Dead City of Ep

Ep is an ancient city of unknown origin and strange geometry built in ways that make little sense to most architects and scholars that have walked its desolate streets and crumbling (yet surprisingly intact) structures. There are some advanced (and slightly deranged) arcanologists that believe the city is so confusing because mortal creatures can only view it in the common four dimensions of everyday experience. No one is certain how old the city actually is or what its purpose must have been but for millenia it has been used by a variety of insane cults and power hungry arcane casters as a place of strange almost bacchanalian rites or sinister arcane rituals. Being situated so far from civilization the city sat on the sidelines of history, that is until the coming of Rhone the Reaper who, in 1022 CA, used the city's unusual properties to raise an army of dead minions to conquer Antanides. This led to the Black Crusade and eventually Rhone's apparent end at the hands of the Erabisian warpriest Dioclese the Stern, who drove his sacred spear into the monster and in a valiant sacrifice, managed to imprison him in a great structure that has become known as the Black Temple. From that time on Ep has been silent save for the herds of mindless dead wandering the mazelike streets seemingly without direction.

History

In Ancient History

According to the fractions of written lore and mutable oral history of orc and human tribes native to the region, Ep was first discovered by the Aghenti humans that once ranged from the north-western shores at the mouth of the Inlet Sea in the west to the Thermal Sea in the West. None know exactly when this discovery took place but most scholars estimate that it was somewhere between -3,000 CA and -1,200 CA.

They largely stayed clear of the place, and it has haunted their legends as a place of dark beings, ancient beyond comprehension that preyed on the warriors that got too close, taking flesh, blood, and souls for unknowable purposes. Later shamans, however, began dangerous pilgrimages into the city's depths when the Aghenti began encountering larger and larger numbers of enemy human and orc tribes that migrated into their lands and drove them away from their resources. To combat the more advanced weaponry of their foes, the shamans sought new power among the ruins, trading their souls and far too many of their people for strange powers. Despite these gains however, the combination of the sacrifices necessary and the amount of time needed to make any meaningful progress, the Aghenti were largely reduced in numbers and by the time of the Lattaneran Expeditionary forces led by the legendary General Solenus Remelius they were largely absorbed by other tribes or slaughtered, their way of life and the secrets they had gleaned from the City lost to history.

Though the Aghenti were the main people to have contact with the City they were by no means the only ones in recorded history to set foot in the place. Countless stories exist of human, dwarven, elven, and orc heroes who braved the strange City, most ending in utter tragedy but also a precious few of people making their way out with their lives and even great artifacts and treasure. These small victories, however, were more often than not poisoned by later tragedies as the treasures were largely to the detriment of whoever owned them, bringing misery and madness to any in their vicinity and most were disposed of or sealed away.

The Black Crusade

For most of its recorded existence Ep remained an ominous curiosity, always, inescapably there but never really inhabited save by the occasional cultists or arcane researchers who sought to tap into its legendary power for numerous reasons, none of them good, and none of them coming to fruition. None that is until 1021 CA and the coming of the monster known to the world as Rhone the Reaper.

Rhone the Reaper, or Rhone Tavier was a drow vampire, and a sorcerer of incredible power. No one knew anything of him save the name that he gave those before he offered them the choice of dying quickly or slowly. Even the drow had no knowledge of his origins as the House of Tavier had been lost for uncounted years, meaning he was either some long lost scion of that ancient family, incredibly old, or lying (though given the amount of power he seemed to possess this last hypothesis seems rather pointless).

By 1022 CA Rhone had blackened the skies above Ep for miles and raised a considerable sized army of undead to fight for him. Spreading south and west he took the young kingdom of Avandor and the Freedlands by surprise and gained territory very quickly. The very ground that they walked on became blighted so that the grass withered and animals died and rose as abominations. The dead became restless in this plagued ground as well, adding even more soldiers to Rhone's inscrutable cause.

These events led to the start of the Black Crusade in which paladins and priests of Erabis started fighting back against the restless dead. Later years saw the crusade expanding to warriors of all faiths and nations, even as far south as Lattanera, whose priests and nobles knew that if the battle was lost in Avandor, then the whole of the North would likely follow and then who knew how far it might spread.

By 1025 the Crusade reached it's peak. All the major southern nations in Antanides were represented in the conflict, as well as countless faiths, mercenary companies, and nobles from thousands of families great and small along with their retainers. For the first time in centuries Antanides saw a military force to rival the Lattenaran Empire at their strongest. Facing them, however, were an uncountable number of undead foes, ranging from simple zombie hordes to powerful death knights and gallowdead, all more organized than any other time in history.

Despite the odds, desperation drove the crusaders at the undead army again and again, and divine spells and rituals helped to keep their fallen from rising again, helping to stem the source of their enemy's forces. By 1028 they had pushed the undead back nearly to Ep. As they readied for their final push the undeads' numbers inexplicably began to swell again, but the Crusaders quickly built walls and towers to help contain the undead. From the next two years there was a standoff, both armies unable to gain a foothold on the other, both building their strength for a final push to determine the conclusion of the Crusade.

In 1029 the wait was finally over. Bolstered by young knights, soldiers, and new mercenaries, the Crusade resumed in full, the priests and paladins forming a vanguard with the rest of the army supporting and protecting them. The undead swarmed forth, now bolstered by demons and other stranger outsiders, but the Crusaders had brought in planar experts and the full might of the Rift Warden Order, who drove these extraplanar threats back to their native planes.

After a month of gruelingly slow progress, the Crusaders entered Ep. The casualties were staggering and the horrors faced unimaginable. All told the Crusaders lost nearly twice the number of warriors during that last stage of the Crusade than during the last year. Yet the effectiveness of the divine casters' channeling in closer quarters helped to balance the scales and keep the Crusaders moving forward.

In the end it was a priest of Erabis, a man named Dioclese the Stern, who ended up facing Rhone the Reaper in on again off again single combat. Chasing the monster into the structure now called the Black Tomb, Dioclese ran him through with his holy spear again and again, seeming to destroy him twice but never able to fully dispatch him. Finally Rhone faded to smoke and retreated to his sarcophagus. Dioclse found him before he could heal fully, and one last time, he drove his spear straight through Rhone's heart, cursing the monster to eternal torpor until he himself released his spear.

Rhone was for all purposes dead, but the curse also trapped Dioclese. In a state that was not living, dead, or undead, Dioclese remained in place, kneeling over the vampire lord, clutching his spear in both hands, as though straining to keep it in the monster's chest. Numerous attempts were made to separate the two but it was impossible. Worse yet, the longer the Crusaders maintained a presence in the Dead City, strange sicknesses ravaged their ranks, and men went mad and slaughtered each other. All attempts by the priests, druids, paladins, and oracles to cleanse whatever taint lingered over the city were utter failures, and in time the Crusade had to disband and leave the city and the now Saint Dioclese.

The walls and towers were fortified and Avandor kept a small company of soldiers and priests to keep watch on the city and keep others from trying to go in. All told over ten thousand warriors and priests were lost to the Crusade and it remained a hard memory in the hearts of every race and people in Antanides.

Notable Places

The Black Tomb

A seemingly eternal structure that always seems to be crumbling yet never truly looses its integrity. While it only rises a single story above ground with a small three story tower of unknown purpose, it seems to have endless underground chambers that might go down nearly a mile or more. What purpose it might have served has been lost to history, and it gained its moniker from the fact that it serves as the final resting place of Rhone the Reaper and Dioclese the Stern as well as numerous undead and the remains of crusaders that were lost in its depths.