Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

"Arise now, turn your backs and flee, live longer, live in fear- In fear of the night!"

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"I hear that Dschungelland and Pezerx have already been completely conquered, the undeads are waving the emperor and king like trophies…" a man with a reddened nose and with a bit more meat on his bones than the norm said, rubbing sweat off his forehead.

Him and another man were sitting on a bench, surrounded by an hectic flow of people, they overlooked the work of countless people, sowing and ploughing the fields, elves and nature spirits helping in this endeavour, times had changed before and now, they were changing for the worse.

Everyone had hoped that those measures put in place by the king were a fluke, naught but an odd decision in the endless pursuit of more wealth, but somehow, things had turned out terrible, literal armies of the dead had stricken at night, unprecedented swiftness, taking over entire, established nations in the span of just a few days.

The great desert empire was crawling with death, rumours said that nothing survived, not even mere insects.
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The lush kingdom on the other hand, had been taken over, but the radiant life fuelling its endless growth and regrowth meant that the undeads could not make it their home field on a whim.

Starkefolten, the powerful kingdom where a dreadful presence could be felt, it was in a poor state, the capital city was shielded, Fioldron Ferrcrona had heeded the warnings in the end and installed a device to produce a life barrier around his capital city, the rest of the lands, were currently the theatre of massacres.

The miasmic cloud progressed at a slow pace for now, but that did not stop the forces of undeath of venturing into villages and cities, killing and taking all, demolishing settlements and homes, what little news the people received were enough to colden their hearts, and that was most probably the least of it all.

Tamaris was protected from outside interference, the king had set up ways to self-sustain, they could thrive within this solitary nation, the barriers created covered the above and underground, if the main barrier fell, another would come up, many times over.

And if all the largest barriers were to fall, all populated areas had their own barriers.

Sides and ideas were already picked even after only a week had passed, some wished to come out and fight right this instant, claiming that an emerging empire, even if of death, would be at its weakest during its initial blooming.

Others, the majority, would rather hide away until death came to naturally claim them as it normally would have, fearing the brutality lurking outside.

Some, curiously enough, said that we should be diplomats and attempt communications, that perhaps they were not after the extermination of all life, were they, surely they wouldn't be keeping rulers alive.

It was much too soon to make any big decisions.

"I heard the same thing, though, apparently Millipolo is holding out, their own barriers are not as great as ours but it works, the holy people have an advantage against the undeads too" the other man responded, lanky, rather relaxed.

The main topics these days all related to the decaying threat, how each and every place and nation was fairing, smaller nations that had not been convinced by their king were being invaded, or were at threat of soon being invaded, Glittegoyaume, the bright kingdom was far away from the forces of death for now, but they had not listened to the warnings, their time to prepare was limited.

Of course, Tochi was doomed, the rulers had recently all passed suddenly, and the nobles had been doing nothing but quarrelling amidst one another, most of the population had moved to Tamaris instead.

With no one to lead the pitiful number of people left, the dead would just stomp through without a care.

Saying that things were grim would be a vast understatement.

Still, life in Tamaris had not changed much at all, even if surrounded by mountains burning with blood, they were safer than anyone else, not only this, but it was said that apart from some basic forces, the undead were prioritising the unprotected lands first, trying to expand their territory, grow the dominion.

"But anyways, how is it with the wife Louis?" asked Frank, the two guild workers had been put out of job and given new ones in quick succession during the whole switch up done by order of the king, Throdqdmond was turned into a solely agricultural town and saw the arrival of most gorgeous guests, the people here had never seen other sapient species other than humans.

Everybody knew that the king and Tamaris enjoyed great relationships with them, but they had never gotten to encounter these allies, they were not disappointed.

Many types of elves, beastfolks, demons and such crowded the country now, whereas they used to only live out in specific areas adjusted for them, or as people liked to joke, only populated the king's bed.

"Oh still good, she's pregnant"

"That's great news! But how many? That woman can lift a cow on each shoulder, surely she can carry more than one-"

"How would I know that? And what sort of comparison is that anyways?" Louis shook his head, noticing two more people from the corner of his eyes.

He raised one hand to greet them.

"My dear brothers-in-law, I thought you were in the capital training…" he spoke out, genuinely surprised to see them, having clearly undergone some serious training, now carrying around a more refined presence or something, not that either of the former guild workers could tell what was more qualitative about the brothers.

"Did you just say that my sister got knocked up?! By you?"

"Here I was hoping that she would ditch you eventually…"

The brothers were not thrilled.

"Hehehe, sorry, but it was already made concrete just after you guys left for the capital" Louis showed off a ring.

"As you can see, he is now the amazon's husband, his status has increased by leaps and bounds" Frank chimed in.

"My bad, my bad, just hard to believe she would get with a scrawny guy like you, I always thought she would go for an orc or minotaur, you know, something almost as brutish as her…" Zola smiled.

"Come on now, she might hear it…" Saul narrowed his eyes, scouring the area for signs of his big sister.

"Don't be afraid brother, we are stronger now, we are faster… We can outrun her, I am certain!"

'The training did a number on them…' both of the former guilds workers thought.