User:TheLongConn/Khep'seti Wilds

The Khep'seti Wilds is a zone in World of Warcraft: Necropolis. In the golden age of Azjol'Nerub, the city of Khep'set would provide sustenance for the entire kingdom, delivering shipments of fresh fungus and insectile flesh. Since it's ruin, the roles have been reversed, and it is now the city that is being consumed by the wilds.

History
Ancient texts referred to Khep'set as the "City of Gluttons" for its role in providing food for the rest of the kingdom. Massive infrastructure was laid in place for this; fungal farms, worm-spawning pits, gardens of agricultural research. Massive labyrinths of spiderwebs were laid on the city's edges, baited with sugared meat to draw in swarms of wild insects. While nerubians rarely hunted directly, they would occasionally send groups of warriors to trap rare beasts for the lord's banquets. Swollen with power and plenty, the lords of Khep'set were often at odds with the monarchy; to indulge mindlessly would bring a nerubian closer to the ethos of the aqir. They warned the Khep'seti lords to rein in their gluttony lest they revert to their base instincts.

While some were drawn to food, others were drawn to isolation. The wilds beyond the city were impenetrable and dangerous, but beyond the sight of the monarchy. To those scientists whose research went against the laws of the monarchy, these mold jungles became a home for their illegal experiments. To cultists who were drawn back into the fold of the Old Gods, including a number of former Khep'seti nobility, the wilds hid their black temples and occult rituals.

Since the War of the Spider and the fall of Azjol'Nerub, nature has reclaimed a significant portion of the city, while the jungles have only grown thicker. It was here where the enigmatic khepri first were sighted (and given their name). Paranoid, tribalistic, and prone to ritual, the khepri have somehow managed to tame portions of the subterranean jungle for their own purposes, but "tame" is perhaps poor terminology. Beholden to hundreds of strange, often conflicting, gods, the khepri have filled the wilds with bizarre altars and temples.

The Khep'seti Wilds hide an ever deeper secret, as well. Long ago, it had been home to a city of obsidian tol'vir, monitoring the machines of Ulduar from afar. They once captured a young aqir drone, a meager node of the hive mind, and began to study him. They did not realize the drone was studying them, as well, and the marvels of civilization the tol'vir had created. They were not a people beholden to bitter gods. Its mind ablaze with dreams of a great, eternal kingdom, the drone broke free of containment and slaughtered everyone in the city. This drone returned to spread its message of freedom and civilization, which it wrote with spilled blood and sang with heretical words. Such was the auspicious start of Anek'resat, the first king of Azjol'nerub.

Geography
The Khep'seti wilds shatter the delusion that the underworld is nothing but darkness and cold, barren stone. These jungles are flush with life, however alien it may appear to surface-dwellers. Billions of insectile legs skitter through tangles of mold and algae, while the air is thick with beating wings and glowing spores. Gasbags inflate and deflate like enormous lungs. Life has spiraled out of control and twisted in on itself; many creatures here blur the line between animal, plant, and fungus. To add to this confusing mess, bioluminescence is ever-present within the wilds. Kaleidoscopic colors pulse in patterns that change throughout the day, and can even be used to mark the passage of time.

In the east, the elaborate city of Khep'set has surrendered to the ecology it once pillaged. Webs of mold hang over empty streets and farms are flooded and overgrown with rot. The web-traps are glutted with empty insect shells and arcane-tainted life spirals out of the once-esteemed arboretums. The spires of the old lords rise out of fungal murk, clinging to some semblance of their glory. There's a somber beauty to the city's prolonged destruction, as all manner of life revels in its decay.

Within the murky depths of the wilds, solid stone is a rarity. Built on eons of decay, the foundation of the entire region is made of ancient fossils and cast-off insect shells, held together by mold. Even here, civilization can be found. Khepri settlements, built from chitin and carapace, are hidden in the murk, connected by nameless trails and pilgrimages.

In the far west is a marsh scoured by bitter cold. The Frostmouthes are strange arcane phenomena, caverns which bellow snow and icy winds into the underworld. The largest of these lies in the Khep'seti Wilds, and the place its winds buffet is the Frostmire. Here, buried under snow and frozen fungi, are the remains of (WIP), the tol'vir research installation from whence Anek'resat, first king of Azjol'Nerub, began his reign.

Dungeons

 * "Khepri Burrow"
 * "Glutton's Keep"

Storylines

 * [Placeholder]:

Resources
Herb: ***