Ghostlands

The Ghostlands are not unified, and have not been for decades. The martial enclave initially had a small presence there when the crisis began (the curse that is, the land was not always cursed so), but they have long since left, giving up all hope of establishing a temporary government until the curse is lifted. For now, each village survives on its own or with the help of its neighbors. The few large towns that do still exist (there are cities no longer) are central hubs for trading and shipment of essential goods between villages. Gold has no value in this land, only goods. Bartering is the preferred method of trade as there is no government to prop up the value of gold pieces which cannot even be traded within the Ghostlands.   In general, the leader of a specific village will be sort of like a tribal chief, though he or she is usually called the funerary overseer, and the primary function of this overseer is just that -- to oversee the funeral rites of the town dead and any dead who are found on roads near the town. Given the curse that I have just described to you, it is of no surprise then that the person in charge of funeral rites should bear so much responsibility within village life. It is the funerary overseer who chooses those fit to be members of the funerary guard, elite fighters who dedicate their lives to fighting the undead, and it is the overseer who must decide upon the burial site for each individual corpse.   These same overseers are responsible for the inter-village interactions that occur. They are a sort of "foreign minister," if you will, to the other villages and townships. Some of these towns band together and form a council, or else elect a single leader to lead multiple towns. The land is beginning to see a rise in cooperation between neighbors in this manner -- creating zones of relative safety compared to the surrounding regions. Of course, the unions are by no means perfect safety bubbles amid a raging storm, but there is a marked difference in the regions just outside their protection compared to those within.

The Ghostlands was not always such a cursed place. The curse only cropped up in the last century or two -- a relatively new occurrence that some consider to be wholly unnatural (perhaps a curse directly from the gods?). Before this curse, the Ghostlands was a small, but relatively well respected kingdom of humans with a wealth of Morlu ruins and artifacts. It seems that the region was heavily populated by Morlu (though Chillwood seems to have been much smaller at that time). There are no less than three partially excavated Morlu cities in the Ghostlands, though excavation has totally halted due to the curse. Before the curse, a fledgling Crystal Palace was also receiving artifacts on a near monthly basis from the region.   First king of Uškaya is a title that belonged to Laufnir the Cultured, an enlightened monarch who, luckily for today's archaeologists, realized the importance of the old Morlu ruins that dot his lands. His rule began in 634 AC after the smaller counties that would form his land banded together in order to protect themselves from Nurnen expansion. The union, at first though to be temporary, was solidified as permanent under Laufnir's rule after each of the major lords underneath Laufnir saw their wealth and prestige increase. He increased the wealth and prestige of his kingdom by allowing, for the first time, foreign archaeologists to examine the Morlu ruins that were inside of his borders. He taxed those excavators and filled the royal coffers nearly to the brim with this "culture tax." As a result, he was able to build a strong military to protect his lands against Nurnen invasions (which had plagued Uškaya until his reign) and the quality of life of the citizenry was raised.   Eventually, however, Laufnir's reign came to its peaceful end. He passed the title of regent to his daughter and her reign saw a continuation of the progress and prosperity that her father helped begin. This trend continued (rather amazingly for a human kingdom, I should add) uninterrupted until the curse set in. Over the nearly 400 years that Uškaya was a kingdom, the humans there experienced the "high life" as it were, especially in comparison to their western kin on Galzhür. Notice that I said humans, here. It was intentional, because the Ghostlands, at least pre-curse, had a notorious habit of logging parts of Chillwood and ousting any creatures that live within it -- including the native firbolgs and tabaxi which have communities scattering the forest. Both races were feared by the humans who lived near them, but for very different reasons. The tabaxi were feared, perhaps naturally, because they resemble something of a large cat -- creatures which tended to occasionally hunt humans and elves alike when desperate. Perhaps then the hatred of the tabaxi is less of a racial hatred and more of a predator/prey interaction. However, the hatred of the firbolgs is entirely racially motivated. The Ghostlanders viewed the firbolgs as a bastardization of the human-elvish image. The firbolg, to a Ghostlander, seemed to be a demonic reflection of humanity, cloistered away in forests instead of civilization building. The unadulterated racial contempt in which the firbolgs were held only contributed more to their further retreat into the woods to the point where communicating with such remote tribes is nearly impossible. At some points, the slaughter was bad enough that the Druidic Enclave had to step in to preserve the firbolg culture of certain strongholds located on the forest's fringes. Of course, the firbolgs were no easy opponents to overcome either, but there were simply more humans and enough of them skilled to destroy entire firbolg townships. When the curse descended upon the land, the slaughter stopped, if for no other reason than that the Ghostlanders could no longer travel outside of the kingdom. Now the hatred is hopefully forgotten as new issues (and an entire new civilization) have replaced those of old Uškaya.   Of course, now I must speak of the curse. The official date given for the fall of Uškaya is 1023 AC, when the last queen of Laufnir's bloodline fled the capital and was never seen again. The events leading up to it are a blur of disaster following disaster -- I remember that everyone in Dar'El Druida seemed to be at the scribe's workshop waiting for the latest news at the time. The curse at that point was in the form of a seemingly endless wave of undead monstrosities the likes of which has rarely been seen. It was as if all the dead of the land had risen up at once in revolt against their living overlords. The plague rose up through all parts of the kingdom, nowhere was safe. The Druidic, Necromantic, and Martial Enclaves all rushed to aid the kingdom, as did several elven military detachments. Even the Nurnen, who had not yet been ousted by the Krik'tha, sent an army to attempt to quell the undead. Of course, as we know, the attempt was utterly futile. The curse spread and spread. Cities fell all across the kingdom (there were not many to begin with). Each new headline seemed to drive a dagger deeper and deeper into my gut. The final twist for all of us came when we had heard that the queen had fled -- and that her caravan was lost. Most of us had not ever witnessed the fall of a true kingdom. Sure, there had been capitulations of small baronies on Galzhür, but never had an entire kingdom -- a grand one -- collapsed so suddenly and so fully.   Now the curse sits heavy on the Ghostlands. Those born in the kingdom cannot leave, for they all grow sick and die if they do, as too many refugees soon learned after the fall. A lucky few managed to escape before this, and their descendants now live as outcasts, as exiles from their own lands. Furthermore, unburied corpses will, in a day's time, rise again if left unburied. The unhappy dead, or those who's deaths were particularly gruesome or sorrowful return as ghostly apparitions as well. Strangely, no matter how proper the burial rituals are or how many undead are slain, there are always more creatures.   The generally accepted theory of the curse is that it is not a natural occurrence. Now, whether it is a man-made plague or divine retribution for the slaughter of Firbolgs is heavily debated. What may have caused the curse is still as much a mystery as the origin of the world! The bulk of the Necromantic Enclave's resources actually go into solving the Uškaya crisis. The Ghostlands are now actually a commonly used training ground for Purgers since it provides such an abundance of "game" as it were. I should hope to one day update this chapter with a solution for this issue, but for now I see no end in sight...