Mount Everfall was one of my favorite spots to run a game. Events in this city took place way back during second edition, with a couple encounters in 3/3.5, and it was commonly used as a home brew Ravenloft replacement.
The city itself was a sprawl surrounding a very large, walled off graveyard upon a very large hill. Of course, people were terrified of going into the graveyard, especially at night, because, surprise surprise, it's full of ghouls and zombies, and crazy necromancers.
What, you say? Why would a city put up with a crazy band of necromancers raising their beloved dead into flesh eating monsters of the night? Well, because the city is ruled by one of said crazy necromancers, the Dread King Izar.
Once upon a time Izar was a good and kindly king, but during one of his adventures, during a bout of giant slaying, he crossed the Storm King, who then cursed his city. The curse caused the sky to block the sun, and an eternal gloom of rain began to pour. The gloomy atmosphere began to take its toll. Crops failed, and the once prosperous port became a muddy hell hole. Izar became depressed, and, in search of a method of removing the curse of the Storm King, he began to dabble in necromancy. His captains all did likewise, as bidden by their master, and Mt. Everfall began to sink into evil.
In the city, there were a couple of beacons of light. The primary one being the Cult of the Sun. A small cult dedicated to ridding Everfall of the undead menace that plagued it. While loyal to the crown, they worked against the crown's goals, as Izar wasn't out of the closet with his necromancy, he still feared outright rebellion should his true nature be discovered, so he tolerated the cult's recruitment of undead slayers and their forays into the oversized graveyard in the middle of town. This was seen as an experimental arena for him to dabble in his nefarious powers, creating stronger and stronger undead as he searched for the secret to becoming a lich. They also provided services to the people, which helped keep them docile.
The Temple of the Sun was a holy place in Mt. Everfall. It was the only place that many of the citizens would ever see the sun, or a blue sky, thanks to an enchantment on the ceiling and floor that brought direct sunlight at all hours into the temple. This protected it from the undead that might seek to destroy it. The cultists were a crazy lot. Many of them sporting sun tans as marks of their piety, this made them stand out from the pale citizenry, and, when outside of the temple grounds, marked them as targets from the undead that lurked in the shadows. This caused the development of the holy warriors of the sun, the undead slayers.
The Undead Slayers, were a group of dedicated warriors who sought to purge the world of the undead. In order to be accepted into the order, one had to commit ritual suicide in the temple so that the high priest of the order could determine if one's soul was pure. If it was, then the sun god would bring the potential back from the dead, with a nifty scar, and an adjusted constitution score. If one was worthy, then they would be given spear anointed with holy oils, and would take on a new name, having been reborn in the guise of a holy warrior of the sun. The final portion of the ritual, was to clip the nails and hair of the freshly minted holy warrior, so that should they be worthy, the sun god might bring them back should they fall while on a quest. Though this has never happened, the holy order has dozens of phylacteries of great warriors within the temple walls, perhaps to be used as reserves should some great menace threaten the city, but as of yet, no warrior has been demonstrated to be worthy of such an event.
It was eventually found out that King Izar had become successful in his ambitions to become a lich, and had become known as the Corpse King, the Black King, or even just Everfall. This new power was enough to ensure that Mt. Everfall would continue to exist when the Ogrish Empire arrived. Being struck by Blackrazor only seemed to make the Corpse King more powerful, and Qesnef offered a truce: Izar would allow trade through Everfall's ports, and pay a tax, and Qesnef would cease the siege and otherwise leave Izar to his own affairs. Knowing the Empire could easily blockade his port, Izar agreed, and the Ogrish Empire was able to establish a sea trade route to the Alquinians.
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