The Ivids and Iuz

The darkest chapter in the history of Aerdy began in 437 CY. In this year, the upstart House Naelax mur dered the Rax overking, inaugurating a series of grue some civil wars called the Turmoil Between Crowns. Within a decade, Ivid I of Naelax was recognized as the undisputed overking of all Aerdy. As Ivid was rumored to be in league with powerful evil Outsiders, the Mala chite Throne of the Great Kingdom became known as the Fiend-Seeing Throne, and the once mighty and upright empire became a bastion of evil and cruelty.

The lands of the Flanaess soon became acquainted with an altogether less subtle form of evil with the rise of Iuz, in the Northern Reaches loosely aligned with Furyondy. In 479 CY, a minor despot in the Howling Hills left his domain to his "son," a being known as Iuz. Within a handful of years, Iuz had conquered his neighbors, setting up a small realm for himself. Tales told by refugees entering Furyondy spoke of unmiti gated evil: Iuz was building a road of human skulls from the Howling Hills to his capital, Dorakaa. Worse, divinations and rumors marked Iuz as the offspring of an unholy union between necromancer and demon; he was seen to be a half-fiend towering 7 feet in height, driven by a thirst for blood, destruction, and conquest.

Political struggles within Furyondy prevented the king from acting decisively in this period, when the evil of Iuz might have been permanently checked, Instead, the cambion lord flourished until 505 CY, when he appeared to vanish from Oerth. In truth, Iuz was imprisoned beneath Castle Greyhawk by the Mad Archmage Zagig Yragerne, former lord mayor of Greyhawk. In Iuz's absence, orc tribes and disloyal former subjects squabbled for control of his lands, allowing the forces of weal to rest for a time.

Three developments kept Furyondy and its allies from complacency. First, part of Iuz's leaderless realm soon broke away to be ruled by a nearly equal evil, the Horned Society.

Second, the notorious Horde of Elemental Evil arose, a collection of cultists and villains headquar tered at a temple south of the town of Verbobonc. The Horde was the puppet of Zuggtmoy, Iuz's abyssal con sort, who instructed it in bizarre teachings at the behest of her absent lover. The Horde's banditry was finally vanquished in 569 CY at the Battle of Emridy Meadows, where Prince Thrommel of Furyondy led forces from Furyondy, Veluna, Verbobonc, and other realms in victory and the destruction of the temple. Adventurers put down an attempted resurgence of the Temple of Elemental Evil in 579 CY.

Third, faithful orc and human servants of Iuz became zealots dedicated to their absent lord. In time, the leaders of these cults devoted to Iuz dis played magical power, igniting Furyondy's worst fears. In 570 CY, a meddlesome warrior-adventurer named Lord Robilar freed Iuz from his imprison ment. Iuz returned to his lands more powerful and wicked than ever before, with an unholy priesthood leading his forces in his unholy name.