Ultrecht

Ultrecht, The city of the Dead.
Ultrecht is a city in the loose affiliation of militant citys states of miletia, It is an inland city with limited access to waterways but is strategically close to the coastline.

The city of ultrecht like all miletian cities is built upon the ruin of an ancient Mythac city, The sites are chosen because of their connection to a mighty magical enchantment called a Mythal.

The mythal of ultrecht is known as "The Web of Deciet" due to its affinity with subterfuge and mockery, The mythal greatest effect  is to raise anyone who falls within the city as an undead creature in service of the Mythal, Many citizens resign themselves to this fate but the rich and elite may but a true death from the Temple of the Dead to avoid such service.

The Second effect of the Mythal is the everchanging layout of Ultrechts streets, Any invading or occupying force will find that they can never truly map or garrison the extent of the city, They might get what they think is the city layout on paper only to find themselves wandering in to whole new cantons or being unable to find entire familiar quarters.

The undead are ever present in ultrecht, They clean the streets, Act as guards and escorts to its citizens and Perform civic and utility roles such as self-opening gates, Door locks or even such lavish designs as walking chairs.

The attitude of most citizens towards the undead is nuetral  to disinterested, even the most macabre and surreal sights lose their luster the hundredth time you see them, Visitors to the city thgouh claim that the passive and inert undead sometimes seem to be looking their way, Others report a feeling of suppressed Rage and Hunger emenating from the bodies, But the feeling often fades after being in the city for a few months.

The people of ultrecht are the lost and the damned of Miletia, They come to ultrecht to hide, to interact with the darker depths of human culture or to seek power in ways that would revolt most sane men.

The city thrives on these men though as that is what Ultrecht is about, At its worst it is Cruel and Torturous, Often disgusting and horrifying, At its best its a fresh start, a place of exploration and discovery unfettered by concerns of morality or consequence.

Dead-Wood

There is a special kind of tree that grows in the city of ultrecht known only as "Deadwood" These trees are impossible to kill, The wood they produce will forever try to grow, It sucks hungrily at and life force it encounters and has been known to repair itself when exposed to blood or corpses for food, The wood can be fashioned into any item and the "Set" with a Laquer blessed by a priest of the dead, The wood will then keep that shape and will even regenerate overtime when damaged, This resource is scarce but is highly prized outside the city, In appearance the wood is a dark black colour shifting to a bone white core with streaks of red hardwood through the centre, When treated it takes on the paler pallour of bone but with a wood texture throughout.

The Bazaar of Hours

There is a small market in ultrecht with a horrible reputation, It can only be found by the Desperate and the Insane and it trades in Memories.

One particularly clever necromancer once discovered how to extract liquid memories from recently deceased corpses, The more intense the memory the greater the price, This practice is seen as a highly invasive and is shunned by every other city, The process itself is highly ilegal in ultrecht but little to nothing is done about it unless someone stumbles onto the wrong memory, The men who trade and aquire these memories are known as "Grave-Merchants".

The Temple of The Dead

The temple of the dead in ultrecht is devoted to the purity of death beyond unlife, Its power comes from the fear of many citizens of falling and becoming undead before they have a chance to leave the city, It is presider over by The High Priest of the Dead who administers his church with the assitance of "The Sisters of Sleep" and the "Brothers of Silence" The sisters are the most active arm of the church and make up the majority of its clergy, The brothers of silence are a small group who specialise in destroying or turning undead and necromancers, The church is currently headed by Biscop Uthius IV a corrupt and greedy man who has turned the church into a buisness selling death.

The city has many easier to find and common areas, The Poor Quarter contains most of the new citizens and immigrants to the city, The industrial Quarter is fileld with factories and the working class, The Merchant quarter is filled with Traders and Tradesmen, The Foreign Quarter contains inns and is the only part of the city that non-citizen miletians may enter, The Walled Ward is the name given to the huge walled section of the city the rich have hidden themselves in, The Necromantieon contains the crypts and hospital of ultrecht as well as many of its less savoury eperimental practices, The Docks and Warehouse quarter are adjacent to the Foreign Quarter and require a working permit for anyone to enter, The Temple quarter holds many of the shrines dedicated to the God of Miletia but is dominated by the huge Cathedral of Death, There are many more smaller quarters that a visitor may find themselves in such as the undead fighting pits, The Corpse Market or the reputed Light Quarter which is the only part of the city not infested with undead but they are not on the maps of the city and are much harder to find.

<p class="MsoNormal">The army of Ultrecht is comprised of human Guardsmen with a detatchment of Undead soldiers, The number and strength of the undead is dictated by ther persons rank and standing within ultrecht, The guardsmen wear long black loose fitting robes that are then tightenened at the wrists by bracers, Torso by a lack breastplate, Waist by a white sash and knees by metal cops, They also wear a black barbute style helmet and will have a number of brass skulls on their collars to indicate their rank, These men are reffered to by the populace as "Skull Guard".

<p class="MsoNormal">Ultrecht has a fairly bad reputation with other cities and although trade is common it is usually not in great quantities, The city harbours a particular grudge against the city of Drenthe as they feel that Drenthe is the only city that has taken direct steps to destroy the deffences of Ultrecht, They also have Particularly bad relations with the City of Magic due to the general distaste shown for necromantic Magic.

<p class="MsoNormal">There are a few Mercenary companies who commonly fall into the employ of Ultrecht, The first is a company founded by an ex-Skull Guard commander that travels miletia collecting bodies, The Freeskulls is the most common name for them and they are known for swarming their enemy with plentiful cheap undead.

<p class="MsoNormal">The second is known as the Revenance, They are a group of necromancers who craft super-powered undead assassins to do their work for them often with a self destructive mechanism built in, Their asssassins are particularly feared as they obviously have no concern for their own existence and will ignore many security measures that would stop normal men.

<p class="MsoNormal">The third is called "Suvons Slayers" and are a group of guerilla style murderers, When not employed by the city this company acts as common bandits, The leader and his captains are all reputedly addicted to the Memory Drugs of ultrecht and are unusually loyal for a mercenary company because of it.

<p class="MsoNormal">The fourth and probably most fearsome are known as "Fate" and where one of the companies hired by the recently slain Emperor of Miletia to remain on the Sethgorod border during the recent Miletian War, They number just over twenty and all are several hundred years old, They are called "Bone Knights"  by some men as they all have a solid exoskeletal armour which is never removes, They left their mortality behind long ago delving deep into the realms of necromantic magic and have becom what they call "More than alive" They are known as Fate because it is believed that the completion of their contacts is as inevitable as death itself.