Noelictus

Noelictus, also known as the Kingdom of Shade and unofficially the Kingdom of Undead, is a landlocked kingdom in the northwestern part of Terandria. Their coat of arms sigil consists of a scythe and crossbow.

Geography

Noelictus is a landlocked nation. Its neighbours are Ailendamus in the east, Samal in the north, Avel in the west, and Pheislant in the south.

Overview

Historically, Noelictus created tombs to inter their dead, and used them to infuse the land and skies with death magic. These vast tombs like the Tomb of Afiele exist in every province. This greatly improved their agriculture and turned Noelictus into one of Terandria's breadbaskets. The dead in the tombs will also rise in defense of the kingdom when unsealed and called upon by the lord of the land. These sacred resting places were themselves guarded by ghosts, and magically sealed such that not even Az'kerash could break in from the outside and animate the bodies within. Individuals over level 40 were guaranteed to rise as ghosts in the tombs. One ghost in each tomb was designated as Tomb Warden, and had the responsibility of waking up the other ghosts every century to instruct new ghosts in the tomb.

As a result of the concentrated death magic, the weather has been affected, with the skies of Noelictus being gray in color, while the land receives less than six hours of sunlight per day, down to as little as two hours in the winter. Nights are pitch black, with stars rarely seen and even the moons are often obscured. Due to the lack of sunlight, the inhabitants have a pale complexion, and few plants grow well in Noelictus besides those that have adapted by leeching colors. The grass is ashy green, the flowers have more muted colors, and the trees look thin and withered with dark leaves, and dark or bleached white bark. Black and white are the predominant colors in the land. More dangerously, the undead rise much faster, often becoming reanimated within minutes to an hour after death. The local wildlife has adapted to evade the undead, though migrating animals that do not can still cause problems. The undead are a much greater threat in Noelictus than in other areas, as the high concentration of death magic will make them upgrade to more dangerous undead if left alone, where in other nations they might linger for ages without changing much.

In recent times, the ghosts have been disappearing from the tombs, causing the bodies within to rise as highly dangerous undead. This problem became noticeable a thousand years ago and has forced the Hunter's Guild to cull the undead within the tombs before they break out, greatly taxing the organization. And they tried to keep the crisis a secret for fear of other nations invading or destroying Noelictus to neutralize the undead threat before it spilled out to the rest of the continent. A previous monarch two generations back made a deal with Belavierr to manage the crisis, granting her the right to run her Helpful Servants business in Neolictus and drain the emotions out of the Hunters during their indulgences in exchange for cloth puppets to help suppress the Royal Tomb in Menorome. The pact stipulates that less than a thousand people may know about the situation, or else the entire royal family would be killed, activating the failsafe that would open all the tombs, unleashing all of the undead at once. Thus, knowledge of the crisis was restricted to the royal family, the Veteran Hunters, and the Guildmaster of Menorome.

Culture

The lives of the inhabitants of Noelictus are deeply influenced by the constant threat of the undead. It is forbidden to kill animals on a whim, with fresh kills required to be immediately decapitated. Almost every citizen are raised to be able to kill a basic zombie, with children even being capable of killing small undead such as rabbits or squirrels. When hunting, each kill must be accounted for, and even winged quarries must be tracked down to ensure they are properly killed. Every settlement has walls surrounding them, and buildings are built to be sturdy, with thick shutters, barred windows and shuttered chimneys, to resist the attacks of Ghouls. Doors and shutters are always closed and lock. People living in the same abode will sleep in separate rooms, isolating themselves in case one of them died during the night, for the protection of others. Farm animals are also isolated in separate cages when they sleep, and the farms have much higher fences. In the event of undead outbreaks, the people barricade themselves inside until the threat passes or is dealt with. Hospitality is always offered to travellers without shelter, as nights are more dangerous with the threat of roaming undead.

Inhabitants of Noelictus are a reserved people. They dress predominantly in black and white, and they are a somber people in attitude. Villagers like working to the tune of music, and every village will have at least one dedicated musician for the task. If people don't like a performance, instead of jeering they stay silent, the same as if it was simply acceptable. And if they enjoyed a performance, they'll merely applaud.

Regions in Noelictus usually have the same name as the ruling noble house, indicating that the lineage had ruled since the region's founding. Orphans also take the name of their home region as a surname.

Government

Noelictus is ruled by a parliamentary monarchy. The aristocracy is called the Court of Dusks, and its members vote in the Landsreight Parliament. Each noble has voting power corresponding with their region's size and wether or not it had a tomb. Local nobles have the additional class of [Deathkeeper], and have the duty of watching over Noelictus' honored dead and destroying undead outbreaks.

Noelictus used to be a Necrocracy, but the practice ended due to the dead proving to be poor rulers. In modern times, it is considered a politically reclusive kingdom, and doesn't usually instigate wars.

Economy

Noelictus is generally a poor kingdom. Its main source of revenue is its agriculture and export of food, such as to Deríthal-Vel. Due to its unique qualities, it is a poor environment for growing cash crops like Sage's Grass.

Transportation

A unique feature of Noelictus is the Nighttrain. It is a public serpentine vehicle of stone, metal and magic that floats off of the ground and travels through tunnels in the land dubbed the Underroads. It has eight cars, each able to hold 300 passengers. However it can only take passengers, as it is too small to ship goods. There used to be multiple Nighttrains, but several tunnels have since collapsed and only one remains. The remaining Nighttrain still connects to Samal, Avel, and Levicus.

Not all roads in Noelictus are paved.

Military Strength

Noelictus is famous for its Hunter's Guild, which has extensive knowledge of monster types, so much that Humans all over the world would first ask them for information rather than use local sources. The Guild has specialisations like [Undead Hunters], [Demon Hunters], [Vampire Hunters], and [Witch Hunters].

They also possess siege weapons called Bloodbeast Slayers, which look like ballistae that launch giant wooden stakes. They were likely used to kill great monsters turned into Vampires in ages past.

Noelictus' army favours crossbows over bows. Noelictus' guards regularly check for undead and are equipped with [Detect Death] stones. Noelictus' soldiers wear white armor, made of painted steel.

Knight Orders

Noelictus had almost done away with its [Knights], as the Hunter's Guild has largely replaced them. There are currently no knight orders in Noelictus.

The Order of the Shadowed Blooms was based on Noelictus but is now defunct. It was active around 6211 of H.E.F. (Half-Elven Fall), though it was in decline even then, and it was finally destroyed during the Creler Wars.

The Order of Teitvetree, also extinct, was a founding order of Noelictus, though it did not originate from Terandria.

Produce and Livestock

• Ashwheat
• Black Flour
• black oranges
• Dark Ale
• Duskcarrot
• Gloomwren
• Hourglass Barley
• Night Cabbage
• Nightshade
• Shadowcalf
  • Dark grey milk, butter and cheese
• Snowcorn
• Veil Tomatoes

Locations

Provinces:

• Appoheid
• Fiskren
• Haven
• Ladel
• Ovela
• Sovetn

Counties:

• Afiele (within Ovela)

Cities:

• Adreissel (in Afiele)
• Kokrel
• Laicremis (in Fiskren)
• Menorome - Capital
• Peterweist
• Vrest

Villages:

• Attermast
• Honerv
• Landsmecht
• Qet (Destroyed)
• Shorehaven

Areas:

• Ashheart
• Lightless Canyons
• Rodeleic's Blood - river
• Seltreskie Forest - royal forest of the capital
• Vitorth River

Bordering Kingdoms:

• Levicus

Notable Inhabitants

• Dalius Bedornial - Ghost, Gravewarden of Afiele
• Fallien Ovela - Earl of the Evening of Ovela (Deceased?)
• Greina - [Duchess]
• Grishen Ladel - [Duchess]
• Haeight - Hunter
• Kadane - Princess
• Lantal Afiele - [Lord] of Afiele (Deceased)
• Nicte Allorev - [King]
• Piral Ovela - Countess of the Morning of Ovela (Deceased?)
• Piortesenzth - Ancient Hunter
• Violetta Geishart - [Cellist]

Trivia

• Cassielle, a former member of Griffon Hunt, is a member of the Hunters' Guild.
• Duchess Greina of Noelictus is one of the most eligible bachelorettes of Terandria.
• The Artien Family claims to have its roots in Noelictus, when it was recently founded (9,000 years in the past). As a noble house, they have a monster-hunting theme like the Byres Family. The House of El also originated from Noelictus, and still maintains ties in the form of weapons trade.
• Local foxes have grey pelts to camouflage with the flora.
• Midnight Runuff is a kind of beer from Noelictus.
• Noelictus has one Named Adventurer.
• There used to be a glowing light in the center of Noelictus that kept away monsters.
• Noelictus is one of the original nations of the Hundred Heroes.
• Noelictus has traditionally been allied with Avel and Samal.