Ruler: Necrotis, the Deathmaiden Inhabitants: The Unseen
The Sign of the Hanging Man Tavern may not be the centerpoint of the Deadlands, but it is quite certainly the most important place in the Deadlands and in many realms beyond.
Situated right outside the entrance to the Deadlands' interior and on the bank of the black river, the Sign of the Hanging Man straddles the line between life and death. It is a peculiar-looking place, each stone that makes up its walls and each shingle that composes its roof made up of a different type of material, a different color stone...not any two pieces are the same shade or material. Even the windows are particolored with abstract patterns of stained glass. The door is the only thing plain, a bare oaken slab with a black wrought-iron rose nailed into it. Above it, the sign swings back and forth in a nonexistent wind, the tiled Arcana card on its surface depicting the Hanging Man: a young blond man in black vestments clinging to a splintering beam, with a crown of roses perched on the bar above him. The door swings open at a touch, handleless and unlocked.
Within the tavern, the light is muted and pleasantly smoky. The colorfulness extends into the interior as well, with the hearth also made up of those varicolored stones. All the wooden furniture, from tables to chairs to the bar itself, is inlaid with bright tile patterns depicting everything from ancient myths to recent battles. The wooden beams that make up the ceiling are free from such ornamentation, instead bearing the slight weights of bronze lanterns. A wood-and-iron stairway curves along one wall, giving a glimpse of a second-floor hallway.
The clientele is perhaps the strangest part of the Sign of the Hanging Man. Demonics and angelics mix with Thiolain berserkers, ancient Meridian archmagi, Daemyn swordsmen, dusky Nythalla, albino Bian Siddhe elves and tusked Oegar. Fur-cloaked heroes of the Mythic Age sit side-by-side with City punks and Kingdom-era generals. The only thing that binds these disparate folk together--beside the free-flowing drinks provided by the bartender--is the fact that they are all Unseen: the greatest heroes and villains of their times, set aside by Necrotis to be her personal standing army.
Well...most of them are the Unseen. The demonics and angelics do not technically qualify, and there are always mortals in the Hanging Man somewhere, usually priests or adventurers visiting their ancestors. Some of the Children of Night visit, as do the occasional Ascendants. No one is barred from the place, as long as they pay the price.
The cost to enter the Sign of the Hanging Man is not high--or, at least the proprietors do not think so. All it requires is a small fragment of the visitor's soul, just an imprint. The visitor is instructed to reach within and draw out a tiny part of his or her essence; in the presence of the Hanging Man, this is as simple as concentrating. The fragment manifests as a brick, its shade and composition wholely unique to its creator. Once the brick has been turned over to the bartender, the visitor can come and go from the Tavern as he or she pleases. No action taken against the brick will harm the creator.
The Tavern is built of these stones, from the ground up. It is a place of ultimate power, so much so that it warps the fabric of reality. Since it is in the Deadlands rather than the material realm, this has no really adverse effects on the surroundings. However, the second floor is a hallway that leads into infinity, covered on both sides with doors, each door leading into a different room and sometimes a different dimension. It is not unheard-of in the slightest for something unusual and non-Halcye to come out of one of those doors, attracted by the power. Many of the doors to dangerous worlds have been warded heavily, but even the Unseen can not seal them all.
The main job of the Unseen is seeking out lost souls on the material plane and guiding them to the Deadlands. This includes hunting down people who refuse to die but have not Ascended: folk who use magic or demon-pacts to lengthen their lives beyond the natural cycle. The Unseen are not ordered to fight Discordant demons, but they will do so when they find them.
There are rarely many Unseen at any time. They can be obliterated by powerful magics, they can be corrupted and go to the side of the Discordants, or they can simply choose to lay down their burdens and cross the River to reincarnate. Necrotis leaves the choice to them. There have never been more than fifty Unseen at any one time, and there have been times within recorded history when there was only one. They are not particularly powerful, despite their status as the greatest men and women of their time; heroes and villains they may be, but the Unseen are people who never became Ascendants. Necrotis lends them only a few extra abilities, and beyond that they have to depend on the skills they had in their mortal lives to see them through their duties. Most of them would have it no other way.
The one Unseen who has always been there is the bartender, the very first Unseen: Yiargrach. He is a Yhen, one of the bearlike types of skinchangers; his race went extinct in the Age of Legends, but he was dead long before that, killed in the wars after the Elven Descent. He is a massive creature, broadshouldered and white-haired with a blunt face that is only barely non-animal. The bartender's apron looks remarkably odd on him. He speaks amazingly well, though, and is much more intelligent than he looks. He rarely leaves the Tavern, prefering to deal with the threats that come from the second floor rather than seeking out threats in a world he no longer recognizes. When he does go out onto Horizon, though, it is evidence that something is very, very wrong there.
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