Grot-Ugrat

Constructed entirely of massive stone blocks, some weighing in excess of twenty tons, Grot-Ugrat has stood in a high valley in the central Lortmils since before the Suel began settling in the Sheldomar valley. Although scholars debate exactly who built the vast stone city originally, it is a well-documented fact that Hobgoblins had dwelled and ruled there since well before the twin cataclysms claimed the Suel and Baklunish empires. To the hobgoblins Grot-Ugrat was a holy city, sacred to their god Nomog-Geaya. Grot-Ugrat was a place of pilgrimage for all hobgoblins that dwelled in eastern Oerik, and they tried to visit the holy city at least once in their lives. All tribes were considered equal there and it was decreed by the priests that ruled the city that peace should reign within the boundaries of the sacred valley. This declaration of peace extended even to persons of other races, and at times human and even elven merchants could be seen mingling in the city’s shops and bazaars. The rulers of nearby lands, however, tended to see Grot-Ugrat as a festering den of evil. Unable to see past the racial makeup of the city’s inhabitants, the rulers of the Duchy of Ulek and Celene especially viewed the holy city as a serious threat to their respective nations security. Sitting, as it did, close to the Celene pass Grot-Ugrat’s fate was sealed when Orcs murdered the queen of Celene’s consort not twenty miles from the sacred city.
When the Hateful Wars commenced in 498 CY, both the Duchy of Ulek and Celene made Grot-Ugrat an early primary target. The priests of the city sent delegations to each nation, protesting their innocence, the pleas fell on deaf ears however, as the incensed elves saw nothing more than more evil humanoids to be driven from the mountains, and the priests received no response except the envoys severed heads in return. Even so, the hobgoblins made no preparations for war, and life went on as normal right up until doom befell them.
A group of the greatest mages from each nation assembled on a high summit overlooking the stone city, there they each contributed to the casting of an awesome spell, combining their power to achieve an affect not seen since the days of the Suel Imperium. Their magic rolled down the mountain like a cloud of absolute darkness and settled in the holy valley, engulfing the stones of Grot-Ugrat like a wicked black fog. When the fog lifted, nothing lived within the valley, and such was the might of their magic that nothing new will grow there even to this day.
A few hundred of the over twenty thousand hobgoblins that had inhabited the city managed to flee before the deadly cloud claimed it. From these scattered survivors word spread to the hobgoblin tribes throughout the Flanaess. From this time forward the hobgoblins would fight a war of attrition against the elves, and never again would they try the path of peace. Nomog-Geaya himself, took on a much more marital aspect then he had previously possessed, and began to extol his followers to take revenge on the elves and the other races (humans, gnomes, halflings, and dwarves) who had aided them.
Today, Grot-Ugrat stands as an abandoned ruin, inhabited by no living plants or creatures. Popular legends in the Ulek states and the kingdom of Keoland speak of treasure lying around on the streets for the brave to claim, but few who have gone searching for it in the last century have ever returned.
The enmity shown toward elves by the race of hobgoblins nowadays is common knowledge. Hobgoblins will often attack elves on sight, forsaking allies, ignoring other potential threats, and showing little of the iron hard discipline that the race is renowned for.

RUINED SETTLEMENT
500 CY

Type

Large city