Nekiton

At the border of Nekiton, the lush developed farmland of Pakray suddenly stops. The marker-stones, old faces carves and overgrown with moss, scream at the traveler to stop. The trees on the other side seem so much taller, so much darker, more gnarled. In the evening, their branches look like warped arms, their bark looks like tortured faces. At dawn and dusk, a fine mist collects and drapes the ground. Ancient burnt skulls are displayed near the roadside marking stones, along with a sign: "Heed this warning: No weapons shall be drawn here." Crossing this boundary sends a shiver down your spine.
The road curls through the woods, quickly moving around the gentle, wooded hills. Small farms and watchtowers line the road with occasional gaps of wild forest, leading slowly to a distant hilltop crowned with wood-and-stone walls. Behind the wooden walls, the town appears quite cozy. Inns, shops, and market stalls surround the town plaza immediately through the gates. Beyond them is the promenade, containing the town hall, the theater, and the temple. Beyond that is Small Town- the Haltia quarter, with its own traditional moot building and smaller inn. In the distance, one can see the road leading out of town and up towards the hills. On the nearest hill shine the neighboring monastery and temple of Old Nekiton, surrounded by small stone walls and their own clusters of farmhouses. Ancient ruins are scattered all around those buildings and down the road to Smalltown, casting the entire region as a massive graveyard. 
Beyond those grim ruins, there are the hills, the woods, and the marshes- each with a few isolated houses and old trails leading into town. Nekiton is not just a walled settlement, after all, but a network of small communities that encompass the whole cursed land.
As for what exactly plagues Nekiton, it is not an active danger but an ancient curse: all weapons used here shatter, spirits cannot enter, and humans find the land innately frightening. Once, this was an ancient metropolis. But it offended the Architects and was cursed forever. Now it is an unclaimed land, infamous but peaceful.

Demographics

There are 5,000 humanoids and 900 cats present in Nekiton. Of the humanoids, 75% are Humans and 25% are Haltia. The vast majority are rural.

Government

Nekiton is legally the property of the Harzan Monastery independent of any major state. In practice, the Harzan monks generally don't exert much direct power, but allow several independent town councils to run their own affairs. These councils are not always in harmony, but are rather representative of different interests that are often stuck in perpetual negotiation. The major players are:

• The Nekitan Country Militia, which is actually better described as an agrarian council of elders and community leaders. In terms of military matters, they mostly just operate the watchtowers and preside over the hunting of bandits and criminals (a rarity). They would rather focus on crops, land disputes, and the like.
• The Nekitan Guild Hall, which is a very grandiose committee of elder merchants and artisans and is basically a chamber of commerce. They manage town business. 
• The Smallmoot, which runs Smalltown - the Haltia district. The Smallmoot keeps the old rituals alive.
• The Temples, which tend to move together in unison (but are certainly not immune to division). There is the Temple of Ashara, the Cat Goddess, outside of town, and then there is the Town Temple and the rural altar-temples. The Temples manage education, extract labor tithes, and keep the faith. They tend to be the mediating body that works out compromises between the farms and the town.

Industry & Trade

Nekiton is overwhelmingly agricultural, producing yams, squash, pumpkins, maize, and rice. Giant Lobsters are bred and kept in the mires in the Southeast, and sheep are kept in the hills. The hills are also home to a number of small mines, which are then smelted in a small walled ironworks near town. Cotton and flax are often grown by rural households for household textile production. Many households work together to produce paper for the temples and monks, and the town produces ink. The town produces rice wine and small manufacturing goods. For the most part, Nekiton is self-sufficient. 
In terms of trade, the actual town of Nekiton is the centerpoint for trade and has been booming recently. Trade has not disrupted the region's self-sufficiency, but it has led to a surge in luxuries: sugar, spices, tea, coffee, silk, dyes. A number of older folks are annoyed by this, as well as the rise of physical currency over traditional work-and-barter. Despite these grumblings, everyone but Smalltown has cooperated to lean into the new trade and divide the benefits relatively evenly.

Guilds and Factions

The Harzan Monastery: The Poet Monks of Harzan are the most powerful and important faction of Nekiton. They are reclusive ascetics that believe that non-physical evil is the root of evil and can only be fought with good deeds and above all good words. To this end, the monks focus on the production of poetry, literature, art, and theology. They also produce some of their own food and liquor. The Harzan Monastery technically owns all of Nekiton, and it does manage most taxes and tariffs. Most of these are either food, labor, and paper/ink taxes for the upkeep of the monastery, or are taxes that are recommended by the local councils that the monks rubber-stamp. The most curious extra "tax" of the monks is the "art levy": essentially, "military service" against the essence of evil by some kind of art or expression, to be launched in an "assault on the demon Gods" every Day of Blood. The most common kind of "military service" are weekly participation in the local choirs and bands (instruments count as weapons to the Harzan monastery, and supplied from the greater Desmian military budget). Not everyone has to participate in the Art Levy, but it is a sign of prestige and community leadership to do so. And, speaking of fighting, the Harzan monks do practice martial arts and have recently mastered the Way of the Open Palm - they are an actual fighting force that is able to soundly remove any bandits that move into the territory. 
The Monks have recently become internationally semi-famous, and have set up their own printing press and expanded library. Pilgrims and tourists flock to train with them or learn from them, and their offerings have allowed the monks to greatly expand their headquarters. The monastery itself is very particularly designed with ritual purpose: as a great magical seal on the heart of the ancient city, where the God Emesh was once killed and where the curse was seeded. The town, countryside, and monks all believe that the monks alone keep the curse from killing crops and people or spawning demons- so, for all the fun and games, the duties of the monks are seen as deadly serious. To better reinforce the seal and produce superior art, the monks have a very curious ally: The God Emesh, who presents himself as the Muse-Spirit Olaino. "Olaino" is a secret of the monks, and has been a critical resource in keeping the town prosperous and peaceful.

History

The Ancient Kingdom: -1100 to -500

Nekiton began as a refuge in a land of war. Positioned right at the foot of the Westward extent of the Sakoja mountains, reasonably close to the sea, and with access to abundant spring for irrigation, Nekiton was a perfect hideout. Whether it began for dryads or humans, none can say, but by 1100 DE it was Orthodox Desmian and the most populous town in the area. Throughout the Divine Era, Nekiton ruled as a city state over the narrow gap between the Sakoja hills and the coast. While the war eventually left, Nekiton remained fairly militaristic and often served as the great wall against coastal raiding parties from the South.
In 620 DE, the explorer Emesh Kozaja arrived on their shores- the first Prism in Desmia. Emesh and their crew sailed into one of Nekiton's orbiting fishing and trading towns, storm-battered and low on supplies. After revealing their worship of The Demon God of the Dryads, Emesh was dragged to Nekiton and put on trial. The monarch quickly declared them a demon and had them publicly sacrificed by beheading. The Architects were infuriated, and The Masked One possessed Emesh's dead body. The animated corpse admonished the crowd, informed them that prisms were non-demonic, shattered the executioner's blade, and then cursed Nekiton forever. The ruler's ability to wield a weapon was taken away, and all weapons used in the city would shatter upon use. The monarchy was soon in shambles, and the city's ability to rule its kingdom collapsed. As a final effect, the Masked One Hallowed the land (making it impossible to enter for spirits, all possessions automatically end in the area, and there is an eeriness to the place).
No longer useful as a military center, Nekiton's importance was gone. As it became clear that the land was permanently cursed, people fled in droves. Even hunting or slaughtering animals would occasionally destroy valuable weapons, making it a hassle for many farmers and residents. Only the most committed to their plots remained. Nekiton gained a reputation as a haunted, cursed ruin of terrible monsters - the ghost of Emesh, headless and terrible, was said to ride a decaying horse through the misty ruins, kidnapping innocents as they went. The cats seemed far less perturbed, and the cat community alone remained in the actual urban ruins.

The Unholy Land -500 to 1080

Nekiton not only continued to be abandoned for centuries, but rumors of a curse that took away warrior ability from whoever ruled the place discouraged surrounding states from claiming it. From 620 DE to around 200 ME, that was all that could be said. But the inter-Orthodox wars of the 200s began to drive some people into the cursed land to seek refuge. This resettlement was extremely sparse and mostly temporary, but did confirm that Nekiton wasn't a complete death trap. Some stayed, forming community bonds with the locals who had remained from all those centuries ago. These newcomers helped bring trade back to Nekiton by establishing an inn at the border-lands: a safe haven for travelers where the curse could help prevent fighting or banditry.
From 200 ME to 1080 ME, the inn slowly grew to be the center of a small town. As a place with no owner or ruler, it was a place of no taxes- making it ideal for merchant and artisanal tax sales and tax evasion. The new town of Nekiton was still right on the edge of the cursed land and few people went further in, but it was a way for rural residents to buy tools and improve their living.

A Haunted Oasis: 1080 to 2020

In 1080, a massive Pakrayan civil war erupted with Nekiton sitting right at the heart of the conflict zone. The bloody decades of conflict forced droves of people to Nekiton. At first, most clung to the borderlands and around the town. But the curse could not dissuade bandits and raiding warriors, who burnt down the town in 1084 when it refused to pay tribute or hand over fugitives for a ransom. The refugees were forced into the heart of the Cursed Land, where they encountered quite a shock: a small community of refugee Dryads that had settled in the heart of the unholy ruins and established an uneasy peace with the cats and human residents. The new refugees turned on one another and the existing residents, accusing one another of heresy and Ishkibism. That is when Harzan the Poet arrived - a famous and somewhat controversial ascetic that led a small hermetic commune in the North. Harzan and his monks had been displaced by the war, but were notable for their practice of traditional Desmian martial arts as a tool of bodily discipline and expression (a practice that had fallen out of style with improvement of iron smelting and crafting). Harzan's ascetics united the people of Nekiton and helped round up, capture, and sacrifice the dryads. Harzan became the de-facto leader of Nekiton, constructing a temple and resolving disputes among the newcomers.
After the civil war, most people left, but again many stayed. The town was rebuilt; the disciples of Harzan built a temple near the ruins of the old city. Over time, the cat community grew large enough that a number of devotees of the Cat Goddess Ashara arrived as well. More new arrivals arrived in the late 1500s: refugees again, Haltia fleeing violence on their home island. Wars, inquisitions, manias- all spared Nekiton, which stood as an oasis of peace. It still remained untaxed and unruled by the surrounding states. And whenever a Pakrayan or Inaran moment of chaos occurred, Nekiton would take in newcomers - most leaving again after, but some staying.
For most of this time, Nekiton has remained obscure and isolated. Only recently has Nekiton emerged again as a prosperous population center. In the 1800s and 1900s, the arrival of the printing press to Nekiton allowed the Monks of Harza to begin mass producing their literature and poetry, which slowly grew in popularity in Pakray and Drinika. Several Harzan monks were enlisted as scribes and moral-boosters for The Golden Crusade, and their art began to gain popularity across the continent. Bardism, Dhampirism, and even Way of the Open Palm were introduced as potential tools of the monks to keep order, and their authority over Nekiton grew. Money and tourism began to flow in, and the monks directed that money into the town center. And now, a new batch of refugees have arrived: now from the Kingdom of Inara.

Tourism

There are three reasons for tourism into Nekiton: pilgrimage to the Harzan monastery, tourism centered on the Day of Blood festival, and thrillseeking tourism. Pilgrims often seek to to be blessed with inspiration and bravery and are often willing to provide offerings in exchange for advice. Some even seek to stay temporarily to receive training in the art of poetry, writing, or physical discipline. Pilgrims often double as Festival Tourists, visiting in larger numbers around that time of year (early autumn). Nekiton's Day of Blood festival is known to be particularly overwhelming in its highs and lows: the curse enhances the terrifying aspect of the Day of Blood, but the town rises to meet it with great feasting, music, and revelry. The low taxes also means more abundant food and drink, and the Art Levy makes for a more impressive and overwhelming series of performances. 
Thrillseeker tourism is related to that pursuit of Highs and Lows, but is perhaps a little less traditionally pious. Thrillseekers are often propertied Desmians who either want to feel the thrill of being scared for fun or want to undergo some kind of ordeal to prove their bravery to themselves or others. These thrillseekers have developed a small industry of farmers and merchants who curate particularly scary spots to give "haunted tours" or "supernatural ordeals". Some of these "ordeals" are essentially just fun local activities that townsfolk also take part in: making mazes out of corn fields or going out to the ruins to tell stories. Others are more intense, such as drugging the tourist, stripping them naked, and then releasing them in a farm while monstrously costumed employees chase them and beat them with reed whips and sticks. After these frightening games and ordeals, thrillseekers then return to the inns in town to drink heartily and celebrate - the highs of revelry enhanced by the recent terror. This post-fright revelry can often get out of hand and is a source of great community controversy: many Nekitan residents see thrillseeking tourists as a nuisance and even as a possible threat. Recent regulations have clamped down on this trade, confining thrillseekers to specific areas, confining post-thrill tourists to specific inns, and hitting both merchants and tourists with heavy fines if they cause problems.

Architecture

Nekiton's architecture is fairly simple and traditional: single story outside of a few central buildings, made of a combination of stone and wood. Buildings outside of the main town often incorporate pieces of the old ruins into the walls and foundations. Most Nekitan buildings use traditional Pakrayan-Kenain sloped rooves, often a mixture of hay, adobe, and tile to make it extremely waterproof. They also use slightly raised wooden floors to allow water to flow under the houses during the wet seasons. Houses and buildings on low ground outside of town are often stilted for protection from water and ghosts alike.

Geography

A mixture of grassy hills and meadows, warm humid forest, and swampy lowlands.

Founding Date

-1100 DE/1100 ME

Type

Large town

Population

5,000 humanoids, 1000 cats

Inhabitant Demonym

Netikan

Location under

Desmia

Owning Organization

The Holy Republic of Pakray