Al'daj

## History

### The Dawn Era (Pre-History)

As with much of Edos, during the Dawn Era, Al'daj's bountiful and lush jungles were home to the angels. A vast sweeping land of thick forest and vibrant life, many of the more colorful and flamboyant angel species called this land home, bathing in the warm sun and heavy rains that moved through the jungle. When the Dawn War struck, Al'daj's position on the far coast of the continent and it's relative lack of militarized development and Angelic construction spared it from much of the devastation, albeit a demonic bomb was detonated on it's east coast, sundering off the isle that is now known as Al'Hayaa from the rest of the country, an act that, while damaging to the angels, saved the future of the land.

### The Loa Undead and the Foundation of the Reapers (2000 BFNE-1900 BFNE)

The concept of Undeath, that of a spirit refusing to pass on to their afterlife, predates much of modern society. The first Undead were simple animals, animalistic spirits that died with enough rage, desperation, hunger, or fear that they refused to pass on to the embrace of Gaia and reanimated their bodies. The second Undead, however, were that of goblins of the Loa Coast. Masters of adaptation, some goblin's spirits even adapted beyond the grave, allowing them to remain upon Anagrian instead of passing back through Gaia. Neither of these groups concerned the goddess of death, that born of Kuk'sar's tears and shaped by Amun's fears. Neither goblin nor animal went to the Isles and provided her with the power she needed to sustain herself, bound to cycles of reincarnation as all creatures of Gaia are.

No, the first Undead to spurn Kritanta was that of the Loa Trolls, for they had achieved separation from the goblins and created their own faiths, developing afterlives for Kritanta to rule. The Loa faith was that of the Four Forces of the Dissonant, Harmonious, Sacred, and Profane. They believed that when they died, their souls merged into their force, becoming one with it and residing in a place of power for their force, afterlives that manifested themselves within the Isles under Kritanta's wish. Furthermore, within Loa culture, to be an Undead is a great shame. It is a show that you were a failure in your faith, unable to achieve power and success enough to be able to merge with the forces and being abandoned in your shell upon Anagrian. As such, Undead were treated as outcasts.

Not one to be so easily spurned, and one to know the value of aggressive reaction to send a message (a lesson from her uncle, Amun), Kritanta willed elementals of pure spiritual energy, shed from her cloak of spirits, into existence in 1984 BFNE. These elementals were brutish and cruel, guided by the singular purpose to destroy Undead, without care for anyone or anything else. They were able to cross the boundary between the afterlife and the living world through the dreams of slumbering living people, the points where the material plane and the spiritual world come closest. Becoming known as the Brutix (a name later reprised by the future reapers to frame all unbound spirits as violent and unstable), they hunted the Loa Undead without relent.

Abandoned by their society and hunted by a god's soldiers, the Loa Undead fled the realms of the living, moving south across Edos for the next two thousand years. They firstly settled within the Cornalian Plains for the first ~100 years, building a community within the mesas, carving many of the caverns that are still in use by modern Cornalians. As they carved, they came across a chunk of immense sacred energy, what is now known as the Well, a piece of Amun that had landed on Anagrian thousands of years ago. Unable to interact with it due to its polarization threatening to tear them apart, the Undead left it alone. However, animals from the surrounding region were drawn towards it, and consumed it, becoming fundamentally changed by its presence. They became uplifted, fully sentient spirits. The Undead began to work closely with them as well, sharing the land and working together to establish a society even through their differences.

They created a society focused on non-violence, on the resolution of problems through communication, a culture of study and writing. Their most important contribution from this time-period, however, was the creation of spirit magic that could work with non-Draconic spirits, based upon the Mutus that the Dragon Emperor had begun dumping on their land. As Undead, their spirits struggled with forming new memories and concepts, unable to change from the state they had been in when they died. To resolve this, the Undead utilized the principles of the changes done to the Mutus's spirit to create a magic that allowed them to alter their own spirits, now being able to alter their behavior, both for their own sake and for the sake of potentially being able to change the Brutix when they attack. This also further led them to the creation of mental magic, the ability to communicate over distance with just their minds proved invaluable to them as damage from the attacks of the Brutix continued to pile up, leaving many without the ability to communicate through physical media. Being able to link their mind to enchanted prosthetics also greatly helped those that died with missing limbs or those that had lost them in the escapes from the Brutix.

During this time, the Undead created advanced works of arts, magic, and engineering. Able to communicate as one and with nothing better to do, they were the most advanced society on Anagrian (barring the Dragon Empire) during these early years. Abandoned by their gods, they refused the creation of a faith and did not worship, building their philosophy independent of the mandates of the divine. This was the cause of a major split between the Beastfolk and the Undead. The Beastfolk believed themselves to have been chosen as the receivers of their god Anu's flesh, chosen children of the Well, created through divine mandate. A particularly zealous section of them took major umbrage with the existence of the Undead, beings that corrupted the sacred creations of Anu by their mere presence. This sect, known as the Sun-walkers, sold out the Undead to the Brutix, sabotaging their defenses and using sacred magic to force the Undead off the land, forcing them to flee from Cornal. Moving south, the Undead were unable to settle within Pollentia as that land had become claimed by the Sunwalkers as their main force. They avoided the Wildlands, the demons within a grand threat. The Flow-Touched Land was untouchable, the magic emanating from it threatening to tear the spirits directly out of the Undead. Finally, they arrived at Al'daj. The dense jungle welcomed them, a return to the environment they had once called home. The jungle proved invaluable as a means of hiding from the Brutix and Sunwalkers on their tail. There, they settled and founded the Abscondita, the concealed in 1889 BFNE.

### The Abscondita (1889 BFNE-478 BFNE)

The Abscondita was founded on much of the same principles that the Loa Undead had established within the Cornalian Plains, that of non-violence and resolution through communication. However, a third ideal was applied: secrecy. The Abscondita must remain concealed from the factions of the world that want to destroy it. However, the Loa Undead did not want to doom any other Undead that formed within the future, believing that they should be able to find the Abscondita. At first, this conundrum seemed unsolvable, until the Undead found the ruins of the demonic weapon. Immensely advanced spell-crafters, they spent two centuries analyzing the circles and polarizations that the weapon created and were able to reserve engineer a solution. Using the magic from the weapon and their own advanced spirit and mental magic, they created an aura that emanated from Al'daj's jungle, one that targeted the polarization of the channels of the living and eliminated the knowledge of the Abscondita from their awareness, creating an anti-perceptionary field that made it impossible to gain awareness of the hidden land. By focusing on the channels, this also even hampered the Brutix, who were connected by a similar mechanism to Kritanta and specifically targeted by the spell. With the spell in place, the living would never be able to find the Abscondita while the dead would have no problem. The spell was centered upon the capital of the Abscondita that was constructed during the study, Maqbara.

With that solution solved, the Abscondita began to rebuild a society. They fought the Brutix, developing spirit traps that allowed them to bind the Brutix and free them from their one-lined programming to be able to live freely. They could return to Kritanta if they so wished, but the Abscondita did eliminate their memory if they did so. Many chose to stay, savoring the taste of freedom, of an existence they never got to experience. Slowly, Undead arrived over the following centuries, following the rumors of freedom. The Hespern of the Dragon Empire, unwilling to be bound the Emperor even beyond the grave. The Sun-Walkers of Pollentia had seized complete power over Cornal, implanting themselves as a theocracy in power, bringing a migration of Undead from the north around 1000 BFNE. An even greater migration arrived following Forceprima's devastation of the first Dragon Caller's Guild, spirits that were filled with such rage, refusal, and denial that they refused to move on and wanted to actually experience the life they were robbed of. However, the Undead weren't the only ones to arrive. The Abscondita had been discovered by Dysmagi. Hespern that were born without channels, unaffected by the anti-perception field. They also wished for freedom from the Empire, as being magicless, they were considered to be equal to animals. Seeing kindred spirits, the Undead did allow them to stay, but segregated them to the isle of Alhayaa so that they could have their own separate land without the usage of magic. There, the Dysmagi found chickens and founded a city named after them. The city of Al'daj was a major hub of the Abscondita, serving as a sister city to Maqbara.

When the Nightborne fully settled in the Flow-Touched Lands in 900 BFNE, fear grew amongst the Abscondita of their discovery. The Nightborne were incredibly magically talented and could potentially break the anti-perception field and reveal the civilization that the Abscondita had constructed. This fear grew even more when Yokono Michi announced their plans to expand across Edos in 800 BFNE. To prevent a tragedy, the Abscondita sent a delegation of Undead and Dysmagi to break the silence. The meeting with Yokono went well, as Yokono's people had no real need for the jungles of Edos and the Abscondita offered to trade their advanced magics as well as food to the Nightborne for protection, creating a strong alliance between the two nations.

Following this, the Abscondita began to take a slightly more active role within Edosian politics, advising the Nightborne Empire and being partially responsible for the sweeping social welfare reforms done by Yokono in the 700s BFNE as well as offering some assistance with the Storjryan rebellion. Following the overthrowing of Yokono and her dissappearance, alongside the reforms by Naw'Qu'Rian and the incoming rage of the Dragon Empire upon those that assisted the rebellion, the Abscondita went into hiding once more in 630 BFNE, cutting off their connection to the outside world. The following 130 years were filled with instability as fear and disagreement began to ferment rapidly within the Abscondita's guiding councils.

Following the Storjryan Rebellion, the Dragon Emperor was on a warpath against the countries of Edos that supported the Rebellion. Having always been aware of the Abscondita, the Emperor had previously simply left them be as a fun thought experiment, to see how long they would survive against Kritanta. However, the Abscondita had dared to lay a finger upon his things, and as such must be punished. He created a prime for this task, to create a fitting punishment for the Abscondita. The Prime came up with one: enslavement of the entire species. They had cost the Emperor his slaves, and as such they should become his replacement. With the Emperor's permission, the Prime began to work.

The Prime did not work alone, however. Of course, Undead can be formed from many strong emotions. Almost all Undead are formed from one of the following two: anger or denial. A rare few are formed from fear or dissappointment. An even rarer few from love. At the time of the Dragon Empire, there was only one that was formed from greed and the hunger for power. His real name and origin is lost to time, but he is now known as Lich. As an undead of greed, Lich rose quickly through the ranks of the Abscondita, learning their secrets and how the anti-perception field worked. When he learned of this new prime's work, Lich's hunger for power swept away any mercy or reason. He approached the Prime and offered his knowledge and service in exchange for power once the enslavement was completed. The Prime agreed, establishing a partnership that doomed a race.

By combining the spirit magic of the Undead, the magics used to enslave the Dragon-made through the creation of those shared psychic spaces, and the principles of a Collective, the Prime and Lich were able to force Undead into a Collective, dominate their spirit, and create a shared psychic space with the caster that allowed them to control the Undead. They had invented necromancy, with the Prime finally earning the name of Necroprimus. Furhtermore, they created a ritual that would allow them to take control of all Undead across Anagrian, named the Black Sun ritual, named so for the fact that the sun will go black as part of the ritual. With their magic invented, Necroprimus and Lich took one final gamble. They approached Kritanta. Knowing that once they took over the Undead, Kritanta would want her fair share, they (without the backing of the Emperor) made a bargian with her. If she granted them the magics that allowed them to access the Isles, they would kill all Undead that were not in the Abscondita as part of their ritual. Not wishing to get into a drawn out battle with the Emperor and knowing that the souls would eventually come to her anyway, Kritanta agreed. Finally, Lich and Necroprimus did one last act: They officially abandoned the Empire, for if they were part of the Empire and acted directly against Al'daj with the Emperor's backing, there was a not-insignificant chance that Amun would count it as a violation of his pact with the Emperor. Necroprimus abandoned it's old name, proclaiming itself Dieryun. While still allied with the Empire, they now called themselves the Necromancer Kings of the Black Sun.

In 478 BFNE, the sun across Anagrian went black as the Undead, as one, became enslaved, bound to the will of the necromancers beneath the banner of Lich. The dysmagi panicked, but there was little they could do under the blades and magics of the Imperial backed soldiers of the Necromancer Kings. Within the week, the Abscondita were enslaved and the Necromancer Kings and Undead across Anagrian disintegrated as one. The Black Sun rose over Al'daj.

### The Necromancer Kings of the Black Sun (478 BFNE- 188 BFNE)

The Necromancer Kings of the Black Sun were an extremely oppressive magocracy. The highest crust of society were the necromancers that had allied with Lich during the Black Sun ritual. They served as lords of the lands of Al'daj, reporting to Lich as the Arch, a title he took upon himself. The worship of Dieryun was a state religion, and disobedience was punishable by death and enslavement, in that order. Working as one giant Collective with an object of power in the form of a large obsidian obelisk located within the city of Al'daj, the necromancers shared control over the Undead and as such were able to control far more than they could individually, especially as Dieryun was part of this collective. While Collectives are inherently equal, the Dragon Empire magic that allowed the enslavement of the Undead allowed Lich to position himself as the major controller of the Collective, in charge of it all.

The upper class of the Necromancer Kings were that of mages. When the kingdom was founded, Arch Lich invited any mages that wanted to position themselves as the gold of society and strive for power to move there. A large amount of mages from the Dragon Empire, and a not-insignificant amount from the Nightborne Empire (brought by the fear of collapse caused by the Doomsday Spell and the potential to finally get the respect they believed they deserved) settled the land. The mages of the Black Sun held alot of power and wealth within the land, solving the vast majority of their problems with violence.

The Dysmagi that had previously resided upon the land were relegated to undesirables, often forced into ghettos. Unable to legally flee, the Faionite Order of Solarion and the Nightborne Empire cooperated to free as many as they could but many were unable to escape. The Dysmagi were not officially enslaved, but forced to perform manual skilled labor for poor food and poor housing, subsisting almost entirely on a diet of chicken and rice. They were evicted from their ancestral lands of the Alhayaa, instead being forced out into the greater jungle as the Necromancers and mages took over their homes, creating labor camps for them. While the Undead performed the most hazardous labor, the Dysmagi did much of the brunt but skilled work. That of farming and smithing, of ranching and logging.

The Undead were relegated to less than animals, treated as machines to perform the will of the Necromancers. Forced to perform the majority of labor, the Undead constructed the grand castles of the Necromancer Kings from the great mesas of the desert, carving within them as they did so long ago. The Undead were forced to act as the violent harbingers of the magocracy's will, committing horrific acts under the whims of their masters. They would serve as the executioners of the Dysmagi and be forced to fight with the natural animals of the area. They were treated as toys and entertainment by their masters, forced to commit vile acts upon each other, fighting for the entertainment of the necromancers, being used as furniture and even parts of houses. Unable to control themselves, but always aware, many Undead went insane, their spirits completely broken but their corpses still moving. There were Undead with particularly resilient spirits that refused to break and were far harder to control. Some were recruited by the Necromancers, traitors to their own kind, but many refused that. As punishment, they were personally delivered to the temple-palace of Arch Lich, who devoured their spirits in secret.

The Nightborne Empire attempted to wage war upon the Kingdom, but Lich promised of mutually assured destruction, of devastation beyond belief, of a Black Sun ritual that would scour the planet of life. As such, the Nightborne focused on their secretive war, a hidden rebellion, much like the one they waged against the Dragon Empire. They provided assistance to the Dysmagi and worked closely with the Sunwalkers of Cornal and the Faionite Order of Solarion to assist with managing the threat of the Black Sun. Unfortunately for the Dysmagi, alongside necromancy, another widely practiced magic within the Kingdom was that of mental magic, stolen from the Undead. The magi could, and often did, peer directly into the thoughts and memories of Dysmagi at will and at random, and if a thought of treason was found, executed them with a wave of the hand. The Necromancers even utilized the Undead as extenders of this magic, able to maintain surveillance across individuals near them, and pouncing upon those that have treason in their mind, swarming them and tearing them apart.

Over the generations, this led to a dominating fear, distrust, and rage within the dysmagi of the Undead, one that grew with each victim. This hatred of the Undead led to something else flourishing within the Dysmagi, however. Originally, the philosophy and way of the war-hungry and zealous Sun-Walkers, who heavily argued for the destruction of the Undead as well as the Necromancers, did not take with the majority of the Dysmagi, many of whom had grown and lived alongside the Undead for generations, but the shift in attitude caused a resurgence in the Sun-Walkers philosophy within the Dysmagi and by 300 BFNE, most of the Dysmagi wanted to destroy the Undead. While still unable to use sacred magic, Dysmagi began to worship Anu in secret, driven by the Sun-Walkers into belief that Anu would be able to come and free them from the oppression of the Black Sun. Meeting in secret, the Dysmagi found relief in their religion and faith became integral to their culture over the following years.

When the Dragon-Made slaves of the Dragon Empire began their acts of small rebellion in 200 BFNE, freed from their psychic spaces through Fae magics, the Dysmagi began their own acts as well. They attempted to destabilize the control of the Undead in 189 BFNE, getting their hands on similar artifacts to the ones that the Dragon-Made had created and using them to try to free Undead from the control. Unfortunately, the artifacts did not work as the Undead were bound by magics that were only based on the Dragon Empires, but at this point had evolved beyond that original iteration. In retaliation, Arch Lich himself struck against the largest ghetto of the Dysmagi, located in modern Janub, during one of their prayer hours, unleashing a Cloudkill spell across the village. The residents of the village began to choke and die, their faith shattered as Anu did not protect them. However, they were protected by something different entirely. A lone man rose from the ruins, burning with sacred magic. He is now known as Felyun, but his origin or real name was erased by Arch Lich. Making a vow to earn revenge against Arch Lich and free his people, the Dysmagi Felyun arose with an aura of protection, becoming the first paladin. Infused with the sacred magic created by the belief of his dying village and the vengeance within his own heart, Felyun embraced the power of sacred magic and sacrificed his own spirit to strike down Arch Lich, becoming enshrouded in flaming wings and a burning mace. Arch Lich fell for the first time that day, the sacred weapon of Felyun shattering the Lich's control of his body. Expecting to die with his vow fullfilled, Felyun bowed in prayer to whatever diety bequethed this power upon him, establishing a connection with the sacred force and with Amun. The sheer desire for vengeance within Felyun had linked his spirit with Amun and the sacred force directly, a mirror of Amun's rage when Kuk'sar felled his creations. Felyun did not fall that day, however. For Arch Lich was a Lich, the epitome of necromancy. He had bound his very spirit to the Black Sun Obelisk within Al'daj, making it his phylactery. Felyun arose, using his sacred magic to heal those around him. He and his followers, the first Felyunists, went into hiding, knowing retribution would be short-coming.

### The Felyunist Uprising (188-142 BFNE)

The Necromancers began to hunt down the Dysmagi across Al'daj, killing many at first but they were quickly met with resistance. Felyun was just the first paladin, but others began to appear as well, spurned by the knowledge of Felyun. The message was spreading, and many of the Dysmagi abandoned the worship of Anu, propelling Felyun into the position of their righteous savior. Felyun roamed the lands of Al'daj, freeing Dysmagi and empowering them with the words of sacred magic. His link to Amun could be shared, allowing Dysmagi to channel the sacred magic that flowed through Anagrian naturally and giving them a mighty weapon against the Undead and Necromancers. The rebellion was small and slow during this time, almost entirely composed of independent cells that also experienced the awakening as Felyun did. These individuals became known as Serafs, the seraphim of Al'daj. Finally in 188 BFNE, Felyun gathered an army of his Serafs, and marched upon the Obsidian Obelisk. They were met with heavy resistance, led by Arch Lich. The battle was immense, with the majority of the Serafs falling upon piles of Undead that were sundered by their holy light, released to the Isles and much of the city of Al'daj being destroyed. In the end, however, Felyun smited the Obsidian Obelisk, destroying it and killing both Arch Lich and the majority of the control over the Undead that the necromancers had maintained through their use of it as their object of power. With his vow fullfilled, Felyun perished, the sacred magic subsuming his spirit and merging him into Amun's greater existence. The Serafs took control of Al'daj with the help of the newly-freed Undead, making a hasty temporary alliance.

With the fall of the Obelisk, the Kingdom was unstable and the Dysmagi and Undead began a two-pronged war against the Necromancers, but they did not account for what lengths that the Black Sun would go to. Firstly, the Necromancers created Sirbinthum, a foundary for the earth magi to create giant stone serpents to decimate the land that the Dysmagi claimed. However, the Dysmagi attacked it, encircling it and beginning to siege it with their sacred magic and Undead support. In response, the Necromancers and magi retreated to the isle of Al'Mawt and then unleashed the Atisae ritual in 185 BFNE. They channeled potent necrotic energy through the old magics that were created by the original Loa Undead, blighting the entire region. A large number of Dysmagi died instantly, with many more becoming poisoned and their flesh rotting off their still living bodies. The necrotic energy eradicated the native plant life of the region. This act nearly singlehandedly sundered the rebellion instantly, decimating the Dysmagi forces who had to retreat to Alhayaa so as to avoid dying. The Undead remained within the now-desertified Atisae, able to survive within the necrotic energies.

For the next 40 years, the Undead and the Dysmagi existed within a tenous peace, almost entirely maintained by their mutual enemy of the Necromancers of Al'Mawt. The Necromancers had barricaded themselves within a fortress on the isle, controlling the entire island through potent magics. They were no longer composed of other magi, as the necrotic energies within the Al'Mawt proved lethal to those that were not practiced with necromancy. Having constructed a replacement obelisk object of power, they elected a new Arch, who also took the name Lich. The Dysmagi were unable to lay siege as the Atisae's necrotic rot would fell them even through the sacred magic that they had begun to practice, while the Undead would become controlled once more if they approached. As such, only small sporadic clashes occured when the Necromancers sent their controlled Undead to Al'hayaa to try to fell the Serafs that ruled it or attempted to control the Undead within the Atisae.

A small group of Necromancers, not like how the cards were playing, established contact with Kritanta through necromantic rituals. Not willing to simply fall and be sent to the Forest for their crimes, they offered Kritanta a deal. They would work for her, tracking down the other necromancers and assisting with killing undead, freeing souls, and sending souls to the Isles in exchange for not being sent to the Forest for their crime. Kritanta considered this, and agreed. The Forest existed as a place to draw power from people's fear of those sent there as well as the residents of it. These were minor criminals, not particularily known and the benefit of getting the souls early would be far better. It also allowed her to rely on intelligent agents instead of simple Brutix. As such, the Reapers were established, formed by traitorous necromancers.

The Serafs established a strong rulership over Al'daj, establishing a theocracy. Felyunism became the state religion, with all magics that didn't draw from Felyun being forbidden. The people were strong and zealous, devoted to their church and banner. The impacts of the Atisae corruption forced a great focus upon the public health, which jump-started the beginning of Al'daj's impressive healthcare system. However, some victims of the corruption were unsalvageable, even after being treated with the most potent sacred magic. Deemed dangerous and a potential for contamination, they were banished back into the Atisae to die, however they did not. They returned, the sacred magic within them having adapted to the corruption and being able to keep it at bay, allowing them to survive within the desert. In some cases, the destruction of the corruption by the sacred magic even released mana into the body, empowering it beyond superhuman. These victims suffered great pain, but the Serafs saw a way forward. They founded the Shahid, the martyrs of Al'daj. The Shahid was composed of willing volunteers, some Serafs and paladins, some regular citizens, all driven by their faith and desire to purge evil. Infused with the sands of the Atisae and empowered through sacred rituals, the Shahid became mighty warriors of Al'daj, and the Seraf's key to purging the Necromancers. The Serafs established a plan with the Undead, and in 142 BFNE, they struck.

The Undead, simultaneously, had spent the 40 years re-establishing their existence. Their culture shifted from one of non-violence to one of self-defense, of retaliation, and of secrecy. They resettled Maqbara and began to work on counters to Necromancy. While the magic was invented by a god and based upon magic stolen from Fae, it was similar to their own mental magic in how it maintained a connection to allow for the control. As such, instead of targeting the actual source of the control or how it was targeted, they began to develop a mental magic technique to break the connection. After years of study and development, as well as having to fend off the Reapers, the Undead established the Clean Mind spell. Painful to use, it floods the caster's external spirit with polarization neutralizing magic, forcibly snapping the connection. This causes damage to the caster and a powerful psychic shock to the person that established the connection as the mana rebounds. The cast time was neglible and incredible simple to use once known, allowing the Undead to use it to snap their connection the moment it is made, as long as the necromancer isn't aware of it.

Together, the Undead and the Shahid struck against the Al'Mawt. The Clean Mind spell's psychic backlash caused major damage to the minds of the necromancers within, sundering the defenses and allowing the Shahid to breach. The battle was brutal and bloody as the Necromancers had crafted abominations and other necrotic creatures to protect themselves, but following those falling they had no way of defending themselves and began to be butchered by the Shahid. However, the Arch Lich was not one to go down without a fight. Trapping the remaining necromancers in the ritual hall of the fortress in the ploy of making a last stand, she sacrificed them all and used her necromantic might to utilize the passage of the spirits to the Forest to tear a gaping wound within reality to the Forest in an attempt to draw forth all the fallen necromancers and magi of the Black Sun. She was not met with that. Instead, she was met with Death Herself. Her domain had been breached by the arrogance of man, and she was not one lightly spurned. She consumed the soul of the Arch Lich, denying it even the possibility of recovery. She sent through her Reapers to finish the job and closed the hole to the forest, but the fabric of reality was still decimated there, leaving a permanent weak point into the Forest. With the Reapers arrival, the Shahid felled the last of the abominations. Then, they turned on the Undead. Defending their allies, the Shahid helped the Undead evacuate and fought against the Reapers. Needing unity, the Serafs declared the foundation of the Holy Serafdom of Felyun while the Undead reformed the Abscondita, entering an uneasy alliance.

### The Holy Serafdom of Felyun (148 BFNE- 155 AFNE)

The Holy Serafdom of Felyun was ruled by the Serafs, the original ten survivors of the battle in Al'daj to strike down the first Archlich. They established their control as those in charge, placing themselves in the head of the oligarchy. They established the position of the Ras Shahid to rule the military and the Shahid and that of the Kahin, the head of the church of Felyun. While the Shahid was tasked with finding a way to undo the Atisae's curse, the Kahin was focused on the education of sacred magic within Al'daj to those lucky few that were not fully Dysmagi. Those that were able to learn the power and draw the sacred magic from Felyun were known as the Musaed, becoming the priest class of Al'daj and able to support their communities through the usage of sacred magics. The Holy Serafdom spread across the isle of Alhayaa, destroying the old palaces of the Black Sun and rebuilding towns in their place. They reconstructed their ancestral lands from the wreckage and spread their faith through the island.

Simultaneously, the Shahid advanced their understanding of the Atisae with the help of the Undead and their new leader, Sumir'por'cen, a Nightborne Undead who had taken power following the freeing of the Undead from the Black Sun. They found that the Atisae sand could be purified under extremely focused sacred energy through experimentation with the Nightborne's lanterns and lens. Furthermore, they found that the sands could be resisted even stronger by the method that makes the Shahid through a more precise application of sacred magic and implants into the body, creating the Amin to manage this part of the work, for those that sign up to experimented upon tend to not be the smartest individuals. With the assistance of the newly founded Amin, the Shahid also discovered that the Atisae sand can be molten into metal, creating a metal that is intensely necrotic. Usage of it can cause necrosis within individuals but those that are hit by it have their channels permanently severed. The creation of it was kept a secret and it was forbidden by the Serafs, but it began to be utilized for the Shahid's arms in secret.

The Undead, in the mean-time, were still being targeted by the Reapers and as such, amassed within the Maqbara under the leadership of Sumir'Por'Cen. She focused heavily upon the defending of the Undead within Maqbara and evacuation of Undead to Maqbara, but also on utilizing retaliatory strikes upon the Reapers, utilizing hit and run tactics. She formed the Cabal, an organization of skilled Undead that were hand-picked to be able to respond to threats to Undead and handle it, whether by violence or evacuation.

## Religion

Felyunism (Amun as Felyun, a god of life, justice, vengeance, and punishment) is the dominant religion by far and because of this and Sacred magics general undead properties, a priest class exists, who are the only ones that are allowed to use magic. They are treated as both villians and heroes, sacrificing themselves to the evils of the mage but being able to provide vital communion with Felyun and have recently become even more accepted into the communities following the Eldritch invasion. Because of the massive presence of sacred magic, Al'dajians actually have some of the best quality of life around, especially in regard to healthcare.

## Government

Al'daj is a militaristic theocracy, ruled by the leader of the Shahid (meaning Martyrs in Al'dajian) and the head of the Felyun church. The current leader of the Shahid, the Ras Shadid, is Ahma Samr while the Kahin, the head of the church is Jas Ahsamur.

## Locations

### Alhayaa

* "life" in Dajian, named so following the overthrowing of the Dead. A lush jungle isle, it is heavily used for fruit growing which, along with fish and the chicken that is only found natively here makes a massive portion of their diet. The vast majority of the isle is settled by the Al'dajians and has been warded and seeded to kill any Undead that step foot upon it, as well as cause severe pain to non-Felyun mages.
* Al'daj- "The Chicken" in Dajian, named so because it is where they first encountered the chicken and it became a massive export and food source for the necromancers and the Dysmagi following, it is the largest city in Al'daj and contains most of the population.
* Shamal-"North", a port town on the north of Alhayaa, it is the second largest city, but smaller by magnitudes. It serves as a trade hub due to being closer to the ocean.
* Janub- "South", an old Necromantic temple that had been converted and is now used as a holy site by Felyunists as it is claimed that Felyun himself struck down the necromancer's gods there. It is also used to train the Felyunist priests

### Atisae

* "Expanse", the massive and vast inhospitable desert of Al'daj, with incredible heats and nearly no rainfalls or water, this area is one of the most dangerous on earth for living beings, the undead took easily to it however and it is now littered in the ruins of their towns. The sheer amount of undead that used to reside here however has had a lasting impact on the sands: no plants are able to grow, and many creatures that die here become revived as undead. The sands themselves are toxic to be around for extended periods of time, able to cause necrosis. However, if fused into metals, they can cause the metal to have necrotic effects as well as cut off the mana flow of mages in the area struck by it permanently, the metal has become known as farigh (void) . Use of these tools does cause immense necrosis and has led to the creation of a warrior class known as the Shahid, who are trained with the Felyunist priests and infused with Sacred magic to allow them to utilize the weapons. Many wear bandages to cover their decaying flesh and live lives of constant pain but great glory as they are seen as heroes.
* Sirbinthum-"Serpenthome", during the uprising, in an attempt to pacify the Undead, the necromancers created massive earth serpent elementals. This had a profound effect on the uprising and wiped out many of the Undead towns but the necromancers lost control and now the serpents roam the area, constantly rebuilding themselves and falling apart.
* Maqbara-"Necropolis", the largest city of the Abscondita, it towered both above the sands of Atisae and below, housing over a hundred thousand undead at many points in time. While the Necromancers were in power, it was largely abandoned. During the Uprising, it was used by the Abscondita as a base of operations against the Undead and following the Division, it became their capital once again. It has been abandoned following the Second Resurgence and now lies a haunted and cursed place. Rumors do tell of undead still living within, rumors that are true now as an undead community has moved back in. The Al'dajians are not happy about it and the city has been under siege by the Shahid ever since.
* Almawt-"Death", so named due to the intense concentration of necromantic energy surrounding the island which can kill in under an hour if not properly prepared, and can cause immense necrosis in minutes. This island was the final bastion of the Necromancers during the uprising, and in a last ditch effort, the Necromancers tore a hole directly into the Forest to attempt to summon aid. This did not go to plan, and the Reapers put an end to it quickly but the damage was done. The membrane of reality is weakened here immensely and the isle is permanently surrounded in a whirlwind of necrotic energy. Even Undead and non-living creatures cannot survive here as the energies will simply pull them asunder and send them into the Forest. Kritanta has a squad of Reapers watching Almawt, but cannot station them there for the aforementioned reason.

### Jidar Felyun

* "Felyun's Wall", the massive mesas surrounding the desert as known as Felyun's wall for the fact that they served as a way to prevent the Undead from escaping the Atisae easily and spreading their perceived foulness, allowing the Reapers and Shahid to crush them. To this day, the phrase: "La yazal jidar Felyun qayiman" (Felyun's Wall still stands) is used as a blessing and prayer of good luck by the Al'dajians.
* Sakhrat Allisi-"Thief's Rock", a secret bazaar of magical goods located in the reaches of Felyun's Wall, Sakhrat Allisi offers all that a nobleman with too much money might need in Al'daj. They also sell farigh to non Shahid's, which is highly illegal in Al'daj as its method of creation is guarded quite heavily. It has escaped the eyes of the Shahid due to the illusion magics placed upon it.
* Tamrirat Alharb-"War Pass", the largest pass through the Jidar Felyun is at Tamrirat Alharb, which is a highly fortified location. Access to Al'daj is limited. Historically, the Tamrirat has been used by both the Abscondita and the Necromancers for the same purpose as it is now, making it one of the oldest continually used forts in Anagrian's history.
* Tahir Allayl- "Night Blessed", the third largest city in Al'daj, Tahir Allayl was settled after travelers, nearly dying from the Atisae, stumbled upon a valley where plants grew and the sand didn't try to kill them. This is because it sits upon a Nightborne laboratory that had a functioning purification machine for the sand, which activated every night and made the sand glow with blue light, removing any toxicity. As such, the valley is capable of being lived in. It also offered a clean passage into the wildlands, allowing those that resided there to harvest food from there. It now serves as a rest stop for any travelers through the Atisae as well as a border check-point for the Wild Lands.

## Economy

Al'daj is heavily isolated due to it's well-earned reputation of hating magi, but it does still participate in trade with countries that do not particularly care about morals, primarily the Talus Empire.

### Imports

Al'daj primarily imports metals, as the desert is lacking in these and the process to create farigh requires the layering of many metals over each other. A secondary import is slaves.

### Exports

Al'daj's greatest export is chicken, as Alhayaa is the only place on Anagrian where the avian is naturally found. They also heavily export fruits.