Rigus
| Gate-Town | |
|---|---|
| Population: | 20,000 |
| Gate To: | Acheron |
| Primary Faction: | Mercykillers |
Rigus is a huge, permanent military encampment, rising wall upon wall and battlement upon battlement to dominate this part of the land. The camp's divided into seven stacked rings, each built all the way around a great hill. The largest ring's set around the bottom of the hill, and the smallest (called the Crown) is set around the top. Octagonal walls of iron separate each ring from the others: a wall surrounds the bottom ring, too, to block Rigus off from the rest of the Outlands. Travellers can use the gate at the bottom wall, but watch it, berk - the wall's been treated with mild poisons to keep rust monsters (and, some say, all visitors) at bay.
Rigus is organized with military efficiency; groups called military orders take the place of clans or families. Each order's ruled by a general with the necessary officers below him, ending with the citizens and slave-soldiers. Of the hundred or so military orders in Rigus, the most powerful is a grim bunch called the Toll of Doom Brotherhood.
The Gate
The Gate to Acheron is far below the surface of the earth, but in the Crown there's a mile-long staircase that'll take a body right down to it. The stairs empty into a huge underground chamber that contains an archway made of bariaur bones. In the archway is what looks like a gigantic cat's eye: a swirling mass of green-yellow color, with a stripe of black running down the middle. This is the Gate to Acheron, called the Lion's Gate.
The chamber has other entrances, too, with tunnels that snake off into distant parts of the underground. Legend has it that they lead to realms of dark powers and even some far-off gates. Fact is, creatures pop out of the Lion's Gate all the time and use the tunnels to spread throughout the Outlands.
The Populace
Folks in Rigus are given ranks to show how high-up they are (or aren't). Each one starts out as a "citizen," even the newborn and travellers who've settled in town. Citizens can be promoted by the Great Generals to a higher rank: private, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, or general. 'Course, berks can drop below citizen, too - law-breakers and captives from raids get stuck with the rank of "slave-soldier." A body's expected to follow the orders of higher ranks without question, and the populace sticks to the letter of this law. Any disobedience is treason, and those who turn stag in this manner get put in the dead-book.
Sods new to the town get a bit of a break. They're given slate plaques to wear around their necks on heavy iron chains, so natives can see they're in the dark about the laws. But pike off a higher-up in rank, and a berk'll find her plaque torn off and destroyed, leaving her open to the laws and to the gangs that rove around looking for recruits and slaves.
Humans, tieflings, and evil humanoids are the main races in Rigus. The place tends to draw bashers who understand military discipline, such as orcs and hobgoblins. And, of course, the Mercykillers have a lot of pull with the town's military orders. The chant even says that many generals are secretly members of that faction.
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