The basics
Races: Undead (99%), others (1%)
Languages: –
How power works: –
A land of everlasting cold, the lands of death.
Vadokan Votar is at once a cult and the territory that cult controls – an ancient sect of necromancers. It happened so long ago that not even the elves remember a time when those cultists were alive. Today they are mighty liches, sitting in their fortresses, ringed by legions of undead.
The high lord is Kulazar. The Circle of the Seated is the council of ancient liches that governs the cult.
Colours:
Black – the colour of life
Green – the colour of reverence for magic
White – the colour of nature
Strength: 1
Displays of strength play no part whatsoever in this society.
Order: 1
It exists by default. The undead serve their master.
It plays no part in this society.
Nature: 1
Plays no part at all.
Knowledge: 10
Across millennia of existence, knowledge alone has remained the motive for going on. Knowledge is absolutely everything. The Circle of the Seated will do anything to obtain any new riddle this world has to offer. Every lich holds a formidable collection of books, scrolls and artifacts that any state would envy.
Every lich holds a formidable collection of books, scrolls and artifacts that any other state would envy.
The liches’ attitude to this may baffle other races. They collect not “answers” but “riddles”, since only new riddles beget new answers.
Religion: 8
The whole state is one great cult-church of the high god Erlik, god of the afterlife. His power is what helped the council of the seated reach their present standing. It is not out of the question that the god’s avatar attends the most secret ceremonies of Vadokan Votar. This religion is the chief and the only institution in the society.
Communication: 1
Plays no part at all.
A land of everlasting cold
The state occupies all the polar regions of the planet, both southern and northern.
It is worth saying that words like “state”, “empire”, “country” and other terms describing a form of government do not quite fit Vadokan Votar. It is something else entirely, and there is unfortunately no word for it. The nearest concept that can be applied to it is a cult.
Climate is what limits how far Vadokan Votar can spread. Its aim is to seize every “riddle” and to establish the rule of Erlik. The first can be handled at a distance, by hiring the living to do the work. The second follows from the first. Time is of no consequence. Intelligent undead are very valuable. Liches take care of their servants and of themselves. A warm climate is dangerous – constant rot, insects and other things liable to spoil the body. Against a life without end, that is an unaffordable luxury. Protection by magic is effective but laborious. Not every intelligent undead can afford it. And keeping vast legions intact by magic is out of the question altogether. Cold is the best protection.
Besides the high council of the seated – the liches – there is a great deal of low-ranking but intelligent undead serving as governors, envoys and commanders.
A lich’s kingdom usually looks like this: deep inside stands the lich’s tower, where all the master’s treasures are kept. It has an enormous army and is heavily fortified. It is administered by 10 psilophoi and 10 psilopoli.
A psilophos governs knowledge and religion.
A psilopol governs the army.
The former seek out and keep knowledge for their master, gather artifacts, gold and anything else of use, and serve as ministers of the cult. The latter answer for the army and for security. They are usually intelligent undead with strong magical ability – most often in necromancy or in the divine magic granted by Erlik, though masters of elemental magic turn up as well (crucially, they cannot use the magic of other Eternal gods, nor the magic of demons).
Beyond that, a lich’s lands are divided into 6 adjacent cantons. Each must have one or more fortresses and an army. A canton’s administration likewise consists of 10 psilophoi and 10 psilopoli, answering to the governors of the main tower.
Within the bounds of the cantons there will always be one monora. A monora is a small canton with a teleportation portal, holding a fortress defended first and foremost from the inside. It is sited where the ground is awkward to advance across. The liches prudently assume that a portal may be used as an instrument of attack on their lands.
If a lich’s lands lie on the border, an outer canton may be established there – an apovit. This is a town peopled by the living, whose task is dealing with the outside world: buying metals, weapons and artifacts, and buying up “riddles”. It is to an apovit that adventurers come looking for work from the liches.
Daskhorn – the Twilight Peak
The largest and best-known apovit in the world.
Here you will find:
- The watchtower and palace – a tall building on a crag, looming grimly over the district.
- The garrison barracks.
- The tavern “The Twilight Peak”.
- The house of audiences – where visitors meet the representatives of the lord of these lands.
Population: about 1,000, which is a great many for an apovit.
What the city is like:
A town in snowbound mountains, where the temperature rarely climbs above freezing. Buildings of black stone, decorated with carving.
Half the population is the fortress garrison: either living humanoids (who dream of becoming intelligent undead) or intelligent undead of the lower ranks, working their way up to higher posts. The watch of an apovit knows no fear of death, since dying means a promotion.
Beneath the town, in the permafrost, lie catacombs holding an army of the dead many thousands strong, kept to defend the apovit.
Supply:
Food and everything else needed for living is brought in from outside.
The living who work in an apovit are not much troubled by how austere life is. They are more concerned with their future.
Water – plentiful.
Grain – imported.
Meat – imported.