Necroxis Paar (Pandlechron Supplement)
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Necroxis Paar[edit]
Across the Salt Sea, to the east of Sapparizan and Renar, is an island that floats 400 ft. in the sky: Necroxis Paar.
The island itself is made up of a black stone that looks the same as drainrock, but seems to have an opposite effect. Instead of drawing and storing magic, it repels it somewhat. Instead of hindering spellcasting, it boosts spell power.
Races[edit]
Necroxis Paar challenges the notions of natural good and evil in races. Just like humanoid societies, they despise the creation of mindless undead and deem it an evil act. They instead, however, revere intelligent undead as the upper echelon of their society. The general population, which tends to consist of humans, gather their wealth to hopefully join the noble ranks of vampires and liches.
Social Classes[edit]
Mataar: The intelligent undead that rule Necroxis Paar. The mataar are the high society of the land. Some exploit the lower classes, some rely on their own magical strengths to prove their power and standing.
Deios: The living immortals live under this social class. They are given general equality to the Mataar, but it is generally known that they hold less respect because of their reliance on their vital systems. There is a small population of Black Dragons that are well respected Deios.
Tolian: The Tolian are the regular members of society. Necroxis Paar has no racism beyond its discrimination towards the living, so Tolians stand on an equal footing. Their goal in life is to establish enough wealth to afford transformation into a Mataar.
Dredge: The Dredge is the largest population in Necroxis Paar, but also is the worst paid. Because of the eternal nature of life in the land, a family can acquire massive debts, and fines can be so large it would be impossible to pay them in one lifetime. The Dredge are like a slave class in society. When a debt cannot be paid, ancestors (or kin) must pay the remainder of the debt. The Dredge work 10 hour days under employment by the government, and their salary pays for their housing, meals, and reduces the debt their family owes. Any money they earn elsewhere is their own, and rarely, there have been cases of Dredge buying transformation into Mataar late in their lives.
Undying Laws of Nature[edit]
The Undying Laws of Nature are a foundation of ideas that are the backbone of Necroxis Paar. The laws are taught in schools, believed by basically everyone, to the point that a person in Necroxis Paar would be less likely to believe in gravity than the Undying Laws.
Law I: The body and the soul are are dependent. To separate the soul from the body causes the soul to suffer eternal agony.
Law II: The body is an intermediary to the soul. As a mortal body decays or becomes sick, it is less able to give information to the soul and follow instructions from the soul. Magical bodies do not have this problem.
Law III: Arcane magic is power from the realm of souls. A perfect bond between soul and body occurs when the body is pure magic.
The implications of these laws resounds throughout the social structure of Necroxis Paar. The first law implies that those that have their soul go to an afterlife suffer eternal agony. The people believe that deities attempt to trick mortals in order to draw the souls of the mortals to their personal plane where they use it to power their immortality. In some ways, this is actually true. Deities do require the power of their worshipers to have their own power grow.
The second law means that mortals of Necroxis Paar favor physical wellness above all other virtues. Wellness does not necessarily mean strength, though it often means having strong stamina. A sick individual is often thought of as weaker. Those that get sick often usually are shunned by their families. In some ways, among mortals, success is determined by the health of a person over their lifetime rather than their achievements.
Alignment[edit]
Though to outsiders, the land would seem to be festering with evil since it is blasphemous to the natural order, Necroxis Paar is actually more neutral than good or evil. Law is rigid and well defined, with little sympathy to foreigners.
A general member of the population is LN, though there are certainly many members of high society that are evil. The necromantic process is a delicate and fragile border of neutrality to evil. Many people in their transformation into undead become evil with the vile magic at work, which is why all transformed subjects must spend their first 50 years as undead in Mataar Academies.
Citizenship[edit]
In order to be considered a full citizen of Necroxis Paar, a person is marked with a special spell that functions similarly to Arcane Mark. This spell cannot be dispelled without a Wish or Miracle spell and gives a +2 bonus to scrying against the subject. Dredge are marked with a second spell that expires once their family debt is absolved.
Laws[edit]
The laws of Necroxis Paar are very specific, but are constantly in contest to be perfected. At least one quarter of the Mataar are actively involved in law, many of which are lobbyists for political changes. The laws can be harsh to those unaware, but the court finds no excuse in ignorance. The law is freely available for anyone to read and many aspects of it follow general moral principles.
Transformation[edit]
It is strictly illegal to transform a subject into a zombie, unless it is for an execution. The penalty for such an act is execution. It is also illegal to transform a Tolian or Dredge (or Deios if they wanted the transformation) into a vampire or lich. This process requires a hefty sum to be paid to the government and also requires several prerequisites to be met by the person such as a consistent source of wealth, mastery of a trade, etc.
Religion[edit]
Though Necroxis Paar generally allows free liberty, they also wish to conform to a common morality. In doing this, it became necessary for the government to ban religions that oppose the moral values of the land. Many good gods are banned because they are opposed to undead in general (and more extreme members of the good gods will crusade to kill the Mataar). Gods of nature are banned because they also oppose undead. Vecna is banned from worship because of his support for mindless undead (although it is impossible to keep the god of secrets outside of a land like Necroxis Paar). Chaotic gods are also banned because of the rigid law of the land. Racial gods such as elf or dwarf gods are banned because they regard Tolians with greater esteem than the Mataar.
The punishment for worshiping banned gods ranges based on social class. Foreigners are warned for display of holy symbols, and will be prosecuted for worshiping banned gods in public or spreading information about their gods. Mataar will be punished severely since they are setting a bad example for the people and they are often resurrected and fined heavily, thus making them Tolians once again. Tolians may be fined enough for their life as a Dredge up to several generations of Dredge. Repeat offenders will be executed.
Slavery[edit]
Slavery is strictly prohibited in Necroxis Paar. Punishments are extremely severe to offenders. There is, however, a way to get inexpensive laborers: hiring Dredge from the government.
Prisons[edit]
Necroxis Paar has no need for prisons. If an offender breaks the law after becoming a Dredge, they are almost always killed. Anyone who is executed is raised as an unintelligent undead. This is the exception to the laws forbidding raising of unintelligent undead. Necroxis Paar citizens view this as the ultimate punishment. The hordes of zombies are used to defend the island against attackers. It is said that there are huge spaces in the Astral Plane storing tens of thousands of zombies that are eternally waiting to be released.
Republic[edit]
High ranking Mataar are able to represent the interests of people in a particular part of Necroxis Paar. There is an emperor that rules the land, but he is rarely seen and most citizens consider him to be nothing more than a figurehead. The true power is in the representation of the people, which most Mataar rarely represent well. Senate seats are bought by Mataar, whom usually use them to create favorable political positions for themselves and their friends. It is always a fine balance, however. The primary job of a senator is to keep the people in his area productive. Often, they will make platforms and take stances that would seem to benefit their people. More often than not, this takes the form of fear-mongering. They will create an enemy through propaganda and fight for laws to protect the citizens from the alleged enemy. The citizens, most of whom tend not to be bright, will completely buy into it. A result is that Necroxis Paar is almost always involved in a preemptive war that it has no chance of losing.
Notable NPCs[edit]
- Emperor Necroxis - The land was named after this demi-lich. He isn't seen very often and some people believe that his appearances are illusions made by some senators that actually rule Necroxis Paar as puppet masters.
- Senator Mirroa - The unofficial leader of the vampire population in Necroxis Paar. Her past is quite colorful and never forgotten. She was formerly a lich, assassinated a senator, was resurrected and charged to become a dredge (with a massive debt), worked off the debt, and payed to become a vampire. The vampires respect her because the senator she assassinated was a known anti-vampire advocate. Her lich brethren in the Mataar have completely shunned her.
- Treasurer Bogan - A pit fiend, who was enthralled by the perfection he saw in Necroxis Paar. He was given an honorary position as Mataar thousands of years before any other Deios became present in Necroxis Paar. His experience has given him a high position in office as treasurer.
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