Geography:

Climate:

Ertoba suffers from being right next to a wasteland, as storms will come from over the boundary wall and pepper the above ground with shards of rock and corrupted essence. It can range from temperate and cool to hot and uncomfortable in a moment, and it is why most choose to stay underground. 

Terrain:

What land capable of life is soft and marshy, colored almost black with how deep the brown hue is. Stepping onto the soil causes one's foot to sink into it, and it makes farming this land quite difficult. Such is the plight of those who live in Ertoba.

Economy:

Agriculture:

What can be grown in Ertoba are deep root vegetables and other vegetables that grow beneath the surface of the ground. The uneven ground makes it hard to till the soil. Despite its uneven texture, it is rather fertile to some degree.

Domestic Animals/Herding:

The main form of meat that is found in Ertoba are cattle and fowl, including both ducks and chickens. They are kept in covered structures to protect from the heat and shards of rock from the wasteland on the other side of the wall. 

Hunting/Gathering:

Most gathering is performed by exploration of the caverns beyond the civilization of Ertoba, the various natural food sources only being deep underground and fueled by underground geothermal energy. 

Industries:

The only real industries in Ertoba are those of illegal materials, the production of various drugs, transportation of illegal items, organs, etc. There is a sizable degree of refining of natural resources here, but it is much less well known. 

Natural Resources:

Sairine, Voxa, Coralis, Mithril and Cortaline are all native to this region, especially in the caves deep below the cities of Ertoba. The conditions of the caves of Ertoba are very useful for the formation of unique mineral veins and plants. 

Trade:

A lot of trade is done on a small scale, often just between individuals. Larger gangs and the mafia families often have control of certain markets, like the previous Dark Market in Pre-Cataclysm Ertoba.

Currency:

As in all places on Alaris, Ertoba uses the currency minted by the Harai. (Myrin) Myrin is the equivalent of 1 gold in other currencies. 

Political Structure:

General Description:

After the death of the Crown of Thieves, the underground devolved into chaos. Slowly, the remaining drug lords and mafia leaders would take control and establish their territories. In all of history, it had been the Crown of Thieves to set laws, but now it depended wildly on what territory one was in and what values the ruler of that land had. It would stay that way until a new person stood above the rest and took over as the new ruler.

 

Cultural Creations:

Architecture:

What architecture exists in Ertoba is carved from the stone of the massive open caverns, who stalactites and stalagmites form pillars of stone. The buildings are often vaguely gothic in design.

Symbolism:

The mist of Nirios, the sword of Raiel, the heart of Sarusae and the skull of Asuan are all well known and regarded symbols in Ertoba. Most are worn in some way, as the depth of the Corruption extends to pride in darker gods in alot of cases. 

 

Technology:

Advancement and Proliferation:

Ertoba is the 3rd most advanced civilization, after Crisalura and Terris. They are known for their use of generalized technology, such as centralized heating, lighting and plumbing. The sources of energy are typically the various materials found in Ertoba’s caverns or the geothermal heating found deep within the stone beneath them. Any technology is typically brought in from other places.

 

Agriculture:

Ertoba lacks many standard pieces of farming technology, mostly for lack of use. The domination of root vegetables allowed the farmers of Ertoba to focus on more traditional methods of collecting vegetables. 

Resource Extraction:

Ertoba is most known for its mining, due to the sheer amount of resources that dwell in its many caverns. With 70% of the underground being unexplored, there are many opportunities for new materials.

Terraforming:

Ertoba was originally created by miners who terraformed the caverns into cities, so there is a pretty large theme of terraforming using both tools and magic. 

Transportation:

Most transport is done via foot traffic or simple carts that are driven up and down the tunnels and streets. The cave pathways are wide enough for two carts to pass each other safely.

Societal Structure:

Education:

Most educated denizens of Ertoba were trained by outsiders or left the cavern city to learn, as most opportunities beyond entry level learning were not available to them in their home. The Crown of Thieves was better about education, but in year since the cataclysm, the whole system has been put underground so to speak. 

 

Personal Identity:

Ingenuity, cleverness, loyalty, skill, raw talent, and skill with navigation all fall under skills one would need to survive in Ertoba. These skills are both useful to survive general life, and also under the service of the various gangs, mafia, and drug lords. 

 

Punishment:

Under the rule of the Crown of Thieves, punishments were fair to match the crime, but the rule of drug lords has led to death or worse for committing crimes against them and their wishes.

Drugs:

There are many kinds of drugs in Ertoba, from stimulants to opioids. Part of the main money source of Ertoba are man made grow farms fueled by sourced magitech.

 

The Natural World:

The outside of Ertoba and the caverns below are regarded as large dangers because of the constant threats beyond the wall and the things that lay beneath the stone cities of the Ertoban’s. There are many monsters that lay behind either, and there is the very real threat that something will crawl out of the caverns and attack the innocent in the city. 

 

The Artificial World:

The cities are often the solace for the people in Ertoba, and people always strive to expand the cities and civilization. There are rumors that spread throughout the cities that remnants of other civilizations dwell in the deep. In reality, there are things that were left over from the Cataclysm and were pushed to Ertoba during the recreation. 

 

Demographics:

Towns/Villages/Cities:

Because the population is as crowded as it is, the few Ertoban cities are huge clusters of stone buildings both along the pillars in the middle of the cavern and along the ground. You can often see thousands of lights dotted across huge caverns that compose the city. 

 

Exploration:

Ertoba hires more adventuring parties than anyone, especially skilled warriors that can handle the horrible things that dwell in the caverns. These parties will go searching for something in exchange for the pay they were promised. The kingdom as a whole uses this information to find new places to build new civilizations in.  

 

Slavery:

People in Ertoba run the risk of getting enslaved, or at the very least seeing slaves travel through their home behind a resident of one of their cities. It is a profiting business to drag other races from other parts of the world and sell them to other beings. It is up there with the drugs, illegal magical weapons, etc.  

 

Major Locations:

Location: Elioth

Established in an underground reservoir, Elioth is the first new city that was developed after the Cataclysm. It is the third most populated city in the entire kingdom. Its water wheels and established systems pump water through pipes that run through the rock all over the kingdom. Elioth also has the greatest access to the depths of the underground, and use the reservoir as a defense against things that desire to surface from the depths. 

 

Location: Nerbosa

Nerbosa stands at the very entrance to Ertobas caverns, the first thing travelers see when entering the city. It possesses the greatest concentration of businesses in the kingdom, due to the amount of travelers it gets. Nerbosa was modeled after the previous city in the same position, Devils Cairn City. 

 

Major Individuals:

Person: Tiorin Eranis

Tiorin is the leader of the Eranis mafia, a family who sought to undermine the authority of the Crown of Thieves up until his death. The Eranis family are known for their prolific drug trade, both the production and sale of product across the entire kingdom. They are also known for use of their most premium product on a regular basis. In order to sell any drugs in their territory, one must pay a hefty tax to the family or risk fates one must not discuss. 

 

Person: Saria Aurian

The only person in Ertoba with some semblance of reason and purpose. Once the advisor to the Crown of Thieves, Saria was labeled the Lawbringer because of her tendency to seek order. She brought the one's who broke her king's orders to justice, and sought to get rid of those who posed a threat to Ertobas stability. In current times, she seeks to destabilize the gangs and the Eranis mafia in order to bring back some semblance of order to Ertoba. 

 

Person: Rina Saza

When talking about the most sadistic and twisted of the denizens of Ertoba, none are worse than Rina Saza, the Butcher as she is known. Her and her gang of psychopaths run the organ trade in Ertoba, and do not hesitate to add more body parts to the list of things they can sell. Their territory is quite dangerous to travel through, because very few laws exist. For those they dont butcher, they sell into slavery and reap the profits. 

 

Person: Rennyn Daewyn

Once a member of the Kyosei military force of Variolis, Rennyn was part of the team that came to Alaris during the 3rd Era under Lady Umbra. He is known as a deserter because of his abandonment of his unit. He sought refuge in Ertoba, where he founded perhaps the most prolific magical weapon and magitech trade to date. He uses the tactics he learned in his race’s service in order to run his empire. There are many Kyosei who seek to find him and take him to justice for his abandonment of his own kind. Unfortunately, his weapon trade has made it very hard for anyone of any importance to reach him. Anyone who wishes to get powerful magitech in Ertoba will likely have to seek him out.