Custodians of Eternity
The Barony of Eternity is famous or infamous Border Baronies Region for using large amounts of undead to perform their basic physical labor and to form the bulk of their army.
The Custodians of Eternity are the necromancers who make this possible.
Structure
The Baron has no real means to defend himself if a majority of the necromancers turn against him, and only a fool relies on the good will of a necromancer, let alone half a hundred of them. Against all odds, this hasn't happened yet. Three generations of Baron have died of natural causes and peacefully passed their power onto their heir. I guess its is because the Custodians of Eternity barely tolerate each other, so if they did deposed the Baron, they would devolve into a free-for all fight with each other."by Eron12 with Hero Forge"A lot of the Borderlands will give themselves a really pretentious title but the ruler of the Barony of Eternity simply goes by 'Baron'. The Baron is a hereditary line with patrilineal succession, and interestingly the Baron is not a necromancer or a spellcaster of any kind. He's just a man with no abilities beyond an ordinary politician. It's a wonder that the so called 'Custodians' haven't enacted a coup and deposed the Baron and created a magocracy.
Public Agenda
To create and the manage the undead that are the backbone of the military and economy of the Barony of Eternity
Demography and Population
by Eron12 with Heroforge"The necromancers that make up the Custodians of Eternity are a diverse lot in terms of origin and training, but they all one in thing in common.... They are toothless embarrassments to the noble art of necromancy!" -Magnati, independent necromancer
There are about fifty Custodians of Eternity within the Barony of Eternity, and there are about half as many members roaming abroad. Every member of the Custodians of Eternity is a necromancer or a necromancer in training. About two thirds of the Custodians of Eternity are mages and about a third are theurgists. About four fifths of the necromancers are humans. Most of the necromancers are foreigners who traveled to the Barony of Eternity but about one-in-four are trained from Barony of Eternity locals. The mages reflect a wide variety of Arcane Traditions, but the plurality of them are Folk Magicians, and a majority of hte home grown necromancers are folk magicians. Of all the major priesthoods in Scarterra, only the Children of Greymoria officially condones the use of undead soldiers and workers. But a lot of priesthood have radical fringes that think their priesthood should use undead under some circumstances. A lot of these radicals migrate to the Barony of Eternity as proof of concept. Among the theurgists, about two thirds of them are Greymoria affiliated and about a third are made of the weird radicals from the other groups.-Dallas, a Custodian of EternityDallas the friendly necromancer by Eron12 with Hero Forge"Some necromancers call us weak and cowardly, but we know how to wield death. If a necromancer breaks our rules, we will kill him without delay and without remorse. Necromancers that cannot follow the rules of others tend to be loners. And a lone necromancer, no matter how powerful, cannot defeat a whole party of necromancers. We usually use a team of four. Two will run interference to nullify the rogue necromancers control of their own undead and the other two will attack the rogue necromancer directly."
Military
The Barony of Eternity only has a few hundred ordinary living soldiers, mostly archers. It is difficult to create undead archers, so that fills a niche the necromancers cannot. Also, it opens up the tactic of bogging down enemies with tier one undead and then raining death from above. When your side's infantry are not alive, there are no moral qualms about accidentally hitting your own troops.
The Barony of Eternity has about 5000 active undead at given time. About 4000 of these undead are providing menial labor (mostly tier one and tier two undead), but they could easily be militarized at a moments' notice. About 1000 undead (mostly tier three undead) make up the basic standing army of the Barony of Eternity.
Undead soldiers need near constant supervision to be effective.
The best necromancers in Scarterra can maintain about 300 undead minions at any given time. A neophyte necromancers can command about 50. The average Custodian of Eternity can maintain about 120. The Barony of Eternity has some magical items that will allow non-necromancers to control a very small number of undead.
The Barony of Eternity is rumored to have 20,000 "primed" undead in reserve. Primed undead are dormant, but they don't decompose, and can be activated very quickly. In theory, a single powerful necromancer can command an army of 20,000 undead but she would have to limit herself to attack waves of 300.
Religion
By definition, the theurgists among the Custodians are very religious though they are very individualistic. Most of the theurgists follow a very personal religious code rather than an orthodox code.
The mages among the Custodians are mostly non-religious.
Foreign Relations
In Scarterra as a whole, necromancy itself is not illegal. The creation of undead is illegal, or at least it's illegal without a waver from the ruling king or queen. Necromancy can do a lot of things apart from creating undead minions, including benevolent things such as necromantic healing. Even then, necromancers aren't always welcome and a lot of Scarterran necromancers don't broadcast what they can do.
Everyone who is prejudiced against necromancers in general are also prejudiced against the Custodians of Eternity. Most other necromancers don't like them.
Some necromancers do not believe that creating undead is morally permissible ever. These necromancers find the Custodians to be morally repugnant.
Others necromancers believes that creating undead should be a rarely used contingency, not something used for routine task like in Barony of Eternity. These necromancers find the Custodians to be prideful and lazy.
Some necromancers believe that creating undead is morally acceptable, but it should be done openly, lest you attract enemies. These necromancers find the Custodians to be short-sighted and foolish.
Some necromancers that their magic makes them superior, and they shouldn't bend the knee to hereditary rulers, even rulers who are relatively tolerant of necromancy. These necromancer find the Custodians to be spineless lapdogs.
Laws
The most important rule that the Custodians swear to follow is that they do not create undead that preys on the living. This mostly limits them to variants of skeletons and zombies.
In theory, the Custodians are only allowed to animate corpses of beasts, volunteers, or slain criminals. If a living resident of volunteers their future corpse to the Custodians, they get a substantial tax credit from the government. Only living people can volunteer directly. Family members are not allowed to posthumously volunteer their dead loved ones and collect the reward.
The Barony of Eternity is pretty vigilant about policing for brigands because they use the corpses of brigands as undead fodder.
By an astonishing coincidence, brigand activity is lower near the Barony of Eternity than anywhere else in the Border Baronies Region. The Custodians and their allies use this as evidence that their way of life is right.
Originally, the Custodians of Eternity were very fond of turning large numbers of corpses of predatory beasts, both regular animals and magical beasts, but the Stewards of the Dominion (a druidic organization of Korus worshipers), has warned them to slow their pace.
-Dallas, Custodian of EternityDallas the friendly necromancer by Eron12 with Hero ForgeBasically the Stewards told us, if you have to kill beasts under normal activities, we'll tolerate it if you turn them into undead. But if you hunt beasts specifically for the purpose of turning them into undead, you will face the wrath of Korus, and no one wants to face the wrath of Korus. Maybe we could keep the Stewards at bay with our army, but if they weren't bluffing about Korus, there is nothing we could do about that. Korus' wrath is so slow to manifest, the vengeance might fall on our grandchildren.
Agriculture & Industry
Living farmers handle the livestock and decide on planting and harvest schedules but the undead (with supervision from the Custodians) pulls the plows and pushes the produce wheel barrows.
Trade & Transport
by Eron12 with Hero Forge"By taking care of most of our simple labor needs, the diligent men and women of the Custodians of Eternity allow our living citizens to focus on developing their trades to a level of excellence not seen elsewhere in the Borderlands. Our carpentry and sculptures, especially are the finest in the region. A lot of the other Borderlanders refuse to trade with us out of jealousy and baseless suspicion." -Baron Monroe, political leader of the Barony of Eternity
Education
The Custodians of Eternity are a loose collection of individuals. Necromancers are free to take whomever they wish as apprentices, but these are all a one-on-one basis. The Custodians don't have a unity of doctrine binding them.
Type
Political, Confederation
Location
Official Languages
Related Ethnicities
Comments