High Cromlech

High Cromlech is a large city-state located on the northwest of Rohagi, past the [[Shatterjack Mountains. Almost everything that is currently known about High Cromlech is derived from Uther Doul, one of the primary characters in The Scar.

Information

Populated by various types of un-dead and ab-dead, as well as living humans, High Cromlech has been described by Silas Fennec as incredibly quiet and trading labor and spices in return for artworks and secrets.

Castes

Doul describes High Cromlech as a strict, caste-based nation ruled by undead nobility, called "thanati." These he describes as "liches with sewn-shut mouths, with beautiful clothes and skin like preserved leather."

The living (called "the quick") are a minority in High Cromlech. Most are apparently bred and raised on "farms", and are eventually "snuffed and recast as zombies." Some are reared by the thanati, to be "slain and welcomed to dead society" once they come of age, but this is rare. A small fraction of the living are born free, however, and these survive by doing work that is too skilled (or too dangerous) for semi-sentient zombies. Zombies would seem to be High Cromlech's primary workforce.

At the bottom of High Cromlech's social ladder are the "vampir", which are referred to as "ab-dead" to distinguish them from the thanati. Based on Doul's description, the vampir are apparently considered little more than vagrants and addicts. He depicts them as living in shanty towns, coming out at night to beg the living for blood.

Language

Quiesy (also known as "Deadish") is the principal language of High Cromlech. Since many of its speakers have either sewn-shut mouths or larynxes too decayed to form sounds properly, it consists of a series of coughing grunts, with "intricately timed pauses" that are as important as the spoken element. It can also be "spoken" entirely soundlessly, with gestures or eye movements.