Elysium

“I am Gandrius Yü, and I’m here to ask you a question: Do you understand what it is to be immortal?”

“We all live with memories. We all remember our past lives, the pain of living, the pain of dying and the pain of rebirth.”

The Empire of Elysium

Brief Summery The Revenants of Elysium prefer the term, ‘Returned’ or the ‘gifted’ and are lead by the Risen Emperor Galandrius Yü, once a great lord of the Alfar who died in service of the Orthodoxy during the necromantic wars and was returned to the world to continue his service. Gifted some of the ruined lands of Lemuria where they could live out there days, in the past few decades they have rallied as the Empire of Elysium, the true home of all the immortal risen.

History

The Necromantic wars shattered Lemuria and as the dead piled up, so did the Returned. With the dead lining the streets of cities and villages, drastic actions were taken by the Alliance of Light. The Revenants, or Returned as they call themselves were the result of one such act of desperation. The Priests of Monad returned the souls of the departed to their lifeless bodies, not merely as shambling warriors, or mindless skeletons, but as thinking empathic creatures. Most were willing soldiers, who had fallen in battle and were more than willing to once again take up the banner against the hordes of necromancers who threatened their homelands. The mental stresses placed upon such beings were overlooked during the desperate years of the war, by both mortal leaders and the Returned themselves.

With the culmination of the war and victory for the alliance of light, they were left the question of hundreds of thousands of undead warriors, most of whom were fully possessed of their faculities and well aware of themselves. Most felt they were due recompense, for not only had they died in service of Monad, they had served him in death. While mortals returned to their lands and loved ones, Returned were mistrusted and in some cases, despised or thought of merely as tools. Many advocated their destruction, some returned did indeed long for the peace of death again, wondering what afterlife they had been robbed of, while others were tormented but in no rush to meet the unknown, their sense of self-preservation still existent within their bones.

This question of the returned became a pressing concern, the Revenant legions were powerful and well armed, while usually placed under a mortal leader, most were loyal to the Revenant seconds and nearly all felt they were due recompense for their service.

One man was notable among the Revenants, Lord Galandrius Xhi a Returned Alfar noble. He spoke with a passion that the Revenants had been indeed recompensed for dying in service to monad, with eternal life on Arcana. But he also spoke of recompense for serving in death the Alliance of Light, for they had no homes and the worth of their names was a dubious question.

The question would dominate several councils, the lands of Lemuria were devoid of life in many parts, with few left to return and it was resolved to grand some portion of these lands to the Returned, though ultimately the land was usually that which the living would have no wish to return to themselves. This did not bother them overly, they would create for themselves a new nation and a new culture in whatever lands would take them.

The charmastic Alfar, who had lead one of the armies of Light as a mortal, and served as a second in a Revenant army in death Lord Galandrius Xhi took charge of several legions of Returned with the intention of settling one of the lands offered to them by the Pope. The lands were rumoured to be haunted, but what kind of ghost would haunt the dead? Here In the cursed forests of a fallen land, the Empire of Elysium would be forged, beneath it’s earth tunnels, caverns and passages would be found, much like the Dokkar embraced and here the Returned would carve out their existence, in catherdral sized tombs and chambers befitting their existence as the living dead.

Overview

The Returned are range from appearing like pale humans, to those with skin like leather to skeletons devoid of any flesh at all. The sun is not kind to the flesh of the dead, even if it is magically embalmed. The Returned of Elysium, fortunate enough to find an entrance into the Underdark at the site of a volcanic lake has have sank into the earth, living as the truly dead without sunlight.

Here they dwell in great sepulchers or catacombs and crypts carved from the underdark, entire labyrinths and great caverns filled with the Returned. Some belong to the truly dead, for the Returned are not the first here and are left alone, others are empty and ready to house new residents, not as quiet as the previous occupants though just as lifeless.

While the returned can appreciate the joy of music, the beauty of art, the comfort of a warm bed is no longer something they aspire to. Thus their halls have become vessels for art and splender, their beds are elaborate stone burial chambers celebrating their mortal lives. Some have taken to a particularly excessive brand of debauchery, velvet cushioned coffins they cannot actually appreciate, mirrors in which to inspect their stolen flesh and cups of wine enchanted so that even the dead may taste it.

While they never tire, Revenants usually must enter a period of torpor, for hours, days, weeks or years in order to maintain sanity and meditate in order to restore the magical forces that animate their bodies.

The poorest of the realm reside in the communal pits, simple apartment blocks containing hundreds of simple stone coffins. As a mostly refugee people, the majority of the Returned have little to their name.

The Masquerade of Flesh

Many young man has laid with a lass met in the taverns of Alhime, only to discover in the morning light the lifeless pale body of a woman who does not sleep and does not breathe. For the ladies and lords of Elysium, appearances can be deceptive.

Elysium’s elite knows Alfar lords and ladies, Asgar nobles fallen in battle and all have a taste for the finer delights of existence and many have long since been reduced to animated skeletons, some take a yearning for earthly delights further, grinding down the bones of their face so that they may better fit on a costume of magically enchanted flesh and regal in an appearance of near vitality. In this state, they are able to partake in a semblance of living emotion, detached as it is.

The Masquerade of Metal

There are some who spurn the form of the flesh, they clad themselves in precious metals and gems, eyesockets stuffed with rubies, teeth of diamonds and breastplates of gold.

A Scholars Musings=

“The Empire of the Risen is a curious matter, both to modern scholars and those interested in the necromantic wars. Bordered by a river on one side and cursed forests on the other, access to the realm is seemingly only with permission. I was met at the river which had no bridges by several soldiers, gaunt figures with translucent flesh stretched over grey bones. I presented the letter given to me by the Lady Illisticha whom those paying attention will recall, was an Elysium noble I met in Allhime. Who was I had heard, touring the morgues for young and nubile departed in good condition. A gruesome affair, the unease of which I felt I kept to myself.

I found myself let across the river, in a aging ferry, the ferryman would not address me and looked idly across the waters and I soon realized we had entered a lake, known as Avernus. During the daytime such as it was, there was no activity, gothic villas dotted a landscape dominated by the curtain wall of the nearby Keep, which I assumed guarded the entrance into the catacombs Elysium was known for. Several military vessels floated quietly at the naval station, wispy sails giving the impression of ghost ships.

Domains

Avernus

The River Acheron feeds the lake of Avernus, the entrance into the realm of Elysium. Here lies a town active only at night, resembling a laberous collection of mausoleums enclosed by a grand curtain wall, watched over by a stone tower, resembling a sword buried pommel first into the earth.

• *Countryside, River
• *Town, keep
• *Production: 0 Food, 250 gold, 250 mana, 10 books
• *Draft: 5C,2N
Elysium

The Great Necropolis of Elysium resides with the wall of the eternal. It’s gothic spires stretch out towards the bioluminescent living crystals that carpet the ceiling of the vast cavern. Here, there is a bustle of a city not unlike one of the living, countless returned mingle in the great cosmopolitian spaces of the bustling capital. Outside the walls of the capital, grasses glow blue, interspersed with giant mushroom tree’s, fields that stretch into the darkness

• *Underhaven
• *Underhold, keep, Stockades, adamantium mine, adamantium
• *Production: -6 Food, 650 Gold and 1125 Mana, 500 adamantium
• *Draft: 4C,3N

• *Underdark Lightfield + Cursed Wilds
• *gold mine, gold mine + Ruined Wizards Tower
• *Production: 3 food, 600 gold, 125 mana
• *Draft: 3C

Erebus

• *Underdark Lightfield + Cursed Wilds
• *Gold mine, adamantium mine, Ruined Keep
• *Production: 3 food, 450 gold, 125 mana, 250 adam
• *Draft: 3C

90

• Domains: 6 br> • Population: 16C, 5N
• Food Consumption: 5
• Food production: 6
• Gold income: 1900
• Mana output: 1625
• Adamantium output: 750 Adamantium
• Book output: 40 books
• Military: 17500 (+10SP Signature)

7500

Military

Nobles

1x Risen Guard

Description: Revenant Alfar nobility, bound to personal service of the Risen Emperor, they wield much the same weapons they did in life, though they ride massive three headed dogs, with teeth the size of hands. They are almost as sneering and aloof as living Alfar, being immortal has none little to lessen their arrogant temperament. Occasionally, the Emperor himself may join their number.

Knights

Equipment

Sorcerous Adamantium Great Sword

Adamantium Longsword

Superheavy Adamantium Embodied Plate

Noble Magic

Cost

575 Gold, 250 Mana, 150 Adamantium, 50 gold, 20 Books (1200 Gold Equivalent)

Upkeep:

32 Gold, 15 Mana

Total Cost: 925
Total Upkeep: 32 Gold, 15 Mana

1x Cerberusi

Description: Three headed wolves

Rare Cavalry

Abilities

Absurdly Lethal

Celerity

Armour

Renegeration

Equipment

Buffer

Cost

40 Beasts, 50 Mana (450 Gold Equivalent)

Upkeep

16 Gold

Total Cost: 450
Total Upkeep: 20 Gold + 20 Mana