The Necropolis
Silent streets and vacant halls,
Ruined roofs and towers and walls;
Hidden from all mortal eyes
Deep the sunken city lies:
Even cities have their graves!
Amalfi - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
In ancient days, the dead were interred in large, sprawling
graveyards that were almost separate cities unto themselves.
The Greeks called such a place a Necropolis - a city of
the dead. And sometimes the dead were laid down in places so
far from the living that this name was quite apt, indeed.
To the modern dead, a Necropolis is the city as inhabited
by the dead. It is a self-contained kingdom of the dead:
cut off from all but the closest neighbors, and effectively alone.
All the Ghosts and Wraiths, and all the things they do with one
another - or against one another - happen here.
This is where the Haunts and Citadels stand, and where the
Domains are laid down, or ignored This is where the Catacombs
can be entered, and the Shadowlands avoided. This where the Storms
erupt, where the Lost lurk and where the Damned attack the unwary.
This is where it all happens, safe from the eyes of the Living.
The city is not always the best of friends to the dead, but
it's often the only real protection they have. And so, they have
adapted to it, in order to fit their needs.
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Dying by Numbers
Given how decentralized and fractured
the Deadlands are, it's almost impossible to get an accurate
census of how many Ghosts and Wraiths inhabit it. The Order has,
over the ages, come up with some general numbers, but they are
considered to be more of a guess than an observation.
It is estimated that, out of 100 people
who die, only one is sufficiently held back enough - for whatever
reason - to become a Ghost. And of those who become ghosts, only
one in ten is capable of Waking Up on her own.Which would mean
that, in a city of 50,000 people, there would be 500 Ghosts,
and only 50 Wraiths.
Obviously there are problems with these
numbers. The lack of so many Ghosts can be explained by the Reapers,
who seem to cull the weakest amongst them. But these numbers
cannot take into account the Sleepers who are Woken up by someone
else.
In reality, after various forms of attrition,
there may turn out to be one Ghost, and ten Wraiths, per 1000
people. And that is still not counting Wraiths who have
outlasted their peers by decades, or centuries, or all the Ossified
Wraiths down in the Catacombs.
Suffice it to say that each Necropolis
is unique, and can have as many Wraiths and Ghosts as it can
handle.
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Safety in the City
Haunts
Citadels and Temples
Domains
Outside the Bounds
Back
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