Winter's Dark

Being the Sixth Rin of the World. An account and History in brief of the Millennial Darkness, the Winter Dark also called the Long Centuries; of the Warping of the World, the Binding of the Twin Sisters; the myriad wars of UNKLAR, the Horned God; of AUFSTRAG and the coming of Hell; the Mogrl and other beasts; of the Winter Dark Wars.
In the beginning, some open resistance to Unklar’s rule remained. Of the dwarves, GRUNDLICHE-HOHLE and NORGOROD KAM held out for some time. Many other folk in distant lands did as well, though their tales do not come into this telling. Most of the people of Aihrde fell to his worship, for fear of him.
After the fall of ETHRUM, the forces of Unklar battled the dwarves of the BERGRUCKEN until at last they were driven into the BRASS HALLS, Norgorad Kam. They remained defiant, and the king of those halls would not at first close his doors, but the fall of Kingdom of Kayomar and the Ethrum he saw that the evil wind of Unklar would end the Brass Halls. He called all his sundry folk into his realm and what folk of the Etrhum he could save. He ordered the outer tunnels pulled in and sealed. At the last he came to his mighty gates, with his war hammer in hand he looked upon the setting sun. “We’ll warm ourselves in the dark as is our people’s want, but gird ourselves for war, for as with all things, this darkness shall pass.” The gates he ordered shut and sealed.
When Unklar arrived he called the dwarves to come forth. They did not, but sounded their horns and challenged Unklar to come into the halls “For even if you can break these gates, your folk will be years dying in these deeps.” The Darkness answered this challenge, but the gates would not break, no matter the power thrown against them. In the end, Unklar himself attempted to batter the gates down but they would not yield and promised to root them in time. Unklar turned then to Grundliche Hole, for he knew that its magic was less than Norgorad Kam. The dwarves of the GRUNDLICHE MOUNTAINS were a society of warriors not steeped in the rune magic of their cousins. For this they paid dearly, for Unklar battered their gates open and unleashed his vast host to the halls. For nine years the battle continued, and the losses upon both sides defied comprehension. The terrible suffering, the murder of innocents, the grinding battles, the fall of warriors and lords echoed through the halls until at last it was done, and the kingdom lay in wreck and ruin.
The fall of that kingdom echoed in the world, and from that day to this, the dwarven folk shudder and weep at the memory of it, for the greater part of those folk were cruelly slain, but many were carted off to doom in Aufstrag where they became slaves to his will. Only a few fled into the hinterlands of the Grundliche Mountains, there to live wild, dangerous lives. Thus ended one of the oldest and greatest Kingdoms of the dwarves.
OF HELL AND IT’S MAKING
Thus Unklar, the Horned God, settled within the Halls of Austrag and fortified it anew, building ever greater bastions. He constructed an out-wall in front of the gate, and towers within. The gates he made of brass, forcing the dwarves of Grundliche-Hohle to construct it, though they cursed it without his knowing. These gates he named the Ahargon Den, the Mouth of Darkness. He called to those who served him, and he gave them places in the halls of his power. The TVUNGEN who remained in Aihrde, great and small came first. Many others followed. Sorcerers, goblins, wicked-hearted men, orcs, hobgoblins, and other beasts beside. Some of these were mortal, others of the unnamed Val Eahrakun. All served the dark power that sat upon the thrown of Al-Liosh and the world. As warning to all those who resisted him, Unklar took up the battered body of Jaren Falkenjagger. The monk still lived, though his aged body could not have lasted long in the dungeons of that place. Unklar gave of himself to the monk, breathing the breath of life into his lungs, so that Jaren became immortal. The Horned God crucified Jaren then, nailing his body above the gates of his citadel, the Ahargon Den. There he hung for a thousand years, the slow trickle of his blood spilling upon the ground. Many came to see him, reveling in his suffering, and his blood became a drug to evil lords who thirsted for such things. NULAK-KIZ-DIN himself took particular pleasure in tormenting Jaren, and he spent many years in the task. But too, it was a holy sufferance. It is told that one LEONIDAS, follower of the SCINTILLANT DAWN, came to Jaren and took up some of the blood in a cup and bore that cup into the world. Years passed, and Aufstrag became a cesspool of all things vile, a living thing, a hell. Tunnels, great and small, fanned out beneath the halls into the rock of the world. Towers and buttresses rose into the sky, and the fortress city climbed higher. Within the city itself the construction never ceased, as walls were torn down and new ones built, rooms filed in or hollowed out. Aufstrag’s bulk proved large enough that all those within could build and rebuild to their eye’s desire. And so they did. Eventually, twenty-one domains were established, and each of these comprised many levels of rooms and ramps, tunnels, halls, and stairs. They bore such names as the Bone Halls and the Horned God’s Acre, and they housed terrors; nightmares born of Unklar’s fell design or worse, those of their own ill intent. Aufstrag became the embodiment of evil in Aihrde, and all things that sought a place in his hierarchy dwelt there.
As is known, the souls of the restless dead meander upon the ARC OF TIME. They pass from the world of the living to the ENDLESS POOLS, though some are waylaid, marked by their lives’ evil deeds to pass beneath the FURTHNOPT, the MAW OF HUADUN, and come even to the WRETCHED PLAINS. Unklar sought to change this, and set his will against that of the RED GOD. He sought to bend the Arc of Time to him and his domain, but that power was beyond him, for the ordering of the world had long been established, and the The Judgement of Corthain still bound that ordering. What Unklar could affect was a culling upon the Arc, and those minions he deemed worthy, whose evil stood forth in his darkness, he culled, and brought them to Aufstrag to suffer his will for eternity. There the evil dead gathered, to serve in torment for all time. Men called it Hell, and knew it as the equal of the Wretched Plains, and yet was unique in all the MAELSTROM for it existed within the world and without.
Unklar’s power waxed great in the early days of his rule, and after the fall of Grundliche-Hohle he set himself the task of reshaping the world. Foremost, he gathered together those of the orders of Val Eahrakun and VAL AUSTLICH whom he had not slain and bound them to himself. Of these he made seven his CAPTAIN KINGS, and granted them dominion over wide regions of the world, though he kept the LANDS OF URSAL as his private domain.
The Captain Kings ruled in his name and they were called by men the LORD OF SORROW, MONGORTH, AMMON, CRUXEL, NAELEK, HEXIN-TUL, and GORAGON. They were greater DEVILS and marshaled battles of tvengun and hosts of men. In time they proved to be an unruly lot and rose in rebellion against their master, and fought one another for greater control and power. The Lord of Sorrow was chief amongst these Captain Kings and commanded Unklar’s hosts in battle, often against the other Captain Kings.
The Captain Kings set forth to rule in the dark one’s stead and they largely ordered the world as he willed it. These Captain Kings sought to control the Val Eahrakun and Val Austlich that remained in Aihrde. These they made to serve the darkness or else imprisoned or, where they could, slay them. Though many fled into the wilderness, many more fell into darkness.
The Lord of Sorrow moved into the west and there built a mighty structure that housed all his filth, and it became a den of iniquity so foul that men called him Lord of Flies. He ruled there as a beast, eating the living from the spit and torturing the few who defied him. In after ages he rose against his master many times, but was never removed from his seat of power, for his rule pleased the Horned God more than any other.
The other Captain Kings built their houses as best suited their desires, but they were spread across the world, far removed from Aufstrag and the power of their god. Men worshiped them or fought them as suited their own design.
Unklar did not restrict himself to the divine ordering of things. He set about creating a true Empire of men. He ordered roads built between the larger cities and fortresses, building castles along the way to better house his troops and imprison his enemies. He awarded loyal men with lands and serfs, and these appointed assessors to gage the wealth of the land, and marshaled legions of troops to guard it. Taxes, duties, and tithes filled the coffers of Unklar’s minions, who performed the role of lord or lady. The new masters controlled the more mundane affairs of the world, paying the dark god in sacrifices of blood and treasure.
At last, Unklar took rest and pondered the world, and his ownership of it. He thought upon the countless ages spent in the VOID. Ever as powerful as the early gods Corthain, MORDIUS, and ORNDUHL; Unklar knew his substance. He knew of himself as a memory, a passing emotion of the All Father’s, and therefore, unbound by the LANGUAGE OF CREATION, nor restricted in his doings by the substance of the Void. He saw the work of the All Father, and thought to himself that creation had gone astray. The Horned God thought too that he would repair the damage done by folly and neglect, for ever did he see himself as the better part of the All Father. With this in mind he set to refashioning the whole of the World of Aihrde.
OF UNKLAR AND THE MOON AND SUN
When Unklar came to Aihrde he made war upon the gods. Of all those he contested with, only the Sisters avoided his wrath; or so it was in the beginning. The Sisters turned their minds away from Aihrde and all its suffering, and their light was pale upon the world. These were accounted dark days, and were the very years of the CATALYST WARS. In their hearts the Sisters longed for the deeps of the seas, the mountains, and all the manifold regions of the world. They turned then to the Maelstrom, and set themselves to gathering worlds of their own, for there was much in the empty places that was filled with the debris of the FIRMAMENT. The Sisters knew not the Language of Creation, and their world’s were imperfect. The MAIDEN OF LIGHT fashioned great balls of burning gases, but they had no foundation. The MAIDEN OF NIGHT built worlds of cold stone, and they had no life. They set them to spinning in the Maelstrom, but to no avail. Their labors were imperfect, for they never forgot their games and the chase of one the other through the heavens, and what little of the All Father’s wisdom they learned in the long ago Days before Days, they had long since forgotten.
Unklar came to them then and asked them what life they gave their worlds. And they replied that there was none. He smiled, feigning sorrow and pity he beguiled the Sisters. He told them that they should go to the Void and cast about for the power of the Language of Creation, and they would gain the gift of life. The Sisters lamented their worlds lack of life, and for a short while removed themselves from Aihrde’s heavens even to the edge of the GREAT EMPTY. The world fell to darkness and terror. It was called by men the Long Night for it lasted many years.
Unmolested, Unklar set to remaking the world in the quiet dark. Beneath the world he found the bones of the All Father, and he harvested what magic from them that he could. He cursed the Sisters, for they were undiminished by his power and even as he, they were made of the All Father. More, they were made of the flesh of his flesh, and were whole and powerful. At first the Horned God made war on the Sisters by taking up the lust of the All Father and hurling it into the Void. There it burned with a fierce fire and lit the heavens. He did this to dampen the Sister’s light.
This was the All Father’s lust as fashioned by Unklar, and it was later called Al-Aihrde Cun by the dwarves: that is, the ALL FATHER'S EYE. The elves called it the Taler-ur-ion, the light unseen. Men called it the Day Star, for it burned ever bright in the night sky and one could often see it in both the early morning and early evening. Unklar’s great spite bound the world of Aihrde to the star for many seasons, for he wished to mock the people of the world of what they could not have. The Day Star marred all the beauty of the night sky, in that it diminished the Sisters and the ancient stars of WENAFAR's making. It cast no warmth on Aihrde, nor did it shed any light to the world, and the Winter of those years was cold without match. It was ever after an evil star that men did not look upon unless through need.
During the Long Night, the dragon FRAFNOG grew restless, for his love of Wenafar was undiminished with time, and he could not see the stars of her making for the Day Star blotted out their distant light. So the great wyrm defied Unklar, and rousing at last, he took up the heart of the All Father and gave it to Wenafar and bid her fashion it as she had the stars of old and hurl it into the heavens. This she did and it hung in the north sky, and the Day Star dimmed in its presence. Unklar despised it.
The All Flather’s Heart as cast out by Wenafar, is called by the dwarves the Al-Aihrde Onu; that is the STONE OF THE ALL FATHER. The elves call it the Taler-ur-seth, the guiding light, while men call it the Evening or North Star. The star lit the world with a dim light and gave comfort to those oppressed.
Thus the Long Night ended and light returned to the world. But in the end it proved weak and only alleviated the sufferings of men a little.
THE BINDING OF WENAFAR
Unklar sought out Wenafar after a time, and beseeched her to join him in his efforts. She was far-seeing, and held as one of the greatest of the Val Eahrakun and Wenafar spurned the Horned God, “Be off darkness, for you are the mote in his eye and bring discomfort to all you touch.” But she did not fully grasp the power of Unklar and had forgotten that it took the might of all the Named Val Eahrakun to drive Unklar into the UNDEEPS and she misjudged him.
In the north of the Lands of Ursal lay a small mountain without consequence. The dwarves of old had built a hill fort upon its flanks, but that they abandoned in the early days of the KINSHIP WARS. Unklar came to this mountain and raised it up, burying the fort and all around in heaps of stone and fresh soil. The Horned God drew water from the earth so that it pooled at the top in a mere, and he set many trees to grow about it. The mere was deep and still and cold, reflecting the heavens above as would a mirror. It was the most beautiful of all his creations, but its design was otherwise.
Into the water he set a powerful magic so that whomsoever looked into it became snared in time. The passing of days had no meaning for its victims, so that they remained there until their gaze should be broken. Unklar named it MONRUDGE, and it was a prison and a trap for Wenafar.
Birds were Wenafar’s greatest love, and these she made of herself in the Days before Days and released to roam the wide world. She watched over them, and they were her eyes and ears all over the world. Rumor of a mere came to her, for birds spoke of it to her, relating tales of how no creature, great or small, could pass over it without being lost. She stole away to the mere in secret, to glean what she could of its making.
Few were the places of Aihrde that Wenafar had no knowledge of, and this was one. She knew it was of Unklar’s making, and saw many of her birds laying dead around the mere. She approached cautiously, but without fear, for she was a Val Eahrakun, and accounted the hand maiden of the All Father. That fearlessness was her undoing, for when she cast her gaze into the deep waters and saw the light of the skies above her, she fell into a trance. Sitting down by the lake she marveled at its beauty and wondered at the heavens that were partially of her own devising.
Unklar came to her then and wove a mist around the mere, and set snares and traps of his own devising, such than none could easily come to Wenafar’s aid. In later years, rumor of her came to men of bold intent and many tried to rescue her, but they left their bones, and their tales, upon the jagged cliffs of Monrudge.
There she remained for many hundreds of years.
THE SHROUD OF DARKNESS
Upon a time Unklar rose to the highest reaches of Aufstrag and he looked out and into the Void, searching for the Undeeps where he dwelt for the many ages of the world. The WALL OF WORLDS obscured his view, and he saw it as a fence that kept him out of the world’s making and the joy of its youth. He thought the fence ill conceived and pondered its destruction.
With his great might, Unklar devoured the fog of the Wall of Worlds, consuming it so that a greater part of its might came to reside within him. It discomfited him, for the fog was of the All Father’s design, and as such bore all the power of the Language of Creation.
In a great blast Unklar vomited forth the Wall of Worlds, and it flowed from the spires of Aufstag as a powerful wind, cold and bitter. Great clouds of his stink settled far and wide across Aihrde, blanketing all in a world of winter and dark. It settled upon the world as a fog, rising into the heavens, dampening the light of the sun. Men named the fog the SHROUD OF DARKNESS or the Cold Mist, for with it came a terrible freezing. Sheets of snow and sleet blanketed the northern lands in ice, and much of the south as well. The Shroud hung over Aihrde for 800 years, and in time the warmth of the sun and the pure, unfiltered light of day, became legends to the people.
Thus the Winter Dark settled upon the land.
The Shroud kept much of the light of all the stars, the moon, and sun from Aihrde, and the world withered. Those years were counted as the longest of the Winter Dark and most terrifying for many died of need and want. After Unklar’s war with INZAE when he shaped all of Aihrde anew, the Horned God thought upon the world and saw that without light it would utterly die, and with it his minions and slaves.
THE WINTER DARK
As the Shroud of Darkness blanketed Aihrde, the snows began to fall. The northern ice shelf crept south, consuming the lands of Aatuk, WODONMOHLE, SURNE (LOCATION), and much of GAL-LAND as well. The BANNING SEA froze, and all the traffic stopped across the waters for many years, until the men there learned to put skids on their boats and pulled them with the giant bears, or used the wind to cross the ice. Only in the realms of the Dragon Riders of Aathuk did men live as they had before, for those people, though diminished, were steeped in sorcery, and used their knowledge to hold back the cold. Even so, their dragons grew old in the pens and were seldom used.
In the south, the Ice Shelf crept across the ODDINE OCEAH even to the southern reaches of INKLUNAID and the lands of KOTH. ELIS, the ice consumed utterly and her people lived wild and dangerous. In the lands of Koth the dragon god LAMUL ruled and kept the powers of the ice at bay, drawing warm winds from the Jungles of Is to her people and keeping the island an oasis of sorts.
Those same winds crossed the island-ruins of the Kingdom of Alanti. The shattered remains of the dwarves who dwelt there still, and the men of the ancient ENGALE who served them, avoided the bitterness of the cold of the dark and dwelt in some peace, for it was known that Unklar feared the water and in his heart he feared EALOR, though here, as everywhere, the Shroud blocked out the sun and men suffered for want.
It was in the lands of IS, where the GREEN SEA washed the jungled shores, that men suffered the least. The snows and ice never hounded the jungles there, for ‘tis said the back of the Dragon Inzae broke the surface of Aihrde through the Wall of Worlds, and all the firmament and the warmth of her Unklar could not match.
All the great lands of Ethrum and Aenoch suffered from the cold and the filtered sun. The winters were long, the springs short, cold, and wet, and food was scarce. In many places the snow did not melt in summer, keeping the land locked in a season of death. In the early years of the Winter Dark, the suffering was great indeed, and many died for lack of food and shelter. Many took to the road and wandered, others ate the beasts of the field and hunted creatures great and small for food.
As is known by the wise, when Erde first made the world all was dark, and there was no light but the fire of the waking mountains. The All Father longed for light, and he plucked a rib from his body and gave it life and light and this light he named MAILAHM. He cast Mailahm into the heavens for her to bring light to the world, and under her gentle touch all manner of plants blossomed and thrived in the half dark of the world’s youth. These plants, seeds set by Mordius of the Val Eahrakun long before, grew wild and abundant beneath the light of the moon. They are counted the FAEL MUR, and grew for an age before even the dwarves and dragons walked the earth. After the coming of Mailuhm, that is the sun, and true daylight, many of the Fael Mur died off for they could not long suffer the light of the sun and fell from the memory of all things. Their seeds lay beneath the earth for the long Rin of the world, but in the half-light of the Winter Dark, these plants rose again from their long slumber. Within only a few seasons they grew, and people learned to cultivate them, and animals to eat them, and the world’s suffering grew less with each year that passed. The return of the Fael Mur is accounted a wonder by most, and an accident of happenstance by many, but others say that Mordius understood the world of the All Father’s making more than any other. Though her eyes never strayed to the Arc of Time, she bore a wisdom few could match. Some say she fashioned the seeds in the darkness of the world for a time of greater darkness. Thus it was that she was one of the greatest of the Val Eahrakun.
And so, while it took many long years, the want faded, and men adjusted to the world of the Winter Dark.
THE DRAGON
Unklar surveyed his work and deemed it good, and he sat upon his throne in Aufstrag, and slept for many years. In truth, Unklar spent much of his power in recasting the Wall of Worlds. Forming the Shroud of Darkness had taken much from him, and never again would he be the power he once was.
The elves, under their new king, CALPHONE, hid their realm with a magic of mist, not unlike the Shroud of Darkness, and the LAND OF SEVEN RIVERS became a distant memory. Men called it a place of magic, of terrible powers, of the FEY and the things of Wenafar’s design.
When at last Unklar awoke, he found his vassals at war with one another. The Captain Kings, seeing nothing of their Lord for many years, warred upon one another for dominance of Aihrde. They fought battles upon the broad plains, within the skies, and under the ground. They placed huge armies of men, orc, and UNGERN into the field, and these forces clashed in contests of arms and rocked all the world.
A rage took Unklar, and he flew forth from Aufstrag to force the fealty of his vassals once again. Men flocked to his side, for none could resist him in those days. Nulak, always waiting in the wings, once more served as the Horned God’s voice. The arch mage’s power waxed great as he rose in the estimation of Unklar. In dismay, the Captain Kings faltered and fell back. They feared Unklar and cast themselves upon his mercy. He chastised them, binding them with ever greater spells, and forced them to do his bidding once more.
With the war finished and the fury of his vassals abated, Unklar turned his attention to the world once more. He pondered long and hard upon how best to bind the peoples of the world to him, for many seemed defiant and resisted him still. Dwarves, wandering knights, bands of men, the giants, and others besides.
The Horned God took stock of all that stood around him, from the Firmament and the Maelstrom to the multi-verse as created with the splintered mind of the All Father. He was blind to the Arc of Time and the purpose of the All Father. Of the GREEN HALLS he feared to tread for water was ever a bane to Unklar. Of the Red God he heard only rumor, and Corthain he saw in the FORTRESS OF WIND and knew the Shroud blinded that god to the world of Airhde. TEFNUT was lost to the world as were many of the Val Eahrakun. In the east he came to the MARL, and there found the Mother and Father of All, EAHRTUT, the Great Tree. He grappled the tree and set to pulling it from the ground. The earth shuttered, and the mountains about broke in half, leaving stark and jagged cliffs in their wake, but the tree would not move. Unklar saw then that the roots were so deep as to reach beyond the world. He saw that they breached the world in many places, into the Maelstrom and the underworld that is INZAA. And he saw the darkness of the dragon, Inzae, and was amazed for hers was a black he could not recompense with any thought, for she was destruction and death and the essence of unmaking. Unklar took mighty UTRIEL, the Mace of Judgment, and smote the dragon through the worlds. The blow rang such that all of Aihrde shuttered, though the dragon took no heed, lying deep in her slumbers. Unklar saw a battle with her in his mind’s eye, and his unmaking and the unmaking of all that he and all the Val Eahrakun had labored upon.
For his part Unklar knew not the origins of Inzae, and he feared her for it. He realized that he could never overcome her, as he had the other gods. He watched and waited for a great while until at last he understood that the world of Inzaa resided on the underside of Aihrde. This Unklar could not abide.
As is written, the world of Aihrde rested upon the Maelstrom as a great disk, walled upon all sides by the fogs of the Wall of Worlds that Unklar devoured and replaced with the Shroud of Darkness. Aihrde stood as the center of creation. Beneath the world he found the bones of the All Father and within these, the magic of creation. Unklar stole the magic and used it for his own purpose, bending the world, wrapping its form around the All Father’s skull so that the edges met. There he pinned them with the bones, binding them together, so that all the edges of the world came together. The pinning lay deep in the south and he stood upon it and cursed it, and his breath bound time to an oath that would only break with his unmaking. That land was called the LANKG-OT-AND, the Oath Land, and the Four Corners, and The Land of Frozen Breath.
So it was that Unklar thought to remake Aihrde around Inzaa, and pin Inzae in a prison of the All Father’s bones, for he deemed even she could not break the bones of him. Unklar understood little of the dragon, for she was before all and will remain past the GONFOD. Inzae’s power cannot be contained by any power of the All Father’s making. Her world was unaffected, so that the two existed as they always did, bound to one another through time and space. The Roots of Eahrtut spread far and wide, and these Unklar could not bind either, and they continued to grow out in many directions, for the All Father’s labors continued though his form on Aihrde was no more. Unklar learned then of the worlds beyond Aihrde, and was displeased.
The Horned God cast a net through the Shroud of Darkness, and the net was his thought taken shape. It bound all gates to Aihrde from opening so long as he sat the throne of the world. Thus it was for the Rin of the Winter Dark
OF THE BINDING OF THE MOON AND SUN
When Unklar saw that the Day Star burned bright but held no life of its own, and the Evening Star was the same, and the Shroud of Darkness weakened what little light they held, he tracked down the Sisters in the limitless waste of the Maelstrom and bid them return to Aihrde. Unklar took the shape of an elderly man with long beard and kindly visage. In his image he looked as an old dwarf, or other kindly being, and though the Sisters knew Unklar, it softened their minds to him. He recanted his evil deeds, speaking regretfully of the world’s suffering and the death of many plants and animals, and he bid the Sisters return to make the world thrive in their light. The Sisters resisted only a little, for they were possessed of a great sorrow at all the loss, and Unklar cleverly cast himself as a wounded creature who had meant no harm. They returned then to Aihrde and too late learned his great deceit, for in the deeps of Aufstrag he had forged great chains, the URLNARCH. When the Sisters came to Aihrde, Unklar heaped them in the Urlnarch and bound them both to the world and the world to them. Thus the Sisters could not leave Aihrde of their own volition, but remained chained to it, and it is said that in the still quiet one may hear the grinding of the Urlnarch in the heavens over Aihrde as the moon and sun pass over.
The Moon and the Sun hurled now through the heavens apart and rarely came to each other, and they knew great sorrow, for ever in the past they had enjoyed one another the more when they raced through the heavens together. This suffering none could heal, even after the Dark fell from Aufstrag and returned to the Void beyond.
To mock the Sisters, Unklar bound them to the planets of their making as well. These he set deep in the heavens so the Sisters would always see them. And the sight mocked the Sisters, for they were without life. The folk of Aihrde named these planets ILLUS, for it was cold and hard, and NEXUS, for it burned gas in the darkness. Some there were who worshiped them and made of them gods, so that Unklar did not achieve his full purpose.
But Al-Aihrde Onu Unklar could not touch, and that star burned in the wintry heavens throughout the long Winter Dark, giving hope to the hopeless.
So were arranged the Sun and Moon, creations of the All Father’s of old, and the great northern star, the Evening Star, that guides and protects the folk of Aihrde and the southern star, the Day Star, that reminds men of the coming dark.
As before, his tasks completed, Unklar returned to Aufstrag and slept, secure in Aufsrag’s towers and halls of stone, weaker all the more for his expenditures.
THE LONG YEARS OF THE WINTER DARK
As is told, during these long years, the people of Aihrde could offer Unklar little resistance. Though food grew in abundance and the wealth of the people was much as it had been before, life during the Winter Dark was harsh. In the ordered world of Unklar’s Empire, men suffered the yoke, and so these words were carved upon the great gates of Aufstrag: “Suffer Not the Tyranny of Fear. Embrace the Dominion of Law. The Yoke Shall Set you Free.” And men came to believe these words, and suffered all that was delivered to them.
Though in truth the powers that eventually challenged him began to surface in small ways.
The scattered remnants of Patrice’s Council fought on. ARISTOBULUS, bound to a demon lord, one of the UNKBARTIG, suffered such torments that he lost his form and became a shade. He served his tormentor thus, bound to him with no shape or form. After many years he stole away and hid himself ever deeper in the pits of the Wretched Plains, the shadow of a shade, until at last none could find him and he made good his escape. Aristobulus wandered that realm, lost and alone, until at last he learned to bend light, and could take form once more. In this way he returned to Aihrde, to haunt the world of Unklar, and to seek power wherever he could. He found CRISIGRIM the mage, wandering mindless as a beggar, tormented by the Lords of the Winter Dark, and together they sought to unravel what had come to pass. SAGRAMORE, their companion of old, they eventually found, but his tale was horrid and he feasted on the flesh of living men, bound in chains in a cave in the north and thus they left him. Rumors of others came to him and he continued to seek them out for he brooded on war and vengeance. The ORDER OF THE HOLY DEFENDERS OF THE FLAME struggled on as well. Their master, his name lost to history, took the FLAME from its hiding place and moved it to the TOWER OF HOPE in the ruins of Du Guesillon. None of the enemy dared to tread in that place, for the ghosts of the king and Jaren remained, tormenting all to death. The knights used the flame as a signal, desiring its power to bring LUTHER, whom they sainted with godhead back from the DREAMING SEA, and he is accounted the first of the VAL TULMIPH.
A single knight always stood vigil in the snow-bound ruins of the castle, to keep watch and to bear word when the paladin should return. This vigil they kept for 600 years until his return was realized.
In his slumbers, Luther roamed upon the Dreaming Sea, restless, woken by the flame. He cast out upon the world to haunt the darkness and light it for those in need.
South, in the Lands of Ursal, in the ELDWOOD, a band of rangers and elves came together to continue the legacy of the MARCH LORDS, named by some the Watchers in the Wood. This was an order dedicated to the Ethvold of old and the memory of the OG AUST. They remembered well the worship of the old gods, and too they remembered that at the feet of the GREAT OAK in the Eldwood, their ancestors had laid the body of DALADON LOTHIAN, the Marcher Lord of old. The body lay amidst the mighty roots of the tree, but it did not decay and his spirit remained entombed upon the world, held in the embrace of Mordius and fed by the water of Tefnut for his tomb was born of the Eahratut. They called to the Marcher Lord of old, and bid him return to the forest and lead them in war. And so Daladon left his tomb and took up his black NOXMORUS once more.
The March Lords fought lonely battles against hopeless odds in the dark of the world. Daladon was accounted the second of the Val Tulmiph. In their struggles, the wood elves joined them and the king there removed himself to the greater Darkenfold, and it became a land bound to the Eldwood, where the powers of Unklar dared not tread.
Many drifted to the Darkenfold, seeking sanctuary against the tyranny of Unklar. Soon the Darkenfold became a lawless place, a land of bandits and rogues, and dangerous creatures that dwelt in the deep folds of the wood. This forest, itself a remnant of the Ethvold, was a living thing. The Darkenfold was all that remained of the ancient Ethvold and within its boughs their lingered memories of the glory of yesteryear, and an anger at loss, so that all that entered those woods felt the brooding presence of the forest. Many could not bear it and could not enter, others who did became lost in the forest’s deeps. The Darkenfold also housed the greater power of the Og Aust, who, though bound by the Judgment of Corthain, lingered as shadows of their former selves. Their presence emboldened the wood and it resisted the snows and ice, so that something of a semblance of the old world’s seasons remained there unconquered.
Of all the free peoples of the world, none suffered as the HALFLINGS. They suffered the hunt, for it became a sport for the Lords of Aenoch to track them and slay them, for food or trophies. In a few short decades their numbers dwindled. They vanished from the cities and fled to the wild. Living in tight clans, only the heartiest survived, and they became crafty, turning the tables on the Lords of Aenoch and hunting the hunters. In time they became a fierce people and the Hunt a dangerous game only the most skilled dared. Norgorad Kam, alone of the realms of the world, suffered little during the Winter Dark. Long ago the dwarves mastered growing food in their deep halls, and even Unklar could not wholly stop the use of the RINGS OF BRASS, as they lay in the roots of Earhtut. The dwarves did as they had for thousands of years, tunneling new halls, mining, and crafting works of need and desire. Beyond the halls the dwarves suffered torment. Many, dislodged from Grundliche-Hohle, ventured into the wild and built what houses they could. The greater part of them were hauled into the bowels of Aufstrag, and made to serve the dark lord.
Thus the world thrived, or languished, depending on who or what one’s station.
Unklar at last awoke from his slumbers to find the world of Aihrde blanketed in a cold, dark, sheet of snow and ice. He reveled in it, and called to his minions to cease their squabbles, which they had begun anew. The Horned God set to order what he could, and thought what next to do. As the All Father before him, his mind was ever restless, and he sought to create life and fashion things as he deemed the need.
Unklar turned then to Aufstrag, and in the bowels of it he carved out a forge. The size of it defied comprehension, sprawling over many levels of the tower. Rooms were hollowed to hold mountains of coal and wood. Hearths, many as large as ships, some as small as shields, he set to fire with bellows of flesh and bone and these burned for as long as Unklar sat his throne. The largest hearth he set in a hall of pillars and there lit the fire himself and set his breath upon it, and thus he set it to burning, remaining so until the Gonfod and the end of days. This he called the STODTINE PLUM, that is the Flawless Fire, and he alone worked this forge, until DOLGAN the dwarf came to his service. Here the hounds were made, the MOGRL, and many other horrors besides.
An army of slaves descended into the pit to suffer the making of armaments and devices of the Horned God’s desire. Many of these were dwarves, and they took up hammer and tong, chisel and wheel reluctantly, but they served Unklar’s desires for those who did not lost their lives. Though some took up arms and took the battle to Unklar, but to no avail, for he was in the full of his powers and no force in Aihrde could stand against him.
The forge changed the nature of Aufsrag, for it created such a wave of heat that the structure suffered damage from top to bottom. Her walls dried and cracked, and the weight of stone began to settle. So Unklar ordered the stacks constructed. The walls were hollowed and chimneys built, some as wide as tunnels, others smaller and these crawled their way to the surface of Aufsrag and vomited smoke and ash, so that the swamps all around were covered in a black darkness, and the air became acidic. They were called the Stacks by all who lived there, and they became roads through Aufstrag, though dangerous for they were flooded with sudden gouts of flame and heat. Despite the danger, creatures used them to travel to and fro in the mighty tower, and others came to live in them.
The forge became a place of wicked experiments, tortures, and crafting. The folk of Aufstrag named it KLARGICH, that is “The Pit of Woe,” for the suffering screams of the damned filled the forge and carried through the Stacks, so that all in Aufstrag came to know them. Unklar first used Klarglich to create the Hounds of Darkness. Those sulking beasts, birthed from the tortured bodies of faerie kin, possessed but one purpose: to root out the elves upon whatever plane they existed. Though the creatures never found the elves in the Land of Seven Rivers, many dying in the attempt, they signaled things to come. Soon thereafter, as is recorded by the ELVEN SCROLLS, the folk of SHINDOLAY, the Land of Seven Rivers, found an entrance to Aihrde: a tunnel torn through the roots of Eahrtut that birthed in the FARTUK STEPPES. The princes sent out the QUEST KNIGHTS to rescue what kin of theirs they could find, for they saw no end to the Winter Dark. These lords had two purposes: to find LONDEA, the daughter of the queen, and to locate the ELVES OF FONTENOUQ. Though they hunted for many centuries, they failed in both tasks, many suffering death, many suffering a fate far worse. Londea had passed upon the BLUE RIVER, and the Fontenouq had never returned to the world. Of them all, only one returned, and he brought reports of evil and mayhem and of a world under the iron will of Unklar’s rule.
In despair, MELIUS the Wise, the greatest of the elven magi, bared the gates to the Seven Rivers. From that moment none of his people were able to willingly travel to Aihrde, and none could return who were beyond the Seven Rivers. However, Melius did not wish to be wholly sundered from the world, so he took up a root of Eahrtut, and where it breached the world he fashioned a portal after the manner of the rings of brass. He set this portal in a ring, the AUREFES MUTATIO. Within it stood a gate from the Seven Rivers to Airhde, and, unknown to Melius, to FONTENOUQ as well. The magi placed the Aurefex Mutaito on a stone, and set many knights and magical effect to guard it. Around them Melius built the CASTLE OF SPIRES, bound to the ring, so that the castle stood in many planes at once.
It was in those days that Nulak-Kiz-Din found the dwarf, Dolgan, son of HIRN, in the Grundliche Mountains. He was but a boy, unused to the world, and not yet come into his own, and could not long resist the archmage Nulak who ensorcelled him, and bound him to his service. Dolgan was the last of the line of ANGROD of old, KINGS OF GRUNDLICHE-HOHLE, and possessed a great gift for forging and crafting. The young dwarf’s hands bore the skills of the lords of GOTHURAG of old, and through him those crafts were born anew. He worked for Nulak, making items of the wizard’s design. It was he that made the spikes that held Jaren the Wise above the gates of Aufstrag, and for that Jaren never forgave the dwarf. In time, Unklar learned of Dolgan and his skill, and bid the mage give him over, and so Dolgan passed into the service of the Horned God.
Wars uncountable were fought between and with the Captain Kings, and ever and anon did Unklar spend himself to end these conflicts, and ever did he leave vestiges of his power in hidden places.
In the latter days, Aristobulus took himself to the CITY OF SEVEN, where NARRHEIT lay bound, the only place of chaos left upon Aihrde. There he founded the MYSTIC ENCLAVE whose magi he directed to unearth the ancient BOOKS OF JAREN, locating Luther and the sword DURENDALE upon the Dreaming, and learning of the final fate of Daladon. For it was his intent to end the darkness, not for love of Aihrde or any pain of suffering in the world, but for vengeance and the lust that comes with triumph. Aristobulus’s power had waxed great and he too was accounted one of the Val Tulmiph.
Unklar came to Dolgan at this time, and bid him fashion a crown for the LORD OF AIHRDE, for it wounded his pride that the CUNAE MUNDUS USQUAM was lost to him. Dolgan, after 300 years of servitude to the forge, had become a master of his craft, able to bend any ore, shape and mount jewels or stones, craft items of war or pleasure, and all the various nuances of the smith. His knowledge included the natural skills of his people, as learned from the All Father in distant times, but too, it included the skills of Unklar, for often had the Horned God aided Dolgan at the forge.
And there, in dark solitude, Dolgan bent iron and sorrow, and shaped the greatest of his creations, a crown to meet the Dark One’s lust for beauty. He crafted the shape with rune magic held in the deeps themselves, and released by the might of the Dark God. He named it the KRUMMERVOLE, the “Crown of Sorrow.” So perfect was this creation that the forge-slave sought to keep it for himself, but Unklar took up the crown and laughed. The dwarf cursed him, and called him thief, for the crown filled his mind with the lust of greed. Upon his own brow Unklar sat the wondrous crown, and in his hand the Urtiel mace, “the hand of Judgment.”
Thus did Unklar rule the world.
THE SON OF HIRN & THE MOGRL
In time Dolgan came before Unklar, and the Horned God knew him for what he was. He tried to force the dwarf into bowing to him to swear his fealty, but the son of Hirn would not yield, for he had at last come into his own and though he remembered little of the world of his youth, he was of the greatest bloodline of the dwarves of old. His blood came from the Language of Creation, and more, he was a dwarf of the line who had faced the Red God, and no power in Aihrde ever surpassed the Bull when in his youth. This act of defiance earned him a name amongst many in the pits of Aufstrag: they called him Dolgan Furchtlos, which is the “undaunted.” Unklar named him differently, calling him Dolgan Ungekront, the “uncrowned.” Unklar bound him to Klarglich then, and bid him do as he deemed fit, so long as he fashioned weapons of war for the dark lords and served Unklar when the Horned God had need of him.
In time Unklar found the peace of his mind disturbed by restless dreams. Dreams of war and vengeance, of deeds great and terrible, and of death. These thoughts troubled him so, that he roused himself, coming to deep Klarglich, the forge and pit of woe, in a rage. He bore with him a horrible intent and desire. His cloven hooves ground the stone of the forge to dust as he crept into the Hall where Dolgan, son of Hirn, son of kings, labored at tasks unnamed. So great was the power of Unklar, that Dolgan’s servants died in screaming madness, or fled in terror, lost to the deep places under mighty Aufstrag, for his visage they could not bear. Unklar’s skin burned hotter by far than any flames of any forge, and his eyes, terrible in evil, turned to Dolgan. His voice, deep with echoes of madness and memories rank and foul, thundered forth, “Make to your bellows, Dolgan, and do as I bid.”
The dwarf and the dark lord labored long and hard in that fell place. Klarglich doubly earned its name of woe, for the horrors born of that making haunted the world ever after. With sorceries uttered by no man or beast, dark hearted magics, with rune spells crafted in a time before time, Unklar forged the great beasts of the pit, the mogrl. He made them from his own twisted soul, and from the filth of death, caught in the twisted shadows of Aufstrag’s many layered halls. And he gifted them with life. As the All Father once made the sun and moon in the Days before Days, so he Horned God wove the Language of Creation into the mogrl, singing it through them, as Dolgan pounded their flesh to life.
After many days, the dwarf staggered from the effort of the labor. The Language bore upon him, weighing him down with power no mortal could contain. Dolgan hovered on the brink of madness, screaming now in pain, then laughing hysterically, then at last weeping for the terror of it all. Unklar bore him aloft, keeping him from destroying himself, for the Horned God needed the might of the Son of Hirn’s hammer to forge and shape the life he created.
Unklar too hovered upon the brink of madness. Though he had breathed of himself into the hounds of darkness, Utriel, the ungern and many diverse creatures, never had he given so much of himself in one endeavor. In his lucid moments, Dolgan could see the suffering of the Horned God, and he relished it and pitied his, for they were, in that moment, brothers of the forge. Both born of the All Father. Both slaves of the forge. Both burdened with the terror of creation. The beast’s face was torn with the effort of creation, and his pain-filled cries shook the caverns of Klarglich. Unklar bellowed and growled, all the while corded muscles strained at the task. Despite this, Unklar brought forth a dark never seen before, or would ever be seen again. His agony was their life, and they were pure in malice, with no thoughts but evil and madness and destruction. With this creation, Doglan, son of Hirn, gave of himself into the making and was accounted of the Val Tulmiph ever after.
It is said that Unklar himself spilled into life from the All Father’s dreams. Not since the All Father spun those dreams in the darkness of the Void had such creatures come to be.
The mogrl were terrible to behold, and Dolgan knew fear as he had when he wrestled with the black god himself. The coming of the creatures was a weighty thing in the world, and Unklar named them mogrl, and they were beasts of horror. The mogrl rose in a rage, one after the other, filled with the fire of their dark god. They climbed, crawled or flew from Klarglich and spilled out and into the greater towers of Aufstrag until they found egress and came to the world as waves of fire and ash.
In the last, Unklar wandered from the hall, filled with a lust for war like he had not felt since first he crossed through the IRON PORTAL. He rose high and laughed, shaking the Krummervole in his mighty grasp, so that it split the high roofs and walls of Mithgefuhl and, turning, he said, “Dolgan. Make ready for war. The time of doom is at hand.”
THE WINTER DARK WARS
In the 1003rd year of his reign, which is the 1803oy by the old calendar, Unklar unearthed knowledge of the Dreaming, that sea of limitless thought that lay beyond and within the Maelstrom; a plane that touched all the many diverse realms of the All Father’s devising. He knew not what the Dreaming was, or how it came to be, and it was beyond the knowledge of his making. He became aware of Luther’s presence, and he saw that people far and wide called to him, and he knew then that the Dreaming Paladin, for so he named him, was the source of his restless slumbers.
In a fury he returned to Klarglich and fashioned warriors from his own ordered nightmares. These slivers of Unklar’s imagining traveled the dreamscape, hunting the paladin. They fought on many occasions, but the paladin proved too strong and killed them or drove them off. These slivers weakened Unklar more than he knew, for when the paladin, who had become master of the world’s dreams, fought the warriors upon the dreamscape, he woke from his own slumbers so that he lived upon the dreaming and he learned to enter the minds of all those upon the world, including the minions of the Horned God. The paladin came to know Lords of Unklar’s realm, to understand their fears and weaknesses. Because of this, Luther was resolved to return to Aihrde, and take up the long abandoned war.
It was during the dreaming wars that Luther learned that Dolgan, son of Hirn, had gathered a host of slaves, dwarves, goblins and men, and led them in a revolt in the very pits of Aufstrag. Many tales abound as to why Dolgan took up arms against his dark master. One recounted that he befriended an ELDRITCH GOBLIN, the very one who had sacked the dwarven kingdom of GRAUSUMHART 3000 years before, and that the two rose in rebellion together. Some tell how Dolgan could not bear the stealing of the Krummervole by Unklar, and he therefore threw off his shackles. The truth of the matter bore the likeness of no other tale for Dolgan saw the UNICORN. Devils brought the beast before Dolgan, burden with a halter of barbed wire so that whenever it bit the chain cut its mouth and throat. Stained with blood and the filth of the Upper Halls they left it before the forge master. “Take this gift Ungekront, from your master, for he is tired of its braying.”
Another spoke, laughing all the while. “But make me a pretty trifle and I’ll reward you with all the gems of Bone Pit!”
Dolgan glowered at the pair for a moment. “Be off, before I take umbrage at your presence.”
“You speak too freely slave. I am a Lord of the Upper Halls and you should be wary of my wrath.”
Dolgan took up his forge hammer and smote the beast in the head such a blow that it came asunder and the life of it spilled out upon the ground. He trod through the carnage of it and made to strike the devil’s companion but that one fled in a madness of fear.
The unicorn was barely alive and Dolgan, seeing its wonder and beauty, took pity on it. He called for clean, cool water and quenched its thirst. Then for hay and he housed it in a stable made for other beasts. But the unicorn never recovered its strength and it began to fade after only a few days. When the creature died, it gave Dolgan the right of its body, and he used the horn and blood of the creature to fashion an ax to rival the AXE OF THE ALL FATHER. This fell weapon he named HAVOC, that is in the ancient tongue of dwarves, “revenge.” Filled with all the hate of rage of his people, Dolgan turned on the Darkness.
In 1012md Dolgan made war on the dark, raising the slaves of the Pit in rebellion. He and Agmaur gathered goblins and dwarves, men and orcs, and fought the troops of Unklar in the bowels of the earth. Untold was the suffering of these battles, what men came to call the TRENCH WARS. The wicked battles were fought in dark holes and darker corridors, in pits and tunnels, in dungeon caves, and halls of mud. They fought against an implacable enemy for the masters of Aufstrag sent orcs, ungern and other creatures into the dark bowels of Aufstrag. Knives and hatchets ruled the day, along with primitive powder weapons that left tunnels filled with mutilated corpses, smoke and ash. At last in the 1018th year of Unklar’s reign, the dwarves and other slaves broke free and fled to the mountains in the north.
During this chaos, as the Horned God spent much of himself to unmake the damage Dolgan caused, Luther strode onto the plane bearing the Durendale blade, the Val Austlich of old. He came from the Dreaming Sea to the very gates of Aufstrag. There he battled the guard for control of the wall, and they fell back in fear of the sword and the Paladin returned. He cut Jaren from the wall, and took him unto the Dreaming where he healed his wounded ally. Then Luther and Jaren journeyed to the ISLE OF WONDER, where AESOP the Mage, had imprisoned Aristobulus. They freed their long time companion and slew Aesop, and traveled to the Eldwood to the grove of the GREAT TREE.
In these latter days, Unklar’s power had waned, and those survivors who had hidden themselves for many years gathered in the Eldwood where the Great Tree stood. The Watchers in the Wood, the Holy Defenders of the Flame, and others besides, gathered for war. Dolgan came, and with him AGMOUR, the goblin. They were joined by NIGOLD, the elven king, and all his folk, who were a wonderment in those days, for as is told they had remained when the greater part of the elves fled the world, and elves were thought to be myths to many. And all of these folk made war upon the winter and the dark. In the 1019th year of Unklar’s reign the Winter Dark Wars began. These are accounted the greatest of the wars of the peoples of Aihrde, for they fought alone, unaided by many of the Val Eahrakun, until the end, and it ended this Rin of the world.
War spread far and wide, and in the space of only a few years, engulfed the whole of the world, from the GREENLING FIELDS to the HORNS OF IKEM. The greatest part of the war took place in the Lands of Ursal, for here the new gods, the Val Tulmiph came together to fight Unklar and his minions. In truth, Unklar had spent a great measure of his power in making the world his own, the creation of the mogrl themselves cost him dearly, and he was not the power he had been in the days of his coming to Aihrde.
The Captain Kings could offer little aid to their master in his high tower, for they were pressed as well. Though the Val Tulmiph could not easily assail Unklar, they did free those in bondage. Narrheit escaped through the aid and sacrifice of Aristobulus, and Wenefar through the love of Daladon. And these were of the Val Eaharkun.
OF UTUMNO
The tales speak of the binding of Wenafar upon MOUNT MONDRUDGE where she gazed in timelessness at the Mere of Unklar’s devising. Word of her plight came to Daladon Lothian in the Eldwood and he, traveling with the HAPLESS FOOL, came to the mountain, and there overthrew the snares of Unklar and, passing through fire and ice, came to the roof of that place. He dismissed the mists and found Wenafar motionless, gazing into the reflective waters. Daladon woke her from her stupor, and breaking the spell upon her, brought her back to the world.
Wenafar gazed upon Daladon, and knew all that had come to pass and more, and she loved him for his sacrifice, and saw that through him a greater power might come to the world. She lay with the Half-Elven, and he got her with child. She bid him leave her, “But know that I shall come down from this mountain girded for war and from you comes a great worry for Unklar. We shall hound him unto the end.” And Daladon left her, passing back into the south, and carrying the war on as was his want.
In nine days Wenafar bore a son, and she took him to the edge of the Dreaming and bathed him in the waters of that wide Sea. Wenafar named her child UTUMNO, and he was a shadow of man, and in him lay all their fears. She bid him take to the water of the Dreaming and learn all that he could of the world, but to find Unklar and his servants and bring terror to them. For Utumno was the darker side of her, and though no evil flowed through him, his thoughts were steeped in the black ink of fear. He took up the task and plundered the deeps of the sea and found many who dreamed, and if these served Unklar, he haunted them and their dreams fell away to nightmares.
And thus it came to pass that many of Unklar’s servants came to doubt their master, and their future, and they began to suffer fear and this weakened them so that many fled or fell before the blades of the gathering storm. Utumno was named Lord of Nightmares and deemed the equal of Luther, who was Lord of Dreams. Luther always had the mastery in any contest, for in him Utumno’s own fears were revealed, and the echo of them lay bare.
OF ROHEISEN HOHLE
As is known, the Third Rin saw the birth of five dwarven kingdoms. These were accounted the greatest and the first homes of the dwarves. Of the five, ROHEISEN HOHLE was the smallest, built beneath the wide, shallow dome of MOUNT TUR, overlooking the many islands of HALLOWS SOUND on the northern shores of the INNER SEA. Her people settled upon the slopes of the mountains, building towns and villages, where they farmed and fished the plentiful waters of the Sound. When chance revealed a series of wide, deep caverns beneath Mount Tur, they turned to mining, and they unearthed metals and other wealth. They worked the metal into tools and weapons and eventually left their villages to dwell underground.
The greatest of their people they named as their leader, and so HELGESTHOL came to the throne, and he founded the kingdom of Roheisen Hohle. Helgesthol was called by his people the UNDER KING, and from that day to this his line has ruled beneath Mount Tur, bearing both his name and his wisdom.
Helgesthol’s people grew in both wealth and power. In working metals into wondrous devices few matched their skill, and in stone work they stood above a people well versed in such arts. They alone mastered the art of binding metal into stone, a technique that allowed them to create wonders of art the like of which the world had never seen. Patient in their labors, never hurried or pressed, they were much like the stone and iron they worked. Thus they repaid the debt to the All Father, and they took the task to heart. At first they made tools and weapons, armor, shields and other devices, but eventually they turned their minds toward Roheisen Hohle itself. They widened the corridors and rooms and heightened the ceilings. They built meeting rooms and feast halls. They made houses, deep and wonderful, connected though lanes bored through the rock and over bridges suspended over chasms. They cast metal into all they did, and this allowed them to make shapes that no stone could hold. The halls of their kingdom reflected their skill, but these proved too simple a task and they set to decorating all the surfaces of their realm with reliefs, tales of dwarves and the All Father, of giants, dragons and all manner of diverse subject. In time the fame of their works spread far and wide, so that other dwarves came to see them, and marveled at their skill.
The dwarves of Roheisen Hohle were called the stone dwarves, and to celebrate their fame they carved a single chair from a block of ironstone, and this they gave to their Under King, Helgesthol. From the Iron Rock he and his kindred ruled for many thousands of years.
Roheisen Hohle suffered during the early GOBLIN-DWARF WARS, such that her Under King HELGESTHOL IX ordered the realm shut from the outside world, and their doors bound in the closing. He himself cast the runes of binding that closed all the gates to the outer world, and none knew the means of their opening. Once the doors shut the voice of Mount Tur fell away for many long years. Not until a dwarf of Norgorad Kam came to the realm, seeking entrance, did Helgesthol IX allow the gates to be opened. This visitor brought knowledge of the Rings of Brass, and they constructed one ring in the deeps of the realm, and the king set guards upon it so that none could use it without his knowledge. And for a time the realm was opened again. During this period the stone dwarves trafficked with their kin, but less than they had in the past, for they had become a reflective people, and their numbers had not grown.
The Ring failed them, and with each use it grew more fragile, until it cracked and filled with mist, becoming a road to death only. To travel through it cast one onto the road to the Endless Pools and their the listless dead wandered without guidance. After some years, ONDOROG II, grandson of Helgeshtol IX, called off all labors to repair the ring and ordered the ring-room shut and sealed. The king ordered the outer gates opened so that his people could see the light of day upon the step, but they would not yield for none now remembered the words of binding as spoken by Helgesthol and the dwarves took this as a sign, and they remained underground ever after, and they were forgotten by men and became only a legend to the dwarves. They dwelt thus for many, long centuries.
The peace of their halls ended when the dwarves of Roheisen Hohle fell victim to the STONE CURSE. For many centuries they lay bound in their halls beneath Mount Tur, sealed there by their king’s magic. The curse settled into the people, such that any light much greater than a torch destroyed them, causing their skin to calcify and turn to stone. Many died, and many more were horribly disfigured by the curse. It bound them to a world of darkness, and all the great wonders of their past were lost in the shadows of the halls.
The curse ruined the stone dwarves. They became ever more insular, shunning all contact, eventually leaving their upper halls and burrowing deeper into Mount Tur. The ages forgot about them and only rumor came from Mount Tur, and it spoke of a people lost to the world. In time few had even heard of the realm and those who had believed it long gone, consumed by time and happenstance.
During the Long Centuries, the FIRE GIANTS came from Aufstrag and settled in the hills around Mount Tur. They unearthed the upper halls by accident and plundered them of what wealth they could. One amongst them claimed it as his realm. NURRICH the fire giant ruled there for many years, and his kingdom spread through the whole of the Hallows and he spread terror to all who dwelt there.
The reign of Nurrich ended when Daladon Half-Elven came to the dome of Mount Tur, and with the power of Wenefar broke it open, unrooting the fire giant king and all his people. They battled upon the ruin of Mount Tur for many days, but the giant proved the lesser, and he fell into the ruin of the dwarven halls and passed from the world. Those of his people who survived fled into the wilderness. In his ruin Nurrich broke through the upper halls and revealed the wide realm of Roheisen Hohle to all and sundry and they were amazed.
THE COMING OF ORE-TSAR
When the dwarves of Roheisen Hohle were unearthed and their realm made open with Nurrich the fire giant’s fall, the realm shook to its deepest foundations. Deep in the Hohle, where the Ring of Brass stood in guarded chamber, the seals broke and the room was laid open again.
As is known, the Ring of Brass in the Hohle opened to the Arc of Time and the Endless Pools where TOTH, Shadow of the All Father and Keeper of the dead, dwelt. Toth saw that the Shadow was frayed and the Wall of Worlds was no boundary to the Endless Pools. He contemplated the opened gate, and wondered what it meant for the Gonfod, that is the end of days. A desire rose in him, as great as any that afflicted all the Val Eahrakun, and even the Shadow of the All Father lusted for creation. But he would not have it so, and he set his desire aside and gave thought to other riddles.
The Shadow’s desire took up a life of its own, and it knew no thought but to cross the boundaries and come to Aihrde, there to guide and aid the Children of the All Father, to teach the knowledge of all things. It stole away through the ring and came by dark passages to the ruin of Mount Tur. There, Toth’s Shadow passed Daladon Half-Elven as he slept tethered to his steed. Seeing the horse, Toth’s desire took on its shape, and crossed the snow covered slopes with a great speed, passing into the south.
There stood the small town of HAVEN, racked with death, for the giants had laid it low in their flight from Daladon and the ruin Nurrich’s realm. Toth’s desire, long exposed only the restless dead as they walked the Arc, grew cautious, for the suffering of death was new to him, and he did not understand it. He approached all those who wept and he touched them, and their grief passed into memory, and they knew the wholeness of it but without the suffering.
One such was PHILLIP. His three children, warm in their grave, were foremost upon his mind when he spied the steed. “I know not who you are, but I see that you bring comfort in my people’s grief in this time of sorrow and tumult and as such you can only be one of the gods.” He fell to his knees and worshiped Toth’s desire, and called him ORE-TSAR, which was as to name him “Beyond Grief.” And thus he, Philip, became Ore-Tsar’s first follower. Philip became a pilgrim, and traveled the warwracked world and spread the word of the god far and wide, and carried the comfort of him to many diverse peoples in many realms.
And Toth knew then that part of him had taken on a life of its own, and he accounted himself truly the shadow of the All Father.
THE WAR
As the war spread, Unklar’s legions were beset upon all sides, for men left aside their plows and tools and took up arms. The Holy Defenders of the Flame revealed themselves, and summoned Luther from beyond the Dreaming Sea. The Paladin joined them with a company of knights and the wars spread further in the south. The elves too marched from the Eldwood and Darkenfold, and drove out the legions of Unklar that occupied Kayomar. Soon all of Ethrum was engulfed in the flames of war, and Unklar’s Legions fell further back across the MAINE RIVER. In this chaos the Val Tulmiph founded the COUNCIL OF LIGHT, and they worked in concert to destroy Unklar’s hold upon the world. Their members included the White Mage, the Dreaming Paladin, the Undaunted, and others beside.
The NORTHMEN came to the Lands of the Inner sea. Descendents of the Engale of old, these people were fierce and paid homage to gods of war and chance, and lusted for battle. Indeed, they worshiped many of the Val Eahrakun, and the All Father as well. The northmen broke through the fence of Ursal, passing by the ruins of Nurrich’s realm, and they conquered all the lands of the north and made them their base. From there they plunged south, following the waters and river ways tohound Unklar’s folk wherever they could.
When a great host of legions followed the Lord of Sorrow into the east to destroy the realm of ETHILIUM as founded by the refugees of Kayomar so long ago, they stripped the lands bare of soldiers, and this opened all to the plundering Engale, who laid waste to all the regions of the sea. As war spread through the lands of ANGLAMAY, the lords and merchants there found themselves without protection, so they formed armies of their citizens and hired mercenaries, and built castles and forts to guard their towns.
The Lord of Sorrow fell in the end, defeated by the Paladins of Ethlium, his army utterly destroyed. Only rumor of it ever came to the Lands of Ursal again. The realm of Ethlium was laid to waste in the war, and those people removed themselves to return home, remembered in legend and song. In a short span of years they came to the lands of Ethrum and carved out kingdoms for themselves.
The victories in the west were echoed in the deeps of the Lands of Ursal, for MELTOWG LOTHIAN slew Melius and laid the Castles of Spires bare. In time Daladon, Meltowg’s half brother, came to the castle and opened the portals to the Seven Rivers. But unbeknownst to him a great host of the Fontenouq, at long last, returned to Aihrde. Girded for war and set upon vengeance they spread death and chaos through Unklar’s folk.
Unklar sought to master his arms, but was assailed by the Val Eahrakun, Wenafar and Tefnut. When the Krummelvole was stolen by the Council of Light and taken beyond the Shroud of Darkness into the Maelstrom, Unklar left off his throne and pursued them. In this he was undone, for Wenafar, garbed for war, joined with the might of EA-VETTE and together they burned off the Shroud of Darkness and it laid the world bare, and the Winter Dark faded.
At this the dwarves rose in the Grundliche Mountains under their new king, Dolgan, who ruled as Aegon II. Many of his folk gathered from their scattered dwellings. They carried the war into the mountains, and with them marched a host of goblins led by Agmaur the eldritch goblin. And they carried the battle to the foe and drove them from the mountains and into the plains. There, many of the Aenochians in Unklar’s army rebelled, following their general ALBRECHT, and that lord carved a kingdom for himself out of the lands around the OLGDON RIVER, and they called him the River King. Albrecht joined his mighty army to Dolgan’s, and together they drove all the enemy from the north.
With those victories, the Empire dissolved and all but a few abandoned Unklar, for they deemed his time was at an end.
But lo he was returned to Aufstrag, and contemplated how to unseat his enemies. Meanwhile, the White Mage summoned the Council and they assailed the Horned God in his throne room. Nulak-Kiz-Din came out from hiding and joined Unklar in the final battle. There Aristobulus bested Nulak in a sorceress duel, a thing that had never happened before and an elven warrior woman clove Unklar with the blade DISCIPERO and with curses Unklar was banished from the plane.
Thus his reign ended at last.

Conflict Type

War