Necropolis

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Regions of Necropolis

Overview

The first Highborn settled along the coast of the Bay of Catazarr here, and some of the oldest post-Terunael human structure are found here. In some ways, it is the spiritual centre of the Highguard nation and - to a degree - of the Empire.

When the Highborn first came here, they called the territory Pharos, and built a great city here to serve as their capital. The city of Pharos was burnt to the ground during the time of turmoil, the civil war between the patricians and the chapters. Yet Pharos was not the only victim of the war - a number of towns and early chapters were destroyed by one side or the other; many were never rebuilt, serving as permanent memorials to, and warnings against, the most tragic period in the history of Highguard. Following the war, many citizens chose to establish chapters in Casinea and Baston, beginning new lives and putting the memories of a vicious internal conflict behind them. As a result, Necropolis had the lowest population of all the Highborn territories - at least until the recent invasion of Reikos by the Druj.

When the Highborn arrived, the entire region was controlled by tribes of orcs. As they established themselves, the newly arrived humans drove the orcs north and east - eventually eliminating the majority of the tribes and forcing the rest to flee towards the Mallum. Fragmentary records of the time talk to the conflict this created with the Navarr and the Urizen as the spreading Highborn kingdom drove angry orcs to attack Therunin and Redoubt. The early diplomatic incidents this created soured relations with the two "native" human cultures for several decades.

Recent History

The most significant event in the last hundred years was most likely the problems with Grendel raids in the early 300s. These petered out during the reign of Empress Deanne, and largely ceased by the end of her reign. Since then, Necropolis has been at peace.

Major Features

The Necropolis

At the mouth of the river Couros lies Bastion’s shadowed twin, a mausoleum in black marble. The Black City is a mirror of the White City to the north, but where Bastion is full of life and a symbol of the pride and future of the Highborn, Necropolis is a silent, sombre memorial to the past. Built in the ruins of Pharos after it's destruction during the civil war, the tombs have spread to encompass almost all the old ruins. Scattered throughout the ruins are mausoleums built to house the Highborn dead. To many Highborn it is as if the city itself has been entombed, its memory preserved in the house of the dead.

The Necropolis holds the bodies of the Empire’s heroes, along with the Imperial Histories, guarded eternally by the Stewards of the dead. The legendary mausoleum has become the final resting place of almost every Emperor and Empress. In death, all Highborn desire to be lain to rest here, amongst the heroes of the past, where the Stewards watch eternally over their silent graves. It is a tremendous honour for heroes of other Imperial Nations to be offered a final resting place alongside them. Those who would be heroes know that granite – and the words placed upon it – will endure long after their flesh has faded.

Preserved and maintained by several chapters with strong connections to the Stewards, the permanent population of Necropolis is tiny compared to the area it covers. Some of these chapters are dedicated to preserving a single tomb, or the tombs of all the dead from a specific era or nation. Even for Highborn chapters, these chapters have a reputation for being dour, grim and restrained. "Only the dead live in Necropolis" is a common, if somewhat disrespectful, saying about the Black City.

There are a great many point of interest in Necropolis but the majority are tombs or memorials to the dead. One of the best known memorials, outside the tombs of the emperors and empresses, are the Silent Obelisks, scattered here and there throughout the city. Each is roughly the same - an obelisk of black granite surrounded by a small memorial garden - and each bears the names of every known Imperial soldier who has laid down their life in a significant conflict against the enemies of the Empire. In each case, a small shrine is maintained by a dedicated Steward of the Dead that serves in the role of a museum - decorated with plaques and friezes that chronicle the conflict, and containing carefully chosen relics of the past war. The Obelisks sometimes attract criticism, especially from the Urizen, as they record history with a distinctly Highborn flavour that favours inspiring lessons over strict adherence to facts. Not every conflict the Empire has ever fought is recorded here - which has in the past been a source of additional criticism. A small number of the obelisks have suffered damage over the centuries, but only one has ever been damaged through malice. In 228YE a cabal of heretics lead by a false Mikkal marred one of the oldest obelisks - the obelisk memorialising those slain in the war against Alderei the Fair. While the obelisk was partially restored, roughly a third of the names were lost beyond recovery.

While it is a respected repository of historical knowledge, Necropolis survived the rampage of Emperor Nicovar largely unscathed. While he was merciless in regard to the libraries and centres of learning elsewhere in the Empire, he spared the memorial shrines of Necropolis. That is not to say that he did not come here; his forces destroyed the Hall of Chronicles, a library dedicated primarily to the biographies of the dead. A surprising number of the actual documents survived this attempted purge however. In addition to those texts smuggled out when it was clear that an attack was imminent, magical means were used to preserve a number of the most valuable books. Even while the building was being burnt a dedicated coven of magisters evoked powerful Winter magic to place protective enchantments against fire on many of the texts. While the magicians themselves perished in the blaze, the books survived unschathed. Unfortunately, their magic had not gone unnoticed. After the destruction, Nicovar's forces searched the rubble for three days and found many of the undamaged texts and tore them apart. Still, not everyone was as committed to the destruction of the library as the mad Emperor - and as a result, fragments and individual pages - as well as entire books - occasionally turn up in the possession of descendants of these soldiers.

The Shrine of Britta

A recent construction, this beautiful white granite shrine honours the Empress Britta. While the body of the Empress was interred in the swamps of Kallavesa, her accouterments were placed in the shrine. An eternal flame burns in a paved courtyard in front of the memorial, which serves as a place of pilgrimage for those wishing to pay their respects or meditate on the lessons of Britta's reign and death. The Guardian of Britta's Shrine watches over the memorial, and receives a portion of liao as well as voting power in the Imperial Synod.

Regions

Coursmouth

Where the river Couros empties out into the Bay of Catazarr. The Necropolis is built around the mouth of the river, in the ruins of Pharos (the first Highborn city). Outside the Black City, most of this region is open parkland with a few scattered farms generally overseen by chapters based in the city itself.

Fishguard

In northern Necropolis, The open plains of Fishguard are crisscrossed with roads and scattered liberally with chapter houses. Trade caravans constantly move across Fishguard. The roads here connect merchants from the Brass Coast and Sarvos, as well as numerous Marcher grain wagons to customers in Bastion, Urizen, and Therunin. Many chapters maintain hostelries, and there are several very old Navarri wayhouses established here during early contact with the Highborn newcomers. Perhaps the best known is Myfanwy's Rest; legend claims that when the First Empress was on her way to Anvil, she and her companions paused here for two days to prepare themselves for the final leg of their journey. The wayhouse was built in 1YE by members of Myfanwy's striding - partially to commemorate the story, but primarily because its position at the point where the three major roads diverge both makes it a healthy business, and gives the Navarr access to a great many people potentially in need of their aid.

Hedrossan

The river Couros is navigable for much of its length. The trading port of Hedra is a fair distance inland, but is the favoured destination of ships from the League and Brass Coast. Vessels from as far afield as the Marches and even Wintermark prefer to bypass the archaic docks at Crown's Quay and do their trading here. A great deal of grain and other foodstuffs are sold to merchants destined for the peaks of Urizen, despite (or perhaps causing) a great deal of economic rivalry with the port of Cargo in Redoubt.

Longbeach

Today Longbeach is best known for the port-town of Crown's Quay. Once a small fishing village called Westport, Crown’s Quay became notable as the preferred port for those wishing to travel to Anvil, and its docks were rebuilt by the military council in the early days of Empire. Legend also says that it was the place the Three Sisters, the founders of the Brass Coast, took ship. Despite it's age and fame, it has never been especially prosperous as a trade port - although several attempts have been made to built lighthouses and to upgrade the quayside they have rarely amounted to significant change. Keywords: Coastal

Sanctuary Sand

This is where the Highborn ships first made landfall. The town of Sanctuary claims it is built on the very spot where Atun's ship first came to rest on the sands of the new world. Since the establishment of Necropolis, this is where funeral boats land their cargo of the dead. From all over Empire, great heroes take their final journey to Sanctuary and then are carried along the steep cliffside trail to therr last resting place.