Background history
Long before human colonists arrived on the shores of Arrow Bay, the demi-human kindred of the land fought endlessly against incursions by forces led by the rulers of Elemental Evil. Evil would constantly erupt and was eventually forced back into the volcano now known as Northending Mountain.
During a period of relative calm, the humans arrived as stragglers from a far away land and changed the balance of things. They first built the town of Garythane. The villages grew into great cities as human-kind spread upwards along the coast and inland beyond the low coastal mountain range.
The elves and dwarves cast aside their longforged allegiances in pointless ethno-centric chauvinism while the gnomes and halflings forged even closer bonds with the humans. Several minor wars between elves and dwarves soon led to their eventual decline. Meanwhile, the humans drove the few remaining pockets of organized evil into deeper hiding and consolidated the widespread towns, cities and fortresses of the land into the unified kingdom of Empyrea under the benevolent leadership of King John the First. King John's five successors built the mighty, magical fortresses like Northending, Hydell, Seascarp and Felonius.
The Age of Kings came to an abrupt end with a new invasion of evil, led by a mysterious being known as Krellokk the Tangglord and supported by evil creatures from other planes and lands. Humanity and the broken alliance of the demi-humans barely withstood the onslaught. All but a few human cities fell into the claws of evil while the gnome and dwarven underground citadels of Rock Haven and Loamburrow were overrun and occupied by goblins and orcs. The war lasted two generations devastating everything, until the final battle took place outside the human capital city, the Citadel of Empyrea. In an outpouring of arcane power, the citadel and its people, the surrounding host of Evil and even the land itself (close to 60 square miles of countryside) disappeared from the world.
Stunned, Evil and Good alike retreated into their devastated sanctuaries, the humans to the fortresses of Felonius and Northending, the forces of evil into Uriah Kazar (Loamburrow), Neang Kazar (Rock Haven) and Garythane. The war, for now, was at an end. Evil now coexisted with Good in the land, each too weak to defeat the other.
Little of the old Empyrea remained. The demi-human kindred retreated from the world. Other than the intact shells of the great castles and the amazing ancient roads, few human works survived. For over two centuries, the people rebuilt and refortified under the guidance of the Council of Northending, an oligarchy of powerful Good spiritual, magical and temporal leaders.
Ruined cities were rebuilt, uncontested lands reclaimed and new towns built to take advantage of new resources like earthsblood. The forces of Evil made firm their possession of captured lands and slowly sought to rebuild the staggering losses incurred when Empyrea Citadel disappeared. For the last century and a half, the undying Tangg-lord Krellokk has forced unification, bloodily bringing the diverse clots of Evil back under his control. Evil is ready once more. But this time, it will fight with subtlety, winning wars without fighting battles.
The Tangg-lord's plans are moving ahead: a powerful illusionist and his clerical ally infiltrated Nimbortan with mysterious creatures known as slinks (defeated by the PCs and the operation based out of Castle Hydell destroyed); a band of thieves supervised the breeding of trolls and wererats in the ancient lost crypts of Empyrea (all wererats, trolls, vampires and mummies destroyed, majority of the thieves captured); and the Egg of the Phoenix stolen and hidden on Sepulchre, a pocket of the negative material plane (recovered only about a week ago).
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:38, Wed 30 Nov 2011.
