The Cadaverous Earth

[Steerpike]

I sort of picture the Cadaverous Earth's relation to technology a bit like that in Warhammer 40000 - most of the more advanced stuff is quite ancient, and no one really understands how it works anymore, but they use it nontheless.

I'd also imagine there have been various dark ages where a lot of knowledge was lost, and a lot of the history of invention is actually a history of rediscovery.  A relatively recent invention of this sort might be the daguerreotype; photography might well have existed in a more complex form in the past but got forgotten/destroyed as a technology, and only fairly recently did someone start playing with silver, mercury, and light.  Maybe they unearthed some old blueprints or descriptions and decided to build a prototpye from there.

Honestly though, a lot of the advancement/progress would probably be in the arcane rather than the scientific arts.

[Steerpike]

[ooc]Kindling asked me awhile ago about war in CE.  Here's a little writeup of recent history

EDIT: TMG, I realized that it's just possible that Kaius fought in the Northern Uprising.  I'll leave that to you to decide, however - not sure how old Kaius actually is.  Late twenties?  Mid-thirties?[/ooc]
War

War has ravaged the earth for countless centuries: innumerable conflicts of every conceivable scale and character have left the world scarred, littered with bodies and ancient weapons, reducing cities to empty ruins.  In recent years, however, war has dwindled and all but disappeared: the Twilight Cities are few in number and rarely find war with their neighbours worth the enormous economic costs.  Still, a number of small wars have been fought in recent memory.

Fifteen years ago, a group of noblemen in the Northern Baronies declared their independence from Somnambulon and mobilized armies to actively free themselves from the yoke of the Revenants.  The rebellion spread quickly and eventually two thirds of the Baronies stood against the armies of the Lords and Ladies.  The so-called Northern Uprising was brutally put down by the loyalist bannermen of Somnambulon, supplemented by small, elite units of Insomnolent Guardsmen and necromechanoid detachments, as well as vast numbers of zombies.  After each battle the Revenants would raise the dead, swelling their own ranks; while zombies make poor fighters, they were employed principally as meat-shields surrounding artillery emplacements, taking the brunt of rebel cavalry charges while the mortars, cannons, and rotary guns did the real damage.  Eventually the rebel Barons were forced to hide in their castles, where Whispers '" the highly trained espionage agents of Somnambulon '" inevitably assassinated them.  After the key leaders of the Uprising were eliminated the remaining Barons again bent the knee.  Many of them would subsequently become Awakeners, members of the underground resistance against the Revenants' rule.

More recent still (five years ago) was the proxy war fought by Skein and Crepuscle over control of key territories on and around the Radula and Sinew Rivers, with particular hotspots around the mouth of the Sinew.  Both city states were hesitant to commit their own forces to open war or to directly attack their rival: thus, the so-called Adumbral War was fought principally by mercenaries.  The merchant princes of Crepuscle hired the infamous Pale Legion, a large company of professional soldiers renowned for their bone armour (reputedly made from the remains of the Legion's fallen foes) and their extreme brutality; this force was supplemented by a number of other companies, including the all-grave-spawn force known as the Dead Men, the Company of the Beast (or "The 616"), led by the demon-possessed warrior-poet Phenex Viletongue (said to be the bastard son of a magister, disowned by his family), and the cabal of mercenary magi called the Order of the Mandrake.  Skein hired several corsair clans (giving them naval dominance) as well as the Sons of the Wolf '" a band of northerners, principally led by landless second-and-third sons of the Northern Barons '" and the fleshcrafted "cavalry" called the Centaurs (their lower bodies replaced with those of horses).  Though the Adumbral War consisted of dozens of skirmishes and bloody encounters, a single decisive battle brought Crepuscle victory.  A conjured storm wrought by the weather-witches of the Order of the Mandrake scattered and destroyed a great deal of the corsair fleet, preventing them from reinforcing ground armies besieging a key port town being held by the Pale Legion.  The Legion held off until the arrival of the Dead Men, who broke the siege and crippled the forces of Skein.

Though smaller in scale than either the Northern Uprising or the Adumbral War, the Branded Crusade nonetheless constitutes one of the larger military campaigns waged in the last few decades, some twenty years before the present day.  The Crusade was an attempt on the part of Marainein to conquer Erebh and forcibly convert its citizens to the worship of Yzsch.  Lacking a sizeable army, the warlock-priests declared that the Wasting God had spoken to them and demanded that true believers take up arms in His name and bring His pestilential light to all heathens.  A volunteer army of fanatics quickly formed, a rabble of crazed zealots, poorly trained and equipped, who, to signify their devotion, branded themselves from head to foot with sacred scriptures.  Eager to display their mutilated skins, the Branded Crusaders scorned armour, insisting that they would be protected by divine power.  Consequently the vast bulk of the Crusaders were killed by Erebh's Globadiers' flesh-melters and naphtha-throwers.   Hundreds of others died of infected brands or went mad from ghostgrass exposure while crossing the Mewling Moors.  Those few who actually made it into the city were slaughtered by the Homuncular Guardians (the "Golem Guard"), the alchemical protectors of Erebh.  Not discouraged by this resounding defeat, two more Crusades set out for Lophius and Macellaria.  Those who did not die of infection this time around did so of heat stroke or thirst in the Firesong Marches or of malaria and roaming leechkin in the southern swamps.  The wretched handful who reached Macellaria attempted to storm the Eel's Gate but were devoured by the Watchdog; after it had eaten its fill the Black Arrows shot down the remaining dregs, some of whom can still be seen as militia servitors.  Even fewer made it to Lophius, but none crossed the Brooding Bridge alive.

[TheMeanestGuest]

Kaius is 29, so that would be entirely possible, and is in fact very likely.

[Steerpike]

Hmm, he would have been 14, so he might not have been on the front lines, but he could definitely have seen combat and had other duties. I'd imagine the Insomnolent are combat-ready by early adolescence, though.

[TheMeanestGuest]

Well, I was thinking given his age he'd probably be in more of an auxiliary role, yes.

[Steerpike]

Macellarian Days of the Week

Scabday
Huskday
Scytheday
Bruiseday
Boneday (traditional payday)
Tombday
Flayday (traditional day of worship)

EDIT: Changed the name of Fangday to Scytheday...

[LordVreeg]

Macellarian Days of the Week

Scabday
Huskday
Fangday
Bruiseday
Boneday (traditional payday)
Tombday
Flayday (traditional day of worship)

This is one of things that becomes crucial to the game and immersion.  Startiong to think in this and having the PCs think this way.

[Steerpike]

Yeah, for sure.  I'd started using dates and days like this here and there already but hadn't rounded out the week, so I thought it was about time to.

[Superfluous Crow]

Interesting to see some history. Do the Twilight Cities still count the years? You mention that some of these events took place x years ago, so I assume they do. Certainly there must still be a few people in the wretched world who are interested in the past. So what year are we in? And when was year zero in their system?

[Ghostman]

Would it even make sense for all the cities to share a common system of reckoning? It seems to me that they'd be more likely to each be counting years from different events.

[Superfluous Crow]

Indeed, but I still wonder what events they would each consider Year 0.

[LD]

Hm... the war writeup reminds me a lot of the Fallout world... At the beginning I was thinking "War... War never changes"... then I saw the Centaurs.

Since all the twilight cities are independent; it begs the question; has one ever conquered another (in the past 500 years?) It seems like a long series of failures... but like Greek city states, have any of them exerted extended influence over another for a time as vassals or close allies?

Also in filling in the gaps between cities; what is the countryside like in some areas-- I may just be forgetting, but I recall that most of the land is wasteland, but it might be interesting to hear how the farmers protect themselves in supplying the cities. Some cities must grow things inside the walls, but considering how large they are and how they are centers of trade, many cities must have satellites.

[Steerpike]

Wow, a lot of questions!  Great responses.

I figured the most common calender reckoning would be the fall of the cestoid Imperium.  I've never set a formal date for that, but I imagined it to be in relatively recent memory compared to the more distant disasters.  I'll prepare a formal time-line shortly with some more precise dates.  However, I imagine a lot of people don't count the years.

For the farms/villages, the western regions outside the cities are much less savage than the wastelands, with the exceptions of the swamps and the Tallow Plains.  I do imagine a lot of rooftop gardens and the like, but also substantial hinterlands for many of the cities where crops are grown.  Those on rivers (Skein, Crepuscle, Somnambulon, Dolmen) or near the sea (Lophius, Marainein) would also have a lot of fish/seafood.

In regard to conquest, there haven't been any very recent ones, but in my still unfinished notes on Crepuscle (not yet posted) I had written that the city has been sacked and occupied a lot during its history, and in fact is built over a cestoid ruin which itself was built over an even older city.

EDIT: a search through old notes has turned up information I'd myself forgotten.  The current Aeon (the Festering, the Aeon of Putrefaction) began roughly four hundred years ago at the time of the Red Ravishing.  More precise dates to come.

[Steerpike]

Common Reckoning

The most widely used calendar is the so-called Common Reckoning (C.R.), which marks the beginning of each new Aeon as year 0.

Aeon of Dust (The Desiccation) '" many records of this time have been destroyed; the dates provided are approximations (at best) '" or, in some cases, educated guesses '" on the part of scholars

0 '" The Membrane Wars end

6030 '" The dementia epidemics of Moroi reach their peak

7650 '" The Pallid Decimation; the cestoid Imperium begins

9003 '" The cestoid Imperium falls

10450 '" The Red Ravishing begins

It is unclear and widely disputed what date of the Desiccation corresponds with year 0 of the Festering - estimations vary from 10452-10456.  During this time many cities fell entirely to the murderfolk, and those that remained were beset within and without for extended periods; most records were destroyed, for obvious reasons.

Aeon of Putrefaction (The Festering)

0 '" The Red Ravishing ends

42 '" Pandemics of the Sanguine Dissolution wrack the world

453 '" The Branded Crusade

457-458 '" The Northern Uprising

466-468 '" The Adumbral War

473 '" Present Day

[TheMeanestGuest]

I'm assuming the Northern Uprising is supposed to have 458 as its end date, and not 478. Just thought I should point that out!