The World of the Graveyard

Here it is… The Graveyard!

Cenotaph City… the Heart of the GY

The GY is dominated by Cenotaph City, a sprawling necropolis where most of the restless dead do their thing.

Running through the middle of the city (and the entire GY) is the River Styx. The Styx is the main way people get around in the GY.

Other areas of note in the GY include:

The Crypts

Most of the newly restless dead show up here, so it can be pretty crazy, but it’s also a great place to hang out, meet new people, watch the newbies freak out until their orientation… good times. Zombies, Skeletons, Ghosts, Banshees… heck even a few Vampires and Mummies hang out here.

Boot Hill

A lot of “old-timers” hang out here. A rough and tumble kind of place with shootouts, brawls, and barbeque (don’t ask)

Sepulcher

Vampires are just pissed they’re here at all, so they take it out on everyone else. And they pretty much keep to themselves in this place of extreme emo goth aesthetic. Lots of soaring arches and stone, cold moonlight on roses, and long lingering glances. Oh… and they make soulless coffee that they peddle in the Cenotaph like it was sweat from Jerry Garcia’s brow. Posers.

The Tombs

If you’re just “too cool for ghoul”, you set up digs in The Tombs. They take “medicinal wraps” to a whole new level. The Kardashians already have a palace reserved here. Major snobification. Mostly Mummies with some Vampires and a few Skeletons. Zombies wouldn’t last 5 minutes here but some of the Banshee bands that make it big have Mausoleums up in here.

The Barrows

Some people REALLY get into being dead. I mean… whoa. The Barrows is NOT a place you wanna go unless you’re really into stygian pits, primal rituals, and bone colonics. Ghouls, man… ghouls will chew on your arm and look you right in the eye while they do it. Frickin’ feral, man.

The Bone Orchard

Another place to avoid unless you know your way around. They say Javis Moss (the Bean Master) walked into the Bone Orchard and walked out three days later with the secret of Roasting the True Bean and a 1968 Proctor Silex Waffle Iron. Most folks though… they go in and – IF they come out – they’re “different” like they saw stuff they shouldn’t oughta see. So, y’know… not recommended for romantic strolls. BUT… may also be the source of the sacred beans.

Bean Mountain

When the great Bean Master – Jarvis Moss – learned the secret of Roasting the True Bean, he retreated into Bean Mountain to contemplate the infinite mysteries that had been revealed to him. Three Vampires sought him out and he taught them all he knew… but since Vampires are total douchebags, they perverted his wisdom and created industrialized soulless coffee. But someone else sought out Moss’s wisdom… the mysterious Roastomancer.

The Roast-o-mancer’s Tower

Once the Vampires started manufacturing the brackish sludge they call coffee (funded by the ever-trendy Mummies), life got pretty bleak in the GY. Then a strange tower appeared and suddenly there was True Bean in the world again. Not much, but enough to give hope to the walking dead. Rumors circulated that a Roast-omancer had come to the GY and that he dwelled in the tower, bestowing wondrous brew upon the land once more.

The inhabitants of the GY are souls who, for whatever reason, managed to avoid the whole “eternal rest” part of dying. Some of them weren’t good enough for their respective heavens, others are avoiding their respective hells.

But everyone in the GY is there because they weren’t done living.

This means that everyone has a purpose – a raison d’etre, if you will – that sustains them in their day-to-day experience. That purpose fuels them the same way food and air sustain us mortal folk. So if you lose that drive to do that thing you do, you start to fade. If you don’t find that spark, you’ll fade into oblivion. No heaven or hell… your essence is dispersed, subsumed into the cosmic ambience from which all things come.

So, yeah… stay focused on that passion and you’ll thrive in the GY.

Classes of Dead

There are 7 broad classes of Dead in the GY: Skeletons, Zombies, Ghosts, Banshee, Mummies, Vampires, and Ghouls.

Why? How should I know?!

Maybe it’s cuz mortals, being inherently dysfunctional when it comes to death, build up these horrific archetypal iconographies to anthropomorphize their darkest dread.

Maybe the Universe has a thing for 1930’s horror flicks.

Whatever the reason, it’s the way things are and everyone pretty much deals with it.

Zombies

The most common Dead you’ll find in the GY. Rotting flesh, exposed bone, all of that. They tend to be pretty grounded and their passions tend towards the practical/physical end of things. They build stuff, fight a lot, eat and drink (even though they don’t have to), and generally revel in that whole “fleshy existence” experience.

Skeletons

Less common but still a substantial demographic, the Skeleton is a more cerebral embodiment of the Dead. While Zombies are physical hedonists, Skeletons tend to be all about the ideas. The pursuit of knowledge, truth, and the optimal organization of your shoe closet is what drives them (along with a healthy dose of OCD and other neuroses).

Ghosts

These Dead are on their way out. It may take another few centuries but they’ve lost that drive and are settling into that long slow slide into oblivion. Which means they’re actually pretty chill and laid-back folks. That doesn’t mean they don’t have their delights (they’re big into tea for some reason), but they’re just a lot more chill in the pursuit thereof.

Banshee

They’re screamers. I mean, that about sums it up. They live loud, they have something to say, and have zero inhibitions about saying it. A lot of them say it with music, but others just… y’know… shout a lot. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s more important to a Banshee… the message or the shouting.

Mummies

Ugh… Mummies. They think they’re “all that” just because they’re rich as midas (cuz the only money you have in the GY is what you’re buried with). They’re all about the bling and the prestige that comes with it.

Vampires

You know how some people get their kicks raining on everyone’s parade? That’s Vampires, man. They suck the life out of everything. Between that and the whole “goth glam” aesthetic they roll with, they really take the fun out of being dead. Plus, they teamed up with the Mummies awhile back to monopolize the coffee business… and they managed to suck the life out of THAT, too. Vampires suck, man.

Ghouls

These guys are bad news. Full on feral dead – some with only tattered fragments of their humanity intact – these monsters would sooner eat you than look at you. Actually, they do both (which is a lot creepier). I mean, Vampires will just bum you out, but Ghouls will literally chew you up. But they’re also closer to the whole “death” experience, so they understand stuff the others don’t about the way things work in the GY.