Kowloon

**Kowloon** is a civilization so ancient every building is built upon piles of older buildings.

"Perpetual Curse Of Plenty" stated that those who inhabited the region would have everything they'd ever need to be fruitful and multiply but could not leave the needy side of their spiritual benefactor. Now as the generations pile upon themselves storms of relief drop material goods from the skies that turn to ash when taken outside the sprawling city limits. Anachorians have everything they may want but they are trapped there forever cannibalizing the works of the past to build towards the assured imprisonment of their future.

The only thing that can escape this place is knowledge so foreign scholars come to Anachoria to raid the library ruins deep within the ever growing piles of enthralled humanity.

The Gnolls see this as a potential "renewable resource" forever farm of humans but some part of the "Curse Of Plenty" wards their boggle eyed ambitions away from the city's borders. Working through proxies to conquer Anachoria has proven nearly impossible with most hirelings instead finding a life of high density luxury preferable to serving the necromancer hyena-kin.

Know that the Anachorians themselves are physically able to leave their regenerating tumor of wealth but nothing given to them from the sky will survive passage beyond the borders of the overbuilt metropolis.

## History

**Anachonia** was founded a few centuries before the Battle of Empires to serve as the capital of Kowloon Province, a sprawling region over which the Khenomeric Empire had very limited control. This province, which includes much of what is now the Harmony Goddess’ Realm, the Bladegrass Habitat, Dia’Ul, and various territories in between, was sparsely inhabited at the time, home only to scattered tribes of fey/druidic peoples, villages and farms of Harmony Goddess followers, and the fortified cities, ranches, and villas of the Khenomeric colonists, most of whom were from the horse nomad cultures of the central Khenomeric Empire.

The governor and bureaucrats of Anachonia frequently struggled to maintain peace between the many competing factions in the area. Much of the cavalry and military leadership were drawn from the horse nomads, who saw themselves as the “True Khenomerics”. They frequently butted heads with the Green Order, and their allies among the druids and fey, most of whom were local and who saw the horse nomads as inferior. Then there were the followers of the Harmony Goddess, who had many followers among both the locals and horse nomads.

During the time of the Magoclergy, power in the province shifted heavily to a faction of the Green Order who embraced the darker aspects of magic, which led the capital of Kowloon to be moved to the Drouchont region instead. Now lacking its main purpose, Anachonia went into a long decline it never really recovered from.

Anachonia saw a brief revival of power with the fall of the Magoclergy. It embraced the purge of magic users wholeheartedly, and (on paper) regained its title as capital of Kowloon Province. But it lacked the military might to do anything about Drouchont, and soon found itself secretly offering its own citizens as sacrifices to the dark druids there. Anachonia’s strong anti-mage stance won it little support from the provinces to the west, and the rise of the Harmony Goddess’ Realm cut it off from its main allies along the east coast.

Now essentially cut off from anyone they considered “True Khenomerics”, and surrounded by rivals and enemies, the people of Anachonia fell into a long period of cultural melancholy. Several rival religious movements arose promising new prosperity; a pro-magic faction following Kagal, a pro-military faction following the Khenomeric horse nomad gods, and a slave revolt by recently arrived Ketlovian slaves.

A civil war broke out, which ruined the city of Anachonia, and scattered the Kagal followers. The Ketlovians looted everything of value and headed north to the smaller city of Gamah (now known as Lunatik Nine). The remaining inhabitants of Anachonia did their best to repair their city while sinking further into despair.

Help arrived from an unexpected source. Archangel Glottu, a senior servant of the god Uun, arrived in the city promising prosperity and might in return for worshipping Uun. After some back and forth religious violence, the city embraced Uun... only for him to disappear from this world a few years later.

Although Uun didn’t curse Anachonia like he did the Merfolk Empire, he did deliver on his promise in an unusual way. Massive stacks of food, raw material, and crafted goods would periodically appear at random within the city of Anachonia, though any attempt to remove said materials from the city would cause them to crumble to ash. Drawn by the free food and other goods, Anachonia quickly became vastly overcrowded, with building after building being stacked upon each other.

However, even this false prosperity did not last. The divine gifts became increasingly erratic, with sometimes far too much arriving, and other times nothing arriving for months, or even years. Anachonia continued to sink into anarchy and insignificance, and today the province of Kowloon and the city of Anachonia (or the city of Kowloon and the province of Anachonia, no one cares enough anymore to remember which is which) has been reduced to a small rump state that no one else is interested in claiming.

## Government

Anachonia no longer has a central government. When word gets around that goods are magically being produced within the city walls, slackers and lowlifes from around the northeast flood into the city. As resources start drying up, gangs and militias form to squabble over what is left. Inevitably, resources dry up to the point that the surviving individuals leave, and the city becomes empty except for hopeful scavengers based out of nearby villages and farms.

## Economy

Anachonia was once a large, prosperous city before Uun’s blessing, and during certain periods since then it became even wealthier, but for the past few centuries Anachonia has been largely abandoned except when the occasional dump of divinely created resources creates a “gold rush” of anyone seeking to get free food.

The surrounding rural area is hilly scrub land not particularly well suited for agriculture, though there are some poor farms, villages, and nomadic sheep herders anyways.

## Foreign Relations

Most nations essentially ignore Anachonia. To the west are impassible mountains, to the east is dense magic jungle, and to the south are the forbidden zones of Thornwood and the Sealed Grove.

The only nation Anachonia has any regular contact with is Lunatik Nine, who are just as poor as they are, but who swarm into Anachonia in large numbers anytime divinely created stuff is appearing. Although they know they can’t take it with them when they leave, free food is always appreciated, and the other gifts provide something to fight over until the lack of food drives them away.

Anachonia is of mild interest to some scholars who think it contains lost secrets of the Khenomeric Empire and/or the Uun Faith. Agents of Tarot, the Astromancers, Leng, Elanxa, the Gnoll Empire, and Biblion have all been known to visit on occasion, though so far there have been no major finds.

## Geography

The region around Anachonia is underused hilly grassland with lots of scrub and some small forests.

The city itself is more of interest. A large walled city, its original components are mostly done in the style of the South Khenomerics, who favored blocky but elaborate buildings. During several subsequent waves of growth though, the quality of the architecture dropped significantly, as builders used wood, plaster, and tiles to build thousands of new homes in tight spaces, often building them directly on top of or on the sides of older buildings.

## Demographics

Most of the population is human. They are mostly descended from horse nomad peoples from the centre of the old Khenomeric Empire, but some are local, and others are from Tarot (though essentially identical to the locals). A few are Ketlovians from Lunatik 9 (now calling themselves “Khenomeri”), but they only show up when divine gifts are appearing in the city.

## Religion

Despite the fickleness of Uun’s gift, most inhabitants continue to worship him, though their religion is primitive as it was only barely forming when Uun disappeared.

## Military

Anachonia doesn’t have a military, though there are rural militias, and when things start falling apart in Anachonia itself, gangs inevitably form to fight over the remaining resources.