Ust'tai City Zu'aan

History

Ust’tai City was once a thriving and successful city in the Cu'Iaraoza Wasteland. They designed, made, and tested powerful nuclear weapons for the Empire. It was a city of high technology, progress, and prestige that drew scholars and those seeking prestige to its streets. But making these weapons came at a heavy and environmentally harmful price. The city was slowly starting to pile up with abandoned weapon parts and nuclear waste. The nuclear waste was seeping into the ground and air, turning it toxic. By the time the Awakening Age began, the city was well on its way to becoming a wasteland.

The zu’aan were becoming sick and slowly dying. The outbreak caused the city to be abandoned by the majority of zu’aan that weren’t sick, leaving no one to really maintain the waste. During the Twilight Age, the land had become infertile and barren, animal carcasses filled the streets, the scent of death filled the air, and poisonous plants that had fed on the waste and had become toxic had overtaken most of the city. The once thriving city had become home to zu’aan who had given up, ones who cared very little for life, and ones who were on the verge of death.

The first of the zu’aan who had migrated there, died within days of arriving due to the toxic air and lack of edible food. As time went on, the bodies of the new generation had started evolving and they no longer died from the toxins. They could eat the toxic and poisonous plants that were growing over the buildings without dying. Animals that fed on the dead became their source of protein. And some zu’aan had taken on a diet of consuming other zu’aan. Even though the new inhabitants of the city viewed the world the same, they had different approaches to those views.

The city split into four factions. The Death Eaters who feed on the dead. They consume dead plants, animals, kin’toni, and zu’aan. The Hoarders who scavenge the wasteland. The scavenge weapon parts, carcasses, pretty much anything that they can find that may be useful or that they just want. They try to hoard everything and surround themselves with what they’ve scavenged. And lastly, the Death Walkers who seek out death. They seek creative ways to get adrenaline rushes and die, throwing any kind of caution for life away. They don’t care if they die, they only care if they die happy.

The Lost Ones are the sick ones. They are the smallest faction of the four. They simply laze around, too sick and weak to do anything else. They pray for death to swiftly take them. Ust’tai is sometimes called the City of Death, causing the kin’toni and most zu’aan to stay far away from it. Over the decades, there have been some zu’aan and kin’toni that have come to the city in search of powerful weapons. They come only to discover that the weapons they are searching for are either broken or are not there. Some end up getting sick and dying in their search.

Psychology

The zu’aan of Ust’tai City view the world with different levels of contempt. Most of them have a pretty negative outlook on life and of others. They could care less if the entire world was to cease to exist tomorrow. The kin’toni and the enemy zu’aan are viewed as just another way for them to die. They accept death without any kind of protest, some desperately wish for death to take them. They have very little care for their own lives or the lives of others. Death is the ultimate goal for all of Ust’tai City. Of the four factions, the Death Walkers are probably the only ones with the least negative view of life.

If anything, they quite enjoy what life has to give them. They live their lives to the fullest while seeking creative ways to die. They’re adrenaline junkies who love to throw caution to the wind and push past their limits. Life, to them, is just the adventurous prelude to death and they try to make it as crazy and as wild as possible. From eagerly confronting enemy zu’aan to taunting ravenous kin’toni, they truly live as if there is no tomorrow. They can only find their adrenaline rushes while they are alive. Dying, while doing that, is considered the absolute best way to die.

The Lost Ones has the most negative view on life. They lie around, too sick and too weak to do anything. They learned long ago not to wish for better lives, as there is no power out there that could heal them. They’ve come to terms with the fact that their lives will not get better. Every day is one filled with pain and sorrow. They slowly wait for death to take them, praying for each day to be the day they finally die. They hate living, but they are too weak physically and mentally to kill themselves. They can only wait, bodies in pain, for death to come naturally.

Some have been known to beg other, healthier, zu’aan of other factions to kill them. The Death Eaters view life as something for them to take. While they do understand that without life there could be no death, they believe that death is the only thing that has any kind of real value to them. They comfortably surround themselves with death, drawing great comfort from it. The other factions tend to stay away from them as they don’t understand their need and desire to consume the dead. The Hoarders are in the middle. They don’t believe that life is some grand thing that they should try to preserve.

But, they also don’t fear death. They accept that one day death will come from them and they don’t try to run away from it. They don’t go out of their way to stay healthy or eat right. The only thing they truly care about is surrounding themselves with the things they’ve scavenged. Life and death are simply things that are certain. They don’t believe in worrying about either.

Culture

As there are four different factions in Ust’tai City, the culture is different in each faction. Of the four factions, the Death Walkers have the most energetic and outgoing culture. They are constantly trying to find ways to get their adrenaline rushes. They love doing dangerous and life threatening things that could end in death. To them, dying in the most creative way possible is the best kind of death there is. In the Cu’laraoza Wasteland, there aren’t a lot of places to perform dangerous tricks. At least not places that they’ve already conquered.

Oftentimes, they leave the city in search of dangerous places. They like to find places where they can truly test and push past their limits. One thing they like to do within the city is something called Serpent Catching. There is a large pit towards the back outer edge of the city. In the pit are mutated serpents called Pana Serpents. These serpents are nine feet long with several sharp and poisonous fangs that can paralyze. When they catch their prey, after paralyzing them, they wrap their bodies around them and slowly squeeze them to death. The Death Walkers like to jump into the pit to catch one.

The carnivorous Pana Serpent is one of the most dangerous creatures in Ust’tai. The serpents offer the Death Walkers a great challenge. The Death Eaters have a culture surrounding death. They collect dead things to make collections to show off. The more they have in their collection the better. They make an entire festival, Death’s Paradise, out of showcasing their collections. They also have the Death Hunt. This event is a hunt that takes place outside of the city, every year. The Death Eaters go hunt down wandering zu’aan and kin’toni. They bring them back to the city and kill them. After a successful hunt, a great feast is held.

The Hoarders' culture revolves around scavenging and hoarding what they’ve scavenged. They scavenge anything from abandoned weapons parts to the bare bones of the dead. Things that most zu’aan would consider to be trash, are the greatest treasure for them. Their homes are filled to the brim with what they have scavenged. Some have had to dig holes around their homes because they have run out of room. They have two events, the Great Scavenge and the Hoard Trade, that they all participate in. As a group, the Hoarders will leave the city in search of something to scavenge.

It’s the only time they come together as a whole to do something. Any other time they scavenge, as long as it isn’t a big one, they keep what they find to themselves. For the Hoard Trade, the zu’aan like to trade some of their hoard with other zu’aan. Culture for the Lost Ones doesn’t really exist. They are too sick to have festivals, annual events, or even interact with each other. They simply silently wait for death. The only thing they all do together is pray to Syren for death. It’s the only thing they can do together that won’t cause them pain.

Government

Since Ust’tai City is broken into different factions, they each have their own government and set of rules. The factions felt that they were too different and saw no need to have a single form of government ruling over all of them. The Death Eaters are led by one chosen leader. The leader is chosen by the Syrinx bird, the symbol of Syren, the Death God. Each zu’aan vying for the position goes on a hunt outside of the city. They present their kill or kills before the bird. Whichever kill the bird chooses is the new leader. This kind of election is done to prove that they have the strength and the ability to provide quality “food” for the faction.

The only law they have is to not actively hunt and kill one of their own. If a zu’aan of the faction is accidentally killed in a fight against the kin’toni or outside zu’aan, it is not against the law. But if a zu’aan purposely kills another Death Eater, they are killed and used as food. They believe that there are plenty of food sources outside of the city, so there is no need to kill one of their own on purpose. The Hoarders don’t follow a leader. They all have equal say in how the faction is run and they make decisions as a whole. Since they share their scavenges, they felt it was best to share responsibility for the faction as well.

They only have two laws that must be followed. The first, and probably most important law, is that they will not steal from each other. They are all scavengers that love to hoard, but they should draw the line when it comes to scavenging from each other. The second law is that big scavenges must be shared. If a zu’aan is able to score a big scavenge, they shouldn’t try to hoard it alone. Breaking these laws lead to exile from the faction. Sometimes, breaking the laws could lead to being offered to the Death Eaters. Like the Death Eaters, the Death Walkers follow one chosen leader.

Their leader is chosen through a competition. Whoever can perform the most dangerous and life threatening thing, like being buried alive for example, and live becomes the leader of the faction. Their leader changes quite often due to them constantly doing something that causes them to die. The longest a single zu’aan has led the Death Walkers is ten years. That zu’aan was their first leader after they became Death Walkers. They have no laws or rules that have to be followed. They actually have no crime, so there is no punishment. The zu’aan of this faction are far too busy trying to find what makes their adrenaline rush to commit crimes.

The Lost ones have no form of government at all. They see no reason to try to govern the dying. It takes far too much strength, both physical and mental, to lead. There is also no crime or punishments in this faction.

Military

Each faction of the city handles their military, if they have one, differently. Since they all have different ways they like to take on outsiders. The Death Eaters have a wild and highly aggressive military force. The only reason they kill kin’toni and other zu’aan is to eat them once they are dead. They mainly use hammers, and a few other tools, that were once used to make weapons to bludgeon their opponents to death. They are so aggressive when they attack, swinging their weapons this way and that way, that they sometimes end up attacking and killing each other by accident.

Not that they really feel bad about it, that just means more food for the rest of them. They are not ones to strategize, preferring to overwhelm their opponents with aggressiveness and brute strength. The Hoarders like to take their opponents by surprise. They make traps and hide in hidden pits that they made so that they can jump out and attack. Their main priority isn’t to kill, though it doesn’t really bother them if they do kill them. They simply want to take what they have for themselves. They make their traps and their weapons out of things that they have scavenged.

Of the four factions, they are the only ones that make their weapons. They are also the only ones that have a semblance of a strategy when taking on opponents. The Death Walkers just attack. There is no planning or strategizing. They have no special techniques or fighting styles, nor do they have any weapons or traps. They like to taunt their opponents into attacking them and use their bare hands to fight. They jump around, slide on the ground, and burst through glass with manic smiles on their faces. They like to see how long they can survive. Many don’t even attack at all, willingly walking into the hands of death.

The Lost Ones don’t do anything at all, their military force doesn’t exist. They are far too sick and too weak to even think of protecting themselves or picking up weapons. They simply sit and wait for death to take them. Some are even willing to crawl or drag themselves to a kin’toni so that they can be killed. Only the most ravenous of kin’toni will attack them, others don’t want their polluted blood. With all of this being said, the military forces in Ust’tai City aren't what one would call true military forces. They don’t really care about protecting the city or fighting the kin’toni and other zu’aan to keep the city safe.

They don’t have units dedicated to certain positions of the city or focused on protecting special zu’aan. Each of the factions have their own motives for fighting, if they fight at all. They don’t view life as something that one should go out their way to protect and preserve. If death is coming for them, they see no reason to avoid it. If anything, they willingly welcome death to take them. All the zu’aan here, in some way or form, are eventually seeking death.

Religion

As far as their religion goes, they all worship the Death God, Syren. Religion is the only thing that is shared throughout the entire city by everyone. Every faction worships Syren, though they do have different ways that they do that. Syren is depicted, by all factions, as a dark shadow that has taken the partial shape of a man. He has glowing blue orbs for eyes. He wanders the world, marking zu’aan and kin’toni for death. Eventually, he comes to collect the souls of those that he has marked. Once you have been marked for death, there are no prayers or offerings that can be made to get rid of the mark.

Syren is a fair god that doesn’t protect or actively hunt anyone. He is simply there to collect your soul once it is time to die. The Syrinx bird, or Deatheater bird, is a symbolization of Syren. This bird with black feathers and blue eyes sits upon Syren’s shoulder. They say that if you see the Syrinx flying around you, it means that death is not too far away. The Syrinx is a death eater. It, like the Death Eater faction, feeds only on the dead. The Death Eaters named themselves in honor of the Syrinx. They take great pride in being able to eat the same food as the animal of their god.

They believe that they are closer to Syren due to their consumption of the dead. Before each meal, they make sure to pray to Syren and thank him for providing them with food. They also make sure to share their food with the Syrinx every meal. The Hoarders are probably the least religious of the factions. They only pray to Syren when they are about to die. They ask him for a swift death. They like to follow the Syrinx though. They know that the death eating bird follows the scent of death. They’ve discovered that where the Syrinx flies and settles down, there are usually dead zu’aan and kin’toni with things for them to scavenge.

Every time the Syrinx takes flight, a small group of Hoarders will follow it in hopes of scoring a big scavenge. To stay on good terms with the Syrinx, they often offer it dead things. They pray that their offerings will make it happy and that it will continue to find things for them to scavenge. The Death Walkers pray to Syren for happy deaths. They hope that when they die, it is a death that is full of adrenaline and creativity. They don’t care if their death is painful or slow, as long as it isn't boring.

Of all the factions, the Lost Ones are probably the most religious of the city. They pray everyday to Syren in hopes that he will have mercy on them and give them a swift and painless death. With what little strength they do have, they offer the Death God any dead they can find. They hope that he accepts their offering and grants their wish.

Miscellany

Nearby Groups

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Ust'tai City Zu'aan

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