Necroa

'***Necroa'***

## **Introduction and Geography**

**Necroa is an area that was once simply an isolation zone to the west of Alvarez that, over time, became a standing country of its own, according to outsiders. This country is so closed off that the people within the mere five cities within the towering walls are, in most ways, related at some point down the line.**

**The entirety of Necroa is surrounded by high walls that tower over the cities within, warded by rune mages centuries before to keep the inhabitant creatures *in*. The only five cities within Necroa are situated equal distance from the walls and one another in strategic points, creating a perfect star when connected correctly. These cities are named, though the names are known only to those born into the country as outsiders that manage to make it through the walls *never* make it to the cities, no matter how prepared they think they might be.**

**The land itself is dark, little to no tree coverage and underbrush thick with briars that make travel outside of known pathways near-impossible. Because the region is mountainous, the terrain itself is jagged and rocky near the walls themselves, the boulders there making for hiding places that Xenos use as ambush zones for any people that try to either get *into* or *out of* Necroa. It's because of the intelligence of these beasts that the people of Necroa keep the factories within the cities running heavy and at almost all times to create a smog that casts the land into nearly full-time darkness, the only time they close these factories down being during the summer and winter solstices.**

## **Why the walls?**

**When Necroa was first established, it was formed as an isolation zone for creatures widely known as the Xenos, an almost alien species of beast that has several subspecies. Surrounding countries were at a loss of how to fully contain the beasts without causing an extinction, a group being selected as "wardens" based on their magical and professional skillsets to study the Xenos. The problem being, over time, the project was simply forgotten, the people within the walls of the Zone, as inhabitants call their land, simply counted as a loss when communication was lost after the fiftieth year. To keep the creatures in control, the wardens and scientists in the isolation zone were limited to certain magics; rune magic, Beastmaster Magic, Seith Magic, Necromancy, Water Magic, and Earth Magic.**

## **Hierarchy**

**Within the cities, the people of Necroa created their own hierarchy as time went on and it was clear they were simply forgotten by the outside world. The society quickly became a "keep what you kill" style where lower-leveled people could gain rank in the cities by simply killing off the person that held the position they wanted. It was because of this system that rune mages were quickly killed off in Necroa, as they were thought to be the "highest" of the possibilities for ranking and assassinations ran rampant in these early days. As of X792, the ruling faction within the cities is known as the Deep Dark, a family of Dark Seith, Necromancers, and Dark Beastmasters.**

## **Cities**

### **NECROPOLIS**

**The topmost "point" of the "star" is called, by inhabitants, Necropolis. This is the unofficial capitol of Necroa and the largest of the cities where the highest population lives as well as the main sector of the labs. These labs study not only the Xenos themselves, but how the people within Necroa have changed and adapted over the generations being isolated from the outside world.**

### **BRIARHAVEN**

**Briarhaven is the city to the east of Necropolis and north of Bloodsbane. This city is slightly maller than Necropolis itself and is the primary food center of the country. The food, processed in the factories within the walled-in city, consists mostly of Xenos and (ew...) Soylent Green. The people of Necroa have had to adapt to their environment and, with the lack of farmland availability, have had to turn to cannibalism in some limitations in order to survive.**

### **BLOODBANE**

**Bloodbane is the security sector of Necroa, where young Necroans are trained to fight against Xeno attacks and are tested to determine where they would best be placed when they come of age.**

### **CROSS GULLY**

**Cross Gully is the smallest city within Necroa. This city is where Necroans go for any medical concerns, connected to Necropolis to the west and Hell's Brook to the south. Pregnant women, newborns, and the sick are kept within this city with double the security of the other cities to repel any Xeno attacks.**

### **HELL'S BROOK**

**Hell's Brook is the city where young Necroans go for their coming of age ceremonies. These ceremonies happen once every three years, where the young men and women are brought from Bloodbane to prove their worth and are placed in their beginning positions, given their posts within a city chosen exclusively by the current ruling body.**

## **Coming of Age**

**The coming of age ceremonies happen once every three years and consist of Necroans aged sixteen to nineteen. At the beginning of these ceremonies, the "class" is given their task of surviving outside of the city walls for a period of one month. In this time, each participant is expected to prove they are able to protect the people in their assigned group, work as a team, and also simply to survive.**

**It is not uncommon for competing teams to simply sabotage rivals through any means necessary, including, but not limited to, hunting one another and killing competitors. This not only removes the possibility of these rivals having the chance to take a shot at a title given at the end of the ceremonies, but also proves the strength of those coming into the workforce.**

**For those that return to Hell's Brook, they are greeted with a lavish feast and a party in their honor before receiving their post orders, telling them which sector they'll live and work within for most of their lives. Along with these orders are marriage certificates, which the young adult has absolutely no choice in. More often than not, these marriages are to others within the same current rank as the teen has just received, whether from their same "graduating class" or to someone that has been widowed, but within ten years of age to the new graduate, meaning there is no further ranking gained through this part of the process. These marriages are simply to add to the strength of further generations, carefully selected so that the gene pool may receive the best possible outcomes. The only way out of these marriages is through death of the spouse and adultery is punishable by death.**

## **Xenos**

**Xenos are creatures with unknown origins that come in many different subspecies. They were originally running rampant through the western areas of Alvarez and beyond following the Holy Wars, leading some to believe they may be demonic in origins, further boosted by the fact that they very much resemble demons in their looks.**

### **HUGGERS**

**Huggers is the name given to the smaller, arachnoid subspecies of Xeno that receive their names due to the nature of their hunting. The Huggers are small, agile, and are not lethal on their own, but through their means of reproduction that involves them attaching to the face of their prey, forcing a single egg into the host that then feeds off of, and grows, within the stomach, emerging after three days of incubation through the chest cavity as a newborn "Burster" that kills the host.**

**There were cases reported in the cities, though, that some Necroans were gaining a resistance to these parasites. An anomaly within the blood caused the liver within these subjects to produce an enzyme that was released into the digestive tract that caused the egg parasite to go dormant and, at times, be digested and passed with little harm to the host.**

**It wasn't until a subject by the name of Jacobi Va'Landun was born in X771 that there were any cases of a total immunity to the eggs implanted by Huggers. Within this subject, it was discovered that his body, every single time an egg was introduced into the body, the liver secreted enough of this new enzyme to raise the body temperature and totally destroy the egg. Following this discovery, the subject was placed in containment and trials were performed in an attempt to isolate as much of the enzyme as possible through the liver and blood in an attempt to, hopefully, one day pass this genetic anomaly onto the entire population of Necroa.**