The heart of evil, with a main walled city where the dead rule. Like a festering wound, it contaminates the surrounding land, but since its ruler does not actively seek to grow or expand its boundaries,
few feel it worth the effort and bloodshed to remove its taint. Also the seat of Jinat’s Omnarch, this Priest has the ear (albeit decayed on one side and missing on the other) of the Necromancer (lich?)
ruler. The subjects are ruled merely by fear and terror, and since there is nowhere to go (and ships may leave only after a thorough search), most stay on only hoping that someone else will be the next
to suffer and die horribly.
Many times over the last hundreds of years the Humanoids which live and breed so freely here have spilled over the Duchy's undefined borders, much to the horror and loss of the Waizer Rovers, or even Ocba
or the Orb Nomads. In these lands the word "Knidu" is a curse, and the name of its central keep, Castle Blacklock, uttered only in a whisper. A small land, but feared and loathed by all but those
of the most evil bent.
BACKGROUND
Originally a prison for the worst criminals of the Arsoshi Union (ca. 3300), it was eventually used as a sort of remote death camp. Its commandant was granted this as a Duchy in return for his loyalty. Sadly
for all concerned his madness and desire for eternal life went unnoticed until too late.
Captain Knidu was the leader of the Black Eagle Battalion, hard and experienced troops, who along with a marine contingent who delivered supplies and prisoners claimed this point and the surrounding land for their
prison at the command of their leaders. Years of hard work building the initial keep resulted in hundreds of prisoners deaths, while the incessant battles with the local Dripping Blade orcs (and others) steadily
diminished the proud Black Eagles. Yet the prisoners kept coming, and the isolation and pressure took their toll on Captain Knidu's life-long mental instabilities. Yet to the leaders back east, this hell-hole was
becoming increasingly important, as growing unrest meant that more than mere criminals needed to be sent far away.
So the leaders gave Captain Knidu increasingly freer rein, eventually ceding the entire area he had claimed to him as a Duchy, so long as he continued to take their prisoners off their hands. Meanwhile, Captain Knidu
had realized it was far easier to allow the orcs and local humnanoids to act as his prison guards than it was to fight them all the time. Not to mention the fact that it gave him more time to pursue his own increasingly
bizarre experiments on himself and others. It was as this point that Priests of Jinat began to meet and converse with Captain Knidu. From these contacts grew a mutually beneficial relationship, which has now evolved to
the point where – hundred of years later – it is hard to say whom truly wields the most power in this sorry land.
It has been centuries now since the last boatload of prisoners arrived in Blacklock harbour or at Matillia's docks, but somehow even the human population continues to grow.
STATISTICS
CAPITAL: Matillia (14,000)
TOTAL POP.: 30,000
POLITICAL STRUCTURE: Dictatorship
LANGUAGE(S): Common (see: [human languages])
HUMANS: 65% of mixed descent, with the remainder a smattering of virtually all races
DEMI-HUMANS: Few
HUMANOIDS: Many more thousands
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