Black Citadel

The halls of the Black Citadel

> "*Charr bow to no adversary. With the clamor of anvils and the thunder of guns, we rip each day from life's teeth!"*
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> —Rytlock Brimstone, Blood Legion Tribune
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The **Black Citadel** is located west of Sektah in the Sektahn Wastes in south-central Ascaria. Home of the militant charr, the Citadel stands guard over its territory, forever surrounded on all sides by neighbors who would much rather the space the Citadel occupies be barren. Nevertheless, the Citadel maintains an uneasy peace with the rest of the world, and the unease only grows as the charr continue to develop fresh weaponry and militarize their population.

## The Founding

The charr of the Black Citadel were originally enslaved under the Flame Legion, a despotic shaman caste whose power was amplified by various charr gods. Under the Flame Legion's watchful eye, the charr built their city and their machines of war, before turning their attention to their neighbors. The wars waged by the charr are seared into the collective memory of Ascaria's greatest nations (and the landscape surrounding them).

In time, the other charr legions began to slowly gather their individual strength, secreting away weapons and armor. When the time was right, they struck down, imprisoned, or exiled the Flame Legion in a tremendous uprising. In that same moment, the charr cast down the idols they had worshipped and turned their cannons on their gods. In the calamitous firefight that ensued, the gods were slain, never to return again.

Following the revolution, the charr withdrew all of their military from the surrounding countries and reorganized under a single banner. The three remaining legions (Ash, Iron, and Blood) would put a series of checks and balances on each other, ensuring that no legion would ever become powerful enough to oppress their fellow charr ever again.

With the advent of this strangely peaceful era in the charr's tumultuous history, new allies entered the picture. The charr were familiar with the green-skinned orcs of the east, as they had often defended their borders against the raids of the Skullsnappa Clan, but these orcs were slightly smaller, pale-skinned, and deviously intelligent. These Blackrock orcs were welcomed into the Citadel, and have quickly become an industrial force to be reckoned with.

## Charr Physiology

The charr are carnivorous feline-like humanoids. They stand on their hind legs and are taller than a human by half of an average human's height, but do not have the massive bulk of orcs. They prefer a hunched pose when standing, but will on occasion stand tall and straight. When they are moving, and their paws are unoccupied, the charr favor running on all four limbs with a loping gait.

They have a short fur from head to toe in a variety of colors and patterns, many of which are similar those of lions, cheetahs and tigers. Their fur patterns are also like that of leopards, snow leopards, and even some fur types of common housecats. Many charr have a longer mane of fur between the shoulders and on the back of the head and neck. A male charr has less fur on the tail with longer fur only on the tip, while the female's tail has longer fur from top to bottom.

The charr muzzle is elongated and the mouth filled with prominent sharp teeth suited for their carnivorous diet. The teeth are larger on the males, particularly those on the bottom jaw which are usually considerably smaller on the female. The head has four horns, those from the top of the head are more prominent than those between the two sets of ears. The top pair of ears hears high frequencies or ultrasound such as a dog might, while the bottom pair hear low frequencies or infrasound similar to an elephant. However, they have difficulty hearing mid-frequency sounds such as those used in human speech, which can aggravate already tense charr-human relations. Like cats, charr have six flat mammary glands hidden under their fur.

The charr have a set of sharp claws which can be used as knives for general tasks but it appears the charr tend to favor weapons when fighting.

Cubs are born fully furred, with open eyes and functional limbs. Within a few days, cubs can follow their mothers over even the harshest terrain. They eat meat within a month of birth, and are fully independent several months later. Charr mature at about the same rate as humans.