The Cadaverous Earth

[Steerpike]

Ha, thanks, typo.

[LD]

More diseases for you Steerpike;
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-204_162-10007019-2.html?tag=page;next
It's a gallery of photos.
General WARNING: Do not click on it if you do not want to be disgusted.

[Steerpike]

Very unsettling.

[sparkletwist]

Apparently the way "the old people network" thinks it can compete on the new medium of the internet is by stooping to the level of most of the internet... :P

[Weave]

More diseases for you Steerpike;
http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-204_162-10007019-2.html?tag=page;next
It's a gallery of photos.
General WARNING: Do not click on it if you do not want to be disgusted.

You know, it might just be my strange fascination/tolerance for fairly disturbing, umm, disfigurations, but the thing that got me the most were the pictures of the eyes being worked on at the end. I have some sort of mild phobia of things touching/stabbing my eyes to the point where I'm hesitant to walk through an area with low-lying, leafless branches pointing out at me.

[Steerpike]

[ooc]Nomadic came up with many aspects of the first one.  The second is something of an homage to Polycarp!'s Saffron Peril, mixed with a chestburster...[/ooc]
Mindgrub

A distant cousin of the ingurgitatrix, the creatures known as mindgrubs are one of the many biological weapons devised by the cestoids.  Unlike their gluttony-inducing killer-tapeworm kin, mindgrubs are subtle and subversive, entering not through the mouth but through the ear.  They proceed to burrow into their host's brain and erase the memories therein, sending out a mass of tendrils which colonize the creature's synapses and assert control.  This process destroys one eardrum and usually damages the optic nerve of one eye as well, meaning that mindgrub hosts are always deaf in one ear and often partially or fully blind in one eye.  At first few outward signs of the mindgrub are evident; over time the cranium of the host begins to swell and expand as the mindgrub grows.  This growth is lopsided, as a mindgrub takes up residence in only one lobe of the brain.

As the mindgrub matures it becomes increasingly intelligent, forming its personality from the tattered remnants of its host's mind and the world around it.  Originally, cestoid psychotheurges '" wielders of the mysterious mental power all but vanished after the fall of the Imperium '" controlled mindgrubs using some form of telepathic link; now no such psychic network exists, and the few remaining mindgrubs who finds hosts become solitary, sinister beings, often masquerading as normal individuals.  While originally intended as little more than remote receivers or psychic conduits for their cestoid controllers, present-day mindgrubs can develop their psychic abilities considerably.

Hellmould

A demoniac fungus, the organism known as Hellmould, or "Devil's Itch" was brought into the Cadaverous Earth by invaders during the Membrane Wars.  For most demons it was a minor nuisance: Hellkind had long ago developed resistances to its more advanced stages.  The fungus is highly communicable, however, so while its later forms no longer appeared in the Hells, the fungus itself was not eradicated completely.  The creatures of this plane, of course, lack the resistances of the demons.

Hellmould infection occurs when spores penetrate the skin and begin flourishing beneath (like most fungi, it thrives in warm and humid conditions).  Outwardly, this manifests as a slight crimson tinge to the skin, at first blotchy and light, later uniform and dark; it also itches intensely.  As the fungus spreads to its victim's brain it generates powerful aphrodisiac chemicals keyed to its host's metabolism.  Resultant amorous behaviour helps to spread Hellmould to other organisms.  During the "libidinous phase" the host's skin will appear only slightly flushed and mottled.

The fungus continues to spread, colonizing and slowly consuming all of the internal organs, though without killing the host.  Paranoid delusions, mood swings, irritability, and frenzied, violent outbursts at potential threats all accompany the later stage of infection.  The Hellmould continues to slowly feed off the body of its host, and eventually a foetal organism, called a Mouldspawn or Mouldling, begins to develop within them.

In the final stages of infection a Hellmould host will be near-psychotic and a livid shade of deep red.  At this point most of the host's internal organs will have been consumed and the being will be little more than a husk, though most individuals remain conscious, their brains still relatively intact.  The Mouldspawn will proceed to erupt through its victim's skin, the flesh sloughing away to reveal a hideous profusion of fruiting bodies arranged in a form roughly shaped like that of the host.  The Mouldspawn is a detritovore, devouring everything from rotting wood to carrion (including grave-spawn, who can also serve as hosts).  It produces large numbers of spores which drift away on the wind to infect other organisms.  Mouldspawn usually only live for a single week '" two in the case of a larger creature '" before collapsing into a decaying mass of spores.

Strangely enough, the caps of Hellmould toadstools, when detoxified by parboiling, can be used to make a drug known variously as Smoulder, Scarlet Bliss, or (in mystic circles) "Quarinah."  Small amounts of the drug act as a powerful aphrodisiac and produce startling sexual and extremely vivid dreams.  Overdoses cause exceedingly disturbing sexual and violent impulses.

Hellmould toadstools and Ghostgrass extract can be synthesized to form a powerful combat drug called Lyssa which induces frenzy while greatly increasing physical strength and tenacity.  Habitual use leads to chronic night terrors (usually of sexual violation), permanent anger-control issues, and permanently crimson eyes, as the iris of a user turns red while Lyssa is in their system.

[Steerpike]

[ooc]Thanks to those who helped me brainstorm these guys a bit on IRC!  I changed them a lot from how I was originally imagining them so that they aren't just another insect/arachnid race, which the setting already has plenty of.[/ooc]
Serqet

The horrifying daevas known as serqet '" more colloquially called "scorpionmen" or "scorpionwomen" '" are mostly dead, slain in ages past by warriors seeking to establish a reputation for themselves.  A few, however, still linger in dark burrows far beneath the earth, emerging only at night to hunt.  Most of the remaining scorpionfolk are found in the hot, southerly regions around Marainein, Erebh, and Lophius; at least three individual specimens have been sighted in the Firesong Marches.  Fortunately, serqet encounter one another very rarely and so do not often reproduce purebred offspring (sexual cannibalism is also not unheard-of, thinning the number of males even further); unfortunately, female serqet can reproduce asexually via parthenogenesis, spawning broods of monstrous scorpions which grow to the size of large horses.  These abominable vermin are carried on the back of their mother until their first moulting and defend her if she is attacked, so scorpionwomen are considered far more dangerous than scorpionmen.

Physically, serqet are terrifyingly large, towering at least thirty feet in height.  From the waist up they are identical to humans with tar-black skin; only their eyes, globular and glossy back, are arachnid.  Below the waist, serqet resemble enormous black scorpions complete with claws and stingers, with the human waist erupting from where the arachnid head should be.  Their preternaturally potent venom is instantly fatal to most species; even grave-spawn, who are immune to the vast majority of poisons, suffer excruciating pain and debilitating spasms when struck.  In addition, serqet are surrounded by an aura of fear '" possibly chemical in nature, possibly eldritch '" which causes most who look upon them to flee in panic.  As daevas they cannot die of old age or disease.  Their flesh is nearly as tough as the thick chitin plating their bodies.  They hate sunlight with an intensity matched only by shades; while it does not kill them it does seem to cause them physical pain.

Scorpionmen and '"women are highly intelligent but are also exceedingly antisocial and fiercely territorial.  They speak very rarely in an ancient tongue, though their progeny seem to somehow understand spoke commands in this forgotten language; a few rare serqet have learned other tongues.  Though like many daevas their origins are shrouded in obscurity, certain scholars believe that the serqet were created to serve guardians in bygone aeons.  This hypothesis is supported by the strange attachment some serqet exhibit for particular locales, such as ruinous temples or the treasure-vaults of some Sorcerer-Lords.  This would also explain the peculiar aura of fear they exude '" a mechanism to deter those who would defile whatever space they were assigned to.  While most of the remaining scorpionfolk seem to have "gone feral" (probably because the locations they were assigned to no longer exist), a few rare individuals have formed new attachments to places '" possibly, such areas remind them somehow of the locations they guarded in millennia-past.

[Steerpike]

[ooc]Another werird, vaguely African-Egyptian beastie for the south.  I may do a writeup of the south as a whole at some point.[/ooc]
Thanatosphinx

This breed of unusual beast dwells in the southern Slaughter-lands in regions such as the Mewling Moors, the Wraithwastes, and the Rancid Barrens, though some have been glimpsed as far west as the Firesong Marches and as far north as the southernmost regions of Dour Erg.  Unlike the sphinxes of myth, thanatosphinxes have the bodies of overlarge hyenas, the wings of enormous carrion crows, the tails of gigantic rats, and skull-like, disturbingly human heads with flesh stretched thinly over a gaunt, bony face.  These near-skeletal visages often lead those who encounter thanatosphinxes to mistakenly believe them grave-spawn (hence the prefix).  They do feast on necrotic flesh and, like putrevores, dire maggots, and other carrion-feeders, are drawn to grave-spawn by scent.  However, thanatosphinxes will not hesitate to kill living prey '" they simply wait a few days for their victims to putrefy.

Thanatosphinxes are not simply ravenous beasts, however '" they are reasonably intelligent, a fact which makes them all the more dangerous.  Though many incorrectly believe that thanatosphinxes collect riddles and will spare the lives of potential prey if they beat them at a riddle-game, the creatures do have an eccentric fondness for grotesque jokes and black humour and will spare prey who make them laugh.  Mere frivolity will not do: thanatosphinxes have an extremely gruesome sense of humour, and the jokes they find amusing must be of the most disgusting or macabre variety.  Because of this fondness for the obscene some claim that thanatosphinxes were created by Baubo, goddess of profanity, and indeed the thanatosphinx is sometimes adopted as an icon by Baubo-worshippers.

[Steerpike]

Marainein

The City of the Wasting God

Demographics

Ghilan '" 12%
Humans '" 78%
Naghini '" 3%
Shades '" 1%
Zerda '" 5%
Other '" 1%

A note on racial demographics: certain creatures are considered "Unclean" by the priesthood of Yzsch, despite the horrific condition of their own deity.  As such, hagmen, leechkin, cestoids, lilix, and mantids are all forbidden from entering the walls of the city itself.  Zerda, naghini, jatayi, ghilan, shades, and most other creatures are permitted.  In practice, inhumans who should technically be turned away at the city gates can be smuggled in, or the guards can be bribed; so long as members of the "Unclean" races keep a low profile they will not be bothered by most of the citizenry.

Architecture

The architecture of Marainein is more uniform than that found in many of the other Twilight Cities.  Wood is fairly scarce in the regions surrounding the City of the Wasting God, in part due to the Rotmists which plague neighbouring regions.  Thus, most of the buildings are of mud brick, sandstone, and limestone, as well as copper, which tends to accrue verdigris in tumorous lumps.  Obsidian from the Shadowglass Steppes and from Erebh is also utilized by the more affluent, as well as marble and porphyry.  Columns and lintels are common, as if the horseshoe arch.  The many temples '" they number in the hundreds '" are all domed structures bearing the grotesque semblance of His Putridity Yzsch and frequently bear decorative stonework, glyphic inscriptions, and statues.  The streets are paved with stone tiles, and obelisks bearing the scriptures of Yzsch can be found at every square and intersection.  The city is also notable for its many towers, from the lighthouses at Fervid Harbour to the Furuncular Towers of the Temple-Palace and the spires of the countless shrines to the mansion-towers of Morbis Hills.

Fashion

Fashion in Marainein tends to be practical, designed for warm temperatures.  Loose, billowing clothes such as robes and caftans is very common.  Vests and loose pants are also widely seen.  Headwear in the form of crowned caps, turbans, and headscarves is ubiquitous.  Ecclesiastical clothing is the most sumptuous, with the Pestilentialists in particular going in for ornate embroidery, jewellery, and luxuriant materials.

Religion

Religion is central to Marainein.  Though the great majority of its citizenry at least nominally worship the Wasting God Yzsch, dozens of sects and hundreds of smaller factions and orders still bicker over interpretation of doctrine and dogma.  All agree on a few basic axioms: Yzsch is a divinity incarnate, the deific issue of His diseased body extends life, and those who serve the Wasting God well and abide by His "decrees" (as his ramblings are termed) will be rewarded.  On every other matter, however, the priesthood is divided.  Yzsch Himself is hopelessly demented, a deranged shadow of a deity certainly unfit to confirm or deny niceties of theology.  While the major sects manage to coexist more-or-less peaceably, those who espouse especially radical beliefs run the risk of being termed heretics and so inviting the wrath of the Inquisition.

The greatest schism divides two great denominations, the zealous Pestilentialists and the equally fervent Malignants.  The Pestilentialists hold that the ultimate truth is decay, and that the Wasting God is a manifestation of this truth.  They urge believers to embrace degeneration and become one with cosmic decomposition.  Major sects within Pestilentialism include the Order of Entropy, the Abscess Sisterhood, and the Orthodox Contagionites.  Those heretical groups that arise out of Pestilentialism tend to slide into hedonism and decadence, such as the Blightflower Communion and the Plaguespreaders.  In essence the Pestilentialists can be considered the "conservative" faction in Marainein, emphasizing as they do the inevitability of decay.  Since degeneration is the ultimate fate of all things, progress is pointless.  As such they tend to simply defend the status quo; most Pestilentialists are really self-interested debauchees who only wish to maintain their own power and indulgent lifestyles.  They willingly wield dogma to advance these goals, twisting the demented gibbering of the Leprous Divinity to suit their own purposes.

The Malignants, on the other hand, believe that suffering produces purity, and that Yzsch's affliction is a self-inflicted mortification, a divine example which all others should follow.  Malignants are proselytizers and actively seek out converts.  Strictly moralistic, they are more rigidly dogmatic than the Pestilentialists but also more politically progressive.  The Pestilentialists hold that decay is the one truth: their only desire is to wallow in the world's glorious putrefaction.  The Malignants, conversely, see sickness and pain as modes of elevation and transformation; the Pestilentialists are aesthetes, the Malignants ascetics.  Sects among the Malignants include the Order of Gangrenous Salvation, the Brotherhood of Pestiferous Contrition, the Tainted Brethren, and the Mephitic Friars.  Heretical splinter-groups include the Purity-in-Putridity Movement and the Servants of Sickness.  Malignants are often more truly fanatical than Pestilentialists, though whether their beliefs are any truer than those of their spiritual rivals is totally ambiguous.

Aloof from all denominations is the Inquisition, who deal not in opinion or perspective but in pure doctrine.  The Inquisition roots and destroys those individuals and sects it considers heretical, including any heathen cults it finds within the walls of Marainein: such infidels are either executed or banished from the city depending on the extremity of their transgression.  Since politics and religion are inextricably intertwined in Marainein, they often find themselves denouncing secular political radicals as well, since such movements threaten the theocratic dominance of the priesthood.  All crime in Marainein is by definition some form of blasphemy, so the Inquisition serves as the de facto judiciary as well.  Also of note are the Putrefactors, the militant templars of Yzsch's priesthood: armoured warriors who frequently serve as the enforcers of the Inquisition's will and as the city's principal police-force (supplemented by mercenaries).

The Fetor

The stink of Marainein is a thing of legend.  Emanating from the palace of Yzsch, the Wasting God (and ultimately from the rotting body of the Leprous Divinity Himself), the abominable reek permeates skin, clothing, and indeed anything brought within the city limits.  Foreigners find the stench of corruption all but unbearable at first, but after several days the effect diminishes as they build up a tolerance: one can usually spot tourists by the expressions of revulsion on their faces.  Residents and long-term visitors to the city have ceased to notice the stink altogether.  Some have suggested that in addition to simply smelling bad, the Fetor '" as the stink is known '" has a slight preternatural effect, hastening the decay of everything in Marainein.  Certainly wood seems to decompose and metal tarnish faster within the city, and plants tend to suffer from blight, but some claim that this is the effect of diffused Rotmist that drifts in from the Mewling Moors and Rancid Barrens.  Whatever the case, the Fetor is an indelible and sometimes amusing part of the city's character.

Witchcraft

Though witchcraft is not illegal in Marainein, its practice is monitored by the priesthood of the Wasting God (to the extent it can be), and certain practices, such as the reanimation of the dead or trafficking with demons, are considered sacrilegious if carried out without the special permission of the clergy.  While in practice witches can do as they please in the privacy of their homes, the restrictions on acceptable witchcraft mean that servitors, elementals, demons, and other beings routinely employed by witches in other cities as servants are not commonly seen in the streets of Marainein.  As a result, humanoid slavery is far more prevalent in Marainein than in many of the other cities, such as Macellaria and Lophius.

Scute Fields

Named after the hollowed-out shells of giant tortoises which residents have converted into homes, Scute Fields is a zerda shantytown outside the crumbling wall of Marainein, one of the few semi-permanent settlements of the foxfolk.  Its contours changing on a near-daily basis as zerda arrive and leave, Scute Fields is a tatterdemalion morass of tents, pavilions, shacks, mud huts, and tortoise-shell houses, all of them scaled to the diminutive proportions of the zerda.  Different tribes control different territories of the shanty, and rivals frequently scuffle in the streets, bickering over access to water or territory.

While the population of the shanty is mostly transient, with many tribes only staying temporarily, a semi-stable population of urban zerda does flourish here.  These Marainein-born foxfolk often become pickpockets or burglars; some even find employment with the organized thieves' guilds within the city itself, who prize skilled zerda thieves for their small size and nimbleness.  Most others become traders: those arriving in Marainein via the Gate of Sins are assailed by scores of the little creatures peddling all manner of trinkets, foodstuffs, liquor, maps, and services.

The settlement is also notable for containing a very small group of zerda ghilan, grey-furred and yellow-eyed, known by their erstwhile kindred as the "Ravenous Ones."  Zerda are naturally resistant to the ghul-worm parasite, and those few who do become infected are usually stoned to death, considered abominations.  In Scute Fields, however, a small band of grave-spawn zerda do exist, pushed to the outskirts of the shanty to a part of the district reserved for lepers.  Some "shadow-furred" (black-furred) zerda '" whom the zerda believe to have had their souls stolen by evil spirits in the Dreaming Dark of the Unborn '" also find refuge here; under other circumstances they are abandoned at birth.  The Ravenous Ones tend to the diseased and protect the outcast; some are now hundreds of years old and have become skilled warriors and magi, able to deter any humans or other intruders who might seek to prey on those under their care.

The Ziggurat

Before Marainein was consecrated to the Wasting God and its inhabitants converted by the sword to the worship of Yzsch, many religions thrived within the city.  Most of the pagan shrines were either destroyed or put to secular uses, or even converted into temples to the Leprous Divinity Himself.  One, however, remains hallowed in the name of a different deity.  Built of solid obsidian without any apparent joins or breaks, the immense structure known as the Ziggurat rivals the Temple-Palace itself in terms of sheer size.  It is whispered that the Ziggurat is the domain of a god or goddess of darkness worshipped during the mythic Aeon of Shadows whose name and portfolio have been forgotten.  Members of certain heretical sects, conversely, claim that the temple is that of Yzsch's bride, a woman His Putridity elevated to godhood but who later spurned Him after He contracted His illness.  Still others insist that a gorgon stalks the halls, or that one of the Chained Ones is bound within, or that the Ziggurat contains a portal to one of the Hells.

Whatever the case, no one can enter the Ziggurat: it is impregnable to all attempts to access it.  Efforts to force it open are futile, as the obsidian seems impervious to tools and somehow repels witchcraft.  The Ziggurat does open once a month, on the night of the new moon when darkness is absolute.  During this time a door at the very top of the Ziggurat opens and shadowy figures steal forth into the city, returning to their sanctum with stolen provisions.  At first they purchased their supplies with ancient coins, but when the Inquisition learned of their activities they declared them infidels and blasphemers of the Wasting God and condemned them and those they associated with to death.  To this day, however, none of the Ziggurat's inhabitants have been caught, and none who have ventured into the dark depths of the structure during the moonless night have ever returned, though some claim that they have heard muffled screams from within after some foolish would-be looter or idiotic paladin of Yzsch enters the building.

While the area directly around the Ziggurat is forsaken, a district has grown around it.  Many criminals, outcasts, witches, and other disreputable folk '" dealers of poisons and drugs or objects of forbidden hexcraft '" can be found within the "Ziggurat's Shadow," as the neighbourhood is called.  Also located here are a number of brothels, lining a street leading up to the Gate of Execrations.

Fervid Harbour

Most visitors to Marainein arrive not by the gates but by boat, pulling in at Fervid Harbour, steered into port by lighthouses with wan and sickly flames.  Crescent-shaped and connected to the Canker River and a system of canals throughout the lower city, the Harbour is rigidly controlled by the port authorities and thus has not become a complete den of iniquity, but various alehouses '" many of them former temples to heathen sea-gods still bearing defaced icons '" are clustered around the edges of the port.

Fester Court

A great slum, Fester Court is the principle residential district of the City of the Wasting God: a huge conglomeration of mud brick, stone, adobe, and peeling plaster.  The masses dwell here '" craftsmen, merchants, labourers, and their slaves (most families own at least one slave).  Some of the city's many small thieves' guilds also operate out of Fester Court: daily their pickpockets ply Carnbucle Bazaar, while nightly their burglars creep into the palaces of Morbis Hills.

Carbuncle Bazaar

The market district of Marainein, the Carbuncle Bazaar is located inside the northern gate, the Gate of Sins, east of the Harbour.  Consisting mostly of a vast open space, the market is a shifting labyrinth of tents and pavilions and small stalls.  Here alchemists from Erebh sell strange fire-throwers, eldritch elixirs, and homunculi; traders from Lophius pawn the ill-gotten gains of corsairs; Guildsmen from Macellaria bring treasures from the Slaughter-lands; merchant princes from Crepuscle dabble in a thousand variegated wares.  The Save Market is the largest single part of the Carbuncle Bazaar, where eunuchs, labourers, concubines, bodyguards, soldiers, and servants '" all branded with Sigils of Servitude, to ensure their obedience (glyphs which burn afresh with the heat of the branding iron if they disobey an order) '" can be purchased.

Scourgeside

Adjacent to the Gate of Penitence '" the southern gate leading to Erebh '" Scourgeside is dominated by the squat, imposing temples of the Brotherhood of Pestiferous Contrition.  The various temples of the Brotherhood endlessly try to outdo one another in self-mortification, with creative new forms of excruciating redemption going in and out of vogue from week to week.  Only the cries of pain remain constant '" echoing wails and screams of sacred agony mixed with holy ecstasy.

Morbis Hills

Inhabited by the wealthiest merchants and priests, Morbis Hills stands above the worst of the Fetor and seems to be less susceptible to the omnipresent decay of Marainein.  The nine hills are crowned by enormous palaces tower-houses built of quality sandstone, ebony, glass, and other fine materials.  Since proper gardens are difficult to maintain within the walls Marainein the rich content themselves with statue-gardens; various families compete to see who can furnish their courts with the most outlandish statues, resulting in an extremely variegated selection of figures.

The Temple-Palace

The great Temple-Palace of the Wasting God is a district unto itself when one includes the hundreds of outbuildings, attachments, cloisters, rectories, harems, secondary shrines, and miscellaneous other structures clustered around its massive bulk.  The largest active temple on the Cadaverous Earth '" the only larger was an underground shrine to Hirud in the cestoid capitol, now deserted '" the Temple-Palace consists of an enormous central dome, called the Great Wen, surrounded by half a dozen smaller domes, the Vesicles, and a profusion of spires, the Furuncular Towers.  Within the Great Wen sits the living god Himself, the Leprous Divinity Yzsch: a figure with the semblance of a human male, albeit slightly larger and preternaturally strong and well-formed, seated on a throne of bronze.  Beneath the profusion of horrible sores all over His body the vestiges of the Wasting God's beauty and nobility are still evident.  His skin, now riddled with lesions, is an alabaster white, his features are fine and dignified, his physique flawless even now.  Huddled about his body are dozens of specially selected eunuchs who catch the purulent fluids that ooze from his ulcerous sores in great chalices.  These cups are conveyed to a chamber deep below the Temple-Palace from which the high-priests drink, extending their life-spans for centuries.

The rest of the Temple-Palace complex is a sprawling, variegated affair, heavily guarded by Putrefactors and other holy warriors.  The ministries of the various holy Orders, Brotherhoods, Sisterhoods, Chapters, Sects, etcetera all have their headquarters either on or near the Temple-Palace grounds.  The majority of the priesthood live on the grounds themselves, though some also maintain homes in Morbis Hills.

The Necropolis

Of all the Twilight Cities, Marainein has the largest cemetery (exceeding even the subterranean vastness of the Catacombs of Macellaria), an extensive Necropolis with innumerable monuments, mausoleums, tombs, and crypts, most of them built into the side of a small mountain, called the Bonemound.  There are many sub-regions and levels, some of them above ground, others below.  Perhaps eeriest is the Children's Quarter of the Necropolis, a barren place of countless stelae said to be haunted by the spirits of stillborn children.  The rich have protected their dead with seals and wards and hundreds of curses to deter unwanted visitors, but many of the chambers of the poor have been broken into by vagrants and the like, and the Necropolis has in some ways become a kind of slum, in places.  Notable residents of the Necropolis include the thieves' guild known as the Sepulchral Brotherhood (or Sepulchrites), a supposedly oracular shade called Mother Owlhead, and a heretical group called the Pustule Communion, hiding somewhere in the lower chambers.

The older parts of the Necropolis are haunted by many dangerous creatures, including the desiccated beings known as withergeists, carrion jinni who delight in luring looters into their lairs with illusory treasures, feral writhelings, and swarms of piranha rats and flesh-eating scarab beetles.  There have even been reported sightings of one of the dread serqet; certainly there are many large scorpions in the tunnels, as well as curious burrows and tunnels not made by the original architects.  The innumerable traps both eldritch and mechanical, the possibility of cave-ins, and the maze-like quality of the deeper tunnels all make matters worse.  However, there are many treasures to be had in the dusty depths of the innermost tombs, and sometimes unscrupulous adventurers and the like have been known to mount clandestine expeditions to relieve the dead of their valuables.

The Necropolis is just outside of Marainein proper, accessible vie the Gate of Judgment.
[ooc]Credit to The Meanest Guest for coming up with a name for withergeists![/ooc]

[Nomadic]

Loved the detailed account of the city, it most certainly has it's own personality. Very different from Macelleria. I can't wait to hear about some of the other cities, especially Lophius and Crepuscle

[Steerpike]

Lophius actually already has a write-up on the main page!  Crepuscle is forthcoming (I have a lot of notes and different versions, just not yet finalized).

Reposted for your convenience:

Lophius

[/b]

The Corsair City, City of the Lamprey

[/b]

Demographics

Ghilan '" 22%
Hagmen '" 24%
Human '" 40%
Leechkin '" 9%
Naghini '" 2%
Other '" 3%

Architecture

Starved for space on the cramped islands, the builders of Lophius have constructed the city in layers; as a previous level sinks into the swamp, another is built atop it.  The lowest levels of the city are either naked rock, slimy and barnacle studded, or foundations formed from now partially sunken ruins.  These early ruins are of fitted flagstone, pieced together without mortar '" each piece unique, painstakingly carved and inserted.  Tiered stairs, triangular arches, mosaic courtyards, and bestial carvings characterize this first layer.  A layer above are newer (but still centuries-old) buildings.  These are baroque monstrosities of white and gold, cracked marble and mossy granite and chipping gilt, rococo and lavishly ornamented, crowded with statuettes, circular columns, rounded arches, intricate friezes, lurid basilicas, and opulent sculptures.  Finally there is a rude, recent layer of wooden and brick buildings.  The gantries and wrought-iron bridges of the lower level are supplanted by swaying rope-bridges and catwalks, the precision of the foundation layer and the overblown excesses of the middle layer replaced with glorified shacks and ramshackle, unornamented halls.

Fashion

Lophius is hot, so clothing tends to be light and loose.  White tunics and colourful doublets are the usual uniform, with loose pants tucked into high leather boots.  Broad-brimmed hats providing shade are frequently worn, as are bandanas.  Long, loose coats and jackets are popular, as colourful as possible, cut at knee or waist length.  By and large there are few gender differentiations in terms of clothing.  Hair is usually worn very long, and beards are popular, with both frequently being braided; dreadlocks are also quite popular.  Duellists (known as bravoes) wear long moustaches without beards which they shave as a sign of shame if they yield in a duel (it is considered an honour to die unshaven).  As in Macellaria most individuals go armed, usually with knife (or two, or six) and a slender sword or a pistol at the very least.  A few additional weapons are often secreted beneath clothing (such as stiletto knives or a holdout pistol).

Tattoos are more common in Lophius than in any other city, and usually denote family, gang or corsair affiliation.  Many incorporate glyphs and squirm, flicker, or transform beneath the skins of their bearers.  Most people also have at least two or three piercings, and some have innumerable piercings in their ears, noses, lips, eyebrows, nipples, navels, and every other place imaginable.  Henna is also worn very often, and decorative scarification (again, often with gang or pirate symbolism) is sometimes undertaken.  Attitudes towards nudity or partial nudity are also considerably more relaxed in Lophius than in the other Twilight Cities, often to better display tattoos, henna, piercings, or scars.  Other jewellery includes bangles, anklets, bracelets, bracers, chokers, necklaces, and rings, and sometimes jewellery incorporates shells or coral.  Particularly hardened individuals may display a necklace of ears or teeth, trophies from duels.

Leechkin Beggary

Of all the Twilight Cities, Lophius plays the greatest host to the leechkin, a race of slick-skinned, androgynous, haematophagic humanoids more commonly found in tribal groupings in the surrounding swamps.  A substantial population of leechkin, however, have since emigrated to the City of the Lamprey, shedding their traditional ways and embracing an urban lifestyle.  While a few individual leechkin have found employ within the anarchic city's nebulous, quasi-feudal hierarchy of gangs as mercenary fighters, hitmen, torturers, and enforcers, and a very small, highly unorthodox number have seen success in other arenas '" such as the bizarre and strikingly well-spoken leechkin businessman Mr. Rasp '" the vast majority of leechkin in Lophius are beggars.

It is a great error to think of the leechkin as stupid creatures, as animals, ruled wholly by their drives.  Indeed, leechkin intelligence ahs been demonstrated to be comparable to human intelligence.  However, save for a few freak cases, leechkin seem culturally '" even, perhaps, biologically '" incapable of proper ambition.  They covet little save blood, and have no compunction against begging for it, no sense of shame; work, and pride in that work, is alien to the typical leechkin mindset, sign of hubris and folly, of unnecessary and wasteful effort.  Thus the leechkin persist in Lophius: beseeching passersby in a mishmash polyglot of tongues, till some citizen throw them a few coins or, more commonly, obligingly offers their wrist to the hungry creature.

Yet the question inevitably arises: why give blood or coin to the leechkin at all?  The folk of Lophius, and indeed all of the Cadaverous Earth, are not noted for their sense of compassion; some scholars have even suggested that humanity is losing its charitable impulses altogether, as the result of a long process of acclimatization to the harshness of this dark and merciless world, so close to the end of things.  The answer is that the people of Lophius do not give out of charity: they do so out of fear.

Nearly one in ten sentient creatures in Lophius is leechkin.  It would be, to put it mildly, an enormous undertaking to drive the entire leechkin population out of the city by force, a project that would additionally require the cooperation of the city's many competitive factions, a thing unheard of in Lophius.  Leechkin who do not feed regularly quickly lose their fleshly paunch and shrivel up, becoming gaunt, emaciated creatures.  Additionally they become possessed with a psychopathic bloodlust which consumes their minds utterly, such that they can think of nothing but blood.  Leechkin reduced to this state will stalk and kill any they come across, sometimes in mobs; in the past, poorly-fed leechkin suffering from the crimson thirst have drained dozens and even hundreds dry before recovering their wits.  Thus the non-leechkin populace of Lophius is held at ransom by the city's beggars: give, and give generously, or suffer the consequences.

The Teeth

Most of old Lophius is submerged, stone corridors flooded, vaults and halls overgrown with barnacles and seaweed, temples and tombs and marketplaces haunted by lampreys, cuttlefish, and eels.  Only a few daring submariners, reckless men and women clad in steam-sealed suits and accompanied by hagmen guides, brave the treacherous underwater city, returning to the surface with briny treasures; the rest of Lophius' residents dwell on the Teeth, seven protrusions of rock and architecture which form the canal-ridden islands on which the new city is built.  The islands are named the Talon, Crucible, the Viper's Head, Crooked-Finger, Hunger Rock, Greenfang, and Murmur Isle.  The gangs of Lophius are not criminal per se: rather, they represent rough factions controlling a given section of the city through force and fear, protecting the district but extracting taxes from their citizenry as well.  Only Shellhome and parts of Crucible, Hunger Rock, and Murmur Isle are free from their presence.

Shellhome

The only district not located on an island, Shellhome is a suburban shantytown, a spatter of buildings clustered round the Brooding Bridge that leads to the Vespergate district on Greenfang.  Here fishermen lower wicker cages into the greenish waters, while their wives prepare meals of crayfish or terrapin in houses formed from the empty shells of some extinct lineage of colossal snails or nautilus.

Greenfang

The large island of Greenfang is crisscrossed with canals, and allows access to the rest of Lophius via three prominent bridges (not including the Brooding Bridge connecting Lophius to the mainland): the Iron Bridge (to Crucible's Foundries), Devil's Arch (to the Viper's Head's Coil), and the Bridge of Bravoes (to the Talon).  Water-taxis and gondolas are the predominant form of transportation, as opposed to the rickshaws and carriages prominent elsewhere in Lophius.

Vespergate

Past the Brooding Bridge '" a huge, gargoyle-guarded edifice smeared with grime and covered in moss '" lies Vespergate, the largest district on Greenfang and the entrance to Lophius, City of the Lamprey.  Foggy and crowded, Vespergate is one of the central residential districts of Lophius, principally inhabited by the quick, though leechkin beggars plead for blood and coin in the gutters and various other races can be seen, especially on the central Street of Mists, a winding avenue that runs from the Brooding Bridge to Devil's Arch.

Snailsump

The major hagman ghetto in Lophius is Snailsump, an amphibious district which merges with the Gland River.  Large hatchery towers loom above the communal dwellings and mud baths, while cultists do service to the divine aspects and temple prostitutes moan in the sacred pleasure-houses.  Stairways carved into the sides of canals lead to the underwater portions of the district, which includes the prominent submarine bay where many of Skein's submersibles dock.  The hagmen do not conform to the usual gang structure, rather being ruled by a cadre of elders, most of them religious leaders.

Bad-Fen

The less-moneyed grave-spawn district in Lophius, Bad-Fen is populated by ghilan, shades, and a few other miscellaneous undead not rich enough to afford the clifftop manses of Groanward but neither so poor as to seek refuge in the caves of Skullford on the Talon.  Ghul-bars are common here, and there is a small corpse-bazaar '" nothing close to the Skin Markets of Macellaria, of course, but a sizeable marketplace nonetheless selling various bits and pieces for food and eldritch purposes.  Leechkin and cestoids (of which there are very few in Lophius) linger in this district as well.

   Most of the buildings are damp and mildewed, with a morbid, eerily quiet atmosphere punctuated only by the muttered half-whispers of ghul speech.  Two gangs contend the district: the grim all-shade gang called the Silent Ghosts '" every member save a handful of 'speakers' has their lips sewn shut '" and the ghilan gang the Devourers run by the so-called Mr. Gray from the ghul-bar The Sepulcher.

Chainwater

Greenfang's major dockland, Chainwater is a murky maze crowded with steamboats from Skein and Crepuscle, grim galleons from Somnambulon, and even the macabre vessels of the lilix, far from their northern berth in Dolmen.  It is comprised principally of warehouses, shipwrights, and offices, but the gang called the Chain-Warders is a major presence here, taking a docking fee from all ships and boats.  They contend with the Silent Ghosts of Bad-Fen and the Ophidians of the Viper's Head looking to expand onto Greenfang for territory.

Crooked-Finger

A tall pinnacle of stone and wood, Crooked-Finger rears up out of the water like some ancient obelisk, a monolithic spire with tiered layers, each a self-contained district.  The tiers bear fanciful names culled from some elder tongue, quite distinct from the usual naming conventions predominate in Lophius.  Built vertically rather than horizontally, Crooked-Finger spirals upwards through a series of stairways and ramps with gates separating the various wards, each marked with that ward's name.  The oldest, largest bridge in Lophius, the Elder Bridge, links Crooked-Finger to the Viper's Head in Serpentside.

Bregm

Bregm is an incredibly important district in Lophius, and the bottom tier of Crooked-Finger.  It contains the city's largest slave market, one of the cornerstones of the city's economy: captives brought in from raids from the Bluebottle Archipelago, the settlements of the Serrated Coast, the swamplands surrounding Lophius, and elsewhere are bartered in the myriad auction houses of Bregm, sold off by pock-marked and mean-smiled auctioneers to industrial overseers for use in the Foundries or the factory districts of other cities, to captains looking for cheap oarsmen, to leering fops as fancy-boys and girls, or to wealthy merchants as servants.  The gang called the Shacklers hold sway here, keeping a take from every auction house from the lowliest platform selling malformed laborers and old women to the high-scale bidding places where the clientele sip absinthe, madwine, blood, and sherry while eunuch warriors and voluptuous concubines are dearly purchased.

Skaumn

The pleasure district, Skaumn is filled with brothels, drug dens, and bars.  Most of the establishments here cater to the quick '" the majority of ghul-bars can be found on Greenfang in the shabby district of Bad-Fen.  Run by the opportunistic pimp styling himself as the Vermillion Prince, Skaumn is a highly lucrative tier held tenaciously by the Crimson Cloaks, the Prince's gang of red-caped bravoes, foppish knife-fighters and pistoliers.  Unlike the pleasure houses of Per-Bashti, the brothels in Skaumn tend to be cheap and greasy, and the girls and boys who work there are treated poorly.  Nonetheless it is amongst the most popular wards in Lophius, often the first stop for sailors after docking in Chainwater or Bile-Mire.

Pelloch

Casinos and chance-houses of every sort line the winding streets of Pelloch, a profitable tier of Crooked-Finger held by the gang called the Drakes, led by a masked, mysterious woman calling herself Dame Fortune and renowned for her business sense, her velvet dresses, and her two bodyguards, a pair of sleek, androgynous fighters who wield razored war-fans.  Making her base of operations in The Laughing Eye chance-house, Dame Fortune keeps control of Pelloch ruthlessly and enforces strict rules against cheats: her enforcers maintain a very active presence in all establishments in Pelloch, preserving a high standard of fairness, unlike most of the other gambling places in Lophius such as the rough corsair card-halls of Bile-Mire on Crucible.

Pelloch is distinguished by its variety of games as well as by its fairness.  Here one can play games with hexed cards that can curse another player; games with sigil-scribed, multi-faceted dice; games where the board is composed of interlocking clockwork pieces; where the pieces are tiny homunculi, spattering the board with black blood; where players assume elemental positions, playing in partnerships and building chains of cards with names like the Gallows Tree and the Thorn-man; where the loser forfeits fingers or slaves or blood or more arcane properties.  Here are tea-houses where one can play the convoluted game of Imbroglio with ivory pieces, boxing clubs and knife-fighter's circles, and fighting pits where slaves are forced to fight crocodiles, swarms of spiders, or blood-crazed leechkin captured from the swamps (though these arenas do not compare to the pits of Macellaria's Pulsetown).

Chelke

The alchemist's tier, Chelke is held by a band of cutthroat-scholars called the Sons of the Peacock, witches and nectar-junkies who tattoo themselves with hundreds of colourful eyes.  Here are a smattering of glyph parlors and other tattooists, as well as booksellers and herbalists.  Most prominent are the nectar-dealers from Moroi, the alchemical shops, and the laboratories where various eldritch and technical thinkers live and work, making Chelke something of an intellectual's quarter.

The Viper's Head

The gang known as the Ophidians rule the Viper's Head, human toughs with scaly tattoos and sharpened teeth, led by the gorgon Nyssa and her lieutenant Shaar-Illys.  As human Ophidians rise in rank they undergo a series of ritual mutilations.  First they are shaved bald and receive full-body tattoos resembling snake scales; then their tongues are split, forking like serpents'; next their teeth are sharpened into fangs; and finally their ears are removed.  Many of the city's naghini are members of the gang.

Serpentside

Headquarters of the Ophidians, Serpentside is best known for its venom markets which deal in poisons and combat drugs.  Here casual hitmen and bravoes looking for the edge in a duel can purchase vials of demon-blood, shadowmilk harvested from tenebrals, madwine, 'thrum' from the Bluebottle Archipelago, jabber, mescaline, hundreds of snake venoms, and even bottles of the Red Rain. Clandestine sales of ichor are also conducted in Serpentside, daring the considerable wrath of the Resin Merchants.

The Coil

Renowned for its eateries, the Coil is accessible from Greenfang across Devil's Arch.  In the lavish and often expensive restaurants of the Coil one can sup on turtle soup, caviars, eel or lamprey pies, fried squid, raw oysters, and a hundred different types of fish, to name a few of the plethora of dishes to try.  The Coil is the largest commercial district in Lophius outside of Mandrake Market: a huge fish market does business here, hawkers selling the daily catches of Snailsump and Shellhome.

Crucible

The market island, Crucible is a broad, flat expanse dominated by the Foundries to the south and Mandrake Market to the north and east with the unkempt dockland called Bile-Mire along its western edge.  It is connected to Greenfang, Hunger Rock, and Murmur Isle to the south, west, and north respectively, and is one of the few islands without a major gang presence.

The Foundries

The principle industrial district of Lophius, the Foundries are a series of hulking factories and smaller workshops, seething with the smoldering orange glow of furnaces, clotting the air with thick black smoke.  Also serving as the gateway to Crucible from Greenfang (in Bad-Fen) via Iron Bridge, an ugly modern construction of girders and wrought iron constantly teeming with carriages and caravans, the Foundries are owned by merchant consortiums with links to the cartels of Macellaria and the vicious guilds of Crepuscle.

Bile-Mire

A ragged dock district, Bile-Mire consists of a series of large wharves jetties along the western side of Crucible, lined with seedy waterfront taverns and bloated warehouses.  Not for accident is Lophius called the Corsair's City: pirates and reavers of every clan and fleet dock regularly in Bile-Mire in between raids along the Serrated Coast, selling off slaves and treasure before returning to their bases in the Sallow Seas or the Fevered Ocean, hidden fortresses nestled amongst the darkness-shrouded Midnight Isles or the deadly maze of the Razor-Chain.

Mandrake Market

The central commercial district of Lophius is Mandrake Market, an eclectic confusion of winding streets and booths, with various streets dedicated to certain products '" food, textiles, weaponry, jewelry, books, and countless other goods.  No one gang holds sway here, abiding instead by the loosely defined principles of Market Truce '" there is no bloodshed in the market, and the well-heeled mercenary warriors who guard the streets will make swift work of offenders.

The Talon

Named for the huge ivory obelisk at its center in the district of Per-Bashti, the Talon is a medium-sized island noted for its glassworks and its flea-bitten residential district of Skullford.  The obelisk was probably once the tusk or claw of a great beast, though the rest of the creature is absent; carved into its white bulk are numerous winding corridors and chambers.

Shardwall

The glassblower's district, Shardwall is contended by the equally brutal Argentines and Tainsiders, a pair of gangs who vie for control of the ward and thus the right to collect protection money from the profitable tradesmen of Shardwall.  Here one can purchase mirrors, silverware, pots, lamps, and all other sorts of glassware, including intricately crafted glass throwing knives and other weapons, fragile but deadly.

Per-Bashti

Headquarters of the Iron Tygers, Per-Bashti is a high class pleasure district quite distinct from the seedy brothel-ward of Skaumn on Crooked-Finger.  The Iron Tygers are a matriarchal gang based in the Talon itself.  Tattooing themselves with stripes, spots, and other markings and implanting barbed whiskers in their faces, the Tygers are loyal to the ex-corsair Mistress Jade.  The women who work the establishments of Per-Bashti are well compensated profession courtesans protected from abuse by the Tygers, and the district has become something of an enclave for battered women.

Skullford

The Bridge of Bravoes, infamous across the Cadaverous Earth as a notorious dueling site, links Skullford to Greenfang via Chainwater.  A plague-ridden sprawl of shacks, tenements, and dilapidated housing, Skullford is the dwelling place of the city's destitute.  Built atop barnacle-studded cliffs, Skullford is riddled with tunnels and catacombs, an intricate cave-system that was once a network of barrows, with individual tombs and entranceways carved into the cliffside and accessible via roughly hewn stone steps.  Those who do not live in the rickety structures of Skullford itself reside in these caves, alongside the city's impoverished grave-spawn, penniless creatures who cannot afford to dwell in Groanward or even the rougher district of Bad-Fen.  Some of these entities are amongst the less wholesome grave-spawn: thinning eidolons with shrunken faces and emaciated ghilan cutthroats.  There are also rumors of underwater tunnels through which daggols and other deep-dwellers are said to use to infiltrate the city for their own sinister ends.

Murmur Isle

A medium-sized island to the far north of Lophius, Murmur Isle is connected only to Crucible.  It contains three very important areas: the Driftwood District, the religious quarter of the City of the Lamprey and site of major pilgrimage, Gloomwell, location of the House of Shadows, and Groanward, the cliffside residential district of the city's grave-spawn.

The Driftwood District

Perhaps the most famous district in Lophius, the Driftwood District is accessible from Crucible's Mandrake Market via the Whisperbridge, a very long, very ornate bridge lit with candles at night by robed acolytes.  Named for its idiosyncratic architecture, the buildings in the Driftwood District are piecemeal conglomerations of scrap wood and metal thrown seemingly at random onto the skeletons of sunken ships, pulled from the depths and interred on the south side of Murmur Isle.  In contrast with the hubbub of nearby Mandrake Market, the Driftwood District is filled with mystic moans, men and women babbling in tongues, and ceremonial chants.  Stone idols pulled from the muck of the swamps or rescued from the briny depths are all interred in the wooden wasteland of the Driftwood District, each with their own candle-lit shrines attended by tiny priesthoods.  The District is a highly competitive environment in which the various micro-congregations contend for worshippers and thus tithes and donations.  Currently the most popular deities in the Driftwood District include the insectoid god called the Divine Mantis (attended by a mantid priest, of course) aboard the good ship Belligerence, the entity referred to as 'Waadjat' aboard the Mastication, and the turtle-god Draukyr aboard the Umbrageous Archon.

Gloomwell

Gloomwell is built at the base of the Black Stair, a small, narrow district between the rickety chaos of the Driftwood District and the macabre pomposity of Groanward.  Mostly consisting of housing for clergy and petitioners in the Driftwood District, Gloomwell is distinguished by the House of Shadows, a huge and imposing edifice carved from the obsidian cliffs atop which Groanward perches.  Presenting a menacing black façade, the House of Shadows is built mostly into the obsidian itself, consisting of a series of windowless corridors and cells.  It serves as the guildhouse of the Shroud, an organization of professional, deadly assassins who operate openly in Lophius.  Expensive in the extreme, the Shroud maintains a roster of expert killers, including the rogue lilix courtier Xaverius Mazzari, the notorious shade assassin known only as Quiescence, and the quick twin brothers Gaspar and Vetruvion.  Known only to induct a select few members, the Shroud are major power-brokers in Lophius and have been known to step into the tumult of shifting allegiances and betrayals if any one faction seizes too much control.  Their origins are highly secret, but rumors persist of demonic or grave-spawn founders, or that the Shroud are a cult dedicated to a death god, a twisted aspect of the goddess Striga, or a daeva of annihilation.

Groanward

The district of the dead, the Groanward is where the city's wealthier ghilan, shades, and other grave-spawn tend to congregate.  It is a somber district along the north side of Murmur Isle with austere stone houses overlooking the river and the Sallow Seas beyond, rambling manses and baroque façades built atop huge slabs of obsidian, battered with spray.  The Black Stair, a winding path cut into this foundation, leads up from the ramshackle Driftwood District and the eerie streets of Gloomwell below; the chants, choruses, and babbling voices gradually grow mute as one climbs the Black Stair into darkness '" the grave-spawn need no light to see by and so the streets are perpetually dim.  Though there are a few shops and restaurants here catering to grave-spawn most of the ghul-bars in Lophius are located in Bad-Fen on Greenfang and the Skaumn tier of Crooked-Finger.  There is also a large cathedral in Groanward dedicated to the star-gods.

Hunger Rock

Hunger Rock is the smallest of the Teeth, and doesn't have any distinct districts; its most salient feature is its colossal lighthouse, now dimmed and dark.  Once a bright beacon lighting the way to Lophius, the lighthouse has fallen into disuse due to the presence of a mysterious and hungry spirit dubbed the Ravener, possibly some variety of swamp-demon that has chosen to haunt the island for its own incomprehensible reasons.

[Superfluous Crow]

Marainein looks pretty great, but I assume you'd like some comments and ideas to go with it, so here goes:
First of all, I think the text could do with a more extensive introduction. Most of us reading it will know about Marainein and Yszch, but new readers will probably be better off with a few lines explaining the general gist and concept of the city.
You mention that wood rots within the walls and the whole city seems to deteriorate faster than elsewhere, so perhaps it would be cool to feature copper more in the city architecture? I think the green verdigris would make the architecture of the city more distinctive and suit the many domes of its temples. Iron could also well be used.
I'm a bit disappointed that Yszch is colossal. I don't know whether you made him like that to set him apart from the Moth Kings and other similar dilapidated characters, but I think his diseased nature has far less impact on the reader when he is so clearly not human.
Of course your setting features a lot of horrible creatures and beastlings, but the whole point with Yszch is that he is beauty turned foul and putrid. It wouldn't hurt to make him a little larger than a human to emphasize his supposed divinity/immortal nature, though.
Considering the Fetor (lovely idea by the way), I can't help but wonder why two races with enhanced sense of smell/taste (naghini and zerda) would both settle there in such relatively vast numbers? I don't really mind it personally - as you say, they could get used it - but I just wanted to point it out to you.

[Steerpike]

Good point about the smell - the reason they settle there is a) it's the closest Twilight City to their indigenous territories and b) they're permitted inside the city by the priesthood.  I imagine they'd get used to the smell like everyone else.

More copper sounds good!!

I'll have to ponder the Wasting God's size.  Perhaps as written he's too close to a Banehulk... in fact I think I'll change that pronto, I'd just never considered making him smaller before!

I'll get around to adding an introductory fiction blurb or something similar.

[Kindling]

regarding Yszch's size; depending on how deific you want him to truly be (as opposed to how his followers perceive him) does he need to be a constant size? Perhaps in the past, when he was well (if he ever was), he was gigantic, but as he wastes he shrinks. On good days maybe he can grow back up to 20ft., but most of the time he is closer to human-sized, and when he's really in the pits he could shrink even smaller.

[ErebusRed]

Hello Steerpike and other contributors,

I was pleased to discover The Cadaverous Earth and have been working through the materials (primarily those about Lophius) over the last week.  The setting and approach to the material appeals to me a great deal, both for it's fresh and original flavour and for it's potential to springboard strange ideas in my own mind.   I am particularly developing themes around the Gorgon race, and a tribe venerating the Gorgon's who believe in something called 'The Radiance' which may protect their homeland from The Fecundity.  

I ran a first session last night, based in Lophius and had a lot of fun bringing Crooked-Finger to life as a starting point for exploring the City (the heroes were captured tribes-people for sale in the Bream slave market).  I love tiny details and had great fun portraying the swaggering bravoes, strange races and clusters of drug-addicts.    

I also found some great artwork today, some of which really reminded me of the setting:

http://www.waynebarlowe.com/barlowe_pages/index_inferno.htm

Anyway just wanted to say thanks for the great work on this, it really appeals to me and I hope to be running this setting at home for some months to come.

Cheers,

Erebus Red