City of Verdux, Forgotten and Damned (Patreon)

Sorry for the bit of a wait, but here it is, the city of VERDUX.

The story so far

The Lost City of Verdux 

At the height of its splendor it was a modernized beacon within the Frankish Kingdom, said to rival the capital of Luthum. Industrialized and boasting a full electrical grid, it was a marvel to behold, a place of progress. Yet historical sources disagree on its existence, as all recorded information of it simply ceased in 1780. With the impending Frankish Revolution on the horizon, the total vanishing of this city seems to have simply gone overlooked. It is a complete anomaly. 

The city exists within a strange reality,  between the material and immaterial. The power still flows and the smoke still raises, yet with no meaning now as the engine of progress has been halted and broken by the high strangeness of the unknowable. From the oddities of the Grand Verdux zoo, the strange experiments of the Academy of Dupont, the sickly forms of the sick ward, to the strange things that crawl out of the Harbor. The whole of the city is sick with a strange illness that escapes understanding.

The Cycle of the Wheel

Cursed to die and return, the damned of Verdux are doomed to an endless cycle that only resets once the last of the damned dies in the endless night. Their memories wiped clean of the prior cycle, only the crow has a faint recollection of prior cycles, undoubtedly due to his Vampiric blood. The demons are aware of these cycles as well, Amon and his aid leave messages and symbols for the damned to follow, yet Amon himself can not approach the tower itself, as Marbas would undoubtedly slaughter him, even in his weakened state. The damned must grow in power or ally to defeat the horrors of the city and reach the top, to break the cycle.

The Tower of Incamblosa 

Manifested through a satanic ritual to pierce the thin layer that separates the material and immaterial, causing a bleed event in which these two realities overlap. The ritual to summon a tower requires the mass sacrificing of human lives at five points across an area, the greater the sacrifice the larger the tower and the greater the bleed. Demonic entities spawn from the various levels and holes of the Incamblosa, terrorizing anything that approaches the tower.

The Black

Once a crusader from the Frankish Kingdom, he waged war against the heretical Bezierite cult in the name of the Holy See. He would earn a grim reputation for his heavy handed and remorseless approach, killing women, children, anyone, regardless if they renounced their heretical belief. No one was spared his bloodlust. Clad in black armor, he would be conscripted by the Frankish Crown as an enforcer, crushing revolts and uprising. Known more as a murder and killer than a knight by the people of the realm. The individual lives of the wretched peasants held no value to him, damned all to oblivion as far as he was concerned. The years of brutal and bloody warfare had eroded away any pretense of a divine beauty or a righteous creator, the world was empty of any meaning, and The Black hated this. Riches and power meant nothing to him, the only cold hard truth that he felt comfort in was knowing that he took that which was truly valuable from his enemies, their lives.

He would meet his end at the hands of a mob of peasants revolting against the Frankish Crown's taxation, they would cut his body up and parade around the pieces. These peasants would shortly after be massacred by the Frankish Crown.

The Crow

Once the master of the hunt for the lord of Castle Nocturna and the Midnight Court of the Doomknights. He, much like his kin, was given the rite of blood from the daughter of Attila-Nos, the first of the Vampires. The Crow would diligently serve his master for centuries, until the time came to embark on a great crusade against the dreaded Gore Knights of the east. He would meet his death in the cold fields of the Ruthenian plains in battle against the enemy. He had seen much and fought for so long, yet he felt incomplete. He lived as a tool, his own life was meaningless in the service of the Doom Lord who had marched on ahead, as he died in the fields alone looking up at the stars in the night sky, the moon in full bloom. All his loyalty, all his service, yet at the end of the road no one was there to mourn him, he felt his blood run warm again, something that he hadn’t felt in centuries. He smiled underneath his mask, despite it all he felt joy in his endless duty, a meaningless cycle finally halted by all things a lance through his broken chest, if only he could go hunting once more for that silver tailed fox it was not meant to be.

Now he finds himself without his master, in a strange existence. Unable to escape the outskirts of the city, he is forced to fight his way to the profane tower of Incamblosa. Every so often he feels a strange feeling, a sense of deja vu, has he been here before.Now within the blood soaked remains of Verdux he once again sets out to hunt, for what more is a hunter to do?

The Duchess

Daughter to the brother of the Prince of the Paderborn House, a Principality of the Holy Catharin Empire. She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, always getting her way in life, nothing was out of her reach. She was gifted with the power to manipulate fire, a clear sign of her Warwitch heritage, due to her noble birth she would be spared the fate of being sent to the sisterhood to be trained, stripping her of her noble ties. She would grow into being a beautiful woman, one with many potential suitors. She would be married off to the Duke of Ansbach, who would die of an unknown illness shortly after. She would marry once more to the Prince of Mindelheim shortly after the death of her first husband. She would start a secret relationship with the Prince of the Rhine, the heir apparent to the throne of the Emperor. A letter would arrive to the Rhine telling of the abuse she was suffering from at the hands of the Prince of Mindelheim, starting a short and decisive war between the two Principalities. 

The Prince of Mindelheim would be killed in the battlefield, his health ever worsening. The Duchess would have succeeded in her plans, if not for a stroke of bad luck. A stray arrow struck her through the chest as she surveyed the battlefield, killing her instantly.

The Hunter

Born a bastard of war, his mother died shortly after his birth, he was taken in by a ruthless band of Englican Mercenaries. He would grow up in a culture of brutality, in which the strong took from the weak whatever they wanted. He from a young age partook in this, taught to kill by his adoptive family, he would become an expert with the long bow. As the war between the Frankish and Englican kingdoms finally ground to a halt, his band of mercenaries were out of a job. They take up the role of brigands, stealing and killing across the Frankish countryside. For everything in life could be taken by him, he was not the prey, but the hunter out to fulfill his wants.

Yet with time the band would be picked off, it was only a matter of time before he would be swung from a noose too. That day would come as he stalked a carriage through the woods, he and his remaining men would butcher the passengers and defenders, only to be met with an ambush from the men of the local lord. The Hunter would be the only one of his men not to die in the skirmish, he would be captured alive and taken to the public square. He would be beaten and lashed for days, until his captors would drag him off to a chamber far away from the town. He would be flayed alive, he would scream and curse at them with his final spit in the eye of his executioner before finally succumbing after being fully degloved.

The Wall

Born to a family of commoners in the Englican Kingdom, The Wall worked hard toiling the fields, never once complaining or lamenting his station in life. Come rain or shine he would always be there working. When the call for able bodied men came to his village, he did not hesitate to join the cause of his king. The rightful claimant to the pretender on the Frankish throne, this war would be fought far away from his humble home, across the waters that divide the Europan mainland from the kingdom of Englica. 

He would become a bastion for his fellow soldiers, raising up a towering shield to defend against the Franks. As the war went on he would keep marching following his king, his service would be rewarded, with a set of iron armor. Heavy was his armor, as was his burden, as the standard bearer for the King of the Englicans. He would meet his end defending his King's retreat, he knew he was not going to survive, he knew that he would die fighting. It is said that when the battle was over The Wall was still standing, he had died standing.

The Blind

Born to the throne of the Constantinian Empire, The Blind assumed the throne at an extremely young age, yet he was emperor in name only. He was the puppet to his regents, his mother and his uncle. As he grew older he would take up the sword and practice it everyday with his instructor. Through this noble man he would learn of the plot that had killed his late father, a scheme orchestrated by his mother and uncle. Before he could attempt to right their wrong he would be dragged away by the palace guards, his eyes removed. All this done by orders of his mother, who had grown wary of her own son. She would assume control of the throne and he would be sent away to monastery to live out the rest of his life, posing no threat to her.

Although initially shaken, he would quickly acclimate to his new life in the monastery, truly learning about the teachings of the faith and the wisdom of God. His life was fulfilling, and with time he grew to forget and forgive his mother and uncle for their actions. Something unexpected was bestowed upon him, the gift of the second sight, he could see the souls of those around him, a divine expression of his devotion. With time he would master this ability, seeing the world through new eyes. 

Dark clouds loomed over the horizon, as the Ophidian Caliphate made moves against the Constantinian Empire. The war would eventually reach his home, the monastery was attacked by the Ophidian. The Blind would do something he never thought he would, he would clad himself in armor and take up a sword and fight the raiders. Killing them to the last, yet he was unable to save the monastery from the flames, he would collapse, as he realized that he had been mortally wounded. The surviving members of the monastery would take his body to the outskirts of the capital, to be buried in the cemetery of emperors.

Marbas the Castrated

Brought forth to the material world by the actions of the Imbecile King of Verdux, his want to save his child ripped the city into a pocket reality, one in which the demon is just as much a prisoner as the damned. Marbas assumed he had control of the situation when the pact was made, but someone interfered with his rebirth. He was impaled by the tower of Incamblosa, now his body is as much of the tower as the structure itself, he is trapped. He knows he is being played and can only wait for the fools to come to him, he can not escape, he will not let anyone escape if that is the case. 

His rage and vile blood have mutated what life remains in the city of Verdux, all types of vile things are birthed from his blood. Yet again he has no control over these things, he is wounded severely. He knows that all he can do now is wait, as he is growing ever weaker with each passing cycle. Yet this theoretical depletion may as well be infinite, he will go mad before he vanishes again into hell.

Amon the Fabulist

Working through the flesh puppet of a humble servant to the Imbecile king, Amon schemed to subvert the plans of his hellish rival Marbas. Through deception and the slight altering of the ritual he was able to bring about the tower and cripple his rival. Unfortunately he was left stuck within the reality of Verdux too. Now he must attempt to manipulate the damned souls to break through the tower, granting them all freedom. He and his assistant demon aid the damned with guidance and tools on their journeys, as what is good for the gander is good for the goose.

King Laurent the Imbecile 

Crowned king by the demon Marbas following his enacting of the ritual to summon him from the great beyond. At the time he was just Duke Laurent, a foolish and desperate nobleman ruler of the city of Verdux. His only son was dying of an unknown illness, one that none of physicians could deal with, he would consult forbidden books for answers. There he would read about the demon Marbas and his ability to cure the ill. 

Laurent would travel the world retrieving bones and artifacts arcane power, the skull of the Blind Saint, the shield of the Wall, the skin cloak of the Brigand, the Spine of the Black Knight, death mask of the would-be Empress, and the Spear of Doomknight Hunt master. Among other treasures from centuries ago, he would use these in the ritual, one that would be sabotaged by an outside force.

His son was cured, yet only for a split second, for he would be horribly contorted into a being of hellish creation that now stalks through the blood soaked streets of Verdux. As for the now crowned king, he is awaiting at the top of the tower for his death.