The Fief of Lemingrad

Location: Lemingrad is located 20 miles East of Abdera on the continent of Sabtah on the planet of Cadiz. Once, part of a beautiful metropolis that was the pinnacle of Second Republic tech. Now, it is a lost cause, a shameless reminder of its past glory as the buildings decay with overgrown vegetation and poor upkeep.

History: Lemingrad has been in chaos since the bombing by Van Gelder during the first Emperor Wars has left much of Abdera and the surrounding area in ruins. Lemingrad did not suffer an immediate blast but was pulverized by a shockwaves that came from 40 miles North.

Lemingrad has been inhabited by street gangs and the refuse of the galaxy A lot of people are attracted to the center of the area called the Palace of Lemingrad. The Palace is a structure 1300 ft tall that has a giant disk on top (the great dome) and is surrounded by three other buildings (the three towers). No one is sure what the structure’s original function was but many gang leaders have resided in the building.

Sometime in 4600 a psychic coven known as “The Invisible Path” took over. They remained in power but an attack by a minor Van Gelder noble led to an alliance between the two. During the Emperor Wars a large part of Abdera was given to Count Reginal Deva Castenda de Sutek as a sign of good faith for the alliance between the Hazat and the Decados. Count Reginal sent Baroness Isabelle Castenda to overlook the fief. She arrived with 100 servants and in 5 years had taken over much of Abdera and was able to bring 5000 troops to The Siege of Jericho.

During this time Isabelle sent out 4 knights to secure small areas around Abdera including Lemingrad. Sir Cavantier Ager Castenda had the Van Gelder killed but mysteriously kept most of his cabinet. Lady Isabelle lost contact with Lemingrad soon after but did not have the time nor resources to deal with the lost fief as she was busy preparing troops to be sent off to war.

At this time a young Decados noble had returned from his service in the Emperor Wars and had received word of the lost fief. Lord Aleksei Decados offered his service to reclaim the fief with permission from Lady Isabelle. Permission was granted and Aleksei moved in. With the help of his advisor, the Obun Botina Kurai, Aleksei was made aware of the psychic coven. With a group of 15 soldiers and two Kossaks, Aleksei was able to remove the “Invisible Path” which ran off into the ruins of Abdera. They found Sir Cavantier a vegetable on his throne drooling on himself.

Aleksei declared himself ruler of Lemingrad the same day he found out that the Decados accepted Alexius Hawkwood as the Emperor. Lemingrad was still in bad shape as all the previous rulers did nothing to improve the area. Aleksei completely transformed the area in five years. First he took out a loan from the Reeves for 20,000 firebirds. He used a lot of the money to hire an engineer to pump water to the top of the great dome and the three towers. He had planted a huge farm which on top of the building could grow many crops that wouldn’t grow in the polluted city below. The crops would feed all the people around and many stragglers soon pledged themselves to Aleksei.

Second he restored power to much of the palace along with a few buildings surrounding the area. He also formed a small military and created a well defended perimeter around the palace. However, with all the improvements and money that Aleksei was making he could not afford his taxes to his father Count Renato, Baron Isabelle, and his loan to the Reeves.

Aleksei decided to start producing the drug, Selchecah, which would ideally grow on the great dome allowing Aleksei to sell his cheaper than the Severus brand. This allowed Aleksei’s coffers to grow twice as fast but he ended up getting addicted to the drug himself (along with The Engineer Timothy Coldwell).

Lords: Lemingrad is ruled by Baronet Aleksei Decados, who pays fielty to Count Renato Decados, who pays fielty to Duchess Salandra Decados.

Baronet Aleksei Decados also pays fief taxes to Baroness Isabelle Castenda who pays fielty to Count Reginal Deva Castenda de Sutek who pays fielty to Duchess Elena Cindias Victoriana Castenda de Sutek.

Vassals: (population @ 10,000)
1 knight (Sir Vir Rustacof Gelder + his wife, 4 children and 3 servants)
700 serfs (500 farm hands, 50 palace servants, 150 Selchecah producers)
150 trained guards/military
100 miscellaneous serfs (children, disabled)
7000 random humans in the outer city.
2000 hironem (about 200 other aliens)

Palace Vassals:
Botina Kurai - advisor and chancellor
Entered Timothy Coldwell and his 4 assistants - engineers
Sergeant Ivan Duval - Head Guard
Natasha Gulian - Seneschal

The Palace of Lemingrad:

The Palace is the largest building outside of Abdera. It is split in two parts: The Great Dome is a large saucer that sits atop a pillar. The Great Dome is 1400 ft high and is the third largest structure on Cadiz. No one is sure what the true purpose of the Great Dome was for but part of it was used as a greenhouse.

The Three Towers and three large towers that surround the great dome. Each tower is identical and stands at 900 ft for a total of 70 stories. In the last five years Aleksei has managed to restore both running water and electricity to the Palace to a limited degree. He has also managed to fortify the area and placed machineguns on the 3rd floor of each tower.

Each tower has a different name: The Royal Tower, The Tower of Serfs, and The Broken Tower. The Royal Tower is where Aleksei set up his palace complete with running water, electricity, a grand entrance hall, grand ball and other such royal novelties. The Tower of Serfs is where most of the serfs live that work in the Great Dome or the Selchecah pits. Power has been restored to the bottom few floors of this tower but most serfs don’t bother with electricity and prefer the familiarity of candles. The Broken Tower is of little use as much of the interior was destroyed as it took the brunt of a major blast. The top 50 floors are barely passable. However, Aleksei has converted this Tower into a prison and the Selchecah pits. No power goes to this tower.

The surrounding area:

Much of the surrounding area is abandoned buildings that have become useless and barely liveable. Many people do make the bottom stories of the buildings their home. A few building immediatly around the perimeter were given some power but at a high price of ½ a firebird a month (the normal tax is a firebird a year).

Most peasants in the area are considered freeman as their hasn’t been noble rule in the area for a long time. However, Aleksei is able to enforce his rule and though only 10% of the population has sworn fielty to him everyone else must pay taxes.

Most peasants weed out a living through eating mungus grape which is a grape vine that grows along the buildings. They have also become proficient at hunting rats and a common meal is called mungus soup. About 70% of the freeman have a skill of some sort which allow them to survive, usually through barter.

Besides the peasants there is a small church of Amantheans, a small group of Scravers, and about 3 or 4 gangs.