Country

This country seems relatively normal at a glance, especially compared to its neighbor and her tamed dragon. But, as any traveler through Nivesia will tell you, looks are not always what they seem. The first thing a person will notice is the smell. Fields of gorgeous flowers have left a heavy perfume in the world. These fields are present in every town and can be seen adorning all the laborers, no matter if they are working the fields or cleaning the streets. No matter how big or small the settlement, the floral perfume permeates throughout. Even in the winter, the flowers remain bright splashes of color against the white snow.

Then, travelers begin to notice the laborers. Thick robes cover them from head to toe, heavy leather gloves cover their hands, and each wears a mask, the only setting each outfit apart, unique with symbols and paint. No matter the weather or job, they wear the same outfit. They seem to work tirelessly and never speak. Spend enough time in Nivesia and any person will learn the reason why.

All manual labor has been outsourced. To the dead. Unlike most nations, in Nivesia necromancy magic is seen no different than any other magic. Intent begets ethics, not the magic behind it. Thus, Nivesia has leaned into this taboo school and created a thriving society within, with rules and laws put into place to protect both the living and dead.

This quickly became a way to replace purely manual labor, as undead bodies do not need rest, sustenance, or worry about injury. This also revealed that dead bodies, even reanimated, still rot and smell. Necromancers grew weary of having to cast Gentle Repose and it could only do so much with the smell. So one necromancer, Gregory Montagu worked with his wife Loreena, a druid, to create a solution. After years of experimenting, they were finally able to create a magical flower that mimics the Gentle Repose spell and, when a necromancer combines their blood with the flowers, allows them to control more undead than the normal limit.

Caution must be taken, though. Despite the flowers' heavenly scent and lovely appearance, they have justly earned their name Death's Bloom and their necromantic nature still courses through them. A powerful neurotoxin is present within the plant. One flower, if ingested, can cause vomiting, hallucinations, and convulsions. Any more than that is almost guaranteed death and a terrifying one at that. The mild hallucinations quickly become more terrifying and before the nervous system fails, it is not uncommon for poisoned people to have deep scratches in and around their eyes as they try to claw themselves blind. After their nervous system fails, their respiratory system is close behind but this is not what kills them. Instead, as observed through medical examinations and speaking with the dead who went through with such an awful death, their heart literally beats so quickly and full of so much adrenaline that it will give out, with some hearts showing bruising and tearing from racing so hard. Literally scared to death. It also renders the body useless for work after death.

As such, the fields of flowers are closely guarded and all plants must be accounted for. If a plant is used to poison someone, the necromancer is seen as much at fault as to the poisoner. With a society focused on the morality of death magics, mysterious deaths are looked at more closely and repeated incidents has resulted in the government razing a settlement's fields and sanctions put in place on the settlement's necromancy. While the government will boast that these laws keep their people and the world safe, people in towns know that the local government has just grown better at hiding mysterious deaths and will quiet any who question it. In their eyes, covering up a couple deaths here and there is better than sacrificing the labor of the undead.

Still, the undead has lead to many perks in society, due to strict laws around the subject.

1. No body shall be used without explicit consent of its previous tenant. Before death, the person must give both verbal and written consent to their local Necromancer Guild with at least one witness the person chooses. This is a protective measure for the pre-dead so they are not pressured into giving their body. The minimum age of death is 16. Anyone younger will be immediately cremated




2. Violent deaths must be inspected and approved by a cleric before deciding what to be done with the body. Murder victims cannot be used until their murderer is identified. Bodies of exceptional violence will not be used and instead cremated. Suicide forfeits all money of the death contract and the body will be cremated.




3. All bodies resulting from war are strictly forbidden. Any person willing to fight for their country without the safeguard of undeath are held in the highest regard and are cremated.




4. Bodies have a strict timeline they can be used, decided upon before their death. After this time, the body will be cremated. The only exception to this is during wartime, where bodies will be used until it can no longer go on or until the war ends. Any bodies lost in combat will be cremated with highest honors.




5. Only humanoids can be raised. Outside of beginning necromancy, where students will learn how to animate a body on frogs and rats and limited uses in veterinarian medicine, using Necromancy on dead animals is seen as highly disrespectful, especially on a creature that was not the necromancer's property.

This period of undeath is seen as a normal progression for most common Nivesian citizens. Taking most of the hard manual labor to those it affects least has allowed for other parts of society to flourish. This is aided by the death fund the living gain from loved ones who serve after death. A few professions still require to be done by living hand, though. Any sort of animal care or husbandry is strictly living only. Animals do not react well in the presence of the undead. Another job requiring a living being is anything that handles food, besides the initial care and picking. This is more due to sanitary reasoning. No one wants to find a bit of flesh in their soup. For the most part, though, people are able to focus on other fields of interest, as most dirty, dangerous, and manual labor is taken care of. This has allowed for people to entertain fields generally reserved to the rich and privileged in other nations. It is not unheard of for whole settlements to be focus on a few intertwined fields, such as the city where most study alchemical creations, both potions and poisons or another that boasts an extensive breeding and training program that claims to have created horses like no one else had seen. All endeavors are disclosed to the government and those that make money are taxed, with the argument that the government's programs allow for the people to pursue them.

Still, not all is well in a utopic-sounding society. Those whose ancestors have gone past their death contract or have no one with a death contract, usually resort to manual labor as it is one of the few untaxed jobs the government will pay the living to do. These people are looked down upon, nicknamed "The Living Dead" or, perhaps more cruelly, "The Unloved". Many families are encouraged to have numerous children, since it benefits the government to have more bodies to work with, but death contract payments only go to the spouse and eldest child, if they are unmarried. So young marriages are seen as a necessity for those who were not born first and, as death contracts pay out more to healthy and younger bodies, many parents will arrange marriages before their children are even thinking of romance. Nivesia is not above the influence of money and power. Rarely do those who told much of either become a part of the undead work force and some lower class have accused those of higher status of fixing paperwork and bribing Necromancy Guilds to obtain the death contracts of those without any living relatives such as vagrants and older orphans. Some have darker suspension, though never outright said, when a family dies of "mysterious" causes and there are now four new bodies working in the field with no apparent living to take the money. The laws seem to be more of a suggestion once a person has enough platinum to throw at a problem.

Something strange has started to take over the land, though. Reanimated animals seem to be a growing occurrence and no one seems to be able to locate the necromancer responsible, much to Nivesia's government's frustration. The odder thing, though, is increased random aggression in controlled undead. It seems it is happening more to older undead, especially those who have been reanimated for more than a decade, but even random freshly reanimated seem to lash out. Only one casualty has been reported, a young girl who was attacked when walking down the street but people are starting to feel an uneasiness with the undead that inhabit their settlements. There have been reports of monsters in the woods, flesh and muscle decayed straight to the bone that attack without mercy or hesitation and the reports only grow by the day. Now people are second guessing the way of life they were so accustomed to.