HOME | DD

Description

    The stygian depths of Azarloth are home to societies that have never seen the sky. As those above build ever higher, seeking to escape the toxic pall that shrouds their megacity, those below dig ever deeper, pursuing the fading warmth of their world. The minerals extracted help sustain them, either directly or indirectly via trade.

    Not all of the exchanges between cultures are so positive. Waste and poison also spread, bringing sickness and mutation, and the lowest levels fare the worst. The augmented castes are largely immune but when purely biological creatures are affected in large numbers they pose a threat to all other life.

    Purifiers are constructs tasked with containing and destroying these threats. Their skins constantly regenerate, allowing operation in the harshest environments. The chambers grafted to their backs produce and store chemicals that are stable alone but reactive when mixed. Their purging tubes shoot gouts of flame that clings to everything it strikes; even targets that avoid it are often overcome by fumes or oxygen starvation. Purifiers might also drench wide areas in chemicals prior to igniting them.

    When desperation drives some castes to seek refuge further underground purifiers drive them back; when this fails to stem the tide purifiers have been known to move closer to its source. Among the non-augmented castes – who are as credulous and fearful as their ancient human ancestors – these creatures are viewed as demons, harbringers of death and destruction from an all-too-real hell.

Description

    The stygian depths of Azarloth are home to societies that have never seen the sky. As those above build ever higher, seeking to escape the toxic pall that shrouds their megacity, those below dig ever deeper, pursuing the fading warmth of their world. The minerals extracted help sustain them, either directly or indirectly via trade.

    Not all of the exchanges between cultures are so positive. Waste and poison also spread, bringing sickness and mutation, and the lowest levels fare the worst. The augmented castes are largely immune but when purely biological creatures are affected in large numbers they pose a threat to all other life.

    Purifiers are constructs tasked with containing and destroying these threats. Their skins constantly regenerate, allowing operation in the harshest environments. The chambers grafted to their backs produce and store chemicals that are stable alone but reactive when mixed. Their purging tubes shoot gouts of flame that clings to everything it strikes; even targets that avoid it are often overcome by fumes or oxygen starvation. Purifiers might also drench wide areas in chemicals prior to igniting them.

    When desperation drives some castes to seek refuge further underground purifiers drive them back; when this fails to stem the tide purifiers have been known to move closer to its source. Among the non-augmented castes – who are as credulous and fearful as their ancient human ancestors – these creatures are viewed as demons, harbringers of death and destruction from an all-too-real hell.