The necromancers of Vailand (VAY-land) are loathed and despised by most of the rest of the world. The people are Vailese (VAY-lees). Their coast is on the Sea of Death.

There is an elf living deep in the tropical rain forest of Vailand. When he went there the forest was in Hsou, and he has not bothered to move. He is sometimes consulted for his great wisdom.

The primary social unit is the clan, which is an extended family. In theory, all clans owe allegiance to the High Priest of Jhong Kwei, who uses magic to move around rapidly, and to ensure that the clans do not forget him. In fact, the High Priest must be a consummate diplomat, knowing exactly what he can and cannot ask the touchy clan lords to do.

Serfs must give as much labor as their lord demands. Since zombies are more highly regarded as labor, this is not as repressive as it might be. "Serfs" are those people who own no zombies, and therefore have to do their own work. They are called "Men Without Ancestors" because they cannot raise their dead relatives.

Each noble rules his own estate, using zombies to enforce his will.

There are no cities. The largest town has a living adult male population of around 2,000.

Pets are not kept: they cannot be reconciled to the walking dead. Goats and sheep are herded, but most of the land is unsuitable for cattle.

Riding animals are not used. When a noble must travel, his zombies carry him and his family in a litter.

There are always thousands of minor feuds, and dozens of major ones raging. The only thing that ever unites the clans is a threat from abroad. This is fortunate for the rest of the world. When there is a foreign threat, the War Council is formed, consisting of all clan lords strong enough to bully their way onto it, and headed by the High Priest of Jhong Kwei, the God of Death and Undeath.

Rich men theoretically keep their wives in harems. In fact, women have the run of their husband’s estate, though it is disgraceful for a married woman to leave the immediate area of the house, unless accompanied by a husband, father, brother or adult son. Mostly they do not want to: fair skin is admired in women, so they stay indoors as much as possible, and wear hooded cloaks with a veil if they must travel.

Poor women work, usually in the fields. Serfs are expected to breed as often as possible, and a lord will usually give his serfs a gift of food when a child is born. A noble’s sons by his concubines are lesser nobles, but his sons by captured foreign slaves and casual liaisons with serfs, are serfs. All daughters not born to a legal wife are serfs.

Foreigners are despised as suitable only to be made into zombies. Poeni and Nalvis are tolerated, for the trade goods they bring. Hsounese are welcomed, and are the only foreigners taught the Necromancy spell unique to Vailand.

Most other nations refuse to have anything to do with Vailand. Poeni conceal the origin of the goods when they trade them to other nations. The major exports are silk and pepper. Hsou sells them silk and iron weapons and armor, in return for having spells cast to enable their own honored dead to walk. The Poeni sell them iron goods and bronze weapons and armor.

Many nobles dislike imported goods, saying a man should live on what he grows on his estate. There is no merchant class, and the nobles consider trading to be demeaning.

Like most of the peoples of the East, Vailese are ancestor-worshippers. This seems surprising at first, since the other ancestor-worshippers are their most vigorous enemies, but in Vailand it is considered an honor for an ancestor to remain about the estate after death. Hsou has gradually come to see this point of view.

Vailese use foreign zombies as slaves, but nobles’ own living dead are honored for a generation or more before being laid to rest. This does not apply to dead serfs, who are used as work zombies, like foreigners.

Lords must collect their work zombies from somewhere. There are raids through secret mountain passes to steal bodies from the barbarians in Hurral, and the soft people of Vindrus. No bodies are stolen from Hsou. The Poeni sell corpses to Vailand, when they can get them.

The total number of zombies is around one per four adult males, but they are concentrated on the great estates, where they usually outnumber the living. Zombies are rarely met in town, since it is difficult to program them to react to the multitude of different situations they may meet: those zombies kept in towns are used as indoor servants.

A particularly severe punishment for a noble or a priest is to make the criminal into a mummy (this is basically a zombie whose soul is still aware of its body’s degradation) and set it to menial work.

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