The Human Cities ----------------- There are six large cities on the island, each devoted to a specific god. The capital city is known as The Citadel, although the citadel itself is only a small fraction of the city. Pelor, the most-worshipped god of the kingdom, has his great temple there (though he has large temples in all of the cities.) The walls are defended mostly by clerics, though paladins are also represented. To the west, situated on the plains near Diamond River (not on the river itself, of course) is The Shining City of Hieroneous, founded by a bunch of paladins that took themselves a bit too seriously. They're excellent warriors, though, and do not hesitate to lend aid to their fellow cities whenever they request it, and often even when they don't. In addition to the paladins, the Shining City is defended by fighters and divine archers. * Divine archers: Similar to arcane archers, the divine archer learns to imbue his arrows with magic as he fires them. These arrows deal Holy damage, which is a powerful attack against undead. * The Diamond River: There are... things... in the river. Ever since the creation of Necropolis on the banks of the Onyx, which feeds the Diamond, the river has looked a little tainted. Strange undead things can come out of the river, things that are not alive, things with far too many tentacles for anybody's good. There are many cities that are within a few miles of the river, but the water is heavily filtered before being used. To the west of The Shining City is Blueport, which worships Obad-hai, the god of the sea. The city is unique in that its piers and docks are not actually a part of the city proper, but rather sit out of the way, outside the walls. The island's peculiar curse seems to operate underwater as well as above ground; more than once the city has needed to defend itself from a giant zombie kraken or whale. Visitors to the city are required to abandon their ships and come inland during Darknight; most are reluctant, but no living thing is permitted at the Blueport docks to draw the undead to attack the ships and cargo. Many of the city's defenders are druids, and there are some rangers with favored terrain: aquatic as well. To the south of The Citadel, near the mountains, is the Tower of Fangs, home to the wizard's guild of Diamond Island. The patron of the city is Boccob; worship of The Necromancer is punishable by death, as is the practice of necromancy at all. Wizards with Fireball and Magic Missile spells line the city's walls when the undead attack; cleric/magi with plate armor and Shield magic serve as front-line defenders. * The Necromancer: Nobody likes to name the cleric/wizard who began the whole process, because it's not entirely clear that he's dead. The final battle against him was fought in Necropolis, his fortress on Onyx River; shortly after it began, his greatest undead servants all across the island cried out in pain and seemed to disintegrate. But the undead curse still lingers, and the leader of the expedition, Sir Arthur Diamondblade, and his retinue, never returned. Undead are still quite strong near Necropolis, and nobody who has ventured far into the ruins has ever reported back. * For the record, The Necromancer's name is Vecna. This, umm, doesn't necessarily mean he's _the_ Vecna; the clerics are pretty sure he changed his name at some point. Probably a lot of horribly evil mages do that, and we're not really sure which Vecna is the one that ascended to godhood. Maybe the god Vecna is sort of an amalgamation of all of them, and our particular Vecna is only a very small part of that. Or not at all. Yeah. Vecna's dead. Trust me. And call him "The Necromancer". It's safer. To the northwest of The Citadel is Kher Keep, home of Kord, the chaotic-good god of strength. The other cities on Diamond Island were founded to serve a purpose: to farm, to mine, to trade, to study magic. Kher Keep's purpose is simply to exist, to maintain a human presence in the northern part of the island. When the Four Cities began their rebuilding, they noticed that the undead in an area kept growing constantly unless some force opposed and destroyed them. If the northwest of the island had been left unoccupied, huge armies of undead would form and periodically sweep across the island, destroying all in their path. Kher Keep is there to prevent that. Its warriors, mostly barbarians and fighters, patrol the surrounding areas during the daytime, slaying any undead they encounter. To the east of the Citadel is Diamond City, on the Diamond River. Moradin, the god of dwarves, gold, and mining, is the official god of this city, but Pelor is also worshipped strongly by those who don't happen to be dwarven. Diamond City is defended rather haphazardly, by whatever mercenaries happen to be in the city at the time. Fortunately, the city is also extremely wealthy, and there are always plenty of mercenaries. The mines of Diamond City are a bit unusual, as one might expect. They're extremely rich in gems, but, like most mines, they're also far away from the light of the sun. On an island where undead are as common as they are, this is a serious problem. Zombies and skeletons like to stay in the mines, hiding from the light of the sun; worse, shadows and wraiths may make their homes there as well. Much of the mining in and near Diamond City is handled by bands of adventurers rather than miners. Human Agriculture ------------------ Not everyone can hide in the human cities; there have to be people to tend the crops. There are towns scattered across the plains, most of them within a day's travel of one of the major cities. The people of the towns mostly worship Ehlonna, as her clerics can turn the undead and make the crops grow as well. Human towns are not defended at all - the army would need to be larger than the village in order to be a useful defense. Instead, everybody retreats into the town bunker every Darknight, the clerics put their magic to work defending the place, and the undead have free run of the town until morning. On Darkestnight, the entire population of most towns will retreat behind the walls of a city. The local clerics are _probably_ strong enough to protect the town, but nobody really wants to take the risk. Darkestnight Eve, when the townspeople visit the city with their crops for sale and cash for spending, would almost be a holiday, except for the whole living-in-terror-of-the-walking-dead thing. Tending the farms is difficult. Vegetable crops aren't that big a deal since the undead don't really care about them, but cows and sheep tend to get devoured. (And then their corpses raise as zombies, and they attack the rest of the herd...) Instead, most farmers on Diamond Island keep cow-beasts, a buffalo-like animal bred on Diamond Island to survive undead attacks. Cow-beasts move in herds; when approached by anything that smells of the grave, they stampede and trample the offender. Cow-beast herds tend to be small, since they have to be moved into bunkers each Darknight (a huge pain, but far better than the alternative). The Elven Forests ------------------ The elves were on the island before the humans got there, though there hasn't really been a problem with control of land: elves only want land with forest on it, humans prefer land without forest on it, and elves make sure that nobody chops down any trees so the forest won't go away. Forest elves don't really talk to humans much... One might suspect that the elves blame the humans for the scourge of undead which has covered the land, that they resent humans' occupation of so much of what used to be their open space, and that they scorn and pity the lives of any race whose members can grow old and die before a single elven child reaches maturity. But forest elves don't talk to humans, so there's no way to be sure, which is probably better for both sides' peace of mind. There are also many elves that travel and live in human cities. Most of these are elves that immigrated from offshore, though there are certainly some that left the forest for the lure of city life. It's not common knowledge how these elves are received when they venture into the elven forest. It's not totally clear how elves defend their forests from the ravages of the undead. It's pretty clear that they do it somehow, because most elven forests are clean of undead. It's also clear that whatever they do isn't perfect: the ghastly fall of Pendelhaven left no doubt of that. There are three elven forests of note. The largest by far is the forest of Argoth, along the south of the island. The elven city (cities? villages?) there seem to be reasonably friendly; travelers that venture into the forest often wake to find themselves unconscious in a bunker outside the forest. Travelers are seldom killed. There is a very small forest in the center of the island. Once called Pendelhaven, this forest is now known as Deathwood Glade, for it was overrun by undead about a hundred years ago. Most of the trees are now dead, but an eerie kind of unlife still seems to reside there. When Pendelhaven fell, the Shining City sent messages to the remaining forests, offering help if they should need it, but were met with a stony silence. The north of the island is home to a small forest that is known to humans as Mistywood. They're pretty sure that elves live there since it isn't all nasty and undead, but nobody has managed to talk to one. People who venture into the forest are often never seen again, so nobody tries much. The Fallen Cities ================== When the War first began, human cities were caught completely unprepared. Walls were not built, clerics were not trained, graveyards were not triple-consecrated. Nobody expected a war on a newly-settled island. Thus many of the first wave of human cities were wiped out as hordes of undead arose from their graveyards, behind the lines of their army. The most famous of these is New Hope City, the original port; in addition to having no city walls, it was situated directly on top of the suddenly- polluted Diamond River, from which hordes of undead octopi sprung to attack the city from inside. Very few escaped, and to this day the city is haunted by all manner of undead. On occasion the Shining City will attack one of these fallen cities, usually destroying all the undead in the area. While an impressive feat, this accomplishes very little, as more undead quickly come to inhabit the city once the Shining Army leaves. People have also been known to raid the Fallen City ruins, hoping to find long-lost treasure and magic items. Treasure can be found by the lucky and the brave, but more often than not the treasure discovered is looted from the body of some previous explorer who had dared those same ruins.