Topal, the Marble Metropolis

The once great city of Topal is one of the largest cities in Home. It was a bustling metropolis where nearly everything was influenced by magic. Many great wizards, priests, psions and every other type of magic user could be found there. At least one shop on every block had at least one magic or alchemical item for sale at any given time. Even the common folk had magical talent, with most knowing a cantrip or two, or being able to use magic items well.
Topal was built primarily by wizards casting walls of stone to make towering marble city walls and multistory structures. When the inevitable need to expand occurred, they would cast move earth to expand the walls, and would then raise a new wall where any holes had been left.
Today, however, the city is a ruin. Most of the structures still stand, but the people were ravaged by a curse created by the lich, Garbhuljar. It corrupted them, rotting their flesh and turning their minds to serve him. In only a few weeks, the population was reduced to but a fraction of its once great number.  Thousands didn't survive the initial wave of the curse and in the confusion and chaos during the early days of the conflict, inhabitants fought and killed each other as their sanity rotted alongside their minds. Today, nearly all who remain are undead, and the majority of the living are vampire food. Only a handful of free living souls survive in Topal, scrounging for resources during the day when the photophobic zombies retreat indoors.
Nearly every variety of undead can be found in Topal, but the majority are necropolitans and zombies, as these are what Garbhuljar's magic turned most into. The smarter and strong willed became necropolitans, while the weaker inhabitants became zombies. Some of the stronger inhabitants became wights, ghouls, or ghasts. Garbuljhar's curse created no undead such as vampires, liches, mummies, or other undead that require special processes to create with the exception of a few blashphemes, though a few of such undead already lived in the city at the time of the curse, and therefore still do.  All variety of incorporeal undead can be found in Topal too, as Garbhuljar's magic prevents souls from leaving. The vast majority of them have become haunts, however, so encounters with sane ghosts are actually uncommon.
After the chaos died down and people became used to their new situation, life if Topal more or less returned to normal.  Or at least as normal as normal as it could have given the circumstances. People regained their sanity.  Government officials returned to their duties, guards returned to their posts, and shopkeepers resumed selling their wares.   Garbhuljar's curse drew all residents of Topal inside the city's gates, so the outlying farms were all quickly abandoned. This was hardly a problem as there was little need for food anyways.

Government

Dictatorship

Guilds and Factions

Topal is divided into four main districts. The Magic District in the northeast, the Political District in the northwest, the Religious District in the southeast, and the Commons District in the southwest.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
174, 6th era

Type

Metropolis

Location under

Home