Profiles in History: Recent History

Our third year on the surface began with an astonishing sight: on the darkened limb of the moon lights appeared, such as had not been seen since Elysa's day. Speculation ran wild. Of old, the lights on Alb'arel had been associated with the legendary gromnatross, whom no one living (not even Nalicana) had ever seen. The Yalain considered them emissaries of the Light, and when they departed from this world it was a judgment upon mortal wickedness. Perhaps, some said, it was a sign that virtue had returned to the world and peace might follow. On the other hand, some pointed out, the last time the lights were seen was during the Fourth Sending of Darkness.

The efforts of the Brotherhood of Shapers to improve their crafting skills, and ours, were widely felt. Mines and monsters begin to drop Lodestones, which could be used to imbue crafted weapons with extra power against various categories of opponents, or turned into trait for crafting. The Brotherhood's surveyors located several rich mines which, however, they preferred to keep for their own purposes; still, keys could occasionally found which would allow limited access.

The most astonishing sight could be seen northwest of Cavendo, in a newly excavated pit. Under Waltraud the Master Cartomancer, the Shapers had built a portal, framed in a massive cupola, not yet operational --- a portal that would lead to the Yalaini homeland of Knorr. Waltraud's journeymen --- who, by this time, included Tonk and Lugians as well as the original Humans --- comissioned Sigils of Unity from high-level crafters to help maintain the structure. Access to the site was guarded by warriors of Order and Shadow, but not Dominion, causing much speculation. Perhaps the senior council of the Dominion, being Virindi whose native home is portalspace, saw no need to build and guard a physical portal?

The portal became operational in late spring, but even that event was overshadowed by the return of the Empyreans from their long sojourn in the Sundered Lands in portalspace. Confused at first, needing to relearn their skills, these tall and beautiful people quickly joined the other races in their efforts to reclaim Auberean. Even some members of the New Drudge Republic chose to join in, and together the five races went through the portal and faced the unknown dangers and opportunities of Knorr.

Their first impression was of heart-stopping beauty. They arrived among gently rolling green hills and tall trees the color of flame. Above their heads soared the graceful shape of the Skyport, built under the great Caerlin II, containing portals leading to other parts of Knorr.

They then received two shocking pieces of news: first, that the artificial intelligence of the Skyport had gone insane with its creator's grief, and each new arrival must undergo a lengthy quest to be able to approach it. Second, that our ancestors had been there before. Not merely the Yalain: in the closing years of the Golden Age, Humans and Tonk and Lugians had come to Knorr and tried to take it back from the Olthoi. In large part, they had succeeded. Plenty of interesting monsters still roamed the hills and plains, but the Olthoi had been driven southward and restrained by a massive Shieldwall, the work of our own people. North of that wall, the native Auberean life had re-established itself over the fungal growths of the Olthoi-ecology.

South of the wall, however, ranged not only the Olthoi but Empyreans --- and not Yalaini. Now the meaning of a document found late in the second year became clear to us, a document (no one ever came right out and said so, but everyone knew) that had been stolen from the Empyrean camp by Isin Dule and dropped on the doorstep of the Hero Shrine to be read by Eshivon Ugim. These Empyreans, locked in a constant struggle with the Olthoi, were descendants of the Falatacot who so long ago had been driven from their homeland by icy weather and the power of the Kemeroi --- some to Dericost, some off-world altogether. Now they had returned, and were raiding the library of the Knorr Lycaeum, Asheron's study. And they had nothing but scorn for the soft-living Yalain of old.

News kept pouring in. The forges of Atlan Realaidain, father of Asheron, were still operating --- but under new management. Rytheran and Aerfalle had escaped from their defeat in the Archon Wars, with a surviving fraction of their followers, and had set up in the foundry town of Vothardun. They were slowly rebuilding their forces, with four generals in the field --- one of which, surprisingly enough, was the ancient Baron Colier. An undead, indeed, but an undead Human, who had once haunted the mines northeast of Holtburg. It seemed the Filinuvekta must be very hard up for staff, if they were willing to take on a mere Isparian.

New creatures and old were discovered: the Grievvers, natural enemies of the Olthoi, were found roaming the crevasses of the Gardens and breeding in caverns on the Ramparts. The little Kallikan had a tragic history: since coming to Knorr, they had lost their intelligence. Some of the mortals' old allies from the end of the Golden Age were discovered in the southern Ramparts, but they no longer recognized us: legions of mad Gearknights that mistook every target for Olthoi, treelike Takeru inhabiting old Tonk settlements, and Colossi of various kinds, Lugian copies of the old Golems of the Empyreans. There was a Gear Master still functioning in Fort Strathelar, just north of the Shieldwall, who was repairing Gearknights a few at a time, but most of them still wandered mad.

As summer wore on, some adventurers on Knorr and even on Osteth reported seeing huge wide-winged creatures flying overhead --- gromnatross, they said, but no one could be sure. But the little gromnies and the larger gromnarocs had returned, and in Arramora a great gromnaroc lay in coma --- perhaps awaiting metamorphosis, or perhaps death.

The mysterious S.H.R.E.T.H. vanished from their hideout on Linvak. Adventurers followed clues to their new stronghold, a small island off Linvak's southwest, inhabited by hordes of gromnies, and concealing in its central crater the new S.H.R.E.T.H. headquarters. They found the organization's strength increased, the new Number Two more deadly than ever, and the question as to who Number One might be, still unsolved.

Documents were donated anonymously to the Arcanum Library telling of the early days of the Falatacot, and how the Kemeroi destroyed the Slithis whom they worshipped and forced them to flee, either to Dericost or off-world.

Many drudges settled in Shoushi and in their new capital, Drudgerton, on Linvak Massif. They set up innumerable small businesses, including fireworks and tame carenzi, posed innumerable quests, and celebrated festivals. The Tonk re-settled their old towns; in Hakata they cleansed a shrine of the Deru Tree from Burun/Slithis attack, and in Zu they found and reassembled a relic of the ancient Sho Humans, a tachi that had belonged to Ben Ten and before her to the legendary Koji.

As autumn set in, ...

Here the record breaks off; the pages have been damaged as if by fire. Further down the page can be read "...the generosity of R..." and a fragment from a later page reads "... the mantle of the Hopeslayer, or the true meaning of the lights ..."

Nothing else remains.