1. What is the big secret?

Necromancy and the undead are not a natural part of the DungeonVerse and represent the active death of the DungeonVerse in the same manner as a living body facing gangrene. Necrogen, or necrotic essence is functionally anti-essence. Living things die in its presence, and land is corrupted, essence flow systems are damaged, and so forth. Creatures and essence systems that are infected with Necrogen become corrupted and diseased.

Necrogen-corrupted regions are sickly in nature.

Necrogen-corrupted lifeforms are either cancerous and sickly or are thriving with a T-Virus level of zombie energy.

Necromancy channels Necrogen and it's almost more hazardous to necromancers than it is to the people they use their powers against. A necromancer is a doomed path because the more Necrogen they use, the more undead they become and this is irreversible and inevitable.

A being contaminated with Necrogen will find their ability to cultivate essence slowly compromised and destroyed much like a zombie bite. Any living thing that is injected with Necrogen begins a slow process of being turned into some form of undead. 

Necrogen-compromised dungeons can become death engines churning out undead, but like living beings, the dungeon core's ability to cultivate and condense essence is fatally damaged. As the dungeon spends essence and necrogen to create undead monsters and reshape itself, the overall essence pool decreases, necrogen levels increase, and creating undead requires both. Eventually, the dungeon will exhaust its essence supply and ability and become a rotting pit in the face of the DungeonVerse. These abscesses seep out through the ley lines of the DungeonVerse and threaten all other dungeons, cities, and other essence accumulation areas.

If enough Necrogen accumulates there could be serious complications. If a critical level is reached, Cridhedun could break apart, turning into a dark constellation of ghoul-infested plague shards, hunks of misfortune and malady drifting through the Astral Sea waiting to impact into a new world to poison and slaughter. On a lesser scale, a poisoned part of the continent can be excised, being cut away from the main mass. This is mythic-level magical power, and this would amputate the afflicted region and leave it to drift behind the DungeonVerse as it treks across the gulfs of the Astral Sea.

2. Who knows the truth?

Generally, no one knows the cosmic-level significance of necromancy. 

It is assumed that necromancy is bad news, and no one willingly leaves a necromancer alone. The presence of a necromancer is generally enough to raise the hue and cry and kick off a nice crusade against them. 

3. Why does the secret remain thus?

The secret remains for several reasons

The prime reason is that in the past any time there has been a serious necrogen infestation it has been attacked and destroyed by denizens of Cridhedun with extreme prejudice. Monsters and dungeons will act as an immune system and will keep sending forces after an infestation until they fail or the infection is destroyed. 

The one instance of a necrogen infestation that wasn't contained is not remembered principally because of the amount of damage incurred when the region was under attack, and ending when mythic level magic was used to sever the connection between that entire region of the continent and it was broken free from Cridhedun. There was a series of environmental cataclysms from this, earthquakes all around where the cut was made, tidal waves and oceanic surges along the same coastline, and violent roiling storms for weeks afterward.

Dimmault is still in the tail of Cridhedun and can still be reached through the Astral Sea

4. Create layers

Dimmault occupies a strange place in the collective consciousness of Cridhedun, somewhere between Hell, a forgotten land of great power, and a Warren. 

Aspiring Necromancers can find ways to access the Warren of Dimmault and can start channeling necrogen assuming they find the right book of forbidden lore, a tainted relic, or a similar tool.

Mages using Dimmault Warrens can create magical conduits to Dimmault, allowing the broken land to make bridgeheads into Cridhedun. These could be easily found as dormant sites, the mage in question perishing or being slain before completing the activation rituals.

5. Create hook

1. A dormant necromantic site is discovered, and the bloodshed in a battle there is enough to activate the site, allowing necrogen to start flowing into Cridhedun, The dead start rising soon after.

2. There is a meteor shower and chunks of strange material fall to the ground, tearing gouges and craters in the land. These are the necrogen-tainted remnants of another realm that disintegrated from necrotic contamination. Like a plague seed, the disease starts to spread, Colour out of Space style.

3. A tainted relic is found and activated creating a necrogenic portal, or something like a magically sealed jar of necrogen is found and broken. Days later zombies, ghouls, and ghasts are spreading out from the first village to fall.

6. Add a twist

Necromancy has a patron saint, Sovereign Sabnock.

The millennias old demi-liche is active in Cridhedun and isn't horribly interested in destroying the world or conquering it. 

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