ORMPUR

Called Shattered Ormpur, the City of the Dead or the City of Graves, the remains of this once great city lie just a few days north of the thriving city of Sheirtalar, in a dry, hilly region.  Once a great city and kingdom in the Empire of Sheirtalar generations ago, the people of the empire now use its ruins as a mass grave for their dead, while a silent cabal of wizards and priests watch over the tombs.

The shattered city of Ormpur sits at the terminus of a long, narrow bay of the Shining Sea and abuts the end western point of the Wormbones, a semi-volcanic, wasted area of hills, crags and narrow canyons in which the bones of many great dragons lie.

The cracked and crumbling ruins stand upon a series of small hills, rubble littering the ground around the city and within it, though a careful eye will note that many of the blocks have been moved around or piled deliberately near where they fell, creating a landscape of pathways and private nooks between the broken blocks.
A light forest surrounds the ruins, many of the trees black husks, the rest scattered in sparse copses around the city, thicker and more alive nearer the coast.  The climate is dry, except near the coast, where it becomes almost tropical in humidity, and the flora becomes thicker and more vibrant.

The streets within the ruins are of flat worn cobble-stone or stone, twisting and rubble-strewn, broken and cracked in some places where the earth has buckled and heaved.  Complete stone buildings still stand here and there, but most have fallen or been shattered and broken, missing walls, floors or strangely broken sections.  The signs of human work show here, as without, some of the rubble cleared, small tombs built for the dead of the rubble and so forth.
The city is silent and the new and long dead lay everywhere, wrapped in white burial shrouds, wilted flowers upon their chests, rings, coins, small trinkets placed nearby.

Only one empty gate facing south at the top of a path upon a narrow rise running paralell to the wall, the carvings that surrounded it now worn away by time and weather, an entry into the empty city, though the walls are breached so that any could enter or exit elsewhere, should they wish.

THE RUINS

The remains and the endless graveyards are protected and overseen by the caretakers of the city, a silent, mysterious sect of black-robed wizards and priests who live in the area, tending to the graves, the dead and the ruins, searching out lost knowledge of the city's libraries and treasuries.
They watch over and comfort the the mourners, as well, and there are few willing to risk their wrath or the whispered curses of the dead to plunder anything of the city.

At the gates, the priests take a silver coin to lead corpse-bearers to a place of rest for their burden, and, should they stay longer, another coin to be led back out.
At the gates, a priest who has not sewn shut his lips speaks to the mourners and bearers and pilgrims of the rules of the city: that the dead are not to be disturbed, that they are to be respected, that none should steal from them.
Consequences are not detailed, but implied. 

THE VILLAGE

The village is downhill of the Shattered City, mostly screened from it by thick jungle, and consists of stilted huts of bamboo and thatch set near the sandy white beach of the cove here.  There are, perhaps, two hundred individuals who live within the village.

The Queen's Palace lies at the south end of the village, a number of interconnected huts richly decorated within with all manner of native craftwork.

RACES & SLAVERY

No one lives in the ruins except the enigmatic cabal of priests who stand guard over the dead, human men who have shaven their heads and sewn their lips together with black thread so that they may not speak; and rumors abound that powerful sorcerers also haunt the ruins.

The survivors of the Tragedy of Ormpur live nearby in a small fishing village upon the coast, unchanged for centuries.  They bear resemblance to the people of Sheirtalar in that they are swarthy skinned and dark colored, though less elven blood runs in their veins than the people of the south and they tend to be slightly taller and tanned golden.

Only humans live there, and like in Sheirtalar, slavery is forbidden, though indentured servitude is part of their culture.

GOVERNMENT

In these days, a fishing village bearing the name of the dead city stands on the shore of the Shining Sea near the ruins, though the villagers avoid the ruins, calling it a haunted, cursed place.

Though their lives and homes are simple, they still follow their Queen, the Lady Althuystra, a devout follower of Bahumat, who leads these survivors of the Tragedy of Ormpur in what they call the Blessed Days.

Though she has servants and is borne on a litter, her palace is little larger or richer than those of her subjects, and nothing compared to the estates or palaces of even the least nobles of Sheirtalar.

The Queen makes decides all laws and disputes for her community, counselled by the peaceful devotees of Bahumat.

ECONOMY AND TRADE

Ormpur is a communal society that does not rely on money or coins among themselves, instead, like the tribes of the plains, the whole village shares the work and produce of each individual.

They do trade with Sheirtalar occasionally for items or goods they require, sending their wooden craftwork or carts of fish southwards.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Ormpur has no ties with any place besides Sheirtalar, with whom the Queen of the village of Ormpur keeps cordial relations.

MILITARY

Ormpur has no military for life in the village is idyllic, peaceful, relaxed and thus it has no force of fighting men.  The Queen, however, is attended by a half-dozen bodyguards, which include two knights of Tiamat who have chosen to serve her instead of wandering the world in service to their forgotten, vanished Goddess.

HISTORY

Though once a vassal state of Sheirtalar, and located close to the shining city, Ormpur retains its independence from southern rule.  However, where once Ormpur was a great city and kingdom, with a King that ruled great stretches of land to the north and east, the kingdom has been reduced in power and size since the Days of Tragedy.

Those days were two-hundred years ago, when the kingdom was crumbling from internal strife and a coup was staged against old King by his own daughter.  In the battle to dethrone the King, the Heartstone in the Temple of Tiamat, Queen of Dragons, the symbol of Ormpur, was split and cracked by a stray cast lance.  Legend states the city was consumed with flames and terror, the earth itself shaking and swallowing the city, and was thus abandoned by those who survived the night, leaving the crumbling ruins of today.

Now, Ormpur is the City of Graves, the Shattered City.  The people of Sheirtalar use it as a massive tomb, burying their dead among the stone-work ruins.  Abandoned, the Temple to Tiamat still stands somewhere amid the ruins, though the Heartstone has vanished.
 

CURRENT EVENTS

Life in Ormpur continues as it always has, though the emeperor of Sheirtalar has recently opened aggressive diplomatic relations with the Queen in an attempt to bring the people of Ormpur back into the empire.

CULTURE

Life here is idyllic and changless, guided benevolently by the devotees of the gentle dragon God, Bahumat, the platinum Dragon of the Skies, the East Wind and Father of Dragons.  Only the Knights of Tiamat continue to study warfare, weaponry and devote themselves to personal wealth and change, and most of them wander the Shaar, uncaring of their former homeland.

The men and women of Ormpur fish and grow simple crops to sustain themselves, they hunt wild boar in the jungle around their home and whatever is gathered, hunted or fished is shared among all of the people.  The women weave and make pottery and homes, cast nets off the shore, while the men carve wood, hunt the wood and go into the deep waters to hunt sharks and the larger fish in the seas and prepare the meat.