Graydirge

Graydirge

(City)

LE

City

Nation

Geb

Level

6

Size

Small city

Population

9,400

Demographics

75% undead, 20% humans, 3% halflings, 2% other ancestries

Government

Government-appointed municipal dictator (high governor)

Alignment

Lawful evil

Adjective

Graydirge

Ruler

Taf-Gekhta Seven Stomachs

Leader

Berline Haldoli, Ortagar Stitch-Skull

Images of Graydirge

Source: The Inner Sea World Guide, pg(s). 77 (1E)
Zombie Feast, pg(s). 66 (2E)

Graydirge is a small, remote, and somber ossuary-city in the foothills of the Shattered Range in north-central Geb. The normal custom of Geb is to re-animate its citizens as undead once they die. Graydirge is literally built out of the bones of those Gebbites who were unwilling or unable to be reanimated. Its inhabitants, no doubt, have their own reasons for living in a city-sized ossuary. Its one notable feature is the Empty Threshold, a temple of Zon-Kuthon. It is home to only one Blood Lord, Berline Haldoli.

Surrounded by a 30-foot wall of fused stone and bone, this city has three main gates to the east, south, and west.

Districts

Graydirge consists of five neighborhoods within its walls, plus two more recent neighborhoods outside its west and south gates. Haldoli's Estate is also big enough to form a district of its own.

Blood Lord's Grace

Located outside the city walls on the hillside to the south, Berline has allowed significant construction in Blood Lord's Grace despite laws making expansion costly and in some cases, downright prohibited. Most of this district, sometimes shortened to "the Grace", is populated by humans, halflings, husk and withered zombies. Many of whom have connections to Berline, either through employment or otherwise.

Bonescrape

Bonescrape is one of Graydirge's oldest areas, and once, the most opulent. Most of this area's residents live in underground residences. These residences are wedged between old fortresses and keeps that have been there since before the city's founding. Most residents here are minor undead or quick who have escaped the Meat Market. Bonescrape also contains the Empty Threshold.

Court of Ghouls

The Court of Ghouls is one of the city's largest market and artisan districts and many of the of the market plazas are shaded from the sun by roofs of meshed bone. At one point, only ghouls were allowed in the district at all. Most of the current residents are still ghouls, but other undead and a few quick live there as well. This district is also home to The Crooked Coffin, one of Graydirge's largest breweries.

The Gnashes

The Gnashes is the district where the middle class largely live, including many undead who serve in the wealthy homes of the Governor's Quarter or the Haldoli Estate.

Governor's Quarter

The Governor's Quarter is the city's richest and most opulent district. It contains the high governor's residence as well as homes and shops for wealthy undead. Functionaries the high governor employs also live here.

Haldoli's Estate

Haldoli's Estate is a walled villa where Berline resides. This estate contains some of the city's only gardens and orchards. Only a few of her servants live here with her, and very few of them are alive.

Meat Market

Meat Market is a relatively poor neighborhood where the vast majority of Graydirge's living population resides. There are long abandoned flesh-rendering districts that lie underneath this district alongside creatures and gangs who live in them. Multiple tanneries operate on the surface.

The Ovens

The ovens were formed when one of Graydirge's recent high governors allowed several living families who arrived from the death ranches to construct dwellings by the city's west gate. These new citizens found themselves burned alive in their homes. The Ovens have recently been rebuilt under Taf-Gekhta Seven Stomachs.

Society

The city's gates are mostly shut to outsiders and Graydirge has little in the way of traffic passing through. Certain citizens, including undead and very few influential quick, can enter and leave Graydirge as they please. The living must endure upwards of an hour of intrusive questioning and long waits before they can be granted the same privilege. The main thoroughfares of the city are rarely crowded with quick, as they are forbidden from gathering on the streets in numbers greater than seven. Due to the large undead population, however, the city is just as active during the night as it is during the day, if not more so as the majority of the city's undead population remain at home until sundown. A few living residents are nocturnal as well.

Graydirge is also home to many of the Celebrants' processions. During such times, the living residents are required by law to gather and cheer at the event. These times are the only occasions when the limit on public gatherings is lifted, so many quick use this time to visit family and socialize.

Home to only one source of public potable water known as the Reservoir of Tears, living residents are forced to march to it if they want to collect their ration of water when it is available.

Graydirge is also home to many gangs such as the Bone Shards, who mainly reside in the underground catacombs beneath the Meat Market.

The undead rulers often share little care for the living residents of their city, to the point where mortal blacksmiths began to create magical rings to protect themselves and other citizens from the collateral negative energy effects that would often be inflicted upon them. The Blood Lords at Mechitar attempted to punish these blacksmiths after finding out, but by then the rings had been disseminated already.

References

Paizo published a major article about Graydirge in Zombie Feast.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.