Geb
Three hundred years after the fall of Osirion’s famed Four Pharaohs of Ascension, the pious tyrant Kenaton brought a semblance of stability to the declining empire, scouring Osirion of enemies and renewing the empire’s grasp on distant territorial holdings. Rather than vanish across the horizon into eternal exile, the wicked necromancer Geb came to Osirion’s southernmost colony, conquered it, and granted it his name, remaking it in his own necrotic image. Decades after his rise to power, Geb came into conflict with the archmage Nex, who had united a nation on the plains north of the necromancer’s kingdom, cutting off land access to the markets of the Golden Road. By –892 AR, the territorial ambitions of both Nex and Geb erupted into catastrophic open conflict that would span centuries.
The war reached its terrible climax when Geb blighted the lands of Nex, starving its people and bringing it to the brink of utter defeat. Nex responded by unleashing a series of magical cataclysms that killed uncountable thousands of Geb’s citizens. Anguished at the scope of the devastation, Geb animated all of the slain as a vast undead army, which he immediately sent marching north. In 576 AR—after nearly a millennium of mutually destructive warfare—Geb’s undead armies made a final grand push toward Quantium, reaching the walls of Nex’s palace, the Bandeshar. Poisonous yellow smoke choked the archmage’s capital, killing thousands—but Nex himself apparently escaped into a demiplane known as the Refuge of Nex, never to return. Despite his apparent victory, Geb remained convinced that his old foe had somehow survived, and he lived the next several decades in bitter resentment, futilely waiting for Nex’s imminent return. Nex’s household servants, the so-called Arclords of Nex, also proved frustratingly resilient, repelling numerous attacks on the Bandeshar designed to seal Nex away for eternity. Finally, in 632, Geb’s torment grew too strong to bear, and he ended his mortal life in an act of ritual suicide. But even in death, Geb’s hatred tethered his soul to Golarion as a ghost.
Thereafter, Gebbite society gave itself wholly to necromancy. Thousands of Geb’s most fanatical followers killed themselves to bind their undead souls in service to their ghostly sovereign, swearing eternal fealty in the ultimate act of obedience. Today, more than 4,000 years later, the undead make up Gebbite society, and most mortals in the kingdom are either slaves or food. A complex corpus of legal documents known as the “Dead Laws” protect the rights of Geb’s mortals and intelligent undead by regulating the feeding of ravenous undead, proscribing certain aspects of necromancy, outlawing the channeling of positive energy, and dictating the proper treatment and maintenance of slaves, both living and undead. These rules nominally protect the living—referred to as the “Quick” in the language of the Dead Laws—from random attacks by the hungry dead. But Geb’s ghoulish low nobility, along with certain insatiable vampires, consider themselves exempt, often risking legal prosecution and permanent death to satiate their gluttonous cravings.
By royal decree, unless specified otherwise, all mortals who die upon Geb’s soil are reanimated as mindless undead to serve as slaves in the nation’s lush fields or lavish urban mansions. Mortals with business in Geb often arrange to become intelligent undead upon death to avoid this fate. Most mortals avoid going to Geb whatsoever. Mortal necromancers are an exception, largely because they are the only ones who know how to protect themselves from the depravities of Geb’s nobility. The most puissant and ambitious necromancers of Geb join the ranks of the Blood Lords, 60 personal apprentices that Geb himself trained in the capital of Mechitar and tasked with administering the daily affairs of the kingdom. Once exclusively mortal, the Blood Lords are now overwhelmingly undead, and their numbers include vampires, wraiths, mummies, shades, and liches.
Geb doesn’t invite conflict with other nations, despite the brazen attacks so often made against it by would-be heroes hoping to destroy the undead kingdom. Tensions with Nex cooled once its leader fled Golarion, and zombie-harvested crops sent north are among the nation’s most prosperous exports. Geb’s undead ruling class doesn’t age, so they can afford to play the long game and be patient, weaving political plots that span centuries, and which delve far more deeply into the international politics of the Inner Sea region than anyone realizes.
In recent centuries, Geb had largely withdrawn from the daily affairs of his kingdom, leaving its management in the capable hands of his imprisoned lich-queen, Arazni. A former herald of Aroden cruelly raised from death by Geb in retribution for repeated attacks by the paladins of Lastwall, Arazni ruled the nation for centuries before escaping Geb and his kingdom in recent years. With Arazni gone and the king more certain than ever of Nex’s imminent return, Geb has returned to active rulership of his kingdom. The morbid avenues of Mechitar throng with skeletal celebrants in public processions honoring Geb’s renaissance, and the ghost-sovereign’s agents in the outside world are known to be gathering rare ingredients for what appears to be a series of obscene necromantic rituals carried out on a massive ceremonial scale. Far from the melancholic recluse who sought a solution in suicide, Geb today prepares himself and his undying kingdom for a grand destiny.
The war reached its terrible climax when Geb blighted the lands of Nex, starving its people and bringing it to the brink of utter defeat. Nex responded by unleashing a series of magical cataclysms that killed uncountable thousands of Geb’s citizens. Anguished at the scope of the devastation, Geb animated all of the slain as a vast undead army, which he immediately sent marching north. In 576 AR—after nearly a millennium of mutually destructive warfare—Geb’s undead armies made a final grand push toward Quantium, reaching the walls of Nex’s palace, the Bandeshar. Poisonous yellow smoke choked the archmage’s capital, killing thousands—but Nex himself apparently escaped into a demiplane known as the Refuge of Nex, never to return. Despite his apparent victory, Geb remained convinced that his old foe had somehow survived, and he lived the next several decades in bitter resentment, futilely waiting for Nex’s imminent return. Nex’s household servants, the so-called Arclords of Nex, also proved frustratingly resilient, repelling numerous attacks on the Bandeshar designed to seal Nex away for eternity. Finally, in 632, Geb’s torment grew too strong to bear, and he ended his mortal life in an act of ritual suicide. But even in death, Geb’s hatred tethered his soul to Golarion as a ghost.
Thereafter, Gebbite society gave itself wholly to necromancy. Thousands of Geb’s most fanatical followers killed themselves to bind their undead souls in service to their ghostly sovereign, swearing eternal fealty in the ultimate act of obedience. Today, more than 4,000 years later, the undead make up Gebbite society, and most mortals in the kingdom are either slaves or food. A complex corpus of legal documents known as the “Dead Laws” protect the rights of Geb’s mortals and intelligent undead by regulating the feeding of ravenous undead, proscribing certain aspects of necromancy, outlawing the channeling of positive energy, and dictating the proper treatment and maintenance of slaves, both living and undead. These rules nominally protect the living—referred to as the “Quick” in the language of the Dead Laws—from random attacks by the hungry dead. But Geb’s ghoulish low nobility, along with certain insatiable vampires, consider themselves exempt, often risking legal prosecution and permanent death to satiate their gluttonous cravings.
By royal decree, unless specified otherwise, all mortals who die upon Geb’s soil are reanimated as mindless undead to serve as slaves in the nation’s lush fields or lavish urban mansions. Mortals with business in Geb often arrange to become intelligent undead upon death to avoid this fate. Most mortals avoid going to Geb whatsoever. Mortal necromancers are an exception, largely because they are the only ones who know how to protect themselves from the depravities of Geb’s nobility. The most puissant and ambitious necromancers of Geb join the ranks of the Blood Lords, 60 personal apprentices that Geb himself trained in the capital of Mechitar and tasked with administering the daily affairs of the kingdom. Once exclusively mortal, the Blood Lords are now overwhelmingly undead, and their numbers include vampires, wraiths, mummies, shades, and liches.
Geb doesn’t invite conflict with other nations, despite the brazen attacks so often made against it by would-be heroes hoping to destroy the undead kingdom. Tensions with Nex cooled once its leader fled Golarion, and zombie-harvested crops sent north are among the nation’s most prosperous exports. Geb’s undead ruling class doesn’t age, so they can afford to play the long game and be patient, weaving political plots that span centuries, and which delve far more deeply into the international politics of the Inner Sea region than anyone realizes.
In recent centuries, Geb had largely withdrawn from the daily affairs of his kingdom, leaving its management in the capable hands of his imprisoned lich-queen, Arazni. A former herald of Aroden cruelly raised from death by Geb in retribution for repeated attacks by the paladins of Lastwall, Arazni ruled the nation for centuries before escaping Geb and his kingdom in recent years. With Arazni gone and the king more certain than ever of Nex’s imminent return, Geb has returned to active rulership of his kingdom. The morbid avenues of Mechitar throng with skeletal celebrants in public processions honoring Geb’s renaissance, and the ghost-sovereign’s agents in the outside world are known to be gathering rare ingredients for what appears to be a series of obscene necromantic rituals carried out on a massive ceremonial scale. Far from the melancholic recluse who sought a solution in suicide, Geb today prepares himself and his undying kingdom for a grand destiny.
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