Farlin Ruins

Twenty miles North of Telgen, in the mountains of Farlin, sit grand stone walls and spires. Old Farlin Citadel, or what remains of it. The towers are crumbled, the cobblestone segments have long lost their mortar, and the walls have enormous holes and gaps. All is overgrown with vines and moss. Segments of the old citadel and settlement remain standing, lonely and overgrown, surrounded by rubble and mossy stone. The most intact segments are those carved into the stone directly - the deeper one goes, the more that Old Farlin remains. Entering the dark stone tunnels, wind around cave-ins and collapses, the old settlement's chambers suddenly end in glossy, bulging stone that almost looks to be growing over the doors and walls. This is the Stone Seal, used centuries ago to section off the most infested and dangerous parts of the Farlin Ruins. 
Deep below the Stone Seal, monsters breed and nest in their own alien ecosystem - a tiny world molded by Ederstone centuries ago and left to stabilize. Many of these monstrous pockets have tunneled together to form a small underground world. This underground ecosystem, having been born from the traumas of war made flesh, is unusually dangerous. It is the official policy of the Kingdom of Hain to keep the depths sealed, in case any monsters or plagues leaked out into the lowlands. The highest lords know, thanks to the Lunar Pantheon, that these depths are not worth disturbing. 
And yet, there are those who seek to open the Farlin Ruins up. Some of these are descendants of the survivors, a handful of Prisms and prism hybrids who see Farlin Citadel as their rightful home that it is their family duty to cleanse. Some of these are adventurers seeking wealth and glory. Some are warriors who feel that a monster nest so close to Telgen is an insult to the realm's honor. This group, an informal faction of disparate voices dubbed the Farlin Reclaimers or Farlin Avengers, has been scouting the region looking for an easy entrance into the depths. These people are rare enough and generally disorganzed, so they aren't taken seriously - but the descendants of the survivors are quite serious in their efforts, and the legend of treasure down in Farlin's depths has begun to spread.

History

While some people lived in Farlin hills prior to 600 ME, Farlin Mines was founded by a colony group from a prism clan in the Halmenters in the late 600s. The mines were slow to take off, but thrived in the 800s and 900s, as they became prime producers of weapons and tools for the rising Kingdom of Hain. Farlin's population and wealth peaked in the 1000s and early 1100s, but was crushed by the Mageplague from 1150 to 1190 ME. While Farlin Citadel would become grander as a defensive structure after 1190, it would never acheive the population density it once had. That high peak back in the early 1100s left Farlin with deep mines and broad underground housing, though, making it an ideal place for supply storage and garrisoning. After the Scouring Wars of the 1300s and 1400s, Farlin Citadel was built up as a military center, with fortified tunnels allowing rapid deployment across the hills. 
When the Fifth Scouring came in 1685, Farlin Citadel became a major defensive barrier and an integral part of the Harhoven Plan (Hain's defensive strategy). In 1697, Farlin pinned down the enemy army and then helped destroy it in one of the great Hainish victories of the war, the Grand Sally at Farlin Fields. 
The Citadel and tunnel-mine system became ruins in 1704, when the Kivish army attacked Farlin from multiple angles in a swift and brutal prepared strike. Ederstone carved through the thick walls and doorways, while volatile monsters were used as explosives to blast apart Farlin's defenses. The survivors retreated downwards, but lacked the layered fortifications to continue resisting - instead, the cramped survivors were slaughtered and transformed. The Kivish attempted to direct these monsters into Hain, but found the effort unworkable. Instead, they used self-replicating stone created by Ederstone during the siege and used it to seal the underground shut. The ruins have remained ruins ever since.

RUINED STRUCTURE
1704 ME

Founding Date

650 ME

Alternative Names

Farlin Mines, Farlin Citadel

Type

Ruins

Parent Location

Farlin

Owning Organization

The Kingdom of Hain