Resh-Khali: The Nations of Ash Part 1: The Asp

While there are scattered hamlets and smaller settlements that dot the landscape where there are sufficient resources to support a few families to live together, there have been groups that have gathered to form new "kingdoms", rising from the ash and ruins of the old world.

While this is not a definitive list, this does represent some of the more powerful groups that reside on the various continents.

The Kingdom of the Golden Asp

On the eastern coast at the southern mouth of the Jade Asp River Sea, sits the capital of the nation called "Imish-ashter" (Golden Asp). It is a surprisingly grand city, built of painted stones, mud bricks homes, and even some rudimentary roads and sewage. A number of ziggurats dot the city without an easily determinable pattern. The people are tanned from the sun, wearing little more than a loin cloth or kilt, possibly with some jewelry. It is a healthy people, a rare place where learning is encouraged, and literacy is common. They have begun to cultivate the desert, creating a large enough food supplies that they can be even exported to other lands. This is an oasis in a rough world. This luxury and security does come with a disturbing price.

The kingdom is supported on the bones of the undead. Necromancy is the preferred magic of the land. Skeletons and zombies perform household duties, such as cleaning and house maintenance. Once the night falls, mummies patrol the streets, enforcing curfews and deterring thefts. Ghouls stalk the graveyards, cleaning the bones, and preparing them for "service" as an honored ancestor to either continue the labor normally filled by slaves, or to stock the military forces that protect the land from potential invaders. 

The military forces are surprising egalitarian, humans serve along side death knights as commanders. Gender is not a factor when it comes to defending the lands, and who can learn to hold a sword or cast a spell. If you are breathing, you serve your King, and defend your family. If you are no longer breathing, your service does not end. Common soldiers will return to just fill the ranks, but those who have proven themselves may return as Skeletal Champions, Death Knights, or even Wights. No one ever is returned as a vampire, though. 

The ruler of this land of the dead and living is the Great King Eternal, Sumrigal. Sumrigal is a lich, donning the finest raiment available, a tiered crown resting upon his skeletal brow. He rules with a firm grasp on his people, but he does not squeeze too tight. He protects and provides for his people. The undead tend to the crops, they assist in construction efforts, and they defend the citizens of his new kingdom. He knows that he must walk a fine line between being a tyrant and being the beneficent ruler. The necromancy taught in the schools are from his own teachings and study. He supports the arts, especially painting and poetry. He is a ruler both terrifying and understanding. He has learned his lessons. 

Millenniums ago, Sumrigal ruled his land with a tight clawed hand, fear, and power. Then a band of heroes rose up, crushed his armies, banished his demons, and in a climatic battle, fit for the greatest of operas, he was defeated. His bones and phylactery were entombed, warded and bound, never to reform, never to escape. That was before Shiva's dance. Now he is returned. The opportunity was ripe. In the chaos, the masses sought any sense of security, and his name was lost. He was not known as the evil tyrant... he was just another powerful being that had the strength and force of will to attract and defend his followers. 

Ever since then, his little fortress city-state has grown. He has had relative peace. There have been some skirmishes with the Fortress-State of the Sun Phoenix to the northern end of the Jade Asp River Sea, but they have mostly ended in stalemates. 

His greatest pain comes from the Upheaval Ridge, a series of jutted, rocky badlands that serve as refuge for bandits and raiders of a number of races. Many appear to serve the will of either the Black Fang, some sort of Gnoll demi-god, or the Red Haired One. The fact that both of these forces have used odd golems, divs and demons to booster their numbers is a source of concern. 

Smurigal does not promote a faith in his lands. He forbids the worship of himself as a god. He has found that rarely ends well. He does, though, support the worship of Death, in both the aspects of eternal peace, as well as in eternal labor as one of the Undead. Death is never given a name, never a gender, never any indication of a form. Death is Death and Death is Everywhere. The End needs nothing more to identify it. 

The Great King finds adventures a great boon to his nation. He actively supports his necromancers to travel abroad. He encourages those with special talents, to do likewise, or to travel into the wastes to discover ruins, and bring back gold and gems, lost mysteries and wisdom. It is far better to have hot blooded, unique individuals working for him, rather than plotting against him.