Okhost

South of the Gnolls lies the island of Oskhost the gloomy realm of the skeleton priests, keeper of the secrets of the Fates.
Vukasin is the biggest fortress in the Okhost Islands, situated in the northern edge of the easternmost island. Stories of people from all over the Continent talk of desperate men and gnolls that bring their deceased kin to Vukasin, in order to reach a deal with the insidious Skeleton priests. None have ever returned to confirm those stories. Vandervax the Vile is the nefarious lich that rules over the islands from the dreaded city of Vukasin. Long ago, Vandervax the Vile was known as Vandervax the Virtuous before his fall to darkness.
Okhost is primarily uninhabited. Zombies and other reanimated organisms plow the poor fields and labour in the meagre mines that dot the land, while foreign vessels are limited to the one usable port across the entirety of the skeleton-priests' dominion. The skeleton-priests maintain exceedingly low taxes (flat 0.5%), thereby stimulating investment from pro-necromantic powers like the gnolls, but the apparatus is highly centralized, with all funds flowing to a common pool which is then used to purchase foreign luxuries.
== History ==
The history of the Okhost Islands is inherently tied to the life and unlife of his founder and still ruler, Vandervax the Vile. The story of Vandervax has been shrouded in mystery for millennia, with many myths and legends recorded, most of them with dubious historical value. As such, the efforts of historians to piece together the life, unlife and legacy of the ruler of the Okhost Islands have turned out little results, and even the most complete records advise their readers caution, least they confuse reality with myth. 
Most records, however, agree that Vandervax was born in the Khenomeric Empire, at some point around 1.700 BBE. He was born as a slave, in a family of medics and healers, and from a very early age, he took his father’s footsteps in the art of healing. His talents were first noticed during the Khenomeri wars of expansion, where he served as a field medic, where he would be able to save hundreds of lives in the many years he served alongside the khenomeri army. As a medic, he was already familiarized with the concept of death, but seeing the scale of destruction and loss of life that human conflict could bring affected him enormously. He dedicated his efforts to develop new techniques of saving the life of those barely holding on, applicable even in the harshest of conditions. His results got the attention of the knenomeri nobility, who freed him and allowed him access to the great Khenomeri Archives in Khoraqualumum. He spent decades learning from the most knowledgeable masters at the time, not just in the medical field, but in many others as well. 
In the year 1.673 BBE the most accomplished khenomeri wizards established the legendary Four Schools of Magic:  the School of Green Plant Magic, the School of Black Necromancy, the School of Light Astromancy and the School of Gold Divimancy. After many decades of scientific study, he was given a chance to study the fields of magic, now with the backing of the khenomeri nobility, who had been funding his research for many years now in exchange for his services. Vandervax immediately became interested in necromancy, seeing its goals very similar to his medical pursuits, both reaching to preserve life as much as possible. While his innate magical abilities were not outstanding (at this point in time, most wizards were trained from birth to develop their magical affinity, and Vandervax began his studies at a pretty advanced age), his immense knowledge of the workings of the human body became the basis for the burgeoning school of magic. However, other master necromancers’ studies would not be as charitable as Vandervax’s, instead studying how to harness the negative energies to wither the living, rather than to heal or preserve them. Soon the School of Black Necromancy became split through ethical lines, with the increasing knowledge about life and death opening more questions than the necromancers were able to deal with. While Vandervax’s defense of the use of necromantic arts as a tool to preserve life, the power to defy death was just too alluring for most of the necromancers, who began chasing for ways to not only bring life after death, but to also control it. This left Vandervax’ faction very isolated in the khenomeric magical community, with other branches of magic distrusting more and more the pursuits of the necromancers. This resulted in them leaving Khoraqualumum to live in isolation in other areas of the empire. 
By this point, the original necromancers were many centuries old, and some had even become undead themselves. Vandervax lived for many millennia in isolation and meditation, moving from city to city, avoiding attracting too much attention due to the dark stigma the necromantic arts carried within khenomeric society, not to mention a wizard outside of the official schools of magic. He seemingly traveled the Khenomeric Empire disguising his real identity, moving from town to town and helping those in need.
It would be in this period of time when Vandervax had his first encounter with vampirism. In a small town near the southern borders of the Khenomeric Empire, Vandervax was witness to a strange epidemic: many of the victims suffered acute blood loss, initially thought to be caused by some sort of animal or parasite. The symptoms would kill the victims in a couple of days, so severe the blood loss was, with the wounds seemingly caused by bites unable to clot and heal. Vandervax swore to hunt whatever beast was causing this disaster, which he was able to do after months of studying the attack patterns. The culprit was a lesser vampire, which explains the relative ease of his capture and the lack of subtlety in the attacks. Vandervax became horrified by the creature, and immediately began studying it. The nature of vampirism, similar to the undeath he had studied for centuries, yet so diametrically opposed to it at the same time, fascinated and repulsed the necromancer, and realized that the lack of knowledge about creatures like this could not be something natural. After all, the Khenomeric Empire was expanding all throughout Eastern Giantstep, and had accumulated all of the knowledge, magic or otherwise, in the great Khenomeri Archives in Khoraqualumum. And yet, he had not seen any record of anything like this existing, not even from the deepest archives of the School of Black Necromancy. He decided to study vampirism, dedicating his efforts to following and capturing different specimens for his studies. He travelled around the empire, following the rumors of animal attacks and blood diseases to find the elusive creatures. He mostly found lesser vampires, many of which had become feral. This went on for centuries, the knowledge of necromancy obtained by the study of vampires complementing his already extensive understanding of necromancy. A copy of his memories during his vampire hunting days was apparently kept in Biblion, but it was seemingly lost during the Great Fire.
Legends say that his first encounter with a higher vampire was during a hunt in the capital itself. A series of cases of anemia in the lower districts of Khoraqualumum had sparked the interest of the necromancer, especially since attacks in big population centers are quite rare. After nearly a year of chasing the creature, it would be a surprise for Vandervax to discover that this vampire was not a semiferal creature, more monster than man. Legends say the culprit was a Khenomeri princess, much older than Vandervax himself, and she retained complete control over her mind and body. The vampire told Vandervax that the only reason he had been able to chase her down was because she allowed him to, and that she needed to bring him an omen. As a Khenomeri noble, she was gifted with the powers of divimancy, at that point in time a magic thought to be extinct more than a millennia ago, and thus she was able to perceive the flow of time and the many possibilities of the future. The vampire princess told Vandervax about the end of the world in white light, flame and ash, brought along by her kind. She told her that the ancient vampire waged a great game using mortals as pawns, and as long as there were living around, they would just continue to fuel their schemes until there was nothing left. Then she disappeared into the mist of the night. 
Shaken after all of this, Vandervax dedicated more and more of his efforts in hunting vampires. At that point in time, the magoclergy had taken over the Khenomeric Empire, and wizards were taking more and more a dominant role in politics. And those politics involved further expansion, now westwards, drawing tensions with the other powers of the world. The Azan Empire was growing fast after its campaigns in Scimitarian and northern Giantstep, and even the Western Elven Empire was still a powerful nation, despite their defeat at the hands of the azanese. The Khenomeri armies were preparing for war, and the magical research of divine magics and energies were being used to reinforce their armies. Vandervax’ investigations drove him to the Cardammon Plateau, a land filled with the bones of ancient dragons, and steeped with different magics. After weeks of waiting and hiding, rumors say that he found a powerful and ancient cabal of vampires, beings steeped in power and malice nearly as old as the world. They were dealing with members of the Khenomeri Magoclergy, trading dark secrets and offering them knowledge and power in exchange of their servitude for their sinister purposes. However, it was at this point when he was discovered, and a fight ensued, a fight Vandervax lost. After millennia of experience in magic and centuries of vampire hunting, he had learned to defend himself, but surrounded by these monsters, he was but helpless. He was apparently then killed by the vampires, seeing the old necromancer as nothing but a nuisance, and then left to rot in the dragon graveyard. But killing a necromancer is not an easy feat, and Vandervax’ magic allowed him to return, albeit heavily weakened. He wandered for days through the barren lands, haunted by his inability to defend himself and protect the people from the dark machinations of the vampires. He was still in the Cardammon Plateau when the forces of the Khenomeri, the Azanese and the Western Elven Empire clashed, in what is today known as the Battle of Empires. 
The sheer destruction witnessed during the battle changed Vandervax, who bowed to eradicate the threat of vampires from the world, no matter the cost. The amount of dark energies emanating from the ultimate weapon utilized by the Black Order as a last ditch effort to turn the tide corrupted the land to this day, and it also altered Vandervax. His weakened body, used to necromantic energies but horribly weakened after the fight with the vampires was transformed and twisted into a mockery of life and death, in what many consider to be the first lich. His attempts of healing the wounded and abandoned from the Battle of Empires ended in failure, whatever energies unleashed during the fight had zapped the vitality from the land, and every single living thing in the area was dying. 
He left the land of the Cursed Battlefield, continuing his crusade against the vampires. His monstrous appearance and his near death state barred him from common civilization, and was only able to travel alone through the darkness. He was still seen by the population, though, and his terrifying visage started many horror stories in the land of the Khenomeric Empire, now more and more weakened by their defeat during the Battle of Empires. The fall of the Magoclergy was a good reprieve from the crisis, but a brief one, and the slow decay of the Khenomeric Empire was set in stone. The banning of all magics took away the main tool the empire had to keep its most unruly provinces at bay, and soon they started fracturing away. It would be during those days when the vampire attacks became more and more frequent, always mysteriously hidden by unknown powers in the empire. Vandervax began exterminating them in as public of a fashion as he could. Far from the subtle pursuits he perpetrated in the past, now Vandervax began making his hunts as public as possible, always leaving some vampire corpses impaled alive so the sunlight would finish off his works, and always making sure none escaped. Entire towns turned into lesser vampires or vampiric ghouls were slaughtered by Vandervax and his growing army of the dead. This army was composed of the victims of previous vampire attacks, resurrected in partial or total consciousness to fight the creatures that had ended their lives and those of their loved ones. 
After an incident where near a hundred lesser vampires were impaled in a hill outside of a small city, many within the Khenomeric Empire began fearing the being that Vandervax had become, causing slaughter from town to town. The rate of violence and destruction caused by his actions escalated century by century. From surgical responses to vampire attacks to public carnages, Vandervax even began starving the vampires by wiping out civilian towns and leaving nothing but the undead, serving Vandervax in his never ending quest to erase the vampires from the world. It was at this point where the Khenomeri Emperor ordered the hunt for “Vandervax the Vile”, his previous reputation of a gentle healer eroded into a monstrous figure of death and destruction, much more dangerous than the vampires in the eyes of the common folk. Unwilling to fight his own countrymen, he ordered his growing army of undead to leave the Khenomeric Empire forever. 
Vandervax abandoned the Khenomeric Empire and went to the sea in search of a new home. He would finally find it in the Okhost Archipelago, a series of islands south of the Ivory Peninsula. Their volcanic activity spewed massive amounts of cinder and smoke, blocking the sky and suffocating any regular plant life, with the islands’ vegetation having adapted to these circumstances. The constant emission of certain gasses made animal life near impossible as well, outside of the smaller islands and some small spots in the main animals. As such, they were mostly uninhabited, and with the crumbling of the Khenomeric Empire, the islands had been the preferred target for piratic activity, which had made most locals flee. Vandervax and his army of the undead reached the main island of Provonost by simply walking through the bottom sea, catching the pirates living there by surprise, and forcing them to join their army of the undead or flee. 
It was there where Vandervax set his base of operations. Ash and smoke could do little to harm the undead, and with the arrival of an entire army of undead, the few populated centers in the archipelago fled for their lives. Soon, the dead ruled over the islands. This attracted many necromancers to Okhost, some with the intention of joining Vandervax in his quest, some to live alone in meditation, and some intending to take away the islands for themselves. Vandervax quickly proved those who tried to usurp his leadership wrong, and after a while, he set up a system of governance of sorts. Undead, especially those in control of their faculties, become restless if they are not dedicated to a task, and as such, many returned to the ways they were before dying, taking up farming or crafting. The organization of the Okhostian society took a while, and soon many nations began relaxing about the necromantic nation, which opened the gates for foreign trade and relations. Vandervax opened up the old port of Vukasin to foreigners to trade and live in, but the rest of the necromantic kingdom is barred for the living. For the most part, though, Vandervax kept away from the politics of the outside world, with the exception to his campaign of destruction against the vampires. 
In 2.426 ABE, the Bog Witch defeated the ogre rebellion in the bogs of northern Giantstep, destroying the burgeoning Ogre Kingdoms and scattering them throughout the continent. This forced them into contact with the gnoll, who had been growing in what remained of the Khenomeric Empire. The ogre’s proselytizing with the gnolls gave them a more cohesive social structure, and soon enough they became the last straw for the Khenomeric Empire, conquering Khoraqualumum in the year 2.476 ABE. The gnolls surprise everyone in Giantstep by not only conquering the ancient Khenomeric Empire from within, but also expanding their borders quickly and in nearly all directions. While the gnolls were more and more seen as an existential threat for the kingdoms in eastern and central Giantstep, Vandervax saw them differently. He was well aware of their existence for centuries now, and while he saw them as a curious experiment at first, he now saw their potential. His study of the gnolls not only proved that they had an immensely affinity with dark magic and necromantic powers, they were also immune to vampirism. Moreover, with the quick expansion and development, they proved to be able to be organized and successful in the art of war. Vandervax decided to open relations with the burgeoning Gnoll Empire, helping them improve their administration and even teach them the arts of necromancy. Rumors say that the current Gnoll Emperor, only known as “The Nameless”, is a favored student of Vandervax, and his attempts of turning the Gnoll Empire into a civilized nation is just a stepping-stone for Vandervax’s plans.
== Society ==
Okhost is a land ruled by the undead. Many of the inhabitants of the islands belong to Vandervax’s original army, but more and more it’s composed of people who were brought to the isles to be resurrected as undead. Once there, they mostly live their days doing whatever activities they did back during their lives, and are mostly left to their own devices. Since they have no need for food, medicine and other products, they can dedicate those resources wholesale to export elsewhere through Vukasin, even if the agriculture is very limited due to the volcanic activity of the islands. The Okhostian authorities also allow many foreign nations to fish in their waters for a fee, though it’s their responsibility to navigate through the usually treacherous waters of the archipelago. They also get great earnings by resurrecting people, though those who come back can never return from the islands. This has allowed Okhost, and in particular the Skeleton-Priests, to accumulate enormous amounts of wealth. The Skeleton Priests will invest them in luxuries and in their studies, while most of the island lives in a more modest, but still satisfied way of life. 
Vandervax’s hatred against vampires is still strong, even after all these years. He will use the nation’s resources to launch campaigns of investigation and extermination against lesser and higher vampires. Over the years, Vandervax has a considerable score of higher vampires caught, but he still feels that the more powerful of their kind still lie way outside of his grasp. To that end, he started the program of arming his undead population. Hidden from the rest of the world, many of the resources that enter the island are used to increase the Okhostian army, with every undead who forms part of the nation being trained for war, and since they are all undead, they have all the time in the world to master the military life. This is also a defensive measure in case the cabals of higher vampires attacked the islands, which has happened on occasion. 
The port city of Vukasin is the only area of the country that allows the living to reside in. It is a key place for the national economy and for international relations. For the most part, though, the city is inhabited by the undead, with the living residing in their own districts. The markets of the living are the singular place where food and water can be obtain for human consumption. The city is protected from the dust clouds and volcanic activity of the region, thanks to its location and many magical spells that keep the area clean and the air breathable. Despite this, the city is a very dark place, with very little hours of clear sunlight through the dark clouds. Many of the resident have become deathly pale by living in the city for years. To make the living inhabitants more comfortable, the city host several public festivities, where the Okhostian try to show themselves is as much of a positive light as possible. 
== Religion ==
The Okhostian’s undead share a plethora of faiths, mostly keeping the ones that had during their lives. However, it is also frequent to see many cults of death, but in a different fashion than those outside of the archipelago. Whereas those cults of death and the gods of death pray for a safe travel to the afterlife, the Okhostian cults of death praise life in death, as just another phase of existence. This is part of the many necromantic teachings taught by the skeleton priests, who are in charge of keeping the population tranquil and accepting of their condition.
== Military ==
The Okhostian army includes every single undead in the islands. Every single undead is trained as a soldier all throughout their undeath, while at the same time allowing them to live their deaths as they did during their lifetime. However, this fact is hidden from the rest of the world, and it’s one of the reason why once a body is given to the skeleton priests for resurrection, their families and close acquaintances won’t see them again. Once again, this is part of Vandervax’s plan to fight the vampires, since after millennia of fighting the vampire menace, he realized that a great force was needed to counter their influence if they ever decided to stop playing their shadowy games and attempted to conquer the world. 
This army is led by the skeleton priests. Many of these date back to Vandervax’s original army, and have been trained in the mastering of necromantic magic, as well as military leadership. While they seem to be more often than not content with their luxurious way of undeath, they are not to be underestimated, since they are thousands of years old and with multiple lifetimes of experience in magic and warfare. 
However, this approach is not enough to deal with the vampires in the rest of the world. Vandervax has developed a series of highly trained strike teams, to act against vampiric centers once they are discovered. Since vampires tend to hide in high echelons of society, acting carelessly is not an option, and entering another nation at the head of an army is just out of the question. These teams will spend decades investigating certain areas of the world, hidden from everyone in the nation they are in, and once they confirm their suspicions, they will intervene, hunting any vampire in the area fast and with extreme prejudice. Once they have slain all vampires and capture some for interrogation, they will abandon the area during the night, leaving the local population to wonder what exactly happened. These strike teams have become highly successful, and have even managed to take down a number of higher vampires, although their rarity makes this a very dangerous proposition. If a particularly important higher vampire is discovered, Vandervax himself will accompany the team, to lend his support and magics to the mission. These missions can vary between clean operations where no one will ever know that something ever happened, to extermination of entire towns and even cities, though situations like that are rare and only done in the most extreme of circumstances.
== Foreign Relations ==
The diplomatic ties of Okhost with the rest of the world are strained, to say the least. The fact that Okhost is an undead kingdom ruled by a millennia old lich is not something that makes the other nations comfortable, and as such, there have been many problems to open relations with the rest of the world. However, that doesn’t mean they are isolated, the fact the okhostian mostly keep to themselves and actively hunt vampire outbreaks gives them a lot of leeway. Still, most of the relations Okhost has with the outside world are limited to private enterprises and merchant houses, selling the skeleton priests great amounts of luxury items. 
One of the biggest trade partners of Okhost is the Kingdom of Drunigzar. The geographic position of Okhost has turned Vukasin into a mandatory stop for the drunig ships that want to reach the prosperous 4th generation drunig colonies. As such, Drunigzar has very strong ties to Okhost, and in exchange, Okhost gets access to the many riches drunig commerce can provide.
The relation between Okhost and the Gnoll Empire is also great. Okhost is, in fact, the biggest ally of the gnolls, due to the necromantic ties between these two nations. The gnolls have been an invaluable part of Vandervax’s plans against the vampires, and in turn, the necromancer’s knowledge and influence has helped the empire to become a more civilized entity, or at least as civilized as the gnolls can be. 
Category:Nations
Category:Giantstep