Groza: An Undead Confederation

Groza

A Confederation of Undead

Overview- Groza is an island nation located to the far north of the Western continent of Velas. While it was once a bountiful land, fertile and temperate, in the beginning of the Epoch of Flame it is an almost unliveably harsh and frozen wasteland, as it has been for millennia. It is populated by vicious and powerful undead, the magically powerful Liches and the more martially adept Death Lords. While they spend most of their time politicking and squabbling, one will occasionally venture south to attempt to regain their ancestral domain, fulfill an agreement or obligation, or simply to acquire more treasure, magical artifacts, or even just new recruits to serve in their undead hordes. Military incursions, while mercifully rare, can cause severe damage if not properly dealt with, and otherwise mortal enemies will sometimes set aside their differences to crush them before they get out of hand.
Origins- The land currently occupied by the Confederation used to be a fertile and beautiful land. Its current state is almost entirely due to the actions of an individual known as the King of Death, whose behavior was so appalling that his name was stricken from every record known to man. Originally a just, if harsh, ruler, the King expanded his domain greatly through a combination of diplomacy, warfare, and economic subordination until his domain covered the entire Western continent. As many
conquerors do, he let this go to his head. It started subtly, commanding statues and paintings be made and placed in every important building in the land, declaring the first month of the year be renamed after him, but gradually escalated until he demanded that every person within his domains worship him above all else. Naturally, many people of religious denomination refused; equally naturally, he had them all executed, in many cases wielding the executioner's sword with his own two hands.
Enraged, the gods sent a terrible curse upon him; his original, island domain confined to the far north was cut off from the rest of his kingdom by terrible blizzards that continue to this day, freezing even the sea near the shore. The less fortunate froze to death; the survivors began plotting to overthrow him. Thus, he took the only reasonable course of action left to him; he doubled down, and in a demented ritual of epic death  magic turned himself and all of his court into undead of terrible and monstrous power, though most of them retained their minds, however damaged they might be. The rest of the population fared less well; most of them were reduced to mindless zombies and skeletons, though approximately one in ten retained their former personalities and skill sets. Many of the survivors were exceptionally displeased with their new state of existence, and assaulted his castle. However, the king was nowhere to be found; what happened is still unknown, even to this day. While some of the Confederation is made up of the ancient monsters from that time, even the undead can be destroyed with sufficient motivation. As such, many are relative newcomers, accepted for expertise in magic or force of arms.
Government- The Court of the True King (as they call themselves) is organized as many monarchical courts historically were; the only distinction, of course, that the king is absent. In his head, the Regent of the Lands is the nominal leader of the Court, though the position changes hands relatively frequently, depending on which powers are waning or ascendant. They are technically in charge of distributing the various other titles of the court, though a regent who antagonizes more than a few of the more powerful nobles is unlikely to last for long before being deposed. After the regent, the various dukes, counts, and other nobles' title and ranks depend on their personal holdings; while they used to stretch across the current countries, they are currently mostly confined to the relatively small island they're mostly trapped on. As such, personal magnificence (wealth, works of art, enchanted artifacts, etc.) matter more for status than the small tracts of land any of them possess. Since being trapped in a small location brews resentment and grudges, and since there is generally very little to no threat of true death, there is an almost comical amount of plotting and subtle undermining between the members of the Court.
Magic- Liches are all magic users of terrible and unnatural power in multiple different schools of the arcane. Death Lords tend to be much less magically gifted, generally only having skill in death magic and rarely anything else, but compensate by having more experience in warfare and tactics beyond "blow everything up", but are still generally on par with fairly skilled mortal necromancers. They are, unsurpisingly, possibly the most magically talented faction per capita. However, due to the very low number of sapient beings capable of utilizing magic, they can and frequently are overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemy spellcasters if a proper force is organized to counter them. A Lich may be able to rain as much fire and ruin as a hundred mortal mages, but when several hundred are arrayed against them, that fact becomes much less significant. They are also likely the organization with the strongest grasp of magical theory and the truly arcane; while mortal mages must deal with concerns of wealth, expense, time availability, not blowing themselves up, and more, the immortal undead ignore such petty inconveniences.
Culture- A pit of vipers, if the vipers could fight each other with magic. With the King of Death gone, no one undead can truly claim to lead the Court; while the Regent may lead in name, they are still frequently forced to accede to the demands of their supporters, and frequently some of their enemies. Despite their plotting, all of the old guard (and all of the newcomers, at least while the old guard can see them) follow a code of ethics; while archaic by the standards of current civilization, they will almost never stray from it. (I'll write down a code later; basically, Don't betray your explicitly given word; treat your equals fairly; accept a commander's surrender graciously, etc.) Their relations with the areas they used to rule are generally poor. Most of the older members refuse to negotiate on equal terms with what they see as usurping upstarts, while said upstarts understandably refuse to give up their rule due to the demands of a shrieking skeleton. Some of them have been more subtle in their attempts to regain their old domains, however, and while none have succeeded thus far, a few have been making inroads. In particular, the former Duarchs of Kesst have been having some success in taking their case to court, though the case has taken decades already and shows no time of being resolved in the near future. While approximately two thirds of the court were part of the original group, some modern men and women have joined them. Their recruitment standards are stringent, and one who would join them must give up much, but the reward for doing so is true immortality: a few dying arch-mages, rulers, and warlords have considered the price well worth it. They are generally the lowest ranked members of the court, with the weakest magical abilities and the least wealth. The undead outside of the court who retained their selves mostly left as soon as they could, heading to lands where they weren't lorded over by ancient tyrants; many of them landed in Lusmia, though some went elsewhere. Those that remained generally did so out of loyalty to some particular lord, or even to the vanished king.
Economics- The economics of the Court are, understandably, rather atypical. No new raw materials have been generated on the island for millennia; nothing can grow there, few animals can survive there, and all mineral wealth was extracted during the time when the eternal storms were too fierce to get in or out. As an incidental effect of this, almost every distinct objects that a Lich or Death Lord regularly interacts with is enchanted, from the doors to the cobblestones to the cutlery. While there is no organized trade on a national level, individual lords occasionally barter with outsiders. While extremely rich by most standards, interacting with the old guard can be extremely dangerous; they demand very specific rites of obsequiousness and behavior from any they view as beneath them, and will rarely hesitate to employ violence if displeased. More than one merchant or adventure brave enough to risk it has amassed a fortune from doing so, however. The newer members of the court, while less rich with gold and artifacts, are generally much safer to parlay with.
Military- Due to the general lack of cohesion, each Lich and Death Lord deploys his or her troops in a different manner. They can range from teleporting to a population center, slaughtering the inhabitants, and marching their new army on their enemies under cover of night to leading a force self-aware servants supplemented by hired mercenaries to meet their opponents in traditional warfare.