Nepos

The City-State of Nepos: Crown of the Great Poison Lake

"Where magic flows like poison and ambition rises with the spires." - Exiled High Magus

Rising from the toxic waters of the Great Poison Lake like a malevolent crown of black stone and twisted metal, the city-state of Nepos stands as testament to magical tyranny incarnate. This island metropolis, with its spiraling towers and maze-like streets, represents one of Nolavor's most formidable magiocracies, where power and status flow purely from arcane might.

Defenses and Geography

The waters surrounding Nepos serve as more than mere natural barriers. Centuries of magical experimentation and toxic runoff have transformed the Great Poison Lake into a lethal moat that both defends and empowers the city. These corrupted waters mutate aquatic life and imbue creatures with dangerous magical abilities—properties the royal magi have learned to harness for weapons and rituals alike.
Ancient wards and magical shields layer the city in protective magic, creating an almost impenetrable dome maintained by a specialized corps of royal magi. These intricate defenses, accumulated over centuries, reflect the paranoid genius of generations of ruling spellcasters.

Social Hierarchy

Governed by a royal family whose lineage traces to the First Black Fire War, Nepos operates under strict magical stratification. The higher the spires reach, the more powerful their inhabitants, with the royal palace crowning the central isle's peak. At the apex sits the royal family, wielding both inherited power and centuries of accumulated arcane knowledge. Below them, the High Magi serve as both advisors and enforcers of royal will.
The middle ranks consist of various magical practitioners—enchanters, elementalists, and artificers—who maintain the city's mystical infrastructure. At society's bottom dwell those born with little or no magical talent, serving as laborers, servants, and test subjects. Many exist in hereditary servitude, bound by magical contracts that pass through generations.

Districts and Architecture

The Spellforge District houses numerous magical academies and research facilities, where new spells and enchantments develop under strict royal oversight. In the Artifice Quarter, craftsmen blend magic with material craft, creating everything from enchanted weapons to magical conveniences for the wealthy.
The Undertow, comprising partially submerged structures where the poorest citizens dwell, has become a breeding ground for mutations caused by exposure to the toxic lake. The upper classes view some of these mutations as valuable, leading to selective breeding programs that treat humans like magical livestock.
At the city's heart rises the Magisterium, a massive complex where the royal family and High Magi conduct their most crucial rituals. This sentient building shifts its halls according to its masters' will, hosting the trials that determine young magi's futures and their place in the magical hierarchy.

Economy and Trade

The Arcane Exchange, a massive floating marketplace, serves as the center of Nepos's magical economy. Here, verified merchants conduct business under the watchful eyes of magical constructs, trading in enchanted items and reagents refined from the Great Poison Lake's waters. The royal family maintains strict control over all magical commerce, requiring registration and taxation of every arcane transaction.

Education and Culture

The Academies of High Sorcery dominate education, their towering spires housing students for years of rigorous magical training. Their curricula extend beyond mere spellcraft, instilling absolute loyalty to the magical hierarchy. Failed students often disappear into the Vitarium, their bodies and spirits fueling the city's endless magical experiments.
Daily life revolves around magical advancement, with citizens engaging in public displays of spellcraft and regulated duels. Even children's games involve magical contests, while the air itself crackles with residual energy, manifesting in floating lights, spontaneous transmutations, and temporary warps in reality.

Religious Practice

While official worship centers on magical power itself, secret cults dedicated to Dead Gods like Zothra-Khaar persist in hidden shrines. The royal family encourages focus on magic as divinity, presenting themselves as the highest embodiment of arcane perfection.

The Vitarium

Beneath the Magisterium lies the Vitarium, a network of chambers where the most horrific magical experiments unfold. Here, royal magi push the boundaries of power through increasingly cruel methods, believing true mastery requires understanding both pleasure and pain's extremes. Periodic purges of the "magically impure" coincide with celestial events, using ambient energy to strengthen city defenses while eliminating threats.

Foreign Relations

Nepos maintains complex relationships with neighboring powers. The industrial forces of Kanonos Region view the city with fear and envy, coveting its magical resources while dreading its power. The Bloodclaw Warband of Grizburg maintains cautious trade relations, exchanging rare materials for magical weapons, though both sides constantly prepare for potential betrayal.

The New Regime

When Sythara returned with Slazgar and the Obsidian Fang, she used her intimate knowledge of Nepos's defenses to corrupt them, turning the city's own protective magic against its creators. Their subsequent rule transformed the magical hierarchy—while maintaining its basic structure, they made advancement dependent on loyalty and willingness to embrace darker powers rather than magical ability alone.
Under their governance, the Vitarium focuses on fusing divine and mortal magic through the Obsidian Fang's power. The rigid barriers between magical castes became more permeable but no less brutal, with those showing aptitude for dark magic rising quickly regardless of origin.

Present State

Today, Nepos pulses with Dead God essence and darker magics, its spires rising from poisoned waters as a beacon for those seeking power's darkest aspects. The centuries of accumulated magic, combined with the Great Poison Lake's toxic influence, have begun altering reality within its bounds. Time flows strangely in certain districts, and some theorize the city itself approaches sentience, fed by its inhabitants' magical energies.
Under the joint rule of the Witch of Nepos and her goblin partner, the city-state serves as testament to how vengeance and ambition can reshape not just lives but entire societies. Their legacy grows in the toxic mists shrouding its spires, their rule a perfect fusion of cruel justice and dark ambition.

"In Nepos, even the stones remember their torments, and the waters whisper secrets of power." - Kurgan Weinrich

Type

Metropolis