>>5410298Deep within the Charnel Lands you finally come to the locale of your new demesne. A huge lowland valley, scored into the earth, surrounded by mountains and rocky slopes. At its centre a mountain of masonry, a haphazard pile of titanic walls, battlements keeps, spires and temples, valleys of pillars and chasms of brickwork, all built atop or crumbling into each other.
The Living Triptych called it the <span class="mu-s">Abominable Monument.</span> You have heard it called it the Crypt Keep, the Castle Heap, the Pagan Mountain, the Endless City and a dozen names more during your time with the Esoteric Fraternity; the place was a favourite stop for the Count of Orvieti.
The Monument was here before the cataclysm. For millennia, pagan rulers warred with each other to build yet greater temples and kingdoms on the slopes of hallowed land. Their works were built atop and dwarfed by those of The World King. Since His death, a dozen more madmen, cults and warlords have built it larger still.
Long ago, the Church itself crusaded to take control of and build upon the thing, but those efforts have left only a scant few decorated towers and chapels clinging to the Heap’s exterior. The Church’s true legacy here was the development of the valley, now scattered with patchwork fields and dotted with hamlet, manors, and abbeys. So far, your impression of the Charnel Lands was little more than twisted wilderness and a few stray ruins, but here the Church has cultivated an enclave of normalcy, even if is more sparsely populated than most countries. There is neither king nor queen here, nor any dukes or counts. All land owners here owe their allegiance to the Church, whether they be native colonist or those, like yourself, who have been relocated here; there is always demand for knights and myriad other experts in the Church’s continued attempts to, if not conquer, at least plumb the depths of Monument.
The new demesne you have been assigned is the village of Deveché. It is a…
>Farming settlement on the grassy flats, some distance away from the Monument. At its centre is a crossroads and an inn, and fairs and markets are sometimes held there.>Woodlands settlement, close to the Monument, often in the darkness of the forest and the heap. A foreboding environment, but its manor is well fortified and the whole place is defended by a palisade. >Riverside settlement, far from the Monument but directly downstream of it. A number of watermills allow for a variety of small, productive industries. 