History

World Weep Opening History

The slowly expanding empire of Geb was preparing for Mathesis's alchemical warfare once word spread of her weapons, which started raining down on the other nations of Garund. Most of the most prominent Blood Lords were lost during the failed First Hero's March, and a council meeting was said to occur when all the remaining Blood Lords rushed to the capital city of Mechitar. Writings and oral tradition say that the Ghost King Geb proclaimed that surviving to fight Nex was worth more than risking everything to push back on the near limitless forces of the Mad Alchemist. So on that fateful day, with a burst of magic of all different traditions, Geb and his most powerful ritual casters encased the city of Mechitar with barrier magic more advanced than mortals could comprehend. This shield proved effective against years of continuous assault from ever-changing alchemical experiments of Mathesis. The rest of the land of Geb was not afforded that luxury and was razed with impiety when Mathesis's gaze fell upon the nation. The surviving necromancers who fled into the wilderness and other spaces that Mathesis's weapons did not reach found something was different about the art of necromancy. The souls that were once caught before their passing to the river of souls were now drawn by the World Weep faster than necromancers could bind them with their previous methodologies. Thus marked the end of the Age of Lost Omens and the start of the Age of Collapse.

Age of Collapse History — Era of Silence

During the Era of Silence, the people outside the city of Mechitar were left completely to their own devices. As time passed, the undead population of Geb slowly decreased as necromancers struggled to create more than a handful in their lifetimes. Pocket townships of the living appeared throughout the centuries, but none rose to the level of prosperity as the pre-weep world, any that found themselves rising close would be struck down by alchemical warfare in short order. Similarly, throughout the centuries, self-proclaimed Blood Lords would attempt to galvanize power around themselves. Almost all of these individuals would lose their footholds; sometimes through an unexpected strike of Mathesis's newest experiment, sometimes through inner circle conflict and backstabbing, and sometimes through simple attrition, as time and the dangers of the world claimed their followers faster than they could gather them. No single group or individual would ever rise to national prominence in this age, with nature slowly reclaiming the nation until the day that the Age of Renewal started. 

Age of Renewal History

Upon the defeat of Mathesis, as if the King were watching the event through some form of scrying, the glowing barrier surrounding Mechitar disappeared for the first time in a thousand years. With a grand procession that was said to last for years, the various remaining Bloodlords marched out of the city gates with parades of undead and living. Various outposts were claimed in the wilderness of the kingdom's old boundaries, and from those outposts quickly grew new settlements as the living and dead settled down. The existing settlements from the surviving descendants of those that weren't in Mechitar were subsumed by the quickly regrowing empire in a variety of peaceful or combative expansion efforts. After a few decades of consolidating, the Ghost King Geb has officially announced to prepare for war, a preemptive attack on the rival nation Nex. Pockets of scouting forces can be spotted across the borders of the Mana Wastes, studying and researching ways to safely access and march across the stretch of land that separates them from their eternal rival.

Government

Geb remains the eternal undead tyrant of his kingdom, but now he takes his role with action rather than delegating it to his trusted lessers as he had done in the past. The Ghost King’s grasp has tightened, for it takes a strong hand to remake a kingdom. In light of this, the existing Blood Lords are left to handle local affairs and other day-to-day matters of managing the kingdom but are given only illusory power as they must still bow to Geb’s every decree. Alongside these traditional lords, the Quick have been able to establish their own subservient infrastructure within Geb to fill the gaps left by unreplaced undead masters. The Quick shall never rule over the dead in Geb, though, so their small courts and ruling bodies are only permitted to serve the needs of the living where it does not interfere with Geb’s affairs.

Points of Interest

• The city of Mechitar stands as one of the few remaining relics of the past ages, not touched by the alchemical warfare that Mathesis waged against the rest of the planet. Its libraries, cathedrals, magical artifacts, and other relics of the previous ages are a major factor in its power and ability to reenter the world stage, and a major site of academic tourism.
• Settlements within the original borders of the lands of Geb have been thriving in the Age of Renewal, as the nation continues it's previous role as the bread pan of the continent of Garund. Some settlements maintain the names and cultures of the past ages. Other settlements are forging a new path forward. The old city of Yled with its various colleges and infamous Bonewall, is an example of the former. The new mining city of Noxquake, with its dangerous mines and quarries, is an example of the latter.
• The Axan Woods, as well as various rivers and plains of the nation still flourish in the new age. Although some land features have new or differing names, as the shifting cultures of the centuries have given new meanings to locations. Due to the alchemical warfare, the necrotization of the country's plantlife has vastly accelerated, with undead flora and fauna overtaking the living for the majority of the lands. Although some living creatures still attempt to settle in the nation, these complications make such living arrangements more and more difficult.

Organizations Within

• The Bloodlords, undead nobility of varying types: vampires, wraiths, mummies, shadows, and liches primarily, serve a role between an advisory council and worldly governors to the Ghost King Geb. Their various servants and subordinates form the backbone of the lesser nobility of the nation, and serve as the leaders of the various guilds and government organizations, like the city guard, harbor masters, judges, merchant groups, inn-keepers, and other important roles in the various settlements.
• The factions below the Blood Lords include the builders league, the reanimators, the tax collectors union, and many other such groups. These serve as the only realistic way for most of the population of Geb to enter the governmental ladder, and often serve as the highest positions most could hope to achieve in their lives. 

Major Conflicts

• The first major conflict that Geb participated in occurred shortly after the grand march outside the walls of Mechitar. There were many twisted experiments in the lands of Geb from the centuries of warfare by the Alchemist Mathesis. These twisted abominations of flora and fauna represented centuries of experimentation and refinement from Mathesis. The alchemical cleanup is still occurring in some pockets of the wilderness decades later, and it is not especially rare for a settlement to suddenly find itself under siege from the remnants of these experiments. Some aspiring lower nobles took their experience and formed mercenary bands, emigrating from Geb and offering their alchemical warfare experiences to the various other nations of the world in hopes of furthering their own positions in life.
• The Maidens' War occurred when the tendrils of the new Geb reign extended southwards to the Field of Maidens. The spirits of maidens had been cultivating and refining for the entirety of the Age of Collapse, unbothered by the outside world and never catching Mathesis's interest. These stone statues fended off any exploratory expeditions of Geb and repelled a full military force when Geb's bloodlords consolidated their forces. Although Geb claims victory in the Maidens' War for reclaiming the territory, those with knowledge of the lands know that there are no Geb settlements in the Field of Maidens, nor have there been any efforts to, despite the total victory the Blood Lords claim. 
• The early skirmishes of the new Nex-Geb war have preoccupied the nation for the last decade. These conflicts can be divided into three: the forging of magically stable routes within the Mana Wastes, the restoration of infrastructure within Geb itself, and moments of periphery brinkmanship outside Nexian cities. Rumor has it that Geb is gearing up rapidly, and word of a crusade against Nex has stirred the nation into an anticipatory craze in the last year, with many individuals all eyeing routes and avenues to ascend up the hierarchy in this time of opportunities.

Events in the Age of Renewal

• The unsealing of Mechitar was the first and largest event of the nation of Geb in the new Age. This event prompted a total revival of the dictatorship of Geb, a rebirth of the Bloodlords' nobility system, and a recasting of the various factions and guilds into the old systems of the past ages.
• The passing of the new Deadlaws was the second major event of Geb in the new age. These new Deadlaws revisited the various codes and other such agreements between the living and dead in the nation of Geb, and brought about a surprising number of changes that protected the ever-diminishing population of living humans, flora, and fauna in the nation of Geb; the reasoning was to attempt to protect the fragile balance between the the living and the dead, vitality and the void, which had been growing precariously out of alignment.
• The destruction of the Vitality Lich is something that Geb and the Bloodlords have been actively trying to censor in all manner and forms over the last few decades. It is only spoken about in stolen whispers, but the largest rumor has it that someone, or perhaps a secret group, attempted to recreate the steps Mathesis took towards her near apotheosis, and became some form of monstrosity that nearly created an explosion of untold magnitudes of raw Vitality energy that had fissured out of its soul-shattering. It is said this is the only time Geb has personally intervened in any efforts in this new Age of Revitalization. The quarry-town of Noxquake and its various mines and deep quarries make a cover-up for the battle and underlying scars upon the land that such a conflict would create. 

Other notable changes from the past Golarion

The general population and characteristics of inhabitants mirror the past Golarion, although notably, there is a shift towards more living humanoids then previous eras due to the effects of the World Weep and only a few decades for necromancers to bind undead. The nation enjoys some level of increased tolerance and cooperation from its various neighbors on the global stage is ahead of many nations still recovering and settling their affairs. The nation however still readies itself against potential crusades against their undead nature.