Ortuxl — "the Ossuary"

The mighty city of Ortuxl, is built high on the costal cliffs of the western ocean, about 80 km south of the river delta and its rival city, Tul-Amox.

• Population: 8000 freemen, 2000 slaves.
• Armed forces: 100 Red Priests keep the peace, with about another 100 armed nobles, and 700 levy in wartime.

The city is built in the remains of an ancient mortuary temple, and surrounded by thick black rune inscribed walls. The forest comes up to within a 100 meters of the walls, but no tree will grow closer than that, and all food is transported in from the surrounding villages. Below the city a multi-layered network of tombs stretch far back from the cost into the land. The upper layers, called The Hive, are well mapped and home to the poorer citizens of the town. The lower layers are abandoned and partially flooded. Throughout the tunnels are the bones of at least a 100.000 dead, meticulously cleaned, sorted, and stacked in decorative piles. The inhabitants are careful not to disturb them more than necessary. Erosion has exposed the western most tunnels and chambers to the ocean, and these are the most inhabited parts.

Throughout the poorer undercity, peace is kept by the feared Crimson Priests. They wear red lacquered masks of skeletons, dark brown mummy wrappings, and they never speak. Minor crimes are punished with the stocks with more serious crimes leading to bloodletting, sometimes fatally. Every day at sundown they blow their corpse whistles three times within a 15 minute interval, and anyone found out of doors in the interval until sunrise is grabbed and placed in the stocks by patrolling priests.

Ortuxl is famed for its export of magical elixirs that can heal wounds, and are made by the priests with the living blood of criminals and powdered Etherglass.

The center of the town, surrounded by the mansions of the highest ranking citizens is a great black step pyramid, with four great grooves down the sides that drain into the streets and into the chambers within. When it rains, the sound of splashing and dripping water from inside the temple can be heard throughout the city.

Because of the cliffs, a separate town has formed about 15 km up the coast where the harbor of Ortuxl lies. The town is called Antuxl, "the little ossuary", and is home to a lively community of masterless men, with a total population of about 3000 people, with 10% being masterless men.

Ortuxl lies at the center of spiderweb of more than a 100 interconnected villages stretching out about 40 kms in all directions. The villages are beholden to the Underseers in the town and pay taxes in food and resources.