Profiles in History: Recent History

Our second year out of the Shelters was characterized by the re-emergence, for good or ill, of figures out of the legendary past.

With the end of the Archon Wars, and the departure of Geraine, the ranks of the three Kingdoms began to look speculatively at each other. In the following months, in addition to fighting the emanations of Chaos that the war had left behind, the Kingdoms built fortresses of their own on three small islands north of Arramora, and honed their martial skills by invading one another's territories.

Meanwhile, on Omishan rumor had it that the Animae, the spirits of earth sea and sky, were gathering their powers to fight the Burun. An Amano-Bal, a powerful and beneficent spirit that had somehow made its way to Auberean from Ezheret-Hazahtu, presided in Rakani, sending pilgrims to the shrines of the eleven Animae to seek their blessing. Even among the Tonk elders opinions differed on how to deal with the menacing amphibians: annihilation, or re-education?

Centuries before, as the Cataclysm began, the archmage Ciandra had dispersed the books of the Arcanum Library, burying them in caches across Dereth and hiding clues to their locations in Reckoning Gems. Now as winter waned, the Library reopened just north of the Hero Shrine, and adventurers busied themselves in searching out caches, disabling their deranged guardians, and returning the precious volumes of Lore to the Library. (No late fees were charged.) Others found that they could, at the cost of their life's blood, obtain Augmented Kingdom Armor from the Chaos Forge. Encouraged by this chance to display their colors, the Kingdom's warriors battled for the temporary possession of the Abyssal Core, where they could obtain powerful weaponry to defend their fortresses.

The hierarchy Geraine had set up among the Nemesis races began to crumble. Some of the Gurogs, realizing how they had been used, revolted against the Dericost undead who had been set over them. Bands of loyalist Ancients and rebellious Blood Lords fought one another ceaselessly across the plateaus and valleys of Malthabbor. The Burun continued in their course of wanton vandalism, seeming not to heed the growing population of Olthoi in eastern Omishan: indeed, some of them seemed to be nurturing young Olthoi in hidden caverns. The majority of the Drudges, in turn, broke free of Burun domination and declared themselves the New Drudge Republic, and began to train Heroes of their own at the Drudge Hero Shrine in the Drudge Citadel.

Representatives of an organization with the enigmatic name of S.H.R.E.T.H. ("Don't ask what it stands for!") began to be seen on Arramora. Somewhere on Omishan, a maddened Tonk shaman, Shi Manaua, sacrificed his entire village--all but one--to Wharu, the Anima of decay. And a great earthquake was felt all over Dereth. whose epicenter was determined to be southwest of Osteth, northeast of Linvak--which placed it somewhere in the middle of the sea.

Scholars of the Order of Dereth were sent to investigate the site, and found a small mountainous island, having at least four menhir rings surviving on its rocky shores. The scholars never returned. Subsequent expeditions, geared more for battle than for scholarship, found them slain by forces of Chaos within the mountain, culminating in a fierce struggle with the beast Cacophos (which means "Evil Light"), a gigantic (perhaps neotenous?) Chaotic Slithis Spawn.

And the Kingdoms found new leaders. Nalicana the Empyrean, pupil of Asheron, appeared to guide the Order of Dereth. Asheron had brought her out of the Sundered Lands before the Cataclysm, saying that among all his students he had found only Nalicana to have the necessary devotion to the well-being of the land and its inhabitants.

The Dominion learned that a new Imperator was to be sought: not from among the Virindi, but from the ranks of the mortals. A Dominion representative recruited its members to search for that rare person with the necessary talents; and representatives of Shadow and Order urged their people to investigate the area the Dominion were searching. On a farm near Keidelur they found the Olvidan family, and among the Olvidans young Thromer, who was anxious to leave the farm on any pretext and whom the Dominion's search engine found worthy to study for the role of the Imperator. It was hoped that he would find ways to improve communication between Virindi and mortals, so that unlike what happened in the past, neither need go insane on encountering the other.

Naokim gathered the forces of Shadow to search for their lost leader, the tragic Isin Dule, Bael'Zharon's friend and traitor. Intrepid explorers searched through the Prison of Despair and learned that indeed Dule was imprisoned there somewhere, being interrogated about five important artifacts that he had concealed from the Hopeslayer. But they could not find Dule; instead, they found and released Aun Tanua, a legendary Tonk warrior of the Golden Age, a founder of the Order of Dereth. It is said that when Naokim heard the news, he laughed bitterly. Search parties went out again, and beyond the Prison of Despair they found the Black Throne Keep, guarded by the Shadows of Black Ferah. She had been steadfastly loyal to Bael'Zharon, and tormented Isin Dule with an especial savagery: but the search parties found Dule and released him.

As summer began, after a mighty storm, the citizens of Cavendo found themselves hosts to a group of Humans who had been shipwrecked during the night. These were the Brotherhood of Shapers, a tribe of master crafters who had been wandering the seas of Auberean in a salvaged Empyrean vessel, camping here and there to mine and work, and departing again at the first sign of Olthoi, for about five generations. Within hours they had discovered our portal network and dispersed to the three capital towns of Cragstone, Ikeras, and Linvak Tukal and to the secondary cities of Hakata and Ondekodo. In these six towns (including Cavendo, which appears to be their headquarters, though no one can find it) they seized on the inefficient and rarely-used workshops in these towns, retooled them, and gave them new power sources, making them so effective that no one would ever want to craft out in the wilds again. They quickly discovered rich sources of the coal necessary to most crafting recipes and of the rare materials Flawless Pyreal, Gathered Deruwood, and Imbued Obsidian, and set up vendors to sell these materials in the crafting centers. They also taught new mining, surveying, and toolmaking techniques that far surpassed what we had been able to do in the way of resource-gathering in earlier days. One of them, Ludward by name, set up in South Gevoth a workshop to build the Gearknights crafted by Humans in the last days before the Cataclysm. With the help of many crafters, he succeeded: but alas, the Gearknights he built were all murderously insane, as mad as Ludward himself.

Justiciar Maronak sent investigators to the S.H.R.E.T.H. headquarters in East Gevoth, who learned that this immense criminal network was administered by a nervous being called a Base Commander, recently promoted and uncertain of his future, being answerable to a mysterious figure known only as Number Two. This would surely require further investigation.

Thromer Olvidan, having completed his training, was enthroned as Imperator of the Dominion; but his family, not having heard from him, sent messengers to ask after his health. The messengers, having traversed the strange internal passages of Dominion Center, found him vague and distant, hardly able to speak. But Naokim of the Shadows and Nalicana of the Order sent him gifts--a sceptre, to remind him of the responsibility of the ruler, and a sickle, to remind him of the dangerous nature of his associates--and when Thromer received these, his mind was cleared and he was able to speak to mortals again.

Later in the summer, Isin Dule himself appeared in the Shadow Antechamber which he had caused to be built, open to all, beside the guarded portal to the Shadow Stronghold. Here he met with parties of all Kingdoms, entreating them to perform a search which he himself could not attempt. The hiding place in which he had secreted five powerful Artifacts--the Sigil of Chaos, the Lightbringer's Seal, the Sword of Night, the Lifestone Key, and the Kemeroi Logos--had been breached and the artifacts stolen by something powerfully tainted by Chaos. The adventurers, willing to side with Dule or anyone against Chaos, passed through the Temple of Elemental Light, slew the Dark Emissary, and made their way to a buried city in the Cacophos Island, where they found the first four Artifacts. They were then transported to a plane outside the world, and were confronted by a little thing, a head and hands and tail that floated in the void, and it was the thing of Chaos that Dule had sensed. The name the Tonk gave it was Wharu, the Anima of decay, whom they associated with the Olthoi. But it told them it was more than a master of worms and fungi and the bacteria of decomposition: that it was a spirit from the Darkness outside the worlds, the enemy of Light. And it sent the explorers away with the Kemeroi Logos and the message that soon it would bless Isin Dule with the gift of peace. We can understand what it meant. And we have long known that Dule craves mortality and the peace of true death. Whether he would want to receive it from Wharu is another question. Dule heard their story, took the Artifacts, and disappeared.

As summer deepened into fall, Aun Tanua took many of the knights of the Order of Dereth and went about the country searching for emissaries of Chaos. Perhaps he found some; if he did, we can be sure he faced them valiantly and destroyed them. What is certain is that he found and destroyed many others, innocent victims of his zeal. It became clear that though Black Ferah's torments could not break Tanua's will, they had broken his mind. Especially he sought Shi Tawapuh, the one survivor of Shi Manaua's village, who alone had escaped the sacrifice of all his kin to Wharu, and who now ran mad with fear. Accompanied by his lieutenant, a Lugian named Kogun, and a band of Fanatics, Tanua sought Tawapuh across Dereth, killing all who came near him, even his fellow-members of the Order. At last he found Tawapuh and slew him, learning nothing from him; and Nalicana cast him out of the Order.

The Wandering Folk, seeking refuge from Tanua's Fanatics, brought their wagons, their campfires, and their magic beans to Arwic, and settled on its southern slopes. They, and the Fortune Teller of Cavendo, interpreted the Tarot cards that had begun to appear here and there, telling their arcane meanings and hinting at their magical powers if properly combined.

Meanwhile, the Brotherhood of Shapers stationed Architects and Engineers in the six crafting towns, encouraging miners and crafters to donate building materials with which to build Trait Shops. Once built, these were staffed by local townsfolk and provided a place for hunters, miners, and crafters to sell and buy trait.

Everywhere one found pitiful corpses bearing documents and artifacts testifying to the evil the Fanatics had done. Now Nalicana discovered that Tanua and Kogun had retreated to an ancient Order fortress in southern Omishan, protected within and without by dangerous and illusory obstacles, and guarded by Fanatics. By gathering fragments of Fanatic armor with which to disguise themselves, warriors invaded the Fortress, defeated Kogun, and confronted Tanua with the evidence of his wrongdoing and a copy of the Principles of the Order which he once helped to draft. Convinced of his error and full of contrition, he disappeared, leaving Kogun in charge of the Fanatics.

In the dark of the year, Aun Tanua climbed the White Mountain (perhaps the Sundermount, south of Cragstone?) to seek the judgment of the Animae upon him, the sinful and repentant last survivor of the Aun xuta. The Animae rejected him. He confronted the thing that had called itself Wharu, and learned its true nature--Kemeroi.

Tanua therefore called upon Wharu itself, the true Anima of decay, and it mocked him, and vilified him, and granted him passage into the place where the Kemeroi was. He fought it with all that was in him, and drove it from the plane of mortal life, and it slew him. Then the old healer Shi Honauri found his broken body and burned it in accordance with the old rites, and scattered the ashes.