#rob gravedigger

[httyd-art-requests]

hi!! could u draw gravedigger from rise of berk??? very spooky whispering death!! thank u!!!

I am. Obsessed with this dragon now actually. This design is S tier- the empty dark eyes, the anglerfish lure, the deep red coloring (again, anglerfish adjecent, since red is extra invisible in the deep ocean). And the NAME?? AUGH, excellent dragon, 10/10

Dragon #111 - Gravedigger (Rise of Berk)

I want to smooch its terrifying little head <3

[libraryofbaxobab]

August 1, 2024:

No one does filth like Daniel Kraus. Even before we get to the actual decomposition, the setting in this story is disgusting. This wasn't written in ink, it was written in despair.

It's all frustration, a hideous coming-of-age haunted by fierce, smoldering anger. There is no point in asking "why" any character does what they do. Fuck you, that's why.

(All that being said, I liked Blood Sugar a lot better, which had the same disgusting surroundings but a much more riveting goal.)

5/10 #WhatsKenyaReading

[berrypass-de-murdler]

2 - 96 The Gravedigger of the Revolution

New mordle

Here's the Abominable Snowman, I genuinely don't know if he appears again after that one episode

He's pretty generic ngl but looks a lot better than my first draft of him

Just a nice guy who lives in a cave with his baby yetis :3

And murdle advent day 17

Major Red is caught in a snowstorm, and longs to fly home!

DON'T READ THE EPISODES WITHOUT READING THE BOOKS!!

CRIMSON: I swear to GOD Logico, if you interrupt me ONE TIME… LOGICO: OKAY, OKAY, my god.

It’s that time again - time for another long story. Another one proving everything that Logico knows is wrong.

But of course, Dr. Crimson talks like a maniac. So the story has been translated into regular text. 

The regular scene happened again. The Iron Tsar, a wretched cross-eyed pigeon, stared down Major Red. Patriarch Porpoise guarded his chapel with a bazooka, and poor baby Taupe hid under a pillow inside.

IRRATINO: Why did Porpoise have a bazooka? LOGICO: Why is that your first question? CRIMSON: UGH… he wanted to be HEROIC. NO MORE QUESTIONS. LOGICO: But I have to know- CRIMSON: [glowing-eyed hiss]

The Tsar speared a human alive and waved the corpse at Red, threatening him to leave. But Red stared him in the eye and took a bite out of the human to show how unafraid he was. The Tsar threatened again, blowing up his own palace with dynamite.

IRRATINO: Was that how Taupe lost his- CRIMSON: SHUT UPPPPP

Red didn’t even flinch. This was the bird that had shot him out of the sky years ago, robbing him of his greatest strength and humiliating him forever. He was not going to lose. He lifted his talons of death, and lunged. But he only got a few feathers - the Tsar flew away in a panic. He knew he couldn’t win this.

He flew all the way to the mountains until he couldn’t fly anymore, and reached the castle of his best friend, Viscount Eminence.

CRIMSON: Eminence… was REAL, once… LOGICO: What do you mean ‘real’? Did he die?

He runs over to the hospital bed.

MAUVE: Shut up he’s sleeping. CRIMSON: SIT… DOWN…

Viscount Eminence was a real Night-Eater that lived in the mountains. But at 521, his body gave in, and he died. The Tsar was devastated. But he knew how he could save his own life. 

So he worked tirelessly to create a vampire suit, one that resembled the viscount exactly. But the fabric version wasn’t entirely as scary as the original Night-Eater. Regardless, it had to do. The Tsar became Eminence. 

Logico looks long and hard at the vampire lying in the bed. Why had he never questioned why he was a stuffed animal? Of course that wasn’t his real flesh and blood. And of course that wasn’t what a ‘real Night-Eater’ looked like.

CRIMSON: The blood at the SEASON FINALE… it wasn’t RED’S… IRRATINO: It was Eminence’s? CRIMSON: YES… he kidnapped LOGICO to distract BOTH OF YOU! LOGICO: From… what? CRIMSON: I’M STILL TELLING A STORY

The current Eminence waited in hiding until it was safe for him to return to his city. But of course, with the Tsar gone, Red was easily able to take over the entire country. But he was so hopelessly embarrassed that he had let his enemy get away. So he lied that he killed the Tsar, showing the torn feathers as proof. And he was revered as the most dangerous person in Drakonia. 

Eminence moved to the Mainland for cover, acting as a regular vampire citizen. But he, too, was very old. And he worried he’d never be able to return home without Red killing him. 

CRIMSON: …so IIIII helped. I DRAINED those other suspects to help the EMINENCE live!  IRRATINO: The Iron Tsar… was the night-eater all along? CRIMSON: WHAT? LOGICO: No, Dr. Crimson was the one draining the- IRRATINO: You’re telling me he uses the blood of other suspects to prolong his own life, and you’re arguing that he’s not a night-eater? CRIMSON: That would make MEEE the night-eater, you CRETIN!!! LOGICO: ENOUGH… with the night-eaters. Why are you telling us this after all this time? CRIMSON: Because… there’s nothing left to save! LOGICO: . . . CRIMSON: The Tsar returns TODAY. Without YOU to save them, we DESTROYED the Reds… President White is coming to kill the Major! Because of you! THE TSAR HAS RETURNED!!!!

Eminence’s heart rate increases, and he slowly rises. 

The end!

Bro really became discount eminence

The power of Goat Lord compels you!

See you next time murdlers!

[c0rpseductor]

went to listen to repo ost on youtube and got a bunch of recs for like. REPO WAS BAD! HERE'S MY REVIEW OF REPO!

like fundamentally if you want to try to explain to me that repo isn't good you're not interfacing with repo correctly. it's not about being ''good.'' it's about paris hilton with her face peeling off. it's about fountains of fake blood. it's about being deeply 2008. it's about it being the gravedigger's job. to steal and rob. GRAAAAAAAAVEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS. it's not my fault you dont understand camp

[brothermouse]

Been on an Urban Legend kick lately, specifically Utah/Mormon adjacent ones.

So here's some that I really need yous guys to know about:

Emo's Grave

In the Salt Lake Cemetery there's a crypt labeled "Moritz"

Rumor has it that if you light a candle, walk around the grave three times chanting, "Emo, Emo, Emo," then peered into the window in the crypt, you would see Emo's glowing red eyes staring back at you.

Today the window has been replaced by a sheet of metal. But all this seems to have done is encourage Emo to wander outside the crypt. People have reported that, after performing the ritual, they've seen Emo's red eyes peering at them from windows and dark hallways for weeks and even months after.

It seems that Emo gets bored after a while and returns to his favorite haunt, but not until he gets a few good scares out of you.

The Grave Robber

Emo isn’t the only monster to escape the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

In 1862, two men accused of beating the Governor John Dawson were shot and killed by Salt Lake City police. One of the men didn’t have anybody step forward to claim the body, so an officer named Henry Heath, being an honorable guy, decided to pay for the man's funeral and even bought him a nice suit to be buried in. After all, everyone deserves a nice funeral, criminal or not.

Sometime later, the outlaw's brother came to collect the body and take him to be buried in the family plot. Heath made all the necessary arrangements to exhume the body. The gravedigger worked quickly and soon they were ready to identify the body. Everyone was shocked when they opened the casket. The outlaw was found to be lying face down and naked.

The brother immediately flew into a rage! He may have been a criminal, but he deserved more than this! Officer Heath swore up and down that the body had not been like that when it was buried. To ease things over he paid for a new suit and funeral and swore he would get to the bottom of this.

The police immediately launched an investigation. They looked for evidence of other grave robbings and, to their horror, found it. Grave after grave after grave was exhumed and most were found to have been similarly pilfered with the body stripped and unceremoniously dumped back in the casket.

News soon got out and across the valley people were in a panic. Accusations flew, suspicions grew, and everyone had a theory. Working quickly, officer Heath started questioning the graveyard’s staff. Eventually coming to the gravedigger, Jean Baptiste.

Baptise lived in a little home near the graveyard with his new wife, Dorothy. Heath and a few officers visited the home. Jean was out working at the time, but Dorothy let them in and offered him something to eat while they waited. While she was in the kitchen, Heath noticed something odd; a box, sitting open, that had what looked like a young child’s shoes on top.

Jean Baptiste had no children.

Heath immediately questioned Dorothy, only for her to say that her husband had brought it home. Looking around, the officers found more boxes of clothes and jewelry. Heath immediately rushed to the cemetery to search for Jean. He found him calmly digging a grave.

Once confronted, Baptiste immediately confessed to the grave robbings. Heath placed him under arrest and, as they made their way out of the cemetery, Heath would point to various graves and ask if he had robbed them. Baptiste would answer “yes” far more often than “no”.

Soon they came to the grave of Heath’s own daughter who had died just a year earlier. He asked the same question and, to his relief, Baptiste said “No”.

Later Heath would say that, had Jean answered “yes”, he would have killed him on the spot.

Baptiste was whisked away to jail and boxes of clothes, shoes and other items were taken from his house. It was estimated that Baptiste had robbed over 300 graves before he was caught. City officials weren't sure what to do with all the items Jean Baptiste had stolen but they eventually decided that they would be put on display at the Salt Lake City courthouse for people to view and claim on behalf of their deceased relatives. Many items went unclaimed and were later buried in a mass grave at the cemetery.

The People were furious. Baptiste had to be under guard 24/7 to protect him from the other prisoners. Brigham Young even weighed in saying that he felt hanging or shooting Baptiste would be too easy of a punishment, and life in prison "would do nobody any good". The only option he felt would be proper was to exile Baptiste to a small island in the Great Salt Lake.

And they did just that. After being found guilty, Baptiste was taken to Fremont Island. At the time a ranching family called the Millers kept a herd of cattle and a small shack of provisions there. They were instructed by authorities to have no contact with Baptiste if they could help it.

To prevent him from escaping his punishment, he was fitted with a ball and chain and the words “GRAVE ROBBER” were tattooed across his forehead.

The Miller Brothers visited every few weeks. The first time they found that Baptiste had helped himself to most of the food in the shack. They secured locks on the door and left. When they came back the second time, however, the shack had been almost completely dismantled and one of the cows was found to be ripped to shreds.

Baptiste was nowhere to be found, and no one would see or hear from him again.

But, legend has it that on stormy evenings you might see a strange figure, hobbling along the banks of the Great Salt Lake. If you're brave enough to get closer you may see the figure is clutching a soaking wad of funeral clothes and, wouldn’t you know it? They’re just your size.

Salt Lake Whales

You may see stranger things than Jean Baptiste if you hang around the Great Salt Lake.

In the 1870s an eccentric scientist from Britain named James Wickham had a strange theory. He hypothesized that whales could survive in the salty depth of the Great Salt Lake.

Of course there was only one reasonable way to test this theory: capture two whales from the southern coast of Australia, take them to San Francisco, put them in a custom built railcar and ship them to Utah.

He named the whales Genevieve and Rupert and built a half-mile enclosure for the whales near the mouth of the Bear River and had intended to monitor their activity and health from there. But within minutes of being released into the water, the whales burst from their enclosure and escaped.

For the next few years the two whales were spotted regularly by locals, until poachers were reported to have killed them in 1877. But then, shockingly, the sightings continued. Over time the whales's appearance seemed to change to adapt to their new surroundings. One reliable witness claims that the Salt Lake Whales are small with wrinkly skin like jerky or old leather.

Let me know of any Mormon/Utah Urban Legends you know of.

[gehenna-checklist]

Day 2 of Worldbuilding from Zero - Demons

In the world of Dies Irae, a demon is a living manifestation of evil and malice. They embody the worst fears of people and give themselves form. However, a demon has no body, only its essence, and must possess an object or living being to become material. Most of the time, they utilize cadavers for their foul avatars, with some unbelievably powerful devils melting heavy vehicles for being their vessels.

A demon's powers come from the aura of evil around it, with the fear and suffering from humans feeding its strength. As an example, the foul gravediggers that patrol battlefields and desecrate the burial sites of soldiers are fed by the terror humanity has of corpses and the contempt it holds to those who rob tombs. This makes them carriers of decay and disease, hard to kill, and often able to cast powerful magic through horrifying rituals using the corpses they gather around.

To slay a demon takes more than bullets and blades: it takes bravery. A demon is killed by the antithesis of its power, the good emotions in the heart of its slayer, and the awareness that it has fell in battle. When a man shoots a fiend from three hundred yards and the bullet barely lodges itself on its tainted chest, it will not even realize it has been hurt. However, when an artillery shell explodes at its feet and turns it into burning flesh, or when a brave knight beheads it with a sword at close combat, then it is exorcised and truly killed, for it understood it died and a powerful courage inside a person's heart subdued its corruption.

[inscryption-gamers-au]

Speaking of pits, I think it’s time to do some grave-robbing? We would very much like Leshy back.

[The Gravedigger stands with a sigh]

"Yes, I suppose we should bring back the Beast, hm. Fine."

[With a wave of his hand, there is the sound of rock sliding, yet the source is not immediately apparent, visually. It almost sounds as if it came from above-]

[Ah yes]

[Leshy falls from above, directly onto P03. In a clatter of metal and bushy limbs]

[ausetkmt]

Bones and more Random Lies and BS

thats right, you can go out to your local chicken shack and pick up some bones, and use them for divination - WHAT KIND OF NONSENSE IS THIS?

PEOPLE, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, Ignore all of this BS because this is from the people who claim Black People ate their dead

and we found out it was them robbing mummies from tombs, drying them and grinding them up to eat and drink them.

It is said that one of the europeans biggest pleasures was blowing a line of mummy dust, and thinking that would make them immortal.

Yeah, we know how that works out - because we have a living example of this stupidity happening right now in africa; called kush

THIS IS NOT A RELIGION THIS IS A DRUG PROBLEM

Stop listening to people telling you what they heard from someone who made it all up. Use African Traditional Religions as they are intended. Let the gravediggers have the bones and lies

[meonlyred]

:\V/: [Listen]

Tech Noir - Gunship, John Carpenter, Charlie Simpson • Megalomaniac - KMFDM • I'm Afraid of Americans - Bones UK • Gangster's Paradise - Voidoid • California Dreaming - Hollywood Undead • El Tiempo - Skin On Flesh • Point Blank (Alternate) - Black Math • Lonely People - Tribe Society • The Grave (feat. Gabriella Hook) - Apashe, Black Tiger Sex Machine • Rise - Zamilska • Dead Girl Superstar - Rob Zombie • Popular Monster - Halocene, Lauren Babic • Venger (feat. Greta Link) - Perturbator • Going Red - KANGA • Candy Shell - Spirit Machines • The Run - MXMS • Born Dark - Holy Wars • Moment of This - Shelby Merry • Somebody's Watching Me - Madelyn Darling • Toxic - Lauren Babic • Devil's At Your Door - SWARM, TINYKVT • The Metro - Rabbit Junk • Little Godz - Holy Wars • More Human Than Human - Sune Rose Wagner • We Will Become Ourselves Reborn - Ki:Theory • Gravedigger - MXMS • Dark All Day (Power Glove Remix) - Gunship, Tim Cappello, Indiana, Power Glove • Never Fade Away (Samurai Cover) - P.T. Adamczyk, Olga Jankowska

[bastardblvd]

Lame first dates for stepdaddy merc (feel better, grime daddy!!!)

Waffle House date where Waffle House Employee!Dabi throws half cooked hashbrowns and runny eggs at a patrol who won't pay their bill as you're sitting at the counter. He remakes your eggs and hashbrowns as the patron leaves

Gravedigger!Maki introducing you to the art of grave robbing ("They're dead, so why not make some bank?")

Landlord!Sukuna using your 'first date' as a way to get you to do free labor for him (collecting rent, stealing tenant property, evicting tenants, maintenance)

Grimetown National Park Ranger!Yuuta taking you on a night hike and pointing out obviously wrong plants and animals to make you laugh

Slutty Postman!Geto letting you join him on his route (takes twice as long bc ur fuckin in the truck)

WAIT BUT WHY DOES YUUTA’S SOUND SO CUTE?? 😭 something about that is so endearing for him…

[wolfboy88]

I need more details about Grave robber Isaac!!!

Yeah, I didn’t really elaborate on that. Just dropped it and ran 🤣

Well, it’s an idea that’s only rather new to me but the gist of it is, and this is pre-canon, Isaac moonlights as a gravedigger while simultaneously robbing the graves and pawns the valuables to fund his escape from his father.

Or, a darker alternative is Isaac steals the fresh corpses and delivers them to the Dread Doctors to experiment on.

[naviculariis]

If, for some weird reason, either link ever breaks, here is the FULL muse list.

Below a cut bc I'm not a monster.

PRIMARY MUSES

→Dracule Mihawk

→Eustass “Captain” Kidd

→Massacre Soldier Killer

→Nefertari Vivi

→Nico Robin

→Penguin

→Rob Lucci

→Shachi

→Shanks

SECONDARY MUSES

→Benn Beckman

→Iceberg

→Heat

→Paulie

→Nami

→Blackleg Sanji

→Wire

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS

→Vasille “Necromancer” Albescu [ PRIMARY ]

→Captain Astoria “Nachteis” Wyvernhill [ SECONDARY ]

→Captain Malekai “Wolf of the Sea” Kuznetsov [ TERTIARY ]

ON REQUEST

→Dive

→Black Leg Sanji

→Tony Tony Chopper

→Nefertari Cobra

→Izou

→Thatch

→Blueno

→Kalifa

→Kaku

NPCs

→Crew of the Tombstone Pirates

Vasille’s crew:

Captain: Iris “Tombstone” Karim

Second Mate: John C.

Navigator: Orion Karim

Gunner / Carpenter: Roy H.

Sails Master: Nemeria “Gravedigger” Karim

Doctor: Ronan O'Byrne

Crew: Raven, Morpheus

→Crew of the Crimson Grace

Malekai’s Crew

Right Hand, Assassin: Kaith

Quartermaster: Hestia

First Mate: Ilya

Second Mate: Ivan

Navigator: Arlo

Boatswain: Olivia

Carpenter: Jack

Surgeon: Nathaniel

Gunners: Krys, Tylse

→Sabryna “Death Witch of the South Blue”

A person from Vasille’s past of whom he did not part well with. Devil Fruit user. Fortune teller.

[griefbringers]

warning,sender presses a knife against receiver's neck as a warning. anne @ graves

The Gravedigger goes real still. He looks a lot like any other pirate here: thick-bodied with labour but hungry-looking all the same, wild-eyed and wary, greying hair in matted tangles. He's scarred all over in a way that makes it look like someone had taken a whip to him many years ago and hadn't stopped. His eyes are sunken and grey as rain, crow's feet at the corners.

It's not what he really looks like, of course, but it suits his purpose here. He blends in, and he looks distinct enough from Johnny-Come-Lately's usual human disguise that no one would ever suspect them of being remotely associated with one another, let alone the same entity.

"Easy," he rasps in a voice that sounds like everywhere and nowhere at all. There's a fearful, animal rage in Anne, he thinks, like a fox caught in a trap. She's half his size and weight but whatever buried anger or fear or grief she's carrying with her makes her swell to twice his size: her knife promises bloodshed at his throat if he moves the wrong way. "Not fighting you, not trying to rob you. Don't have a weapon, don't have anything you can take, and you've got nothing I want."

[lboogie1906]

Mummia, Mumia, or originally mummy referred to several different preparations in the history of medicine, from “mineral pitch” to “powdered human mummies”. It originated from Arabic mūmiyā “a type of resinous bitumen found in Western Asia and used curatively” in traditional Islamic medicine, which was translated as pissasphaltus in ancient Greek medicine. In medieval European medicine, mūmiyā “bitumen” was transliterated into Latin as Mumia meaning both “a bituminous medicine from Persia” and “mummy”. Merchants in apothecaries dispensed expensive mummia bitumen, which was thought to be an effective cure-all for many ailments. It was used as an aphrodisiac. Beginning around the 12th century when supplies of imported natural bitumen ran short, mummia was misinterpreted as “mummy”, and the word’s meaning expanded to “a black resinous exudate scraped out from embalmed Egyptian mummies”. This began a period of lucrative trade between Egypt and Europe, and suppliers substituted rare mummia exudate with entire mummies, either embalmed or desiccated. After Egypt banned the shipment of mummia in the 16th century, unscrupulous European apothecaries began to sell fraudulent mummia prepared by embalming and desiccating fresh corpses. Scholars proved that translating bituminous mummia into a mummy was a mistake, physicians stopped prescribing the ineffective drug. Artists used ground-up mummies to tint a popular oil paint called mummy brown.

Noble’s new book, Medicinal Cannibalism in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, and Richard Sugg’s Mummies, Cannibals, and Vampires: The History of Corpse Medicine from the Renaissance to the Victorians, reveal that many Europeans, including royalty, priests, and scientists, routinely ingested remedies containing human bones, blood and fat as medicine for everything from headaches to epilepsy. There were few vocal opponents of the practice, even though cannibalism in the newly explored Americas was reviled as a mark of savagery. Mummies were stolen from Egyptian tombs, and skulls were taken from Irish burial sites. Gravediggers robbed and sold body parts. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[whitepolaris]

Which Wallula?

In 1859, gold was discovered in Idaho, and the town of Wallula was the jumping-off point for miners headed to the goldfields. From Wallula, they headed east on Dorsey Baker's Walla Walla and Columbia Line. It was also known as the Rawhide Railroad because, according to early travelers, the original rail lines were made of split wood, which Baker covered with rawhide to make the trains run smoother.

According to legends, two men once boarded the train's single express car and stole several pounds of gold bullion. They jumped off the train and went overland toward Wallula to catch a riverboat to Portland. Unfortunately for the bandits, a posse dogged their trail for many miles, and captured them just outside Wallula. Before the posse caught them, the robbers buried the gold. They were hanged as soon as the posse caught up with them, but the gold was never found.

Today some people confuse the sleepy town of Wallula, on the banks of the Columbia River, with the city of Walla Walla, thirty miles away. Treasure hunters are not confused. They know that somewhere near Wallula there is a treasure in buried gold. Their only problem is, which Wallula-since there were three of them.

In 1818, the North Fur Company established a trading post called Fort Walla Walla along the Columbia, just below a set of long rapids. They built it out of driftwood and called it the Gibraltar of the West. Unfortunately, "The Rock" was flammable and burned down in 1841. It was rebuilt out of mud bricks later that year. When the fur trade ended in the 1850s, the U.S. Army took over the post and occupied it from 1857 to 1860. When they left, the facility became the town of Wallula.

Some hopeful treasure hunters believe that the fur traders and/or the arm left valuable stuff behind, like trade goods or an army payroll, though it seems unlikely the army would just misplace a payroll. And then there was the train robbery booty, also rumored to be buried nearby.

However, things are not that clear. After checking records, some of the more historically minded hunters believe that the robbery took place after 1883, when Wallula was a railway center. In that year, the entire town was moved about a quarter mile away from its old location to a huge freight yard with several railroad roundhouses. This Wallula had a permanent population of eight hundred people and a much larger transitory population. For decades, it resembled boomtowns like Deadwood, where people were robbed and murdered in back alleys, and their bodies simply dumped into the river. Other tales told of miners' burying caches of gold before entering town and being murdered before recovering them.

By the 1920s, things had slowed down and Wallula became a sleepy town, with a reputation for ghosts and buried treasure. Treasure hunters poked around the remains of both Wallula, looking for buried gold or anything else they could find. Then, in 1950, the Army Corps of Engineers condemned the town to make away for McNary Dam. In the weeks before both towns were flooded, construction workers, treasure hunters, and even geologists spent a lot of time digging for hidden buried gold. They were not successful, but other diggers found more than they bargained for.

As part of the agreement with the citizens of Wallula, the Corps of Engineers rebuilt the town on a different site by moving certain buildings and other features, including the town cemetery. As the coffins were dug up and moved, several of them, were found to be rotted, so the gravediggers put the bodies in new coffins before reburial. One grave in particular was memorial in a macabre sort of way. It contained the coffins of Mary, Mandy, and Florence Furgerson, who had all died in an epidemic.

Poor Florence was probably in a coma, and her family mistaken thought she was dead and buried her. When she awoke, she pulled out her hair in frustration and fear when she found she was entombed. She must have tried to fight her way out of her premature grave, but the coffins of her dead sisters held her down.

Treasure hunters still stop at present-day Wallula, looking for lost gold. Most of the time the locals tell the treasure hunters that the original two town sites are underwater. Sometimes, though, depending on the mood of the local and how gullible he thinks the treasure hunter is, he'll send people off to dig in the hills near present-day Wallula. Let's just hope they stay away from the cemetery.

[animaworlds]

Snippet from the Apla Ple’on (central archives)

Written by anonymous(presumably Werrid) friend of a Ple'on member, in a public journal.

Translated from Werrid dialect of Aplan. Realia/Aplan-exclusive words will be annotated.

Today’s research brought me to think about ”death cities”.

If, by some chance, a foreigner is reading this, I will ask of anyone living in the Ogse(1) to contact me with any information on death cities in the area. Thank you in advance.

In Agse(2), there are two major examples of the phenomenon, yet they could not be more different. It brings one to question the vagueness of the term, and if there should be more of a distinction. I will explain it this way:

The more famous and populous death city in Agse is Epol, in the south. It has a population of roughly 1000. The inhabitants’ main occupations range from embalming, funeral managing and gravekeeping to the lowly affair of gravedigging and sharing bones. The city’s graveyard, which is situated around it in a sort of moat, spans almost triple of the former’s surface. Some would call the density of the graveyard disrespectful to the deceased, but I would advise them to remember that these people have been managing our graves for centuries, that the dead do not care for the space they take in the living world, and that if they want their grave on the highest mountain with the godly shrines, they should arrange it themselves.

I will circle back to the utmost wrongdoers in Epol; the gravediggers. To those unfamiliar(I will shift my gaze to the uneducated(3)), due to the amount of graves in the city, some people think it is acceptable to rob them of their occupants. Bones are most common, as they do not decompose and are greatly coveted for decoration and fine work; such is the case for the spine, skull and teeth. I have heard there is a rare but fruitful market in fresh corpses, as well, where organs and skins are the most valuable. Horns, hooves, and Werrid crystals are not sought after, perhaps because there is no need for them to be living, or perhaps because of an excess of existing supply. I would have thought that hooves could be used for certain cosmetics or medecines, but the uneducated must find use in more damning things.

I may have strayed from the original subject. Let me talk about Kensa.

In case anyone decides to think of me as some kind of glass-skinned frog(4), I will give this topic the due respect it deserves. Everyone fought, no matter how hard. No person should die an untimely death unless they call for it.

Kensa is, to put it clearly, a mass grave and nothing more. No one lives there. It was visited by Enos(5), then nothing anymore. I will not delve into the unnecessary details, because everyone is probably tired of hearing about them.

To call it a grave is kind. It is just a battlefield left to time. Nothing was built on the land since that was not there before. It is called a death city too, despite not being a city anymore. Perhaps it is named so as a form of reverence to its past form. A better term than “blood-stained land”, I would say.

After writing this, I have changed my mind about the suitability of the term “death city”. There are more important matters. I will nonetheless give this paper to you, in case one decides they have the time to investigate all this. Epe.(6)

Footnotes:

(1): Region comprised of Oxtrad and the southern half of the Egsede archipelago.

(2): Region comprised of Apla and the northern half of the Egsede archipelago.

(3): “the uneducated” in this expression in old Aplan refers to children. In post-Kensa Apla, the expression had come to be a sort of dogwhistle referring to Egsedens, who were heavily discriminated.

(4): Frog was a derogatory term toward Egsedens.

(5): “Ena” in Aplan -- God of blood and massacre.

(6): Colloquial expression of goodbye, shortened from “Epe’ěn espla”. literally translates to “have a harvest”.