The War of the Undying

Roughly one-hundred Necromancer covens rallied under the single banner of the Awakened, a powerful religious sect of zealous cultists who revered Kusatta, and the first lich, Vauldis, as the first necromancer's reincarnation.

Vauldis taught his followers that undeath was not something to be reviled, but embraced. Undeath was the most powerful form of ascension beyond the cycle of life and death, where individuals are born into a life of suffering, only to die and have their afterlives chosen for them. Those that rejected this dogma, Vauldis reasoned, were slaves to an unjust status quo and were to be forced to see the light for their own good.

The Awakened surreptitiously recruited powerful archmages to their cause, giving them the necessary influence and power they needed to launch a global assault on the living.

Vauldis journeyed to the cursed lands of the Morbog where the veil between the Blacklands and the Materium were weakest. There, he wove a spell so destructive that it tore through the Astral Filament and caused great hordes of the cursed dead to pour through the wound from beyond. This spell damaged the balance of life and death to such a degree that the dead began to rise across the world in their thousands.

To tip the balance in his favor, Vauldis ordered the reclamation of a number of subterranean temples secretly built across the world during the height of the Nidean Magocracy's corruption and power. These temples were built atop key Ley-line conjunctions to harness their magic and divert it towards Kalki Isle, the last remnants of the Kalkaross Peninsula that had sunk beneath the sea after the Sinking of Sekkar & Vauldis Rises to Lichdom. With this newfound power, he would wrench the city of Sekkar from the seas, and the ancient Peninsula would become the heartland of a new age. For the mean time, the shattered island would become the homeland of his Awakened.

For the next century, armies across the world fought back the hordes that rose from the ground. The decaying creatures of the Dead Wastes and the Sintallian Forest spilled forth and attacked settlements and overwhelmed Ambrosia, lead by vengeful blight-druids. Wights emerged from the frigid northern White Wastes and lead hosts of frozen dead across Vaskyr and Djora. Sand-blasted skeletons arose from the dunes of the Sulfur Sea and the Gold Expanse. Fetid, decaying monstrosities emerged from the Morbog and the Tansin Swamplands to swarm Meyland and Tansia. Worse still, the dead and dying during this period of time had a chance to rise once more as an undying puppet of Vauldis and his Awakened.

Among the first to rise up and fight back the tide of death were valiant soldiers, clerics, and priests garrisoned in fortresses and castles nearest to the Morbog during the first outbreaks. Throughout the first decades of the war, these sparse militias coalesced into an elite, united front and slowed the tide enough that neighboring nations could react quickly.

The Awakened captured many of the living and sacrificed them in blood rituals; a necessity to fuel their blood magic and continue their crusade. To them, this was a war of liberation. To the rest of the civilized nations and empires of the world, this was a horrid, blood-stained nightmare.

In desperation, the nations of the world banded together. Old rivalries and hatreds were set aside for fear of a greater foe that had battered and beaten them. Individually, each nation had little chance of standing against Vauldis and his crusade of 'liberation'. Together as one, they presented an unbreakable, united front. This was 'The Pact', a loose coalition of the world's remaining navies, armies, and martial and magical guilds, united under the pressures of self-preservation and a common foe.

The iron shields of the Silver Kingdom provided a wall that the rotting throngs battered themselves against. The beasts of the Tahosian Dynasty ripped and tore massive undying giants. The holy light of the Karthan Commonwealth's and the Kiteshi Empire's diverse priests and clergy burned away the scourge of the risen dead. The disciplined soldiers and war machines of the Dominion of Torment rendered the Awakened's relentless waves inert. The expertise in combating necromancy the Empire of the Celestial Dragon provided was invaluable. Most of all, the information provided by Vauldis' own jealous protégé, Hephsut was the key to the First Lich's downfall.

As the nations of the world gathered what remained of their armies for one final push against Vauldis and his Awakened upon Kalki Isle, the First Lich was already in the midst of a cataclysmic ritual to wrench the entirety of the Kalkaross Peninsula back from the grasp of the ocean depths. Atop the peak of a majestic, black tower, in the center of what remained of the now-sunken great city of Sekkar, Vauldis gathered his most loyal and gifted sorcerers and necromancers to complete the final portion of the spell.

Before it could be completed, Kalki Isle was invaded by a coordinated front of Pact fleets, and warriors, knights, berserkers, paladins, and war-casters from across the world's realms spilled forth, laying siege to the well-fortified island. Key landmarks and locations were captured and seized from the undead throngs, while key foes and ritualists needed to finish the spell were assassinated from the shadows. The Invasion of Kalki Isle was a brutal month-long campaign filled with bloodshed, valiant last stands, and pyrrhic victories, but eventually, Pact forces pushed towards the dark tower at the island's center. To the armies of the Pact, it was called 'Ruin's Peak', and the devastation left in the Awakened's wake had earned it such a moniker.

Lord Lorian Al'Ganz, a war hero of previous battles fought across the Dominion of Indulgence against the undead hordes, lead his own battle-hardened militias across the island. His unparalleled valor and strategic brilliance led his forces against the entrenched undead. His leadership was crucial in breaching the defenses of Ruin's Peak, securing key positions and strongholds, and inspiring his troops despite the grueling conditions. In the climactic moments of the battle, Lorian's efforts were vital in enabling a small group of legendary heroes to ascend the treacherous heights of Ruin's Peak

This group of heroes, mysteriously imbued with powerful Astral Magic, ascended the tower, united only in their efforts to destroy the First Lich and end the War. Among these were the legendary Human Karthan General, Tarthus Garrand, the mythical Satyr Archdruid, Elandria Feathergrove, the heroic Demon Paladin, Azarulan Aul'Ruine, legendary Orcish Master of the Way of the Ascendant Dragon, Ki-tung Rawfang, the heroic Dwarven Shaman, Khazmorg, and Halfling Bardic legend, Brair Goldfoot.

During the battle, Vauldis' most trusted necromancer, a wraith-once-human named Mortaris Dredge, betrayed his former master by turning his necromantic powers against the lich, wounding him just enough for Tarthus to strike the killing blow, but at the expense of the General's own life. Vauldis was defeated, and his hordes withered and collapsed. The War was over.

While most Awakened cultists retreated underground, never to be seen or heard from again, some surrendered and stayed behind. They became instrumental in the creation of the Ironsgate Accord; a set of constitutional laws regarding the practice of necromancy that was established some years after the War as a means to maintain a set of checks and balances on necromantic magic. It was drafted over a period of months and proposed a way to study necromancy in controlled environments and record its various benefits to scientific, biological, divine, and arcane studies.

During the Accords' creation, A collective effort was organized between the Meyland Council, the nations of the Karthan Commonwealth, and the Tahosian Dynasty to create two walls at the borders of the Morbog alongside the fortress keeps from whose elite militias helped to slow the flood of death. With a tremendous workforce of powerful mages and skilled masons, two enormous barriers were constructed. These two walls combined became known as the Ironsgate Keeps, now home to the Gatekeepers.

Soon after, the Pact dissolved, and the nations of the world quickly fell back into their old ways.