Others might be assigned instead to Quantium or in Oenopion for a year or two at a time by request of the Council of Three and Nine and their (non-local) proxies. These individuals bring some color back to Ecanus, along with memories that serve as reminders to themselves and their comrades of what they’re all fighting for and defending. | |||
'''Armor Masters''' | |||
Though most of Ecanus’s spellcasting forces prefer to eschew armor, depending on their magic to defend themselves, there are some who choose to master the use of steel. Small but notable contingents of armored mages and magi learn to move and cast spells in even the most restrictive armors, and they’ve developed new methods to magically enhance their armor. | |||
==FACTIONS== | |||
Though the social roles of Ecanus outwardly appear set in stone, pragmatic needs often see specialized groups forming within the military ranks. Over time, as these groups prove their continued usefulness to the fabric of the city, these roles tend to become just as calcified into the social order as those that came before them. | |||
Attendi: The Attendi are the technicians of Ecanus, who tend to the fleshforges and their production by order of the Principle Fleshforger and the other officers who answer to him. Many Attendi have a gift for logistics but aren’t a great threat in direct combat. Instead, they research and teach the art of fleshforging and are assigned to maintain the fleshforges of the city. Thanks to the Evisceration, the last 10 years have seen the Attendi under internal investigation by the Chief Mindforger of Ecanus. The Mindwards have been restructured to hold the Attendi under more precise oversight by Krata and the most accurate and attentive Watchers. Thus far, none of the investigations have yielded anything, which seems to only point more suspicion their way. | |||
Deathsealers: Kiifotaliish, or Deathsealers, are high-ranking Krata often with at least two decades of experience or an exceptional amount of documented skill shown in the field. They are sent to hunt the undead who cross the border from the Mana Wastes into Nex proper and are deployed to hunt down any undead reported within the nation. They also investigate the causes of any undead infestations within and beyond the nation’s bounds. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 15.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
Deathsealers are the most dramatically uniformed of the Ecanusi family, clad in a white kurta, tight white slacks, and a hooded, full white cloak. One of the gifts they receive from their training allows them to dream from the perspective of the undead who walk near them. Deathsealers know how to follow the source of their dreams and stop whatever horror disturbs their sleep, bringing the nightmare to an end. | |||
Deathseekers originated the tradition of totally disintegrating corpses wherever they show up within the nation—so long as they aren’t being used for any officiated kind of study—to prevent their animation, resurrection, and exploitation. As such, much of the nation practices a crude version of this corpse disposal process. | |||
The Scabs: Though it sounds pejorative and grotesque to outsiders, Scab is the affectionately visceral moniker given to Wards who devote their seasons to trying to quell the Awful. They’re either enormously brave and devoted to their city’s duties for venturing into the Awful, or they’ve been forced into the belly of this beast by the consequence of their transgressions—an equal number of the nation’s criminals have been assigned to this hard duty as those who are sent out to scour the Mana Wastes. Scabs have started wearing enchanted suits of glass and leathers, created in collaboration between Alkenstar artisans brought to Ecanus and arcanists from Oenopion. These suits were designed to keep Scabs from being devoured by the Awful, as so many in the past decade have been taken by the quivering mass—but even then, the protections are limited. On more than one occasion, a Scab donning a so-called “viscerasuit” has missed a bit of the errant living flesh that slipped into their protection through its subtle seams, making the suit a slow and painful walking grave. | |||
Wastewards: Prisoners and deserters across the nation who have been caught in their transgressions and can’t compensate for their considerable, but not egregious, crimes are often offered the option to join the military family of Ecanus. They serve as Wastewards, who are assigned to wander the wastes and quell minor threats of wild or wanton nature, from mutants to wandering undead, under the supervision and order of a proper team of volunteering Wards. Wastewards are trained in cursory conjuration magic through a deeply traumatic and dangerous process called Mindstreaming over the course of three months, or a week in wartime, so that they possess the combat skills of initiated Wards, allowing them to quickly relay crucial information to their supervising officers back in Ecanus. The process carries a high mortality rate, but for the disciplined, strong, and devoted, a decade of service as a Wasteward opens a path to becoming a proper Ward of the nation. | |||
'''A Remote Specialist''' | |||
The dragon Ghostmaw (NE adult umbral dragon) makes his lair in the wastes near Ecanus, but not as a threat to its residents. The church of Pharasma in Quantium pays the wyrm handsomely in both gold and homage. In exchange, Ghostmaw prowls Nex and the Mana Wastes, gleefully devouring any undead he can track down. The dragon coyly threatens to leave his post every year in order to secure even larger offerings, especially now that Ecanus is further pressed due to rogue fleshforged horrors. | |||
'''Chain of Command''' | |||
From lowest to highest, the following is the most accurate representation of station in Ecanus and the Nexian military’s common roles: miscreant; wasteward; initiate or shapeling; shapesibling; ward and attendi; Nwilikrata and mindward; spiritward; deathsealer; principle mindforger and principle spiritforger; and finally, principle fleshforger, who confers with the Nine and answers only to the Three. | |||
==CULTURE== | |||
[[Fichier:GHOSTMAW.jpg|vignette|alt=GHOSTMAW|GHOSTMAW]] | |||
Ecanus is a carefully calibrated body of a city whose exercise currently threatens to outpace the effort it can truly endure in its currently infirmed state. When the first and oldest of the fleshforges in Ecanus ceased its work in 4704 ar, the city’s occupants simply shrugged it off, while its keepers investigated at a patient pace, sharing thanks that nothing worse came of the malfunction than a dormant piece of history. Complacency tempted obvious fate, and three years later, one of the forges along the outer perimeter of the city exploded from a dire malfunction—an event now known as the Evisceration of 4707. The southeast corner of the city was changed for the worse in the accident. Because of this event, citizens of Ecanus have indulged themselves in paranoia questioning the wider security of both Ecanus and Nex. | |||
As a result, Ecanus churns forth into the new decade with an anxious, limping gait. Few come in, few come out, and all traffic is keenly accounted for by officiates of the city. Ecanus’s overall identity has slowly withered in the past decade amid the tumult, replacing much of its urban culture with the sterile march of a fortress. Boots are set to ground to tend to the hazard of the Awful day in and day out. Officials debate the rhythmic run of the remaining functional fleshforges. Battlemages of low and high station execute countless internal operations and investigations against suspicious parties and threats to the larger state. In the social machine of Ecanus, almost everyone has a role to play—including being made an example if they try to skirt their designated duties. A facade of order isn’t quite accurate to describe Ecanus’s culture, but the city’s tight choreography is tenuous, and its recent misfortune hasn’t calcified any sustainable harmony. On the contrary, recent troubles have exposed the city’s derelict conceptual wounds. | |||
Ecanusi leadership struggles to keep its citizenry calm and content. While the Principle Fleshforger understands the anxiety and even excitement of a renewed open war with Geb, Dunn Palovar has also been around long enough to be afraid of the implication and cost of such a conflict. The other members of Ecanus’s local governance wisely share his caution and attempted temperance. They struggle with him to impart the same placidity upon a city and citizenry that was built and poised for war for centuries. The past decade in the city has seen the walls of the dam filling up near to bursting, what with the Evisceration’s desolation of a quarter of the city. And so, the pressures within the city build like the contents of an anxious gut. Unease and sickness in the air are mirrored rather starkly by the stench of the living flesh of the Awful that wafts through the city. Ecanus’s citizenry has always had a dark humor about them, but the last decade has seen that morbidity take on a decidedly more jagged edge. They’re a group of people told that their purpose is to protect a nation. Yet, they’re held back from that exact purpose by the very people who gave them that order, and for so long after the Evisceration, an event that has compromised Nex’s wider security and Ecanus’s integrity. The result is a citizenry who at best are looking for answers and at worst—and more often—looking for a fight. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 16.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
Inhabitants of Ecanus are quick to action when allowed or ordered. It’s common for the people here to be blatantly and proudly armed, outfitted, and ready to go out on the road or into the Mana Wastes. With the exception of the young, the most lightly armored residents of the city can be reliably assumed as the most dangerous out on the field. Ecanus isn’t a place where martial aptitudes are ignored—part of the waking routines of the city’s Wards are a detailed workout and a magically assisted rooftop run through the intact three fourths of the city—but often, the more urbane and normal a local of Ecanus appears, the more magically devastating they’re likely to be in battle. | |||
The fashion of Ecanusi locals is often handsome in its function. Suits cut and hewn in simple shapes often hide layers of protection quilted into the chests and sleeves of their make. The simple design provides little impediment to the practiced motions that evocation in the Ecanusi method demands. Higher-ranked officials who have forged the opportunity, connections, and fortune to travel or stay in the capital often return to Ecanus with far more flamboyant fashion, masking far subtler somatic methods for their spellwork. Because of the stench blanketing the city from the Awful, the common trend of Ecanusi inhabitants wearing conical masks stuffed with the sweetest smelling plants and minerals they can import from Oenopion has become a normalized accessory. | |||
It isn’t uncommon for an Ecanusi resident to indulge in volatile pastimes. The lens through which Nex’s militia is shaped is an objectifying one. Many Ecanusians feel their relevance fade through each transaction the larger nation makes with Geb, forging a more comfortable economic understanding with its old enemy handshake by handshake, decade by decade. With a city trying to redefine itself as its governing body looks for more concrete answers to guide it, the reactions that spiral out from Ecanusi citizens due to the tension they sit in every day as Nex’s first line of defense run a wide gamut. The most structured of these reactions has resulted in the emergence of sports both mundane and magical, and often competitive if not outright combative in nature. | |||
Of these sporting pastimes, the Ecanusi Battle League and the local sport of vexspar—a team-based fight to unconsciousness, termed vexation in the context of the losing team—is most popular. The league holds competitions in four-month cycles. The first month of competition is used for registration of teams of six combatants to have six-versus-six skirmishes within the school’s battle amphitheater for the three remaining months of competition. Often, the prize for being the top team in a league cycle is an extra month off from active duty, which many tend to spread out throughout the year around the time of major holidays in Quantium or Oenopion. | |||
Another more unofficially structured pastime is Wastehunting. Some of the more restless Wards assigned to travel the Wastes or act as liaisons and watchers for Gebbite contacts or subjects might also use these trips to their rival nation or Nex’s claimed territory of Alkenstar as an excuse to hunt for strange and fearsome creatures of the Mana Wastes, most often the voracious terror birds. The more even-tempered thrill seekers who enjoy such pursuits, and who have duty beyond Nex’s southern bounds, often search the Mana Wastes for wayward parties of travelers or Waste clans’ people who might need assistance or rescue. Such recoveries of the former’s hunting trophies make for lucrative sales in Quantium for an off-season Ward, and the latter’s rescues often get folded into Ecanus as Shapesiblings of the city if they wish for shelter. Even more tempered minds have taken up meditation in their recreational moments while guarding the city, on recommendation from the Principle Fleshforger and the rest of the Prime Body. The calm it lends some is hardly an adequate patch for Ecanus’s quietly anxious nature. | |||
'''Buried and Forgotten ''' | |||
Despite its many dubious practices, Ecanus rarely uses elementals to power its works due to protests and clashes in the past with concerned groups from Osirion. Some ancient or clandestine sites do have bound elder elementals, however, many of them forgotten after the war or kept secret by the mages who imprisoned them. | |||
==GOVERNMENT== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 18.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex ]] | |||
Dunn Palovar, Principle Fleshforger of Ecanus, is one of three people in control of and responsible for the city, at least in theory. The original “forger” of Ecanus is Nex himself, but after the great wizard’s exodus, various powerful adepts who claimed to know him—and then his broader mission, as generations passed—stepped into what became one of three positions crafted for Ecanus’s internal governance and external correspondence. | |||
Two other positions of import exist to keep Ecanus working like a well-oiled machine and, by proxy, to keep Nex’s first line of defense ready and able to respond to threats or subterfuge from Geb or any other foreign power. The first of these is the Principle Mindforger of Ecanus, who helps shape the culture, announce laws, and enforce social norms of Ecanus to help its community function as a strong line of defense for the region. The second is the Principle Spiritforger of the city, who balances the heavily regimented burden Nex puts on the people of Ecanus by providing for enough of their wants and needs to prevent dysfunction, desertion, bad morale, or, worst of all, mutiny. Together, the three positions make for the Prime Body of Ecanus, who are the first authority on any matters within the city, excepting the Three of the Council of Three and Nine. Each of these individuals attend to the organization of their respective disciplines while naturally finding points of collaboration where the makeshift boroughs overlap. The position of one of the Principles, the Principle Spiritforger, was until recently unoccupied for a remarkably long period of time after the previous Principle Spiritforger was killed in the Evisceration. Dunn Palovar was only able to find a suitable replacement in the last year. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 17.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
The Principle Fleshforger of Ecanus has historically governed the city because of their management of the city’s main purpose. While it’s a position that requires mastery over the discipline of fleshforging (and perhaps some under-the-table knowledge of fleshwarping), it’s also a station that effectively places the Principle Fleshforger as the chief military officer of Nex—a powerful martial station that the Three have historically reserved a seat on the Nine for due to the responsibility of overseeing the nation’s security. Ecanus’s Deathsealers answer directly to the Principle Fleshforger, as well as a team of six Chief Nwilikratas, who in turn oversee and organize the high-ranking Nwilikratas of the city. They see to it that the city has a consistent guard rotation and routes of patrol, and they interpret data from the Principle Mindforger and Fleshforger to determine operations that must be carried out around the region. | |||
The Principle Mindforger of Ecanus handles many internal communications regarding Nex’s security and maintains the Skirmish School, guiding the process of shaping new recruits, volunteers, and miscreants into their eventual roles as defenders of the nation. The very first Mindforger during Nex’s rise—Y’oliim Karshanthryat—was also the individual responsible for creating the process of Mindstreaming during Nex’s effort to force Ecanus to keep proper pace with the opposition they fought. Many of the memories used as training scenarios in the process are said to be theirs, as they were a particularly apt practitioner who possessed an amazing facility in the use of all the schools of magic, blending them under pressure with devastating effect. The Mindforger’s assumed eye for detail often saddles them with the active coordination of maintaining the fleshforges of the city and designing new technologies that might be needed for Ecanus’s and Nex’s security. Their team of six Chief Akilikrata tend to take the tasks they’ve carefully outlined and delegate them to both the Attendi and the Akilikrata of the city—and these plans include Ecanus’s civic configuration, a mandate to search (and, if necessary, destroy) travel routes through the nation and the Mana Wastes, and the interpretation of data for use in defensive surveillance across Nex. | |||
The Principle Spiritforger of Ecanus is often the eyes and ears of Nex, taking the pulse of the rest of Garund and even wider Golarion as necessary. They share a few duties with the Keen of Quantium, but the latter have a more international scope. The Principle Spiritforger is also the newest aspect of the Prime Body of Ecanus. Spymaster, assassin, and diplomat rolled into one, the Principle Spiritforger is often an individual of great charisma and poise, and while they might seem like the warmest of the Prime Body, their charm almost always masks a deeper motive. Today, the Principle Spiritforger also handles more pedestrian civil duties and is responsible for coordinating residents of Ecanus who have no military placement or are in roles of a more domestic nature. Simultaneously, they coordinate diplomatic affairs for Nex’s military and many of the nation’s most clandestine tactical operations in the region. Rohokrata of Ecanus are far rarer in number than Akilikrata and Nwilikrata, and so much of the Principle Spiritforger’s time is spent communicating directly with their handpicked Rohokrata, which has raised their import informally over the other designated Krata in the city. | |||
The punishment for family members who shirk their duties often involves being assigned to Wasteward duty or, for worse infractions, exile and palm branding with the sigil of “misshaping,” which signifies that they can’t rejoin Nex’s military forces in Ecanus (while also being forbidden from leaving the nation). For more serious infractions that caused mortal harm to their colleagues, delinquent Ecanusians are sentenced to the Valkus Isle or even up north to Oenopion for an entirely different kind of “reshaping”—though this pipeline is one that Dunn Palovar begrudgingly facilitates on the express order of the Three since the Evisceration, in accordance with the will of the Arclords of Nex and Agrellus Kisk. | |||
'''Designated Proxy''' | |||
Even when Dunn Palovar must attend to matters in Quantium himself, he doesn’t attend in person. The Principle Fleshforger instead transfers his consciousness into the mind of a flesh golem, a technique his colleagues have yet to unravel the method behind. | |||
==LOCATIONS== | |||
The following are a sample of some of the most prominent locations found in Ecanus. | |||
===ALAYLAHM’AWAL WAT NEX === | |||
The Eldforge of Nex sits near the Northwest rim of the diamond-shaped city, with an arcana-powered river running beneath it. The river forks out into a network of distributaries that circulate water to pools nested beneath each of the other Great Forges in the city. The Eldforge was once the most stalwart and consistent of these machines, and Ecanus’s city plan facilitated quick movement down five wide boulevards radiating southward through the rest of the city, through which even the most gargantuan fleshforge creations could travel. | |||
[[Fichier:DUNN PALOVAR.jpg|vignette|alt=DUNN PALOVAR|DUNN PALOVAR]] | |||
The forge has fallen dormant mostly, save for occasional weeklong spurts when it can produce various biological forms with impressive accuracy. At the height of the nation’s extended conflict with Geb after the disappearance of Nex, this forge was used to produce copies of large, rare beasts found beyond the Material Plane, as well as clones of smaller people of note from Geb in the service of subterfuge. None of the other great fleshforges of Ecanus are capable of such an adroit range of arcane feats. Those close to the Principle Fleshforger have noted that such a critical, malleable facility slipping away from him seems to have taken a toll on Dunn Palovar’s formerly poised countenance. | |||
===ALAYLAHMI ALDAKRIIS === | |||
The Inner Fleshforges of the city are the most recently built, and paradoxically some of the most inconsistent, though their worst days don’t begin to compare with the implicit threat the outer forges carry after the Evisceration. Housed together in the heart of the city and set on an artificial island sit the four inner forges whose distributing maws face outward in cardinal directions, corresponding to the northern, southern, eastern, and western gates of the city. Bridges from the isle to the rest of Ecanus make a path for fleshforged to traverse over the water reservoir around the island. In times of great duress, these forges are used to produce fleshforged to defend the city’s interior, but their original purpose was to figure a satisfactory redesign to replace the older forges surrounding the city. | |||
===ALAYLAHMI ALKHARIIS === | |||
The Alaylahmi Alkhariis, or the Outer Fleshforges, line the enchanted slate boundaries of Ecanus, with two great forges to each of the four walls that flank the city gates. Like the Eldforge but unlike the Inner Fleshforges, the Outer Fleshforges deposit their finished work bidirectionally. One of the deposits opens into the city. The other, larger deposit faces outward. For some extended millennia, these forges ran seamlessly, filling the Mana Wastes with strange and varied beasts, but in the last century, their production has been cut back and slowed to precise purposes at Dunn Palovar’s order following the Evisceration. The northern forge along the southeast wall, Alayahm Visarh, exploded due to undetermined cause in 4707. | |||
===ECANUSI AY’ AKADYMIS === | |||
The Ecanus Academy, sometimes known as the Ecanus War College, is the large collection of buildings dominating the northernmost third of the city. Individuals looking to pursue a military career in service to Nex often start here after their shaping. The campus contains many of Ecanus’s official government buildings, including the Prime Body’s private quarters—though outsiders would likely have a hard time finding it due to the uniformity of the campus’s elegantly simple architecture. | |||
===ECANUSI MADRASAT ALMAERAYAA === | |||
[[Fichier:ECANUSI MADRASAT ALMAERAYAA.jpg|vignette|alt=ECANUSI MADRASAT ALMAERAYAA|ECANUSI MADRASAT ALMAERAYAA]] | |||
The Ecanus Skirmish School produces some of the most formidable and feared commanders of evocation across the Inner Sea, with Nantambu in the Mwangi Expanse as their only rival. The Skirmish School’s basic commitment is a 2-year cycle; 6 months of intensive martial training and Nexian history, followed by a year and a half of arcane study intended to build an advanced understanding of evocation in its defensive and offensive capacity. | |||
These learning periods are severely truncated in times of open war, with the 2 years being instead heavily abridged to a cursory 2-month intensive referred to as Skirmish Mindstreaming. Enchantment processes are used by high-ranking veterans and practiced instructors to simulate many different conflict scenarios the uninitiated might encounter in the field. Mindstreamed Wards are immersed in recreations of conflicts of the war, passed down through generations, which their mind makes real in dreams as an effective training aide. This process has proved dangerous, however. Only two thirds of the Mindstreamed Wards survive the process, and they’re often left mentally scarred by a war they didn’t fight. The psychic toll the method exacts leaves it a process only to be used in desperate times or on criminals volunteering their services in an attempt to commutate their sentence. | |||
[[Fichier:Ecanus map.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Ecanus map|Ecanus map]] | |||
===Y’ALVAZIEA=== | |||
With a name that literally translates to “the Awful,” Y’alvaziea reeks of viscera, wet, living flesh, and digestion. Because of this stench, it’s best not to walk through the southern half of the city without a filter mask stuffed with flowers. The southeast boundary of the city is half rubble and half mutated guts spilled across the borough formerly known as V’drysha—a once-handsome and decorated district filled with architectural and botanical gifts to Nex from other nations. Only personnel volunteering or appointed to rehabilitating this sector of the city have permission to traverse the Awful, but the shambling horrors of the area sometimes make their way into the more orderly nights of Ecanus. Often these oozing creepers are mindless and swiftly dealt with by the city’s patrolling battlemages, but sometimes they’re more intelligent, adopting visages resembling members of the city who have attended (or snuck into) the hazardous borough. | |||
While the individual threats that slither into the rest of the city are usually dispatched swiftly enough, the larger site of hazard hasn’t been scourged from Ecanus in two decades. The gaping wound in the city and the flesh things that pulse from it have their own complex magical protections. High-ranking Ecanusi officials speculate at length over why the wider site is not readily affected by their magic. The best conclusion reached is that the magical protections used to protect the former fleshforge from Gebbite magic have also granted considerable arcane protection to the Awful at the time of the forge’s rupturing. This theory has also caused Ecanusi leadership to fear Gebbite subterfuge. | |||
Eyewitness accounts always seem to leave the impression that the Awful is spilling past its bounds, yet Ecanusi officials only offer cold placations that register to their subordinates and the citizenry at large more like threats against questioning the haphazard situation. Whispers that discipline can’t quell speak to a collective suspicion that the Awful is in fact expanding from its genesis, and suppressing news of the worsening conditions will do nothing to stop its physical presence from growing more potent. | |||
'''Stalwart Servants''' | |||
Though Ecanus’s fleshforgers tend to catch the most attention, the city also has some of the most advanced construct labs in the world. A number of golems can only be created with the specialized equipment in Nex, and unlike fleshforged servitors, construct creation is so formulaic that it rarely causes messy accidents. | |||
==IMPORTANT FACES== | |||
Ananda Rahira (LE female human magus) has spent her life in service to Ecanus, earning the position as commandant of Ecanusi Ay’ Akadymis. Her white hair, frail stature, and flowing purple robes belie a strength that can shatter door frames, one she can put to use with her curved staff and mastery of arcane spells. Her driving sense of duty leads her to seek out any opportunity to secure the glory and safety of Nex, and the Evisceration has only cemented her resolve. In her mind, too many potential resources have been left to waste due to a lack of conviction from the nation’s leaders. While she’s still self aware enough to recognize she’s in no spot to challenge the current status quo, those who know her know it’s only a matter of time before she chooses to act. | |||
This eventuality is a source of stress for many, as Ananda lacks both the composure and forbearance of the Prime Body, showing little interest toward repeated calls for patience. She holds a belief in active defensive measures and shows of force; if a weapon exists, it’s meant to be employed, and it’s no secret that Ananda tacitly encourages the most rebellious among the Wards, even if she has never been caught aiding or abetting them. Some fear her actions might spark open conflict with Geb, especially when the unsolved mystery of the Evisceration possesses such an obvious scapegoat. In truth, the commandant is a greater danger to those closer to home. She spends most of her time investigating and studying ancient war machines and weapons from Nex’s past, vowing to put their power to use once more. At her worst, Ananda is already watching the balance of power in Nex and plotting, looking for any opportunity to dash in and wrest powerful weapons and artifacts from her fellows. At best, Ananda might succeed at revitalizing her decaying engines of war and use them to further deepen the unhealed wounds of the Impossible Lands. | |||
Dunn Palovar (LN male human alchemist), Principle Fleshforger of Ecanus, has rarely been seen by the people of Ecanus, let alone Nex’s wider populace. A slight blade of a man whose lean frame holds inhuman years of age, Dunn often complements his slender stature with the countenance of a misanthrope when in a shared space. The function is twofold. First, the Principle Fleshforger must be in as many places as his rival Borume of Oenopion often is. Second, the mysterious and dubious circumstances under which Dunn inherited his lofty position has made a general of the scholar, and a general transplanted from the mindset of academia makes for a paranoid one. | |||
This cautious disposition isn’t baseless; Dunn’s predecessors have died in battle and assassination alike, and a domestic crisis is growing under his feet as the city’s faculties have begun to fail him. For most matters within Nex and Ecanus, Dunn has various flesh proxies that serve as capable-enough vessels to execute his correspondences with the Council of Three and Nine while he continues to investigate the origin of the Evisceration. He doesn’t suspect agents from Geb or unfortunate malfunction, but cruel sabotage from his grievous local rival—the Master Alchemist Borume of Oenopion, who Palovar is aware has used the last 13 years to profit from the nation’s (and, more particularly, the Arclords of Nex’s) lust for conflict and war to appease a master who shows signs of a return from ethereal elsewhere. | |||
[[Fichier:HECTELA DJAQ.jpg|vignette|alt=HECTELA DJAQ|HECTELA DJAQ]] | |||
'''[[Hectela Djaq]]''' (LE female human psychic) attends her duty as the chief Mindforger of Ecanus with a grim seriousness that has served her career in Ecanus well, earning Dunn Palovar’s solemn trust. As Principle Mindforger of Ecanus, she inherited the memories used for Mindstreaming to pass onto another generation, imparting them upon her Chief Akilikrata so that they might in turn impart the age-old lessons of power and penalty upon the miscreants who join Nex’s arcana-martial ranks. Hectela is running from something, though. Thoughts of a place filled with prisoners subjected to the predation of horrific beasts, monsters, and magics slide through the memories she has given her subordinates for the Mindstreaming process. Hectela did what nobody else should have ever been able to do. She escaped from Valkus Isle. | |||
Hectela is haunted by her time on the island. It isn’t the extraplanar horrors or the infighting with other prisoners that rends at her mind and memory. It’s that someone is after her, and if she was able to escape, so could her old cohort. She’s put whatever she did behind her, but her memories of hiding in a half-forged palace hanging half in the Material Plane and half in the next, hiding from her partner in crime and knowing if she’s found then she’ll cease to be, carries an inexplicable terror like no other. Berekh, her old partner, knew the risk—the impossibility—when they decided to help Hectela steal the Divination Cube of Nex from the Isle, and though they were left behind, they likely have the cube, if they still live. They’ll want to know why they were abandoned. | |||
So, Hectela tries to rid herself of the memories with Mindstreaming, but the process wasn’t designed to purge one of the memories they impart. All Hectela has accomplished is to foist her fragmented memories onto her Chief Akilikrata, and the Akilikrata, Wards, and Wastewards below them in a cascading waterfall of psychic trauma. These criminals, if they ever found themselves imprisoned once more, would be able to piece together Hectela’s mysterious method of escape from the Valkus Isle. More than one of them have wondered, as she has for the last 20 years—is tonight the night Berekh takes their revenge? | |||
[[Fichier:IMIRH THE AMARANTHINE.jpg|vignette|alt=IMIRH THE AMARANTHINE|IMIRH THE AMARANTHINE]] | |||
Imirh the Amaranthine (CN male undine socialite) is quite the charmer. Even though he’s just geniekin, he has been able to grant more wishes in his personal life than his auspicious ancestors manage to. Being a smooth talker with a sweet tongue opens doors for someone with such talents to grant worldly desires—and when the world doesn’t realize that the wishes he’s granting are his own, through the proxy of his chosen querent, it’s a rather easy thing to fulfill. In true Quantium style, as is befitting one of the Populasi class, the Amaranthine dresses fashionably and, some would even say, sensually. His tall, androgynous frame, lean and well muscled, sticks out in a crowd because of how he moves through it—like water. The Amaranthine, after all, is an undine, and a rather noticeable one when he wants to be, which is often. Why else would such a striking fellow wear such a strikingly colored outfit? | |||
Amazingly, for an individual raised in the game of Quantium’s social strata, the Amaranthine realized that he didn’t want to be seen all the time. Instead, what Imirh does is see almost everything, all the time. As part of a family line who had long ago turned away from the Bandesharite and the Council of Three and Nine after the imprisonment of his lineage’s patriarch in Warlock Walk, the Amaranthine shouldn’t have been able to easily see the doorways and bridges from the Juali and the Nwezi to the Bandeshar—but if there’s something Imirh the Amaranthine is exceptional at finding, it’s an opening. In a rare moment where he wasn’t trailed by flushed attentions and empty affections, Imirh happened across a doorway not meant for him, even though his Bandesharite cousins had been stepping through it and back for their own official affairs for the entirety of his life. So, he followed their suit. | |||
Few see as much as Imirh, and only one really sees more. Iranez of the Orb was the one to spot the Amaranthine walking through the halls of the palace and somehow navigating its tricks and twists as if he had the Elder Architect’s mind. She made him one of her Keen. The next 2 years accelerated quickly—the Evisceration happened, and Iranez presented Imirh to Dunn Palovar as the best possible replacement to the prior Principle Spiritforger. When the Amaranthine took the mantle, Iranez presented him with one question both she and the Principle Fleshforger want answered: who caused the Evisceration? They’ve been waiting 14 years now for his answer, and his deadline fast approaches as another war with Geb looms ever closer. | |||
Yanziif (N fleshforged witness) was there 14 years ago when the Evisceration happened, and they haven’t left the site since—though it isn’t for a lack of trying. Few have heard of the unfortunate soul who wandered into the Awful, and those who have come close enough to see are usually subsumed. Yanziif is different. They’ve held onto themself for this long despite not being able to escape the ruined site as it spreads. They see people trickle in from the city, sometimes with a purpose, sometimes out of morbid curiosity. Yanziif tries to guide these people out, but the Awful keeps consuming them. | |||
If just one of person could get out, maybe that survivor could share what Yanziif knows, what they saw at the fleshforge before the Evisceration, because Yanziif can’t hold on to themself forever. Their third eye is finally starting to close, and the other two will soon follow. | |||
==Oenopion== | |||
[[Fichier:Oenopion.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Oenopion|Oenopion]] | |||
:''During Nex’s generations-long war with Geb, Oenopion became an invaluable producer of alchemical items, medicine, and sustenance, with the wizard-king rallying and coercing arcanists, alchemists, and druids to provide aid after Geb’s blighting of the nation’s once-fertile land. '' | |||
Oenopion—the “Nexian Still” or simply “the Still” among younger and more disillusioned inhabitants—is the most substantial pillar of Nex’s economy. An alchemical, mechanical, and botanical wonder, Oenopion has been carefully shaped over many years to support its esoteric, experimental demands. From a distance, the Still resembles a city-sized snow globe with complex, intricate segments and chambers dancing across its gleaming glass carapace above. Many assume the dome causes the city to function like one large greenhouse, supporting the various ingredients grown within its protected bounds, but the truth is a much more complex pursuit toward the same end. The glass over the inner city—starting within the Residential Ring—is enchanted to be a dynamically shifting arcane biome to support Oenopion’s incredibly varied selection of botanicals. | |||
Originally built around an ancient lake that possessed arcane cleansing properties, Oenopion was seized by Nex during his rapid expansion through the region following his emergence from the Well of Lies. As the great spellcaster’s claim solidified, the once-sacred body of water devolved into a reservoir for magical refuse before it even received a name. Since then, thousands of years of the city dumping alchemical waste, magical runoff, and the many bodies of troublemakers and victims in the lake has created a living mass of ooze underneath the city known as the Bath, which conspires against the industrial churn above. | |||
In response to the rising threat of the Bath beneath the city and Oenopion’s huge alchemical production demands, the Nexian Still has evolved one of the earliest and most complex plumbing systems in Garund. Built after the war, its vast pipeline runs from underneath the city and through the earth miles north and south to the Elemion and Ustradi rivers. The system takes in water from the former and filters it into the latter as it’s used by the city above, though both rivers are tainted by Quantium’s Miasmere. Some in Oenopion hoped this system would wash away the Bath as well, and though it likely impedes the ooze hive mind’s growth beyond the reservoir, the Bath survives. Its terrifying tenacity speaks volumes to its ire. | |||
Oenopion is also the birthplace of much of Nex’s food culture, being where the famed druid Ghorus first created the plants that, over the millennia, evolved to become the ghoran people. Though it’s approximately 60 miles north of Ecanus and over three times that distance from the capital city Quantium, Oenopion remains an instrumental part of Nex, being a vital supplier of food and wealth. Its alchemical goods are the nation’s most pervasive link to the wider world of Golarion; every seasoned adventurer across the globe has likely been saved by a potion from Oenopion at least twice. | |||
In the last hundred years, Oenopion’s restless ghosts have started speaking back, wafting from the lake beneath the city and amid the sewers. The miasmic body’s claims are jumbled and varied, but sometimes, in alleys and other alcoves, there’s clarity—and anger—that can be heard clearly in Oenopion’s oozing perspective. Revolution brews beneath the streets, and as more visitors listen to the mixed-up accounts and perspectives of their exploited precursors, an unease stirs under the feet of the skilled alchemists and arcanists of Oenopion’s ruling class. Should their neglect continue, they might find themselves drowning in the deep, corrosive bath they helped to fill. | |||
[[Fichier:THE BATH.jpg|vignette|alt=THE BATH|THE BATH]] | |||
==A DAY IN OENOPION== | |||
[[Fichier:OENOPION 01.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=OENOPION]] | |||
Oenopion smells. | |||
It isn’t necessarily bad. Many neighborhoods even smell wondrous. This city simply smells like a lot of things and, impressively, somehow smells more than most cities of comparable size. Most of the odors pervading the city are floral, peaty, and complex due to the density of the Still’s botanical infrastructure, but this verdant perfume disguises a more industrial stink. The most practiced residents of the Nexian Still can comfortably navigate Oenopion by smell—weaving through the circle of row houses of the Residential Ring by the rich, heavy scent of food and drink seeping from storefronts and flats. Locals in the still heart of the city regularly don perfume to mask the psychedelic scents venting from the Bath below. The aromas of the hive mind ooze carry nostalgic, seductive fragrances, meant to attract the most suggestible of the Still’s inhabitants and visitors. Because Oenopion is a city filled with liquid wonders and dangers alike, its most reliable maps are drawn with a keen, experienced nose. | |||
During daylight hours, Oenopion is a charming enough locale, with a scent map aided by the odors of a healthy culinary, almost epicurean culture, one forged in a storied food and alchemical history. Oenopion’s alcoves and alleys are places where alchemical mixtures and paraphernalia of the strangest order can be bought and sold at all times of day and night. The consequences of these brews travel the concentrically planned curving streets of the Nexian Still in the stomachs, veins, and minds of both visitors and locals. | |||
Oenopion also possesses a robust gardening culture. Many make their living tending to botanical rarities for local apothecaries and buyers from outside of the city. As a strange and delightful byproduct, Oenopion also features a fascinating array of insects, arachnids, and other colorful crawlers that have flocked—or more likely were smuggled—into the city. It isn’t uncommon to encounter wildly mutated variations of even the most common insects, after they descended and reemerged from the sewers below and the Bath within. | |||
Oenopion’s garden displays, both indoor and out, are vast, diverse works of art. If a newcomer is lucky enough to befriend some of the city’s famously insular locals, they might be shown a private indoor garden made for conditions that Nex’s climate doesn’t allow. The indoor gardens of five different well-off alchemists wouldn’t be a terrible abbreviation of a botanical world tour, and many botanists find it easier to search for rare plants in Oenopion rather than in far-off reaches of inhospitable wilderness. The Apothaqiine is said to possess an abundance of plants, fungi, and even whole trees that were taken from beyond the Material Plane within its protected walls. | |||
The city sacrifices many of its charms to the night. Kidnappings and mysterious disappearances are a nightly ordeal for an out-of-town visitor to navigate. There are many rumors, accusations, and theories for who’s responsible, and unfortunately, Oenopion has multiple likely answers. Some say the disappearances are caused by a network of Oenopion officials named the Distillers who snatch newcomers on the order of Master Alchemist Borume. Other rumors point to the demon lord Haagenti’s local cult, working his sinister will in the city and looking for candidates with fantastic flesh to warp. Some surmise that drow disciples of the demon lord, residing somewhere among the city’s depths around the Bath, are responsible for these cults, having even bought and reorganized the city’s plan to build it in the shape of an elaborate alchemical circle that crawls to completion. Still others believe it’s the Bath itself, seducing visitors to the city with its many-minded churns to prepare for an uprising as the street prophets who drink from the ooze foretell. Then there are the regular waves of violent crimes in the city that might end with an unwise disposal of a body or two in the Bath or a savvy body removal in the factory furnaces around the Residential Ring. There’s a splash of truth to all these hypotheses. | |||
The result is a city uniformly on its guard, and one that’s ill-recommended to traverse after dark. Hired mercenaries earn good coin acting as escorts through the streets at night, and many adventurers make a year’s wages in a month by acting as envoys for wealthy individuals who need to brave the Nexian Still after sunset to ply their trade and resolve their business. Oenopion’s residents, by contrast, usually keep indoors after nightfall, if their work and material obligations allow them such leeway—either in their flats along the Residential Ring or, for the wealthy, houses within the dome that they’ve managed to buy after years of toil and likely trouble. | |||
Altogether, Oenopion is haunted. The great ooze beneath the city and its offspring, both the covertly hidden and those who more boldly slip and slide through the streets above at night, carry a vast network of memories, experiences, and personalities from thousands of years’ worth of failed experiments and disposed souls. They deliver their message in many ways, leaving auspicious, acidic inscriptions on walls and along cobblestone boulevards, making those who drink of the Bath speak in voices long lost or just inducing vivid visions of ancient memories or futile future hopes with its vapors. All point to a revolution bubbling up from beneath the city every day. If one spends a night in Oenopion, expect to speak with the city. Don’t be surprised if what it says is persuasive, as it has had countless years to ruminate on what to say. | |||
'''OENOPION SETTLEMENT 15 | |||
NE CITY | |||
Government appointed administrator | |||
Population 8,900 (86% humans, 5% gnomes, 2% ghorans, 7% other) | |||
Languages Kelish, Osiriani, Vudrani | |||
Religions Aakriti, Abadar, Calistria, Haagenti, Irori, Lamashtu, Mahathallah, Nethys, Pharasma | |||
Threats civil unrest, corrupt authorities, criminals, cultists of Haagenti, poisonous plants, political murders, pollen allergies, rogue fleshforged, the Bath, unethical alchemists | |||
Alchemical Accidents In Oenopion, you can find just about anything alchemical, but if you make a wrong move, you might wind up sleeping in the goop. The settlement’s level is 20 for the purpose of determining what alchemical items and alchemical services are available. Most non‑hostile NPCs begin with an attitude one step better than usual toward alchemists, just in case. | |||
Master Alchemist Borume (LE male human alchemist 19) overseer of Oenopion | |||
==A YEAR IN OENOPION== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 19.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Perhaps no city throughout all of Nex imparts the consequence of its constructed surroundings more than Oenopion. Because of the wide array of gardens and alchemical vapors housed in the city, many visitors and new inhabitants initially develop an allergy to Oenopion’s open air, referred to as Stillfever. The name makes it sound more dire than it is for most, though some do have an acute reaction upon first encountering it. | |||
For this reason, along with greenhouse heat, a venting occurs during the third week of every month. During this time, all the chambers in the great dome over the city are fully opened rather than simply cracked during the night hours. As the Still is allowed to breathe, its stagnant air and factory smog gives way to floral scents generated from the local gardens, bathing the city in its most welcoming light. The result is a sort of artificial spring throughout the year, even as the wider desert and wastes outside the city become cold and harsh. An uninitiated traveler might be forgiven for thinking Oenopion is exempt from fall and winter if they only experience the calibrated weather of the domed inner city. | |||
As well as combating the heat generated from the city’s glass casing and industrial churn, venting weeks tend to be the time when Oenopion sees its highest influx of visitors. Friendlier locals specifically recommend travelers and merchants visit the city during this time. In contrast to the quiet paranoia and tension that clogs the air during the rest of the month, venting allows residents and visitors, associates and rivals alike, to literally let off some steam and relax. It’s truly the city at its best. | |||
Perhaps it’s also due in part to the true sky being visible during most of a venting week. Through most of the Still’s months, smog clouds, condensation, and pollutants move up the glass walls, obscuring the upper rim of the dome’s interior. Only snatches of the sky are visible from the inner city. However, the Apothate’s mastery over the handmade biome is so precise and impressive that the resulting clouds sometimes swirl together into configurations that shed calculated rainfall into Oenopion at will or even produce nourishing starlight from the refocused sun beams and moon rays outside. | |||
The first week of each month in Oenopion is the ever-busy leaving week, during which the bulk of the city’s products are sent out into Garund in the care of hired courier arcanists known as Stilltotes. Some Stilltotes are sent to other parts of Nex by council decree and are expected back in Oenopion with confirmation of delivery upon their return—at which point they can collect compensation. Others venture beyond the nation by instruction of the Council of Three and Nine with samples of new and experimental concoctions, in hopes of securing the goodwill of Garund’s significant nations and communities. | |||
While the city’s production never abates entirely, it slows a noticeable amount in autumn as official focus pivots to international trade. Large, heavily guarded caravans of fortified locomotive tanks made of metal and glass escort the international stock to Quantium so that it can ship out from port to the rest of the world. The most skilled of Stilltotes are often assigned this task and are usually accompanied by fleshwarped guardians known as the Strickenguard, mercenaries who have “volunteered” their bodies and possibly their minds for a reliable salary and experimentation. These menacing guardians are often enough of a deterrent to any bandits who prowl the wastes of Nex. Though large and strong, they usually also possess some magical enhancements sewn upon their flesh sleeves to perform their duties more efficiently. These international trading efforts serve a dual purpose, with the Stilltotes being tasked with collecting rare ingredients around the globe by the Master Alchemist and other Apothates who are eager to prepare for winter. | |||
The winter months are the most experimental period of Oenopion’s calendar, as the city retreats to study, refine, and reflect on its endeavors of the past year. It’s understood that the Still’s year doesn’t properly start until after this period of reflection in Pharast, which is the closest to a rest month as the city receives. As Oenopion’s residents prepare for a spring and summer of alchemical manufacture, they’re encouraged to bloom and grow like the plants they use for their work and find rejuvenation before returning to the long working grind. The city’s alchemical potions and experimental magics are swapped for delicious food and drink instead as the locals prepare for the city’s most major holiday—Ghorusan. | |||
Held on the 31st of Pharast, Ghorusan takes the creative energy brewing in the Still’s workforce and makes a giant festival of it all. Named in honor of the druid Ghorus for the aid he gave to the nation, Ghorusan is a potpourri of daring culinary indulgence. Costumes are made from dying plants, and Oenopion becomes a citywide potluck. | |||
Though the Still’s network of restaurateurs, chefs, and mixologists brandish wholly new-made drinks and food, more pedestrian Ghorusan celebrations take place in the street, with a cavalcade of rousing tunes played by buskers from in and out of town alike. Many personalized brews of bathsilk are shared, an Oenopion classic most reserve for drinking on this day. Bathsilk is created by taking a sample of the Bath and mixing it into a sweet, glowing alcohol that can take the form of beer, cider, or even aged wine for the affluent. Often, bathsilk is left to ferment and distill for six months to leech away the consciousness and toxins of the Bath’s sample, leaving behind a complex, sweet and spiced range of tastes—at least in theory. It’s no coincidence that many imbibers start their year with vivid hallucinations, dreams, prophecies, new inspiration, and long-lost memories persuading them to odd action. | |||
'''Unusual Alliances''' | |||
The nation of Holomog is too distant to be common knowledge in the Inner Sea, but the Southern Garundi nation is one of Nex’s strongest allies. The overwhelming hatred they both bear toward Geb overcomes all their differences, and relations remain strong to this day, with Holomog sending precious food and Nexian Arclords rushing to aid Holomog in times of war and disaster. As Oenopion is the southernmost city of Nex, it often plays host to visiting delegates from Holomog. | |||
===PEOPLE OF OENOPION=== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 21.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
A wide variety of common ancestries from all over Golarion can be found mixed up within the Nexian Still, much as they are in Nex overall. In contrast to Quantium’s more widely and openly extraplanar citizenry, Oenopion boasts a people as rare as the contents of its most renowned gardens. The ghoran population in Nex, considerably larger when compared to the rest of the world, is especially concentrated in Oenopion. These mobile plants don’t claim any particular neighborhood and sprout up all over the city. Ghorus created their ancestors in Oenopion and seeded a great deal of Nex’s robust cuisine culture with them. After their long fight to be recognized as more than food, ghorans chose to take control of their original purpose by providing sustenance to others on their own terms. Many of Nex’s most celebrated culinary traditions started in this city, and it’s because of the ghoran citizenry who have passed along both their culinary knowledge and civic struggle. | |||
It isn’t that unusual for ghorans in the Still to live with trusted “Tenders”—any ancestry with longer lifespans and, by consequence, more stable relationships than themselves. Some of Oenopion’s oldest citizenry are elves and gnomes from trusted Tender families, descendants of abolitionists who helped ghorans earn their right to be recognized as a sentient, free people in the nation’s eye. The intergenerational knowledge passed between ghorans in their cycles of bloom and death lets their descendants know which scant families can be trusted, information almost as instrumental to their survival as air and water. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 20.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex ]] | |||
Many of the most celebrated, longstanding restaurants in Oenopion have been established in the inner city through | |||
this unique interplay. These restaurants thrive due to the care of Tenders entrusted long ago with looking after and caring for ghorans. When a ghoran dies, their Tender assists in their charge’s reseeding and uses their non-seed remains for their most precious and sought-after dishes. It’s common practice among Tenders to donate the profits made by any delicacy prepared from deceased ghoran flesh toward the support and protection of future ghorans born within or fleeing to the city. | |||
Unfortunately, such protections remain a paramount necessity for the ghoran population. While it’s illegal across Nex to murder the plant people for any reason, let alone sustenance, Oenopion is a city of the exploited, and ghorans aren’t exempt from its predations. Many within the city profess a respect for their fellow ghoran neighbors, yet the temptation of the forbidden is ever-present in Nex. Ghoran flesh traffickers—known as Wilters—are one of the Still’s worse-kept secrets. Wilters seek out untended ghorans in the city to kill them, harvest their flesh, and sell it across Garund as a rare delicacy. Wilters don’t often have a chance claim their quarry in Oenopion but will happily spring upon an opportunity that presents itself, especially after dark. Some Wilters even plant ghoran seeds in the countryside, hoping to grow them for food and peddling the remains in Oenopion’s walls. While many in Oenopion’s culinary trade act as Tenders for ghorans, there’s a considerable number of restaurateurs and gourmands who will take the improperly acquired delicacy for the right price, no questions asked, whether they’re protecting ghoran kin or not. Ghoran flesh itself isn’t illegal to devour, and the city runs on nothing if not profit. | |||
The fleshwarped are yet another fraught and vulnerable demographic encountered in Oenopion. These varied people come from all walks of life, though most are either refugees from the Mana Wastes or, depressingly more common, were created as an experiment conducted by a local amoral fleshwarper; many of the local fleshwarped inhabitants of The Still have been discarded by their masters and wider social circles after their data was collected. Only in the past few decades has fatigue over this treatment, and the city’s larger nefarious conduct, provoked fleshwarps into self-advocacy and solidarity. While fleshwarped people have long knitted together a desperate community in the Still’s sewers and aqueducts near the Bath, their younger generations now stand tall for their rights and agency. | |||
Though many fleshwarped might be startling to look at, even across the hugely varied population that makes up Nex, in recent years their presence has been heartily welcomed by most of Oenopion’s vulnerable and impoverished. Many fleshwarps living beneath the city have taken the time to study these areas below, using the secrets they’ve gleaned from their exploiters to choose the right locations for protest and action—often turning Oenopion’s structural systems against their oppressors in unexpected ways. | |||
While it isn’t unusual for fleshwarps to spill charged protests in Oenopion’s streets, they also focus on leveraging their skills, knowledge, and secrets with the powers above to forge their own destinies behind the scenes. At the darkest level, doing so has meant letting local alchemists experiment on their bodies once more to better understand the techniques used on them and others. Those with more resilient abilities, especially those who can heal faster or possess hardier constitutions, volunteer as test subjects for unproven potions, poultices, and other alchemical items. The trade-off for these poisoned bargains are loosened tongues spilling exploitable secrets and, on occasion, unexpected allies. Money and goods are pooled together to buy properties and to repurpose them as safe shelters for those in need. Bands spread information about the most nefarious of Oenopion’s elite during play nights in the Draft of Forever. In some cases, alchemists of ill conduct awake to find their precious gardens burned to the ground. | |||
'''Mnemovore''' | |||
Though best known for its alchemy, Oenopion hosts plenty of arcane schools and labs, as befitting one | |||
of the greatest cities in Nex. One major group of magical researchers are the planar experts investigating Mnemovore. This constantly shifting demiplane hosts a twisting library hundreds of miles across. It also appears to devour other demiplanes to increase its size and knowledge. The Arclords have begun creating demiplanes specifically for Mnemovore to eat in order to observe the results. | |||
===FACTIONS=== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 22.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
Much like ingredients in an alchemical brew, the most potent actors in Oenopion aren’t easy to separate from the other elements around them. Though nowhere near comprehensive, these groups and factions are some of the most notable across the city. | |||
The Oenopion Fleshforges Guild: Recently reformed, the current iteration of the Oenopion Fleshforges Guild is only 13 years old. This reformation occurred in the wake of the Evisceration in Ecanus (page 269). The original guild was a relic of the war with Geb, a group tasked with overseeing the replication of the fleshforges in Ecanus | |||
and the refinement of fleshforging techniques to empower soldiers with necromantic resistances. After the war ground to a halt, many of these technologies were quickly converted to mass produce medicinal alchemical items. Completed prototype fleshforges were repurposed into the first versions of the modern factories that now border Oenopion. The guild that oversaw the conversion stayed on to consult on the formulation of new poisons and potions. | |||
As the purpose of Oenopion calcified into specifically producing apothecary necessities, this knowledge disappeared into the Nexian Still’s background and was put to darker, more personal use. As these guild members grew richer and more corrupt, they siphoned Nexian government funding for secret side projects, conducting illicit experiments and creating horrors in an effort to expand their personal power. After learning of their depredations and embezzlement and seeing no utility in their work for Nex, the Council of Three and Nine dissolved the original guild during Nex’s third millennium. As might be expected, the horrors this decision was meant to impede only became more clandestine. | |||
After the Evisceration, the Arclords of Nex proclaimed that heightened protective measures were needed to defend against the likely machinations of Gebbite agents. They offered funding to reinstitute the guild under Borume’s supervision, provided that Borume ensured the guild focused on defenses for the upcoming war effort. The guild’s officiated members now work within the manufacturing factories of the Still, quietly planning to expand these factories to accommodate fleshforges like the ones in Ecanus. The past decade has seen the wide construction of laboratories to facilitate more precise, specific fleshwarping with volunteers. These plans largely sacrifice housing in the Residential Ring. | |||
If the Fleshforges Guild holds one virtue, it’s cooperation. Unlike Oenopion’s famously competitive and secretive alchemists, the guild fleshforgers happily share information and new advances with one another. This fellowship has allowed the guild to quickly become competitive against the far-more-established fleshforgers in Ecanus. With Nex’s great fleshforges sputtering and unreliable, the Fleshforges Guild has politically positioned itself as the obvious solution, a development that only serves to further strain the rivalry between Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar and Master Alchemist Borume. | |||
Haagenti’s Mask: The cult of the demon lord Haagenti is the cruel offspring of the original Oenopion Fleshforges Guild. After many of the city’s fleshwarping experts went underground to practice their increasingly sinister experiments, the consequences of their actions gradually filled the streets, alleys, and sewers in the city below, eventually creating a whole displaced and neglected class in Oenopion. In 3653 ar, a drow refugee from the Darklands named Dulin Tro squandered the goodwill he had carefully built in Oenopion after he reshaped the guise of his assistant, a well-liked prodigal human of 13 years named Ankquit Daal, to bear the face of Dulin’s patron demon lord: Haagenti. The ever-shifting guise was considered beautiful by many of Tro’s cohort, but the psychological toll on the boy and the pain of the process was unmistakable. Ankquit journeyed to Quantium to seek both justice for himself and punishment for Dulin Tro, and his plea and visage were so disturbing that Iranez of the Orb and four members of the Council of Three and Nine traveled immediately to the Still to make Tro answer for his profane crime and prevent anything like it from happening again. | |||
The drow had already planned his escape using a divine gift from Haagenti, who was pleased with Dulin Tro’s horrific offering. Haagenti crafted a mask for the drow and his followers from their own faces, which they would always wear and could change indefinitely for the cost of a night’s pain. By the time Iranez arrived in Oenopion with Ankquit’s justice burning in her mind, Tro and his followers had already become other people. In her consternation, Iranez ordered the Principle Fleshforger to instate the Age of Commerce to prevent such a grotesquerie from happening again to a child and to dissuade this kind of experimentation altogether. | |||
In the following years, this sect has donned the title of Haagenti’s Mask and stirred up trouble in Nex wherever they’ve been directed by their fiendish commander. They continue to follow the example of Dulin Tro—whether he’s dead or not. Their current leader, Jandeerish Vel (page 302), seeks to make a door for saints of his patron demon lord so that they might impart wisdom for future devastations. He has recently made his Key. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 23.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
The Unwarped: The Unwarped might be the most collectivist group within Oenopion. They’ve grown tired of the city’s materialistic machinations, stratified class cruelties, and experimental abuses. Their founders were fleshwarped activists, former visitors to the city who were kidnapped and experimented on by illegal fleshwarpers, foul worshippers of Haagenti’s cult, and even secret operations from Oenopion’s own government. The lucky ones were discarded on the streets afterward or, more likely, under it. Instead of fleeing, giving up, or dying, they survived and chose to stay. If the unwillingly fleshwarped were going to be discarded after their exploiters took what they wanted from their flesh, then fleshwarps were going to take to the streets and become undeniable to the Still’s indifferent aristocracy. | |||
Over the years, this tension has bubbled over into other civic and infrastructural issues in the city. Various protesters formed alliances, building a community of true support beneath the streets and around the Bath. The Unwarped’s ranks expanded as the years passed, making the Bath their base of operations. They were the first to realize that the Bath was an intelligent creature rather than a collection of mindless ooze—and with the realization that the old lake was as angry, frustrated, and abused as the desperate community built around it, the two found allies in each other. They now work together for the kind of change they want to see in the city. With the Bath’s assistance, the Unwarped began their tradition of taking their protests to the streets and occupying factories while wearing plague masks, a dormant commentary on the plague the Still has become for its own people as well as a refutation of Haagenti’s Mask. | |||
Many of the civil actions and political strategies the Unwarped employ are founded in information from the Bath and its wealth of secrets, gleaned from a trove of memories drawn from people across every level of Oenopion society. The Bath shares the city’s hidden truths and forgotten agendas with its allies in the hope that the Unwarped will use the information for proper change, but its efforts have gained any kind of propulsive momentum only in the last hundred years. There are times when the Bath would impart accurate yet difficult-to-parse predictions of the future or send smaller oozes to approach individuals on the street to share news. Meaning to harness these strange divinations for their activism, certain members of the Unwarped have taken to ingesting a handful of the Bath after asking it questions. Many die a fortnight later, but they all receive vivid, informative dreams that they can then use to inform their accomplices about the next steps to take. | |||
'''Polite Distinctions''' | |||
While fleshforgers in Nex insist their work is distinct from fleshwarping, the two differ in technique more than principle. Fleshforging is generally less destructive and painful, as killing an experiment before it’s finished is typically bad for results. While the Arclords and alchemists of Nex have plenty of callous cruelty to spare toward their fleshwarped creations, comparing the defiant Unwarped with the shattered, traumatized victims of drow cultists does draw a stark and somber line. | |||
==CULTURE== | |||
[[Fichier:DULIN TRO.jpg|vignette|alt=DULIN TRO|DULIN TRO]] | |||
Oenopion is a paranoid place. Though it claims to be a center of groundbreaking innovation, much of its alchemical development takes place behind closed doors or in ivory academic towers, away from the public eye. Some of this caution comes from alchemists rightfully worrying that their work, which offers them a chance at higher status in the city, could be stolen by ambitious rivals who live mere doors away. Others fear falling victim to the strange disappearances of the city, which usually claim outsiders but have been known to befall established members of the Nexian Still’s community. Then there are the individuals who have tried something unorthodox or unethical in their strange sciences and display the results while roaming after midnight—perhaps walking up walls, or even through them, due to something imbibed or injected. Wherever they go, many who amble around Oenopion at night aren’t altogether there. A certain tense, erratic tone is set within the city’s bounds. | |||
Oenopion, as much if not more than its sibling cities, blatantly runs on a series of interlocking exploitations. Besides the master alchemist, many of Oenopion’s movers and shakers don’t actually reside in the Nexian Still, but instead live in Quantium. These influential individuals rent lodgings to career-hungry alchemists who wish to work their way up the ranks of the Apothaqiine in order to take their talent and renown back to Quantium and offer it to those they once paid to live. Along the way, the newly initiated are often tempted toward little betrayals to secure some comfort in the city. Some are small treacheries, such as stealing precious | |||
flowers from a neighbor’s collection for a chameleonic potion. Others are large treacheries, such as holding an indoor party that serves its guests a main refreshment of pomegranate punch spiked with the dangerous initial batch of that in-progress chameleonic potion. | |||
The city’s most privileged are the aristocrats, politicians, and artisans too wrapped up in their work or petty rivalries to bother managing the city, or folk who live in other parts of Nex who don’t seem to care until it’s too late. While the attentions of Oenopion’s elite fall to their own pursuits of power and pleasure, Oenopion’s youngest and most disenfranchised have been transforming the norms of the city. Young families from Quantium frequently move to the Still’s Residential Ring in search of quieter, calmer places to nest. The lost and forgotten below the city have created their own network and living spaces that function as a hidden Oenopion community. The fleshwarped of Oenopion support one another, often renting real estate to each other to outplay their “superiors” in similar businesses within the heart of the city. The ooze of the Bath carries a righteous justice and fury that the Still’s most marginalized people now willingly carry. In the cauldron that is the Still, stirrings of change are poised to stir up the city for the better. | |||
Theft and burglary aren’t uncommon within the Still, but it’s just as likely to be committed by arcanists, apothecaries, and alchemists of significant status as low-class ruffians—or by someone who has lived long enough in Oenopion that they’re aware the true thieves lie within the great dome. For the latter camp, the city’s rules provide a rare exploit for socially engaged citizens. Much of the city’s disenfranchised use the distance from their nation’s enforcers to their advantage in organized action. Some of the more entrepreneurial fleshwarped and accomplices who sympathize with their plight have started buying up properties from the wealthy who have neglected their holdings long enough for Oenopion’s leadership to seek putting the properties to better use. | |||
Victims are also just as likely to be the elite and powerful as they are regular workers and clerks. Aristocrats who stay in the city often do so because they desire fewer eyes on them, and brewing common potions isn’t what they get up to in their private life. Sometimes their need for privacy is due to their involvement in illicit, scandalous pleasure-seeking, but more often, it’s because of their dangerous experimentation upon people and creatures they wrongly suspect nobody will miss. | |||
Many of the more affluent arcanists and alchemists of Oenopion are accompanied by homunculi—wry, clever constructs of flesh, magic, and memory who are bound to their masters by blood. These homunculi often assist in the complexities of their masters’ trades, and the creation of homunculi bodies to specification has become a rather lucrative business in itself. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 24.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
The city isn’t all dour shadows. Alchemy presents many wonders alongside its potential for destruction. While the materialistic struggle of the Still can threaten to drown the wholesome hopes of the more naive, the most recent generation of citizenry has found innovative ways to thrive within Oenopion’s steadfast march and quiet competition. While the city’s dangers are pervasive and palpable, so are its many delights. One won’t find better a better drink anywhere else across the Inner Sea, and the culinary aptitude in Oenopion matches the talent of its magical brewers. Within each tavern, restaurant, and cafe, Oenopion can be seen as a place full of passionate creatives who work with intricate sciences to express themselves. | |||
A typical Still dish is a heavily spiced, deeply aromatic representation of the city’s culinary arts, often garnished or cooked with edible flowers. The city’s cuisine tends to be on the sweet and floral side due to the availability of rare and savory botanicals, though these staples are far less awe-inspiring to the local citizenry than to visitors. The carefully prepared ingredients are often made for groups of two to four to share across a pliable, spongy flatbread garnished with arugula, which serves as the common base of most modern Oenopion cuisine. In most cases, the rest of the meal is carefully arranged on top of a wide piece of this bread, which is dismantled by all the participating guests and used to devour the dish in lieu of silverware. Most of these dishes aren’t based around meat, though ethically obtained ghoran flesh is a particular delicacy. | |||
One should prepare to perceive new notes in the aftertaste of an Oenopion dish or drink for many hours after the lucky soul has left the dining table. The culinary aptitude of the city is of such complexity and sophistication that it’s an expected and even desired response to the city’s food to have synesthetic reactions brought on by the food’s magical and alchemical layers. The drinks are even bolder, often onsetting vivid dreams for the taker whether or not they yet slumber. If a group has shared a pitcher of arcanely fermented dreamaloe, expect them to share a dream as well. | |||
There’s a famous double entendre about food explorations for the uninitiated visitor to the Still—“The ones who drink together, dream together.” The city inns, especially in the Ring, are always more than happy to oblige the lucidity a group of travelers might find. On the way there, it isn’t at all unexpected to find other consumables of a colorful nature. Oenopion is a prime spot for “adventurers” whose ventures have led them to create their own outer planes in their minds. | |||
If they aren’t working, people in Oenopion dress light, not only because of the national climate but also because of the mechanical heat generated from the city’s infrastructure. Sundresses and sleeveless long robes are favored street fashions for the Oenopion local, regardless of gender, and visitors often sweat off any more densely layered vestiges within hours of being in the city. Street peddlers with more temperature-agreeable clothing always lurk at the ready along the Nexian Still’s urban network, to take advantage of the city’s industrial swelter. In their own homes, the inhabitants of the Nexian Still don more protective clothing to set about their experimental work. | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 25.jpg|vignette|alt=Nex]] | |||
'''Haagenti''' | |||
The Whispers Within | |||
Alignment CE (NE, CE) | |||
Divine Font harm or heal | |||
Divine Ability Constitution or Intelligence | |||
Divine Skill Crafting | |||
Domains change (Gods & Magic 112), might, toil (Pathfinder #148 63), wealth | |||
Cleric Spells 1st: summon construct, 2nd: humanoid form, 4th: bestial curse APG | |||
Edicts practice alchemical transmutations, pursue knowledge whatever the cost, use your inventions to exploit others | |||
Anathema aid Yasamoth, allow morality to interfere with research, destroy knowledge | |||
Favored Weapon battle axe | |||
Haagenti plays at seeming reasonable, tempting forbearance with his numerous helpful inventions. Yet, he’s just as monstrous as any other demon, only giving his knowledge to those who’ll use it to cause horrendous suffering. He claims to have invented the art of fleshwarping, and the many victims of his followers stand as a stunning testament to his true cruelty. | |||
===GOVERNMENT=== | |||
[[Fichier:Nex 26.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Nex]] | |||
Oenopion is ruled by money. With the city functioning as Nex’s economic spine, commerce drives the decisions that govern, and as a machine of innovation and profit, its governance is in service to material interest first and foremost. Guided by Master Alchemist Borume (page 301), one of the nine of the Council of Three and Nine, Oenopion is nothing if not profitable for the nation. Most of this wealth goes back to supporting the city’s businesses as well as those who run said businesses, and so the Residential Ring finds itself in a state of perpetual neglect. | |||
This bottom line doesn’t stop Master Alchemist Borume from orchestrating every inch of his charge to his specifications, down to the flask-full. From the Residential Ring and the factories it’s planned around to the Apothaqiine that marks the city’s center, his attention is cast high, low, and wide to keep affairs within the city moving. Borume’s hyper-vigilance in maintaining Nex’s primary breadwinner leads him to overlook many local atrocities. As long as he doesn’t give the Council any reason to question his station and utility, then whatever unscrupulous | |||
things that happen in the streets and behind closed doors of the city are worth the cost—or rather, profit. | |||
Borume weaves a tangled web of trading favors and manufacturing problems that he can transmute into solutions. He works his social alchemy across the nation, currying power and privacy for himself and the ruling class in the Still much as Oenopion does across all of Golarion. Oenopion is often treated as a private testing ground for strange experiments of his own imagining as well as those of other luminaries of interest. Publicly, the city is known as a manufacturing plant for Nex and the wider world. Borume’s balancing of these somewhat contradictory interests results in his esoteric governance of Oenopion. | |||
Most of Borume’s civil structures within Oenopion are also business ventures. Much to the suspicion of the Principle Fleshforger in Ecanus, the Master Alchemist has maintained the Oenopion Fleshforges Guild over the past 60 years. While Ecanus’s towering horrors have kept the nation secure from Geb for millennia, Borume has used the Guild in Oenopion to iterate on the nation’s military technology for his own profit. For example, instead of a more conventional guard or Ecanusi Wards, much of the city is policed by a recent wave of the elite Strickenguard. The dubious nature of the Strickenguard soldiers becomes even murkier as rumor spreads that not all in their ranks are volunteers and might be just as imprisoned as any citizens they lock up. | |||
It’s rumored that the samples of new alchemicals sent out overseas are actually newer variations of Strickenguards, which Borume advertises to nobles and aristocrats abroad in the interest of finding another means of adding to Oenopion’s wealth and deepening his own pockets. Many Apothate and wealthy citizens already hire Strickenguards, as they don’t need to sleep, eat, or be tended. Even communities in the Residential Ring have pooled together resources to hire the soldiers on occasion. Officials within the Apothaqiine oversee these transactions and payments, and the rental service has turned a profit for the city. As usual, so long as the Still delivers an agreeable cut of its income to Nex, the Council of Three and Nine is collectively willing to look the other way. | |||
This method of generating revenue and safety through subscriptions pervades and propels Oenopion’s affairs. Much of the real estate in Oenopion is rented from the city government by the wealthy within its walls, aristocrats from Quantium, or representatives from other nations. Oenopion’s product circulation is also often handled through a subscription basis when it comes to foreign buyers, with one-off sales being triple the cost. Most impressively and frustratingly, Borume has fabricated an impressive network of taxation and contracts within the city that seems to keep the whole thing afloat as much as it threatens to send it crumbling down into the Bath. | |||
The Apothates and the Measures assist Borume in keeping all this stirring in sequence with his accord. The Apothates earn their place within the spire on Borume’s recommendation and the Council of Three and Nine’s confirmation. The Measures are often the most consistent authorities that the Nexian Still possesses. They come in two general camps of civic officials: Halfmeasures and Fullmeasures. | |||
Halfmeasures are sworn and trusted individuals who engage with Oenopion’s citizenry and visitors and are placed in official stalls, street patrols, and publicly accessible offices around the city. They act as friendly guides, watchers, street enforcers, whistleblowers, and tax collectors, and they cycle through these duties as needed on a rotating biweekly schedule. When their station is challenged with threat of violence, or their duties are otherwise evaded or subverted by the citizenry, they’re instructed to turn to their superior Fullmeasures. | |||
Fullmeasures often hold a specific title pertaining to their expertise, followed by their specific purpose and their preferred referential name, typically their surname. For example, Fullmeasure Executioner Qualra might be a dire enforcer and even executioner, while Fullmeasure Witness Duuhl acts as an officiate and keeper of contracts for the city. The Fullmeasures answer to the Apothate. | |||
There’s but one unofficial and rarely broken rule of decency that runs through the complex plan of the Still: leave children out of the business. It’s tacitly agreed they aren’t to be involved, both for their sake and for the transaction. The metric that guides this principle is informally referred to as the Age of Commerce—who constitutes a youth is judged by human standards, and those who aren’t yet of age must be excluded. The city might be filled with shifting morals and numerous ethically gray business practices, but they go out of the window if the involvement of children is made known. While travelers might vanish off the street with horrible regularity to little fanfare, if one of the missing parties is reported to be a child, the involvement of a Fullmeasure Investigator on an officially documented case is inevitable. If the infraction is traced and proven true, justice from a Fullmeasure Executioner isn’t far behind. Fortunately, as consequence of this circumstance, there’s pleasingly little call for such work among the city’s enforcers. | |||
'''Oenopion Golemworks''' | |||
Nex as a nation is renowned for its magical constructs, and Oenopion as a city is renowned for them within Nex. Despite stiff and sometimes bitter competition from both Quantium and Ecanus, the Arclords of Oenopion are considered the most capable eldritch smiths and golem workers among their peers. Few Arclords can be found without a specially commissioned guardian construct, built to specification in one of Oenopion’s many labs. | |||
===LOCATIONS=== | |||
[[Fichier:Oenopion map.jpg|600px|sans_cadre|droite|alt=Oenopion map|Oenopion map]] | |||
The following are a sample of some of the most prominent locations found in Oenopion. | |||
===THE APOTHAQIINE=== | |||
[[Fichier:THE APOTHAQIINE.jpg|vignette|alt=THE APOTHAQIINE|THE APOTHAQIINE]] | |||
[[Fichier:BORUME.jpg|vignette|alt=BORUME|BORUME]] | |||
This towering palace-spire was built over the Bath in the densest, most reinforced grounds within the center of the city. Within its walls lies a collection of alchemical knowledge unrivaled anywhere in Golarion. The Apothaqiine also houses the most reliable alchemists willing to work for Nex’s greater interest, who devise new liquid ingenuities after they’ve proven their skill and their loyalty to the nation. They spend their time crafting test batches of new concoctions before delivering them to the factories that make up the palace’s bottom two floors. Once their efficacy is proved, the potions are shipped to Quantium to be tested in the streets of that metropolis. If well received, they’re shared with Oenopion’s wider factories for more propulsive manufacture for the next two seasons. | |||
There’s great material security in becoming an Apothate—one of the resident alchemists of the palace—and greater rivalry to maintain that status within its walls. Competition for the privilege is fierce, as applicants come not just from the city or nation, but from anywhere on Golarion and even sometimes from other planes of existence. From that pool, the Apothaqiine chooses 99 alchemists to house in individual apartments within its walls, which make up the top nine of its 13 residential floors. The bottom-most residential floor belongs to the assistants and resident assessors who help execute the formulas of the alchemists in residence and who carry out the first wave of tests for them, respectively. The top floor is where Master Alchemist Borume resides, though he rarely leaves. | |||
One can look out of the window of a well-regarded Apothate’s flat—a sixth or seventh floor suite—and see the unique arrangement of Oenopion below, its curving streets mapped and embellished like an elaborate alchemical circle instead of a traditional city grid. Some Apothates with a more mystical bent even believe the city itself was built on an alchemical formula. These esoteric believers often work in concert because of their varied views of the city. They also have a habit of suddenly vanishing from the tower. Occasionally, the Bath’s cryptic burbling reveal their incomplete findings. | |||
===THE BATH=== | |||
The Bath was once a lake with magical properties, which Oenopion’s inner city was built over. It has since become a handmade reservoir to dispose of the city’s runoff, errant experiments, discarded magic, and inconvenient victims. The dumping of bodies has somewhat slowed now that the Bath has gained a multi-millennium forged hive mind consciousness within the ooze colony that makes up its depths. Now that it’s known that voices within the hive mind can retain memories, the criminal elements in the city usually seek to dispose of bodies in less precarious locations, for fear of some random ooze giving their attacker’s description. | |||
The Bath is filled with many of the city’s most lurid secrets, swirling within its foul putrescence. It lures those it feels it can trust through sweet smells and hypnotic patterns playing along its surface. Its vast, greenish-purple glow is often visible beneath the city’s sewer grates, casting wild and shifting light and shadows on the domed city’s curved architecture. These displays of miasmic light and scent often carry esoteric messages and missions for those who can decipher them. Bath oozes have even been known to climb to the surface city. Many who encounter the Bath in any capacity find themselves moved to action, which has led Oenopion’s elite to fear its effect on people’s faculties. | |||
Those who go under the city’s streets can easily follow its network of tunnels and reservoirs to the Bath. When someone chooses to do so, they often find themselves in a shantytown of the city’s most neglected, some of whom act as messengers for the sentient ooze that illuminates their hidden community. Fleshwarped and forgotten, this underclass has been knitting together the groundwork for a more sustainable existence in Oenopion, using the knowledge of the city’s secrets steeped in the ooze’s collective memories. | |||
===THE DRAFT OF FOREVER=== | |||
One of the most storied taverns across Nex is also one of its most recent additions. The Draft of Forever is a hybrid tavern and distillery, its brewing facilities situated under the block-wide gazebo that serves as its main venue. In a city known for its bars, lounges, and dens filled with consumable indulgences of exceptional quality, the Draft of Forever has risen to the top as the most well-known and the most entertaining. It can be found in the inner city’s west side, only blocks away from the Apothaqiine, standing with an open face from all sides and surrounded by open park ground. The outer ring of the tavern has ample seating that covers two-thirds of the tavern’s floor plan and wraps around the bar, usually tended by six or more people at any one time. The rest of its outer floor space is devoted to a handsome stage offering eccentric acts on a near bi-weekly basis, often drawing notable crowds. The most impressive thing about the Draft of Forever is that in its 20 years, it has amassed enough devoted patrons be open nonstop six out of seven days a week. | |||
===RESIDENTIAL RING=== | |||
Many of the residents of Oenopion who have just arrived in the city rent out storefronts and flats in the Residential Ring, which houses many properties in a large chain of row homes divvied up by five manufacturing factories constructed thousands of years ago. The Ring is divided into five segments, each named for the factory it’s adjacent to—moving clockwise from Residential One, which is the northernmost segment of the Residential Ring. These segments bounce between the constant churn of large factories as they produce Oenopion’s monthly exports. A complex network of hydraulics and machinery below keep the Ring from collapsing around the dome and into the sewers that surround the Bath. Many adjust to the constant noise in the Ring and form tight-knit communal bonds, but others are fiercely motivated to escape the periphery’s churn to the city within the dome, where the shakes and sounds are dulled to the point of being almost imperceptible. | |||
'''Safety Measures''' | |||
Even among the less chemically inclined, there are a few unusual substances that Oenopion’s citizens carry. Tins of alkaline salt—or, for the poor, a polite semblance of such that has been cut with talc and chalk—are nearly ubiquitous. For those with more money to spare, bottled desiccants promise the ability to suck the moisture out of any amorphous creatures. While it’s no guarantee that these items can protect against oozes, and certainly not the mass that is the Bath, it buys a little more peace of mind for many. | |||
'''Thassilonian Secrets''' | |||
Numerous Nexian fleshforgers have studied the records of Thassilon, fascinated by the lost fleshwarping secrets used to create sinspawn. None have made any significant progress, but the arrival of New Thassilon has reignited interest. Hopeful Arclords and alchemists now visit the time-displaced country, seeking to find, cajole, or steal Thassilonian techniques to combine with their own traditions. Progress has been troubled; Belimarius is jealous of her secrets, while Sorshen seems to have little interest in dredging up such knowledge. | |||
===IMPORTANT FACES=== | |||
Master Alchemist Borume (LE male human alchemist), or simply “Master Alchemist” as he demands his subordinates address him, is the man in charge of Oenopion. He possesses many overlooked areas and just as many areas of hyper focus, and his tenure has seen Oenopion become its most productive, both for better and worse. A fiercely private man, Borume suffers from an unusually severe case of Stillfever that has almost proved lethal a few times. The Master Alchemist is an ambitious individual who’s comfortable being in many places at once to achieve his goals and maintain his station. | |||
Yet, his machinations are finally inviting some long-due scrutiny—primarily from his rival in Ecanus and fellow member of the Nine, Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar. | |||
Someone is trying to draw Borume off of his cozy perch. Twice now, the alchemical vessels he has sent to handle his affairs by proxy have been attacked while en route to important meetings in the capital city of Quantium. The contingent of fleshforged bodyguards escorting his vessels were found torn apart alongside his machine. Of course, the first suspect is the principle fleshforger in Ecanus, but Borume knows Palovar has good reason for the attacks. The Master Alchemist also sees it as an opportunity for a better counter. | |||
Jandeerish Vel (CE male drow fleshwarper) is the elusive leader of the clandestine sect of Haagenti cultists operating within the Still. Jandeerish is a master of disguise, as are his most trusted followers, whom he has trained—and likely sculpted—personally. It’s said that only the dead and the devoured know his true face and that the only reason his name is known at all is due to the whispers of his victims consumed by the Bath. He’s suspected to be one of the Apothate by prominent members of the Unwarped seeking to bring him to justice, and that’s far from the only rumor circling his reputation. | |||
The Bath swirls with memories of a drow who escaped the Darklands after the coup meant to supplant his matron went awry. Vengeful claims of former allies from his exodus to Oenopion state that his true face is a beautiful one—but it’s a face he has long abandoned to give him latitude in the city. Whatever Jandeerish’s play is, his work and the work of his acolytes have led his patron demon lord to take notice. | |||
[[Fichier:KEE NAJDARII.jpg|vignette|alt=KEE NAJDARII|KEE NAJDARII]] | |||
'''[[Kee Najdarii]]''' (NG female gnome activist) is the predominant organizer of the Unwarped. The gnome formerly had ambitions to become one of the Apothate, ambitions which were exploited for a more experimental purpose. Her right hand has been split between middle and ring finger from palm to wrist, reshaped into a hollow hoop not unlike the armature of a butterfly net. Her left hand has been scarred on the palm with the sigil of Haagenti. She believes that her shaper and nemesis is the infamous Jandeerish Vel. On occasion, her right palm bleeds, an omen she knows will be followed by the arrival of some eldritch horror breaching the gate in her left hand. These events leave her blacked out from the pain and shock, unable to prevent whatever creature that emerges from doing some dark and subtle bidding for its esoteric master. | |||
Rather than let these fears cow her, Kee strives to find her elusive nemesis, an endeavor that has only intensified her community building and personal investigations. Her work has made her an inspiration and beacon for the marginalized community she serves. These efforts within the past few years have seen the Unwarped, once relegated to the edges of the Bath, climbing back to the surface and claiming the space to exist wholly and fully, despite what has been visited upon them by the wastes or the ill wills of others. | |||
'''[[Zhane Faltrizan]]''' (NE male human researcher) is one of the rising pioneers of Oenopion’s Fleshforges Guild—or would be, if not for a few unsurmountable circumstances. A diligent student of both magic and alchemy, Zhane has made enormous strides in the application of fleshwarping techniques to undead creatures. Unfortunately, the creation of undead is staggeringly illegal in Nex, and with the Evisceration of Ecanus, the Halfmeasures of Oenopion are taking their cursory checks for necromancers much more seriously. Zhane finds this Nexian perspective on the undead nothing more than an irrational limitation driven by fear. He knows well enough what will happen to him if he’s discovered, and he has been left looking over his shoulder for Measures and his own comrades in fleshforging. | |||
Getting fresh materials to continue his research is proving problematic. Creating undead within the city is too risky and too easily traced, but the Mana Wastes presents too many risks for spellcasting. His current solution involves hiring Strickenguard or Wastehunters to capture roving undead threats, but every job leaves a loose end, a thread that a diligent investigator could pull if they began to question why Zhane needed such dangerous creatures retrieved. He could give up on his research and bury it as deep as it can go, but it would be tantamount to giving up on any of his hopes and ambitions. With his well-meaning colleagues beginning to pry about his research, Zhane has begun to sweat, wondering what desperate actions he might need to avoid execution for treason or whether his past actions have already caught the attention of someone in power and sealed his fate. | |||
Sileen (N agender ghoran chef) is a ghoran obsessed with maintaining their relationships past the threshold of their imminent rebirth. It’s unclear whether they’ve already reseeded since they resolved themselves to this goal. If they have, they’ve only succeeded in holding onto their mission across this instance of themselves, not the past relationships that led them to cherish their interpersonal connections so voraciously. They claim to be 60 years old, an exceptional age for any ghoran, and they feel a strong connection to the Bath, which they claim has given them protracted life to solve their existential puzzle. | |||
To support their research, Sileen works as a chef at three of the best restaurants in Oenopion. The chances that someone has tasted their work in the city is high if one appreciates food and is traveling through Nex. Their food is so well regarded that it’s considered the highlight of the trip by many Bandesharite officials and foreign ambassadors visiting Nex on official business. Sileen has been preparing two very particular feasts for their closest friends and colleagues as the means of facilitating their experiential transference. The first is an offering of most of their body—save their head—prepared with a particular recipe to feed their five dearest friends. The second is a much more personalized recipe that involves cooking their head and feeding it to the sproutling of their new self in the hope of preserving specific memories. | |||
Alexevni Jeggare (NE male human noble) is more notable for his real-estate presence than for his physical one. A member of the Jeggare family of Cheliax, Alexevni has been looking to raise his own kind of hell in Oenopion, and he’s a rare outsider rich enough to buy out the city. The rakish noble owns approximately a fourth of the city’s Residential Ring and has offered to use his complexes as testing grounds for Oenopion’s new experimental soldiers. More than a few of his tenants have been injured in the process, but as long as the rent comes in, Alexevni pays it no mind while he spends his leisure in a floating manor inside Quantium. The shakedowns he regularly orders upon his tenants by Strickenguard hires pay for his lodgings in Nex’s capital, and it’s reaching a long-overdue tipping point for his renters. | |||
Pedale (CN female gnome thief) is an apt gnome burglar and fence who wanders the inner city, hunting for alchemists too preoccupied with their projects to catch her in the act of robbing their homes and laboratories. Her appearance is largely pedestrian—most would never guess that she was caught stealing from an alchemist named Vlooreesh and was consequently treated to a dip in the Bath by the alchemist’s bodyguards. | |||
A skilled alchemist herself, Pedale peddles her wares of rare flowers and rarer alchemical components on the street in a small wooden pushcart. She makes enough to keep crafting the concoction that keeps her consciousness from slipping away from her and into the Bath’s hive mind. When she lapses on a dose, Pedale sometimes coughs gouts of liquid, a sanguine or greenish-turquoise swill. It has been happening more frequently of late, and that has Pedale scared. She still has to find out how to get back at Vlooreesh, who’s now a resident of the Apothaqiine. Each coughing fit brings her one step further from the possibility of doing so with her own hands. Of course, she could let the Bath take her—see what happens to her physical body when her mind joins the burbling crowd it has already dabbled in. It might not be so bad to whisper to someone else from the oozing lake, she thinks, to move them to action. | |||
Version du 24 juin 2024 à 00:59
| Nex | |
| |
| Nation | |
| Titre | |
| Pays: | {{{land}}} |
| Alignement | Neutral |
| Capitale | Quantium |
| Dirigeant | The Council of Three and Nine |
| Gouvernement | Bureaucracy |
| natives | Nexians |
| adjective | Nexian |
| Languages | Common, Kelish, Osiriani, Vudrani |
| religions | Abadar, Calistria, Irori, Lamashtu, Nethys, Norgorber, Pharasma |
| regionmap | |
| source | {{{source}}} |
C'est un pays où les sorciers construisent des objets d'acier, de tendon et de sortilège, où de grands colosses de métaux d'un autre monde gardent les portes d'une cité merveilleuse, où les monstres marchent, parlent et commercent dans les rues. C'est un pays de flèches percées et d'escaliers en spirale, qui transforment les cieux et brisent la réalité. C'est un pays où vivent des choses qui ne devraient pas vivre, des lacs, des armes et d'autres choses encore plus étranges. Impossible ? Pas à Nex.
Nex raconte une histoire différente, affirmant que les travaux de Geb ont provoqué leur conflit, la soif de domination du nécromancien l'ayant poussé vers le nord, vers Quantium et les terres que le roi-sorcier prétendait reforger en son nom. Quelle que soit la vérité, il est indéniable que c'est Nex qui a conquis et soumis Oenopion et Ecanus avant de piller d'autres nations au-delà de Golarion au profit de son royaume. Alors que Geb se montre belliqueux et récalcitrant dans son attachement culturel à un État impérial osirien en déliquescence, Nex est une étude de contrastes : il embrasse volontairement tout ce qui est opulent en matière d'esthétique dans l'ensemble du spectre sensoriel. Nex est une nation composée de villes étonnantes, augmentées par la magie, et de contrées arides peuplées de personnes rejetées et indomptées par la marche du roi-sorcier vers la suprématie des arcanes. Avec sa prétendue réapparition dans le monde, le rôle qu'il jouera dans l'état de sa nation n'est pas clair.[1]
Affaires Courentes
Le sujet qui préoccupe tout le monde dans les Terres Impossibles aujourd'hui est le retour des archimages. En 4716 ar, après des milliers d'années de quiescence, les portes du Refuge de Nex se sont ouvertes à nouveau, provoquant un raz-de-marée de spéculations selon lesquelles le grand mage avait survécu à la chute de Quantium il y a des éons et avait maintenant l'intention de revenir dans la nation qui porte son nom. Peu de temps après, les forges de chair reprirent vie, donnant des ailes à ces rumeurs. Quelques années plus tard, la reine-liche Arazni, ancienne héraut d'Aroden et dirigeante effective du pays de Geb, parvint à se défaire de ses liens et à échapper au contrôle du roi fantôme. À la suite de ce grand choc, le nécromancien s'est de nouveau intéressé à son propre royaume et, alors que les rumeurs sur le retour de Nex se multiplient, Geb s'est efforcé de mettre son pays sur le pied de guerre.
Cette situation ne plaît pas à tout le monde. Alors que Geb, et probablement Nex, sont impatients de renouer avec le grand conflit du passé, la plupart des autres sont passés à autre chose - cela fait bien 4 000 ans que la guerre a pris fin, après tout. À Nex, le Conseil des Trois et Neuf s'est habitué à régner sur son pays, et tous n'ont pas envie de céder leur place à un personnage du passé, aussi célèbre soit-il. Si le roi-sorcier est vraiment revenu, Nex sera plongé dans un état de flottement. Le Conseil des Trois et le Conseil des Neuf de Bandeshar craignent tout autant la réaction de leur fondateur à leur gestion que sa résurgence, qui menacerait le confort du pouvoir auquel ils se sont acclimatés depuis longtemps. Les Arclords, descendants des domestiques et des apprentis de Nex, recherchent des collaborateurs dont les actes pourraient leur permettre de s'accrocher à leur poste ou de chasser ceux qui les ont longtemps éconduits. Les Seigneurs du Sang de Geb ont également eu beaucoup de temps pour s'habituer à échanger de la nourriture, facile à cultiver dans les terres fertiles de Geb et sans grand intérêt pour ses ouvriers agricoles squelettiques, contre de riches marchandises provenant d'autres parties du monde. Une grande guerre perturberait leur existence confortable.
Les deux pays ont également leurs partisans, qu'il s'agisse des morts-vivants les plus sanguinaires de Geb ou des archevêques de Nex qui considèrent la paix avec les morts comme un affront blasphématoire. Si les deux archimages le veulent, toute l'opposition du monde ne les arrêtera pas. Mais les deux pays sont plus grands qu'ils ne l'étaient autrefois, plus riches, plus sages et plus sophistiqués, et même un archimage pourrait ne plus être d'une loyauté absolue comme il l'était autrefois.
À Alkenstar, niché dans les Terres de Mana, entre les deux camps belligérants, la perspective d'une guerre a semé la panique. Le Duché a longtemps bénéficié du fait d'être une troisième option entre les terres formées par les sorciers de chaque côté, mais cela signifie simplement qu'en cas de guerre, Alkenstar sera un prix à cueillir - ou une épine à arracher. Certains dans le Duché pensent qu'une super arme technologique pourrait assurer leur indépendance, mais les esprits les plus calmes doutent que la petite nation puisse faire quoi que ce soit pour arrêter une armée déterminée de bêtes mortes ou conjurées. Seule une solution diplomatique permettra de sauver la ville, qui est déjà confrontée à d'autres problèmes. L'industrialisation rapide, la montée des inégalités et une nouvelle philosophie de l'essentialisme biologique, selon laquelle les humains et les nains intacts sont supérieurs aux mutants façonnés par les mages des Terres de Mana ou aux constructions d'horlogerie de la ville, sont autant de facteurs qui ont déclenché des troubles.
À Jalmeray, le scandale plane toujours sur l'étrange Défi du ciel et des cieux qui s'est déroulé il y a quelques années, lorsque toutes les Maisons de la perfection ont été disqualifiées pour des raisons qui ne sont pas tout à fait claires. Cette affaire a accaparé la majeure partie de l'attention des habitants de Jalmeray et de sa classe dirigeante, mais certains ont jeté des regards inquiets vers le continent. Bien qu'actuellement en marge du grand conflit, Jalmeray faisait autrefois partie du royaume de Nex, et si une guerre éclate, elle risque d'être à nouveau entraînée dans le conflit.[1]
Histoire
L'histoire des Terres Impossibles semble étrangement figée : les marchands font du commerce, les soldats se battent, les dirigeants complotent, mais la présence des immortels et des non-vivants confère une certaine stabilité, ou peut-être une stagnation, car les fantômes, les génies et les golems défilent sans cesse à travers les âges. Si l'on gratte sous la surface, on découvre une surabondance d'événements, une centaine de tourbillons de migrations, d'innovations et de destructions.
LA CULTURE DES BÂTISSEURS DE STATUES
On sait peu de choses de l'histoire mythique du Garund oriental. D'après quelques ruines ramassées et d'obscures mentions dans les textes anciens, il semble que les serpentfolks de l'intérieur du Mwangi et les cyclopes de Ghol-Gan aient eu quelques avant-postes dispersés sur la côte orientale du continent, mais pas de grandes villes ni de puissantes forteresses. Les visiteurs des contreforts de la chaîne brisée peuvent encore apercevoir quelques tours cyclopéennes - aujourd'hui de simples enveloppes creuses - intéressantes pour leur taille et peu d'autres choses.
La principale civilisation pré-ossirienne de l'est de Garund était une culture connue dans l'histoire sous le nom de Bâtisseurs de statues. Ils n'ont laissé que peu de ruines et aucun écrit, et restent un mystère pour les chercheurs modernes. Il pourrait s'agir d'humains originaires de l'Étendue de Mwangi ou de la région de la Mer Intérieure. Ils construisaient principalement en bois et en peaux d'animaux. Seuls quelques fossés ou masures en terre marquent leurs établissements. On ne sait pas comment ils vivaient ni qui ils vénéraient, mais ils ont laissé une chose : des statues.
La culture des bâtisseurs de statues a sculpté des centaines de statues curieusement stylisées en marbre tendre ou en stéatite. Généralement d'une hauteur de 8 à 12 pouces, bien que certaines soient beaucoup plus grandes, les statues représentent des formes humanoïdes sans visage dans un style artistique très anguleux propre à la région. La plupart des figurines ont les bras croisés, mais certaines portent des armes ou des instruments de musique, et quelques-unes tiennent leurs mains dans un geste étrange, où les doigts sont entrelacés, ce qui indique qu'il y a plus de doigts que d'habitude.
C'est à cette époque que les nains sont apparus pour la première fois à la surface de Golarion, en creusant des tunnels dans une étendue de terres agricoles qui n'avait rien d'exceptionnel. Ces nains avaient été envoyés loin au sud et à l'est du corps principal des nains pour établir un nouvel avant-poste. C'est avec une certaine surprise qu'ils ont découvert que l'endroit était déjà habité, mais pas autant que les habitants de la région ne l'avaient fait pour ces étranges peuples souterrains. Les premières rencontres auraient pu déboucher sur des violences si le nomarque local, un vieux politicien rusé du nom de Pethraseth, n'avait pas trouvé une solution originale. Les nains nouvellement arrivés se virent attribuer un vaste territoire, et en échange, ils devaient remettre chaque année un petit coffret d'argent au nomarque, qui, de son plein gré et de sa propre initiative, envoyait quelques chariots chargés de nourriture et de marchandises pour soutenir la nouvelle colonie naine. Cet arrangement a permis d'éviter une guerre et, pendant plusieurs siècles, les nains ont respecté leur part du marché. La citadelle céleste naine de Dongun Hold fut fondée comme l'avait prévu le Haut Roi Taargick, mais il ne reste que peu de traces de ses premiers écrits, détruits par la guerre et perdus lors des migrations.
Ce qu'il est advenu des Bâtisseurs de Statues reste un mystère. La plupart des gens pensent qu'ils ont été conquis et absorbés par l'Empire Osirien grandissant au début de l'Age du Destin.
LE RÈGNE OSIRIEN
C'est avec l'arrivée d'Osirion, ou plus exactement avec l'arrivée de l'écriture osirienne, que l'histoire enregistrée des Terres Impossibles a véritablement commencé. Les Osiriens appelaient cette région le Bief du Sud et la considéraient comme une route vitale vers le centre de Garund. Des vallées fertiles de l'Osirion provenaient des poteries et des objets métalliques en bronze et en cuivre, qui étaient échangés dans les comptoirs commerciaux contre des peaux, de l'ivoire et du bois poli. Des forts et des comptoirs commerciaux virent le jour et, avec le temps, se transformèrent en citadelles et en villes, à mesure que la région sud de l'Osirion devenait riche, puissante et, finalement, indépendante d'esprit.
Les documents restants suggèrent que les rébellions dans le Rayon Sud étaient un problème permanent pour les pharaons du Premier Âge d'Osirion, car les généraux et les nomarques y voyaient une occasion de se remplir les poches plutôt que d'envoyer un tribut au nord, en se déclarant rois et grands seigneurs. La plupart de ces royaumes mineurs ont été écrasés en peu de temps et n'intéressent plus que les antiquaires, mais quelques-uns ont duré plus longtemps, survivant pendant un siècle ou deux avant d'être supprimés par la puissance des armées d'Osirion.
Le plus prospère de ces petits royaumes fut fondé par la Reine des Plumes d'Ebon. Bien que les récits de son règne aient été épurés avec une certaine rigueur après sa chute, quelques stèles ont échappé à la destruction. L'une d'entre elles, aujourd'hui exposée à Absalom, affirme qu'"elle vint vêtue de la lumière du soleil mourant et prétendit être à la mort comme une fille". Commençant sa conquête dans une petite ville non loin de l'actuel Mechitar, elle mit en déroute des armées osiriennes trois fois plus importantes que la sienne en l'espace d'une décennie, grâce à ses talents de général et à une chance étonnante. La première armée à l'affronter fut rongée par une fièvre de camp bien avant de l'atteindre, tandis que le général de la seconde périt d'une attaque soudaine à la veille de la bataille.
Les scribes osiriens l'accusèrent plus tard de magie noire et d'adoration de dieux maléfiques, affirmant que son palais, aujourd'hui perdu, était le théâtre d'une dépravation et d'une débauche à glacer le sang. Il serait facile de faire passer de telles choses pour les marmonnements aigres des perdants de la guerre, mais les récits indiquent clairement que la reine des plumes d'ébonite a régné pendant plus de 400 ans sans vieillir d'un jour. Elle fut finalement vaincue par la puissance combinée des pharaons de l'Ascension, qui culmina lors d'une grande bataille au champ de Charish, où les légions diaboliques du pharaon diabolique Hetshepsu vainquirent les "armées de poussière et de malheur" de la reine. La reine aurait été éternellement attachée sous le champ de bataille. L'emplacement du Champ de Charish a été oublié depuis longtemps, mais on pense qu'il se trouve quelque part dans les Terres de Mana actuelles.
LA MONTÉE EN PUISSANCE DE NEX ET DE GEB
Après la chute de la Reine des Plumes d'Ebon, le Bief du Sud continua à s'épanouir. Les marchandises ont à nouveau franchi les montagnes depuis l'étendue de Mwangi, des routes et des systèmes d'irrigation ont été construits à travers les badlands, et les villes se sont peu à peu développées. C'est à cette époque que Quantium s'imposa comme un port maritime majeur sur la côte orientale de Garund, accueillant des navires en provenance de Vudra, d'Iblydos et de la lointaine Tian Xia.
Puis vint le pharaon Kenaton. Pieux, rusé et aussi habile à la guerre qu'à l'administration, Kenaton mit un terme temporaire au lent déclin d'Osirion. Au cours d'une série de campagnes militaires éclair, il réunit les terres osiriennes désunies et ramena les régions du sud sous le contrôle de Sothis. Ce faisant, il a fait fuir de nombreux chefs de guerre et mages renégats aux confins de l'empire.
L'un d'entre eux était l'homme que l'histoire connaîtrait sous le nom de Geb, le roi fantôme. Fils mineur de l'une des plus grandes maisons nobles de Sothis, Geb avait pour mission de devenir mage et prêtre mortuaire afin de mieux soutenir les ambitions de sa famille pour le trône. Bien que brillant, déterminé et impitoyable, Geb n'a pas pu sauver sa maison lorsqu'elle est allée à l'encontre des faveurs des dieux. Kenaton anéantit les armées de la famille, enterra vivants ses chefs et envoya les autres en exil. La plupart ont disparu de l'histoire. Mais pas Geb.
Voyageant de Sothis vers les confins méridionaux de ce que les Osiriens considéraient comme le monde civilisé, Geb arriva dans la ville portuaire de Mechitar, ancienne demeure de la Reine des Plumes d'Ebon. Il s'y attarde un peu avant de demander poliment au nomarque de la province de le nommer roi. Lorsque le gouverneur de la province se moqua du jeune arriviste, Geb arracha l'âme du nomarque de son corps. En peu de temps, Geb fut couronné roi d'un nouveau pays, auquel il donna son nom et celui de sa maison perdue.
Quelques décennies après la mort de Kenaton, un autre grand mage apparut dans le Bief du Sud. Nex n'était pas un descendant de la noblesse, mais un orphelin des quais de Quantium qui apprit ses premiers sorts auprès des sorciers météorologiques et des mages marins. Étrangement en phase avec le Grand Au-delà, le jeune Nex devint un vagabond et un aventurier, guidé par les allusions alléchantes au pouvoir, à la gloire et à l'immortalité qu'il voyait dans ses visions. Le lieu exact où il s'est rendu au cours de ces années est sujet à de nombreuses conjectures, mais on sait que Nex s'est rendu à plusieurs reprises dans l'étendue de Mwangi et qu'il y a trouvé un grand nombre de connaissances occultes. La rumeur persistante veut qu'il ait visité la cité perdue d'Ird et qu'il ait appris certaines des magies interdites qui ont entraîné sa fin.
Lorsque Nex revint à Quantium, il arriva à la tête d'une armée de monstruosités invoquées : des choses squameuses et tordues qui provenaient des coins les plus reculés du Grand Au-delà. La ville se rendit sans combattre et Nex devint le Roi-Sorcier, souverain de la partie nord de ce qui avait été le Rayon Sud d'Osirion.
LA GUERRE DES ARCHIMAGES
Personne ne sait vraiment comment le grand nécromancien Geb et le maître archimage Nex en sont venus aux mains, à l'exception des deux principaux participants, et aucun d'entre eux n'a jamais jugé bon d'éclaircir la question. Néanmoins, l'histoire s'accorde à dire qu'il s'agit d'une rivalité professionnelle qui a tourné au vinaigre de la manière la plus spectaculaire qui soit.
Au départ, les deux pays gouvernés par des mages semblaient relativement à l'aise l'un avec l'autre, s'engageant dans des échanges commerciaux, des missions diplomatiques et tout ce qu'il y a de plus normal pour des nations voisines pacifiques. À cette époque, le pays de Geb était encore majoritairement une terre vivante, les morts n'apparaissant que dans les armées du nécromancien ou accomplissant les tâches les plus ingrates. Les deux sorciers se rendaient visite, et même s'ils n'étaient pas vraiment amis, ils étaient cordiaux. Geb et Nex étaient les deux seuls archimages de la région, et même les plus puissants de leur époque. Personne d'autre ne comprenait la nature de la magie et du pouvoir à ce niveau. Personne d'autre ne pouvait apprécier les points les plus fins de la théorie occulte et du contrôle thaumaturgique dont ils faisaient preuve. Geb et Nex n'avaient d'égal que l'un pour l'autre, et il était tout à fait naturel qu'ils commencent à montrer leurs pouvoirs à la seule personne au monde capable de saisir l'importance de leurs accomplissements.
Ce qui avait commencé comme une compétition amicale et professionnelle devint de plus en plus vicieux, car aucun des deux mages ne supportait d'être second dans quoi que ce soit. Les deux mages commencèrent à se quereller, puis à se battre. Les historiens s'accordent à dire que c'est Nex, qui était effronté, confiant et agressif, qui a lancé la première attaque contre son rival plus flegmatique, bien que les partisans de Nex aient longtemps prétendu qu'il s'agissait d'une réponse à un stratagème caché de Gebbite. Quoi qu'il en soit, la guerre éclata entre les deux pays et dura plus de mille ans.
La guerre de Geb-Nex, la guerre des mages, la guerre de mille ans, fut l'un des conflits les plus destructeurs que Golarion ait jamais connu, avant ou depuis. Les deux archimages disposaient d'immenses réserves de pouvoir et d'autant de réserves de rancune. À maintes reprises, ils s'attaquèrent l'un l'autre à l'aide d'hôtes invoqués, de sorts meurtriers et d'armes ordinaires. Les batailles furent si nombreuses que même les chroniqueurs se lassèrent de les répertorier.
Un jour, Geb fit tomber la nuit sur le pays, une obscurité sans fin que seuls les plus faibles rayons du soleil perçaient à midi. Des rideaux de brume obscurcissaient la vue, et des choses informes, faites de vent et de malice, se faufilaient à travers la frontière. Nex mit au point une contre-mesure et envoya un feu maléfique à travers chaque parcelle d'ombre du pays, brûlant le sort de Geb. Une autre fois, Nex mit au point un nouveau rituel, la Pluie de dents venimeuses. L'archimage trouva et tua un vieux dragon, puis utilisa les crocs brisés du wyrm pour fabriquer un élixir dans une grande fosse à la frontière. Une fois la potion visqueuse prête, Nex invoqua un vent puissant pour la transporter au-dessus de Geb et faire pleuvoir le mélange sur la terre. Chaque goutte contenait une mouche d'os de dragon suspendue à l'intérieur, comme un insecte dans l'ambre. Lorsque chaque goutte atterrit, elle se transforme en un serpent venimeux qui s'éloigne en glissant pour tuer tout ce qu'il peut trouver. Face à l'empoisonnement massif de son peuple, Geb convoqua une brume grise et moite provenant de quelque part dans les profondeurs de la terre, puis demanda à des serviteurs morts-vivants de tuer tous les serpents désormais léthargiques qu'ils pouvaient trouver.
À une autre occasion, Geb découvrit un ancien léviathan dans les profondeurs abyssales de la mer ; il l'éleva par la nécromancie et le travail. De ses os, il fit une monstruosité aussi grande qu'une cathédrale, qui marchait sur ses côtes et frappait ses ennemis de ses trois queues en forme de nageoires. Geb fit ramper l'horreur vers Quantium sous les vagues et attendit que Nex soit absent pour attaquer. L'assaut fut repoussé de justesse lorsqu'une apprentie mage repéra le diadème de contrôle à l'intérieur du cerveau squelettique du léviathan et donna sa vie pour le déloger. Selon la légende, la bête incontrôlée est retournée dans l'océan et rôde toujours au large des côtes de Nex. C'est après cet assaut que l'archimage construisit les deux Quantium Golems, une paire de titans assortis, pour garder la ville en son absence.
Mais il y eut aussi des périodes de paix. La guerre de mille ans est plutôt considérée comme une série interminable de trêves et de cessez-le-feu mornes, ponctués par de brefs et terribles épisodes de guerre. Les deux mages étant à égalité, ils passaient des années, voire des décennies, à chercher un nouveau stratagème qui leur donnerait l'avantage. Au cours d'une de ces incursions, Nex s'aventura au nord d'Absalom et y construisit sa flèche, dans le but d'assiéger la ville et de s'emparer de la Pierre d'Étoile par la force - selon la légende populaire, il faillit y parvenir, avant de rebrousser chemin, n'étant pas disposé à payer le prix final pour accéder à la divinité. En réalité, personne ne sait vraiment pourquoi le siège d'Absalom a pris fin.
KHIBEN-SALD ET LA FONDATION DE JALMERAY
Pendant la guerre entre les archimages, la région qui était autrefois le rayon sud d'Osirion a d'abord reçu le nom de Terres Impossibles, en raison des choses impossibles que Nex et Geb accomplissaient régulièrement et de manière meurtrière. C'est également au cours de cette guerre que le troisième royaume de la région a vu le jour.
Selon les chroniqueurs de l'époque, un guetteur sur la digue de Quantium regarda l'océan et vit ce qui ressemblait à une flotte d'invasion. Il s'agissait bien d'une flotte, mais pas de Geb, ni de guerre, car ces navires étaient les cent un vaisseaux du maharadjah Khiben-Sald, l'éternel voyageur, le roi de la guerre, l'unificateur de Vudra. Khiben-Sald prétendait descendre directement d'anciens rois vudrani qui avaient tué l'inflexible Kothogaz, la danse de la dysharmonie et le rejeton de Rovagug. Prenant cette revendication comme prétexte, Khiben-Sald unifia Vudra pour la première fois de son histoire, par la guerre, la diplomatie et un certain degré de trahison stratégique, comme il le fit contre la princesse guerrière Chhaya. Cet acte accompli, Khiben-Sald passa le reste de sa vie à parcourir son royaume et ceux de ses voisins, répandant la gloire de Vudra et ruinant, sans trop de coïncidence, la plupart de ses rivaux. Cent un navires nécessite beaucoup d'hébergement.
Dans un premier temps, Nex aurait été ravi de l'arrivée du maharadjah. Le charmant conquérant et l'archimage têtu se sont rapidement liés d'amitié. Mais la présence de Khiben-Sald a rapidement commencé à peser, car sa vaste cour itinérante semblait prête à dévorer même l'impressionnant trésor d'un archimage. Cherchant un moyen d'expulser le Maharadjah sans provoquer d'incident diplomatique, Nex donna l'île de Jalmeray à Khiben-Sald et l'encouragea à explorer sa nouvelle possession. Ni Nex ni Khiben-Sald ne consultèrent les habitants indigènes de Jalmeray, le peuple Sunghari, au cours de ce processus, et les habitants de l'île furent très surpris de découvrir qu'ils avaient été cédés par quelqu'un qu'ils n'avaient jamais rencontré à quelqu'un d'autre qu'ils n'avaient jamais entendu parler. Néanmoins, Khiben-Sald n'en était pas à son premier coup d'essai en matière de pacification d'un peuple indiscipliné, et il s'efforça de gagner la confiance de la population en lui offrant de la magie inspirée par les génies et une architecture royale financée par les Vudrani. La plupart des habitants décidèrent qu'un souverain généreux valait mieux qu'une guerre civile risquée, mais une partie d'entre eux choisit de fuir vers l'île voisine de Kaina Katakha, préférant vivre dans la liberté et la pauvreté plutôt que dans la splendeur achetée par les Vudrani.
Khiben-Sald aurait été tellement intrigué par leur décision qu'il les aurait laissés partir, traitant l'île presque comme sa propre réserve de population.
Dix ans plus tard, Khiben-Sald retourna à Vudra, mais il laissa une administration vudrani à Jalmeray, ainsi qu'une grande partie de l'architecture vudrani et des centaines de génies liés.
LES DÉCHETS ET LA GUERRE
La guerre de mille ans s'éternisait. Inexorablement, les terres autrefois riches situées entre les royaumes mages en guerre sont devenues un désert dévasté et abandonné. Les anciens habitants d'Osiria s'enfuirent. Les nains de Dongun Hold, fatigués d'être échangés comme des pions sur un plateau de jeu, fermèrent leurs tunnels et se retirèrent sous terre pour attendre la fin du conflit dans l'une des voûtes souterraines des Terres des Ténèbres. Peu à peu, les terres frontalières devinrent connues sous le nom de Pertes de Mana, résultat de siècles de saturation magique, d'empoisonnement alchimique, de morts silencieuses et de déchirures dimensionnelles. Les Terres de Mana n'avaient de valeur pour personne - un testament de la puissance de ses créateurs et de leur méchanceté incessante et inaltérable.
La guerre se termina de manière assez abrupte et un peu inattendue lorsque les deux archimages réussirent trop bien. La cause immédiate était un fléau déclenché par Geb sur son voisin du nord ; une infection fongique tordue dévorait tout ce qui se trouvait sur son chemin et amenait le pays de Nex au bord de la famine. Nex riposta en envoyant une série de cataclysmes magiques - tremblements de terre, ouragans, volcans soudains - non pas contre son ennemi directement, mais contre tout Geb. Des dizaines de milliers de personnes périrent jusqu'à ce qu'il n'y ait plus une seule famille dans le pays qui n'ait pas perdu au moins un tiers de ses membres.
Geb régnait en tant que roi nécromancien, mais il avait toujours régné sur une terre vivante. Ce n'est plus le cas. Poussé par la rage et le chagrin, Geb anima toute sa nation, appelant et liant les âmes de tous ceux qui avaient péri dans le pays qu'il avait baptisé ainsi, puis il força toute cette armée de morts à se dresser au nord contre Nex et contre Quantium. Devant les murs de la ville, Geb conjura un brouillard jaune-brun empoisonné, qu'il envoya par des vents enchantés dans toute la ville. Des milliers de personnes moururent, mais elles se relevèrent pour devenir les nouveaux soldats de Geb et marchèrent sur le Bandeshar, le palais féerique de Nex, mais l'archimage n'était pas là.
D'une manière ou d'une autre, Nex s'est échappé, a disparu ou est mort sans que personne ne s'en aperçoive. Certains disent qu'il s'est réfugié dans le Refuge de Nex, un demiplan auquel il était le seul à avoir accès. D'autres pensent qu'il a péri, et aucun des mages de sa maison, les Arclords de Nex, n'a voulu donner à Geb la satisfaction de le savoir. Quoi qu'il en soit, au bout de quelques jours, les Arclords repoussèrent l'armée Gebbite, trop sollicitée.
La guerre s'est ensuite plus ou moins arrêtée. Nex ne revint pas et Geb devint paranoïaque, ne sachant pas où son ennemi juré avait disparu. Après un demi-siècle de doute, Geb s'est donné la mort dans un acte de suicide rituel, pour revenir sur ses terres sous la forme d'un fantôme, lié par des chaînes d'obsession trop fortes pour être brisées.
Avec la disparition de Nex et le repli de Geb sur lui-même, la guerre de mille ans s'est achevée sans cérémonie. Officiellement, la guerre ne s'est jamais achevée, et de temps à autre, l'un ou l'autre camp lançait un raid symbolique ou une expédition punitive mineure. Sans la force motrice des deux mages, personne d'autre n'avait le courage de poursuivre ce conflit.
LES ANNÉES QUI ONT SUIVI
Dans les années qui suivirent la mort de Geb et la disparition de Nex, les Terres Impossibles s'installèrent dans une sorte de statu quo paisible et prospère. Chacune des trois grandes nations était quasiment imprenable, qu'elle soit défendue par les golems de Quantium, les génies liés de Jalmeray ou les innombrables morts-vivants de Geb. Les fois où quelqu'un tentait d'interférer avec ces terres, cela se terminait souvent très mal.
On one occasion, the Knights of Ozem, fresh from their victories over the Whispering Tyrant, chose to attack the other great undead nation of Golarion. Hostilities began when a poorly thought-out infiltration of Geb by a team of knights roused the Ghost King from his usual torpor. After reanimating the heroic knights as undead horrors, he dispatched them to steal the corpse of Arazni, the Herald of Aroden. When the furious Knights of Ozem invaded in force, they were met with an army of the dead led by the revivified Arazni, who came to rule Geb as the necromancer’s Lich Queen.
Une autre invasion avortée fut celle des Holomogs quelques siècles plus tard. Dirigé par la reine pirate Mastrien Slash, Holomog était un royaume situé au sud de Geb qui connaissait une période de profonde expansion militaire. Se sentant plus puissant que jamais, Mastrien décida d'envahir Geb au nord, avant de découvrir qu'il n'était pas sage de réveiller le roi fantôme. D'un seul sortilège, Geb transforma toute l'armée de femmes guerrières en pierre, formant le Champ des Demoiselles qui marque aujourd'hui la frontière méridionale de la terre morte.
Malgré leur statu quo, les nations n'ont pas complètement stagné. Au contraire, les aventures étrangères étant hors de question, la politique intérieure devint de plus en plus vicieuse et le bouillonnement culturel de plus en plus passionnant. Le pays de Nex, par exemple, a soudainement dû créer une nouvelle approche de la gouvernance après plus de mille ans de dictature magique. Au fil des siècles, de nombreuses factions se sont battues pour contrôler Nex, parmi lesquelles diverses cités-états et chefs religieux, ainsi que les descendants des mages de Nex, les Arclords.
À un moment donné, les Arclords sont parvenus à reprendre le contrôle de leur patrie et ont commencé à espérer défier Geb une fois de plus. Cependant, ils ont été chassés lors d'une révolution de palais. Plusieurs mages supposés tout-puissants ont été assassinés dans leur lit, et la coterie s'est réfugiée à Jalmeray. Là, ils expulsèrent l'administration vudrani, désormais isolée. Pendant plusieurs siècles encore, ils régnèrent dans un climat proche de la paix et de la tranquillité, du moins autant que peut l'être une terre infestée de génies et de malédictions et gouvernée par des sorciers adeptes de l'expérimentation. Le règne des Arclords prit fin avec l'arrivée de la Flotte des Cent Rajahs, une immense armada de navires de guerre vudrani dirigée par les héritiers de Khiben-Sald, ou du moins les prétendants au même titre, qui mit les Arclords en fuite et reconquit Jalmeray. Les Arclords furieux tentèrent à plusieurs reprises de reconquérir l'île, puis de conquérir Absalom lors du Siège Conjuré de 2850 ar, mais échouèrent comme leur maître l'avait fait auparavant.
D'autres mouvements et défis ont vu le jour, et certains ont résisté à l'épreuve du temps. Il y a quelques siècles, un mendiant de Niswan tomba sur une bouteille bouchée. Une fois débouchée, la bouteille libéra un puissant marid, lié depuis l'époque de Khiben-Sald. Le marid s'était tenu à la main gauche de Khiben-Sald lors de ses conquêtes et pouvait encore commander une armée d'une centaine de djinns et d'ifrits.
Elle demanda au mendiant de faire trois vœux, ce qu'il fit. Le premier n'est plus d'actualité. Le deuxième a vu le jeune homme devenir le Beggar-Rajah Jharka, souverain de tout Jalmeray. Le troisième interdit à jamais la pratique de la ligature des génies à Jalmeray. Jharka a régné pendant 60 ans avant de mourir paisiblement dans son sommeil. Aujourd'hui encore, de nombreux gâteaux de Jalmeray sont marqués de l'anneau du marid.
D'autres mouvements se sont révélés plus éphémères. Le culte des étoiles pleureuses est un mouvement religieux qui a déferlé sur Nex au tournant du millénaire, proclamant l'arrivée prochaine d'une apocalypse sous la forme de 11 nouvelles étoiles dans le ciel, qui feraient pleuvoir des larmes brûlantes sur le monde jusqu'à ce que tout soit noyé dans les flammes. Le culte s'est rapidement répandu et, le jour promis, plusieurs grands rituels sacrificiels ont été préparés à l'extérieur d'Ecanus. Lorsque le jour prophétisé de l'apocalypse arriva et se déroula sans incident, le culte connut un profond déclin. Quelques cultistes dispersés subsistent cependant, insistant sur le fait que leurs prédécesseurs se sont simplement trompés dans leurs calculs et que l'apocalypse arrivera bientôt.
Certains moments de l'histoire se sont éteints, et les reliques de leurs acteurs sont restées en sommeil. Le célèbre éclaireur Selmius Foster, suivant une piste initialement découverte dans l'étendue de Mwangi, s'est retrouvé sur l'île de Bhopan, au large de la côte de Nex. Le peuple bhopanais a été rendu insulaire par la dévastation de sa civilisation par le monarque fey Qxal, mais il existe suffisamment d'indices et de documents pour que Selmius fasse le voyage. Le but de son voyage était cependant un peu plus sombre qu'une simple exploration académique : poussé par des murmures de Qxal, Selmius cherchait à voler un artefact connu sous le nom de Couronne pérenne aux membres de la famille royale de Bhopan. Selmius et son assistant, Adolphus, se sont alliés à la princesse révolutionnaire de Bhopan, Ganjay, pour réaliser ce vol, mais Selmius a été pris en flagrant délit et exécuté. Adolphus et Ganjay réussirent à s'enfuir de Bhopan avec une grande partie du trésor royal, et utilisèrent plus tard leur immense richesse pour fonder la Loge des Éclaireurs de la Maison du Nexus à Quantium. Selmius fut pleuré et Bhopan fut à nouveau coupé du reste du monde.
Archives manquantes
La dévastation constante des Terres Impossibles a entraîné la perte d'un nombre incalculable de documents historiques, que ce soit à cause de la guerre, de catastrophes naturelles ou de destructions délibérées. Pour chaque parchemin ancien ou document écrit trouvé dans les bibliothèques, il y en a dix autres cachés dans les océans, scellés dans des cavernes ou enterrés sous la terre craquelée, et le passé des Terres Impossibles est réécrit aussi souvent que le présent.
LA FONDATION D'ALKENSTAR
En 4588 ar, l'équilibre des forces dans la région changea définitivement lorsqu'un jeune ingénieur Nexien nommé Ancil Alkenstar échappa à un mandat d'arrêt en s'enfuyant dans les Terres de Mana. Il découvrit qu'une communauté entière de réfugiés et de parias avait élu domicile dans les ruines de Dongun Hold. Comment Alkenstar a-t-il rallié ce groupe hétéroclite, comment les a-t-il emmenés plus loin dans les ruines et au-delà des anciennes portes, comment a-t-il rencontré les nains et les a-t-il convaincus de revenir, ces questions font l'objet de centaines de chansons, de peintures et de brochures bon marché.
L'essentiel est qu'Alkenstar a convaincu les nains de revenir à Dongun Hold, et ils ne sont pas venus les mains vides. Pendant leur long séjour sous terre, ils ont inventé une nouvelle arme, l'arme à feu, qui pourrait changer à jamais le visage de la guerre sur Golarion. D'un seul coup, Dongun Hold a été rendu aux nains et le duché d'Alkenstar a été fondé. Sur le papier, l'unité politique est théoriquement redevable à Nex, mais en pratique, les deux royaumes forment une nouvelle et quatrième nation, une cité-état blottie entre les titans de Geb et Nex, entourée par les Terres de Mana. L'ascension d'Alkenstar ne s'est pas faite sans heurts. Les armes à feu, bien qu'efficaces, étaient aussi une tentation irrésistible. Au fil des décennies, plusieurs organisations se sont emparées de contingents d'armes, la plus célèbre d'entre elles étant le Gorilla King d'Usaro. Ces vols, combinés aux rigueurs de la vie dans les Terres de Mana, donnèrent à Alkenstar une sorte de mentalité d'assiégé, le sentiment d'être éternellement sous pression de tous les côtés, à un faux mouvement du désastre.
Lectures complémentaires
Ce livre se veut un guide complet de la métarégion des Terres Impossibles, fournissant suffisamment d'informations pour mener n'importe quelle aventure ou campagne, mais d'autres produits Pathfinder peuvent compléter ce matériel. Pour plus d'informations, vous pouvez consulter les sources suivantes.
Pathfinder Lost Omens : Guide du monde : Ce livre fournit une vue d'ensemble de la métarégion des Terres Impossibles, ainsi que des autres métarégions de la Mer Intérieure de Golarion. Bien qu'il ne soit pas aussi complet que le livre sur le décor, il constitue une ressource utile pour les joueurs afin de se faire une idée du monde de Golarion sans en révéler tous les secrets potentiels.
Pathfinder Lost Omens : Légendes : Ce livre présente les profils de nombreux acteurs majeurs de la mer intérieure, notamment les deux anciens sorciers Nex et Geb. Il fournit également des informations sur des personnages influents plus récents, dont le roi Anong Arunak de Dongun Hold.
Le Livre des morts de Pathfinder : écrit par le roi Geb lui-même, ce tome donne son avis sur les chasseurs de morts-vivants et sur les morts-vivants eux-mêmes, ainsi que des règles permettant aux personnages-joueurs d'incarner des créatures mortes-vivantes.
Outlaws of Alkenstar (Les hors-la-loi d'Alkenstar) : Une campagne pré-écrite pour un MJ et des joueurs, ce chemin d'aventure Pathfinder emmène les PJ dans la Cité du Smog dans les Terres de Mana, où une bande de hors-la-loi cherche à démêler un complot criminel explosif.
Les Seigneurs du Sang : Une campagne pré-écrite pour un MJ et des joueurs, ce chemin d'aventure Pathfinder emmène les PJ dans la nation de Geb, gouvernée par des morts-vivants, où les PJ jouent le rôle d'agents des insidieux Seigneurs du Sang de la nation.
UN ÂGE DE PRÉSAGES PERDUS
La mort d'Aroden, il y a un siècle, a marqué le début d'une période d'instabilité croissante dans les Terres Impossibles. Bien que les changements aient mis un certain temps à prendre de l'ampleur, ils sont en train de bouleverser l'ancien équilibre de la région, renversant les anciennes certitudes et les remplaçant par de l'excitation et de la peur dans des proportions égales.
À Nex, les portes du Refuge de Nex se sont à nouveau ouvertes et la rumeur court qu'après plus de 4 000 ans, le grand archimage va revenir sur ses terres. Certains considèrent ce retour comme la renaissance d'Aroden, la venue d'un grand seigneur tant attendu, mais tout le monde n'est pas ravi à l'idée de voir la guerre de mille ans reprendre de plus belle.
À Geb, le roi fantôme s'est longtemps retiré des préoccupations des mortels jusqu'à ce qu'il soit réveillé par la reine liche Arazni, qui s'est libérée de son contrôle. Soudain, la nation morte de Geb, longtemps prospère et stable, a été projetée sans gouvernail dans un avenir tendu. Geb prépare à nouveau sa machine de guerre, mais comme à Nex, tous ceux qui servent le roi fantôme ne sont pas entièrement satisfaits à l'idée de remplacer la paix et la sécurité par les vicissitudes de la guerre.
À Alkenstar, la mentalité de siège du Duché n'a fait que s'aggraver, et les débats sur la nature de l'humanité menacent de sortir du salon et de se répandre dans la rue. Entourés par les mutants du Mana Waste, les serviteurs d'horlogerie et leurs voisins morts-vivants, les habitants d'Alkenstar s'accrochent à l'idée que l'humanité naturelle, c'est-à-dire la forme vivante sans altération ni transformation, est l'apogée des possibilités. Cette idée sera bientôt mise à l'épreuve.
À Jalmeray, l'agitation et l'incertitude ont gagné la population lorsque, il y a quelques années, toutes les Maisons de Perfection ont été disqualifiées du Défi du ciel et des cieux, le plus grand tournoi d'arts martiaux du pays. Peu de détails sont parvenus au grand public, et les rumeurs avancent chaque mois des explications plus scandaleuses les unes que les autres.
Dans l'île isolée de Bhopan, un squelette venu du passé a ouvert une porte sur le présent. Un groupe d'éclaireurs, suivant les notes du journal de Selmius Foster, a retracé ses pas jusqu'à l'île. Après avoir chassé le tyran féerique Qxal, les explorateurs sont entrés en contact avec les rois bhopanais dans des conditions plus pacifiques, ouvrant potentiellement leur ville et leur peuple au reste du monde. Que cette évolution soit de bon ou de mauvais augure dépend des actions entreprises dans le présent et l'avenir. Bientôt, le monde pourrait à nouveau apprendre que rien n'est impossible dans les Terres Impossibles, pas même le changement.
Time Line
-7000 au Bâtisseur de Statues
-4000 ar La culture réside dans les Terres Impossibles d'aujourd'hui.
-4980 ar La citadelle céleste de Dongun Hold est fondée.
-3000 ar La région est colonisée et devient le Southern Reach d'Osirion.
-1000 ar La Reine des Plumes d'Ebon crée un royaume rebelle dans le Bief du Sud.
-1456 ar Le pharaon féodal Hetshepsu bat la reine des Plumes d'Ebon aux champs de Charish.
-1140 ar Geb naît à Sothis dans une maison noble osirienne.
-1119 ar Le nécromancien Geb s'enfuit de Sothis sous le règne du pharaon Kenaton, favorisé par les dieux.
-1108 ar Geb conquiert la ville de Mechitar et commence à étendre lentement son royaume.
-1070 ar Nex naît dans la ville de Quantium, de parents incertains.
-987 ar Nex arrive aux portes de Quantium avec une armée et prend le contrôle de la région.
-929 ar Osirion cède officiellement le contrôle de la région du Sud aux archimages Geb et Nex.
-892 ar Début de la guerre de mille ans entre Geb et Nex.
-585 ar Nex tente de détruire la terre de Geb avec la Pluie de Larmes Venimeuses.
-147 ar Geb envoie un grand léviathan mort-vivant pour briser Quantium. Nex construit la paire de Quantium Golems en réponse.
166 ar L'Archimage Nex lance sans succès un siège contre Absalom, érigeant la flèche de Nex d'un kilomètre de haut dans les Cairnlands.
253 ar Nex prend le contrôle de l'île de Jalmeray, bien que peu de choses soient faites pour intégrer l'île dans l'administration Nexienne.
378 ar Les nains abandonnent Dongun Hold, se retirant dans les Darklands.
562 ar Khiben-Sald, le légendaire Maharadjah de Vudra, arrive à Quantium avec les Cent Un Navires.
563 to Nex lègue l'île
573 ar de Jalmeray à Khiben-Sald, qui passe la décennie suivante à introduire la culture et l'administration vudrani sur l'île.
576 ar La guerre de mille ans se termine officieusement. Nex détruit une grande partie de Geb, ce qui incite le nécromancien à ressusciter une vaste armée de morts-vivants et à transformer Geb en terre des morts. Nex disparaît de sa capitale de Quantium lors d'une attaque au poison Gebbite, et la guerre s'éteint par la suite.
632 ar Geb meurt dans un acte de suicide rituel mais revient bientôt sous la forme d'un fantôme.
2279 ar Les Arclords de Nex, chassés lors d'une des interminables luttes de pouvoir de Nex, s'emparent de Jalmeray.
2822 ar Les rajahs vudrani arrachent le contrôle de Jalmeray aux archevêques de Nex.
2850 ar Les archevêques de Nex attaquent Absalom lors de l'événement connu sous le nom de Conjured Siege.
3890 ar En réponse à une attaque des Chevaliers d'Ozem, Geb vole le corps d'Arazni, héraut d'Aroden, et l'élève au rang de liche. Arazni prend en charge l'administration quotidienne de la nation du Roi Fantôme.
3996 à Le culte des pleurs
4000 ar Les étoiles se répandent dans tout le Nex.
4329 ar Geb pétrifie l'armée Holomog envahissante de la Reine Pirate Mastrien Slash, créant ainsi le Champ des Demoiselles.
4330 ar L'éminent éclaireur Selmius Foster est tué sur l'île de Bhopan. Son assistant, Adolphus, s'échappe avec la princesse bhopanaise Ganjay.[1]
Relations
Malgré des animosités qui ont marqué des siècles, les Terres Impossibles jouissent actuellement d'une période de paix relative entre elles et avec leurs voisins étrangers. La chaîne brisée isole les intrigues politiques de l'étendue de Mwangi de la côte est du Garund, et malgré ses origines en tant que puissance fondatrice des Terres Impossibles, Osirion et les autres nations de la Route Dorée n'ont que l'influence qu'elles peuvent se permettre lors des prises de position entre les nations rivales fondées sur les mages et celles qui les bordent.
Le roi-sorcier Nex a beaucoup voyagé et, en accueillant Khiben-Sald, il a ouvert des relations commerciales avec la patrie vudran. Ainsi, la ville de Quantium abrite des ambassades de la plupart des nations du monde connu, ainsi que de plusieurs pays, planètes et plans d'existence au-delà. S'orienter dans la bureaucratie obtuse et la politique des guildes au sein du Nex laissera souvent un mauvais goût dans la bouche des commerçants étrangers, mais les profits réalisés en naviguant avec succès dans le système offrent des richesses que peu de gens refuseraient. Seul Geb cracherait sur le nom de Nex, tant ses richesses et son influence sont grandes.[1]
La Population des Terres de l'Impossible
- Les habitants se vantent parfois que les Terres impossibles comptent plus de peuples étranges et diversifiés que n'importe où ailleurs dans le monde, et il y a certainement une part de vérité dans cette affirmation.
Les Terres Impossibles sont l'un des grands carrefours du monde. L'héritage de Geb et de Nex fait que l'on y trouve non seulement des habitants humains ou halflings, mais aussi des êtres plus farfelus, comme des génies ou des goules, qui se promènent sur les marchés des villes. Ce mélange de peuples n'est comparable à rien d'autre et donne à toute la région une saveur très cosmopolite.
ASURAS
La présence perfide des asuras immortels imprègne les terres incultes et mal entretenues des Terres Impossibles, où ces blasphèmes vivants planifient le destin de tous les divins immortels. Sous une myriade de formes souvent inimaginables, ils cherchent à se venger des cieux qui les ont privés à la fois du néant entropique et infini et du potentiel inimaginable de tout ce qui aurait pu voir le jour sans l'orgueil démesuré d'entités désireuses d'être adorées par les mortels. Les Asuras ne supportent ni le divin, ni l'existence imparfaite qu'ils ont eu le malheur d'habiter.
Pourtant, ici, dans les Terres Impossibles, ils existent dans une capacité vile que l'on ne retrouve nulle part ailleurs dans le monde. Ils méprisent la fausse doctrine des anciens dieux et fustigent ceux qui lient leur âme à des êtres aussi inconstants, mais lorsqu'on leur fait considérer les actes de Geb et de Nex, les temples d'Irori et d'autres mortels qui ont acquis un tel potentiel cosmique, les asuras trouvent de nouvelles et terribles choses à dire. Bien que toutes les choses divines soient dignes de mépris à leurs yeux, les lieux où s'exerce le pouvoir des anciens mortels sont plus vastes et méritent d'être pris en compte. Les asuras ne peuvent s'empêcher d'applaudir de tels chemins vers une sombre illumination, et bien qu'ils crachent sur les noms des mortels élevés qui ont adoré des dieux pétulants dans leur vie, ils jubilent devant le concept d'usurpations célestes qui peuvent encore se réaliser. Ils ricanent à l'infini des mâchoires grinçantes et des formes impures, car si les asuras méprisent le divin, ils savent qu'en théorie, l'un des leurs pourrait encore prétendre à un tel manteau. Si l'un des grands ranas asuras pouvait atteindre de véritables sommets de puissance divinatoire, infuser des domaines abandonnés au lieu de simplement subsister sur la moelle d'un tel potentiel, alors il y aurait une chance de défaire cette existence maudite. Les petites combines et les petits complots des cycles de réincarnation sans fin n'auraient plus lieu d'être. L'oubli qu'ils recherchent, la grande transformation vers un état plus parfait de potentiel infini, deviendrait enfin réalité.
Les Asuras sont de plus en plus nombreux à parcourir les Terres Impossibles, errant dans les Terres de Mana comme des pèlerins flagellants. Ils traquent les cœurs ténébreux des habitants de Jalmeray ; ils prêchent de fausses voies vers l'apothéose et la connaissance de la fragilité divine dans les rues de toutes les nations qui acceptent d'être touchées par leur haine. Ils font du prosélytisme sur le potentiel qu'ont tous les êtres d'être plus que ce qu'ils sont actuellement, souillant les âmes par le péché et corrompant ceux qui devraient mieux savoir par des promesses arrogantes de stations juste hors de leur portée. Ils plantent toutes sortes de graines blasphématoires et, avec le temps, ils cultiveront suffisamment le doute pour renverser les cieux. Si suffisamment de mortels sont corrompus sous leur influence, les asuras auront assez de pouvoir pour défier leurs nombreux ennemis célestes et se venger de cette existence maudite et erronée.
CALIKANGS
Les Calikangs sont nés de la honte et ont été jetés dans l'échec par la main du divin Vineshvakhi lui-même. Ces géants azur à six bras errent dans les Terres impossibles, poussés par leurs chagrins et par l'étincelle divine qui a donné naissance à leur peuple. Créés à partir des doigts coupés de leur dieu protecteur, les calikangs sont un peuple défini par sa honte. Bien qu'ils soient des gardiens sans pairs ni égaux - être moins que cela leur vaudrait d'être encore plus fustigés aux yeux de la divinité - beaucoup ont connu le monde des mortels comme un lieu de boucherie.
De nombreux calikangs ont servi le grand mage Nex, contraints de poursuivre ses machinations et ses désirs de puissance dont aucun mortel ne devrait jamais oser rêver. D'autres ont passé leurs longs siècles d'existence en tant que gardiens cherchant à expier l'échec de leurs origines. À l'époque actuelle, beaucoup ont émigré dans les Terres de Mana, cherchant à réparer les réalités déformées et les confluences magiques par le biais de pèlerinages dans les terres voisines et en purgeant le royaume de leur ennemi détesté : les asuras. Ils cherchent à protéger ce lieu sinistre contre toute nouvelle corruption, mais la honte ternit leurs objectifs, et tout ce qu'ils espèrent est teinté de pénitence. Nex et Geb auraient facilement pu être arrêtés, mais aucune main providentielle n'a délivré la terre de ces maux ; si les calikangs devaient être cette main, ils ont été paralysés par la poétique amère de ce qui les a engendrés.
En tant que peuple, il n'y a pas grand-chose qui lui apporte de la joie ou qui lui permette de sortir de sa triste situation. Le doute assombrit leurs cultures, et certains calikangs se sont même pliés aux caprices des asuras les plus détestés, mais ces traîtres marginaux sont rarement mentionnés et sont chassés lorsqu'ils sont connus. Dans les Terres impossibles, la plupart des gens les voient d'un œil étrange et les considèrent comme un peuple qu'il vaut mieux laisser à lui-même. Seuls les Vudrani les plus érudits ont des opinions théologiques sur les calikangs, bien que de telles pensées soient rarement demandées ou entendues par les calikangs eux-mêmes.
Pour ceux qui cherchent à les connaître, les calikangs se présentent comme s'ils étaient encore des représentants du dieu Vineshvakhi. C'est un peuple protecteur ; il cherche à protéger les gens, les lieux, les objets et les cultures de ce qui pourrait subvertir la volonté du divin. Qu'il s'agisse du bien ou du mal n'a pas d'importance, car les plans cosmiques de ceux qui ne sont pas de leur rang ne les préoccupent guère. Ainsi, pour certains, les calikangs sont des âmes héroïques qui veillent sur la terre comme des voisins bienveillants, tandis que pour d'autres, ce ne sont que des étrangers moralement fragiles dont la dévotion aux interprétations de la volonté d'un dieu qui se mutile lui-même les a conduits à la perfidie et à la méchanceté.
DWARVES
Au cours de leur longue histoire, les solides clans des Kulenett et des Donguni ont constamment résisté et se sont adaptés à la tourmente des Terres Impossibles. Peuple volontaire, patient et communautaire, ces nains déploient leur industrie et leur précision caractéristiques pour gagner leur vie dans une région déchirée par les querelles des mages humains, et ils font de leur mieux pour conserver leurs coutumes et leurs croyances traditionnelles tout en affrontant chaque jour qui passe. Les Grondaksen Kulenett, qui vivent dans des tunnels cachés sous Geb, privilégient une politique de camouflage actif pour réduire l'attention des nobles buveurs de sang et mangeurs de chair du pays d'en haut, tandis que les Holtaksen Donguni sont partagés entre une approche tout aussi prudente de retraite dans l'anonymat et un fier désir de restaurer et de réaliser la gloire de leur maison de la Citadelle du ciel. Bien que la planification à long terme des nains reste impeccable, les changements qui se produisent à l'approche de l'Âge des Omens perdus remettent en question leurs hypothèses et pratiques de longue date, provoquant des bouleversements au sein de leurs sociétés conservatrices.
Les Kulenetts souterrains sont des maîtres du creusement de tunnels, de la sape et de la contre-sape ; leur habileté à créer et à détruire des passages souterrains est l'une des principales raisons pour lesquelles leurs cités peuvent rester indétectées par un voisin si hostile aux vivants. Même les morts-vivants qui se tapissent dans l'obscurité sont déconcertés par les tunnels sinueux, les cascades et les murs vierges du Kulenett, et ils abandonnent souvent la recherche de ces nains au profit d'une proie plus facile. Selon certaines rumeurs, les tunneliers du Kulenett graveraient des runes imprégnées d'énergie positive pour décourager l'approche des morts-vivants et fausser leurs sens. En l'honneur de ce métier de bâtisseur de nation, de nombreux Kulenetts ne vont nulle part sans leurs outils de creusement de tunnels et de cartographie, ainsi que de petits lots d'explosifs alchimiques et d'eau bénite ; en cas de capture par les espions de Geb, les nains de Kulenett détruisent leurs cartes et autres indices susceptibles de révéler les secrets de leurs précieuses terres natales. Malgré les relations tendues entre les Kulenetts et Geb, ils entretiennent des liens diplomatiques officiels par souci de tact et de pragmatisme.
Les Donguni, qui construisent des forteresses, vivent en revanche dans une suzeraineté féodale qui se dresse fièrement à la surface des Terres de Mana. Partie intégrante de la nation Alkenstar, Dongun Hold est un État à poudre noire qui utilise une puissance de feu et une ingénierie défensive supérieures pour vaincre ses ennemis. Cette puissance économique et industrielle exploite et vend de grandes quantités de minerais des Terres de Mana aux négociants étrangers. Les Donguni sont habitués à vivre en l'absence de magie, en raison des poussées de sources qui submergent les lanceurs de sorts et de leur vie dans une zone magique morte permanente, mais ils n'en sont pas moins religieux ou prêts au combat pour autant. Vêtus de chaînes et de plaques, armés de mousquets et de pistolets de clan, les avant-gardes donguniennes sont des soldats d'élite réputés dans les Terres impossibles pour leur létalité, leur discipline et leur dévouement à leurs dieux et à leurs semblables. En raison de leur longue histoire de souffrance sous les conflits de leurs voisins, les Donguni sont toujours prêts pour la guerre et travaillent sans relâche pour se préparer à toute continuation de conflit.
GENIES
Il y a de nombreuses années, le peuple de Jalmeray a fait appel à la puissance des génies pour construire sa nation. Les génies ont construit des palais et défriché des ports, nivelé des forêts et érigé de grandes murailles de pierre. Les pierres jaillissaient des carrières comme autant d'oiseaux en vol, tandis que les arbres étaient coupés et transformés en bois d'œuvre d'un simple claquement de main d'un djinn. Ils servaient le Maharadjah Khiben-Sald selon son bon plaisir, puis ses descendants et ses héritiers. Il ne s'agissait pas d'une servitude volontaire, et les habitants de Jalmeray racontent encore des histoires de souhaits volontairement mal interprétés et transformés en destruction.
Il y a environ quatre siècles, le mendiant-rajah Jharka est arrivé au pouvoir à Jalmeray et a proclamé que tous les génies de l'île étaient libérés de leurs chaînes, à l'extérieur de lui. Il n'était pas simple d'opérer un tel changement, même avec le pouvoir de la magie maride. Jharka a largement réussi et, à ce jour, l'enchaînement des génies est illégal à Jalmeray en vertu d'un décret royal. Ce décret n'est pas universellement respecté, et certains génies dans des régions reculées de l'île sont encore liés depuis l'époque de Khiben-Sald. Cependant, Jalmeray reste une grande source d'inspiration pour ceux qui, à Qadira, souhaitent libérer leurs propres génies.
Après le règne de Jharka, de nombreux génies ont regagné leurs demeures élémentaires, mais certains sont restés par familiarité, par curiosité ou pour des raisons obscures. Ils sont peu nombreux, relativement parlant, bien qu'ils soient plus fréquents à Jalmeray que partout ailleurs. En gros, on peut les diviser en trois groupes.
Le premier groupe vit à l'écart de l'humanité. Ils revendiquent leurs propres territoires, généralement dans des endroits où peu de mortels s'aventureraient, et construisent leurs propres palais et leurs propres vies. Ces génies sont rarement agressifs, mais ils sont certainement piquants et distants, se souvenant bien de leur servitude. Faire appel à un tel génie, c'est prendre sa vie en main. Une proportion plus réduite de personnes vit ouvertement au sein du peuple de Jalmeray. Ils vivent le plus souvent comme de nobles seigneurs, avec des serviteurs mortels et des paysans assermentés à leur cause, ou deviennent prêtres, sages et érudits. Ces génies peuvent être généreux, et beaucoup sont considérés comme de meilleurs seigneurs que les humains, car l'esprit d'un immortel n'est pas tout à fait le même que celui d'un mortel. La dernière partie, plus importante que les deux autres réunies, vit en secret parmi le peuple de Jalmeray. Ils adoptent une apparence mortelle pour éviter les étrangers curieux et cachent leur nature à tous, à l'exception de quelques-uns de leurs plus fidèles confidents. Un tel génie caché peut choisir de se consacrer à l'étude ou devenir le protecteur d'une lignée particulière - une histoire courante à Jalmeray parle d'un génie qui adopte la famille d'un mortel bien-aimé et la protège pendant des siècles. Ce conte contient plus que quelques grains de vérité.
GIANTS
Alors que la plupart des peuples de Golarion trouvent les Terres de Mana dures et inaccessibles, les gentes de géants des collines, d'ettins et d'ogres qui ont élu domicile dans ces terres sauvages déchirées par les sorts les trouvent au contraire accueillantes et en résonance avec leurs âmes discordantes. Les géants des collines des Terres désolées font preuve d'un grand sens de l'organisation et d'aptitudes techniques, et comprennent parfaitement les armes à feu destructrices utilisées par Alkenstar et Dongun Hold. Ces sociétés sont également très sophistiquées sur le plan théologique. Organisées en gentes, les communautés de géants retracent les lignées biologiques et imaginaires des héros célèbres de leur peuple, se considérant comme les enfants de cet héritage.
Dotés d'une longévité et d'une tolérance à la douleur prodigieuses, ces géants sont particulièrement bien placés pour survivre aux dangers des Terres désolées et résister à ses tempêtes. La plupart des géants accueillent d'ailleurs favorablement ces tempêtes sorcières, qu'ils bravent à la recherche d'une transfiguration de leur corps et de leur esprit, afin d'acquérir le pouvoir de manifester l'héritage héroïque qu'ils désirent. Bien que ces mutations s'avèrent souvent plus néfastes que bénéfiques, de nombreux géants continuent de les rechercher. Dans les Terres de la magie, où les prières les plus simples adressées aux dieux peuvent déclencher des tourbillons de corrosion qui font fondre les os, les géants en sont venus à interpréter ces événements comme une volonté divine. Si les dieux répondent aux prières par des coups de tonnerre qui tuent certains et renforcent d'autres, qu'il en soit ainsi ; chaque tempête à laquelle ils survivent est un signe de faveur divine, une marque providentielle de validation du fait que les dieux ne peuvent pas, ou ne veulent pas, les tuer pour l'instant. Les forts survivent et prospèrent, les faibles endurent jusqu'à ce qu'ils deviennent forts, et les plus faibles meurent simplement pour servir de nourriture à leurs supérieurs.
Cet évangile brutal de prospérité, cueilli dans le vent des tempêtes, plaît aux géants mutants des Terres de Mana. Les rares théologiens qui ont observé (et survécu) aux liturgies de ces géants ont décelé des traces du nihilisme de Rovagug dans leur mysticisme vicieux. Pour ces géants, le paradis n'est pas un au-delà lointain que l'on peut atteindre par des platitudes et des prières ; le paradis est ici et maintenant, dans un monde à détruire, dans les repas à faire avec les faibles, et dans la force à gagner des tempêtes de sorts hurlantes qui actualisent toutes ces possibilités dévastatrices. En ce qui concerne les géants philosophes, les Terres de Mana sont leur utopie et leur paradis, un endroit qui les récompense et les renforce même s'il affaiblit et punit les autres.
Cette croyance influence leurs relations avec les autres habitants des Terres de Mana. Les humains et les nains qui se cachent dans leurs villes sont des idiots malavisés à qui l'on doit apprendre le baiser affectueux de la mutation ; s'ils n'apprécient pas ces leçons, ils ne sont que de la nourriture. Les autres mutants des Terres désolées ne sont guère mieux lotis. Peu d'entre eux apprécient les jeux abusifs des géants mutants, qui considèrent les petits mutants comme des jouets plus résistants, capables de supporter davantage de leurs horribles divertissements. Certains géants, en particulier les ettins, étrangement grégaires, peuvent à l'occasion se lier d'amitié avec d'autres mutants et devenir leurs guides et protecteurs.
GNOLLS
Au cours des siècles qui ont précédé la fondation des empires de Geb et de Nex, les gnolls étaient un peuple commun le long de la côte est de Garund. Des bribes de documents historiques suggèrent que les deux rois ont rencontré des nations de gnolls lanceurs de sorts sur le chemin de la conquête. Cependant, comme tous les autres ennemis des sorciers rivaux, les gnolls sont tombés face à leur puissance. Quelques groupes de puissants gnolls sorciers ont survécu à Nex, vénérant Mahathallah et recherchant de sombres secrets arcaniques comme le font nombre de leurs concitoyens, mais ils sont loin d'être courants. Une poignée de momies gnolls se trouvent également à Geb, mais leur rareté suggère que pour les gnolls de l'ancien passé, l'embrassade de la mort était une étape sur un chemin qu'ils ne voulaient pas suivre.
La majorité des gnolls de la région vivent dans les Terres de Mana, s'adaptant étonnamment bien à cet environnement capricieux et parfois meurtrier. Ces gnolls sont rarement amicaux avec les étrangers, car le chaos imprévisible auquel ils ont été soumis au fil des siècles les a poussés à embrasser Lamashtu de tout leur cœur, s'accrochant à la "Vieille Mère" pour trouver l'exaltation dans l'inévitable pandémonium. Ces gnolls recherchent et chérissent tout ce qui peut leur donner un avantage sur les autres, qu'il s'agisse de membres déformés ou de technologie avancée. Les gnolls sont connus pour mener des raids sur Alkenstar afin de voler des armes et d'autres machines, ce qui leur vaut une mauvaise réputation auprès des Shieldmarshals d'Alkenstar.
GNOMES
La nation de Nex a pour politique de faire tout ce qui est nécessaire pour obtenir des réponses, ce qui plaît particulièrement aux gnomes de Keenspark. Innovateurs et repousseurs de limites par excellence, les gnomes ont afflué en masse dans le pays et se sont intégrés dans les nombreuses écoles de magie et d'ingénierie qui sont à la pointe de l'épiphanie et de la catastrophe. Dans la capitale, Quantium, des dizaines de laboratoires alchimiques rivalisent pour attirer les nouveaux chercheurs ou ingénieurs. Ils font de la publicité, pillent et sabotent les meilleurs cerveaux de chaque laboratoire, dans l'espoir d'obtenir le mélange parfait de folie et d'intelligence pour trouver la prochaine grande découverte. Les gnomes qui ont l'esprit plus arcanique et qui peuvent travailler sans le "confort" de la sécurité peuvent facilement trouver du travail dans l'une des nombreuses écoles de magie en compétition, à la recherche de la prochaine grande découverte.
Entre eux, les gnomes de Nexian forment des "clans d'idées", des lignes de recherche que les différentes familles de gnomes acceptent de suivre, quel que soit le laboratoire pour lequel elles travaillent. Cela peut donner lieu à d'intenses rivalités entre les familles, voire à des guerres d'idées mineures où la renommée et le statut d'une famille dans la communauté augmentent ou diminuent en fonction de ses récents succès. En fait, les familles se marient souvent à des théorèmes coopératifs, mariant leurs enfants et leurs ressources à d'autres familles gnomes partageant les mêmes objectifs. Les théorèmes concurrents peuvent également provoquer de vastes schismes entre les familles ; par exemple, les enfants du Consortium des communications télégraphiques n'ont pas le droit de se marier avec des membres du Complexe des abjurations projectives.
Les parrains gnomes sont particulièrement responsables de la protection des carrières de leurs filleuls préférés, et ils ne sont pas à l'abri d'alliances rapides, de sabotages ou même de tromperies pour faire avancer les théories et les succès de leur famille. Seules les familles gnomes les plus pauvres marieront leurs enfants à des théorèmes non prouvés, quelles que soient les richesses ou les possessions de la famille.
Dans les villes plus petites de Nex, les rivalités d'idées ne sont pas aussi pressantes, et les jeunes gnomes se marient avec des centres de recherche ou entre eux sans interférence. En fait, de nombreux jeunes du Quantium ont fui vers les usines d'Oenopion ou d'Ecanus pour cette même raison. Là, les gnomes peuvent rivaliser ou coopérer sur tous les projets qu'ils souhaitent - et parfois revenir à Quantium s'ils tombent sur un théorème particulièrement novateur. Ces retours provoquent toujours un bouleversement des loyautés gnomes, les familles s'efforçant de s'attacher à la technologie ou à l'art du sort le plus récent.
Les gnomes individuels ou originaires d'autres pays peuvent parfois avoir du mal à s'intégrer dans ces clans d'idées, mais même les gnomes les plus étranges s'attendent à trouver un abri et à être acceptés s'ils sont prêts à soutenir les familles des villes où ils s'installent. "Même les rats de laboratoire peuvent se faufiler dans un labyrinthe" est un dicton gnome Nexien populaire, et même un humble assistant de laboratoire gnome peut surprendre une information vitale qui formera le prochain clan d'idées du jour au lendemain.
HALFLINGS
Nex abrite une grande communauté de halflings dans la partie ouest du pays, qui se nomment eux-mêmes les Nearic. Ils sont cousins des halflings jaric des montagnes du Mur de la Barrière et leur ressemblent dans une certaine mesure. Les deux groupes de halflings ont la peau bronzée et cuivrée, les cheveux et les yeux foncés, et un penchant culturel pour les coiffures extravagantes, et tous deux s'accordent généralement à dire qu'ils ont un ancêtre commun. L'histoire ne dit pas si certains halflings jarriaques sont venus chercher une vie plus sûre dans les basses terres ou si certains halflings néphariques ont décidé de mener une vie plus libre dans les montagnes.
Les halflings néarctiques vivent généralement dans de petits villages ou villes agricoles et jurent une fidélité nominale aux archevêques de Nex, bien qu'en pratique, cet arrangement se résume à ce que les Néarctiques paient leurs impôts en espérant que tous les autres les oublient. Les communautés nearic sont dirigées par une gérontocratie élue, supervisée par un conseil de trois personnes : le grand-père, la grand-mère et l'autre - les deux premiers étant les anciens les plus respectés de la ville (pas nécessairement des hommes et des femmes), tandis que le dernier est généralement un étranger amené pour son point de vue différent, souvent un Jaric mais parfois un non-halfling ou même un non-humanoïde. La ville de Whistle-Berry Gulch aurait une dryade comme Autre, et le village de Hogshead aurait élu un mécanisme d'horlogerie très intelligent.
Les halflings neuchâtelois sont généralement considérés comme calmes et d'humeur égale, à la limite du fatalisme, et quelque peu obsédés par les rituels et les traditions. Les premières qualités sont essentiellement un mécanisme d'adaptation de la communauté à la vie dans le pays magiquement dangereux de Nex, car les Nearics croient fermement que s'inquiéter n'aide jamais une situation. Soit un problème peut être résolu, et dans ce cas, il faut aller le résoudre, soit il ne peut pas être résolu, et s'inquiéter signifie simplement que l'on est stressé en plus d'être condamné.
L'amour des Nearic pour les rituels fait partie intégrante de leur défense contre la magie hostile. Chaque communauté néarchique collectionne les rituels, les rites et les cérémonies porte-bonheur qui sont censés éloigner les dangers ou appeler des gardiens, et la conduite de ces rituels est un élément majeur de la vie civique. La connaissance de ceux qui fonctionnent réellement ayant été perdue depuis longtemps, les Néerlandais estiment qu'il est plus sûr de tous les pratiquer. De nombreux rites sont inoffensifs, un peu plus qu'une excuse pour sortir. D'autres sont efficaces, bannissant les fantômes ou jetant des sorts de protection. Et il y a toujours quelques rumeurs de rites plus sombres, de voyageurs sacrifiés ou de pactes avec des choses terribles. La plupart des Néerlandais s'offusquent de ces rumeurs, mais si on les presse, ils admettront qu'en de très rares occasions, une communauté désespérée s'écarte dangereusement du droit chemin. Ces dernières années, des érudits du Magaambya et de l'Arcanamirium se sont intéressés aux cérémonies des Nearics, se demandant si des rituels oubliés n'étaient pas encore pratiqués dans un minuscule village des contreforts du Nexian.
HUMANS
Où que l'on aille dans le monde, les humains y vivent à profusion, et les Terres Impossibles ne font pas exception à la règle. La plupart des habitants des Terres Impossibles sont issus de l'un des trois principaux groupes ethniques : les Garundi venant du nord-ouest, les Keleshites arrivant du nord-est et les Vudrani venant de l'autre côté de la mer. Un nombre plus restreint mais non négligeable de citoyens de Mwangi ont également traversé la chaîne brisée à l'ouest.
Au fil des guerres, des échanges commerciaux et des migrations, ces populations se sont profondément mélangées et mélangées. Il peut exister une région où la population locale était principalement composée de Garundi, jusqu'à ce que l'armée d'un sorcier passe par là et dépeuple une bande de terre en plein milieu. Peu de temps après, des immigrants keleshites ont pu s'installer sur cette bande de terre abandonnée. Une enclave commerciale vudrani peut alors apparaître sur une côte, jusqu'à ce qu'une autre armée les envoie plus loin sur le continent. De tels événements se sont répétés pendant un millier d'années, et aujourd'hui les Terres Impossibles sont un patchwork de petites communautés idiosyncrasiques, en particulier dans la région des Gâtes de Mana.
Il en résulte une région à la culture très tolérante et coopérative, où vivre et laisser vivre est à l'ordre du jour pour le commun des mortels. Certes, les grands et les bons de leurs différents pays ont des rancunes millénaires et, s'ils étaient pressés, la plupart de leurs habitants seraient d'accord pour dire que Geb, Nex, Jalmeray ou d'autres bandes de seigneurs de la guerre devraient être détruits et déchirés. Il s'agit toutefois d'une préoccupation très théorique, comparée à la réalité de devoir porter ses légumes au marché d'une autre communauté ou d'acheter des tapis à un commerçant de passage.
Quelques valeurs communes contribuent à cimenter cette culture partagée particulière. Tout d'abord, il existe une forte tradition d'hospitalité dans la région. Un voyageur peut frapper à n'importe quelle porte des Terres impossibles et être raisonnablement sûr de recevoir, au minimum, un coin chaud près du feu et un bol de riz ou un chausson farci. L'hôte et l'invité sont censés se protéger mutuellement, et les légendes locales regorgent d'histoires où l'hospitalité a été bafouée, ce qui s'est soldé par un effroyable châtiment.
Il existe une certaine idée selon laquelle il ne faut jamais juger sur les apparences, que ce soit en bien ou en mal. Les Terres Impossibles abritent de nombreux êtres qui semblent différents de ce qu'ils sont, et l'on ne sait jamais si une vieille femme est en fait un puissant djinn déguisé ou si l'humble érudit est secrètement une goule dévoreuse de chair. Dans de telles situations, la prudence et la courtoisie sont tout simplement du bon sens.
NAGAS
A l'époque connue sous le nom d'Age des Serpents, les nagas régnaient sur un puissant empire dans le Vudra, traitant leurs sujets vishkanya, grippli, catfolk et humains comme des citoyens de classe inférieure. L'empire naga a connu une longévité exceptionnelle, survivant à nombre de ses congénères et de leurs successeurs. Il a fallu attendre près de 3 000 ans après l'effondrement de la Terre pour que les vestiges de la nation s'effondrent. Bien que les relations entre les humains et les nagas se soient considérablement améliorées depuis lors, l'histoire entre les deux peuples est longue, et les souvenirs encore plus. Les nagas ne sont pas indésirables dans l'est de Garund, mais il y a presque toujours une certaine méfiance à leur égard, car on ne peut jamais savoir si un visiteur naga ne considère pas encore les autres personnes comme des biens. La plupart des premiers habitants nagas sont arrivés à Jalmeray sur des bateaux en provenance de Vudra, et il n'est donc pas surprenant que leur présence soit plus importante sur cette île - certaines villes comptent suffisamment de nagas pour qu'ils représentent un pouvoir politique important. Bien qu'il ne soit pas inhabituel d'en croiser en voyageant à travers Nex ou Geb, ces êtres intrinsèquement magiques se tiennent à l'écart des Terres de Mana, sans surprise.
RAKSHASAS
Les êtres corrompus et immortels connus sous le nom de rakshasas vivent en grand nombre à Jalmeray et dans le reste des Terres Impossibles. Bien que détestés par ceux qui cherchent à apaiser les cieux, les rakshasas se considèrent comme un peuple à part entière, et d'un genre plus honnête que les autres. Ils ne cachent pas leurs valeurs - ils vénèrent l'ambition à travers le miroir sombre de la domination et de la soif de sang - mais comme toute âme, corrompue ou mortelle, ils sont inévitablement attirés par les tentations du luxe, les plaisirs hédonistes de l'existence mortelle et les démonstrations de force frivoles. Malgré toute la cruauté qu'ils apportent au monde, ils se feront un plaisir de révéler des péchés similaires dans les cœurs prétendument immaculés des mortels qui osent se considérer comme les supérieurs moraux d'un rakshasa.
Les rakshasas de Jalmeray cultivent depuis longtemps l'idée poétique qu'ils sont arrivés sur l'île dans le cœur obscur de mortels qui recherchaient l'empire et la domination plutôt que l'illumination du voyage. Pour les serviteurs des divinités bienfaisantes, la présence de tels démons est une tumeur qui suppure dans la région, une tumeur qui revendique un héritage et un statut égal à celui des premiers Vudrani à avoir habité l'île.
Les origines exactes des rakshasas sur l'île restent cachées à tous, sauf aux maharajahs les plus intrigants de leurs rangs, et ces créatures malfaisantes se contentent de dire qu'elles ont été invitées ici en tant qu'hôtes et camarades chéris.
Au-delà de leurs communes insulaires et de leur position hiérarchique, la plupart des rakshasas rencontrés dans les Terres impossibles sont au service de la corruption conceptuelle des âmes mortelles qui ont besoin de leur aide. La force de leurs armes, leurs pouvoirs de métamorphose et leur résistance diabolique leur permettent d'être facilement employés comme gardes du corps, mercenaires et autres travailleurs brutaux qui se délectent des effusions de sang.
Se moquant des castes vudrani, ces rakshasas classent leurs états d'âme en fonction des péchés et des services qu'ils ont rendus dans leurs vies antérieures. Ils passent ainsi de l'âme d'un traître à celle d'un pion sacrifié, à celle d'un serviteur des ténèbres et de ceux qui l'aident dans sa perfidie, puis à celle d'un seigneur corrompu. Aucune caste n'est plus importante que l'autre, car même la plus humble des âmes de traître peut planter un couteau dans un roi et s'en sortir mieux dans la vie suivante.
Les plans des rakshasas de la région sont rarement unifiés, mais tous agissent en accord avec un désir singulier de révéler les failles de la culture vudrani, de subvertir l'hégémonie des castes familiales vudrani mortelles et de jeter l'opprobre sur les cieux en montrant que les divinités vudrani ne récompensent que les âmes méchantes qui profitent de la richesse générationnelle et de la fausse quête de l'illumination. Chaque enclave de rakshasa croit qu'elle produira un Maharajah immortel d'un rang supérieur à celui du rakshasa Ravana, le Premier et le Dernier. Ils cherchent à faire naître leur Seigneur des Seigneurs, qui supplantera les souverains Vudrani de Jalmeray et apportera une ère de maux terrestres resplendissants.
Castes de Rakshasa
Miroir sombre de la société vudrani, les rakshasas ont leur propre version des castes sociales.
Pagala : Les traîtres, une caste réservée aux rakshasas qui agissent d'une manière contraire aux idéaux rakshasas.
Goshta : Littéralement "nourriture", cette caste s'applique à presque tous les non-rakshasas.
Darshaka : Serviteurs, la caste la plus basse dans laquelle un rakshasa peut naître.
Paradeshi : "Rakshasa-kin", ou non-rakshasas maléfiques suffisamment puissants pour être considérés comme dignes de respect.
Hakima : Seigneurs rakshasas, qui considèrent les autres rakshasas comme leurs serviteurs.
Samrata : Les seigneurs des seigneurs, les empereurs rakshasas les plus puissants.
LES MORTS-VIVANTS
Dans la nation hantée de Geb, les morts-vivants occupent les rangs des dirigeants, des dirigés et des couches intermédiaires de la société. Les vivants qui ont la malchance d'être nés dans ce pays attendent dans des limbes inconfortables, devenant au mieux des travailleurs potentiels ou, au pire, une source de nourriture commode. À chaque niveau de la société gebbite, seul un battement de cœur sépare ceux qui détiennent le pouvoir et ceux qui les alimentent.
Au niveau le plus bas de la société, des légions de squelettes et de zombies s'occupent des fermes luxuriantes qui produisent les principaux produits d'exportation de Geb. Les tonnes de denrées alimentaires produites chaque année restent inutilisées par la population, pour la plupart non vivante, ce qui permet à la nation d'échanger les matériaux qui soutiennent les couches suivantes de la société. Selon la loi, toute personne vivante qui meurt à l'intérieur des frontières de Geb, qu'il s'agisse d'un citoyen ou d'un étranger, peut être transformée en mort-vivant pour soutenir cette main-d'œuvre, ce qui permet de disposer d'un surplus continu de main-d'œuvre de remplacement.
Dans les villes, le retour de Geb au pouvoir après des siècles de négligence a déclenché une renaissance nationale. Les artisans vivants et les administrateurs non vivants travaillent au-delà de leurs limites, essayant d'achever la prochaine grande œuvre ou le prochain projet de vanité en l'honneur du roi fantôme. Des fanfares et des chœurs fantomatiques hantent l'air de leurs sonates, proclamant la gloire de Geb et tentant de s'étouffer les uns les autres ou de dissimuler subtilement les manigances qui se déroulent dans les ruelles et les maisons nobles. Les nécromanciens se transforment en assassins, éliminant les maisons nobles mortes-vivantes les plus faibles et organisant des changements de pouvoir presque du jour au lendemain. Les Mohrgs, les Bodaks et les Dévoreurs deviennent les exécutants, réglant les rivalités et consolidant les étranglements mis en place par les machinations de la couche suivante de la société. Les seigneurs du sang constituent ce niveau supérieur : de puissants aristocrates dont les membres sont des vampires, des liches, des nécromanciens et des momies. Ils louent leur nation en public, puis envoient leurs assassins wraiths et spectres voler les secrets des uns et des autres.
Rareté
Les MJ souhaitant refléter la composition culturelle des Terres Impossibles peuvent faire en sorte que les geniekin et les ratfolk soient communs, les vishkanya et les elfes peu communs, et les gnolls et les lézards communs dans les Terres de Mana. Cependant, en raison de la nature incroyable des Terres Impossibles, presque n'importe quel ancêtre ou héritage de PC pourrait être considéré comme approprié pour le décor.
Autres
Elfes
Les elfes sont peu présents dans les Terres Impossibles, préférant Alkenstar ou Jalmeray s'ils sont présents. Il est probable que cela soit lié à la tendance des elfes à se déplacer physiquement pour s'adapter à leur environnement ; de longs séjours dans les nations magiquement déformées près des Terres de Mana pourraient rendre un elfe mal à l'aise ou même malade. Gobelins
Les gobelins sont techniquement acceptés dans les Terres Impossibles, car des êtres plus étranges et plus dangereux qu'un gobelin sont présents dans presque toutes les grandes villes. Les gobelins ont cependant tendance à prendre de mauvaises décisions, ce qui les rend indésirables, et on les trouve donc le plus souvent dans les Terres de Mana.
Félins'
Nex et Jalmeray sont connus pour leurs populations itinérantes d'Askedhaki, des hommes-chats de la diaspora qui vivent du commerce nomade. Les Askedhakis portent des bijoux coûteux et coiffent leurs longs crocs de métal en signe de prouesse et de prestige. Cette particularité, ainsi que leur fourrure rayée, leur donne souvent une ressemblance avec les rakshasas, et les rakshasas en civil se font souvent passer pour des Askedhakis, ce que les félins méprisent. En conséquence, les Askedhaki portent souvent des symboles sacrés et des objets bénis, même s'ils ne sont pas religieux, et certains deviennent de fervents chasseurs de rakshasas.
Dhampirs'
Bien que plus fréquents à Geb qu'ailleurs, les dhampirs se retrouvent souvent dans la position frustrante d'être traités comme des mortels plutôt que comme des morts-vivants, ce qui les rend dépendants de leur parent vampire pour leur statut social. La plupart serrent les dents et supportent la situation, mais quelques-uns s'aventurent au nord, dans les Terres de Mana, chaque décennie.
Les Ratfolk
Racailleux et adaptables, les ysoki sont présents dans tous les recoins des Terres Impossibles. A Jalmeray, ils sont considérés comme un peuple fastidieux et spirituel, et ils choisissent souvent de servir dans l'un des nombreux temples du pays.
Languages
Il n'y a pas de langue commune dans les Terres Impossibles, et quiconque travaille dans la diplomatie ou le commerce a tout intérêt à apprendre plusieurs langues. Les langues les plus courantes dans la région sont l'osiriani, le kelesh et le vudrani ; un voyageur a toutes les chances de trouver quelqu'un qui parle l'une de ces langues dans tous les lieux importants qu'il visite.[1]
Aventures
Les intrigues et les anciennes rancunes abondent dans les Terres Impossibles, car même une ère de paix et de coopération mutuelle entre nations indépendantes n'arrêtera pas les machinations subtiles des anciens archimages, ni les bouleversements cosmiques d'une région si profondément saturée à la fois de pouvoir arcanique et de ruines qu'elle a depuis longtemps gravées dans la terre même. Les Terres Impossibles sont bien délimitées, colonisées par l'empiétement de générations de colonies. Bien que les possibilités de se faire un nom au sein des polities et des cités-états soient nombreuses, la plupart de ceux qui recherchent la richesse et la célébrité doivent s'enfoncer dans la désolation vorace des Terres de Mana.
Les menaces de mutants gauchis par la mana et de bêtes horribles échappées des forges de chair Nexiennes découragent tout le monde sauf les audacieux et les téméraires, qui abandonnent la prudence pour suivre les rumeurs de trésors et d'anciens coffres perdus dans les ravages des Terres de Mana, qui n'ont pas été touchés par l'ancien conflit entre le Nex et le Geb. Les mages de tout Golarion ont cherché à étudier, contenir et manipuler les énergies sauvages des Terres ; ceux qui ne tombent pas dans le découragement face à la tâche ou ne meurent pas en essayant se retrouvent trop souvent dans les bars de Quantium, regardant avec avarice les monuments de puissantes magies qui pourraient ne plus jamais embellir le monde. Nombreux sont les aventuriers avistanais qui osent braver les Terres désolées ou qui servent de protecteurs à ceux qui ont plus de courage à leur actif, tout cela par manque d'armes de guerre forgées dans les usines à canon d'Alkenstar.
Introduction
Few would disagree that Nex was, if not is, Golarion’s greatest wizard. His arcane influence on the world—and in some ways, beyond—is contested by Old-Mage Jatembe alone, though the contributions Nex made to the world were often as happenstance as they were calculated. The archmage wizard-king is recognized as the tremendous force responsible for a nation of great impact. The extent of that greatness only comes into full relief four millennia after his disappearance from the Material Plane, and that greatness has limits.
The sprawl of Nex’s consequence is a different story. With each year that passes, the wrinkles of his ambition and ego mark Golarion. Ironically, the country of his namesake looks the most weathered through time by his actions. Nex, the country, is wound of ancient wonder and woe alike.
Nex presents a surreal romance to newcomers. Quantium, a capital whose handsome visage flows from subterranean depths to skies of unusual color, brandishes a dizzying array of wonders conjured from hither and thither. Oenopion is less showy, but an intrepid traveler can find a world within themselves as complex as the enchanted warrens of the Bandeshar palace in the capital; all it takes, in the alchemical city, is cleaning a plate of Ghoran cuisine and reaching the bottom of an exceptionally potent glass. Few who live in the military hold of Ecanus care if it isn’t the nation’s most charismatic city. It’s formidable, and because it’s formidable, so is Nex.
Staying in the nation exposes its preexisting cracks. Everyone knows not to traverse Nex’s countryside, a scourged area nearly as dangerous to traverse as the Mana Wastes, blasted from the archmage’s war with Geb 4,000 years ago. Dangerous miscreants, harsh wild things, cold desert-like nights, and waywardly inconsolable fleshforged titans menace the countryside. What few will tell you in the countryside is what nobody will tell you in Oenopion: if you’re new to the city, there’s a better chance you’ll vanish there than in the wastelands.
The capital is built of secrets reaching a bureaucratic tipping point. The people of Quantium fend for themselves for the sake of provoking—or preventing, depending on whom you ask—the reignition of war with Geb. Each secret revealed, ancient or new, weighs the scales more heavily to the former. Ecanus is supposed to defend its two fellow cities from threat, but it’s a literal festering wound of a city, which only causes the wider nation to bleed internally. What dealt the blow that led to the Evisceration of Ecanus is unclear, but if it wasn’t Geb’s doing, then Archmage Nex’s dream is more self-sabotaging than his rival necromancer could ever have wished.
Oenopion poisons not only itself with the great, sentient mass of oozes known as the Bath beneath the city, but also assists in a wider poisoning of the region’s waters with irrigation that leaches water from the rivers to its south and north. This is nothing compared to the Miasmere, a horrendously polluted bay made so by years of willful neglect of Quantium’s arcane activity, which contaminates any water entering the nation from the Obari ocean. The Miasmere runs westward down the Elemion and Ustradi rivers, poisoning them both in the process. Valkus Isle is a dumping ground for prisoners and enemies of the nation, but more than a few officials bringing them there end up trapped on the island with Nex knows what else.
In the Mana Wastes, the last gasps of Nex’s continued expansion (which started the war with Geb over an age ago) are fading as the technocratic Grand Duchy of Alkenstar forms into a territory of its own and crawls out of Nex’s grasp. In the capital, the last person to know the archwizard—and the oldest member of the ruling Council of Three and Nine—has gone missing. The nation’s leadership fights a newly cold civil war as it prepares for the resurgence of a literal, deeply scarring ancient one.
In the west of Nex is the aptly titled Well of Lies, a vast dungeon near the foothills of the Shattered Range. The instruments of Nex’s rise to power are often traced to this mysterious complex that predates even this ancient nation. Once closed by the wizard-king’s order, the Council of Three and Nine is too preoccupied with national turmoil to maintain that ancient edict. Because of the boldness of the occasional adventurer, keen to consult the enchanted (but duplicitous) scrying pools within for power and fortune, the complex has been reopened.
Those intrepid souls aren’t who reemerge, but instead a steadily increasing procession of individuals who refer to themselves as the “Keys of Nex” as they make their way to the capital. Navigating the city while bearing the guises of many whom Nex apparently killed, they speak in cryptic messages that only those with the most intimate knowledge of the archmage could know. They say Nex remains in his arcane refuge because his inevitable return will be Nex’s fall. It’s a hard notion for the Council to concede, but the cracks expanding through the nation make the portent difficult to deny.
People come to Nex because it’s amazing. Such a place reforms those who visit. How could it not? The process of creating his dream to the fullest of his wishes didn’t change Nex himself; it exposed him. The nation is a fertile ground for everyone who follows him, to discover, and, even in unexpected ways, to grow. Nex might have created much in the world, but the people who traverse his domain always find themselves asking: what good did he actually accomplish? Then they do the magical thing that Nex was meant to do, and they accomplish something new.
Isle of Black Palms
Though technically claimed by Nex, few pay any attention to the small chunk of land to the north of Varkus Isle. Known as the Isle of Black Palms, there is nothing to be found on the locale aside from dead palms and the lonely minaret of a ruined building. Fishers who stray too close report occasional signs of life, but no indication of who might have left them. No one who has set foot on the island has ever returned, discouraging further research.
GEOGRAPHY
Nex’s geography is a perfect encapsulation of its marvelous and mercurial history. The nation’s countryside is barren and necrotically blasted due to the prolonged conflict with Geb. Its lands are a less treacherous version of the Mana Wastes that lie south of the nation, sandwiched between Nex and its rival, but still treacherous all the same. The sands and rocky topsoil don’t provide much for the bandits, brigands, and clans who roam the land. They often meet traders migrating between the major Nexian cities freckling the wizard-king’s domain with trade and calculated turmoil. Perusing the west edge of the Mwangi Expanse’s tangle often yields little or costs more than the Nexian outlanders bargained for.
The other borders of Nex are little better, when it comes to travel. The deserts of Katapesh, while more hospitable than the unpredictable Mana Wastes, do not make for a pleasant trek. The Shattered Range and Brazen Peaks on Nex’s western border forms an imposing barrier that limits any reliable contact with cities in the Mwangi Expanse, though travelers and caravans still periodically make their way through the Ndele Gap. Most in Nex travel by river or sea, sending massive ships down the northern Elemion and the southern Ustradi. THE CIRCULATION For all of Nex’s magical pedigree, many of its troubles are entirely mundane. The bandits who dwell in the wastes and waylay caravans throughout the nation aren’t unique in any way; like brigands across the cosmos, their lust for plunder is outweighed only by their personal losses and compounding rage in the face of desperation. Many descend from scorned and broken bloodlines when the walls of the great city-states shuttered their ancestors to a cruel fate of exile. Generations spent hunted by the fleshforged creations of their former homelands and treated as common detritus to be scraped off a Quantium aristocrat’s boot have left these malicious souls without compassion or mercy.
The largest of the wasteland clans, the Manymen, continue to map the region under the discretion of their representative on the Council of Nine, Elemion. They chart all the safe roads that run through the nation, starting west of the Ndele Gap and the notoriously treacherous Shattered Range below it. Amidst the wider chaos in the countryside, the Manymen, in coordination with Nex’s government, have created numerous safe waystations along their reliable roads in exchange for uncontested entry to the nation’s three major cities. These roads, built and maintained by the Manymen and Nex’s military, have become the most reliable routes linking the territories of Nex.
Collectively, these trading roads—as well as the roads connecting the nation’s own settlements—are referred to as the Circulation of Nex. The original network of roads took almost a decade to build after Nex’s vanishing, as most prior attempts during the war with Geb were destroyed by invading forces and magics on the necromancer’s order. When the war ended with Nex’s disappearance, the Council of Three and Nine created a few trade routes flowing to and from Geb as an initial reparative step in an attempt at brokering a tenuous peace.
The largest three roads of the Circulation are referred to as the “arteries” of Nex and were completed in 588 ar. These three roads link Nex’s most critical cities: the economic backbone of Oenopion, the military hold of Ecanus, and the resplendent capital of Quantium. The road leading from Quantium southwest to Ecanus is known as the Barapara Damnu, or Road of Blood, as it was the most heavily contested and sabotaged during the war. Some say there are still spots in the barren soil along the Barapara Damnu that smell of iron and copper. Sometimes winds from storms along the Obari Ocean spread a heavy crimson dust throughout the countryside, which many claim are ghosts of conflicts past.
The second road of this inner triangle is the Barapara Uchafruu, or the Road of Dirt. This road crosses the middle of the Ustradi river from Ecanus and travels north until it reaches Oenopion, halfway in the northwestern wastelands of Nex. It’s a double reference to both the place of the dead (and undead) in Nex and its alchemical foundations.
The final road was the first road established in the region around –731 ar in the midst of the war. The Barapara Dhahabii, or Road of Gold, links Oenopion to Quantium. The Road of Gold is farther north than the Road of Blood, so the wizard-king was more easily able to protect it during the war. The Barapara Dhahabii is one of the few places in the countryside to again show signs of the region’s former fertility, thanks in no small part to Ghoran tending. Though it was the first road established, it was the last to be named. Its moniker references Oenopion’s material importance and the alchemical effects of time.
These three roads are enchanted with protections that ward against wayward fleshforged terrors, though the enchantments must be renewed every 20 to 30 years. The smaller veins and arteries of the Circulation receive no such arcane protections for the most part, despite being a complex link to the rest of the region. As a result, there’s little security off the beaten path of the Circulation in Nex’s modern era.
THE MIASMERE
Significant veins link the Miasmere—the large bay that joins the east coast of Nex to the Obari—to the capital, though Quantium also has its own port that feeds directly into the polluted waters. Magical pollution makes the waters’ effects on its citizens unpredictable and dangerous. The Council of Three and Nine has wrangled their most skilled alchemists and arcanists to work endlessly on mitigating the waters’ effects within the nation’s major cities, so far seeing only limited success. The Miasmere is so magically toxic that as its waters evaporate, they create surreal and beautiful clouds over Quantium and Nex’s eastern rim that pour somewhat acidic rain for which only the capital has formal protections. Boats making port in the bay or at the city have similar trouble with acidity if they aren’t
properly constructed for the Miasmere’s alchemical corrosions. As Quantium continues in its excesses, the Elemion river forming the northern border of the nation and the Ustradi river at the south carry the cursed arcane water west through the rest of the region, still full of wartime flotsam from more than 4,000 years ago. The water further isolates the arcane prison of Valkus Isle (and the haunted Isle of Black Palms north of it) from the rest of the nation. Nex’s leadership largely neglects the isle in favor of other lands. Like Nex’s ego, his nation struggles to temper its reach, even in peaceful times. With his disappearance, Nex’s namesake slips through his fingers due to his heirs’ tacit overextensions.
VALKUS ISLE
A large island off the eastern coast of Nex, Valkus Isle was once a popular resort for the nobility of Nexian society. It also once hosted a palace for the archmage Nex, who used the sanctum as a private place for his earliest experiments. Unfortunately, these magical experiments went awry, blasting the entire isle with planar energy and unleashing horrific monsters. Nex was forced to solve the problem by creating an impenetrable magical barrier known as the Stalwart Wall, which locked everything on the island inside permanently. With Valkus Isle now an inescapable prison, it now serves as an oubliette and dumping ground for Nexian undesirables of all kinds.
Quantium
- Historians claim the archmage who founded Quantium, the capital of the nation of Nex, freely used wish spells to improve the life of its citizens. Though the wizard-king vanished thousands of years ago, his city remains, a masterpiece of marble and magic.
Quantium is a city made to eclipse all others.
Imagine a city of a circular plot, 15 miles in diameter and encircled by a wide “c”-shaped road. Upon the road is set two golems the size of three-story buildings, patrolling back and forth ceaselessly. Both wear the blank countenance of the wizard-king who made them to defend his dream of a city.
The eastern city terminates at a mile-wide port that lets in water from the Obari Ocean, allowing traders to dock with goods from abroad. Hidden below the waves of the city’s portside lies the mouth of a complex aqueduct running beneath the city and into its heart—a 2-mile-diameter lake. Here, water gets cycled in, through, and out of the city in a similar fashion to the irrigation beneath Quantium’s westward sibling, the city of Oenopion. The grand palace and crown jewel of the capital and nation, known as the Bandeshar, sits with its surrounding campus on a half-mile-wide triangle of an island in the middle of the city lake, elevated 200 feet above the domes and peaks of the highest buildings. No bridges connect this island to the rest of the surrounding city. Any arcane thing could be an entrance to the Bandeshar, but its entrances and exits to and from the rest of the capital are strictly need to know.
The rest of the surrounding metropolis is more than colorful enough to distract anyone who walks through its streets, with its constant hustle and bustle and the variety of people and creatures in its streets. Gathered and curated flora and fauna are sown through the city’s surface and the deep layers that fill its scattered parks and plazas, and the numerous statues, reliefs, mosaics and inscriptions of the wizard-king—and occasionally, his formative cohort as well—decorate every other surface of the capital.
Travelers marvel at the two layers of the wider city. Quantium’s numerous visitors and inhabitants enter the capital from the gates at its north and south rim in their open hours, through the 15-foot, miles-around wall inscribed with illustrations of the nation’s mythic history. The wall fences the visible city in and extends out and over the portside.
Visitors are then met with the first of many staircases leading up to the Juali—Quantium’s “Sun”—or down into the Nwezi, the capital’s “Moon.” These two levels make up the layers of the city. The Juali is partially visible from the treacherous Nexian countryside, constantly circled by the 20-foot Quantium Golems who patrol to and from the Obari shores and who occasionally peer over the wall, placidly checking the city of their charge. The Nwezi lies beneath the Juali, lit up with unusually hued arcane lights throwing dazzling colors from their glass sconces where visitors descend. Purposeful, circular gaps in the Juali expose the neighborhoods below to the natural light, and the complex, beautiful architecture built in the Nwezi below support the equally impressive city blocks above. Both are connected by patterned pillars, buildings, supports, and archways, and the deeper city is run through with canals and pipelines that make for small cascades and waterfalls from its aqueducts. All of it is hewn from handsome marble, precious minerals, jewels of floral hues, and elaborately shaped glass in colors to match.
Quantium is the perfect metropolitan representation of a man who disappeared into himself. As the capital city of Nex, the utopia the country’s namesake imagined is metaphorically following his suit. This city, spun of cadres, circles, and coteries, lit up with magic and glued together with a lifetime’s worth of wishes, is threatening to collapse under its figurative weight like the rest of the nation. The water that churns from the ocean into the city near the ports is more toxic than the Bath in Oenopion, thanks to the pollution Quantium’s citizenry bleed into it with abandon during their day-to-day. The consequential Miasmere bay, which churns in and out of the city, has none of the Bath’s sentient wisdom and twice its threat. All the splendor of Nex can’t hide the stain of Quantium’s collective ego. The capital is a beautiful thing—and beauty hewn of ego is the most fragile sort.
A DAY IN QUANTIUM
Without any sort of timepiece, the days blur together in Quantium’s sprawl. Its arcane hustle and bustle is ever fueled by intrepid minds that cast any normal sleeping schedule to the streets while they look to the stars, shadows, and beyond for deeper and deeper mysteries. Lanterns of all sorts of unnatural color stay lit day in and day out. The luminous white marble of the main streets and many of the official buildings of Quantium refract the lights’ dizzying array of prisma into the sky, to a degree that its true color is often blotted out. From the city streets the sun often looks like another star, and the stars simply melt into the luminous atmosphere. Only the moon makes any kind of consistent appearance in the city’s view of the sky. The people below are far too wrapped up in their day-to-day to take notice.
The unexpected is almost commonplace to a destabilizing degree for visitors and travelers uninitiated to Quantium’s arcane, plane-spanning metropolis. One might share freshly brewed qahwa with a dweomercat in a café at morning, then barter for extraplanar materials to study with a glass golem tending its master’s component salon in the afternoon in one of the Nwezi’s many strange bazaars. Next, one might spend the evening reading inside a living library more than happy to share incisive opinions on its visitor’s taste. Around each turn, the capital buzzes with idiosyncratic activity, overwhelming those within its latticed belly with new stimuli and information. Magic isn’t rote here, but it’s pervasive enough in every aspect of the city’s construction that the locals almost have to blot it out of their registry to function.
Living in Quantium by coin alone is too expensive for most to weather without familial wealth and status in and beyond the nation. Consequently, Quantium is aggressively stratified, but many locals try to hustle through the material struggle dealt to them to enjoy the city’s arcane treasures. The average local lives and breathes their work, a perfect distraction from the city’s lack of significant civil support. Domestic tenure in Quantium is ephemeral unless a person is materially thriving or suffering—and the commotion of the city obscures the latter until it’s too late. In truth, a good amount of Quantium’s civilian traffic is rather transient. Some are knowingly so, and have taken to the streets of the deep city to try to redefine the dynamic between “owner” and “owned” of property in Quantium, in protest of its elite’s neglect. Many are impermanent by consequence of a scenic visit or esoteric personal business. They enter its walls one day, leaving overstimulated but full of colorfully sacred (and profane) anecdotes in the next. More than a few use Quantium as their momentary door into and out of the Material Plane.
Much of Quantium’s busiest activity happens within the Nwezi. The day disappears in its elaborately layered smear of arcane lights, beautifully ornate doorways, askew warrens, festive alleys, and constant crowds full of denizens mundane and magical—all backed with the most gorgeously alien music one could imagine physical instruments forging. It easily makes up two-thirds of the capitol’s infrastructural density, and four-fifths of its stable populace. The Nwezi is a dense, artful urban labyrinth of people trying to get each other’s attention, selling their way up the chain to escape the sensory overload within the city’s midst.
The polluted water from the Miasmere cycling endlessly into and out of the capitol lends the entire Nwezi a chemical scent that stings the nostrils, similar to the scent of ozone and a pinewood or maple tree fried by lighting. When Quantium’s lake and aqueducts aren’t running into the local’s homes, interiors smell better, often helped by Oenopional aromas or floral candles. The Nwezi quakes considerably to the shake of each of the great golem’s footfalls outside of the city—though the architecture rarely rubbles and never collapses from this. Still, the metronome-like sound is enough to drive those living under it to the surface just to think. The novel beauty of a brief visit can become a nightmarish daily life under Quantium’s Sun.
Many try to climb their way up to the Juali through their daily trade and grift, but more often, in recent years, there have been protests bubbling up from within Quantium’s urban depths. The past decade has seen the city’s most frustrated, exploited, or neglected increase their displays of unrest to a near-daily occurrence, cutting through the Juali’s calm and clarity. Otherwise, the Juali is serene and pretty, with the sharp ozone smell below dissipating as the scent drifts through the windows to the open air. The heavy thud of the golems that quakes the Nwezi is a soft, soundless bounce in the Juali above; the heavy metronome is a handily ticking clock up there.
The discontent is starting to stick more above the surface in Quantium. The folk in the outer city above or below often cast their eyes to the Bandeshar as it sits largely undisturbed by the quakes of the wider city’s ramshackle bustle. A few manage to wonder, in between their distraction, what could be so important within the palace to keep it so segregated from the city it’s the center of. Yet the days of those who make it there are somehow more ill at ease in the palace’s contrasting placidity. Many can feel the tension within the palace they’re privileged to work within—can feel Nex’s disappointed gaze more in the campus around the palace than when his marble imitations stare at them from four different vantages in an underground Nwezi grotto.
Those who have worked hard enough to earn a position in the Bandeshar are also offered lodging to accommodate them. They rarely make the move.
QUANTIUM SETTLEMENT 20
N METROPOLIS
Government council
Population 60,000 (45% humans, 13% gnomes, 3% catfolk, 2% ratfolk, 2% fleshwarps, 1% ghorans, 34% other)
Languages Kelish, Osiriani, Taldane, Vudrani
Religions Abadar, Abraxas, Calistria, Irori, Mahathallah, Nethys, Norgorber, Pharasma, Sarenrae
Threats civil unrest, political intrigue Nothing’s Weird Anymore Quantium residents regularly see extraplanar beings, travelers from afar, constructs, fleshforgers from Ecanus, oozes from Oenopion, and more walking their streets. Nothing surprises them at this point. Whether a character is a monster or a member of an obscure ancestry, heritage, or class, residents of Quantium are unfazed and rarely treat those characters differently than they would a human in the same circumstances, other than respecting the power of any being that’s obviously dangerous.
Iranez of the Orb (N female human witch 20) member of the Council of Three Agrellus Kisk (LE male human arclord 19) leader of the Arclords of Nex Elder Architect Oblosk (LN male kasesh ancient 21) castellan of the Bandeshar
A YEAR IN QUANTIUM
Much happens in the Quantium year. For those who can find a way to cut through the city’s distractions—or find music in the noise—Nex’s capital city offers a wonderful refuge to shape themselves in. A year in Quantium can be so relentlessly busy that it resembles a month to locals, while a traveling neonate spending a month in the city might feel like they have aged a year from the amount of information they’re exposed to.
Of the cities within Nex, Quantium is the most inviting to the outside weather and elements. Most days in both the warmer or cooler seasons are pleasantly sun-kissed—but since Quantium is a coastal city, it garners its fair share of prismatic storms and occasionally acidic rain in the course of a month, rather than falling into the more generalized dry and rainy months the region subjects the rest of the nation to. The city’s plan openly welcomes the elements from the coast, and the magic that swirls in the Obari Ocean that’s leached in from the Miasmere’s pollution often catalyzes arcane storms that brew to considerable size. The city’s magical protections largely keep the sometimes-cursed rainfalls to negligible impact on the architecture and negligible discomfort for the city’s inhabitants. After a year it goes unnoticed, or one learns to wear an enchanted hat or hood with a wide cover.
While torrential downpours and thunderous crashes do nothing to threaten the complex marble lattice of the city, these coastal storms are still a rather startling monthly occurrence. Though they’re beautiful to see from the Juali, being within the Nwezi is more of a roulette. The pouring water that cascades down steps and through complex networks of aqueducts through the two layers of the city can be a joy to listen to and watch—but thunder reverberates to a deafening volume in the Nwezi. The wet months of Rova to Calistril only increase the frequency of these storms.
The city’s inhabitants commonly use three calendars. The first is Golarion’s standard metric, acknowledged more for the sake of travelers coming into the city than any other reason. That said, Quantium is quite internationally tinged, and it is also deeply festive, so the city holds many holiday celebrations—though they are frequently reduced from their religious and historical context in favor of the celebration itself and its accompanying aesthetics. More generalized holidays that are re-interpretable or centered around revelry for revelry’s sake enjoy the most enthusiastic celebration. Holidays that engage with matters of the dead see a tension run through the city, though private celebrations in the Nwezi provide the rare culturally scandalous thrill. A theatrical interpretation of the Day of Bones is the embraced exception because of Pharasma’s prominent clerical presence in the city, though real corpses are swapped with elaborate props and costumes to exalt the dearly departed.
The second calendar that finds common use in Quantium is the exchange calendar. This calendar is used by the capitol’s entrepreneurs—particularly the ones who live in the Nwezi near the port side of town. The exchange calendar is 369 days—four days longer than the common calendar detailed above. Its segments are planned around the Network of Nineteen’s opening (page 264) because of the amount of unique goods and clientele that come from outside of the Material Plane to shop during these days, not to mention the people who choose to land at port to peddle their wares. What results is a calendar of 19 segments, each of 19 days. Often, one of these periods of time is a rest period roughly aligning with the end of the region’s wet season, and the other 18 segments through the year are split between selling locally or traveling through the doorways in the Network of Nineteen.
Finally, the Bandeshar and those under its employ use a calendar devised by the Council of Three and Nine, which is planned across an almost-standard 365-day year but is mapped to the fortnight rather than to the approximate month. The first day of each of these two-week periods is marked by a meeting of the Council of Three and Nine, assessing the city and wider nation. The seventh day of each fortnight marks a private meeting between the Three, which is documented by one of the Nine (typically Pharasma’s High Cleric). The 14th day of these cycles is a rest day. Between those three markers, it is assumed that those who tend obligations within the Bandeshar are exceptional enough individuals to autonomously pursue bureaucratic matters of city, state, and beyond.
The Arclords of Nex claim that this method of scheduling is the same that Nex used in his early days of conceiving the nation, and in times of great stress he would use this two-week format to re-center himself through a formidable focus, accomplishing a great feat by the end of this rigor and taking a full day to indulge in and marvel at his accomplishment. The odd day of this calendar is actually the last of the year, Invigoration Day, in which Nex and his followers would go to a place completely new to them with the express purpose of enjoying themselves in an unprecedented sensory excursion. There they would unravel the further mysteries of existence in—as the Elder Architect describes—an “occasionally hedonistic” way. His explained purpose, according to some of the wizard-king’s few published notes, was to carry an invigorated verve into the new year of invention and ambition. Since his vanishing, it has become Introspection Day, a day many locals of notable repute observe, as they fast in memory of their wizard-king and in contemplation of themselves.
all work and no play
Rumors persist that students at the city’s Seven Veils magic academy have learned a trick for making simple illusory images of themselves independent, allowing themselves to form study groups with magical copies of themselves. Sometimes students who attempt this return intrinsically different, fixated on solving their issues through any means necessary. Despite several notable incidents, Schoolmaster Denungar Neev has so far prevented any investigation into the matter.
PEOPLE OF QUANTIUM
Quantium’s citizenry is anything but expected. The city overflows with oddities that walk its streets. Ghorans spread their seeds in preparation of their next life. Constructs walk around with a consciousness or two stuffed into their body. Catfolk and ratfolk chase each other in the warrens of the Nwezi. Fleshwarps and mutants from the countryside lobby for provisions to their clans and circles. Disgraced devils and demons run quaint businesses selling secrets and sorceries. Changelings search for purpose in a city they understand as a font for it. To top it off, Quantium’s definition of “pet” might melt the minds of residents
in most other places. If it’s strange somewhere else and can fit in the capital streets, one will meet it here—so long as it isn’t undead. The determinate net of the word “people” in Nex’s capitol carries a dizzyingly wide definition. It demands its visitors to expect, and accept, the alien.
The more internationally common ancestries within Quantium’s citizenry rest upon a considerable human minority of heavily Garundi, Keleshite, and some Vudrani backgrounds. Some of the eldest and wealthiest of the Keleshite diaspora have significant representation within Quantium’s walls. A healthy number of locals of Bonuwat and Bekyar descent immigrate from the Mwangi Expanse. In a city full of accomplished arcanists, sorcerers and wizards, some of the most impressive mages the city welcomes unsurprisingly hail from Nantambu, though the city’s wanton nature rarely agrees with the Mwangi scholars’ more egalitarian dispositions. Often, their presence is a temporary, academic one in official terms—usually a sign that the Magaambya is investigating some arcane Nexian malaise or is there by Bandesharite request. Distant and unusual genetic unions in the history of this plane-crossed city’s elite see many families of significance living within the Juali who superficially register as human but are revealed as various varieties of tiefling or aasimar descent with closer inspection.
Another notable minority that fills Quantium is the Keenspark gnome population. Their numbers have blossomed in the last millennium because of the diverse selection of arcane and mundane materials acquirable within the city walls, which act as a magnet for their technical curiosity. Their particular and iconoclastic nature largely agrees with most of Quantium’s intrepid self-made fleshwarped—but the veneration of Nex in the city often sees their stereotypically precarious disposition sour. Even with this thinly veiled distaste for the wizard-king’s cult, Keenspark arcanists find fast success in the city, often staying in the subterranean matrix of the Nwezi to study for themselves in urban hermitage.
By contrast to humans, planetouched, and gnomes’ prominence, halflings, dwarves, orcs, and especially elves tend to be somewhat sparse in the capital, preferring the quieter demeanor of Oenopion—though elves are even rarer residents in Oenopion than anywhere else within the nation’s cities. The infrequent representatives of these ancestries residing in Quantium are usually of Avistani or Casmar origin rather than of Garundi background. The Mualijae-descended elves from the Mwangi Expanse find the whole of Nex, especially Quantium, a distastefully wanton place, often only setting foot in the city with specific, reluctant intent. They share this reluctance with mutants of the countryside and Mana Wastes, who are often ignored or overlooked when their physical appearance is too “distracting,” or their demands are too loud—an absurd claim in such a strange city. The outsiders who are sometimes part of these wayward clans find far more success in procuring support from the government, though this struggle is far less an issue for the Manymen mutants (page 248) due to their official representation within the Nine.
Djinni are of pervasive, if not prominent, presence, having helped construct the city by Nex’s wish and will. In tandem with the Elder Architect’s work, they are likely the reason the capital hasn’t capsized to its ancient infrastructural impossibilities. They inhabit the elements of the city, pulling wishes when they want to from Quantium’s numerous desperate. Some do take on a more pedestrian tact in their navigation of the city—and a more carnal exploration of its social circles. Consequently, there is a notable selection of geniekin in the city, many of whom carry blood relation to Quantium’s aristocracy.
Nexus House
Founded by the Pathfinder Adolphus and the radical Bhopanese princess Ganjay, Nexus House is the second-oldest and second-grandest Pathfinder Society lodge. Luxurious and gorgeous, Nexus House hosts a regular series of lectures, garden parties, and other gatherings—most of these events are decades or even centuries old and are woven into the social tapestry of Quantium. Recently, however, creatures from the Spellscar Desert in the Mana Wastes have been targeting Pathfinders, leaving the current vash-vatom increasingly worried. For more information on Nexus House, see page 94 of Pathfinder Lost Omens: Pathfinder Society Guide.
FACTIONS
Quantium possesses a somewhat formal social hierarchy guided predominantly by the families who have inhabited the city the longest—and the Council of Three and Nine—in the wake of Nex’s disappearance: in order of most to least influential, the Bandesharite, the Populasi and Rastrashi, and the Galisite. Though nowhere near comprehensive, the following are some of the most notable groups and factions across the capitol’s social strata.
The Bandesharite: The well-known and reluctantly well-regarded rulers and delegators of the city (by design) and nation (in practice), having forged and maintained longstanding institutional power. A Bandesharite’s votes and words are often the ripples that evolve into the norms of Quantium for the next century, and as such those of this group spend the majority of their time going to and from the great palace of the class’s namesake. The individual members of the Council of Three define the parameters of this space. Some of these individuals have pulled their associated social families up with them—like Praavi Skriiphuveti’s work in establishing the Merchant’s League of Nex. Others have kept their factions at a visible distance to attempt to shield their street-level machinations from the scrutiny of their colleagues. Gen Hendrikan (page 259) is a sterling example of one such personality who’s been keen to maintain public separation with the Keepers of Abraxas.
Her Most Keen Eye: Councilor Iranez’s network of spies and informants, who seek out plots against the nation. Her most immediate concern (which some within the Council would consider oversight) centers the Evisceration of Ecanus rather than the capital itself. In a city where the citizens are on average in three places at once, Iranez’s agents take this tenfold, and she herself one hundred. If they wish to be identified, officials of the Eye—often called the Keen—wrap their heads in turbans in a way that covers their eyes like a half mask with no eye holes. The fabric matches the color of their dark, tailored djyllab, the suits often embroidered with patterns of eyes that are visible only upon close inspection. When investigating, the Keen opt to make themselves completely discreet.
Her Most Keen Eye has the most direct, official ties to Nex’s military in Ecanus. One of their main fronts in the city are His Future Witnesses: skilled artists and artisans who decorate the city with surveillance tools for the Keen, often with iconography of Nex and the mythology surrounding him.
The Breath: The most prominent organization of assassins in Nex, organized by Master Phade (NE male invisible stalker), a member of the Nine. Their operation is rarely personally or economically motivated—such pettiness is left to hedge murderers of Galisite quality. Instead, the Breath are interested in whose words balance the city and state, and whose whispers must be silenced before hampering it. For most outsiders, members are supremely hard to discern unless one is made in the know (or is about to meet one’s fate), often because they keep their dress and cover within agreeable guises, or in rarer cases are literally invisible. A cautious friction has evolved over the past 500 years into a fruitful alliance between Iranez’s keen eye and Phade’s keen blade.
Quantium’s Wish: Something of an anomaly amidst the Bandesharite, Quantium’s Wish is a semi-formalized union of the djinni and aristocratic families run by geniekin in the capital. They occupy this station because of their ancient collaborations with both Nex and Oblosk in realizing Quantium and are instrumental in maintaining the city’s construction in the current age. Because of this, this group is one of the networks of entities with a knowledge of the city’s geography approaching—if not quite equaling—the Elder Architect’s.
The Arclords of Nex: Under Agrellus Kisk’s guidance, the internally conflicted Arclords of Nex are the most overtly propulsive faction across the nation, claiming to know and represent the wizard-king’s vision best of anyone by guidance of his journals, protected and passed down between countless generations of his servants and their descendants. The Evisceration in Ecanus has earned back some needed goodwill for the Arclords after a millennium of their warmongering without justification started to wear on Nex’s citizenry. Members of the Arclords can usually be identified by their (often closed) third eye. The group takes some petty umbrage with Her Most Keen Eye for what they see as a purloined motif—and actual frustration with Iranez’s political disagreements regarding war. To contest the Keen’s authority of national security, the Arclords cling to a rough-hewn station as enforcers of Quantium’s nebulously defined laws and norms in the capital streets.
The Populasi and Rastrashi: The common glue of Quantium, which most forget are necessary for the city’s function and thriving. The Populasi, or “popular interest” of the capital, are the citizens of Quantium of enough wealth, reputation, and energy to lobby for what they see as necessary political measures. What they lack in political push they make up for in community sway and threat—and the Bandesharite are keenly aware of the consequence of crossing groups and individuals who lie within this class. The Rastrashi, or everyday people, are often the most underestimated in their importance to Nex and Quantium’s financial health. Much of this perception likely comes to this designation referring to the average citizen of Quantium—insomuch as anyone can pretend there is a particular standard—and their transient visitors. It’s often overlooked that the cash flow that moves through the city and region from elsewhere keeps the international affairs of Nex’s elite afloat. These are common folks with no larger enterprises of any notability, though some make the transition from passive citizen to engaged occupant and find the threads they’ve stitched in their time in the city comprise a quilt that casts a large shadow. To this end, one may say the difference between the Populasi and Rastrashi comes down to how much one cares about flouting one’s status rather than wielding it.
The Merchant’s League of Nex: This collaborative group organizes the trade of any major commercial entities operating through the nation, giving license to their trade if they have a storefront or transaction site across the nation, imparting taxes if a certain amount of income is earned, and enforcing and settling disputes and unreconciled barter after each season. Because of this diplomacy, high ranking Vendra of the Merchant’s League often serve as civic judges for the wider city—a point of umbrage and threat from Agrellus Kisk and the rest of the Arclords of Nex. Much of this business is officiated outside of the Bandeshar no matter where in the nation it starts, despite the League’s main advocate, Paavi Roh Kenavrii (N female tiefling human barrister), occupying one of the seats of the Nine. Officials of the League wear tailored achkan in simple colors or creamy white. Higher-ranking officials bear handsome sherwani patterned in gold. The Galisite: Every angel battles their demons, every light is sculpted by its shadows, and every city street is connected by its alleys. The Galisite, or alley people, are the perceived beckoners of Quantium’s dark side. Few things are marked as illicit in a city with such apocalyptically renaissance verve as Nex’s capitol, but the Galisite are understood to deal in illicit intent, larceny, murder, trafficking, and other nefarious crimes, with the notion that they fill the alleys with most of the city’s unnaturally dead—and invite them to rise again. In public forums, the groups shoehorned into their ranks are decried and persecuted for their services, but if the ambitions that moved Quantium to action were made more transparent, almost all from top to bottom would be this class. Coming to this realization, the Galisite purveyors of Quantium have often managed to weave their own considerable tapestries of influence and power through the entire strata of the capital. If they aren’t misunderstood or punitively stereotyped, they’re savvy enough to keep in mind that everyone has a bad day and a worse side and because of this, terrible business will always be good and abundant.
Passages of Nex: The most mysterious influences in Nex are various people who resemble slain enemies and victims of the wizard-king himself, who claim to speak for the absent ruler. These individuals are hunted by the Bandesharite, yet find surprisingly dogmatic exultation in the wider citizenry’s talk. They often migrate from the Well of Lies across the country, but more recently have emerged from doorways leading to the Refuge of Nex—which those most in the know take as a harbinger of Nex’s return. The Passages agree, but state that his return will be the end of his nation. The Keepers of Abraxas: Those who act as the librarians of ruinous secrets and are servants of the Demon Lord Abraxas—knowingly or otherwise. Gen Hendrikan (CE male human priest of Abraxas), chief Keeper and Cleric of Abraxas, often posits that Nex himself was the second Librarian of Abraxas, implicating that many of the wonders gluing the capitol together are in fact edges of the Final Incantation the demon lord himself imparted on the great wizard. Today, the Keepers tattoo each other with their lord’s arcane secrets, with certain members being almost exclusively indigo with esoteric ink shrouding their skin.
Scepter of the Arclords
An unfinished artifact constructed by Nex, this magical scepter was claimed by the Arclords after the archmage’s disappearance. Renamed the Scepter of the Arclords, the large rod aided the Arclords in their rise to power in Nex and followed them to their exile in Jalmeray. It was the scepter that enabled one of the greatest crimes in Nex’s history, obliterating the Sunghari people living on Kaina Katakka and reducing much of the island to ash. The Arclords sequestered the scepter in a remote stretch of jungle afterward, and then lost access to it when they were expelled from Jalmeray. With rising fears of war approaching, some among Quantium’s elite now scheme ways they might get the artifact back.
A Skilled Haggler
There are downsides to Quantium’s remarkable tolerance, and while Her Most Keen Eye and the Breath keep wary eye on dangerous visitors, they can often be bribed to let well enough be. Aslynn, an infamous night hag who has made enemies of the Pathfinder Society and sorceress Hao Jin among others, has been a known buyer and trader of magic in Quantium for nearly a century. The hag has never been connected to a magical incident and has been quick to provide gifts of rare magic to local officials, and so her presence has become well established.
CULTURE
Quantium is the most picturesque city in Nex, and its beauty attracts and inspires creation of all sorts, whether that be art, music, writing, or most frequently, magical exploration. The city of Nex’s dreams taught the rest of its inhabitants that they could make their own fantasies a reality. Here, the sacred and profane overlap fiercely, the personal and public blur dangerously, and the obliteration of these boundaries that pervade other, less ambitious cities instead opens doors to something that the wizard-king himself would see as a divine challenge. Find—no, make oneself in the adventures of the arcane: that is Quantium’s charge to all who set foot in it.
The second binary is far clearer cut—that of the dead, and the undead. Should someone be rendered dead in the city, as is true through the rest of Nex, they are also quickly made gone in body and spirit so as to never rise again. A proper death in Quantium leaves behind only a memory, and any dead thing rising again prompts suspicions of Gebbite subterfuge. Finding a decomposing body of anything larger than a house cat in the city once spurned Quantium’s citizenry to request the services of Ecanusi Deathsealers with such frequency that they eventually were stationed within the city at several specially built disposal facilities, now known as Crossings.
Because of Quantium’s competitive and often agitated local politics, a thriving lifestyle in the city is one best assured through a reliable web of association and renown. The locals know this, and they have centered their culture around the actualization of ego. Outside of Nex himself, one’s own being is the most sacred—and such vanity is rarely discouraged among the most powerful residing in the city, when paired with bold ambition and bright aptitude. Attention isn’t inherently good or bad in Nex’s capitol, but it catalyzes whatever web its subject is spinning. Whether they find themselves tangled in their own net or ensnaring their quarry depends on how they use their persona. It’s wise to find one’s mask in Quantium, and only take it off around those one trusts. Through this social game, Quantium’s culture often leads to the creation of various cults of personality from the most voracious egos within the capital. With near as much regularity, the frictions and full-blown conflicts that vibrate through Quantium’s streets see many others possessing weaker wills and murkier visions fall into an actual cult behind them, though the larger groups would rarely admit to it. The city is a den of cadres, circles, and coteries. For all the voracious pursuit of individual dreams, Quantium’s inhabitants find their stability in subscribing to one of its countless factions, whether large or small. With a well-enough-calibrated guise, the most adroit of the capital’s ranks may even forge support for themselves through multiple groups. The most reliable currency under the capital’s social makeup isn’t gold but bartered favors. Expect to pay this way with anything more than rote and think of it as investing in the account of one’s reputation.
Even if Nex was vain, he was—and to the nation’s knowledge, remains—powerful. That power inspires respect and fear in tidelike turns. It’s hard for such a thing not to, with every third person vying to announce their distant ties to the wizard, every second door being decorated with inscrutably romanticized abstractions of his face, and every building being watched over by a larger-than-life statue of him. The pervasive message of the city is simple: be yourself, like Nex was.
With such a focus on the prowess of the self, faith often trends toward gods who preach a means rather than an end. Nethys is as close to a national religion as can be found, without the dictates of the state officially decreeing it. On the darker side of the coin, both Abraxas and Mahathallah find prominent public adherents, though the cruel truths of Mahathallah are somewhat more acceptable than the cutthroat ruthlessness demanded from the demon lord of magic. Irori, with his focus on personal improvement, also finds a popular following among Nex’s nigh-solipsist elite. Among the lower echelons of society, fleshforgers and those who seek to mutate themselves turn to Lamashtu, asking her to guide them toward new and glorious forms. Calistria’s passions and lust for life guide many a Nexian on a path of glorified personal appetite. There are exceptions to this rule, where even the most jaded of residents will put aside their personal aspirations and pay their respects to a higher power. Sarenrae’s kindly tenets might be looked down upon by the more world weary, but her prowess against the undead is not, and no one in Quantium dares publicly blaspheme the good name of the Lady of Graves.
The food in Quantium, at least in restaurants and sit-down spots, is beautiful to behold. The flavors, especially in comparison to the pace set in Oenopion, is less reliably impressive. A large reason for this is the quality of ingredients that come into the city. In theory, seafood is a prominent staple in the capitol due to it being a port city, and the mutated and transformed sea life make for wondrous presentations—and often acquired tastes, although the street food in the Nwezi is a more reliable source of joy for locals than the sit-down eateries in the Juali. Ghoran is even more scarce an ingredient because of the more niche populace than in Oenopion, as there are fewer plantfolk who reseed and offer their discarded body for consumption than in Quantium’s alchemical sibling. There are some specialty chefs who are willing to take on extremely exclusive and expensive dishes for private clients—if a person has ever wanted to eat young umbral dragon, someone here can prepare it and keep the shadow in its blood from suffocating the diner. Just expect a steep price for the service, as the chef likely hunted down the entrée themselves.
The garishness and resplendence of this attitude extends to the aesthetic of the city. Like the colorful, layered, precisely fashioned, and artful architecture of the buildings that wind through—and sometimes, in the Juali, float over—the city streets, the fashions of Quantium’s citizenry carry a similarly dramatic flair. One is bound to see many styles of clothing on the street because of the amount of foot traffic the city attracts, from not only the rest of Nex or Garund but the globe and other planes. Those who choose to live in the city, however, tend to adopt some common hallmarks of Quantium fashion.
Most common of fashions in the capitol is the genderless djyllab as a standard piece for most who wander the streets in a more-or-less humanoid frame. It is a somewhat loose-fitting robe that typically terminates at just around the ankles and slips over one’s head. Often the djyllab is hooded and is worn over other clothing—though a common jape at galas and soirees held by confident socialites is for the host to wear nothing underneath. For some beings, the djyllab is adorned with secrets; spells are embroidered around the neckline and down the front and back or stitched into the seams connecting the robe’s arms to its plunging middle. Whether robes, coats, vests, or cloaks, one can tell a Quantium garment by its embellishments and decorations, and these details are almost always enchanted as well. It’s appropriate fashion for a city whose people have almost as much to hide as they are keen to show.
Mahathallah
One of the Queens of the Night, Mahathallah and her followers meditate on the mysteries of the cosmos and seek out fate-changing knowledge. They are known to cruelly veil or reveal the truth at their own whims, though they typically view themselves as above others. Due to Mahathallah’s allegiance to Hell, her worship is discouraged in most nations, but the people of Nex welcome the insights of her clergy.
Preserved Lemons
Salted lemons imported from Katapesh make a strong addition to many Quantium dishes and help cover some of the aftertastes caused by magical pollution. The following recipe can be used to create preserved lemons to add a sharp, but not overpowering, element to a meal.
Ingredients
Lemons
Salt
Quarter and seed whole lemons. Cover the bottom of a large glass jar with salt. Press the lemon quarters firmly into the jar to create a layer of fruit, then cover them with another layer of salt. Repeat until the jar is full, ending with a layer of salt. Leave the jar in the pantry for one month before using.
GOVERNMENT
The Council of Three and Nine, established in 578 ar, is the ruling government body holding Nex together through internal contention as much as it is through collaboration. It defines the nation but is shaped by bureaucracy and its own members’ stratagems—frequently as self-serving as they are in service to Nex’s whole. The Nine are representatives of various significant entities who are the movers and shakers of the arcane machine Nex has become. Two- thirds of the currently composed Nine live within Quantium, though they and their affiliated groups by proxy presume to represent the entire nation. Their seats are in hot contest, and nomination to the Nine is subject to the explicit discretion of the Three.
In stark contrast to the Nine, the Three of the Council take a more stable role in Nex’s composition—serving their tenure until either confirmed death, resignation, or otherwise comparable incapability to rule. While the Nine can voraciously lobby for their issues and concerns to the Three, the former’s station is ultimately to perform the tasks delegated to them by the latter. The Three are the true final word in Nex, and any contentious decision that comes to a vote for the nation’s fate is kept within their own private rapport, with the results announced by Bralza (N female elf priest), the High Cleric of Pharasma and the most reliably impartial of the Nine. This impartiality, combined with her attentiveness to all exchanges of the Council within the Bandeshar, has made her the unofficial speaker of the nation.
To deal with each other and massage the nation into the shape they think is best, the Three attempt to disguise their own agendas through clandestine politic and leveraging different aspects of their subordinates and national charge against each other. In theory, they embody the continuing word and intent of Nex, but this goal is only reality in stops and starts. In any age of Nex’s history, at least two of the elected Three work predominantly from their own ambition, and often the Nine become reluctant proxies of their agendas. The people of Quantium and the wider nation have acclimated to what appears as inaction as a result, despite the amount that truly happens behind closed doors to continue changing—without improving—Nex.
The Council has kept the shape of its concept from some four millennia ago, but the details are less stable. To the outsider, the most consistent aspect of Nex’s ruling body in the last two centuries are the aforementioned Three. The first is Elder Architect Oblosk, the famed castellan of the Bandeshar and chief author of Quantium’s major architectural identity, besides Nex himself. Next is Iranez of the Orb, who serves as the prime and divinatory eyes and ears of the city and its larger state. Finally, the ambitious Agrellus Kisk, the preeminent member of the Arclords of Nex who seeks to revive the ancient war with Geb as he and his fellow Arclords surmise the wizard-king would have intended—they see the tenuous mercantile relationship slowly forged over the last two millennia as an egregious affront to Nex’s wishes. The present Nine have largely stayed stable for the greater part of this present decade. The master alchemist and prime fleshforger’s seats have nary been in question, nor have those of Gen Hendrikan, Master Phade, and the High Clerics of both Nethys and Pharasma. This is perhaps because this current body works as a more direct means to guide the nation than the Three contending with each other.
In function, council meetings yield to more violently shifting sands when held under the glass for examination. Iranez of the Orb has long massaged the nation toward more and more functional and regular trade with Nex’s once-dire rival Geb from her seat of supremacy amid the Three. She has often found support from the Elder Architect in the last millennium for forging true stability in a new age for a city and nation that will never see its progenitor’s return. Agrellus Kisk has been near-universally outvoted in his comparably slight 100-year tenure during council meetings in the Bandeshar, and he’s turned to abusing the Nine to his own ends. He, as well as most of the Arclords of Nex, have wanted to reawaken the arcane war once waged against Geb. The past 5 years have seen the Arclord more vocal about his and his fellow Arclords’ self-righteously bloody ambitions in both the largely apathetic public eye and amid his colleagues of the Council.
More concerning still, Elder Architect Oblosk has failed to attend the last four years of seasonal council meetings at the Bandeshar. With a mind that seemed to only sharpen with his ancient age and his peerless knowledge of seemingly every nook, cranny, and shadow of Quantium—let alone the Bandeshar, which he directly governs—it’s become an uneasy joke amidst the Nine that the exalted kasesh (page 330) may be lost somewhere in the palace walls, city streets, or even the Crux of Nex. This poses an acute question holding many dark truths as an answer: what keeps the Elder Architect indisposed if he is not, in fact, deceased, and why do his colleagues of the Three continue to maintain the facade of his involvement in the nation’s affairs?
While the ever-changing roster of representatives who comprise the Nine of the Council attempt to chip away at the mystery, Iranez of the Orb and Agrellus Kisk seem to have forged an uneasy truce in their negotiations, using the Elder Architect as their negotiation tool and speak for him in their interests. Whatever the reasoning, more concrete evidence of Oblosk’s true absence would provoke a divine appointment—a failsafe the Council itself devised in 580 ar to maintain itself and the hypothetical peace among Nex’s rulers—where the gods Pharasma and Nethys themselves establish new members of the Three to replace any they see unfit with members of the current Nine, by that ancient agreement’s esoteric arrangement. At the least, this explains why the Council has near always had the High Cleric of both gods within the Nine’s rank. This circumstance, should it occur, would be the first time it has happened in the nation’s history. The Nine and other Quantium people and factions of significance have noted Oblosk’s likely absence. Many moderate-scale personalities in the city have set to investigating the kasesh’s whereabouts in the hopes of forcing the divine appointment and consequently climbing their way into the Nine.
All of this is to say, regarding Quantium itself, that the capital has had little real governance from its leadership and a large amount of exploit. The people of the city have been largely left to self-govern day by day with only the absolute of the Council’s wishes as their true boundaries of regulation, and the city’s culture acting as its policy. With a possible divine appointment on the horizon, the city presents a powerful ladder to climb for its most ambitious agents.
The Nine
There’s considerable competition for places among the Nine, and seats that prove unstable often wield less leverage with Quantium’s movers and shakers generally expecting them to be replaced. The current members of the Nine are as follows.
Bralza, high cleric of Pharasma Elemion, representative of the wasteland clans
Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar, representative of Ecanus
Gen Hendrikan, senior cleric of the demon lord Abraxas
Master Alchemist Borume, representative of Oenopion
Master Phade, an invisible stalker known for his full-body leather armor
Paavi Roh Kenavrii, advocate for the Merchant’s League of Nex
Taraneh Mazdani, djinn representative of Quantium’s Wish
Tatleen, high cleric of Nethys
LOCATIONS
The following are a sample of some of the most prominent locations found in Quantium.
THE BANDESHAR
The highest point of the city is the tallest minaret extending from the top of the Bandeshar’s most central dome. The administrative palace is the most iconic feature of the city, a sprawling form seemingly carved from the silver light of the moon and often lit in dancing arcane illuminations of pink, blue, and turquoise. Unsurprisingly, it is near peerless in its architectural form and beauty. Outsiders are never allowed in without express permit, even if they could find their way in to traverse the Bandeshar. If they were, they would likely be lost within its labyrinthine plan, and even officials who answer directly to the Council often need appointed guides to navigate the space. Though secrets abound that have been built into the city by Nex, his contemporary followers, and the ever-tacit Elder Architect, some of his most potent are rumored to lie within the palace itself. Three of those secrets are the location of three of the eight remaining cubes of force created by the great wizard over four millennia ago—those of the schools of evocation, necromancy, and transmutation. Its construction continues deep into the earth for a rumored half mile below the lowest point of the Nwezi. Within the deepest dungeons of the Bandeshar is the long-sealed entrance to one of the original gates to the Refuge of Nex. The rest of the city has seen yet-undiscovered (and possibly new) doorways to the demiplane after the original gates’ reopening, with all sorts of denizens coming forth from each doorway carrying messages they claim are from a reawakening Nex.
THE NETWORK OF NINETEEN
A colorful cluster of doorways and portals run through the intermittent flats and storefronts of the Nwezi, as well as the doorways, windows, crisscrossing steps, and colonnade that connect them. Every nineteenth day, any alcove of these deep-set urban warrens at the east quarter of the undercity may double as a numerous network of passages between all the known planes of existence, and countless other demiplanes both well established and made by the citizenry’s hand. Most of these planes and the travelers between them are officially recognized and permitted, but certain passages are deemed illegal by the Arclords of Nex and aggressively sought out by Her Most Keen Eye for closing by the former faction’s agents. The Maelstrom, Abaddon, and the Shadow Plane are marked as the most dangerous and punishable avenues that see regular use on any given Crossing Day, but it isn’t hard to bribe one’s way out of such trouble with arcana brought back from these places if the curio proves useful to the Bandesharite.
THE SCRIVENBOUGH
Most peoples’ knowledge of the infamous Scrivenbough only scratches the surface of the controversial library. Abraxas’s library, which operates in service to the Material Plane’s most niche arcane knowledge, can be found easily in the east side of the Nwezi, near where the docks open into the city’s under-layer. Its unmistakable brick-red, four-story cylinder is anchored in the Nwezi’s architectural sea of blue, purple, turquoise, and white; the sight seduces many esoteric connoisseurs. As a library, the Scrivenbough is excellent, but its best service is reserved for those willing to procure wayward secrets from across the globe and planes to contribute to its collection—a task often involving some purloining from owners ranging from nobles to gods.
Those who’ve performed such favors often are offered a place as a Keeper of Abraxas, having a new, unique segment of the Final Incantation a word that Abraxas claims can annihilate the existence of magic—tattooed upon them as a reward. These Keepers of Abraxas learn how expansive the library truly is (many of the interconnected structures in the network of doors and windows that are Quantium’s above and below are punctuated with buildings of red resembling the original Scrivenbough, which were not present even 300 years ago), and they are designated as custodians and librarians of the Scrivenbough proper.
Rumors persist that a few extremely lucky or unlucky visitors to the Scrivenbough have encountered the demon lord Abraxas himself. Those who claim such an encounter note the demon was uninterested in fighting and instead sought to discuss magical theory with his visitors (although presumably those who found Abraxas in a fouler mood would fail to return to tell of the tale). Notably, every person who claims such an encounter believes they revealed an important secret to the demon lord, but now has no recollection what that secret is.
WARLOCK’S WALK
Quantium’s most popular park stands in stark contrast to the shrouded, dark secrets of the palace. Spanning a swath of unparalleled supernatural biodiversity, this outdoor park at the west rim of the Juali serves as the primary parade ground for the city. The Walk, as it’s often called, takes on a vast array of rotating guises through the course of a year due to the array of holidays Quantium entertains. Artists and performers, living just north of it in a series of neighborhoods that have become informal creative communes, don’t hesitate to capitalize on the revelries. The Walk is one of the most calming locales of Quantium on days without celebration, often filled with young adepts studying their notes and sharing their secrets over picnics in the sunlight. It’s also one of the few places not overwhelmed by lamplight in Quantium, even above the Nwezi.
The most consistent draw is the simple pleasure of watching the Vizier’s Fountain, a massive marble creation matching the materials of the palace, where the waters within dance in graceful, hypnotic gouts. Near annually, there are claims to a wish being granted to altruistic souls assisting more impoverished individuals than themselves, leading the Walk’s most frequent visitors to speculate that the Vizier refers not to Nex, but a long-trapped noble djinni who tried to contest the wishes of the Council of Three and Nine.
Abraxas
The demon lord of forbidden magic, Abraxas is the patron of those who seek knowledge at any price. His clergy in Nex is somewhat more pragmatic, in exchange for their faith being tolerated within the nation; massacring rivals and performing murderous rituals is generally frowned upon, as it attracts the wrong sort of attention from powerful figures. His worshippers instead keep their rites and secrets within the depths of the Scrivenbough, presenting a pleasant public face as they provide the rest of Nex with rare books and scrolls.
WASHPORT
The mile-wide series of ports that welcome ships sailing in from the Obari, as well as the swill from the Miasmere, are collectively referred to as the Washport. As it is the most open gap in the city’s plan, stepping straight into the Nwezi at the east rim of the city, it’s heavily guarded by Ecanusi Wards. Complex aqueducts built into the port’s landing and through the middle layers of the Nwezi move water through the city by seemingly impossible routes. The most critical waterways have marids who purify the water as it moves into and out of these sections. The rest works through intermittently effective filtration that needs replacing near annually from the caustic pollution of the Miasmere. The port is bifurcated by a wide, tunneling channel that carries ships of special cargo straight to the Bandeshar under many layers of the surrounding city. It is managed by a shahzada—a noble marid—named Oorine, who is one of the prominent members of Quantium’s Wish and a distant grand aunt of Imirh the Amaranthine (page 285).
IMPORTANT FACES
Elder Architect Oblosk (LN male kasesh ancient; page 330) is the designer of the Bandeshar and its governor—as well as the architect behind much of the city planning in tow with Nex himself, designing many of the city’s most instrumental civic buildings. The Elder Architect holds significance for three clear reasons in Quantium and Nex as a whole. The first is that he is the eldest member of the current Three within the Council, and indeed the only one within the Three and Nine to know the nation’s wizard-king personally. The second is that the wise kasesh was often the most civic minded of the Three, no matter who else shared the other two seats with him. He often speaks of himself as the gravity in Nex’s dreams, and the evidence of his influence over the capital city leaves an undeniable impression that this representation of himself is accurate—and that attentiveness to the nation’s needs within the Three has only started to be matched by Iranez in the last half-millennia of Nex’s history.
The most significant thing about Oblosk, however, is his recent absence in the Council of Three and Nine’s meetings, which have seen his colleagues speaking in his stead under the guise of private meetings that are only need to know for the trio. These kinds of discussions are not abnormal for the Three, but Oblosk’s lack of semi-public appearances or even direct conference to the Nine are a point of concern. His whereabouts and status have become the door to Nex’s political future to many outside of the Three. His cohorts who speak for him currently share the key.
Historical Mystery
The incident that led to Alkenstar’s founder, Ancil Alkenstar, fleeing from Quantium remains a source of curiosity among some—despite Ancil Alkenstar being long dead. Few doubted the ingenuity of Alkenstar, who had contributed to many of the most spectacular inventions of Quantium in his decades of service to the Council of Three and Nine, and many saw his escape to the Mana Wastes as an event odd enough to warrant further attention.
Iranez of the Orb (N female human witch) is a powerful witch who runs on secrets, and the rare example of someone who has become more mindful in her hold of systemic power as the years pass. It would be hard to not gain some perspective after living over 4,000 years—and more importantly, in the undead-averse nation of Nex, having died once only 30 years into her mortal lease. Such a secret in this place would bring with it a level of wisdom and caution that few could ever expect to match—but Iranez’s cause of death was also her bridge into the service and eventual governance of Nex, and her brief demise was at the hand of the wizard-king’s Elder Architect.
Iranez was originally a Gebbite witch who would watch the memories of her former rival nation’s most significant dead through complex divinations and devise plots against Nex for the necromancer Geb. She found an opportunity to take a direct chance on the Archmage’s life, which led to him creating the Refuge of Nex in 209 ar because of the effectiveness of her attack. It was the Elder Architect who eventually trapped her within the most secret architectural shiftings of the Bandeshar in the Archwizard’s stead, and in a great struggle had her killed. Oblosk realized both her aptitude and her potential asset to his kingdom and made an esoteric deal with Pharasma (with Nex’s unexpected permission) for her to live again in his service.
The goddess complied after much negotiation of Nex’s mysterious offers—supposedly to cease his empty prayers when she had graver things to tend to. Iranez’s death remains her little secret with Oblosk today, as well as her method of hiding it from Ecanus’s Deathsealers.
Though it was clear that Nex could defeat the witch again, if need be, he was quick to offer her more significant status and purpose than her former necromantic liege, by proxy of Oblosk. In 210 ar, Iranez’s career as a significant representative of the Nexian government began as she became the first Spiritforger of Ecanus’s Prime Body. Her aptitude for espionage of the magical and mundane saw her hold that position for three millennia, setting up many defenses to obscure any divinatory vulnerabilities that the nation’s necromantic rival could angle. In 3302 ar, she would briefly be brought into the Council of Three and Nine after establishing Her Most Keen Eye. A decade later she would be brought to the seat of the Three.
The last hundred years have been a strain on the complicated friendship she and Oblosk have hard forged over the past four millennia, after she reluctantly agreed to Agrellus Kisk’s promotion to the Three a century ago. The Arclord’s voracious pursuit of war has coincided with some convenient justifications for reigniting war in the region (such as the Evisceration of Ecanus), which have affirmed Kisk’s trustworthiness to the nation he claims to serve. Unfortunately, if her old friend Oblosk retains his silence, she must speak for some approximation of him until she finds something to confirm her suspicions in the Arclords’ leader’s hand in the Architect’s thinly veiled disappearance—as well as his sabotage of Ecanus and the nation’s wider security.
Agrellus Kisk (LE male human arclord) is the leader of the often-discordant but powerful Arclords of Nex, and the prime reason that a significant amount of the nation still wants to reignite war with Geb. After the Evisceration of Ecanus, he was the first to assume that the accident was in fact a Gebbite attack, despite Iranez’s thorough investigations in concert with Principle Fleshforger Palovar proving otherwise. Her Most Keen Eye’s iris is fixed heavily on him, as Iranez holds Kisk under intense scrutiny and considers his assertions suspicious given the recent peace between the two nations.
Even more suspiciously, Kisk has been working closely with Master Alchemist Borume to create new fleshforged soldiers through the Oenopion Fleshforges Guild after Dunn Palovar denied him (with the other two of the Three’s support). Still, Kisk has continued to mobilize the agenda of war within the country to startling effectiveness, even seeing the Arclords at the most coherent they have been in centuries under his pursuit of a largely rote conflict. Despite being the youngest and newest member of the Three, Agrellus Kisk’s presence in Nex’s ruling body has been exposing and exploiting cracks that run many millennia deep into Nex’s scourged soil.
Mistriine Ohnza (LN female velstrac escort) runs the Hands of Varied Touch: a network of pleasure purveyors coordinated by the unusually mobile and public velstrac. Appointments and arrangements can always be made in one of the lobbies of their Handhouses between each Crossing Day, but any arrangement with one of the Handhouses starts at one Crossing Day and ends at the next—ample time for her and her Ritehands to extract the secrets of the capital from Populasi to Galisite one pleasure or pain at a time. If she’s being compensated for it, she’s willing to act as Quantium’s preeminent gossip as well.
The time managing a broad staff of employees from the Material Plane may have softened her just enough to make her a bit of an anomaly to her kin, with the euphoria and despondency becoming less and less life threatening with each year. By contrast, her staff and the city’s commoners have suggested that she’d make for a wonderful member of the Council. She often reminds them with good humor that Nex doesn’t work that way, but the rumors that drift her way from the occasional Bandesharite visit tell her that could change very soon.
Smuggled Goods
With the trade nation of Katapesh a simple river ride north of Quantium, the capital provides an attractive base for smugglers. While these caravans are only mildly illegal, Nex’s merchant league spends a reasonable amount of effort on curtailing such operations, and the Council of Three and Nine occasionally break up contraband rings out of general principle.
Ecanus
- The military heart of Nex, Ecanus was the war engine that churned out golems and flesh-wrought horrors to clash against the legions of Geb. It remains stalwart to its purpose of defense to this day, fighting a war against the consequences of the atrocities the citizens’ predecessors committed.
The stench of freshly exposed viscera, digestion, and rolling magic wafts across the fortress city of Ecanus. The source isn’t the active fleshforges once responsible for manufacturing the monumental terrors mobilized against Geb’s forces, but a wound in the city. Fourteen years ago, a district-wide spill of gore burst out from the southeast wall of the military holding and spilled into the corresponding quarter. The explosion of consuming flesh had erupted from one of the eight war factories bordering the city in an event known as the Evisceration. Since then, the viscera spilling from the ruptured fleshforge has spread from its point of origin like a sore infection. The district-wide mass of living tissue might appear fresh as newly spilled guts, but this corruption at the base of the nation’s otherwise marvelous and terrifying military frontline makes for an apt metaphor: something is devastatingly rotten in Nex.
Other aspects of the city reinforce this theme. Ecanus, now known for producing the towering, terrifying flesh constructs and titans that menace Nex’s countryside, the Mana Wastes, and even the eastern rim of the Mwangi Expanse, solidified Nex’s martial might through two avenues: deeply formidable battle mages and the crafted horrors created from the nation’s fleshforges. The latter is starting to fail, first with the oldest fleshforges sputtering in their sparser use, then with the newest erratically churning out horrors without any known command. With one of the assumed reliable forges erupting in the Evisceration, the strain to save face has begun to weigh on Ecanus’s leader, Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar, and the army who works under him to protect the magical nation.
He isn’t alone in the endeavor. The two other members of Ecanus’s internal ruling body have given the Principle Fleshforger the bandwidth to recalibrate in this turbulent era of the city and wider nation, but the tensions are starting to crack Dunn Palovar and his supports. Thus far, he has managed to maintain the delicate balancing act between each major Nexian city’s magical protections, placating or eliminating any rogue fleshcrafted thing threatening the roads of the Circulation between the cities and steering through reluctant peace with Geb—but Dunn Palovar’s subordinates bristle for war after the Evisceration, even over a decade later. With the possible return of the nation’s wizard-king being foreshadowed through the magical ether, many in the nation are eager to please their ruler through reigniting Nex’s obsolete conflict. Dunn Palovar knows that war, especially given the vulnerable state of the nation’s first line of defense, is untenable with Geb. How many of his own must he silence, banish, or kill to stop a war abroad before his own colleagues wage one against him?
The recent and grievous wound in the city poses a dire set of questions for the nation’s survival: what or who caused the Evisceration? Was it an act of terrorism from some forgotten enemy of Nex? Was it a Gebbite attack? Many citizens believe the latter even as they hope it isn’t the case. The Prime Body of Ecanus thinks differently, and Dunn Palovar is one to look inward. His mind tells him the threat comes from within. His ego moves him to accuse his Master Alchemist rival in Oenopion, but that’s too convenient an answer. He and his city might have to look elsewhere within Nex to save the nation. Whatever the wound is in Nex, it falls to Ecanus and its people to heal—again.
A DAY IN ECANUS
Ecanus rises early and sleeps as promptly. It rouses by the day’s fourth hour, with Skirmish School students running through their morning conditioning to a tolling bell chime. They extinguish the street torches that hang at the corner of each block across Ecanus’s grid. By sunset, strict quiet hours are enforced with fines, lashes, or custodial duties for any disturbances of peace. The placid environment is instrumental for the vigilance that Ecanus strives for. These hours provide the space for city guards to keep up their watch to the hilt. Most of the city is a place of practiced quiet, even after the Evisceration, but tension runs through the streets thicker than blood. Ecanus’s militant composure quakes with paranoia. The city now walks a terse, teetering march.
A day in Ecanus is largely defined by the residents’ rank and station within Nex’s military. The city isn’t a place that can be easily traversed without a guide. This isn’t because it’s a difficult place to navigate—its wide boulevards and simple grid make getting around comparably easier than Oenopion and Quantium—but because it has so many areas meant for official traffic and no one else. Trying to enter numerous residential buildings in the city without a permit or appointed escort sees many travelers refuted, if not interrogated and investigated. The latter reaction is especially common since the Evisceration turned a fourth of the city into a living, growing organ.
Most locals are quiet, and there’s a sense that many of the common Wards who cycle the streets have blinders on toward a purpose. The more colorful a passerby in Ecanus, the more likely they either have a specific goal that should be left unimpeded—as they likely hold high rank in the military and specific agendas than the more plainly uniformed Wards patrolling in trios along the roads—or they’re likely to be arrested and dismissed from the city, on a good day. Initiates going through their “shaping” in the Skirmish School spend their time predominately in its campus and dorms in the northwest quarter of the city. Their morning is devoted to physical conditioning and both martial and magical combat training once the extinguishing ritual is completed. The afternoon and early evening are devoted to study and theory, and the late evening can be spent in leisure on campus provided the initiate is where they’re expected the next day and functioning effectively enough to internalize their lessons. Any prolonged unimpressive performance is made up for with the traumatic and dangerous Mindstreaming process to compensate the compromised time and effort of an underperforming initiate.
Fully shaped Wards still have a rigid schedule. Most of it involves guarding the city or guiding civilians, but often a Ward will be scooped away for missions by superiors—usually searches or even preemptive attacks against suspicious parties approaching the nation. When not out on assignment for a mission, many Wards also act as couriers for officers within the city walls or are set to working and maintaining the fleshforges or guiding those still suggestible fleshwarps headed toward Ecanus back into the countryside. Most Wards don’t have much time to cook for themselves and sleep at erratic hours due to shifts that keep them energized but not on a particularly normalized schedule. In rare unstructured moments, they dig into the provisions they often carry on their person due to the likelihood of having to leave the city for their duties.
The days of high ranking Wards (and officials who hold positions outside of the conventional hierarchy governing the Ecanusi military) are led more by tasks scheduled to be completed by a set time rather than the more rigid schedules of their subordinates. They largely enforce the schedules for the rest of the Wards in the city and coordinate other personnel of Ecanus, such as the cooks, custodians, and miscellaneous laborers referred to as Ecanusi “Shapesiblings.” These Wards have leeway to manage their duties as they see fit. If a Flesh, Spirit, or Mindward—the Ecanusi terms for administrative Wards of various types—is organized enough to keep their own affairs sorted and keep the cohort they oversee on task as well, they find themselves with a surprising amount of free time to use as they will.
Both low and high-ranking Wards tend to become rather insular because of the pressure to be constantly alert and attentive while working for Nex’s military. In private moments between delegated duties, Ecanusi military personnel speak of their anxieties, fears, hopes and memories through their tenure—even if it means sacrificing some of their sleep for this kind of rapport. The food in Ecanus might not be the most flavorful of the nation, mostly dried ghoran-provided rations and easily prepared grains, but it’s shared during some of the most intense communal bonds forged in Nex. An outsider wouldn’t suspect it from the rigidity and tension often displayed by the Wards, but behind closed doors, in the wealth of shared lodgings of the dorms of the Skirmish School or the many shared apartments housing the Ecanusi populace, the military’s claims to family deepen one night at a time.
That connection extends up the ranks, as higher-ranking officials do what they can to maintain their familial connection with their colleagues and charges. The most wholesome manifestation of this effort is the tradition of higher-ranking Wards cooking once a week for the teams they’re responsible for—or commissioning someone else to do so if they never had the chance to learn such a skill. This communal care is a tacit expectation that runs through Ecanus’s military, hoping that the created sense of family will lead to a loyal military force.
ECANUS SETTLEMENT 15
LN CITY
Government appointed administrator
Population 23,400 (90% humans, 3% gnomes, 1% ghorans, 6% other)
Languages Kelish, Osiriani, Vudrani
Religions Aakriti, Abadar, Irori, Nethys, Pharasma
Threats military discipline, rogue fleshforged, the Awful
Major Militarization The overzealous and often intentionally traumatized military police of Ecanus impose strict curfews, ask for papers, and just generally don’t trust anyone. The military police’s attitude toward anyone they don’t immediately recognize, especially foreigners, is one step worse than usual.
Dunn Palovar (N male human alchemist 16) principle fleshforger of Ecanus
Hectela Djaq (LE female human psychic 15) principle mindforger of Ecanus Imirh the Amaranthine (CN male undine socialite 11) principle spiritforger of Ecanus
A YEAR IN ECANUS
Wards from Ecanus have an immaculate awareness of time and date drilled into them to support both the magical processes they’re taught and to maintain the detailed tasks that define active duty—day to day, month to month, season to season, and year to year. To simplify the learning curve of their schedules, Wards of Ecanus work on active duty for half the year, alternating their service between each season that passes by Golarion’s standard calendar. A newly shaped Ward who starts their tenure in the fall will see their next active duty in the next year’s spring, and then the next fall after that. Should too many neonates finish their shaping or Mindstreaming to make them fit for their responsibilities at the same time, the organizing Wards work with Watchers—Wards who record and convey data and information in Ecanus—to restructure new schedules so that some have time off before their tenure begins, though they’re encouraged to stay in the city and get to know its rhythms well.
Off-duty Wards aren’t exempt from their responsibilities. Part of their shaping in Skirmish School is in cursory divination practice, supplementing their heavy evocation curriculum and allowing off-duty Wards within Nex to be contacted for their assistance no matter where in the nation they are. The sensation of being contacted is often likened to gravity shifting in the pit of one’s stomach until it feels like the arrow of a compass pointing in a particular direction. This is the Call of the Ward, which high-ranking Wards can employ to rally their subordinates to action. Unless they’re part of the Prime Body, it isn’t typically possible for a call to tug at a Ward’s senses beyond the bounds of Nex. Because of this limitation, all of a Ward’s national and international travel while on duty must be carefully documented. While off-duty, permission to travel is very selectively granted, and even then, only after approval of a Watcher. Of course, anyone who was brought into Ecanus’s military family as a government deal to evade imprisonment in the Valkus Isle can’t leave the nation while they’re off-duty, as the expected default.
As a result of this thoroughly scheduled rigor, the weeks and months of the Ecanusi year proceed smoothly. The regimented obligations assigned to each inhabitant of Ecanus keep the Wards and their Shapesiblings from distraction, and the shifting duties for on-duty Wards from week to week keep them from stagnating. Tasks for a freshly initiated on-duty Ecanusi Ward are usually divided between time spent in the city and outside it. City duty usually lasts twice as long as time outside Ecanus—or roughly two months within the city’s walls balanced by one month spent traversing the Mana Wastes or the treacherous Nexian countryside.
As Wards continue to serve as defenders of the nation, they’re eventually promoted, most commonly to the status of Krata—or guardian—which yields greater responsibility and more flexible schedules. Nwilikrata, or Fleshguards, spend nearly all of their time on duty within the walls of Ecanus unless on a very specific assignment. They’re the city’s last line of defense and thus the most potent magical infantry Ecanus can deploy in a crisis. Often, Nwilikrata spend their time assisting the Attendi in tending to the fleshforges, patrolling the city, working as medics, and, more recently, leading Scabs in their attempt to quell and heal the Awful. Dunn Palovar technically oversees the Nwilikrata schedules, but lately he has left it to Nwilikrata officers below him as he focuses on the theorized return of Nex and the question of active threat from Geb.
Akilikrata, the Mindguard, are seen as the strategists of Ecanus and the middle managers of Nex’s military configuration. The Chief Mindforger of Ecanus acts as the representative and proxy of the Akilikrata to Dunn Palovar. Because of their involvement in the well-being of the wider nation, Akilikrata spend the most time outside of Ecanus, but they spend almost as little time as the Nwilikrata outside the nation. Their obligations carry them from city to city and claimed territories before pulling them back to Ecanus intermittently to report on the state of Nex. Some deeply experienced Akilikrata do end up stationed at satellite outposts—bunkers in the wastes or in the wilds of the region staffed with a contingent of handpicked Wards—but they rarely are used for more roving travel throughout or outside of the nation. The purpose of a Mindguard’s working year is to investigate and convey information to the rest of Ecanus to help them in their military preparations.
Rohokrata, the Spiritguard, are the speakers for Nex’s military, and their chain of command is designated directly by the Chief Spiritforger. As liaisons, diplomats, merchants, and spies, the Rohokrata are the most well-traveled members of Ecanus’s forces. Their natural charisma makes them hard to spot outside of the city unless they want to be seen, and that same charisma makes them popular within its walls. Because the nature of their work keeps them up to date on affairs within the nation and the broader whole of Garund, they often bring small revelries and holidays from their travels back into Ecanus, which the wider city is remiss to officiate due to the ongoing security needs of the nation and the tensions that have started to climb after the Evisceration. Most Rohokrata spend about a fortnight of each of their months on duty in the city—and that pocket of time is rarely consecutive, as there’s always a new diplomatic truce to broker or a suspicion of foreign interference to investigate.
Useful Vocabulary
Attendi: The technicians of Ecanus, who tend to the fleshforges.
The Awful: The lethal fleshforged viscera that covers a large potion of the city of Ecanus.
Mindstreaming: The dangerous and traumatic process of training a soldier by psychically forcing memories of combat experience into their mind. Prime Body: The Principle Mindforger, Fleshforger, and Spiritforger, who make up the first authority on government matters in Ecanus. Scab: Wards who spend their terms undertaking the dangerous work of trying to quell the Awful.
Shaping: The process of being trained into a soldier; “boot camp.” Shapesibling: A person who helps directly support military personnel through cooking, cleaning, and other necessary functions.
Ward: A member of Ecanus’s military. Watchers: Wards who record and convey data and information in Ecanus.
The Darklands
Perhaps due to its highly educated and magical populace, or perhaps due to its exceptionally tolerant nature, the Impossible Lands tend to be in much greater contact with the subterranean societies that stretch across most of Golarion. Most notably, drow aren’t an odd sight in the region, though their sensitivity to sunlight means the majority still prefer to remain underground.
PEOPLE OF ECANUS
Nex isn’t a nation that places value on traditional definitions of family, but the people of Ecanus who choose to live in the city see their fellow citizens as siblings and their wider countryfolk as close cousins. They’re the officially recognized Wards of Nex, and while it’s a responsibility that they project onto the residents of the other cities of the nation, they often take their responsibility very seriously, going to the lengths of their abilities to perform their duty. Any questioning of the state has been drilled out of them by their tenure and replaced with a chorus echoing concerns over Nex’s stability and solace. That’s how it has been for a long time, since open war with Geb had subsided to frigid placidity.
Because there’s still prevalent enthusiasm in Nex for a reignited war with Geb, Ecanus is never particularly starved for more volunteers. People from across the nation, motivated by fear or excitement at the prospect of renewed conflict, steadily trickle into Nex’s first line of defense, saying that’s what Nex would expect of them—and implying that his nation should be doing more to stop the undead threat of Geb before that nation’s hostility rises from its grave. Then again, there are also miscreants taken from across the nation and presented with the choice of either magical imprisonment on Valkus Isle or their fealty to the Nexian military. Even with the traumatizing rigor that the latter holds, most jump at the opportunity to become a Wasteward to avoid the eldritch horrors of the imprisoning isle. Ecanus’s resulting demographic pool is wide. Unsurprisingly, a prominent number of the city’s inhabitants are humans, gnomes, and plane-touched, just as in Quantium, but Nex’s first line of defense is less varied—mostly because it accepts a far narrower sampling of its stranger citizens due to its relatively standardized military resources. Tieflings and orcs often make their way into wider acceptance in Nex by first becoming Wards in Ecanus, while the occasional drow—or stranger denizens like plane-bound, low-grade devils, and other extraplanar denizens—are folded into Nex’s military as a means of keeping tabs on these mistrusted parties when they enter the region.
Ecanus offers many other roles to play in the defense of its nation. Shapesiblings take up domestic stations in the city to support the Wards within Ecanus’s boundaries. Watchers accompany Ward patrols to document their exploits or record the daily workings of the city. There are many other titles that the residents fall into, just as a family has many different designations to organize its relatives, but they all serve to keep Nex a cohesive body rather than a chaotic bramble.
After their initiation through the Skirmish School, a Ward might live within Ecanus’s walls without lodging or living expenses so long as they tend to their duties faithfully. The trade is worth it for most. Wards from Ecanus are bound to encounter danger during their tenure: quelling the dangerous wild and magical beasts that threaten Nex’s three most instrumental cities, subduing wayward mutant clans from the wastes that threaten travelers within the nation, or—most dangerously—defeating the gargantuan fleshwarped monstrosities roaming the country when they start to spiral into visceral frenzy. These experiences all crystallize Wards into some of the most tense and serious folk in Nex, eager to fulfill their duty for the thrill it provides and the camaraderie it builds.
Yet in the decade since the Evisceration, Ecanus’s leadership has been increasingly sparse on the ground, leaving much of its civil workings to the discretion of its middle management. The lack of clear vision has led the recent generation of low-ranking officials amid Ecanus’s social strata to become disillusioned at their muddied duties. The past decade has seen a consequential uptick of spark-happy groups of Wards nominally going to the wastes to look for Gebbites to lay permanently to rest. These derelict, renegade Ward groups often become a task to be dealt with by more trusted members of the Ecanusi military family. In contrast, high-ranking officials who interact more regularly with the plans outlined by the Prime Body of Ecanus’s tightly coiled demeanor understand that the Principle Fleshforger would rather respond to the clear threat of war from Geb than be responsible for starting the conflict.
Some veterans of Nex’s army who chose to reside within the defensive city contemplate the possibilities of brewing up another war. Younger officiates of Nex’s forces, shaped by Ecanus’s imposed obligations, question their station in the world and have spiritually abandoned their obligation by the time they return home after their first respite from Ecanus’s defensive duties. The city harbors a largely depressed force full of evocative power with little clarity of how to employ it.
The great wizard’s infrastructure around which the city was built has become more perplexing as the city’s great fleshforges have begun to break down, faltering and going inactive or stuttering to life unexpectedly. What was once a haven of a city—a simultaneous front line of defense from invasion and an intimidating arcane presence for the rest of Garund to witness—has devolved into a self-defeating threat whose existential flesh decays more rapidly than the corpses of the subordinates lost to the Awful. Ecanus, for many recruits, has become a source of disillusionment and shame. Still, the city offers prestige across the region. For some mercenaries, it even offers the promise of competitive pay for an Ecanusian’s evocative skills if they decide to move on from their Warding career. Enough walk this path because of such security: steady pay and assured food and lodging in exchange for ensuring that Nex’s front line of defense has formidable numbers. Those who investigate crime across all three major Nexian cities are likewise pulled from former Wards who largely learned their skills in Ecanus. Ecanus is stratified into a precise social rank and file to such intense degree that some of its import bleeds from the capital’s complex strata. Many who want to stay in the nation but leave behind Quantium’s insecure toil are drawn to the more structured labor and security Ecanus provides. Most Wards are well-traveled. During their active seasons, they often venture into the Mana Wastes or through the barrens of Nex to the other cities in the nation. On occasion, more experienced Wards are sent to Geb in diplomatic negotiations or even as spies to keep tabs on the nation’s enemy and their tenuous peace. In the last decade, many Wards have been sent—begrudgingly, along with Oenopion accountants and Quantium negotiators—to Alkenstar to either assert Nex’s assumed dominion over the region or to buy and bring back industrial tools and armaments in case Nex’s magical defenses fail to quell Gebbite aggressions. These teams occasionally bring back inventors from the technocratic Grand Duchy who are willing to make a lucrative life within Ecanus’s walls. If Wards aren’t traveling on duty, it isn’t uncommon for them to travel beyond the bounds of their nation during their off-duty season, so long as they can receive clearance. What results often is a civil militia full of excitable neonates hungry to defend their small world. The trials, hardships, and anxieties of their shaping might cause this desire to deepen but might also quell their aggressive edge. Many veterans hold a burning hate for Geb, though their experiences as soldiers have brought a sobering nuance over the years. The processes that trained them exist solely out of the fear of another conflict, and this knowledge can prove illuminating for explaining why the city’s leadership and the wider nation haven’t reignited the violence in the region as well as why their rivals haven’t done the same—presuming they weren’t responsible for the Evisceration. The duties of Ecanus’s inhabitants reveal the history the region has suffered, and if a few trips through the scars of the Mana Wastes don’t quell the taste for magically drawn blood, the experiences of a Mindstreaming quickly do.
Certain high-ranking personnel might find themselves stationed beyond the bounds of Ecanus with a contingent of seasoned and levelheaded Wards, placed at different outposts a few miles from the city as a first line of aggressive defense from any impending threats. Others might be assigned instead to Quantium or in Oenopion for a year or two at a time by request of the Council of Three and Nine and their (non-local) proxies. These individuals bring some color back to Ecanus, along with memories that serve as reminders to themselves and their comrades of what they’re all fighting for and defending.
Armor Masters
Though most of Ecanus’s spellcasting forces prefer to eschew armor, depending on their magic to defend themselves, there are some who choose to master the use of steel. Small but notable contingents of armored mages and magi learn to move and cast spells in even the most restrictive armors, and they’ve developed new methods to magically enhance their armor.
FACTIONS
Though the social roles of Ecanus outwardly appear set in stone, pragmatic needs often see specialized groups forming within the military ranks. Over time, as these groups prove their continued usefulness to the fabric of the city, these roles tend to become just as calcified into the social order as those that came before them.
Attendi: The Attendi are the technicians of Ecanus, who tend to the fleshforges and their production by order of the Principle Fleshforger and the other officers who answer to him. Many Attendi have a gift for logistics but aren’t a great threat in direct combat. Instead, they research and teach the art of fleshforging and are assigned to maintain the fleshforges of the city. Thanks to the Evisceration, the last 10 years have seen the Attendi under internal investigation by the Chief Mindforger of Ecanus. The Mindwards have been restructured to hold the Attendi under more precise oversight by Krata and the most accurate and attentive Watchers. Thus far, none of the investigations have yielded anything, which seems to only point more suspicion their way.
Deathsealers: Kiifotaliish, or Deathsealers, are high-ranking Krata often with at least two decades of experience or an exceptional amount of documented skill shown in the field. They are sent to hunt the undead who cross the border from the Mana Wastes into Nex proper and are deployed to hunt down any undead reported within the nation. They also investigate the causes of any undead infestations within and beyond the nation’s bounds.
Deathsealers are the most dramatically uniformed of the Ecanusi family, clad in a white kurta, tight white slacks, and a hooded, full white cloak. One of the gifts they receive from their training allows them to dream from the perspective of the undead who walk near them. Deathsealers know how to follow the source of their dreams and stop whatever horror disturbs their sleep, bringing the nightmare to an end.
Deathseekers originated the tradition of totally disintegrating corpses wherever they show up within the nation—so long as they aren’t being used for any officiated kind of study—to prevent their animation, resurrection, and exploitation. As such, much of the nation practices a crude version of this corpse disposal process.
The Scabs: Though it sounds pejorative and grotesque to outsiders, Scab is the affectionately visceral moniker given to Wards who devote their seasons to trying to quell the Awful. They’re either enormously brave and devoted to their city’s duties for venturing into the Awful, or they’ve been forced into the belly of this beast by the consequence of their transgressions—an equal number of the nation’s criminals have been assigned to this hard duty as those who are sent out to scour the Mana Wastes. Scabs have started wearing enchanted suits of glass and leathers, created in collaboration between Alkenstar artisans brought to Ecanus and arcanists from Oenopion. These suits were designed to keep Scabs from being devoured by the Awful, as so many in the past decade have been taken by the quivering mass—but even then, the protections are limited. On more than one occasion, a Scab donning a so-called “viscerasuit” has missed a bit of the errant living flesh that slipped into their protection through its subtle seams, making the suit a slow and painful walking grave.
Wastewards: Prisoners and deserters across the nation who have been caught in their transgressions and can’t compensate for their considerable, but not egregious, crimes are often offered the option to join the military family of Ecanus. They serve as Wastewards, who are assigned to wander the wastes and quell minor threats of wild or wanton nature, from mutants to wandering undead, under the supervision and order of a proper team of volunteering Wards. Wastewards are trained in cursory conjuration magic through a deeply traumatic and dangerous process called Mindstreaming over the course of three months, or a week in wartime, so that they possess the combat skills of initiated Wards, allowing them to quickly relay crucial information to their supervising officers back in Ecanus. The process carries a high mortality rate, but for the disciplined, strong, and devoted, a decade of service as a Wasteward opens a path to becoming a proper Ward of the nation.
A Remote Specialist
The dragon Ghostmaw (NE adult umbral dragon) makes his lair in the wastes near Ecanus, but not as a threat to its residents. The church of Pharasma in Quantium pays the wyrm handsomely in both gold and homage. In exchange, Ghostmaw prowls Nex and the Mana Wastes, gleefully devouring any undead he can track down. The dragon coyly threatens to leave his post every year in order to secure even larger offerings, especially now that Ecanus is further pressed due to rogue fleshforged horrors.
Chain of Command
From lowest to highest, the following is the most accurate representation of station in Ecanus and the Nexian military’s common roles: miscreant; wasteward; initiate or shapeling; shapesibling; ward and attendi; Nwilikrata and mindward; spiritward; deathsealer; principle mindforger and principle spiritforger; and finally, principle fleshforger, who confers with the Nine and answers only to the Three.
CULTURE
Ecanus is a carefully calibrated body of a city whose exercise currently threatens to outpace the effort it can truly endure in its currently infirmed state. When the first and oldest of the fleshforges in Ecanus ceased its work in 4704 ar, the city’s occupants simply shrugged it off, while its keepers investigated at a patient pace, sharing thanks that nothing worse came of the malfunction than a dormant piece of history. Complacency tempted obvious fate, and three years later, one of the forges along the outer perimeter of the city exploded from a dire malfunction—an event now known as the Evisceration of 4707. The southeast corner of the city was changed for the worse in the accident. Because of this event, citizens of Ecanus have indulged themselves in paranoia questioning the wider security of both Ecanus and Nex.
As a result, Ecanus churns forth into the new decade with an anxious, limping gait. Few come in, few come out, and all traffic is keenly accounted for by officiates of the city. Ecanus’s overall identity has slowly withered in the past decade amid the tumult, replacing much of its urban culture with the sterile march of a fortress. Boots are set to ground to tend to the hazard of the Awful day in and day out. Officials debate the rhythmic run of the remaining functional fleshforges. Battlemages of low and high station execute countless internal operations and investigations against suspicious parties and threats to the larger state. In the social machine of Ecanus, almost everyone has a role to play—including being made an example if they try to skirt their designated duties. A facade of order isn’t quite accurate to describe Ecanus’s culture, but the city’s tight choreography is tenuous, and its recent misfortune hasn’t calcified any sustainable harmony. On the contrary, recent troubles have exposed the city’s derelict conceptual wounds.
Ecanusi leadership struggles to keep its citizenry calm and content. While the Principle Fleshforger understands the anxiety and even excitement of a renewed open war with Geb, Dunn Palovar has also been around long enough to be afraid of the implication and cost of such a conflict. The other members of Ecanus’s local governance wisely share his caution and attempted temperance. They struggle with him to impart the same placidity upon a city and citizenry that was built and poised for war for centuries. The past decade in the city has seen the walls of the dam filling up near to bursting, what with the Evisceration’s desolation of a quarter of the city. And so, the pressures within the city build like the contents of an anxious gut. Unease and sickness in the air are mirrored rather starkly by the stench of the living flesh of the Awful that wafts through the city. Ecanus’s citizenry has always had a dark humor about them, but the last decade has seen that morbidity take on a decidedly more jagged edge. They’re a group of people told that their purpose is to protect a nation. Yet, they’re held back from that exact purpose by the very people who gave them that order, and for so long after the Evisceration, an event that has compromised Nex’s wider security and Ecanus’s integrity. The result is a citizenry who at best are looking for answers and at worst—and more often—looking for a fight.
Inhabitants of Ecanus are quick to action when allowed or ordered. It’s common for the people here to be blatantly and proudly armed, outfitted, and ready to go out on the road or into the Mana Wastes. With the exception of the young, the most lightly armored residents of the city can be reliably assumed as the most dangerous out on the field. Ecanus isn’t a place where martial aptitudes are ignored—part of the waking routines of the city’s Wards are a detailed workout and a magically assisted rooftop run through the intact three fourths of the city—but often, the more urbane and normal a local of Ecanus appears, the more magically devastating they’re likely to be in battle.
The fashion of Ecanusi locals is often handsome in its function. Suits cut and hewn in simple shapes often hide layers of protection quilted into the chests and sleeves of their make. The simple design provides little impediment to the practiced motions that evocation in the Ecanusi method demands. Higher-ranked officials who have forged the opportunity, connections, and fortune to travel or stay in the capital often return to Ecanus with far more flamboyant fashion, masking far subtler somatic methods for their spellwork. Because of the stench blanketing the city from the Awful, the common trend of Ecanusi inhabitants wearing conical masks stuffed with the sweetest smelling plants and minerals they can import from Oenopion has become a normalized accessory.
It isn’t uncommon for an Ecanusi resident to indulge in volatile pastimes. The lens through which Nex’s militia is shaped is an objectifying one. Many Ecanusians feel their relevance fade through each transaction the larger nation makes with Geb, forging a more comfortable economic understanding with its old enemy handshake by handshake, decade by decade. With a city trying to redefine itself as its governing body looks for more concrete answers to guide it, the reactions that spiral out from Ecanusi citizens due to the tension they sit in every day as Nex’s first line of defense run a wide gamut. The most structured of these reactions has resulted in the emergence of sports both mundane and magical, and often competitive if not outright combative in nature.
Of these sporting pastimes, the Ecanusi Battle League and the local sport of vexspar—a team-based fight to unconsciousness, termed vexation in the context of the losing team—is most popular. The league holds competitions in four-month cycles. The first month of competition is used for registration of teams of six combatants to have six-versus-six skirmishes within the school’s battle amphitheater for the three remaining months of competition. Often, the prize for being the top team in a league cycle is an extra month off from active duty, which many tend to spread out throughout the year around the time of major holidays in Quantium or Oenopion.
Another more unofficially structured pastime is Wastehunting. Some of the more restless Wards assigned to travel the Wastes or act as liaisons and watchers for Gebbite contacts or subjects might also use these trips to their rival nation or Nex’s claimed territory of Alkenstar as an excuse to hunt for strange and fearsome creatures of the Mana Wastes, most often the voracious terror birds. The more even-tempered thrill seekers who enjoy such pursuits, and who have duty beyond Nex’s southern bounds, often search the Mana Wastes for wayward parties of travelers or Waste clans’ people who might need assistance or rescue. Such recoveries of the former’s hunting trophies make for lucrative sales in Quantium for an off-season Ward, and the latter’s rescues often get folded into Ecanus as Shapesiblings of the city if they wish for shelter. Even more tempered minds have taken up meditation in their recreational moments while guarding the city, on recommendation from the Principle Fleshforger and the rest of the Prime Body. The calm it lends some is hardly an adequate patch for Ecanus’s quietly anxious nature.
Buried and Forgotten
Despite its many dubious practices, Ecanus rarely uses elementals to power its works due to protests and clashes in the past with concerned groups from Osirion. Some ancient or clandestine sites do have bound elder elementals, however, many of them forgotten after the war or kept secret by the mages who imprisoned them.
GOVERNMENT
Dunn Palovar, Principle Fleshforger of Ecanus, is one of three people in control of and responsible for the city, at least in theory. The original “forger” of Ecanus is Nex himself, but after the great wizard’s exodus, various powerful adepts who claimed to know him—and then his broader mission, as generations passed—stepped into what became one of three positions crafted for Ecanus’s internal governance and external correspondence.
Two other positions of import exist to keep Ecanus working like a well-oiled machine and, by proxy, to keep Nex’s first line of defense ready and able to respond to threats or subterfuge from Geb or any other foreign power. The first of these is the Principle Mindforger of Ecanus, who helps shape the culture, announce laws, and enforce social norms of Ecanus to help its community function as a strong line of defense for the region. The second is the Principle Spiritforger of the city, who balances the heavily regimented burden Nex puts on the people of Ecanus by providing for enough of their wants and needs to prevent dysfunction, desertion, bad morale, or, worst of all, mutiny. Together, the three positions make for the Prime Body of Ecanus, who are the first authority on any matters within the city, excepting the Three of the Council of Three and Nine. Each of these individuals attend to the organization of their respective disciplines while naturally finding points of collaboration where the makeshift boroughs overlap. The position of one of the Principles, the Principle Spiritforger, was until recently unoccupied for a remarkably long period of time after the previous Principle Spiritforger was killed in the Evisceration. Dunn Palovar was only able to find a suitable replacement in the last year.
The Principle Fleshforger of Ecanus has historically governed the city because of their management of the city’s main purpose. While it’s a position that requires mastery over the discipline of fleshforging (and perhaps some under-the-table knowledge of fleshwarping), it’s also a station that effectively places the Principle Fleshforger as the chief military officer of Nex—a powerful martial station that the Three have historically reserved a seat on the Nine for due to the responsibility of overseeing the nation’s security. Ecanus’s Deathsealers answer directly to the Principle Fleshforger, as well as a team of six Chief Nwilikratas, who in turn oversee and organize the high-ranking Nwilikratas of the city. They see to it that the city has a consistent guard rotation and routes of patrol, and they interpret data from the Principle Mindforger and Fleshforger to determine operations that must be carried out around the region.
The Principle Mindforger of Ecanus handles many internal communications regarding Nex’s security and maintains the Skirmish School, guiding the process of shaping new recruits, volunteers, and miscreants into their eventual roles as defenders of the nation. The very first Mindforger during Nex’s rise—Y’oliim Karshanthryat—was also the individual responsible for creating the process of Mindstreaming during Nex’s effort to force Ecanus to keep proper pace with the opposition they fought. Many of the memories used as training scenarios in the process are said to be theirs, as they were a particularly apt practitioner who possessed an amazing facility in the use of all the schools of magic, blending them under pressure with devastating effect. The Mindforger’s assumed eye for detail often saddles them with the active coordination of maintaining the fleshforges of the city and designing new technologies that might be needed for Ecanus’s and Nex’s security. Their team of six Chief Akilikrata tend to take the tasks they’ve carefully outlined and delegate them to both the Attendi and the Akilikrata of the city—and these plans include Ecanus’s civic configuration, a mandate to search (and, if necessary, destroy) travel routes through the nation and the Mana Wastes, and the interpretation of data for use in defensive surveillance across Nex.
The Principle Spiritforger of Ecanus is often the eyes and ears of Nex, taking the pulse of the rest of Garund and even wider Golarion as necessary. They share a few duties with the Keen of Quantium, but the latter have a more international scope. The Principle Spiritforger is also the newest aspect of the Prime Body of Ecanus. Spymaster, assassin, and diplomat rolled into one, the Principle Spiritforger is often an individual of great charisma and poise, and while they might seem like the warmest of the Prime Body, their charm almost always masks a deeper motive. Today, the Principle Spiritforger also handles more pedestrian civil duties and is responsible for coordinating residents of Ecanus who have no military placement or are in roles of a more domestic nature. Simultaneously, they coordinate diplomatic affairs for Nex’s military and many of the nation’s most clandestine tactical operations in the region. Rohokrata of Ecanus are far rarer in number than Akilikrata and Nwilikrata, and so much of the Principle Spiritforger’s time is spent communicating directly with their handpicked Rohokrata, which has raised their import informally over the other designated Krata in the city.
The punishment for family members who shirk their duties often involves being assigned to Wasteward duty or, for worse infractions, exile and palm branding with the sigil of “misshaping,” which signifies that they can’t rejoin Nex’s military forces in Ecanus (while also being forbidden from leaving the nation). For more serious infractions that caused mortal harm to their colleagues, delinquent Ecanusians are sentenced to the Valkus Isle or even up north to Oenopion for an entirely different kind of “reshaping”—though this pipeline is one that Dunn Palovar begrudgingly facilitates on the express order of the Three since the Evisceration, in accordance with the will of the Arclords of Nex and Agrellus Kisk.
Designated Proxy
Even when Dunn Palovar must attend to matters in Quantium himself, he doesn’t attend in person. The Principle Fleshforger instead transfers his consciousness into the mind of a flesh golem, a technique his colleagues have yet to unravel the method behind.
LOCATIONS
The following are a sample of some of the most prominent locations found in Ecanus.
ALAYLAHM’AWAL WAT NEX
The Eldforge of Nex sits near the Northwest rim of the diamond-shaped city, with an arcana-powered river running beneath it. The river forks out into a network of distributaries that circulate water to pools nested beneath each of the other Great Forges in the city. The Eldforge was once the most stalwart and consistent of these machines, and Ecanus’s city plan facilitated quick movement down five wide boulevards radiating southward through the rest of the city, through which even the most gargantuan fleshforge creations could travel.
The forge has fallen dormant mostly, save for occasional weeklong spurts when it can produce various biological forms with impressive accuracy. At the height of the nation’s extended conflict with Geb after the disappearance of Nex, this forge was used to produce copies of large, rare beasts found beyond the Material Plane, as well as clones of smaller people of note from Geb in the service of subterfuge. None of the other great fleshforges of Ecanus are capable of such an adroit range of arcane feats. Those close to the Principle Fleshforger have noted that such a critical, malleable facility slipping away from him seems to have taken a toll on Dunn Palovar’s formerly poised countenance.
ALAYLAHMI ALDAKRIIS
The Inner Fleshforges of the city are the most recently built, and paradoxically some of the most inconsistent, though their worst days don’t begin to compare with the implicit threat the outer forges carry after the Evisceration. Housed together in the heart of the city and set on an artificial island sit the four inner forges whose distributing maws face outward in cardinal directions, corresponding to the northern, southern, eastern, and western gates of the city. Bridges from the isle to the rest of Ecanus make a path for fleshforged to traverse over the water reservoir around the island. In times of great duress, these forges are used to produce fleshforged to defend the city’s interior, but their original purpose was to figure a satisfactory redesign to replace the older forges surrounding the city.
ALAYLAHMI ALKHARIIS
The Alaylahmi Alkhariis, or the Outer Fleshforges, line the enchanted slate boundaries of Ecanus, with two great forges to each of the four walls that flank the city gates. Like the Eldforge but unlike the Inner Fleshforges, the Outer Fleshforges deposit their finished work bidirectionally. One of the deposits opens into the city. The other, larger deposit faces outward. For some extended millennia, these forges ran seamlessly, filling the Mana Wastes with strange and varied beasts, but in the last century, their production has been cut back and slowed to precise purposes at Dunn Palovar’s order following the Evisceration. The northern forge along the southeast wall, Alayahm Visarh, exploded due to undetermined cause in 4707.
ECANUSI AY’ AKADYMIS
The Ecanus Academy, sometimes known as the Ecanus War College, is the large collection of buildings dominating the northernmost third of the city. Individuals looking to pursue a military career in service to Nex often start here after their shaping. The campus contains many of Ecanus’s official government buildings, including the Prime Body’s private quarters—though outsiders would likely have a hard time finding it due to the uniformity of the campus’s elegantly simple architecture.
ECANUSI MADRASAT ALMAERAYAA
The Ecanus Skirmish School produces some of the most formidable and feared commanders of evocation across the Inner Sea, with Nantambu in the Mwangi Expanse as their only rival. The Skirmish School’s basic commitment is a 2-year cycle; 6 months of intensive martial training and Nexian history, followed by a year and a half of arcane study intended to build an advanced understanding of evocation in its defensive and offensive capacity.
These learning periods are severely truncated in times of open war, with the 2 years being instead heavily abridged to a cursory 2-month intensive referred to as Skirmish Mindstreaming. Enchantment processes are used by high-ranking veterans and practiced instructors to simulate many different conflict scenarios the uninitiated might encounter in the field. Mindstreamed Wards are immersed in recreations of conflicts of the war, passed down through generations, which their mind makes real in dreams as an effective training aide. This process has proved dangerous, however. Only two thirds of the Mindstreamed Wards survive the process, and they’re often left mentally scarred by a war they didn’t fight. The psychic toll the method exacts leaves it a process only to be used in desperate times or on criminals volunteering their services in an attempt to commutate their sentence.
Y’ALVAZIEA
With a name that literally translates to “the Awful,” Y’alvaziea reeks of viscera, wet, living flesh, and digestion. Because of this stench, it’s best not to walk through the southern half of the city without a filter mask stuffed with flowers. The southeast boundary of the city is half rubble and half mutated guts spilled across the borough formerly known as V’drysha—a once-handsome and decorated district filled with architectural and botanical gifts to Nex from other nations. Only personnel volunteering or appointed to rehabilitating this sector of the city have permission to traverse the Awful, but the shambling horrors of the area sometimes make their way into the more orderly nights of Ecanus. Often these oozing creepers are mindless and swiftly dealt with by the city’s patrolling battlemages, but sometimes they’re more intelligent, adopting visages resembling members of the city who have attended (or snuck into) the hazardous borough.
While the individual threats that slither into the rest of the city are usually dispatched swiftly enough, the larger site of hazard hasn’t been scourged from Ecanus in two decades. The gaping wound in the city and the flesh things that pulse from it have their own complex magical protections. High-ranking Ecanusi officials speculate at length over why the wider site is not readily affected by their magic. The best conclusion reached is that the magical protections used to protect the former fleshforge from Gebbite magic have also granted considerable arcane protection to the Awful at the time of the forge’s rupturing. This theory has also caused Ecanusi leadership to fear Gebbite subterfuge.
Eyewitness accounts always seem to leave the impression that the Awful is spilling past its bounds, yet Ecanusi officials only offer cold placations that register to their subordinates and the citizenry at large more like threats against questioning the haphazard situation. Whispers that discipline can’t quell speak to a collective suspicion that the Awful is in fact expanding from its genesis, and suppressing news of the worsening conditions will do nothing to stop its physical presence from growing more potent.
Stalwart Servants
Though Ecanus’s fleshforgers tend to catch the most attention, the city also has some of the most advanced construct labs in the world. A number of golems can only be created with the specialized equipment in Nex, and unlike fleshforged servitors, construct creation is so formulaic that it rarely causes messy accidents.
IMPORTANT FACES
Ananda Rahira (LE female human magus) has spent her life in service to Ecanus, earning the position as commandant of Ecanusi Ay’ Akadymis. Her white hair, frail stature, and flowing purple robes belie a strength that can shatter door frames, one she can put to use with her curved staff and mastery of arcane spells. Her driving sense of duty leads her to seek out any opportunity to secure the glory and safety of Nex, and the Evisceration has only cemented her resolve. In her mind, too many potential resources have been left to waste due to a lack of conviction from the nation’s leaders. While she’s still self aware enough to recognize she’s in no spot to challenge the current status quo, those who know her know it’s only a matter of time before she chooses to act.
This eventuality is a source of stress for many, as Ananda lacks both the composure and forbearance of the Prime Body, showing little interest toward repeated calls for patience. She holds a belief in active defensive measures and shows of force; if a weapon exists, it’s meant to be employed, and it’s no secret that Ananda tacitly encourages the most rebellious among the Wards, even if she has never been caught aiding or abetting them. Some fear her actions might spark open conflict with Geb, especially when the unsolved mystery of the Evisceration possesses such an obvious scapegoat. In truth, the commandant is a greater danger to those closer to home. She spends most of her time investigating and studying ancient war machines and weapons from Nex’s past, vowing to put their power to use once more. At her worst, Ananda is already watching the balance of power in Nex and plotting, looking for any opportunity to dash in and wrest powerful weapons and artifacts from her fellows. At best, Ananda might succeed at revitalizing her decaying engines of war and use them to further deepen the unhealed wounds of the Impossible Lands.
Dunn Palovar (LN male human alchemist), Principle Fleshforger of Ecanus, has rarely been seen by the people of Ecanus, let alone Nex’s wider populace. A slight blade of a man whose lean frame holds inhuman years of age, Dunn often complements his slender stature with the countenance of a misanthrope when in a shared space. The function is twofold. First, the Principle Fleshforger must be in as many places as his rival Borume of Oenopion often is. Second, the mysterious and dubious circumstances under which Dunn inherited his lofty position has made a general of the scholar, and a general transplanted from the mindset of academia makes for a paranoid one.
This cautious disposition isn’t baseless; Dunn’s predecessors have died in battle and assassination alike, and a domestic crisis is growing under his feet as the city’s faculties have begun to fail him. For most matters within Nex and Ecanus, Dunn has various flesh proxies that serve as capable-enough vessels to execute his correspondences with the Council of Three and Nine while he continues to investigate the origin of the Evisceration. He doesn’t suspect agents from Geb or unfortunate malfunction, but cruel sabotage from his grievous local rival—the Master Alchemist Borume of Oenopion, who Palovar is aware has used the last 13 years to profit from the nation’s (and, more particularly, the Arclords of Nex’s) lust for conflict and war to appease a master who shows signs of a return from ethereal elsewhere.
Hectela Djaq (LE female human psychic) attends her duty as the chief Mindforger of Ecanus with a grim seriousness that has served her career in Ecanus well, earning Dunn Palovar’s solemn trust. As Principle Mindforger of Ecanus, she inherited the memories used for Mindstreaming to pass onto another generation, imparting them upon her Chief Akilikrata so that they might in turn impart the age-old lessons of power and penalty upon the miscreants who join Nex’s arcana-martial ranks. Hectela is running from something, though. Thoughts of a place filled with prisoners subjected to the predation of horrific beasts, monsters, and magics slide through the memories she has given her subordinates for the Mindstreaming process. Hectela did what nobody else should have ever been able to do. She escaped from Valkus Isle.
Hectela is haunted by her time on the island. It isn’t the extraplanar horrors or the infighting with other prisoners that rends at her mind and memory. It’s that someone is after her, and if she was able to escape, so could her old cohort. She’s put whatever she did behind her, but her memories of hiding in a half-forged palace hanging half in the Material Plane and half in the next, hiding from her partner in crime and knowing if she’s found then she’ll cease to be, carries an inexplicable terror like no other. Berekh, her old partner, knew the risk—the impossibility—when they decided to help Hectela steal the Divination Cube of Nex from the Isle, and though they were left behind, they likely have the cube, if they still live. They’ll want to know why they were abandoned.
So, Hectela tries to rid herself of the memories with Mindstreaming, but the process wasn’t designed to purge one of the memories they impart. All Hectela has accomplished is to foist her fragmented memories onto her Chief Akilikrata, and the Akilikrata, Wards, and Wastewards below them in a cascading waterfall of psychic trauma. These criminals, if they ever found themselves imprisoned once more, would be able to piece together Hectela’s mysterious method of escape from the Valkus Isle. More than one of them have wondered, as she has for the last 20 years—is tonight the night Berekh takes their revenge?
Imirh the Amaranthine (CN male undine socialite) is quite the charmer. Even though he’s just geniekin, he has been able to grant more wishes in his personal life than his auspicious ancestors manage to. Being a smooth talker with a sweet tongue opens doors for someone with such talents to grant worldly desires—and when the world doesn’t realize that the wishes he’s granting are his own, through the proxy of his chosen querent, it’s a rather easy thing to fulfill. In true Quantium style, as is befitting one of the Populasi class, the Amaranthine dresses fashionably and, some would even say, sensually. His tall, androgynous frame, lean and well muscled, sticks out in a crowd because of how he moves through it—like water. The Amaranthine, after all, is an undine, and a rather noticeable one when he wants to be, which is often. Why else would such a striking fellow wear such a strikingly colored outfit?
Amazingly, for an individual raised in the game of Quantium’s social strata, the Amaranthine realized that he didn’t want to be seen all the time. Instead, what Imirh does is see almost everything, all the time. As part of a family line who had long ago turned away from the Bandesharite and the Council of Three and Nine after the imprisonment of his lineage’s patriarch in Warlock Walk, the Amaranthine shouldn’t have been able to easily see the doorways and bridges from the Juali and the Nwezi to the Bandeshar—but if there’s something Imirh the Amaranthine is exceptional at finding, it’s an opening. In a rare moment where he wasn’t trailed by flushed attentions and empty affections, Imirh happened across a doorway not meant for him, even though his Bandesharite cousins had been stepping through it and back for their own official affairs for the entirety of his life. So, he followed their suit.
Few see as much as Imirh, and only one really sees more. Iranez of the Orb was the one to spot the Amaranthine walking through the halls of the palace and somehow navigating its tricks and twists as if he had the Elder Architect’s mind. She made him one of her Keen. The next 2 years accelerated quickly—the Evisceration happened, and Iranez presented Imirh to Dunn Palovar as the best possible replacement to the prior Principle Spiritforger. When the Amaranthine took the mantle, Iranez presented him with one question both she and the Principle Fleshforger want answered: who caused the Evisceration? They’ve been waiting 14 years now for his answer, and his deadline fast approaches as another war with Geb looms ever closer.
Yanziif (N fleshforged witness) was there 14 years ago when the Evisceration happened, and they haven’t left the site since—though it isn’t for a lack of trying. Few have heard of the unfortunate soul who wandered into the Awful, and those who have come close enough to see are usually subsumed. Yanziif is different. They’ve held onto themself for this long despite not being able to escape the ruined site as it spreads. They see people trickle in from the city, sometimes with a purpose, sometimes out of morbid curiosity. Yanziif tries to guide these people out, but the Awful keeps consuming them.
If just one of person could get out, maybe that survivor could share what Yanziif knows, what they saw at the fleshforge before the Evisceration, because Yanziif can’t hold on to themself forever. Their third eye is finally starting to close, and the other two will soon follow.
Oenopion
- During Nex’s generations-long war with Geb, Oenopion became an invaluable producer of alchemical items, medicine, and sustenance, with the wizard-king rallying and coercing arcanists, alchemists, and druids to provide aid after Geb’s blighting of the nation’s once-fertile land.
Oenopion—the “Nexian Still” or simply “the Still” among younger and more disillusioned inhabitants—is the most substantial pillar of Nex’s economy. An alchemical, mechanical, and botanical wonder, Oenopion has been carefully shaped over many years to support its esoteric, experimental demands. From a distance, the Still resembles a city-sized snow globe with complex, intricate segments and chambers dancing across its gleaming glass carapace above. Many assume the dome causes the city to function like one large greenhouse, supporting the various ingredients grown within its protected bounds, but the truth is a much more complex pursuit toward the same end. The glass over the inner city—starting within the Residential Ring—is enchanted to be a dynamically shifting arcane biome to support Oenopion’s incredibly varied selection of botanicals.
Originally built around an ancient lake that possessed arcane cleansing properties, Oenopion was seized by Nex during his rapid expansion through the region following his emergence from the Well of Lies. As the great spellcaster’s claim solidified, the once-sacred body of water devolved into a reservoir for magical refuse before it even received a name. Since then, thousands of years of the city dumping alchemical waste, magical runoff, and the many bodies of troublemakers and victims in the lake has created a living mass of ooze underneath the city known as the Bath, which conspires against the industrial churn above.
In response to the rising threat of the Bath beneath the city and Oenopion’s huge alchemical production demands, the Nexian Still has evolved one of the earliest and most complex plumbing systems in Garund. Built after the war, its vast pipeline runs from underneath the city and through the earth miles north and south to the Elemion and Ustradi rivers. The system takes in water from the former and filters it into the latter as it’s used by the city above, though both rivers are tainted by Quantium’s Miasmere. Some in Oenopion hoped this system would wash away the Bath as well, and though it likely impedes the ooze hive mind’s growth beyond the reservoir, the Bath survives. Its terrifying tenacity speaks volumes to its ire.
Oenopion is also the birthplace of much of Nex’s food culture, being where the famed druid Ghorus first created the plants that, over the millennia, evolved to become the ghoran people. Though it’s approximately 60 miles north of Ecanus and over three times that distance from the capital city Quantium, Oenopion remains an instrumental part of Nex, being a vital supplier of food and wealth. Its alchemical goods are the nation’s most pervasive link to the wider world of Golarion; every seasoned adventurer across the globe has likely been saved by a potion from Oenopion at least twice.
In the last hundred years, Oenopion’s restless ghosts have started speaking back, wafting from the lake beneath the city and amid the sewers. The miasmic body’s claims are jumbled and varied, but sometimes, in alleys and other alcoves, there’s clarity—and anger—that can be heard clearly in Oenopion’s oozing perspective. Revolution brews beneath the streets, and as more visitors listen to the mixed-up accounts and perspectives of their exploited precursors, an unease stirs under the feet of the skilled alchemists and arcanists of Oenopion’s ruling class. Should their neglect continue, they might find themselves drowning in the deep, corrosive bath they helped to fill.
A DAY IN OENOPION
Oenopion smells.
It isn’t necessarily bad. Many neighborhoods even smell wondrous. This city simply smells like a lot of things and, impressively, somehow smells more than most cities of comparable size. Most of the odors pervading the city are floral, peaty, and complex due to the density of the Still’s botanical infrastructure, but this verdant perfume disguises a more industrial stink. The most practiced residents of the Nexian Still can comfortably navigate Oenopion by smell—weaving through the circle of row houses of the Residential Ring by the rich, heavy scent of food and drink seeping from storefronts and flats. Locals in the still heart of the city regularly don perfume to mask the psychedelic scents venting from the Bath below. The aromas of the hive mind ooze carry nostalgic, seductive fragrances, meant to attract the most suggestible of the Still’s inhabitants and visitors. Because Oenopion is a city filled with liquid wonders and dangers alike, its most reliable maps are drawn with a keen, experienced nose.
During daylight hours, Oenopion is a charming enough locale, with a scent map aided by the odors of a healthy culinary, almost epicurean culture, one forged in a storied food and alchemical history. Oenopion’s alcoves and alleys are places where alchemical mixtures and paraphernalia of the strangest order can be bought and sold at all times of day and night. The consequences of these brews travel the concentrically planned curving streets of the Nexian Still in the stomachs, veins, and minds of both visitors and locals.
Oenopion also possesses a robust gardening culture. Many make their living tending to botanical rarities for local apothecaries and buyers from outside of the city. As a strange and delightful byproduct, Oenopion also features a fascinating array of insects, arachnids, and other colorful crawlers that have flocked—or more likely were smuggled—into the city. It isn’t uncommon to encounter wildly mutated variations of even the most common insects, after they descended and reemerged from the sewers below and the Bath within.
Oenopion’s garden displays, both indoor and out, are vast, diverse works of art. If a newcomer is lucky enough to befriend some of the city’s famously insular locals, they might be shown a private indoor garden made for conditions that Nex’s climate doesn’t allow. The indoor gardens of five different well-off alchemists wouldn’t be a terrible abbreviation of a botanical world tour, and many botanists find it easier to search for rare plants in Oenopion rather than in far-off reaches of inhospitable wilderness. The Apothaqiine is said to possess an abundance of plants, fungi, and even whole trees that were taken from beyond the Material Plane within its protected walls.
The city sacrifices many of its charms to the night. Kidnappings and mysterious disappearances are a nightly ordeal for an out-of-town visitor to navigate. There are many rumors, accusations, and theories for who’s responsible, and unfortunately, Oenopion has multiple likely answers. Some say the disappearances are caused by a network of Oenopion officials named the Distillers who snatch newcomers on the order of Master Alchemist Borume. Other rumors point to the demon lord Haagenti’s local cult, working his sinister will in the city and looking for candidates with fantastic flesh to warp. Some surmise that drow disciples of the demon lord, residing somewhere among the city’s depths around the Bath, are responsible for these cults, having even bought and reorganized the city’s plan to build it in the shape of an elaborate alchemical circle that crawls to completion. Still others believe it’s the Bath itself, seducing visitors to the city with its many-minded churns to prepare for an uprising as the street prophets who drink from the ooze foretell. Then there are the regular waves of violent crimes in the city that might end with an unwise disposal of a body or two in the Bath or a savvy body removal in the factory furnaces around the Residential Ring. There’s a splash of truth to all these hypotheses.
The result is a city uniformly on its guard, and one that’s ill-recommended to traverse after dark. Hired mercenaries earn good coin acting as escorts through the streets at night, and many adventurers make a year’s wages in a month by acting as envoys for wealthy individuals who need to brave the Nexian Still after sunset to ply their trade and resolve their business. Oenopion’s residents, by contrast, usually keep indoors after nightfall, if their work and material obligations allow them such leeway—either in their flats along the Residential Ring or, for the wealthy, houses within the dome that they’ve managed to buy after years of toil and likely trouble.
Altogether, Oenopion is haunted. The great ooze beneath the city and its offspring, both the covertly hidden and those who more boldly slip and slide through the streets above at night, carry a vast network of memories, experiences, and personalities from thousands of years’ worth of failed experiments and disposed souls. They deliver their message in many ways, leaving auspicious, acidic inscriptions on walls and along cobblestone boulevards, making those who drink of the Bath speak in voices long lost or just inducing vivid visions of ancient memories or futile future hopes with its vapors. All point to a revolution bubbling up from beneath the city every day. If one spends a night in Oenopion, expect to speak with the city. Don’t be surprised if what it says is persuasive, as it has had countless years to ruminate on what to say.
OENOPION SETTLEMENT 15
NE CITY
Government appointed administrator
Population 8,900 (86% humans, 5% gnomes, 2% ghorans, 7% other)
Languages Kelish, Osiriani, Vudrani
Religions Aakriti, Abadar, Calistria, Haagenti, Irori, Lamashtu, Mahathallah, Nethys, Pharasma
Threats civil unrest, corrupt authorities, criminals, cultists of Haagenti, poisonous plants, political murders, pollen allergies, rogue fleshforged, the Bath, unethical alchemists
Alchemical Accidents In Oenopion, you can find just about anything alchemical, but if you make a wrong move, you might wind up sleeping in the goop. The settlement’s level is 20 for the purpose of determining what alchemical items and alchemical services are available. Most non‑hostile NPCs begin with an attitude one step better than usual toward alchemists, just in case.
Master Alchemist Borume (LE male human alchemist 19) overseer of Oenopion
A YEAR IN OENOPION
Perhaps no city throughout all of Nex imparts the consequence of its constructed surroundings more than Oenopion. Because of the wide array of gardens and alchemical vapors housed in the city, many visitors and new inhabitants initially develop an allergy to Oenopion’s open air, referred to as Stillfever. The name makes it sound more dire than it is for most, though some do have an acute reaction upon first encountering it.
For this reason, along with greenhouse heat, a venting occurs during the third week of every month. During this time, all the chambers in the great dome over the city are fully opened rather than simply cracked during the night hours. As the Still is allowed to breathe, its stagnant air and factory smog gives way to floral scents generated from the local gardens, bathing the city in its most welcoming light. The result is a sort of artificial spring throughout the year, even as the wider desert and wastes outside the city become cold and harsh. An uninitiated traveler might be forgiven for thinking Oenopion is exempt from fall and winter if they only experience the calibrated weather of the domed inner city.
As well as combating the heat generated from the city’s glass casing and industrial churn, venting weeks tend to be the time when Oenopion sees its highest influx of visitors. Friendlier locals specifically recommend travelers and merchants visit the city during this time. In contrast to the quiet paranoia and tension that clogs the air during the rest of the month, venting allows residents and visitors, associates and rivals alike, to literally let off some steam and relax. It’s truly the city at its best.
Perhaps it’s also due in part to the true sky being visible during most of a venting week. Through most of the Still’s months, smog clouds, condensation, and pollutants move up the glass walls, obscuring the upper rim of the dome’s interior. Only snatches of the sky are visible from the inner city. However, the Apothate’s mastery over the handmade biome is so precise and impressive that the resulting clouds sometimes swirl together into configurations that shed calculated rainfall into Oenopion at will or even produce nourishing starlight from the refocused sun beams and moon rays outside.
The first week of each month in Oenopion is the ever-busy leaving week, during which the bulk of the city’s products are sent out into Garund in the care of hired courier arcanists known as Stilltotes. Some Stilltotes are sent to other parts of Nex by council decree and are expected back in Oenopion with confirmation of delivery upon their return—at which point they can collect compensation. Others venture beyond the nation by instruction of the Council of Three and Nine with samples of new and experimental concoctions, in hopes of securing the goodwill of Garund’s significant nations and communities.
While the city’s production never abates entirely, it slows a noticeable amount in autumn as official focus pivots to international trade. Large, heavily guarded caravans of fortified locomotive tanks made of metal and glass escort the international stock to Quantium so that it can ship out from port to the rest of the world. The most skilled of Stilltotes are often assigned this task and are usually accompanied by fleshwarped guardians known as the Strickenguard, mercenaries who have “volunteered” their bodies and possibly their minds for a reliable salary and experimentation. These menacing guardians are often enough of a deterrent to any bandits who prowl the wastes of Nex. Though large and strong, they usually also possess some magical enhancements sewn upon their flesh sleeves to perform their duties more efficiently. These international trading efforts serve a dual purpose, with the Stilltotes being tasked with collecting rare ingredients around the globe by the Master Alchemist and other Apothates who are eager to prepare for winter.
The winter months are the most experimental period of Oenopion’s calendar, as the city retreats to study, refine, and reflect on its endeavors of the past year. It’s understood that the Still’s year doesn’t properly start until after this period of reflection in Pharast, which is the closest to a rest month as the city receives. As Oenopion’s residents prepare for a spring and summer of alchemical manufacture, they’re encouraged to bloom and grow like the plants they use for their work and find rejuvenation before returning to the long working grind. The city’s alchemical potions and experimental magics are swapped for delicious food and drink instead as the locals prepare for the city’s most major holiday—Ghorusan.
Held on the 31st of Pharast, Ghorusan takes the creative energy brewing in the Still’s workforce and makes a giant festival of it all. Named in honor of the druid Ghorus for the aid he gave to the nation, Ghorusan is a potpourri of daring culinary indulgence. Costumes are made from dying plants, and Oenopion becomes a citywide potluck.
Though the Still’s network of restaurateurs, chefs, and mixologists brandish wholly new-made drinks and food, more pedestrian Ghorusan celebrations take place in the street, with a cavalcade of rousing tunes played by buskers from in and out of town alike. Many personalized brews of bathsilk are shared, an Oenopion classic most reserve for drinking on this day. Bathsilk is created by taking a sample of the Bath and mixing it into a sweet, glowing alcohol that can take the form of beer, cider, or even aged wine for the affluent. Often, bathsilk is left to ferment and distill for six months to leech away the consciousness and toxins of the Bath’s sample, leaving behind a complex, sweet and spiced range of tastes—at least in theory. It’s no coincidence that many imbibers start their year with vivid hallucinations, dreams, prophecies, new inspiration, and long-lost memories persuading them to odd action.
Unusual Alliances
The nation of Holomog is too distant to be common knowledge in the Inner Sea, but the Southern Garundi nation is one of Nex’s strongest allies. The overwhelming hatred they both bear toward Geb overcomes all their differences, and relations remain strong to this day, with Holomog sending precious food and Nexian Arclords rushing to aid Holomog in times of war and disaster. As Oenopion is the southernmost city of Nex, it often plays host to visiting delegates from Holomog.
PEOPLE OF OENOPION
A wide variety of common ancestries from all over Golarion can be found mixed up within the Nexian Still, much as they are in Nex overall. In contrast to Quantium’s more widely and openly extraplanar citizenry, Oenopion boasts a people as rare as the contents of its most renowned gardens. The ghoran population in Nex, considerably larger when compared to the rest of the world, is especially concentrated in Oenopion. These mobile plants don’t claim any particular neighborhood and sprout up all over the city. Ghorus created their ancestors in Oenopion and seeded a great deal of Nex’s robust cuisine culture with them. After their long fight to be recognized as more than food, ghorans chose to take control of their original purpose by providing sustenance to others on their own terms. Many of Nex’s most celebrated culinary traditions started in this city, and it’s because of the ghoran citizenry who have passed along both their culinary knowledge and civic struggle.
It isn’t that unusual for ghorans in the Still to live with trusted “Tenders”—any ancestry with longer lifespans and, by consequence, more stable relationships than themselves. Some of Oenopion’s oldest citizenry are elves and gnomes from trusted Tender families, descendants of abolitionists who helped ghorans earn their right to be recognized as a sentient, free people in the nation’s eye. The intergenerational knowledge passed between ghorans in their cycles of bloom and death lets their descendants know which scant families can be trusted, information almost as instrumental to their survival as air and water.
Many of the most celebrated, longstanding restaurants in Oenopion have been established in the inner city through this unique interplay. These restaurants thrive due to the care of Tenders entrusted long ago with looking after and caring for ghorans. When a ghoran dies, their Tender assists in their charge’s reseeding and uses their non-seed remains for their most precious and sought-after dishes. It’s common practice among Tenders to donate the profits made by any delicacy prepared from deceased ghoran flesh toward the support and protection of future ghorans born within or fleeing to the city.
Unfortunately, such protections remain a paramount necessity for the ghoran population. While it’s illegal across Nex to murder the plant people for any reason, let alone sustenance, Oenopion is a city of the exploited, and ghorans aren’t exempt from its predations. Many within the city profess a respect for their fellow ghoran neighbors, yet the temptation of the forbidden is ever-present in Nex. Ghoran flesh traffickers—known as Wilters—are one of the Still’s worse-kept secrets. Wilters seek out untended ghorans in the city to kill them, harvest their flesh, and sell it across Garund as a rare delicacy. Wilters don’t often have a chance claim their quarry in Oenopion but will happily spring upon an opportunity that presents itself, especially after dark. Some Wilters even plant ghoran seeds in the countryside, hoping to grow them for food and peddling the remains in Oenopion’s walls. While many in Oenopion’s culinary trade act as Tenders for ghorans, there’s a considerable number of restaurateurs and gourmands who will take the improperly acquired delicacy for the right price, no questions asked, whether they’re protecting ghoran kin or not. Ghoran flesh itself isn’t illegal to devour, and the city runs on nothing if not profit.
The fleshwarped are yet another fraught and vulnerable demographic encountered in Oenopion. These varied people come from all walks of life, though most are either refugees from the Mana Wastes or, depressingly more common, were created as an experiment conducted by a local amoral fleshwarper; many of the local fleshwarped inhabitants of The Still have been discarded by their masters and wider social circles after their data was collected. Only in the past few decades has fatigue over this treatment, and the city’s larger nefarious conduct, provoked fleshwarps into self-advocacy and solidarity. While fleshwarped people have long knitted together a desperate community in the Still’s sewers and aqueducts near the Bath, their younger generations now stand tall for their rights and agency.
Though many fleshwarped might be startling to look at, even across the hugely varied population that makes up Nex, in recent years their presence has been heartily welcomed by most of Oenopion’s vulnerable and impoverished. Many fleshwarps living beneath the city have taken the time to study these areas below, using the secrets they’ve gleaned from their exploiters to choose the right locations for protest and action—often turning Oenopion’s structural systems against their oppressors in unexpected ways.
While it isn’t unusual for fleshwarps to spill charged protests in Oenopion’s streets, they also focus on leveraging their skills, knowledge, and secrets with the powers above to forge their own destinies behind the scenes. At the darkest level, doing so has meant letting local alchemists experiment on their bodies once more to better understand the techniques used on them and others. Those with more resilient abilities, especially those who can heal faster or possess hardier constitutions, volunteer as test subjects for unproven potions, poultices, and other alchemical items. The trade-off for these poisoned bargains are loosened tongues spilling exploitable secrets and, on occasion, unexpected allies. Money and goods are pooled together to buy properties and to repurpose them as safe shelters for those in need. Bands spread information about the most nefarious of Oenopion’s elite during play nights in the Draft of Forever. In some cases, alchemists of ill conduct awake to find their precious gardens burned to the ground.
Mnemovore
Though best known for its alchemy, Oenopion hosts plenty of arcane schools and labs, as befitting one of the greatest cities in Nex. One major group of magical researchers are the planar experts investigating Mnemovore. This constantly shifting demiplane hosts a twisting library hundreds of miles across. It also appears to devour other demiplanes to increase its size and knowledge. The Arclords have begun creating demiplanes specifically for Mnemovore to eat in order to observe the results.
FACTIONS
Much like ingredients in an alchemical brew, the most potent actors in Oenopion aren’t easy to separate from the other elements around them. Though nowhere near comprehensive, these groups and factions are some of the most notable across the city.
The Oenopion Fleshforges Guild: Recently reformed, the current iteration of the Oenopion Fleshforges Guild is only 13 years old. This reformation occurred in the wake of the Evisceration in Ecanus (page 269). The original guild was a relic of the war with Geb, a group tasked with overseeing the replication of the fleshforges in Ecanus and the refinement of fleshforging techniques to empower soldiers with necromantic resistances. After the war ground to a halt, many of these technologies were quickly converted to mass produce medicinal alchemical items. Completed prototype fleshforges were repurposed into the first versions of the modern factories that now border Oenopion. The guild that oversaw the conversion stayed on to consult on the formulation of new poisons and potions.
As the purpose of Oenopion calcified into specifically producing apothecary necessities, this knowledge disappeared into the Nexian Still’s background and was put to darker, more personal use. As these guild members grew richer and more corrupt, they siphoned Nexian government funding for secret side projects, conducting illicit experiments and creating horrors in an effort to expand their personal power. After learning of their depredations and embezzlement and seeing no utility in their work for Nex, the Council of Three and Nine dissolved the original guild during Nex’s third millennium. As might be expected, the horrors this decision was meant to impede only became more clandestine.
After the Evisceration, the Arclords of Nex proclaimed that heightened protective measures were needed to defend against the likely machinations of Gebbite agents. They offered funding to reinstitute the guild under Borume’s supervision, provided that Borume ensured the guild focused on defenses for the upcoming war effort. The guild’s officiated members now work within the manufacturing factories of the Still, quietly planning to expand these factories to accommodate fleshforges like the ones in Ecanus. The past decade has seen the wide construction of laboratories to facilitate more precise, specific fleshwarping with volunteers. These plans largely sacrifice housing in the Residential Ring.
If the Fleshforges Guild holds one virtue, it’s cooperation. Unlike Oenopion’s famously competitive and secretive alchemists, the guild fleshforgers happily share information and new advances with one another. This fellowship has allowed the guild to quickly become competitive against the far-more-established fleshforgers in Ecanus. With Nex’s great fleshforges sputtering and unreliable, the Fleshforges Guild has politically positioned itself as the obvious solution, a development that only serves to further strain the rivalry between Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar and Master Alchemist Borume.
Haagenti’s Mask: The cult of the demon lord Haagenti is the cruel offspring of the original Oenopion Fleshforges Guild. After many of the city’s fleshwarping experts went underground to practice their increasingly sinister experiments, the consequences of their actions gradually filled the streets, alleys, and sewers in the city below, eventually creating a whole displaced and neglected class in Oenopion. In 3653 ar, a drow refugee from the Darklands named Dulin Tro squandered the goodwill he had carefully built in Oenopion after he reshaped the guise of his assistant, a well-liked prodigal human of 13 years named Ankquit Daal, to bear the face of Dulin’s patron demon lord: Haagenti. The ever-shifting guise was considered beautiful by many of Tro’s cohort, but the psychological toll on the boy and the pain of the process was unmistakable. Ankquit journeyed to Quantium to seek both justice for himself and punishment for Dulin Tro, and his plea and visage were so disturbing that Iranez of the Orb and four members of the Council of Three and Nine traveled immediately to the Still to make Tro answer for his profane crime and prevent anything like it from happening again.
The drow had already planned his escape using a divine gift from Haagenti, who was pleased with Dulin Tro’s horrific offering. Haagenti crafted a mask for the drow and his followers from their own faces, which they would always wear and could change indefinitely for the cost of a night’s pain. By the time Iranez arrived in Oenopion with Ankquit’s justice burning in her mind, Tro and his followers had already become other people. In her consternation, Iranez ordered the Principle Fleshforger to instate the Age of Commerce to prevent such a grotesquerie from happening again to a child and to dissuade this kind of experimentation altogether.
In the following years, this sect has donned the title of Haagenti’s Mask and stirred up trouble in Nex wherever they’ve been directed by their fiendish commander. They continue to follow the example of Dulin Tro—whether he’s dead or not. Their current leader, Jandeerish Vel (page 302), seeks to make a door for saints of his patron demon lord so that they might impart wisdom for future devastations. He has recently made his Key.
The Unwarped: The Unwarped might be the most collectivist group within Oenopion. They’ve grown tired of the city’s materialistic machinations, stratified class cruelties, and experimental abuses. Their founders were fleshwarped activists, former visitors to the city who were kidnapped and experimented on by illegal fleshwarpers, foul worshippers of Haagenti’s cult, and even secret operations from Oenopion’s own government. The lucky ones were discarded on the streets afterward or, more likely, under it. Instead of fleeing, giving up, or dying, they survived and chose to stay. If the unwillingly fleshwarped were going to be discarded after their exploiters took what they wanted from their flesh, then fleshwarps were going to take to the streets and become undeniable to the Still’s indifferent aristocracy.
Over the years, this tension has bubbled over into other civic and infrastructural issues in the city. Various protesters formed alliances, building a community of true support beneath the streets and around the Bath. The Unwarped’s ranks expanded as the years passed, making the Bath their base of operations. They were the first to realize that the Bath was an intelligent creature rather than a collection of mindless ooze—and with the realization that the old lake was as angry, frustrated, and abused as the desperate community built around it, the two found allies in each other. They now work together for the kind of change they want to see in the city. With the Bath’s assistance, the Unwarped began their tradition of taking their protests to the streets and occupying factories while wearing plague masks, a dormant commentary on the plague the Still has become for its own people as well as a refutation of Haagenti’s Mask.
Many of the civil actions and political strategies the Unwarped employ are founded in information from the Bath and its wealth of secrets, gleaned from a trove of memories drawn from people across every level of Oenopion society. The Bath shares the city’s hidden truths and forgotten agendas with its allies in the hope that the Unwarped will use the information for proper change, but its efforts have gained any kind of propulsive momentum only in the last hundred years. There are times when the Bath would impart accurate yet difficult-to-parse predictions of the future or send smaller oozes to approach individuals on the street to share news. Meaning to harness these strange divinations for their activism, certain members of the Unwarped have taken to ingesting a handful of the Bath after asking it questions. Many die a fortnight later, but they all receive vivid, informative dreams that they can then use to inform their accomplices about the next steps to take.
Polite Distinctions
While fleshforgers in Nex insist their work is distinct from fleshwarping, the two differ in technique more than principle. Fleshforging is generally less destructive and painful, as killing an experiment before it’s finished is typically bad for results. While the Arclords and alchemists of Nex have plenty of callous cruelty to spare toward their fleshwarped creations, comparing the defiant Unwarped with the shattered, traumatized victims of drow cultists does draw a stark and somber line.
CULTURE
Oenopion is a paranoid place. Though it claims to be a center of groundbreaking innovation, much of its alchemical development takes place behind closed doors or in ivory academic towers, away from the public eye. Some of this caution comes from alchemists rightfully worrying that their work, which offers them a chance at higher status in the city, could be stolen by ambitious rivals who live mere doors away. Others fear falling victim to the strange disappearances of the city, which usually claim outsiders but have been known to befall established members of the Nexian Still’s community. Then there are the individuals who have tried something unorthodox or unethical in their strange sciences and display the results while roaming after midnight—perhaps walking up walls, or even through them, due to something imbibed or injected. Wherever they go, many who amble around Oenopion at night aren’t altogether there. A certain tense, erratic tone is set within the city’s bounds.
Oenopion, as much if not more than its sibling cities, blatantly runs on a series of interlocking exploitations. Besides the master alchemist, many of Oenopion’s movers and shakers don’t actually reside in the Nexian Still, but instead live in Quantium. These influential individuals rent lodgings to career-hungry alchemists who wish to work their way up the ranks of the Apothaqiine in order to take their talent and renown back to Quantium and offer it to those they once paid to live. Along the way, the newly initiated are often tempted toward little betrayals to secure some comfort in the city. Some are small treacheries, such as stealing precious
flowers from a neighbor’s collection for a chameleonic potion. Others are large treacheries, such as holding an indoor party that serves its guests a main refreshment of pomegranate punch spiked with the dangerous initial batch of that in-progress chameleonic potion.
The city’s most privileged are the aristocrats, politicians, and artisans too wrapped up in their work or petty rivalries to bother managing the city, or folk who live in other parts of Nex who don’t seem to care until it’s too late. While the attentions of Oenopion’s elite fall to their own pursuits of power and pleasure, Oenopion’s youngest and most disenfranchised have been transforming the norms of the city. Young families from Quantium frequently move to the Still’s Residential Ring in search of quieter, calmer places to nest. The lost and forgotten below the city have created their own network and living spaces that function as a hidden Oenopion community. The fleshwarped of Oenopion support one another, often renting real estate to each other to outplay their “superiors” in similar businesses within the heart of the city. The ooze of the Bath carries a righteous justice and fury that the Still’s most marginalized people now willingly carry. In the cauldron that is the Still, stirrings of change are poised to stir up the city for the better.
Theft and burglary aren’t uncommon within the Still, but it’s just as likely to be committed by arcanists, apothecaries, and alchemists of significant status as low-class ruffians—or by someone who has lived long enough in Oenopion that they’re aware the true thieves lie within the great dome. For the latter camp, the city’s rules provide a rare exploit for socially engaged citizens. Much of the city’s disenfranchised use the distance from their nation’s enforcers to their advantage in organized action. Some of the more entrepreneurial fleshwarped and accomplices who sympathize with their plight have started buying up properties from the wealthy who have neglected their holdings long enough for Oenopion’s leadership to seek putting the properties to better use.
Victims are also just as likely to be the elite and powerful as they are regular workers and clerks. Aristocrats who stay in the city often do so because they desire fewer eyes on them, and brewing common potions isn’t what they get up to in their private life. Sometimes their need for privacy is due to their involvement in illicit, scandalous pleasure-seeking, but more often, it’s because of their dangerous experimentation upon people and creatures they wrongly suspect nobody will miss.
Many of the more affluent arcanists and alchemists of Oenopion are accompanied by homunculi—wry, clever constructs of flesh, magic, and memory who are bound to their masters by blood. These homunculi often assist in the complexities of their masters’ trades, and the creation of homunculi bodies to specification has become a rather lucrative business in itself.
The city isn’t all dour shadows. Alchemy presents many wonders alongside its potential for destruction. While the materialistic struggle of the Still can threaten to drown the wholesome hopes of the more naive, the most recent generation of citizenry has found innovative ways to thrive within Oenopion’s steadfast march and quiet competition. While the city’s dangers are pervasive and palpable, so are its many delights. One won’t find better a better drink anywhere else across the Inner Sea, and the culinary aptitude in Oenopion matches the talent of its magical brewers. Within each tavern, restaurant, and cafe, Oenopion can be seen as a place full of passionate creatives who work with intricate sciences to express themselves.
A typical Still dish is a heavily spiced, deeply aromatic representation of the city’s culinary arts, often garnished or cooked with edible flowers. The city’s cuisine tends to be on the sweet and floral side due to the availability of rare and savory botanicals, though these staples are far less awe-inspiring to the local citizenry than to visitors. The carefully prepared ingredients are often made for groups of two to four to share across a pliable, spongy flatbread garnished with arugula, which serves as the common base of most modern Oenopion cuisine. In most cases, the rest of the meal is carefully arranged on top of a wide piece of this bread, which is dismantled by all the participating guests and used to devour the dish in lieu of silverware. Most of these dishes aren’t based around meat, though ethically obtained ghoran flesh is a particular delicacy.
One should prepare to perceive new notes in the aftertaste of an Oenopion dish or drink for many hours after the lucky soul has left the dining table. The culinary aptitude of the city is of such complexity and sophistication that it’s an expected and even desired response to the city’s food to have synesthetic reactions brought on by the food’s magical and alchemical layers. The drinks are even bolder, often onsetting vivid dreams for the taker whether or not they yet slumber. If a group has shared a pitcher of arcanely fermented dreamaloe, expect them to share a dream as well.
There’s a famous double entendre about food explorations for the uninitiated visitor to the Still—“The ones who drink together, dream together.” The city inns, especially in the Ring, are always more than happy to oblige the lucidity a group of travelers might find. On the way there, it isn’t at all unexpected to find other consumables of a colorful nature. Oenopion is a prime spot for “adventurers” whose ventures have led them to create their own outer planes in their minds.
If they aren’t working, people in Oenopion dress light, not only because of the national climate but also because of the mechanical heat generated from the city’s infrastructure. Sundresses and sleeveless long robes are favored street fashions for the Oenopion local, regardless of gender, and visitors often sweat off any more densely layered vestiges within hours of being in the city. Street peddlers with more temperature-agreeable clothing always lurk at the ready along the Nexian Still’s urban network, to take advantage of the city’s industrial swelter. In their own homes, the inhabitants of the Nexian Still don more protective clothing to set about their experimental work.
Haagenti
The Whispers Within
Alignment CE (NE, CE)
Divine Font harm or heal
Divine Ability Constitution or Intelligence
Divine Skill Crafting
Domains change (Gods & Magic 112), might, toil (Pathfinder #148 63), wealth
Cleric Spells 1st: summon construct, 2nd: humanoid form, 4th: bestial curse APG
Edicts practice alchemical transmutations, pursue knowledge whatever the cost, use your inventions to exploit others
Anathema aid Yasamoth, allow morality to interfere with research, destroy knowledge
Favored Weapon battle axe
Haagenti plays at seeming reasonable, tempting forbearance with his numerous helpful inventions. Yet, he’s just as monstrous as any other demon, only giving his knowledge to those who’ll use it to cause horrendous suffering. He claims to have invented the art of fleshwarping, and the many victims of his followers stand as a stunning testament to his true cruelty.
GOVERNMENT
Oenopion is ruled by money. With the city functioning as Nex’s economic spine, commerce drives the decisions that govern, and as a machine of innovation and profit, its governance is in service to material interest first and foremost. Guided by Master Alchemist Borume (page 301), one of the nine of the Council of Three and Nine, Oenopion is nothing if not profitable for the nation. Most of this wealth goes back to supporting the city’s businesses as well as those who run said businesses, and so the Residential Ring finds itself in a state of perpetual neglect.
This bottom line doesn’t stop Master Alchemist Borume from orchestrating every inch of his charge to his specifications, down to the flask-full. From the Residential Ring and the factories it’s planned around to the Apothaqiine that marks the city’s center, his attention is cast high, low, and wide to keep affairs within the city moving. Borume’s hyper-vigilance in maintaining Nex’s primary breadwinner leads him to overlook many local atrocities. As long as he doesn’t give the Council any reason to question his station and utility, then whatever unscrupulous things that happen in the streets and behind closed doors of the city are worth the cost—or rather, profit.
Borume weaves a tangled web of trading favors and manufacturing problems that he can transmute into solutions. He works his social alchemy across the nation, currying power and privacy for himself and the ruling class in the Still much as Oenopion does across all of Golarion. Oenopion is often treated as a private testing ground for strange experiments of his own imagining as well as those of other luminaries of interest. Publicly, the city is known as a manufacturing plant for Nex and the wider world. Borume’s balancing of these somewhat contradictory interests results in his esoteric governance of Oenopion.
Most of Borume’s civil structures within Oenopion are also business ventures. Much to the suspicion of the Principle Fleshforger in Ecanus, the Master Alchemist has maintained the Oenopion Fleshforges Guild over the past 60 years. While Ecanus’s towering horrors have kept the nation secure from Geb for millennia, Borume has used the Guild in Oenopion to iterate on the nation’s military technology for his own profit. For example, instead of a more conventional guard or Ecanusi Wards, much of the city is policed by a recent wave of the elite Strickenguard. The dubious nature of the Strickenguard soldiers becomes even murkier as rumor spreads that not all in their ranks are volunteers and might be just as imprisoned as any citizens they lock up.
It’s rumored that the samples of new alchemicals sent out overseas are actually newer variations of Strickenguards, which Borume advertises to nobles and aristocrats abroad in the interest of finding another means of adding to Oenopion’s wealth and deepening his own pockets. Many Apothate and wealthy citizens already hire Strickenguards, as they don’t need to sleep, eat, or be tended. Even communities in the Residential Ring have pooled together resources to hire the soldiers on occasion. Officials within the Apothaqiine oversee these transactions and payments, and the rental service has turned a profit for the city. As usual, so long as the Still delivers an agreeable cut of its income to Nex, the Council of Three and Nine is collectively willing to look the other way.
This method of generating revenue and safety through subscriptions pervades and propels Oenopion’s affairs. Much of the real estate in Oenopion is rented from the city government by the wealthy within its walls, aristocrats from Quantium, or representatives from other nations. Oenopion’s product circulation is also often handled through a subscription basis when it comes to foreign buyers, with one-off sales being triple the cost. Most impressively and frustratingly, Borume has fabricated an impressive network of taxation and contracts within the city that seems to keep the whole thing afloat as much as it threatens to send it crumbling down into the Bath.
The Apothates and the Measures assist Borume in keeping all this stirring in sequence with his accord. The Apothates earn their place within the spire on Borume’s recommendation and the Council of Three and Nine’s confirmation. The Measures are often the most consistent authorities that the Nexian Still possesses. They come in two general camps of civic officials: Halfmeasures and Fullmeasures.
Halfmeasures are sworn and trusted individuals who engage with Oenopion’s citizenry and visitors and are placed in official stalls, street patrols, and publicly accessible offices around the city. They act as friendly guides, watchers, street enforcers, whistleblowers, and tax collectors, and they cycle through these duties as needed on a rotating biweekly schedule. When their station is challenged with threat of violence, or their duties are otherwise evaded or subverted by the citizenry, they’re instructed to turn to their superior Fullmeasures.
Fullmeasures often hold a specific title pertaining to their expertise, followed by their specific purpose and their preferred referential name, typically their surname. For example, Fullmeasure Executioner Qualra might be a dire enforcer and even executioner, while Fullmeasure Witness Duuhl acts as an officiate and keeper of contracts for the city. The Fullmeasures answer to the Apothate.
There’s but one unofficial and rarely broken rule of decency that runs through the complex plan of the Still: leave children out of the business. It’s tacitly agreed they aren’t to be involved, both for their sake and for the transaction. The metric that guides this principle is informally referred to as the Age of Commerce—who constitutes a youth is judged by human standards, and those who aren’t yet of age must be excluded. The city might be filled with shifting morals and numerous ethically gray business practices, but they go out of the window if the involvement of children is made known. While travelers might vanish off the street with horrible regularity to little fanfare, if one of the missing parties is reported to be a child, the involvement of a Fullmeasure Investigator on an officially documented case is inevitable. If the infraction is traced and proven true, justice from a Fullmeasure Executioner isn’t far behind. Fortunately, as consequence of this circumstance, there’s pleasingly little call for such work among the city’s enforcers.
Oenopion Golemworks
Nex as a nation is renowned for its magical constructs, and Oenopion as a city is renowned for them within Nex. Despite stiff and sometimes bitter competition from both Quantium and Ecanus, the Arclords of Oenopion are considered the most capable eldritch smiths and golem workers among their peers. Few Arclords can be found without a specially commissioned guardian construct, built to specification in one of Oenopion’s many labs.
LOCATIONS
The following are a sample of some of the most prominent locations found in Oenopion.
THE APOTHAQIINE
This towering palace-spire was built over the Bath in the densest, most reinforced grounds within the center of the city. Within its walls lies a collection of alchemical knowledge unrivaled anywhere in Golarion. The Apothaqiine also houses the most reliable alchemists willing to work for Nex’s greater interest, who devise new liquid ingenuities after they’ve proven their skill and their loyalty to the nation. They spend their time crafting test batches of new concoctions before delivering them to the factories that make up the palace’s bottom two floors. Once their efficacy is proved, the potions are shipped to Quantium to be tested in the streets of that metropolis. If well received, they’re shared with Oenopion’s wider factories for more propulsive manufacture for the next two seasons.
There’s great material security in becoming an Apothate—one of the resident alchemists of the palace—and greater rivalry to maintain that status within its walls. Competition for the privilege is fierce, as applicants come not just from the city or nation, but from anywhere on Golarion and even sometimes from other planes of existence. From that pool, the Apothaqiine chooses 99 alchemists to house in individual apartments within its walls, which make up the top nine of its 13 residential floors. The bottom-most residential floor belongs to the assistants and resident assessors who help execute the formulas of the alchemists in residence and who carry out the first wave of tests for them, respectively. The top floor is where Master Alchemist Borume resides, though he rarely leaves.
One can look out of the window of a well-regarded Apothate’s flat—a sixth or seventh floor suite—and see the unique arrangement of Oenopion below, its curving streets mapped and embellished like an elaborate alchemical circle instead of a traditional city grid. Some Apothates with a more mystical bent even believe the city itself was built on an alchemical formula. These esoteric believers often work in concert because of their varied views of the city. They also have a habit of suddenly vanishing from the tower. Occasionally, the Bath’s cryptic burbling reveal their incomplete findings.
THE BATH
The Bath was once a lake with magical properties, which Oenopion’s inner city was built over. It has since become a handmade reservoir to dispose of the city’s runoff, errant experiments, discarded magic, and inconvenient victims. The dumping of bodies has somewhat slowed now that the Bath has gained a multi-millennium forged hive mind consciousness within the ooze colony that makes up its depths. Now that it’s known that voices within the hive mind can retain memories, the criminal elements in the city usually seek to dispose of bodies in less precarious locations, for fear of some random ooze giving their attacker’s description.
The Bath is filled with many of the city’s most lurid secrets, swirling within its foul putrescence. It lures those it feels it can trust through sweet smells and hypnotic patterns playing along its surface. Its vast, greenish-purple glow is often visible beneath the city’s sewer grates, casting wild and shifting light and shadows on the domed city’s curved architecture. These displays of miasmic light and scent often carry esoteric messages and missions for those who can decipher them. Bath oozes have even been known to climb to the surface city. Many who encounter the Bath in any capacity find themselves moved to action, which has led Oenopion’s elite to fear its effect on people’s faculties. Those who go under the city’s streets can easily follow its network of tunnels and reservoirs to the Bath. When someone chooses to do so, they often find themselves in a shantytown of the city’s most neglected, some of whom act as messengers for the sentient ooze that illuminates their hidden community. Fleshwarped and forgotten, this underclass has been knitting together the groundwork for a more sustainable existence in Oenopion, using the knowledge of the city’s secrets steeped in the ooze’s collective memories.
THE DRAFT OF FOREVER
One of the most storied taverns across Nex is also one of its most recent additions. The Draft of Forever is a hybrid tavern and distillery, its brewing facilities situated under the block-wide gazebo that serves as its main venue. In a city known for its bars, lounges, and dens filled with consumable indulgences of exceptional quality, the Draft of Forever has risen to the top as the most well-known and the most entertaining. It can be found in the inner city’s west side, only blocks away from the Apothaqiine, standing with an open face from all sides and surrounded by open park ground. The outer ring of the tavern has ample seating that covers two-thirds of the tavern’s floor plan and wraps around the bar, usually tended by six or more people at any one time. The rest of its outer floor space is devoted to a handsome stage offering eccentric acts on a near bi-weekly basis, often drawing notable crowds. The most impressive thing about the Draft of Forever is that in its 20 years, it has amassed enough devoted patrons be open nonstop six out of seven days a week.
RESIDENTIAL RING
Many of the residents of Oenopion who have just arrived in the city rent out storefronts and flats in the Residential Ring, which houses many properties in a large chain of row homes divvied up by five manufacturing factories constructed thousands of years ago. The Ring is divided into five segments, each named for the factory it’s adjacent to—moving clockwise from Residential One, which is the northernmost segment of the Residential Ring. These segments bounce between the constant churn of large factories as they produce Oenopion’s monthly exports. A complex network of hydraulics and machinery below keep the Ring from collapsing around the dome and into the sewers that surround the Bath. Many adjust to the constant noise in the Ring and form tight-knit communal bonds, but others are fiercely motivated to escape the periphery’s churn to the city within the dome, where the shakes and sounds are dulled to the point of being almost imperceptible.
Safety Measures Even among the less chemically inclined, there are a few unusual substances that Oenopion’s citizens carry. Tins of alkaline salt—or, for the poor, a polite semblance of such that has been cut with talc and chalk—are nearly ubiquitous. For those with more money to spare, bottled desiccants promise the ability to suck the moisture out of any amorphous creatures. While it’s no guarantee that these items can protect against oozes, and certainly not the mass that is the Bath, it buys a little more peace of mind for many.
Thassilonian Secrets
Numerous Nexian fleshforgers have studied the records of Thassilon, fascinated by the lost fleshwarping secrets used to create sinspawn. None have made any significant progress, but the arrival of New Thassilon has reignited interest. Hopeful Arclords and alchemists now visit the time-displaced country, seeking to find, cajole, or steal Thassilonian techniques to combine with their own traditions. Progress has been troubled; Belimarius is jealous of her secrets, while Sorshen seems to have little interest in dredging up such knowledge.
IMPORTANT FACES
Master Alchemist Borume (LE male human alchemist), or simply “Master Alchemist” as he demands his subordinates address him, is the man in charge of Oenopion. He possesses many overlooked areas and just as many areas of hyper focus, and his tenure has seen Oenopion become its most productive, both for better and worse. A fiercely private man, Borume suffers from an unusually severe case of Stillfever that has almost proved lethal a few times. The Master Alchemist is an ambitious individual who’s comfortable being in many places at once to achieve his goals and maintain his station.
Yet, his machinations are finally inviting some long-due scrutiny—primarily from his rival in Ecanus and fellow member of the Nine, Principle Fleshforger Dunn Palovar.
Someone is trying to draw Borume off of his cozy perch. Twice now, the alchemical vessels he has sent to handle his affairs by proxy have been attacked while en route to important meetings in the capital city of Quantium. The contingent of fleshforged bodyguards escorting his vessels were found torn apart alongside his machine. Of course, the first suspect is the principle fleshforger in Ecanus, but Borume knows Palovar has good reason for the attacks. The Master Alchemist also sees it as an opportunity for a better counter.
Jandeerish Vel (CE male drow fleshwarper) is the elusive leader of the clandestine sect of Haagenti cultists operating within the Still. Jandeerish is a master of disguise, as are his most trusted followers, whom he has trained—and likely sculpted—personally. It’s said that only the dead and the devoured know his true face and that the only reason his name is known at all is due to the whispers of his victims consumed by the Bath. He’s suspected to be one of the Apothate by prominent members of the Unwarped seeking to bring him to justice, and that’s far from the only rumor circling his reputation.
The Bath swirls with memories of a drow who escaped the Darklands after the coup meant to supplant his matron went awry. Vengeful claims of former allies from his exodus to Oenopion state that his true face is a beautiful one—but it’s a face he has long abandoned to give him latitude in the city. Whatever Jandeerish’s play is, his work and the work of his acolytes have led his patron demon lord to take notice.
Kee Najdarii (NG female gnome activist) is the predominant organizer of the Unwarped. The gnome formerly had ambitions to become one of the Apothate, ambitions which were exploited for a more experimental purpose. Her right hand has been split between middle and ring finger from palm to wrist, reshaped into a hollow hoop not unlike the armature of a butterfly net. Her left hand has been scarred on the palm with the sigil of Haagenti. She believes that her shaper and nemesis is the infamous Jandeerish Vel. On occasion, her right palm bleeds, an omen she knows will be followed by the arrival of some eldritch horror breaching the gate in her left hand. These events leave her blacked out from the pain and shock, unable to prevent whatever creature that emerges from doing some dark and subtle bidding for its esoteric master.
Rather than let these fears cow her, Kee strives to find her elusive nemesis, an endeavor that has only intensified her community building and personal investigations. Her work has made her an inspiration and beacon for the marginalized community she serves. These efforts within the past few years have seen the Unwarped, once relegated to the edges of the Bath, climbing back to the surface and claiming the space to exist wholly and fully, despite what has been visited upon them by the wastes or the ill wills of others.
Zhane Faltrizan (NE male human researcher) is one of the rising pioneers of Oenopion’s Fleshforges Guild—or would be, if not for a few unsurmountable circumstances. A diligent student of both magic and alchemy, Zhane has made enormous strides in the application of fleshwarping techniques to undead creatures. Unfortunately, the creation of undead is staggeringly illegal in Nex, and with the Evisceration of Ecanus, the Halfmeasures of Oenopion are taking their cursory checks for necromancers much more seriously. Zhane finds this Nexian perspective on the undead nothing more than an irrational limitation driven by fear. He knows well enough what will happen to him if he’s discovered, and he has been left looking over his shoulder for Measures and his own comrades in fleshforging.
Getting fresh materials to continue his research is proving problematic. Creating undead within the city is too risky and too easily traced, but the Mana Wastes presents too many risks for spellcasting. His current solution involves hiring Strickenguard or Wastehunters to capture roving undead threats, but every job leaves a loose end, a thread that a diligent investigator could pull if they began to question why Zhane needed such dangerous creatures retrieved. He could give up on his research and bury it as deep as it can go, but it would be tantamount to giving up on any of his hopes and ambitions. With his well-meaning colleagues beginning to pry about his research, Zhane has begun to sweat, wondering what desperate actions he might need to avoid execution for treason or whether his past actions have already caught the attention of someone in power and sealed his fate.
Sileen (N agender ghoran chef) is a ghoran obsessed with maintaining their relationships past the threshold of their imminent rebirth. It’s unclear whether they’ve already reseeded since they resolved themselves to this goal. If they have, they’ve only succeeded in holding onto their mission across this instance of themselves, not the past relationships that led them to cherish their interpersonal connections so voraciously. They claim to be 60 years old, an exceptional age for any ghoran, and they feel a strong connection to the Bath, which they claim has given them protracted life to solve their existential puzzle.
To support their research, Sileen works as a chef at three of the best restaurants in Oenopion. The chances that someone has tasted their work in the city is high if one appreciates food and is traveling through Nex. Their food is so well regarded that it’s considered the highlight of the trip by many Bandesharite officials and foreign ambassadors visiting Nex on official business. Sileen has been preparing two very particular feasts for their closest friends and colleagues as the means of facilitating their experiential transference. The first is an offering of most of their body—save their head—prepared with a particular recipe to feed their five dearest friends. The second is a much more personalized recipe that involves cooking their head and feeding it to the sproutling of their new self in the hope of preserving specific memories.
Alexevni Jeggare (NE male human noble) is more notable for his real-estate presence than for his physical one. A member of the Jeggare family of Cheliax, Alexevni has been looking to raise his own kind of hell in Oenopion, and he’s a rare outsider rich enough to buy out the city. The rakish noble owns approximately a fourth of the city’s Residential Ring and has offered to use his complexes as testing grounds for Oenopion’s new experimental soldiers. More than a few of his tenants have been injured in the process, but as long as the rent comes in, Alexevni pays it no mind while he spends his leisure in a floating manor inside Quantium. The shakedowns he regularly orders upon his tenants by Strickenguard hires pay for his lodgings in Nex’s capital, and it’s reaching a long-overdue tipping point for his renters.
Pedale (CN female gnome thief) is an apt gnome burglar and fence who wanders the inner city, hunting for alchemists too preoccupied with their projects to catch her in the act of robbing their homes and laboratories. Her appearance is largely pedestrian—most would never guess that she was caught stealing from an alchemist named Vlooreesh and was consequently treated to a dip in the Bath by the alchemist’s bodyguards.
A skilled alchemist herself, Pedale peddles her wares of rare flowers and rarer alchemical components on the street in a small wooden pushcart. She makes enough to keep crafting the concoction that keeps her consciousness from slipping away from her and into the Bath’s hive mind. When she lapses on a dose, Pedale sometimes coughs gouts of liquid, a sanguine or greenish-turquoise swill. It has been happening more frequently of late, and that has Pedale scared. She still has to find out how to get back at Vlooreesh, who’s now a resident of the Apothaqiine. Each coughing fit brings her one step further from the possibility of doing so with her own hands. Of course, she could let the Bath take her—see what happens to her physical body when her mind joins the burbling crowd it has already dabbled in. It might not be so bad to whisper to someone else from the oozing lake, she thinks, to move them to action.