Overview
Deep in the Bahalrama Desert, in
Alagria, stands the Last Wave of the First Sea. An ancient, six-sided temple, created shortly after the end of the
The War of the Energies. Built by priests of the
Upper Kingdom of Akhret, the temple fulfilled a dual purpose, enclosing a sealed portal to the elemental plane of water, and recording the history of "Mekhnum's Shame" (Mekhnum being the Akhret name for
Mercannan).
Mekhnum's Shame
After the defeat of Kek, Ara was formed at the point where the elemental planes overlapped, with portals between the material and elemental planes existing at that time. In the heart of what is now Alagria, lay a portal to the elemental plane of water. The great waters of the oceans poured forth from this location and it became known as the First Sea.
Over time the waters of the First Sea began to cause problems for the first peoples, flooding their lands and killing their crops. They plead to Mercannan and others of the
Pantheon for the waters to be stopped, but Mercannan liked the expansion of his domain and chose to leave the portal be.
At the same time,
The War of the Energies raged in the skies overhead, and in desperation the first people turned to the
Belnias and
Oloch, offering loyalty in exchange for the removal of the flood waters. Oloch was powerless to stop the water, but Belnias was able to evaporate the waters with her light. In his jealousy, Oloch trapped Belnias in the sky until the harsh light of her sun caused a drought upon the land.
The alleigance of the first peoples was split between Belnias and Oloch, and the people of Ara joined The War of Energies. The battle stretched for generations before a truce was finally reached and
Arawn created and their losses were inumerable. For his part in this tragedy, Mercannan sealed the portal to the elemental plane of water and vowed never to turn his eye back to its waters.
The temple is incredibly well preserved for its age, and still bears a full recounting of
Mekhnum's Shame.
The Darkest Timeline: Umberlee's Cell
During the events of the Darkest Timeline, the deities
Matrixia and
Degdia conspired against the demi-goddess
Umberlee to punish her for breaking the timeline and threatening existence. At the moment that the Storm Wall fell, Degdia lent their power to the electrical discharge, forcing Umberlee to flee the oceans due to her hatred of lightning.
With only the First Sea left for her to hide, Umberlee found herself trapped within the portal's seal, strengthened as it was by Matrixia. There Umberlee remained, unable to leave of her own power or by the compulsion of the curse that prevents her father Mercannan from seeing her, as his oath prevented him from looking upon the First Sea again.
Seeking to use the
Ring of the Maelstrom to summon an Avatar of Water from the Elemental Plane of Water, Ygorl in the form of
Salenis Vendari discovered Umberlee. Commissioning a torture device from
Sinan Thune and
Arietta dan Vacht, he set about interrogating the trapped demi-goddess, and it was from her that he discovered the nature of the Darkest Timeline and the imminent arrival of Gamble.
Later the Thanes of Order would travel to the Last Wave of the First Sea so that Gamble could commune with Umberlee. Doing so allowed her to become a hexblade warlock, returning Gamble to her full power.
While cut off from almost the entirety of Ara, a crack in the roof of the temple ensured that the bond between Umberlee and Elreyna was unbroken. This connection allowed Umberlee to learn of the wish, hidden in the Asteramid of the Lost that would allow Gamble to save the Prime Timeline.
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