Nepos

The City-State of Nepos: Crown of the Great Poison Lake

"Where magic flows like poison and ambition rises with the spires." - Exiled High Magus

Rising from the toxic waters of the Great Poison Lake like a malevolent crown of black stone and twisted metal, the city-state of Nepos stands as testament to magical tyranny incarnate. This island metropolis, with its spiraling towers and maze-like streets, represents one of Nolavor's most formidable magiocracies, where power and status flow purely from arcane might.

Defenses and Geography

The waters surrounding Nepos serve as more than mere natural barriers. Centuries of magical experimentation and toxic runoff have transformed the Great Poison Lake into a lethal moat that both defends and empowers the city. These corrupted waters mutate aquatic life and imbue creatures with dangerous magical abilities—properties the royal magi have learned to harness for weapons and rituals alike.   Ancient wards and magical shields layer the city in protective magic, creating an almost impenetrable dome maintained by a specialized corps of royal magi. These intricate defenses, accumulated over centuries, reflect the paranoid genius of generations of ruling spellcasters.  

Social Hierarchy

Governed by a royal family whose lineage traces to the First Black Fire War, Nepos operates under strict magical stratification. The higher the spires reach, the more powerful their inhabitants, with the royal palace crowning the central isle's peak. At the apex sits the royal family, wielding both inherited power and centuries of accumulated arcane knowledge. Below them, the High Magi serve as both advisors and enforcers of royal will.   The middle ranks consist of various magical practitioners—enchanters, elementalists, and artificers—who maintain the city's mystical infrastructure. At society's bottom dwell those born with little or no magical talent, serving as laborers, servants, and test subjects. Many exist in hereditary servitude, bound by magical contracts that pass through generations.  

Districts and Architecture

The Spellforge District houses numerous magical academies and research facilities, where new spells and enchantments develop under strict royal oversight. In the Artifice Quarter, craftsmen blend magic with material craft, creating everything from enchanted weapons to magical conveniences for the wealthy.   The Undertow, comprising partially submerged structures where the poorest citizens dwell, has become a breeding ground for mutations caused by exposure to the toxic lake. The upper classes view some of these mutations as valuable, leading to selective breeding programs that treat humans like magical livestock.   At the city's heart rises the Magisterium, a massive complex where the royal family and High Magi conduct their most crucial rituals. This sentient building shifts its halls according to its masters' will, hosting the trials that determine young magi's futures and their place in the magical hierarchy.  

Economy and Trade

The Arcane Exchange, a massive floating marketplace, serves as the center of Nepos's magical economy. Here, verified merchants conduct business under the watchful eyes of magical constructs, trading in enchanted items and reagents refined from the Great Poison Lake's waters. The royal family maintains strict control over all magical commerce, requiring registration and taxation of every arcane transaction.  

Education and Culture

The Academies of High Sorcery dominate education, their towering spires housing students for years of rigorous magical training. Their curricula extend beyond mere spellcraft, instilling absolute loyalty to the magical hierarchy. Failed students often disappear into the Vitarium, their bodies and spirits fueling the city's endless magical experiments.   Daily life revolves around magical advancement, with citizens engaging in public displays of spellcraft and regulated duels. Even children's games involve magical contests, while the air itself crackles with residual energy, manifesting in floating lights, spontaneous transmutations, and temporary warps in reality.  

Religious Practice

While official worship centers on magical power itself, secret cults dedicated to Dead Gods like Zothra-Khaar persist in hidden shrines. The royal family encourages focus on magic as divinity, presenting themselves as the highest embodiment of arcane perfection.  

The Vitarium

Beneath the Magisterium lies the Vitarium, a network of chambers where the most horrific magical experiments unfold. Here, royal magi push the boundaries of power through increasingly cruel methods, believing true mastery requires understanding both pleasure and pain's extremes. Periodic purges of the "magically impure" coincide with celestial events, using ambient energy to strengthen city defenses while eliminating threats.  

Foreign Relations

Nepos maintains complex relationships with neighboring powers. The industrial forces of Kanonos Region view the city with fear and envy, coveting its magical resources while dreading its power. The Bloodclaw Warband of Grizburg maintains cautious trade relations, exchanging rare materials for magical weapons, though both sides constantly prepare for potential betrayal.  

The New Regime

When Sythara returned with Slazgar and the Obsidian Fang, she used her intimate knowledge of Nepos's defenses to corrupt them, turning the city's own protective magic against its creators. Their subsequent rule transformed the magical hierarchy—while maintaining its basic structure, they made advancement dependent on loyalty and willingness to embrace darker powers rather than magical ability alone.   Under their governance, the Vitarium focuses on fusing divine and mortal magic through the Obsidian Fang's power. The rigid barriers between magical castes became more permeable but no less brutal, with those showing aptitude for dark magic rising quickly regardless of origin.  

Present State

Today, Nepos pulses with Dead God essence and darker magics, its spires rising from poisoned waters as a beacon for those seeking power's darkest aspects. The centuries of accumulated magic, combined with the Great Poison Lake's toxic influence, have begun altering reality within its bounds. Time flows strangely in certain districts, and some theorize the city itself approaches sentience, fed by its inhabitants' magical energies.   Under the joint rule of the Witch of Nepos and her goblin partner, the city-state serves as testament to how vengeance and ambition can reshape not just lives but entire societies. Their legacy grows in the toxic mists shrouding its spires, their rule a perfect fusion of cruel justice and dark ambition.  

"In Nepos, even the stones remember their torments, and the waters whisper secrets of power." - Kurgan Weinrich

             

The City-State of Nepos: Crown of the Great Poison Lake

"Where magic flows like poison and ambition rises with the spires." - Exiled High Magus

  Rising from the toxic waters of the Great Poison Lake like a malevolent crown of black stone and twisted metal, the city-state of Nepos stands as a testament to magical tyranny incarnate. This island metropolis, with its spiraling towers and maze-like streets, represents one of Nolavor's most formidable magiocracies, where power and status flow purely from arcane might. Yet, beneath its imposing silhouette lies a darker truth—Nepos is known far and wide as "The City of Perversions," a place where forbidden magic, deviant desires, and the exploitation of life and death define its very soul.    

Defenses and Geography

The waters surrounding Nepos are no mere natural barriers. Centuries of reckless magical experimentation and toxic runoff have transformed the Great Poison Lake into a lethal moat that defends the city while fueling its perverse ambitions. The lake’s corrupted depths mutate aquatic life into grotesque, magical abominations—tentacled horrors and venomous leviathans—whose properties the royal magi harvest for weapons, rituals, and depraved spectacles. Far from an accident, the lake’s toxicity is a deliberate creation, sustained by the runoff of the city’s most twisted experiments. The magi use it as a cauldron for their perverse alchemy, testing unspeakable creations in its depths and capturing the resulting monstrosities for gladiatorial arenas or as living defenses for the city’s secrets.   Above the lake, ancient wards and magical shields form an almost impenetrable dome, maintained by a secretive corps of royal magi. These defenses, layered over generations, reflect the paranoid brilliance of Nepos’s rulers. Yet, they are more than protective—they pulse with the perverse energies drawn from the city’s rituals, feeding on the suffering and corruption that thrive within its walls.  

Social Hierarchy

Nepos is governed by a royal family whose lineage stretches back to the First Black Fire War, enforcing a rigid magical stratification that mirrors the city’s spiraling architecture. The higher the spires climb, the greater the power of their inhabitants, with the royal palace crowning the central isle’s peak. At the apex reigns the royal family, wielding inherited might and a vast archive of arcane knowledge amassed over centuries. Beneath them, the High Magi act as advisors and enforcers, their loyalty bound by blood oaths and dark pacts.   The elite of Nepos revel in perverse pleasures, using their magic to twist reality to their whims. They treat the lower classes as disposable toys—subjects for cruel experiments, vessels for dark rituals, or fodder for their sadistic amusements. The city’s social order is a grotesque parody of its magical hierarchy, where power is displayed through acts of dominance and degradation. The middle ranks—enchanters, elementalists, and artificers—sustain the city’s mystical infrastructure, often complicit in the elite’s depravity to secure their own advancement. At the bottom toil those with little or no magical talent, condemned to lives of servitude, labor, or sacrifice. Many are trapped in hereditary bondage, their fates sealed by magical contracts that bind their bloodlines to the city’s perverse will.  

Districts and Architecture

The Spellforge District teems with magical academies and research facilities, where spells and enchantments are forged under the royal family’s iron grip. Here, students learn not just magic but the perverse ideologies that exalt power over morality, preparing them for a society that thrives on exploitation. The Artifice Quarter melds magic with craftsmanship, producing enchanted weapons, luxurious conveniences, and sinister artifacts—like automatons driven by trapped souls or trinkets that siphon vitality for the user’s pleasure.   The Undertow, a squalid warren of half-submerged hovels, houses the city’s poorest souls. Exposure to the toxic lake breeds mutations among its residents, some of which the elite prize as curiosities. This has birthed grotesque breeding programs, where humans are treated as livestock, their flesh sculpted and spirits broken for the amusement of the powerful.   At Nepos’s core looms the Magisterium, a sentient citadel where the royal family and High Magi perform their most vital rituals. Its halls shift at its masters’ whims, hosting brutal trials that determine a magi’s fate within the hierarchy. Beneath it sprawls the Vitarium, a labyrinth of chambers where the city’s most perverse experiments unfold. Here, magi explore the extremes of pleasure and pain, extracting souls, reshaping bodies, and bending reality itself to sate their twisted curiosities.  

Economy and Trade

The Arcane Exchange, a sprawling floating marketplace, anchors Nepos’s magical economy. Watched by tireless magical constructs, merchants trade enchanted goods and reagents distilled from the Great Poison Lake’s poisonous depths. The royal family exerts absolute control, taxing every transaction and licensing every vendor. Yet, a thriving black market lurks beneath this regulated facade, trafficking in cursed relics, enslaved magical beings, and forbidden lore. This shadow trade cements Nepos’s title as "The City of Perversions," offering soul-bound thralls, artifacts of torment, and services that cater to the elite’s darkest cravings.  

Education and Culture

The Academies of High Sorcery tower over Nepos’s educational landscape, their spires cradling students through years of grueling magical training. Beyond spellcraft, the curriculum drills unwavering loyalty to the hierarchy and an appreciation for the perverse arts—soul manipulation, forbidden necromancy, and the harnessing of Dead God energies. Failed students vanish into the Vitarium, their essence consumed to fuel the city’s relentless experiments.   Daily life orbits magical supremacy, with citizens showcasing their prowess in public spellcraft and sanctioned duels that often end in mutilation or madness. Even children’s games twist into magical rivalries, while the air hums with residual power, sparking floating lights, random transmutations, and fleeting rifts to realms of agony or ecstasy—glimpses that only deepen the city’s perverse mystique.  

Religious Practice

Officially, Nepos venerates magical power as divine, with the royal family cast as its living avatars. Yet, hidden shrines harbor secret cults devoted to Dead Gods like Zothra-Khaar, who conduct perverse rites—sacrifices, blood orgies, and invocations—to court favor from these fallen entities. The royals feign ignorance, but many suspect they secretly tap this power to bolster their reign, blurring the line between ruler and cultist.  

The Vitarium

Beneath the Magisterium, the Vitarium sprawls as a network of chambers where Nepos’s most horrific experiments take root. Royal magi here chase mastery through depravity, believing that true power lies in mastering both ecstasy and agony. Souls are ripped from bodies, flesh is warped into unnatural forms, and reality bends under their will. Periodic purges of the "magically impure" align with celestial events, their deaths amplifying the city’s defenses. The Vitarium is the pulsing core of Nepos’s perverse fame, a place where the magi’s pleasure in their craft is as vital as the power it yields.  

Foreign Relations

Nepos’s neighbors regard it with a mix of dread and fascination. The Kanonos Region’s industrial lords envy its magical wealth but recoil from its corruption. The Bloodclaw Warband of Grizburg trades cautiously, swapping rare ores for enchanted arms, yet both sides brace for treachery. Many shun Nepos for its perverse reputation, but some covertly seek its taboo wares, drawn by the promise of its dark arts.  

The New Regime

When Sythara returned with Slazgar and the Obsidian Fang, she twisted Nepos’s defenses against their makers, ushering in a new era. Their rule reshaped the hierarchy, tying advancement to loyalty and a thirst for dark power over mere talent. The Vitarium now melds divine and mortal magic via the Fang, birthing atrocities that defy nature. Sythara and Slazgar have embraced and amplified Nepos’s perverse traditions, forging a society where corruption is the ultimate currency.  

Present State

Today, Nepos thrums with Dead God essence and sinister magics, its spires piercing the toxic mists of the Great Poison Lake. Centuries of arcane excess have warped reality—time stutters in some quarters, streets lead to realms of torment, and buildings hunger for the souls within. Under Sythara and Slazgar’s reign, the city teeters on the edge of sentience, a monument to vengeance, ambition, and unrelenting perversion.  

"In Nepos, even the stones remember their torments, and the waters whisper secrets of power." - Kurgan Weinrich