Carcassim (KAR-kas-sim)

Synopsis

Carcassim, the living city of the dead, home to the most potent necromancers in Ashal and ruled over by an undying Empress, is southernmost Sovereignty still attached to the mainland of Ashal. It is a place of richness, opportunity, healing, and knowledge for those who are not faint of heart.

Government

The Eternal Empress reigns supreme from her tower in Carcassim. Her edicts are passed down the twelve noble houses and it is the lords and ladies of these families that see they are made a reality. These houses vie with one another for the Empress’ praise, each seeking to rise above their peers and be granted more power and privilege within the city. This unending ‘game’ the nobles play pushes each of them to higher and higher ambitions while also acting as a system of checks and balances. Any time one house begins to rise too far above the other, it does not take long for the others to form common cause and humble them.
While it may appear a chaotic and self-sabotaging system to an outsider of the city, those who make their home in Carcassim know that the grace of the Eternal Empress’ steady hand in guiding and protecting the city allows for such ‘recreations.’ Life is not easy anywhere in Ashal, but at least in Carcassim you are rarely left wanting.

Fashion and Aesthetics

Carcassim is a rich city and displays of wealth through clothing are very common through brightly coloured textiles and golden jewelry though it is taboo to reach the point of gaudiness. Tasteful, confident wealth has always been the fashion.

Garments for both men and women favour long, flowing robes, coats and dresses and colours and patterns all across the spectrum can be seen in the streets of the city. All save for pure white which is reserved for the Thanatali alone.

Necromancer’s veils are a facet of Carcassimi fashion all their own. The more martially inclined practitioners often favour veils of chainmail or other martial appearing material while those with a tendency towards healing prefer softer materials like sheer fabrics or lace.

Common Faiths

Eogyn and Eidyse are both held in places of great esteem in Carcassim. Both faiths maintain grand temples in the city proper and their clerics are treated with universal respect from denizen to Thanatali alike. To the citizens of Carcassim, they represent the two potential paths for their spirit after their body has been given over to the city and so nearly all follow one of the two in at least a small capacity. While the tenets of the two faiths can be contentious elsewhere in Ashal, in Carcassim they coexist relatively seamlessly.
Followers of Eogyn believe that when their time has come their spirit should be shepherded through gates of the underworld and away from the material to make room for those spirits who seek to be born into the world. Eogyn is seen as a kindly caretaker ushering souls to what awaits them beyond the confines of life.
Followers of Eidys believe that death grants them the opportunity to watch over and protect their family and their home just as their material body will now do for the city. Subscribers to the faith beseech Eidys to allow them to join the endless dance and remain on this side of Eogyn’s gates.
Shrines to other, less common deities can be found throughout the city where their domain is touched upon. Handfuls of inkeeps tend shrines to Innaula and artisans to Ashia and Illia though there is little in the way of organized worship to be found.
Outside of visitors staying in Shadthon, there is sparse devotion seen to the ways of Urias or Hailyn.

Notable Figures and Organizations

The Eternal Empress Carasi: Gold skinned and perfect, a Raziel like no other living, the enigmatic Eternal Empress of Carcassim embodies the timeless power of the city. Legend says that she is more than 400 years old and while there is much speculation on the truth of that claim outside the city, no one has been able to disprove it.
The Eternal Guard: No one is quite sure of how many soldiers make up the personal guard to the Eternal Empress, but no one questions how deadly they are. Each will leap into combat at their master’s word in a blur of sharpened metal. Each is gifted a mask connected to the Empress herself that will allow her to raise them should they fall before the fighting is finished.
The Thanatali: The Thanatali are the direct descendants of the twelve followers of Carasi who came with her to the ruins of Talveren. Each one is an extremely powerful necromancer and the custodian of generations worth of accumulated study in the craft. The title of Thanatali is, of course, hereditary passing from the head of the noble house to the heir upon death. They are easily distinguishable by their pure white white robes and golden armour and veils.

Major Landmarks

The Radiant Spire: The tallest structure in Carcassim and the only one still of entirely Talveren make, the gold topped, slender white stone tower is the seat of the Eternal Empress’ authority.

The Hall of Umbrosia: This building serves as the offices, libraries, and academy where aspiring necromancers who wish to learn beyond the limits of the Hagean Academy vie to be one of the rare few to apprentice under one of the vaunted Thanatali. It is also the last refuge those who have the coin to afford their service go to cure what no one else in Ashal can. There are dark rumours about what else happens behind its doors of bone, but little and less has even been confirmed.

The Hallowed Path: The staircase that winds through the mesa below Carcassim leading from the gate at it’s base all the way up to the city’s streets. Along the path and in countless side passages are the bodies of deceased citizens, embalmed, donned in armour, and gifted with a mask from a Thanatali, ready to rise at the necromancer’s call to serve in the defense of the city and it’s living citizens.

Economy

Carcassim is the source for many of the luxuries enjoyed across Ashal. Under the Empress’ guidance, veins of gems, gold, and koblium are discovered beneath the sands of the Dead Lake Desert. The Empress’ wisdom also finds the patches of tillable soil created by the long buried former vegetation from the Great Eye. Here spices are grown and harvested for sale abroad as well as more mundane crops to supplement the food imported to sustain the city.
The labour and work conditions to extract and cultivate these products would, under normal circumstances, be prohibitively dangerous and expensive were it not for the power of the Thanatali. The vast majority of Carcassim’s workforce has little concern for food, water, or safety as they have already died. While proud citizens of the city are laid to rest in the Hallowed Path, criminals are put to death and their body raised to toil until it is incapable of working any further. This undertaking, daunting to other necromancers, is a well practiced ability of a member of the Thanatali.
Food from the Verdant Vale by way of Erule is the most common import. Over the years the two cities have formed friendly ties largely due to Erule’s covetous demand for the fine goods that flow from the desert city, willing to even offer rare deals on shipments of food stuffs.
It would be remiss not to mention the impact of the donations given by the affluent sick, maimed, and wounded to the Thanatali in exchange for treat via their incredible necromancy

Customs and Observed Holidays

Dance of the Dead: A nightly occurrence in Carcassim proper where the living abandon the streets of the city to make room for the spirits of the dead to roam under the moonlight. Families who keep with the ways of Eidys may leave an upper floor window open and a light burning in the room to signal to the spirit of their departed loved one that they are safe. Clerics of Eidys walk among the spirits, conversing freely and seeing they are kept contented.

Evermourne: Eogyne’s holy day is a major holiday observed by all citizens of the city. The gates at the foot of the Hallowed Path remain barred on this day and citizens descend into the depths carrying lanterns. These lanterns are hung above each of the bodies entombed in the mountain as a show of appreciation and remembrance for the body that protects them and the soul that gifted it to the city. Family members will seek out deceased relatives and it is customary for those who have no family entombed to find crypts who have no one to hang a lantern for them. The day is spent in largely quiet contemplation, remembrance, and mourning.

Dreamer’s Renewal: It is the Carcassimi fashion to celebrate Eidys’ holiday with the beginning of a great change. It could be the end of a long contract, the decision to begin a new profession, or anything else that marks the beginning of a new phase in one’s life. It is the one night a year when living citizens brave the spirit filled streets to begin their change in Eidys’ temple.

Resurrection: The celebration of the Eternal Empress, her breathing new life into the once dead city, and the twelve families that aided her ascension to her divine throne. The twelve families fill the city squares with festivities and entertainers from dawn until dusk and the Empress herself walks among the people of the city. This is the most common time when people receive the Favour required to become a full citizen of Carcassim.

External Relations

Freelands:The people of the freelands lead sad, pointless lives. Their struggle and will to survive is admirable but it is all meaningless. When they die their flesh will rot, their bones crumble to dust, and their spirit move on without purpose to be forgotten.

Steinholdt: Honest and dependable, but even the most vibrant Steinholdter is as dull as the iron they pull from the earth. There are more fulfilling pursuits to spend one’s life upon than toiling away every heartbeat in a dark, dank, hole in the ground.

Erule: Their gluttony is outdone only by their pride, and that only by their greed. Always be wary when an Erulean begins to speak to you of aught but money, they are working their way towards it. Once there, the lying begins in earnest.

Hagea: By all indications the Hageans are the only fellow Sovereignty to understand the power and importance of knowledge. Two of their Academies are achievements to be immensely proud of. It’s a shame the third lack the stomach to achieve true greatness

Salvoss: Mark my words, there is more going on in that forest city than meets the eye. Yes, on the surface they appear to be little more than thuggish collective carving out their existence in a brutal region of Ashal. But, talk with a Salvossi for a while, if you know what you’re looking for you’ll see there’s more there than meets the eye.

Martiality

Carcassim has the smallest standing army of any of the sovereignties by a significant margin. Measuring just under one hundred and fifty and consisting largely of the Hundred Vows, the palace guards and Empress’ personal security as well as the twelve Thanatali and their acolytes. That being the case, Carcassim also boast the most potential soldiers standing ready to rise at a moment’s notice. Literally. The body of each citizen who dies in Carcassim is armed, armoured and entombed, prepared to rise against a threat at the Thanatali’s command.

Culture

Death is an everyday facet of life in Carcassim though it is hardly as bleak as it sounds. While death looms inevitable over all inhabitants of Ashal, the citizens of Carcassim embrace it as few others do. They know that in death their spirit will be cared for and that their body will be taken and caringly embalmed and entombed along the Hallowed Path, waiting eternally for the call of the Thanatali should the city require their service once again. With the importance and reverence placed upon death and the departing of the spirit, recorporializing or retrieving spirits from the underworld is considered something of a taboo. In cases of particularly tragic or wrongful deaths, exceptions can be made, but in general terms, one’s end is expected to be respected.

Carcassim was founded on the practice and pursuit of necromancy and practitioners from across Ashal recognize it as the uncontested seat of its mastery, much to the Academy Necrosia’s chagrin. All necromancers in Carcassim are expected to veil their eyes when not alone much the same way that a swordsman is expected to sheath their sword due to the schools focus on the power of gaze spells. Many talented Carcassimi trained necromancers will paint or tattoo designs around their eyes meant to draw attention there so once the veils are dropped, they are free to fully unleash their power on whoever meets their eyes.

Becoming a citizen of Carcassim and being afforded the privilege of living in the city proper is no mean task. A hopeful must catch the attention and prove their worth to one of the nobility or, on rare occasions, the Empress herself. But, just as Favour may be granted it can be withdrawn along with the privileges it brings and since the space in Carcassim is limited, many are looking to shift things to their advantage. In Carcassim, a rumour whispered in the right ear can be as dangerous as a knife and people guard their secrets as they would their life.

During the day, the streets of Carcassim are constantly bustling with life with the lines of work and leisure becoming constantly blurred. However, as the sun sets over the mountains on the distant horizon, the faithfull of Eidys take to the streets guiding citizens to their homes and visitors to the city back along the Hallowed Path to Shadthon below. Just as the streets team with life by day, they are filled with unlife by night. Drawn to the powerful necromantic energies worked daily in the city, spirits of the departed flood the streets. Past citizens come to see their former home kept safe as well as spirits far far older, they move through the city as part of the Endless dance while the living inhabitants sleep soundly under their protection.

Shadthon is in many ways the inverse of Carcassim proper. The far more meager town sees its streets empty by day as people either venture up the Hallowed Path to conduct their business in the city above or venture out into the Dead Lake seeking their fortunes. However the night life of the living in Carcassism lives in the many taverns and inns of Shadthon. It is common for the youths of Carcassim to sneak down the Hallowed Path instead of returning home for the night to spend the hours drinking and hearing stories from travelers of the lands beyond the sands.

Carcassim is not the first city to be built on the rise it currently occupies. Hundreds of years prior to its founding, a city known as Talveren took root here during the 3rd Waking. It was built by powerful arcanists uninterested in the oppressive oversight of the Hagean Academy. In that age there was no desert of lifeless sand but a vast lake called the Great Eye and the mesa on which Carcassim now rests was then the largest island. The city of Talveren flourished over the years, it’s arcanists over time beginning to expand their fields of study from Elementalism into the budding school of Necromancy. This continued for centuries until the sundering of the 5th Waking when several of the mountains that bound the water of the Great Eye crumbled and the waters drained out into the sea leaving behind only the sandy river bed. While the events that passed after the draining of the Great Eye are lost to history, it is certain that no one from Talveren was ever seen again. It is said that the arcanists of Talveren attempted a necromantic ritual to free themselves and the city’s inhabitants from the needs of the mortal body and were struck down for their hubris.

History

For centuries the ruins of Talveren sat forgotten on their mesa top in the Dead Lake until, in the 7th Waking, a professor in the Hagean Academy Necrosia of potent Raziel heritage was given a vision of this beacon of necromantic knowledge. She dreamt of a city lost in the sands and the promise of knowledge and power. Inspired, she petitioned the Academy to fund an expedition to investigate the ruins and recover what they could. Fearful of repeating whatever calamity the magics of the arcanists of old Talveren visited on its people, she was refused and forbidden to investigate further. That very night she and her twelve brightest students packed their belongings and left for the desert to the east, never to return.
From this point in the history on, details are as much folklore as fact, but what can be observed supports the tale. It is said that this group of thirteen traveled into the depths of the desert, guided by the golden skinned woman’s visions, the city calling to her from beyond the grave. Under a new moon they came upon it, it’s silhouette only visible as a blackness blocking out the stars of the night sky. Together they scaled the bluffs leading to the base of the city walls and found the gate open for them when they reached the top. In the depths of that dead city the lady and her students worked a powerful magic and she reached out into the Aether, to the echo of Talveren itself and formed a pact with it, binding herself to the city and the city to her as one. She ascended the empty throne that night proclaiming herself the Eternal Empress of the city and her twelve students, her lords and ladies, to rule in perpetuity. Being as one with the city she gave it a new name, her name, Carcassim. The veracity of this tale is debated beyond the ears of Carcassim itself but none in living memory or beyond can recall anyone but the golden skinned Eternal Empress ruling over the city and the twelve noble families have always upheld her word as divine law.
Whatever the truth may be, From that day Carcassim began to flourish. Wells of fresh water were discovered, patches of tractable land sprung up, and veins of precious gems and metal were unearthed. All attributed the Eternal Empress and her love for the people of her city.

Geography

Carcassim sits atop a large mesa in the southern reaches of the Dead Lake overlooking its ever shifting sands. The pale sands of the surrounding desert, bound on three sides by the ruddy Red Cradle mountains, stretches out beyond the horizon to the north. Like the city that it hides in its arid wastes, the Dead Lake’s appearance can be deceiving. True to its name, the desert used to be known as the Great Eye, it’s now towering mesas were bit the islands inside the massive lake. During the geological shifts of the 5th Waking, key mountains in the Red Cradle sundered and spilled the lake’s waters out into the sea. Over the following centuries, the sand that was once the lake’s bottom, but the patches of rich soil created by the long decomposed vegetation still lay hidden, if one knows where to look.

The Sovereignty of Carcassim actually consists of two different cities with Carcassim proper, home to the Empress, her nobility, as well as the city’s citizens that rests atop the mesa and the smaller more recently constructed town of Shadthon built around the mesa’s base which houses the migrant traders, denizens, and people on pilgrimage.

Carcassim is built upon the bones of a much older city that had fallen to ruin centuries prior and its ancient architecture is still visible in the foundations of the tightly packed buildings. In Carcassim’s naissance, the original structures provided adequate space for the burgeoning population with only minor repairs. However, as more and more people joined the citizenry, the need to expand became inevitable. Lacking the space to build outward, new levels were added to existing buildings. In some places these extensions connect creating tunnels where there were once alleys. Juxtaposed to these winding corridors are the open and airy squares draped in large silks for shade. These squares are vibrant places regularly hosting festivals and markets. Finally, Carcassim holds the lavish estates of the twelve noble houses all built around the Radiant Spire and seat of the Eternal Empress herself.

Shadthon is all recently built over the last few generations to provide a place for those visiting Carcassim a place to stay. This is essential given the decree by the Empress that no one save for the Citizens of Carcassim may walk its streets by night. It’s many buildings and surrounding curtain walls are all almost entirely from the stone mined from the mesa in the creation of the Hallowed Path, the grand and winding stairway leading through the mesa to the streets of Carcassim.