Lucull

== Description ==
Lucull has fallen.
What once stood as a proud and shining gem in the land of Eostia has been revealed to be little more then a ruinous and downtrodden place. Writhing in decay and depression, it's become apparent that the city did not survive the events of The Silence some fifteen years ago. Previously it stood as a grand city blessed by the sun, yet now it's walls crumble and it's residents have fallen farther from grace than previously thought possible. 
=== Law ===
All laws are decided upon by Yeorn, The Crowned Wolf. Women are property who must earn their coin via sexual means. Every member of his regime is entitled to a woman regardless of age. Protection must be paid monthly to reside within the inner walls. Those who fail to pay are evicted immediately to the darker and more ruinous outer walls. Anyone seen crossing the walls to the inner city will be publicly executed, their body to be displayed crudely for crows to rip apart. Yeorn has final say on any and all matters.
=== Domestic Relations ===
The city is split into two. The outer walls have fallen from attacks prior, leading the outer area of the city open to attacks, sickness, plague, and ruin. Further in, walls barring the inner city are damaged yet still stand. They are guarded by many mercenaries who wield bows, axes, and torches. The outer city has fallen, people starve in the streets and rob each other blind. They envy those within the higher walls of the inner city and often try to sneak in or scale them. People caught trying to get into the inner city are publicly executed via gruesome means. This is often done atop the walls so that both sides can witness the fate of trespassers and those unwelcome.
Those who pay enough protection, or tribute, are welcomed into the inner city and allowed to work as a mercenary, a whore, or as any various labor-intensive job that requires no professional expertise. Many houses have signs upon them indicating their status as a brothel, and old churches have been converted to taverns. The people within the walls are more subservient to the mercenaries around them. They simply believe "at least I'm not outside the walls" is a fair justification for the treatment they are given. This has led to "upper" and "lower" classes being formed out of the lowest of the low, leading to envy and anger from those less fortunate.
=== Foreign Relations ===
After the fall of Lucull's monarchy, The Bandit King Yeorn, who prefers the term "The Crowned Wolf", took over rulership. Knowing full well that people would not do trade with a city made up of mercenaries, thieves, and harlots, he'd forced the scholarly types and his captured monarch to forge and warp the recent history records. Due to this, the city has seemed quiet yet it pushed on it's existing relations with it's neighbors. Yeorn ensured that anyone who left the city was killed or silenced by other means, as countless patrols surround the woods and many checkpoints litter the roads. Boats no longer leave the city ports save for when a small raiding party attacks one of the island villages to the south.
For years, Yeorn's regime has forged documents stating that Lucull was operating as normal. As the capital city, it demanded tariff and tribute from the villages littering Eostia, and even increased taxes upon Shuramunz as a punishment for The Silence. As part of the punishment, Lucull demanded that Shuramunz and the outlying villages send monthly a collection of young boys and girls to the capital to study at The Grand Academy. With information being tightly controlled, many citizens in Northern Eostia had not a clue just how Lucull had fallen, for the invaders had masked themselves politically and continued to exploit former relations.
== Military ==
The Grand Magic Knights had fallen once their supply of crystals dwindled. Originally these crystals had come from Shuramunz, who extracted and refined them from their various mines and hills. As Lucull's magic knights focused too much on basing and enhancing their current abilities with a finite resource, they discovered too late that this was a fatal flaw in their design. Finding themselves unable to defend in a timely manner, they were quickly overrun by the sheer numbers of bandits, vagrants, vagabonds, rebels, and mercenaries. It is difficult to defend against threats from outside when the knives at their backs come from within their very own walls. With the remaining forces fleeing the falling city, the military of Lucull collapsed upon itself.
Now, the current militia comprised of mercenaries and bandits thickens its numbers as Yeorn captures more and more citizens to join his forces. Many of the troops are former residents and knights of Lucull, opting to surrender and join the forces that invaded their once blessed home.
== History ==
=== The Fall ===
For many years, the capital city of Lucull was once a grand and dream-like city. With a mixture of humans and elves co-existing, the city experienced a growth unparalleled. Scholars flocked to the city from all around the world. A large port town by any means, trade flowed and citizens came and went freely as they spread and shared their knowledge to the rest of the inhabitants of Thrae. With buildings painted white and garments to match, the residents of Lucull were highly intelligent and studious. They were considered the highest of class.
A grand academy stood near the castle, one of the highest buildings to grace the city. There, scholars studied the world, the stars, and found themselves to be more scientific in comparison to their more religious brothers and sisters to the north. With a grand army of magic knights, Lucull had proven to be a strong military force that had many tales written about it, most detailing the awe-inspiring feats of magic that could wipe out entire battalions.
Lucull experienced prosperity for many years, yet as the residents grew more dependent on imports both from it's sister city Shuramunz and far-away lands, jobs were outsourced or eliminated. This led to many people losing their professions as the people of Lucull decided to focus their time less on their own residents and more on the pursuit of knowledge. The general perception was that Lucull was quite powerful and their intellect and frightful magic alone would deter anyone from raising their blades. To quote one politician: "Why do such a thing when one can coerce another to do it for them? I'd not waste my breath nor my strength when coin can make others exert such efforts nearly twofold. For unlike us, they want."
Once Eostia lost it's crown jewel, Shuramunz, to The Silence for over a decade...it became clear just how heavily Lucull depended upon Shuramunz. One crucial resource were the inert crystals that were mined from the hills of Shuramunz, eventually enchanted at the academy to grant the user a powerful catalyst to augment their own abilities. As they no longer had anything of value to export, ships stopped coming to their ports. Scholars left the city to pursue other ventures in lands such as Altoria and Elion. For over ten years, the city fell sharply into decline yet they clung on to their old glory and status. They'd demanded heavier tariffs upon their vassals, wished for more tribute in this time of need. With Shuramunz falling silent, Lucull was forced to stand alone and come to the crushing revelation that they were incapable of sustaining themselves.
The city declined as it became difficult to obtain the materials needed to manufacture crystals for their army of magic knights. It became just as much, if not more difficult to obtain food. People began to steal from the farms of one another, to riot in the streets when supplies became rationed, to revolt and rebel as their once famed protection had faded. The fall was drastic, for a city and society so highly held and esteemed came crashing down. This had allowed bandits and mercenaries to round up those who felt abandoned and crossed by their crown. This band would eventually collapse the monarchy once the vagrants stood united under a black and red banner.
After observing the city for years, one man who bled ambition set his single eye upon the city falling into ruin. What once stood as a dream to pillage now had lost it's guard. As sickness and decay set in, a man from the eastern mountains had descended into the flat plains that surrounded the city. Known to many as The Bandit King, the mercenary of tan skin and a thousand scars had risen as a warlord near the Zaramunz Crags. He'd crushed rebels and bandits, yet instead of gutting them like most barbaric vagabonds would, he'd rolled them into his force. Over weeks, his army of undesirables grew. With no force to stop them and a wish to crush the upper class, the bandits had united under the banner of black. Painted upon it was a wolf inked in blood with one eye and a thousand scars.
The Bandit King, had risen. In less than a night, the bandits had assaulted the gate. Using weaponry that they'd stolen over the years, catapults rained fire into the decadent streets. Homes were crushed and engulfed in an inferno. The bandits had crushed the gates and torn down the walls, spilling into the cobblestone streets and painting them red with blood. With no grand army to defend and a force of magic knights rendered useless, Lucull had fallen in only a night.
As the man of a thousand scars had approached the castle with large axes in each hand, crushing the gate with ease. To his back and his sides, a hundred men in furs with axes sharpened by stone. The elven monarch, a queen whose name was stripped from her, threw herself at the mans feet and begged mercy. Absent of strength or resolve, she pleaded for the man to spare her people, for she would do anything. Rather than take her head, Yeorn took her body that very night. Shortly after, he'd broken her and he'd taken her dignity. Beyond that, he'd turned a once proud queen into nothing more than a whore to be used at his leisure, to be tossed to the whims of his men who knew only dissipation. She had lost her name, referred to from here on out as "Whore Queen"
Yeorn had crushed the throne meant for a queen, reducing it to naught but rubble. A man so large and brutish as he could not fit in the throne for a king, as it was intended for a tall and elven male. With a single axe, he'd cut the throne in two horizontally, kicking the armrests aside and taking his seat upon the castle he'd claimed. For years after, the city collapsed in society. Those who lived outside the inner walls had be subjected to torture, raids, theft, and abuse. Those inside the walls knew a marginally better life, yet they were used and beaten. Their bodies were sold for coin, oft for a higher price than what little dignity they'd had left.
Bandits eventually spread northward, crossing through the valleys and making their way towards the holy citadel of Shuramunz, whose roads were plagued with vagrants and vagabonds as the city found itself sealed in silence. For the next half a decade, Yeorn's whore of a queen was coerced to send letters throughout the land. They'd raised taxes, demanded tribute in both coin and body. Young boys and girls were requested to attend this grand academy of magic and the arts. Yet little did they know...it was nothing more than a house of harlots, and these children would be corrupted and bent into nothing more than husks of their formerly bright-eyed selves.
After many years of pressure and threats, Lucull had eventually caught the ire of Shuramunz shortly after the citadel had opened its gates once more at the hand of none of other than Ecclesia, daughter of the once famed and now long-dead Jormund. Lucull now finds itself the target of a civil war started by Eostia's crown jewel.
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== Notable Locations ==
The city is divided by walls, many of which are damaged and crumbling. The buildings themselves have lost their white paint and now show a dull grey and brown color. The people in the outer walls suffer day in and day out, left to starve and fend for themselves. Those within the inner walls have a slightly better life, yet they are forced to be mercenaries, whores, and servants to men with axes sharper than their wits.
=== The Grand Academy ===
Once a great library littered with tomes of ancient magic. Arcane spells and knowledge little the shelves, and an abundance of enlightenment could be found beyond the doors of The Grand Academy. For years, scholars had studied the magics of the world, ranging from arcane to celestial, black and white, blood and forbidden all alike. As Lucull fell into ruin and decay, the academy was converted into a large brothel. Books still run along the shelves, but many are destroyed, burned, or covered in a thick and sticky fluid that one would have no trouble assuming the origin of. It is rumored that there is a locked basement within the academy, a place not even the bandits have been able to breach. The residents care not for rumors, as the academy is nothing more than a whorehouse these days.
=== Inner City ===
The inner city is more intact than beyond the walls. Buildings stand, despite glass broken and streets falling apart. Signs hang above doors stating the homes are little more than small brothels. Streetwalkers wander the streets, hoping to catch the coin of the various mercs who roam the alleys. Children occupy the same lewd professions, yet many do hard labor from day to day in order to survive. The general attitude of people within the walls is that of defeat, yet they claim themselves to be lucky that they are not beyond the walls. For that is a fate not to be envied.
=== Outer City Ruins ===
The outer city experienced most of the damage and decay. As bandits and mercs ran rampant through the streets, many residents found themselves run through by dirty blades. People fled towards the inner walls, only to be cut down and paint the blood red. The lower walls around the city were destroyed and raging fires ran through the residential districts. Those who fled were turned into pincushions by a barrage of arrows, while any who stood against the invading force were ripped and torn asunder publicly to demonstrate repercussions of disobedience. Few people live along these ruined houses, and those that do are paranoid and terrified of any and every person who treats through the ruins. Bodies line the streets, many strung up and nailed to walls as a warning.
Category:Locations
Category:Settlements