Duemonte

Duemonte, the city of the Vampires, is a place of ruined gothic towers and shadows. Built upon a lake in the valley of the Shadowed Passes the city stretches 75 square miles across the dark waters. A city organized along ancient bloodlines of its residents, Vampiric nobles concentrate power in their estates under the singular rule of the Unliving Emperor. Much of the city is in ruins or new construction built on the ruins creating a maze of streets and stairs throughout the city.

Blacktongue Bridge. Carved from the darkest of stone, the bridge bound in mists spans eight miles out onto the waters joining the city to the Valley of Pallor. During the War of Extinction the entire course of the bridge could be withdrawn to allow the city to be sealed. The vast bridge is now lined with colossal statues of knights in masked crimson armor of high Duemonti knights.

The Serrated Gate. The single entre into the city, lest one braves the waters of the Plaguelake in hopes to sneak unseen through the city's substructure. Named a gate, but more a wall of blacksteel teeth sharpened to hang the victims of the vampire's hunger for power. Ancient bones hang upon the miles of the gate alongside the dregs of the city sentenced to die over days as the teeth dig at the flesh, flaying them so that even undeath does not spare them. Surrounding the gate are many peoples that dare not enter the city proper, yet wish to engage with its denizens as to venture within is without the guard of the Emperor's Ward.

The Fangs. Towering spires of ivory stone rise to the east and west of the vast city. Each marking a manor of the nobility of Duemonte. Aligned east and west are bloodlines of vampires with long histories still held in the heart of their matriarch or patriarch, and other bloodlines more recent in ascendance due to the gifts of the Wyrd College granting them undead progeny. Since the end of the War of Extinction, many soldiers have left the Emperor's Ward to join knightly orders of the Duemonti Houses granting them undue power and influence.

The Bazaare. Once the envy of the world the grand merchant pavilions and trader's meet swelled with plunder of the dragons at the end of the Age of Fire. Holding ancient lore that had been secreted away from the world as vampiric kind plotted the downfall of the dragons and carrying whispers between peoples. The Bazaare was built upon this power of this knowledge and possession. Since the end of the War of Extinction the grandiosity has fallen to squalor, as the nobility has focused on sequestering more and power with each passing year. The buildings now dark and sunken, shops and stops still cater to the desire of each passerby as the consortiums did in the past. As it is oft said, "One never knows what they might find, or what might find them in the Bazaare."

The Cruorium. When Duemonte was first raised as it flooded with humans seeking to embrace the blessing of the Unliving Emperor, a district was set aside for those in waiting. Those who had to await the gift of vampirism while offering up their blood to the others. None know exactly what happened but soon those in the district were enslaved, setting the vampiric people on the path to begin marching across the land enslaving any that fit their desire to feed. Quickly this district turned to a market for "blood servants" till the end of the War. Now the district serves as the exchange for the blood golems known as the Chattel as they are dispersed throughout the empire.

The Wyck. The district was once a place of consecration for the Unliving Sect, a sacred refuge for those taking on vampirism. As Duemonte captured those from across the lands, hardened domiciles were erected to house those forced into bloody servitude. At the end of the War the district fell to ruin with uprisings from those enslaved as they were finally released. The district filled quickly with the veterans of the War, but with the gift of vampiric progeny brought on by the experiments of the Wyrd College the population of these slums now swelled. Violent gangs now rule over the district owing fealty in various measure to the criminal syndicate the Pale Mercantile.

The Wyrd. While once the district had been in service to the militaristic ends of the Emperor's Ward and the devout practices of the Unliving Sect. The year 972 in the Age of Earth as Malak Dester was wrested from Synstasia, his mad curiosity bringing him into the Unliving Emperor's confidence Dester claimed the east of the city. Remade to his wishes a massive complex of identical sealed black marble halls of learning were created, sown with arcane wards and safeguards so that none might breach it, nor nothing escape. Within these halls it is said that Dester blasphemes against the world. Creating abominations to rival those that dwell in the Depths.

The Hole of Harrow. Once a dungeon unrivaled in the world, meant to last the eons, once known at the Gaol of Harrow where those who had transgressed against the Unliving Emperor might find torture unending at the hands of his servants. Though with the decline of the city following the end of the War of Extinction, a great calamity befell the dungeon as a hole opened its center. It is now overrun by those it was once meant to contain. Within certain circles in hushed whispers some tell of an arcanist of such dreadful power that even the Unliving Emperor had come to fear them, saying that they now rule the dungeon.

The Severspine. The name given the colossal arch that suspends the city upon the waters from where the canals of Plaguewater flow. The miles of the arch are marked keeps that were once said to hold destructive spells laid down by the Unliving Emperor so that should he wish he might plunge the city into the depths. While the War of Extinction raged the Emperor's Ward occupied these keeps, but now the Unliving Sect has seized them, though the keeps that overlook the Wyrd are forced to remain unoccupied at the demand of Malak Dester.

The Dread Ward. When people the world over speak of the Dread Ward none know truly of what they speak save those who have lived through its bloody ordeals. Unlike any other military the Emperor's Ward understand the singular drive of vampiric kind and feeds that hunger to the edge of madness. Should recruits survive this trial they are then turned loose into the "Snarl" where they meet threats conjured and captured beyond the measure of what any other soldier would dare face. Fiends summoned from the Lower Planes, aberrations fished from the maddened bowels of the world, and vitally other undead creatures: ghouls and wraiths, wights and mummies, skeletons, zombies, every manifestation of the power of Draumah, the god of undeath and tyranny, is set against these vampiric warriors. The survivors are then made blooded members of the Emperor's Ward.

The Thirsting Vale. For all of the dangers that hold host within the city of Duemonte none is more deadly than those held within the Stygian Vine covered walls of this quarter. A sprawling arboretum swallowed by a malevolent crimson mist, where amongst the trees grow the most vile and cruel of flora. This garden was once graced by the presence of the Unliving Emperor as his palace grounds where he hunted humans by the hundred. Now the garden is tended by the Empress Consort Mortasia Tromend as she now is said to make examples of any who would speak against the Emperor by loosing them into the Vale.

The Pale Sepulcher. Eight monumental cathedrals comprise this near otherworldly palace of pallorous stone. Soaring bridges lead from the vast towers buttressed by blacksteel turrets, each one an unrivaled palace fortress unto itself. Within these somber halls is said to be the true histories of Kyme. A collection of knowledge and relics begun in the most ancient of days, as many revere the Emperor as the world's unliving memory, a deity born of hunger and time's onward march to an end only the Emperor might foresee. Where once the Unliving Emperor stalked the world, none, save the Empress Consort Mortasia Tromend and Malak Dester now gain audience. Though on clear nights within the city a crimson figure is said to be seen on the parapets of the Pale Sepulcher.