Corpse of Niseki
In 271 DHT, newly launched deep mining operations into the deepest parts of Nekrosaka were made in an attempt to open up a sister mine to the already established Deepstar Mines. As the slave-miners feverishly dug, they broke into a cavernous labyrinth that was humid, stench-filled, and pulsating to the beat of some eldritch heart. The ancient stone brickwork of the tunnels were mortared together by a quivering, bluish flesh, and the various pieces of stone with engraved with glowing runes of unintelligible meaning.
While the initial thought was that this place was a Sculptoris-infested tunnel system, more scholarly individuals were able to identify that the flesh that held the stonework together was something else entirely.
Named after the pagan Isutan goddess of sculpting, the Niseki Caverns became known as a deadly maze filled with half-stone, half-organic cyborg monsters.
Niseki, Goddess of Flesh & Stone
The primeval entity of Niseki was postulated by Isutan scholars long ago, before the unification of the Eastern Provinces. The formation of Legere and mankind was attributed to her.
Niseki was a goddess who indulged in sculpting. She used water to sculpt the flesh of the earth (stone) while gently molding Humans out of flesh.
Belief in Niseki was shattered after the Demon Wars.
Speculation & Research #
Nekrosakans and other Legerian experts aware of the caverns endlessly pondered what it was. The widespread consensus was that the Corpse of Niseki was exactly what it said: the corpse of some primordial Legerian entity. The more academically-minded chose a different explanation, which was that this corpse was actually the remains of some sort of ancient Fereinan superweapon implemented in the days before the Amaranthine Reaping. Other intellectuals believe "Niseki" to be nothing more than a very large, very advanced machine that has since fallen silent.
The only thing truly clear was that if the caverns were indeed once a living organism, it had a body of flesh with bones of stone. Nekrosakan scholars likened this ancient creature to a golem with living tissue connecting its various stone organs and other body parts together. The stone components were coated in glowing, magical glyphs and runes that were far too complex and aged to truly understand. However, like a student fumbling to write in a language they didn’t fully grasp, some accomplished Nekrosakan mages found ways of gaining control or altering the function of these stone pieces by changing or inscribing new symbols into the rockface.
Stone from here, often called nisekite, had an affinity for living flesh. This allowed it to be easily implanted into the bodies of Nekrosakan hosts, giving them newfound strength, speed, intelligence, and other abilities. This new technology, dubbed lithonatomy, became uniquitous across Nekrosaka. People who underwent this body modification were referred to as the augmented. One might argue that lithonatomical augmentation was actually a requirement to survive Nekrosaka, although there were plenty who preferred to avoid modifying their bodies in this way. The Bornu begrudgingly allowed the proliferation of such technology because it improved the efficiency of their subjects, but it also became a significant boon for certain anti-Bornu factions, like the Kenha.
Local Fauna #
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