Perdonia, Necromantic Kingdom of

Few Kingdoms have been ravaged as much as Perdonia during the Great War. Perdonia used to include Nahtyoru, nearly half of current Centauria and most of the High Lands. The Imperial governor of Perdonia, Ludwig Hummel was one of Amadeus’ disciples and achieved lichdom a couple of years before the Great War. His province was often on the front lines but its position at the edge of Imperial territory made it hard to resupply and reinforce. Ludwig Hummel wanted to prove himself to his mentor and sought to exploit his necromantic powers to the limit.

He adopted an extreme scorched earth strategy which resulted in most of the arable land of Perdonia to be permanently blighted by necromantic curses and most of its population murdered and converted to undead front line fodder. The strategy worked, to a point, Ludwig Hummel’s undead hordes held back the Tasnican armies but their continued existence was tied to the blighted land itself making them unable to be used offensively. Both the Empire and Republic wound up giving up on what remained of Perdonia: the later having no use to conquer it, the former not needing to reinforce it.

Ludwig Hummel was thrilled to see his mentor ascend to the Imperial throne though he quickly realized that the Empire was crumbling fast after the war. Perdonia signed an alliance treaty with the Thamassan Empire at the same time as its independence was recognised.

In the aftermath of the war, Perdonia was left with a fraction of its former territory: the Goblinoid tribes having taken over the northern parts and the Centaurs having expended into its eastern parts. Moreover, what remained was mostly unsuitable for agriculture. Finally, only a few hundred living humans remained in the Kingdom. Ludwig Hummel began converting his undead horde into a massive labor force, working every acre of land that could be reclaimed, exploiting forests that could be restored and the mines that were available. His goal was to make Perdonia an exporter of grain and raw material to generate wealth.

Removing the curse from the land reduced the amount of undead that Ludwig Hummel could maintain so he tried to achieve a balance. Forty years after the war, 90% of the population of Perdonia remains mindless undead laborers. Most of the living humanoids are artisans, traders and service industry workers living in the couple of towns and the capital. There are practically no villages, only supplies depots that dot the countryside. By law, all the land belongs to the crown, and some humanoid families rent plots of land and can even rent undead laborers to assist come harvest time.

Perdonia’s neighbours are fairly content to purchase the grain and raw material that it exports, though they are weary that Ludwig Hummel will eventually amass enough wealth to reconquer its previous territories.