Hormskirk

Hormskirk is the city of all the pleasures and worst horrors. If you really care about your health, your life, don't go in this city for too long.

It is affiliated with the god Horm.

It stands out from other cities by its intense human culture. Hundreds of "human farms" surround it, giving to Hormskirk and other cities an important amount of blood.

It was the first southern city to discover the Blood Fusion. From 0ABR, it took 32 years to Hormskirk and it's scientists to completely master this new technology. It was then delivered to Flum and Azraen

## Geography

Hormskirk is located more or less in the middle of Vein. it's not far from the Blood river, but as it is unusable as a water source because of the large amount of waste Flum releases into it, it still have the needs to ask Flum for water. It was surrounded by a lot of villages and camp for a time, until most of them were emptied of their inhabitants because of the Red Swoop

the lands in which Hormskirk is located are dotted with hills of different sizes. As a result, the city itself is built on one of the largest hills.

## History

This city was built in -53BBR on the basis of a statue of a deity. The name Horm was engraved on it. From there, some people heard calls from this god as they stood near the statue. This is how worship for this god and all the related customs were built.

This statue was on a hill. They then began to build on it. While it still looked like a tiny village, they named this place Hormskirk and began to renovate the statue.

As people settled in the city, some noticed that a mark corresponding to the sign engraved on the back of the statue, however crossed out, appeared on their foreheads. The people understood that the god wanted to show that these people had dishonored him. This mark may disappear if the person forgives himself to the god.

The origin of the human exploitation comes from the inhabitants fear of decimating their own population. This problem concerned every city that had to kill its own population to collect blood, but Hormskirk was the first to find a lasting solution. Indeed, since sacrifice is an important part of its culture, it was important for them to continue to make it a pleasant and entertaining activity. Thus, Hormskirk organized the Red Swoop. Following this event, Hormskirk became a great blood producer, exchanging it with other cities for various goods, solving the problem of the population's sacrifice and strongly developing its economy.

At some time, tensions between Hormskirk and Flum started to appear when Flum's merchants where repeatedly attacked and plundered by thieves. Flum believed falsely that these thieves where sent by Hormskirk. Exchanges between the 2 cities continued, but no other interactions happened. These tensions reached its highest peak when Flum's soldiers attacked a goods convoy from Hormskirk that didn't have propers papers. The soldiers killed everyone and to answer this diplomatic insult that was lasting for too long, Hormskirk declared war. Today Flum and Hormskirk are on good terms and nothing seems likely to cause another war.

## Urbanism

(see Urbanism)

Hormskirk is built on a hill. It follows the classic class system found in every other major city. At the very top of the hill, Horm dominate the whole city.

The richest lives at the top of the hill, the poorest are at the foot and for a big part in the underground.

Underground are dug in a way that they starts in the hill, and go down to below sea level. Dwellings are located at the lowest level of the underground. The part located in the hill shelters bars, prostitute club and other place of refuge. You're not forced to pass by this place if you want to directly go to the living zone. Indeed, there is a direct stairway going to it that you can use instead.

In Horsmkirk, even if the underground is the living place for a big part of the poor population, it is a place where every classes intertwines. Indeed, the best way to have fun in this city is in the hill. People drinking and eating without counting, gambling, partially naked waitresses is what you will mainly find in here. It is a tradition for the inhabitants of Hormskirk to meet and have fun as they please in these underground no matter their class and gender. However, you must be atleast 16 years old to enter this area. There are no other conditions to be met.

Moreover, you can also find people from the medium class and even from the wealthy class in the living zone of the underground.

## Politics and administration

In Horsmkirk, the city representative is elected through the Ac Roth Tut ritual. Unlike usual, this ritual lasts 2 to 3 days. Each candidate must present a speech, the person or persons who will be sacrificed by this care, and must satisfy the people as much as possible. Indeed, the performance considered the most entertaining, the one that according to the people knew best how to satisfy Horm will be the winner. This ceremony lasts several hours per candidate, which explains the time it takes. In addition, the number of candidates is not fixed and each ceremony is spaced 2 hours apart. To be eligible to run, you must: have officially honoured Horm in any way, not be guilty of any crime punished by Hormskirk, be 18 years old and finally not be considered as in the poor class.

this representative takes his place for 10 years and the people can choose at any time to replace him with another one during these years. If this happens, a new ritual will be set up for the occasion. The elected representative then sits at the foot of the statue of Horm, and will control the city assisted by some of the richest and former representatives. A person who has already introduced himself can fully participate again if he always checks the requested conditions. However, a person who has already been elected cannot run for re-election, but will be part of the sacrificial council if he has governed for at least 4 years.

The representative takes care of absolutely everything, economic management, citizens' requests, relations with other cities... although he can delegate these tasks to his advisors.

The actual representative is Shudeh Thayak. it's been 2 years he's the governor.

as certain restrictions are applied to residents in relation to their age, for example, everyone has an identity card from the age of 10 years old allowing every guard to keep track of their information. In the event that you do not have this card, or a temporary card if you are a visitor, you cannot enter the underground. A person with a visitor's card cannot go into the residential area unless accompanied by an underground resident.

Criminal records are kept in case of crimes or offences such as theft or when a person is seen with the crossed-out mark. If a person loses his mark, he must let it be known and this will be noted. If she does not lose her trademark within a month or if the mark appears a second time, they are hanged publicly.

There is a church located on the statue square where people come to pray and make offerings. It is managed by the sacrificial council.

Hormskirk has an army managed by its governor. Although the city has its own soldiers, some of them are from Azraen. In the event of a critical alert, each man must defend the city whether he is a soldier or not.

## Population and society

It is the den of a large number of robbers, thieves and murderers of all kinds; so much that it is the city where the highest number of murders is recorded.

But the general atmosphere of this city is not limited to this: there are many underground bars. Prostitutes, illegal substances... Hormskirk is a paradise for those who want to brave the forbidden to have a little fun.

The population is very attached to its god. He clearly advocated the sacrifice of others, which led the population to create a public bloodletting ritual performed weekly.  This ritual is called Ac Roth Tut.

in this city, the richest can very easily hire an assassin, and will do so without much hesitation. the reward is simply the victim's blood. most of these assassins do it for the simple pleasure of killing. Most of the time, the government turns a blind eye to these murders, misled by the threats of no longer contributing to the development of the city from the wealthy class.

In Horsmkirk, even if the underground is the living place for a big part of the poor population, it is a place where every classes intertwines. Indeed, the best way to have fun in this city is in the hill. People drinking and eating without counting, gambling, partially naked waitresses is what you will mainly find in here. It is a tradition for the inhabitants of Hormskirk to meet and have fun as they please in these underground no matter their class and gender. However, you must be atleast 16 years old to enter this area. There are no other conditions to be met.

Moreover, you can also find people from the medium class and even from the wealthy class in the living zone of the underground. As a result, this place is not that unsanitary contrary to what one might think. For example, There are far less lagles in these undergrounds than in others cities because rich people makes use of their wealth to keep this place as livable as possible, for the great pleasure of the poor.

Children work as soon as they are able and only some middle-class and wealthy children receive an education.

As in every other city, some people do not trust in the local god, Horm. These people are quite accepted in society even if some inhabitants cannot understand that a Hormskirk resident does not believe in their god. As a result, some non-believers are sometimes discriminated against. In addition, a non-believer cannot run for governor. There are no unbelievers in the wealthy class. Most of them are found in the poor class, but also in the middle class.

People live in a rather classic way. Most of them have ordinary jobs. The only work that really stands out is the job of farmer. A farmer is a person who takes care of the proper functioning of a human farm. Twice a week, a market of itinerant traders settles in the city where you can find various good and materials.

The inhabitants live by seeing assassinations every day in front of their eyes. So they have got used to it and it seems perfectly normal to them. It would be too complicated to apply any measures in the event of a murder as there are so many of them, so the body is recovered and thrown away by anyone who wants to take care of it. Some people may fight for these bodies because they want to recover their blood. In the event that a person talks to someone he knows little about and this person is killed in front of him, he will most of the time leave and do something else as if nothing had happened. For strangers, all this can be extremely confusing because it all seems so normal.

The typical working day starts at 8am and ends at 6pm. Then, most people will enjoy their free time in the underground.

The poor mostly have clothes in poor condition, but the rich living in the underground sometimes give them new clothes in order to make it a cleaner place. A rich person can be identified by their fairly clean clothes in relation to the bloody environment. In addition, the rich generally do not work, having enough to do helping the governor. They can maintain their wealth through the blood that the government has given them in exchange for their help.

the typical suit of a wealthy person is composed of a long suit falling to the knee, holding Horm's symbol on the right side of the jacket. Then there is a fairly wide pants matching the jacket, and finally thick boots of high quality leather.

As for food, indoor cultures are being set up to protect them from the Bloody mist and to be able to feed the people.

## Economy

its main source of income comes from blood farms, which gives the city huge amounts of blood. Internally, the city works quite well and the poorest people are still able to feed themselves enough, still sometimes to the price of their own blood.

each city is supplied with blood by **Hormskirk**, who sells it for various goods and services such as water with Flum, or a few soldiers from Azraen. However, the city has never asked for an excessive amount of resources in exchange of this blood, aware that it is an important resource and willing to share it with everyone. This is why they sometimes sends the blood collected for free. The city can indeed afford it so much the quantities collected are gigantic.