Death's Turf

Crypt Council: A council comprised of various Necro lords who make up the leadership of Death's Turf and regulate the undead into a functional society. These are some of the highest and most potent, each maintaining a delicate balance of power that keeps the dead from getting out of control.   Necro Lords: Wanderers who have gained power over their peers and rule over them as their leader over several tombs where they reside. Their authority is absolute, as they maintain the masses of the dying and ensure they don't lose their way and are given purpose.   Tomb Keeper: A Wanderer given control over a single tomb to ensure that its occupants are kept in line and do their tasks without complaint. Each one is given power under a Necro Lord, who serves and provides their power, but it does not weigh on them.   Reaper Accord: The enforcers of laws in the tombs that ensure that Wanderers are kept in line or are punished severely for their actions. Their authority over such matters is their sole purpose, and any who dare threaten their society will be hunted down no matter the cost.

Citizenship

  When we were alive, it was said that death was final, and we all had to face judgment for the life we led. Some of us aren't as lucky as we may remain even after the fact. To us of the Undying, we considered this our second birth, only to be trapped in a state of decay that lacks the pleasures and suffering of what life had for us. No one knows why we exist in these lifeless forms, but we have learned to find purpose through duty and unity. It is and only here where our kind can find solace and peace away from threats of persecution and destruction for what we can not control. Through our path, we have managed to build a civilization that shall never fade, for how could it be when its builders were already dead to begin with.

Influence

  As the only nation ruled by Wanderers, Death's Turf is still considered a valued member of the Phoenixian Dominions due to its unique situation, as the Undying can achieve feats that most of the living cannot reach. Many of its citizens are sent to be used as labor forces that cannot escape or suffer the harmful effects of their environment, and they have brilliant minds in various studies when they were still alive. They also make excellent spies, assassins, and soldiers, unhindered by most combat hazards. Yet it does find itself in a particular political and ethical situation that many nations find abhorrent since they are dead and should stay that way, seeing it unnatural for them even to exist at all. This has caused them to have very few interactions with outsiders other than the dominions.

To live out our existence in peace and purpose until the day of our actual death comes for us all.

Industrial Powerhouse: With nothing better for them to develop, the Undying have created vast facilities for building and processing resources at a rate unlike most other states.   Untiring Workforce : Being dead has its perks as they do not need to tire or rest, allowing them to carry out their task continually for as long as they want to without harming themselves.

Coming of The Undying

  Much of the tragic origins of the rise of the Death's Turf come from the aftermath of the Great Cataclysm and mass migration known as the Journey of the Three Paths with the ancestors that founded Gear Nation. During this long and arduous journey to their promised land, countless numbers would succumb to the harsh landscape that gave them little chance of survival. Those that remained continued on their way east and later south and left their fallen behind to fade into nothingness, yet death would not be the end for them as some would return as the first Wanderers or the Undying for reasons still debated today. Lacking any purpose or idea of why they were left to such a fate, they wandered as phantoms with some processing corpse to retain any sense of normalcy as they could. Eventually, many would gather into hordes and build tombs to slumber in to cease their restlessness. Prompting their lifeless home to be called the Undying Tomb with death having no place in such a cursed place. Centuries would go by with these deathless beings slumbering and walking to build up domains in what they would call a society until they finally came into contact with the living once more to start an unending conflict with them.   As the new nations of the Kingdom of Van Carno and Gear Nation attempted to spread their influence into colonizing the supposedly uninhabited Undying Tomb, they would be caught in sheer horror of the dead that still roamed the earth before them. It quickly devolved into open war as both groups sought to wipe the Wanderers out, and brought about a deep hatred for the living among them. It did take long for the invaders to be wiped out by the untiring hordes of death to overwhelm them, along with several being able to learn that they could control their lesser kind and turn many of their fallen foes into the Undying. This startling revelation led to the creation of the Necro Lords and the long line of Necro Kings that followed. With their existence threatened by the living, open wars became commonplace to destroy them, and as time passed, the Necro Lords began to build a vast empire in what would be forever known as Death's Turf.  

Domain of The Dead

  With the power they learned to harness, the Necro Lords began to build their territories to rule over by building vast tombs and necropolises in the ruins of their lands as they sought to bring civilization to their kind. Along with creating their own culture, the Undying find purpose in their existence. However, it would not be the founding of the Necro Kings that this idea would be fully realized with the ascension of one Necro Lord to rule over all others, so that their ambitions could be fully realized. Here, the Pact of the Undying would give the Wanderers purpose through work and duty to see them grow as a people as they obeyed their leaders without question. While the weaker willed of their kind obey as servants, those with stronger wills would build upon their deathless society to rival that of the living.   This would also be a time of expansion as their hatred of the living would see them eradicated the same way they desired for them. Hordes of the Undying would wage long wars of attrition with the Kingdom of Van Carno and Gear Nation, with early campaigns being met with success as very few could stop their onslaught, as their dead would soon join their ranks. This would only last for so long as both parties found ways to combat them through advanced technology and magic to push them back and destroy them. Yet the wars would not end as wave after wave would arrive to break through their lines and overwhelm them, only to be broken before them, to adapt them into their ranks as dark magics and technology enhanced their fighting prowess over their hated foe. However, none would ever imagine standing with them as the rise of the magnificent flame that shows them a greater path would change them forever.  

Drawn To The Guiding Light

  When they were brought into the fold of the Phoenixian Dominions, many were hesitant to trust the very beings that sought to wipe them out from the condition they had no control over. Yet those willing to work with them found renewed interest in life, having long forgotten what they once were since their first death. This spread to many of them as they sought to understand the living and the living to understand them in ideas that transcended life and death. Allow them to exist in peace with one another, leading to cooperation, with Death turf being given various roles in the Dominions due to their unique situation, ranging from untiring labor to assignments that are too dangerous for the living to allow them to finding greater meaning to their lifeless existence in a world filled with the wonder of life itself. Most of them would remain in the Undying Tomb for obvious reasons, with those outside of it having to follow specific regulations to avoid causing problems for the living around them.  

A Brewing Restlessness

  While many of the things have changed in Death's Turf since the Shadow Wars, much of the daily lives of its denizens have remained unchanged. However, in the aftermath of conflicts and the chaos of the new age, the number of Wanderers has increased exponentially, as many are caused by the decades of conflict that have transpired worldwide. These new Undying have become unruly about their current state of being, some even being outright violent about it. The dead sought to dominate the living to increase their ranks with rumors of dark powers growing that seek to renew the old ways. Whether this will lead to an all-out civil war within Death's Turf remains to be seen as they try to maintain their power over its population and ensure that it does not spread beyond its borders.

Since Wanderers cannot reproduce normally, they can only increase their numbers by having someone die and return as one of them. Those who end up like them are found in tombs varying in size that act as their settlements, where they live, doing whatever they can to pass the time, from work to entertainment in any way possible. The largest of these tombs is a necropolis capable of harboring hundreds of thousands of them and acting as a seat of power for their leadership to rule over. This is also where much of their industries and culture thrive, as they continually expand them to bring new ideas and housing for newcomers who join their ranks.

The Undying Tomb is the home to all Wanderers since they first rose from death in these lands. Much of it is considered inhospitable to most life forms, as nothing can be found here to sustain it besides a few areas that defy the odds. Many of the settlements are made up of ruins and wreckage, which are called tombs and necropolises for their people to live in. Even vast tunnel systems are found here, acting as fast travel and settlements underneath for those who prefer living beneath the dirt.

Death's Turfs, unlike the other militaries of the Phoenix Dominions, rarely follow military doctrines, seeing it as pointless, as being dead allows them to use their own, unrestricted styles of warfare. They require no sleep or sustenance and feel no pain, no matter how much of a beating they take, prompting them to use more deranged and aggressive tactics that no living military would dare use on their forces. While not the most disciplined or skilled fighting force ever seen, their use of dangerous Mortistech and psychological warfare sends fear into any enemy, for they have never trained to fight what has already been killed.   Death Corps: Vast forces controlled by Necro Lords that vary in tactics and training given to the hordes of the Undying under their command to bring fear and death to the enemy. Their tactics center on numbers, fear, and stealth to defeat opponents with varying degrees of training and weapons used in battle.   Reaver Navy: One of the few active naval forces still used at sea faring force, rather than relying mainly on void craft to wage war, submersible vehicles are used in daring raids and invasions, being mostly undetectable as their crew can stay underwater indefinitely lacking the need for air to breath. It gave a feared reputation as it can attack and disappear beneath the waves without any means to pursue them in time before they reappear to strike again.   Aerial Harbingers : One of the most feared air forces amongst the Dominions due to the Undying using uniquely hazardous air and void craft, which only they can use due to them being dangerous to living beings, as they can overcome the limitations of force and speed being unable to kill them. This makes it hard to fight them, as it is not possible to use lethal maneuvers and near suicidal tactics that nearly no one can achieve unless they were dead.

While it is not expected of the Undying to use advanced technology to maintain themselves, as they lack the need to be alive to need it, they have been known to hybridize Dark Magics and machinery being referred as Mortustech to enhance their bodies and become more capable of specific physical and mental attributes that are easily achieved without harmful side effects like their living counterparts. Most of their vehicles and other forms of Mortustech are specially designed to be used by them, as they can be lethal to living beings. They lack standard safety features and are unaffected by everyday dangers their breathing counterparts may face.

The Nine: Many of them follow any member of the Nine in hopes of one day finding peace and being able to cross into the afterlife.   Death: In various groups across the land, the Undying worship death itself, believing that it has brought them back for a reason and will claim them when the time is right.

Most people are horrified when dealing with Wanderers, as their unnatural appearance causes them trouble and isolates them from the world. Their only true allies are the Phoenixian Dominions and their member states, which treat them fairly. These ties have also been strengthened as some of their fallen members have risen as Wanderers and been used as diplomats and mediaries when negotiations occur.

Due to the lack of fertile soil and wildlife in the Undying Tomb, almost all of the region has been centered around industrialization. The center revolves around mining and factories that process raw materials. The sheer volume coming out of such places is mainly due to the Wanderers never tiring and the use of Mortistech, which hazardously increases production over safety. Along the way, more unique forms of the technology are made to meet the needs of its builders to keep their society functioning.

The transportation of resources out of Death's Turf is highly regulated to avoid possible diseases amongst the Undying, so much of it is done by the railways or taken out by land or air through drop-off points by other Dominions.

Education is quite different in Death's Turf from most other places. It is used more to remind Wanderers of who they are, as time tends to unravel their minds if not stimulated from time to time. This practice is known as Soul Remembrance, which aids in restoring the mental health of Wanderers of their past life to avoid becoming a mindless husk known as a Shambler that lacks any sense of identity or will to control it. It is also common for them to be regularly reminded of the Pact of the Undying to remember their ideals of their homeland and the purpose they must follow. However, there are also courses of reeducation every few decades for workers when new technology is introduced to them to update them on how to use it properly.

Being dead has not given them any desire to create state-of-the-art infrastructure that most people would want to make day-to-day life easier and safer. This has resulted in much of the region lacking necessities that are standard for most civilizations. The only real signs of this are in the tomb settlements, where its residents have space to move around and carry out their daily activities without being crowded. Crude roads and well-made tunnel systems also make travel much easier from tombs, with various stops along the way to cure boredom and restlessness.