The District of Pillars
“Its holy pillars number 42. These are the fingers of the Judges, the fingers that will raise us to A’aru.”
Nestled in the Nexus’ southeast territories, the District of Pillars is an artificial desert. The climate abruptly shifts as you near it. Temperate weather changes into blistering heat and terrible dryness. It is more akin to a piece of reality that has been stitched into the Nexus’ fabric, and the effect is even strange by the cities standards. It hosts massive pyramids, communities built into cliff sides, stone homes that stand resolute against ruinous sandstorms, and its eponymous pillars.
However, it does have one other feature. The most powerful forces within the district are its guilds, craftsmen and artists who create objects flush with life energy. Some of these can even exhibit powerful supernatural effects, but these are rare occurrences. Still, their more common relics are of interest to many supernatural beings. Some have learned to draw power from them, enhancing their natural abilities. Others such as vampires can draw sustenance from the undiluted life force that no blood can compare to. The only guild with military applications is the Guild of the Shell, the masters of unlife and the body. They are in charge of their people’s funerary customs. When the soul sheds the body, the remains are animated to labor until it crumbles to dust. For the most part these are identical in strength, dexterity, and toughness. The only difference is that they are mindless.
42 Pillars:
The holiest of relics, each of these obelisks stand at about 200 meters. They are seemingly plain and carved from limestone; however, they surge with vital energy. For miles around the pillars are desolate wastes devoid of all life. Beings without supernatural vitality soon find themselves stripped of life. Only the special rites of the guilds and the patrolling undead may move freely in their presence. Upon each pillar inscribed in universal language one of the laws which govern the district, and in each obelisk’s presence the authority of its patron deity is made manifest. Those who trespass against the holy law in their presence suffer grievous maladies resistant even to supernatural healing or terrible curses that even potent magecraft will find difficult to purify.
The Sons of Apep:
While the Guild of the Shell commands the undead constructs, it is only this secret and unofficial group that maintains its true military force. The Sons of Apep have cast their mortality and decay farther away from themselves, using rituals to sacrifice others to be consumed by inevitable chaos and destruction. They are masters of terrible chimera born from sacrilegious pits, and their master maintains an uneasy position as the chief authority amongst the guilds.
First Coils:
The starting members of the Sons have yet to construct their first familiar and are newly blooded. Still, their resilience is at an Incredible baseline. Furthermore, they rarely become hungry or tired. Despite these advantages, they are still mostly fodder and usually accompany the undead forces of the guildes.
Second Coils:
These growing cultists have created their first chimera, the bones enfleshed by a terrible power. Their resilience also grows an additional rank to Fantastic, and they suffer no maladies from ignoring conventional mortal needs. Sustenance and air are unnecessary while heat is only concerning if so cold or burning that their bodies melt. Their familiars have an Incredible baseline. They generally grow no larger than bigger dog breeds, but they make up for it with natural abilities. The creatures spit venom, bleed scorpions, and their natural weapons are as deadly as any mystical weapon. These are the Sons’ professional soldiers.
Third Coils:
There are barely a handful of these experts. They spend most of their time immersed in their research, attended by chimeras no smaller than an adult bear with Fantastic stats. The chimeras are more unique than their younger brethren. Some leave wounds that only mystic powers can recover, and even those encounter greater difficulty than usual. Others patrol a spiritual plane of existence, using this distance to stalk their prey and explosively manifest in a pounce. Some can even rip the supernatural energy from their foes. The adepts themselves have achieved Heroic durability. Their body structure is uniform, with even their eyes as strong as their hardest bones. The blades that do manage to pierce their skin find that even with the worst wound barely a drop of blood will escape them; their bodies are frighteningly stable. They also recover quickly, healing deadly wounds in hours. They cannot regrow limbs, but they pair their bodies with many improvements. Through their rituals many have achieved Incredible in their other two stats. They have also attained mystic talents of High potency. Their curses are potent and can easily cause destruction from long range with materials that resonate with the target. However, all their magic functions off of sacrifice and exacts a cost that is rather noticeable for those researching the phenomena.
The Fourth Coil:
There is only one Fourth Coil. His skin has been tanned from long days under the sun but hangs loosely upon his skull. He is bald and his eyes are rather droopy, rarely focusing on any target. The man looks ancient. However, his body is muscled and strong. When he shifts from his characteristic slouch he stands at nearly seven feet. When he fits, he sheds the false skin over his head and lets the black serpent that blooms from his neck free.
His strength and agility are Fantastic while his durability is Legendary.
The Fourth Coil’s durability is incomparable to his students. When his flesh is cut, burning sandstorms spill out onto the battlefield before the wound quickly closes. Minor wounds and scrapes heal in seconds while dangerous wounds take only minutes. The only organ worth striking for is his brain, the seat of his mind. The Fourth Coil had already cut out and entombed the others.
He casts no shadow, having sundered it from his soul to use as a servant. This nameless shadow is a terrifying spy, having almost no presence and being capable of moving at Legendary speeds as it scampers through the darkness. Only creatures with frightening visual senses or spiritual insight would have the chance to notice it. His heart, spirit, and essence composes his weapon, a khopesh that burns with vital energies and terrible will. Its blade would scar even Heroic flesh, and is never far from his hand. It is especially heinous against spirits and undead, setting them alight with horrific fires that cause intense pain and awful scarring. His mouth is filled with deadly venom that can prove fatal even against opponents that have supernatural constitution.
He practices magic in the Very High range. He can bring a myriad of curses on other areas, turning water to blood and overrunning their homes with pests. By expending personal objects or pieces of an enemy’s body, he can strike them down with a precise magical attack from afar. He also has constructive powers, having developed rituals that can reconstitute bodies, allow spirits to manifest freely, and binding ghosts along with demons to his will. His greatest ritual is that which ties into his name, the soul pillar upholding his soul. Through his name his Third Coils can resurrect him even if he should perish, his spirit as unstoppable as his body.
None living have seen the Fourth Coil’s chimera. It is a monstrous black serpent with all Heroic attributes that could swallow a bus whole, and along its coils spring an entire menagerie. Lioness heads reach out to tear into flesh, crocodile maws spring forth to crush foes, paws and talons emerge from its scales to rend its foes, even the ferocious jaws of a hippopotamus are seen and can smash its enemies to dust. Rather than eyes and a nose, an enlarged human face sits upon the top of its head in absolute silence. Its eyes are shut and features unworried even in the midst of battle. When wounded, the creature’s blood gives birth to the chimeras created by the Second Coils, monstrosities birthed in an instant from its corruption. Its presence ripples through spiritual planes, allowing it to phase through mundane physical matter and force spirits into tangible existences. It strangely has no venom despite its fangs, but instead it vomits forth further horrors. Unsatisfied by mundane tribute, the spirits within its belly are imprisoned and degrade into a toxic slurry. Its poison spills out, a spiritual malady that causes the body to rot. Ghostly and skeletal hands emerge from the rot, intent on dragging others to their deaths. The chimera is the most terrifying thing that district has ever seen… and nothing can truly control it.
It is true that he can give it orders as if it was a familiar, and it may even obey them. However, the beast is insatiable. If he sends it to attack a rival it may never return, intent of feasting upon the living until it is full. It can never be satisfied. Even his most powerful rituals would find it difficult to subdue the beast, and the ensuing conflict devastated the district but once before. It is kept subdued on a diet of relics created by the guilds, and so they work with their hated enemies for the sake of mutual survival. And, if the worst were to come, it would prove a devastating weapon to be sure.
The Fourth Coil’s greatest secret is that the beast is not beast. It is fully aware, and only an ocean of curses keeps its mind dull. When it first escaped, it tore open its own scales and formed a chimera army birthed from its own blood. It perhaps hoped to destroy them all. It is an existential threat by every meaning of the word for the District of Pillars. Even he is not so arrogant as to pursue an enemy if it would mean the beast slipping loose. For the truly ambitious, it would be possible to court such a horrific monsters… but how long the arrangement would last is left to chance.
Notable Areas
The Great Pyramids:
Three massive structures serve as the nexus of most guild activity in the district. The markets are filled with relics whose value is great enough that money is rarely offered in exchange. Usually it is bargained for other magical artifacts, rare materials, or oaths bound by magic. The streets are patrolled by the undead servants from the Guild of the Shell. Some Coils of the Sons of Apep also watch over the area just in case.
As the major economic heart of the district, direct violence is unbelievably risky even from the more powerful beings in the Nexus. The sheer amount of bodies and magical power that would be levelled against an invader would be staggering.
Titan Bones:
There are numerous sites of massive creatures who perished in the desert years ago. The Guilds harvest them for relics, but the Sons of Apep and Guild of the Shell take special interest in the specimens. It is rumored that they are attempting to reanimate the creatures, and some even speculate that the Fourth Coil’s chimera was constructed using parts from these creatures.
While somewhat protected, it isn’t uncommon for thieves to take bones or carvings from the areas. Normally there are only researchers there who would not be able to muster significant defense; however, there are occasionally greater Coils and Shell members who provide a threat.
