This page provides information on the characters, places and culture that appear in Dream of Death City, which is the first book of PJ Nwosu’s Red Kingdom series.

Characters

Thora

A lowly slave of the dust-caste rank who lives in the capital of City of Pillars, and is bound to serve at Investigation House. She is expected to undertake chores, yet she dreams of becoming a real investigator.

Diem Lakein

An ex soldier who fought the Cold War, Diem grew up in Open Port West and worked at his uncle’s forge prior to being conscripted into the military. After the war, he applied for a job at Investigation House in the capital of City of Pillars and now works as an investigator. He was recently demoted from a Middle Investigator to a Low Investigator due to an incident that occurred during his and Thora’s most recent case.

Dust-Caste Effile

Effile is a slave bound to Investigation House in City of Pillars. She is assigned to accompany Diem and Thora to Death City to solve a crime.

High Investigator

The High Investigator is in charge of Investigation House in City of Pillars. He assigns Diem and Thora to investigate a disappearance in Death City.

Sun-Chancellor

An important nobleman who works at the palace in politics.

Leon Grassin

The caretaker of City of Pillar’s greatest Gold House. Leon Grassin is a lawbreaker.

Viceroy Bearin

In charge of the entire Thousand Island Frontier, Viceroy Bearin is responsible for representing the Red King’s interests across his assigned polity. He lives in the local Polity House, which is located on Death City Island, and he is in charge of many local soldiers who rule the nearby Death City and surrounding areas.

Honnan Skyin

Honnan is a soldier who works at Polity House in Death City. He was born a dust-caste slave in the capital City of Pillars, but was brought to the Frontier and then set free by his former owner Viceroy Bearin. Honnan is loyal to the viceroy. He is also the protagonist of his own prequel novella called A Pale Box on the Distant Shore.

Soldier Carpin

Carpin is a local Death City man who works at Polity House on the island.

Scholar-Assistant Poplarin

Poplarin works as a scholar-assistant for Viceroy Bearin at Polity House on Death City Island. He manages reports, organisation and generally assists the viceroy with the day to day running of Polity House and the surrounding region.

Osla

Osla is a practitioner of the crooked beat who lives in Death City. She is also the mother of Misha and another young daughter.

Misha

Misha is the son of Osla. He is a peddler of trinkets and bones, and travels across the whole of the Red Kingdom, returning home to Death City every year.

Sun-Master Jolyen Sandin

A member of the Sun-Noble caste, Jolyen Sandin is the richest and most powerful man in Death City and has many connections to the elite sun-nobles in the capital of City of Pillars.

Sun-Mistress Shea Sandin

Shea is a young woman of the Sun-Noble caste and lives in Death City. She is the only daughter of Jolyen Sandin.

Buto Roomin

A Death City mercenary.

Crimson Warrior

A Crimson Warrior, a high-ranking warrior and official from Purge House in the capital City of Pillars, leads a team of Purge Officers to Death City. With no tongue, he cannot speak.

Roles and jobs

Viceroys

The Red Kingdom is divided into regions called polities and each of these polities is assigned a viceroy to oversee it. A viceroy is the representative of the government and king across that polity. Viceroys are assigned to their polity for a term of service, which they must fulfil. They must be of the Sun-Noble caste. They spend their term as viceroy operating out of their assigned region’s local Polity House. There are many viceroys and Polity Houses across the Red Kingdom.

Investigators

Operating out of Investigation House, which is located in the capital City of Pillars, investigators are responsible for investigating crimes, making arrests and ensuring justice is meted out across the land in line with the Red Reform laws. Investigators are often sent into rural areas to investigate crimes. Mostly investigators are Moon-Caste citizens, though some Sun-Nobles also work within the investigator ranks.

Scholar-Assistants

Trained in numbers, writing and administration, Scholar-Assistants are aids to those in power. They come from the Moon-Caste rank.

Purge Officers

Operating out of Purge House, which is located in the capital City of Pillars, Purge Officers ensure that the citizens across the Red Kingdom obey the Red Reform laws in all aspects of their lives. Often, the punishment for deviation is death by pyre burning. Purge Officers are like soldiers of the Red Reform. They come from the Moon-Caste rank.

Red Hunters

Another word for Purge Officers, as used by the lower castes.

Crimson Warriors

Crimson Warriors are the elite warriors who run Purge House in the capital City of Pillars. They must sacrifice much to be raised to this high rank, including the loss of their tongue. Mostly, these warriors are Sun-Nobles, though it is possible to be from the Moon-Caste rank also.

Dust-Hunters

Warriors who are tasked with tracking down and recapturing runaway Dust-Caste slaves. These warriors are from the Moon-Caste status group.

Gold Women

Women who work at the many Gold Houses, or entertainment establishments, across the Red Kingdom. It is stated in the Red Reform that gold women must always be masked and painted gold in public to ensure citizens know their profession. These women are from the Dust-Caste group.

Practitioners of the Crooked Beat

A dangerous job outlawed in the Red Reform laws and hunted down by Purge House, practitioners of the crooked beat are women who have the ability to touch the crooked beat. Although almost wiped out of major cities like City of Pillars, practitioners still gather and work in more rural and isolated communities. They offer curse-work and services to citizens who can pay the price, though often also work as mid-wives, medicine women and apothecaries as well.

Bone-Miners

Bone-Miners are exclusive to the Thousand Island Frontier, where a death giant corpse lies just offshore of Death City Island. The red bones of the death giant, and its black heart, are coveted resources, and although it is a dangerous job and many Bone-Miners die, the return is high. Bone-Miners wear the shaggy white pelts of a near-mythic beast, now extinct, with the coats often passed down in each family. As Death City is less strict than the mainland, Bone-Miners can be women or men of any status.

Blubber-Farmers

In Death City, every two years there is an event called the Bloody Harvest. During this time, an enormous number of whales drive themselves onto the island’s shores to die. Many citizens make their living from farming the blubber, bones and other materials from these corpses.

Politic Men

Those Sun-Nobles who work in politics at the Red Palace.

Places

Red Kingdom

After the original name of the land was stolen by the burning Eleventh Daughter during her sacrifice, the land was renamed The Red Kingdom.

City of Pillars

The capital city of the Red Kingdom, and where all the Red Palace and all of the State Organ Houses are located for centralised governance.

The Thousand Island Frontier

The furthest southern borders of the Red Kingdom’s land is called the Thousand Island Frontier. It is a frozen, wild and isolated region of relic bridges and rusted gun towers from ages past. It is the wildest polity in the Red Kingdom.

Death City

Death City is the biggest metropolis within the Thousand Island Frontier and is located on Death City Island. It is a mysterious and superstitious place, and has the Red Kingdom’s only death giant corpse lying half-submerged in the ocean offshore. One half of the remaining bones of the Eleventh Daughter are entombed in a great pyramid in the island’s bay, and it is said her presence is why the island experiences the strange phenomena of the Bloody Harvest every two years.

Open Port West

A small open trading port in the West of the Red Kingdom. Trade is mostly outlawed by the Red Reform laws in order for the kingdom to be self-sufficient and not succumb to outside influence. However some limited trade of luxury items for Sun-Nobles and other goods is sanctioned by the Red Palace, though it is only allowed to occur in the few open ports that exist, like Open Port West.

Moontown

A city connected to City of Pillars by a relic bridge that spans the width of the Inland Sea. Moontown used to be a holy city before the Hundred Year Fall occurred and all gods were rejected. It is also the place where the first Daughter was accidentally sacrificed to stop the death giants from destroying the land. Therefore, the first pyramid tomb lies in Moontown.

Gatetown

A tiny village located at the very bottom tip of the mainland and a gateway to the Thousand Island Frontier.

Bird Fortress

A great northern fortress walled city. The other half of the Eleventh Daughter’s remains are buried in a great pyramid in Bird Fortress, and the city experiences a Bloody Harvest of its own every two years, when thousands of birds come to die against its spires and walls.

Apata

A foreign nation to the north. Great and sprawling, Apata is considered to be a beacon of culture and civilisation, and is looked to with awe by citizens of the Red Kingdom. Some limited trade is conducted between the lands.

Bilik Paean

A foreign island nation to the west. Traditionally a land of war and internal strife, with battle-lords staking claim to each-other’s domains, though recently there are rumours the island has been united under one woman’s rule. She calls herself a god-king.

Ruling Structure

Red Palace

Where the Red King and his Red Family reside, including his five prince sons. The palace is located in City of Pillars. It has always been the strongest force in the kingdom, though lately, with the shift of power toward Purge House, the Red Palace’s control over the land is waning.

Investigation House

One of the State Organ Houses, responsible for investigating crimes and ensuring justice in line with Red Reform laws across the land. Located in City of Pillars.

Purge House

One of the State Organ Houses, and the most powerful one at that, Purge House is responsible for punishing citizens who do not live in line with the Red Reform laws. They hunt practitioners of the crooked beat, burn forbidden books and set nightly pyres in the great plaza of City of Pillars.

War House

One of the State Organ Houses, responsible for all military affairs across the land. Located in City of Pillars, War House also has outpost garrisons in every city and region across the Red Kingdom. Many citizens enlist for the pay, though War House also practices conscription whenever needed.

Trade House

One of the State Organ Houses, responsible for managing all trade across the land, including merchant groups, paddlers etc. Located in City of Pillars.

Agriculture House

One of the State Organ Houses, responsible for managing all agriculture across the land. Located in City of Pillars.

Polity Houses

The land is divided into polities and each polity assigned a viceroy to oversee it. The viceroy will complete their term of service operating out of the local Polity House. They are responsible for managing all affairs of their region and also for collecting taxes from the citizens, to be delivered to the Red Palace.

Corvee Tithe

One day in every ten that all Moon-Caste citizens must report to their closest Polity House for labour. This may include road or tower building, field work, construction or menial labour. Citizens performing their corvee tithe must mark their eyes with oil so other citizens can know their business. Sun-Nobles are exempt from performing the corvee tithe. As are Dust-Caste slaves.

Caste System

Dust-Caste

Slaves. This caste is hereditary. There are both private and state-owned slaves.

Moon-Caste

Free citizens.

Sun-Nobles

The Red Kingdom’s elite and powerful clans.

Superstition and Beliefs

The Crooked Beat

Forbidden by the Red Reform laws, the crooked beat is a mysterious and little understood power that manifests in many women across the Red Kingdom.

Truth of Death

Truth of Death is a book written during the Hundred Year Fall by a priest of the old gods whose name has been stolen. He wrote the book after rejecting all gods, and is now known as the Philosopher. His book of teaching about life and death became the bedrock for the Red Reform laws, and it is the only remaining unburned book. The words ‘What’s dead is dead and all shall die‘ are taken from the original Truth of Death book and uttered by everyone across the Red Kingdom. In some rural parts of the kingdom there are variations to the way these words are used and also their meaning to the citizens.

Death gods

During the Hundred Year Fall, death giants suddenly rose from the sea with the first occurrence of an inverted moon. The death giants walked over the land, killing citizens beneath their feet. After the sacrifice of the Eleven Daughters, the death giants returned to the sea and are now only witnessed on hollow nights when the inverted moon rises. They no longer venture onto land. In more rural and superstitious parts of the kingdom, they are worshipped as gods.

The Eleven Daughters

At the end of the Hundred Year Fall, when death giants roamed the land for one hundred years, the eldest daughter of the king visited a church-tower in Moontown to pray. An accident occurred and a passing death giant wreaked enough destruction that the tower was set alight and the eldest daughter of the king burned. Her father was filled with grief and raised a pyramid tomb where she had died. Soon though, citizens noticed that the death giants no longer walked on the land surrounding the pyramid. The king the sacrificed each of his eleven daughters by burning and built pyramid tombs for them across the land. The sacrifices ensured that the death giants returned to the sea and never again stepped foot on land.

The Eleventh Daughter

The youngest daughter of the king, the Eleventh Daughter, was the final sacrifice by burning. As she died she cursed the kingdom using the mysterious crooked beat. She stole all the names. Her own. Her sisters. The names of gods and towns and citizens. These lost names are called relic-names. Purge House and the Red Reform forbid any citizens to speak of the Eleventh Daughter, but in rural areas she is worshipped as a god.

Pyramid Tombs

Thirteen desert-glass pyramid tombs are spread across the Red Kingdom, protecting the land from death giants and keeping the monsters off the shore. These pyramids belong to the eleven Daughters, though the Eleventh Daughter’s remains were split in two and places in Death City and Bird Fortress. The king of that time is entombed in a great pyramid in City of Pillars. He died of grief. Or so the legends say.

The Red Reform laws

Here are a list of some Red Reform laws:

• Fear death or do not fear death. It comes for you. Individual achievement and triumph are transitory. What’s dead is dead and all shall die. Your children shall die. Only the Red Kingdom is lasting. Citizens must obey this teaching.

• Citizens must obey the Red King in all things. The State Organ Houses—Purge House, Law House, Investigation House, Trade House, War House, Agriculture House, and each regional Polity House—are extensions of the Red Palace’s authority and thus must be obeyed.

• Citizens must obey Purge House in all matters of morality. Purge trials will be conducted to judge obedience to Red Reform laws. Citizens guilty of immoral behaviour will be punished by Purge House in accordance with their crime

• Red Kingdom citizens are formed strictly of the following castes: Sun-Nobles, Moon-Caste free men and women, Dust-Caste slave workers.

• Citizens of the Red Kingdom must attend all summons to witness the great pyres burn, in order to learn the lessons Purge House teaches.

• Citizens are forbidden from securing the services of a practitioner of the crooked beat. Punishment is death by pyre burning for both client and practitioner.

• Dust-Caste status is hereditary, and all children born to a slave will remain a slave throughout their lifetime, passing on this status through each generation. Dust-Caste children will appear on the mother’s slave papers, until they come of age to have their own record.

• Citizens are forbidden to worship. All gods are false. Punishment is death by pyre burning.

• Bonded marriage or union between castes is forbidden. Any Dust-Caste worker in violation of this law—which is further outlined within the second book of the Red Reform, titled Morality Policies—will be referred to Purge House for trial and, if convicted, death by pyre burning.

• Dust-Caste workers are divided into the following two groups: state-owned slaves, privately owned slaves.

• Relic structures, and the true-iron they are formed from, belong only to the Red Palace. Sun-Nobles may purchase weaponry or goods forged with true-iron. Any lower status individuals found harbouring true-iron without permission will be punished in accordance with Law House regulations.

• Only men hailing from Sun-Noble clans may take upper positions within the Red Palace or the State Organ Houses. Positions may be purchased through commission or inherited via the paternal line.

• Moon-caste men and women are free. As such, they must pay a quarterly tax tithe to the Red Palace for this privilege. Tax amounts—to be paid in metal-wealth, salt-wealth, grain-wealth, handicrafts etc.—are set by each region or city’s Polity House. Once collated across the Red Kingdom, the tithe must be submitted to the Red Palace.

• It may be considered appropriate retribution for a Sun-Noble to punish their own privately owned Dust-Caste worker with death, depending on the severity of the Dust-Caste worker’s crime. In such circumstances, the slave’s death will be considered a private clan matter, and Investigation House will have no jurisdiction to class the death as murder. This will protect the privacy and inherited rights of Sun-Nobles.

• Sun-noble women must obey, in this order, the Red King, their husband, their son. Punishment for wrongdoings is the responsibility of the Sun-Noble woman’s family and remains a private matter. However, crimes regarding adultery, immoral behaviour or touching the crooked beat require immediate escalation to Purge House and the conduction of a public investigative Purge Trial. If convicted, punishment for such crimes is death by pyre burning.

• It is forbidden for a Moon-Caste or Dust-Caste person to cause offence to a Sun-Noble. Punishment for such a crime will be in accordance with the severity of the transgression, to be undertaken by the wronged Sun-Noble to their satisfaction. No outside Investigation or Law House officials need take part in the matter. No records are required to be made.

• All living offspring, bonded marriage partners and extended blood relatives of lawbreakers punished with death by pyre burning will be lowered to Dust-Caste slave status for life. Additionally, all assets owned by the convicted lawbreaker will be seized by Purge House.

• Moon-caste men may seek education and undertake either administration or martial examinations to engage a position appropriate to their caste within the State Organ Houses. Promotion opportunities will exist to an extent determined within each House, though must not exceed what is appropriate for Moon-Caste status.

• All Moon-Caste citizens must contribute one free labour day in every ten to the state under the corvee tithe law. On their assigned corvee tithe day, each Moon-Caste citizen within the Red Kingdom must report to their local Polity House for labour instruction. Absence will result in thirty lashes.

• Citizens are forbidden to speak of the youngest Daughter. Punishment is death by pyre burning.

• State-owned Dust-Caste slaves consist of Gold women and also workers performing menial labour and domestic management across the State Organ Houses. State Dust-Caste affairs will be managed at Law House in City of Pillars, though regional polity slave papers will be maintained within each Polity House.

• Sun-noble men may inherit limitless property and wealth via the paternal line. Sun-nobles are exempt from paying the quarterly tax tribute to the Red Palace and from performing labour days under the corvee tithe.

• Moon-caste men may own and inherit property under the condition they hold land-owning rights to only one single tower property at a time. Any further residential towers owned will be confiscated by Purge House.

• Gold women must at all times remain masked and ensure their appearance makes clear their profession. If a Gold woman appears in public unmasked and unpainted, so witnesses do not immediately know her profession, she will be punished with thirty lashes. All other Dust-Caste women may appear in public unmasked and unaccompanied, in order to fulfil their work.

• Punishment for Moon-Caste men or women not fulfilling quarterly tax tributes is as follows: First crime results in thirty lashes; Second crime results in dependant family members lowered to Dust-Caste worker status; Third crime results in all assets absorbed by Polity House and perpetrator lowered to Dust-Caste worker status.

• In death, all are equal. Live modestly, morally, let go of greed or ambition, for nothing of life matters after death. Citizens must live only for the Red King and the Red Kingdom. Citizens must obey this teaching.

• Sun-noble women are forbidden from owning or inheriting land. Sun-noble women are forbidden from appearing in public unmasked or unaccompanied. Sun-noble women are forbidden from engaging in paid employment or public roles of any kind. Sun-noble women are forbidden from education outside what is deemed necessary to fulfil obligations to house and home.

• Moon-caste citizens may take out long-term tenancies on Sun-Noble owned land, for agricultural purposes. A tallage price, to be set to the satisfaction of the land-owning Sun-Noble, must be paid by the tenants, usually in the form of grain-wealth or other grown goods. It is forbidden for Moon-Caste citizens to own agricultural land.

• Dust-Caste worker punishment is the responsibility of the individual owner or State Organ House. Guidance is lashings for words spoken out of turn; cutting for disobedience, lies, or causing physical harm to a Moon-Caste person; pyre burning for adultery, running, or causing physical harm to a Sun-Noble.

• What’s dead is dead and all shall die. Gaze with affection on brother, father, son yet remember all are mortal and all must end. All that matters is the Red King and the Red Kingdom. Citizens must obey this teaching.

• Unsanctioned trade beyond the Red Kingdom’s borders is forbidden. Only limited trade, as regulated by Law House and War House, is permitted through the Red Kingdom’s two open ports—Open Port West and Open Port East. The Red Kingdom will remain self-sufficient for all materials, food, weapons, and no contact will be made with neighbouring nations, unless ordered by the Red King. This keeps the Red Kingdom pure, moral, and strong.

• Dust-Caste workers, including Gold women, may amass a small amount of personal wealth, within the guidelines set by their private owner or the State Organ House where they reside. This could be obtained via tips, gifts, trade, by teaching apprenticeships or for the sale of crafted goods and personal belongings.

• Citizens are forbidden to touch the crooked beat. Punishment is death by pyre burning.

• Moon-caste women may not own or inherit property. However, they may appear in public unmasked and unaccompanied. They may engage in paid employment. They may undertake limited education to further their employment. They may raise allegations accusing a Moon-Caste or Dust-Caste man of personal harm to their body. This accusation will be investigated accordingly by Investigation House, in line with the laws outlined within the second book of the Red Reform, titled Morality Policies.

• Dust-Caste status cannot be altered except under the following circumstances: by special decree of the Red King; if the slave’s worth is paid to an agreeing private owner; if a lawbreaker’s conviction, which had resulted in an individual being lowered to Dust-Caste status, is revoked.

• Purge House may decree that less severe crimes can be assuaged through the payment of a tallage to Purge House by the accused individual. Purge House may set a tithe amount appropriate to the transgression in question.

• Other than the great Philosopher’s Truth of Death, all books are forbidden. As such, other forms of unapproved storytelling, such as spoken tales, are forbidden. Citizens found engaging in forbidden storytelling or in possession of any book, other than Truth of Death and the Red Reform laws, will receive punishment of death by pyre burning.

• The Red Kingdom owes citizens nothing. Citizens owe all to the Red Kingdom. Citizens must obey this teaching.