District of the Dearly Departed

About the District

The District of the Dearly Departed (DDD) is home to a population of over 2 million undead denizens of The City. It was the first of the The City's districts, planned and developed in the year 114 P.U.

The district is separated into two sections. The first is an upper level that appears as a gothic, sparsely lit neighborhood, magically enchanted to maintain the appearance of a night without stars, permanently. It is the home to what are known as "tangible undead:" lich, zombies, revenants, wights, vampires, necromancers, and dhampir. The second is the lower level, accessible through several crypt-like entrances scattered throughout the upper level. The buildings of the lower level are designed similarly to those on the upper level, with some distinctions: a lack of doors and stairs, no lighting whatsoever, and very little sound. While the brave few among the living can venture into the upper level of the DDD relatively safely, the same cannot be said of its underground counterpart.

In the lower level of the DDD, you can mostly find what are known as "intangible undead:" ghosts, wraiths, poltergeists, shades, and banshees.

History

The DDD was founded mostly by pure coincidence. The would-be denizens of the city, in seeking out valuable resources as possible locations for the new settlement, came across a large region that repelled the living, filling them with a deep sense of dread. Plant and animal life died at the threshold of this region, transformed into ghastly apparitions or resurrected as rotting corpses.

Initially ruled uninhabitable and excluded from first drafts of the zoning map, further research into the region found that the same unclassified force that repelled the living instead attracted the undead. After some debate on account of the sheer size of the region, representatives agreed to designate it the territory of the dead.

Today, it is still not known how the unusual force manifested. Most historians believe a spell cast by a powerful sect of liches and necromancers to be the culprit. As necromancers and liches are the bona fide ruling class of the DDD, they are content to let that theory prevail.

Some historians, however, theorize that it was not the work of liches or necromancers, but that of an extremely powerful shade whose essence still lingers to this day. Those who believe this version of events prefer not to publicize that opinion, lest they draw the ire of DDD leadership.

Facts about the neighborhood

• Local restaurants serving raw meat and human body parts (sometimes live, in the less than legal spots), ectoplasm, and apple juice. The undead love apple juice.
• Transparent buildings designed by ghostly architects: no doors or stairs, since ghosts don't need them.
• Hotels are basically morgues. Don't ever say that to the locals, though.
• Part of the district looks like a graveyard at the surface, but underneath is a bustling underground neighborhood. Entrance can be found in a crypt. Probably.
• Biggest houses and mansions are typically owned by necromancers and liches, the ruling class of the undead.
• Hospitals in the DDD are the only ones that take dead patients (in addition to primarily dying ones). Unless the patient has a DNR (Do Not Resurrect) order on file, a doctor who specializes in necromancy can bring them back from the dead. Submitting the proper paperwork post-resurrected can secure the recently-resurrected individual housing in the DDD.
• Part of citizens' taxes go to an enchantment that keeps the neighborhood permanently night. This is one of the only two districts in the city (the other being Gone Street), that has this enchantment.
• On the black market, ghosts can buy time to posess the bodies of the living.
• Common occupations in the DDD (from most to least common):
1. Custodian
2. Housekeeper
3. Construction Worker (tangibles only)
4. Teacher
5. Receptionist
6. Librarian
7. Accountant
8. Journalist
9. Biohazard cleaner
10. Hematologist (vampires)
• Gas and water utilities are less common, and treated as a luxury in this neighborhood.
• The District of the Dearly Departed is where The Bureau of Lifetime Management and Statistics headquarters is located. This organization, founded and operated solely by banshees, monitors and records the rates of death in each of The City's districts.
• Though many residents of The District of the Dearly Departed prey on humans, the presence of banshees tracking the number of annual deaths in each district helps to keep the more bloodthirsty monsters in check. Even so, the DDD has the third highest human mortality rate in The City. Annual statistics as recorded by the Bureau of Lifetime Management and Statistics are as follows:
  1. Gone Street: 3,786
  2. Isale Way: 3,054
  3. District of the Dearly Departed: 2,897
  4. The Amalgamate: 897
  5. The Red Wastes: 564
  6. Serenity Way: 43
  7. New Nimbus: 5
• This is probably one of the last neighborhoods you want to end up in if you're human. Even the most disciplined undead have a taste for human fear, energy, flesh, or some combination of the three.
• Each district (aside from The Amalgamate) is represented/celebrated for two months out of the year. The District of the Dearly Departed is celebrated the first and second months (January-February), the Months of the Dead.
• The monster inhabitants of The City have never agreed on an official name. As a result, the locals of each neighborhood know The City by their own names. The DDD's name for The City: Anghenville