Xaphan

ing on a pier. The tribes stop by here at least once a year to barter and show their children some of the things of the outside world.

Plots and Rumors

For a culture that respects the old and embraces the new, the Thurka have their share of problems.

Three-Armed Plague: A tribe of athachs living in the forest has been making raids on Chellon, stealing gems, food, and horses (presumably for food). The

Thurka don’t know why the athachs are living in the forest or what has caused them to make these attacks on the city, but the elders suspect one of the magical pools is responsible.

The Vanishing: One of the thirteen tribes has completely vanished and has not been heard from for over a month. Their last known campsite is empty, but there are no tracks of them leaving that location. The only clues are eight metal hoops found on the site, each made of a different material and adorned with different gems and carvings.

XAPHAN

Capital: Inilith

Population: 167,200; human (4%), undead (95%)

Government: Theocracy

Religions: Nessek, Orcus, Phaant

Imports: Iron, slaves, lumber

Exports: Jewelry, marble, herbs and spices, strange magic items

Alignment: CE, N, NE

Xaphan is a terrible realm of oppression and evil, bearing the constant stench of undeath. Ruled by a council of vampires, most of the island’s native population was slain and converted to undead of various kinds. Now the few thousand living humans on the island live in slavery, existing only to provide food for vampires and ghouls and give up some of their children to swell the ranks of the undead.

Few people ever visit Xaphan, and those who do are usually very powerful or very foolish. Most of the island’s trade is conducted through intermediaries, for few would willingly deal with agents of such a depraved country. The council of vampires that rules Xaphan is beset with internal power struggles and conflicts between personal armies, for the council lacks a true leader who can unite them in the manner of Xaphan himself. Aggression from Xaphan against Manifest and isolated outposts in nearby lands is limited to hit-and-run tactics, slaving raids, and battalions of mindless undead transported via ship or magic to places where they can kill and harass the living.

Major Geographical Features

Xaphan has its share of strange places to visit.

The Forest of Khul: This small forest is haunted by undead and monsters powerful enough to fend off undead attackers. Particularly common is a sort of goatlike monster with a skeletal head, which are used by some undead as mounts. The forest is slowly dwindling from logging while it simultaneously becomes more corrupted by negative energy.

Phyrrian Isles: These four islands off the western coast hold the remnants of a civilization that predates the founding of Manifest but apparently had no interaction with the Deathwarden dwarves. Some undead from Xaphan roam here amid the ruins, and occasionally one of the vampire councilors investigates the area for old magic, but warding spells and old curses have prevented much from being discovered.

Life and Society

Xaphan is unfit for human life. Necromancers and many kinds of horrible undead roam there, performing foul experiments and covering the land with their corruption. The flatlands are decaying into areas of dry, gray soil that is often stirred up by the wind into blinding clouds. The forests are being chopped down almost before the dark energies permeating the environment can twist them into mockeries of living things. Even the waters around the islands are foul and polluted, with thousands of dead fish piling up and rotting on beaches until discovered by scavengers. The native animals have nearly been wiped out, with the exception of vermin and other creatures too small to be easily caught by ghouls and other hungry undead.

The humans who live in the area are treated more like cattle than slaves, herded by powerful undead lords and either used for food or sold to other lords for evil magic. The humans work in small gardens in the lords’ manors, scrounging what they can from the few fertile spaces and eating rats and other small animals they find. In desperate times they even fall upon each other. Only a handful of people manage to escape the island in any given decade, usually sorcerers with a hidden talent for magic that helps them cross the water. These poor souls wash ashore on the Hikirian peninsula, Salkiria, or (rarely) Tereppek, bearing tales of misery and depravity.

The undead have a quite different experience. The vampires who rule the place have doled out parcels of land to their more powerful spawn, as well as to other intelligent sorts of undead, who subdivide their own territories into smaller pieces for their lieutenants to control. Because the undead are tireless and have no real need for food, considerations such as available

game or fresh water are irrelevant, and so all territories are approximately equal in importance (although a piece of land near a mine or in the forest is still more valuable). This means that the undead have “communities” anywhere on the island, in and out of the original cities, though some plots of land are little more than bare earth with a command post and a battalion of zombies. The undead “nobles” of all ranks fight each other for territory and resources, following the example of their leaders. The vampire councilors sometimes ally in groups of two or three against their fellows, but these alliances quickly collapse or are opposed by rival alliances that form to prevent their enemies from taking power.

Since the primary deity of the country is Orcus, there are frequent demonic rites and sacrifices, and each of the monthly meetings of the vampire councilors (all of whom are clerics of Orcus) begins with a human sacrifice. Given that the human population is low on the island, they often have to buy slaves (often criminals) from other lands or simply kidnap people. Ruled by undead at all levels, the only living beings that have any power in Xaphan are necromancers, and most of those hope to eventually become undead.

Roles for Character Classes

Barbarian: There are not many barbarians among the undead, but gangs of barbarian ghouls and ghasts are used as shock troops by the more powerful lords of Xaphan. A raging undead barbarian does not gain an increase in Constitution (or anything dependent upon Constitution such as hit points or Fortitude saves) but uses its normal Charisma modifier instead of its Constitution modifier to determine how long a rage lasts. Because undead are immune to fatigue, an undead barbarian is not penalized when a rage ends.

Bard: Most bards of Xaphan are undead bonesingers (see the Monsters chapter). They support the undead armies with healing magic and use Enchantment spells to confuse living opponents.

Cleric: Xaphanian clerics animate and control undead, moving mindless ones to where they are needed and forcing compliance from the more independent-minded kinds. Even clerics of Nessek and Phaant are involved in this task, although they have other primary duties like practicing great battle spells or keeping the slaves in line.

Druid: There are no druids in Xaphan. Any that were there were slain or fled in grief when the destruction became too prevalent.

Fighter: Because many undead make excellent combatants just with their brute strength and innate powers, it is difficult for an undead fighter to stand out in the eyes of a superior. The best one can hope for is to become a lieutenant to a more powerful undead, and this usually requires creative thinking or an unusual opportunity. Monk: The turbulent political landscape of Xaphan makes it nearly impossible for the proper level of concentration and discipline to become a monk. Paladin: For obvious reasons, there are no longer any paladins native to Xaphan, having been killed in the hundred years since the Liche War. Ranger: Xaphanian rangers hunt down renegade undead and scout for the armies. Some of them become assassins and are pitted against one vampire councilor or another on suicide missions. Rogue: Rogues fulfill the same functions as rangers but are less common because they are relatively weaker, given that they cannot sneak attack undead. Sorcerer: Most of the native sorcerers of Xaphan died in the Liche War. The few survivors have become undead and act as coordinators for the strike teams into Manifest, usually because they have access to multiple teleport spells each day and can ferry creatures magically. Wizard: The responsibility for new arcane necromancy spells falls upon the bony shoulders of Xaphan’s wizards. They also create the magic items that the senior undead use. At least one is trying to build a permanent one-way teleporter from Xaphan to Manifest, but the power of the Manifest Ward is somehow interfering with the process.

History

Once known as Inuitea, this island was a peaceful place of merchants and fisherfolk who venerated Soggelos and Wyst. Ruled by a loose monarchy, they had a large navy but almost no army, for any attacks against them would have to cross the sea. The lack of a strong internal militia led to its downfall when the cult of Neis-

tra’demos predicted the appearance of a living manifestation of their deity. Neistra’demos was believed to be a minor death deity, but Xaphan the Harbinger revealed that this was actually Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead. Xaphan and his followers (both undead and demonic) overwhelmed the token resistance of the Inuitean military and proceeded to slaughter most of them to create hordes of undead. King Oryn is said to exist to this day as the debased spawn of the most powerful vampires on the island.

The fleet was converted to warships filled with undead and an attack was mounted against the mainland. There were many great battles, with destructive magic unleashed by both sides. The fallen defenders of life were revived with necromancy, many demons were banished, and ghosts took arms to slay the abominations. Finally, the mages of the Piran Sedestadel created seven great magical crowns that were given to the generals of Manifest’s defenders, and with their combined power, they were able to break the back of the Inuitean army and send it back across the sea. Xaphan himself was slain, but one of his vampire lieutenants was able to take the avatar’s skull as he fled, which is now rumored to be a relic of great unholy power.

The retreating army returned to Inuitea and smothered the last remaining resistance. The lieutenants declared themselves the new masters of the island, renamed their home Xaphan in honor of their fallen leader, and began fighting each other for total control of the place. This constant struggle exists to this day, keeping the forces of Xaphan from being a coherent threat. Occasionally groups sail or teleport to the city, but the likelihood of another mass invasion is small while the councilors struggle for supremacy.

Important Sites

Only one city in Xaphan remains, the rest having been razed in the past hundred years and functioning more like military camps.

Inilith (Small City, 7,200): The original capital of Inuitea survives as a gloomy mockery of its former self. Much of the city was destroyed when Xaphan’s cult took over and little has been rebuilt, leaving large areas of rubble where undead prowl and skulk. The remaining buildings have all been converted and redecorated, each holding a shrine to one of the evil deities worshiped here. Many buildings are protected by an unhallow spell, and actual temples always have that spell with a bless spell affecting worshipers. Inilith is the location of the vampire court, and each vampire councilor has claimed one of the city’s mansions for personal use. They take turns casting control weather spells to keep clouds above the city to keep out direct sunlight.

Plots and Rumors Xaphan is the closest organized foe to the people of Manifest and is periodically responsible for its troubles. The Godsplinter: A long sharp piece of Xaphan’s thighbone was taken by a Xaphanian necromancer ghast named Turrekh. In the hundred years since the Liche War, he has coaxed several magical powers out of this item, including the ability to travel through shadows and temporarily render any kind of undead incorporeal. He believes he is on the brink of being able to get the avatar’s bone to fire blasts of negative energy, and once he does so, he plans to lead a squadron of empowered undead into Manifest to wreak havoc.

Pretty Death: Reports are circulating in Manifest about several pieces of magical jewelry developed in Xaphan that turn their wearers into undead. The items are hard to identify because they do not radiate magic, and so any piece of jewelry (and to an extent any jeweler) is suspect. The jewelry enslaves victims after converting them to undead creatures, rendering them totally subservient to one of Xaphan’s generals.