In the ancient land of Kyumaht, it was long known that carefully preparing and desiccating a body after death, followed by raising it to unholy life through the necromantic arts, would result in an undead servant of both suppleness and strength. The Kyumahtim believed that the soul was sacred and did not dabble in the rebonding of departed souls to necrotic flesh–rather, they used their carefully prepared dead as mere automatons, giving them simple instructions that were then carried out tirelessly.

The Kyumahtim were therefore able to allow their own dead to do much of the labor of tending their crops, building their cities, and fighting their wars. However, they were still mortal, and when the great Plague of Nomurian reached their borders, the living Kyumahtim were taken in droves. There were few left to tend to the dead, and Kyumaht was largely abandoned by the survivors. The control words and necromantic rituals were lost with the deaths of most of the Kyumaht priests.

As a result, the dead of Kyumaht continue their work even in the absence of the living. Their borders are held fast against intruders, crops are sown and reaped, and buildings repaired. However, some secret word or sign seems to be missing, for anyone who attempts to enter a Kyumaht city, even a descendant of the surviving Kyumahtim in exile, will be ruthlessly hunted down and killed, or hounded until they are driven from those lands.

High Inquisitor’s Note:
Some have talked of meeting the dead and preserved Kyumahtim in battle to slay them and take their land. This does not seem to work, as new Kyumahtim dead seem to take their place. There are two theories, not necessarily mutually contradictory, to explain this. First, it is thought that the ancient Kyumahtim established caches of the dead with contingency spells to match. Second, it is suspected that new dead thralls are somehow being made automatically from the bodies of those slain more recently.

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