Evernight

Evernight was the dismal echo of Neverwinter located in the Shadowfell. It was a city of the undead and those that trafficked with them&mdash;unhinged necromancers, slave traders, and followers of dark deities.

Description
The whole city was in disrepair, as if the wood and stone that held the buildings together had the life leeched out of them, becoming rotten and crumbling. The few streets paved with cobblestones were cratered with potholes, and the rest were lanes and alleys filled with grave-dirt trodden and scuffed into a fine dust. The atmosphere was damp with a chill wind under a perpetually gray sky.

Evernight had a few portals and many "dimensional gasps" that connected it with Neverwinter in the material plane, allowing for easy passage between the two planes.

Geography
Evernight was located on the coast at the mouth of a once fast-flowing and treacherous river, that had since been replaced by a lava flow. The western end of the city was often shrouded in mist and fog from the lava where it met the sea. Not far beyond the eastern city walls was the Burning Woods.

Government
The city was controlled by a tribunal of powerful and/or ancient ghouls, ghasts and living followers of Orcus, usually spellcasters. The tribunal had the power to make living people off-limits to the population as a food source. They also dictated foreign policy.

Law and order
When a conflict was brought to the tribunal to be resolved, its members proclaimed their verdicts by eating whichever party they found unworthy of their time. Because of that, few citizens petitioned the tribunal unless there was no other option.

Besides that, there were no formal laws in Evernight, and living beings that were not declared formal citizens usually were fair game for the undead, unless they had a powerful citizen as patron or were considered useful for the city to function properly.

Inhabitants
The majority of Evernight population was undead. Ghouls, ghasts, vampires, and other kinds of intelligent undead, as well as zombies and other kinds non-intelligent undead made up the bulk of the population. A minority of living inhabitants of many races also lived in Evernight, usually those of evil-alignments or those who were captured to serve as food for the undead.

Trade
Evernight was located in a crossroads in the Shadowfell, making the city a center of commerce in that plane. Evernight imported live meat. Those that were lucky became slaves, those that were unlucky became meals.

Defenses
A hungry population of flesh-eaters and blood drinkers was enough of a threat to put off most living adversaries. For enemy undead or necromancers however, the priests of the Temple of Filth had a secret doomsday weapon hidden away in case their own people were not enough to defend the city. This weapon was a magical artifact that had the ability to project radiant energy equivalent to the light of Toril's midday sun. Only strong undead creatures were capable of handling it without being instantly destroyed but even then, they suffered crippling pain. Once wielded against enemy undead however, hundreds were sure to be destroyed all at once, even under the pall of the Shadowfell. The artifact itself was protected by a shrine in the Temple of Filth, hidden by ritual magic, behind trapped and cursed doors.

History
Evernight had a shadovar ambassador before 1372 DR. It also maintained a diplomatic relationship with Thay after it became a nation of necromancers.

In 1451 DR, when Mount Hotenow erupted on the material plane, so did its Shadowfell mirror. On the Shadowfell though, rather than a pyroclastic flow like the one people in Neverwinter suffered, Evernight got a slow stream of lava that was contained and channeled by the riverbed, evaporating the river water but otherwise not damaging the city save for a few piers.

Evernight became a thriving city after this event, to the chagrin of some living individuals who wanted to see Evernight destroyed.

Notable Locations

 * Castle Nowhere
 * Corpse market
 * Demon pit
 * Haunted pier
 * House of Screams
 * Lamantha's mortuary
 * Temple of Filth

Rumors & Legends
It was rumored that Evernight mirrored one city on every mortal world of the multiverse.