Profiles in History: Isin Dule

Isin Dule was an inhabitant of the village of Daralet, in the northern region of Dericost. We know little about his early life, except that he was a failed seminarian in whatever creed the Dericost followed before their conquest by the Yalaini. Ilservian Palacost was his friend. When the Yalaini refused to issue emergency food-supplies to the Dericost during the Black Rain, when Ilservian's son Avoren died of starvation and Ilservian vowed vengeance, Isin Dule was one of those who went with him. They went far into the north, to an unknown location, and there Ilservian found the Kemeroi called Jhirvall and swore fealty to him, in exchange for the means of his revenge. When the Dericost reappeared, they were no longer men but Shadows, and Ilservian had become Bael'Zharon, the Hopeslayer.

The Shadows moved against the Yalaini, as has been told elsewhere, and ravaged Auberean till the Yalaini Council set up the array of six crystals in the Jailne Lyceum, to trap Bael'Zharon and take him out of the world. Isin Dule, who seems to have been the most rational and intelligent of Bael'Zharon's generals, warned him that the Lyceum array was a trap, but the Hopeslayer was too driven by rage to take heed. He attacked the Lyceum with fire and storm, and was enmeshed in the crystal array, in a great burst of energy that slew all the Council except Asheron himself, turned the fertile plains of Jailne to the barren waste called the Obsidian Plains, and sent the six crystals of the array flying to the far reaches of Dereth, to bury themselves in the earth. After this time the Shadows disappeared, and were not seen again for a long while.

Time passed. The Seaborne Empire of Yalain rose to its greatest heights, and fell; the royal line of Realaidain was usurped by the Haebrous Kellin II, who let the Olthoi into Auberean; the last of the Yalaini fled to Dereth and were hidden in portalspace by Asheron, who remained in his tower until the Humans came from Ispar centuries later.

After the Gelidites created their Great Work from the first of the crystals and froze all Dereth solid, after Abrim and his party of adventurers overturned the Gelidites, shattered the crystal, and brought the thaw, the Shadows began to reappear. In subsequent months the monarchs of many Allegiances were whisked away into darkened chambers where mysterious voices interrogated them. These were the Shadow Generals, seeking allies in their struggle to free Bael'Zharon, and one of these was Isin Dule.

One by one the crystals fell to the adventurous Humans, eager for loot and glory. The image of the Hopeslayer began to appear during thunderstorms at night, visible for the instant of a lightning-flash. Isin Dule, recognizing the potentials of the Humans, and still fearing the implications of Bael'Zharon's obsessive rage, began to withdraw from the conflict and to turn against his friend and master. He forbore to send troops to the aid of Ler Rhan in the attack on the Fenmalain Crystal; instead, he brought his own forces to defend the Caulnalain Crystal against the Humans. But all was in vain: the last crystal, the Shard of the Herald in the depths of Ithaenc Cathedral, fell to the attackers and the Hopeslayer was freed. For a month the sky and the sea were the color of blood, and Bael'Zharon stalked Dereth, slaying and rewarding almost at random.

Isin Dule, realizing that if he was not checked the Hopeslayer would destroy Auberean and everything living on it, joined the shaky alliance between the mysterious Virindi and the noble Dericost undead under Rytheran and Aerfalle. Asheron also joined them, and they made a plan to trap Bael'Zharon once more. The Virindi made available a fragment of the Singularity to those who could brave the wilds of the Direlands to claim it; it was used to divert a portion of Bael'Zharon's power into portalspace. Isin Dule supplied the Heart of Shadow, a partial manifestation of Bael'Zharon's connection to the Shadow World, whose destruction at a critical moment drained still more power from the Hopeslayer. And Asheron directed the adventurers to a place where they might find the item that would pierce to the heart the being that had once been Ilservian Palacost: the skull of his son, Avoren, enchanted with lost Falatacot bindings by the Dericost Undead.

From these components Asheron constructed the Dark Crucible, which allowed the Humans to penetrate Bael'Zharon's holding, to slay that part of him that remained mortal, and to banish his restless spirit from the face of Auberean. As he fell he shrieked curses upon Isin Dule.

Summing up the battle, Asheron wrote, "We also owe a debt to, of all people, Isin Dule. I am unsure what motivated his unexpected assistance. The price he paid for it may haunt us yet; exiled from the Shadows, he and his followers have retreated to some undisclosed location. There is a rift in the forces of the Enemy, and this is not the end of his tale."

During this time, as we learned much later, Dule worked and studied, seeking a way to reverse the shadowy undeath the Kemeroi had cast upon himself and his fellows, to regain his mortality so that he might live, and breathe, and die. But it was not to be, for Bael'Zharon still lingered in his prison under the world, brooding on revenge.

At some time during the Golden Age, Dule re-emerged (cautiously, one may imagine) to find that the tale of his heroism was not forgotten, and that many adventurers were eager to ally with him and with those Shadows who had followed him when he turned against Bael'Zharon. This was the nucleus of the Shadow Kingdom.

Four generations later, in the reign of Sirda Strathelar, the Hopeslayer rose again out of his prison beneath the Inner Sea of Dereth. He took out the lesser moon, Rez'arel, on the way up, and the city of Yaraq on the way down, and marched across Dereth spreading destruction and the mutagenic Black Breath, on his way to his fateful encounter with Asheron. Isin Dule now reappeared, anxious to make sure that the five magical Artifacts, which he had secured in a hiding place long before, were still safe, since if the Hopeslayer obtained them he could destroy all Auberean. He found the cache still secure, the door sealed; but there he was captured by Black Ferah, the last of Bael'Zharon's faithful generals. She dragged him before the throne of the Hopeslayer, who promised him torment after he had been compelled to witness the destruction of his former co-conspirator, Asheron.

But, as has also been told elsewhere, Geraine turned Asheron's power against himself, and both he and Bael'Zharon were slain, along with the Virindi Imperator. Ferah, in rage and grief, imprisoned Dule in the Prison of Despair and tormented him over the long years, while the Nemeses attacked the mortals and drove them underground into the Shelters.

Ten generations later, when we returned to the changed and broken surface of Dereth, the Shadow Kingdom was headed by Dule's lieutenant Naokim, who enlisted the aid not only of his fellow Shadows, but of all who were powerful enough to brave Black Ferah's underground holding, in search of the imprisoned Isin Dule. For a month they searched for him, and did not find him --- instead they found and released the legendary hero of the Order of Dereth, Aun Tanua. Nothing daunted, Naokim sent the adventurers out again, and in the second month of their search they located Dule and released him from his long bondage, as represented in the Greater Trump that shows a Shadow rising free of its broken chains.

Immediately on being freed, Dule went to his secret cache where he had long ago hidden the five magical Artifacts --- but they were gone, their hiding place burst open, leaving behind a reek of Chaos. Ruefully, Dule realized that he could not trace the Lost Artifacts on his own, for the task would require the powers of the Light which he could not attain. He must seek the aid of the mortals, who could go where he could not.

For a month he stood in the Shadow Antechamber, asking all comers to aid him in his search. Their path led first to the Temple of Elemental Light, that could be entered only while Au was in the sky. There they found the makings of the Elemental Light Lattice that could slay the Dark Emissary that had taken up residence near the Crater in the Faralis, and took from its body the Captive Dark Heart, key to the deeply buried cities beneath the Cacophos Island, where they found four of the Artifacts. Then they were portaled to a plane outside the world, where a strange creature, small before the eye, spoke to them. It said it was a spirit from the outer darkness that had found its way into the world; it called itself Wharu, but it was Kemeroi. It gave the adventurers the fifth Artifact, and bade them return to Isin Dule, with the message that soon Wharu would give him the peace of death.

Isin Dule received the Artifacts, identified them, and vanished with them. No one has seen him since except for Nalicana, from whom he took the key to the Sundered Lands when she would have destroyed it, and let the long-sleeping Yalaini back into Auberean. In this, as we have seen, he was right, for contrary to all fears, the Yalaini have joined the other mortal races to fight for the recovery of the land from the Olthoi and other dangers. Since that day, he has not been seen; we can only guess that he remains somewhere in seclusion, studying the Artifacts and other matters of importance, walking in secret as Asheron once did, lending a hand when he can, waiting in hope for the day when he can live once again, and die.