The Dwarf-Human War

At the begining of this age, Zinril decided it was time for his ultimate act of terror, and for the victim he singled out Mendir, the wearer of the Laurel Crown.

            He researched his subject thoroughly and discovered that Mendir liked walking alone in his garden without his guards.

            Zinril magically hid within the garden.  As Mendir took his solitary walk, Zenril struck.

            Mendir detected the attack at the last moment and dove to one side.

            The battle raged throughout the garden.  Mendir, though out-matched in weaponry, managed to hold his own.  He ultimately fought his way through the Fallen Elf’s guard and struck the Zenril through the heart.

            Thus did this Zenril pass from the earth, to become a Demon Lord in Hell.

            At the same time, Humans increased in their restlessness.  Adventuring became a popular pastime.

            One adventuring group, their names lost in the annals of history, took on the most dangerous of adventures.  They attacked the most powerful undead creature on the planet, the Lich Karil.

            The party delved into his heavily fortified tomb.  It is said that the lich drank the souls of all but one of the group, before the last managed to slay Karil.  Thus did the Demon Lord descend into Hell to rule.

            Glorious deeds like this increased the reputations of all concerned.  Brave and courageous Humans sought out these adventures, not knowing that this would eventually bring them in conflict with the Dwarves.

            Meanwhile, the Dwarves had watched two great kingdoms, one Dwarven and one Elven, perish from the earth.  They had almost been destroyed themselves.  It was time to hedge their bets again.

            And so they sent out three groups of Dwarves to colonize western mountain ranges.  Zfram, Irukhâl and Uzarâg were founded in Belkanâth.  Another group of Dwarves traveled into the distant east, to found Khilig-Zfmar near the ruins of Durandfl.  This placed a Dwarven kingdom within striking distance of the most powerful Human kingdoms.

            The Human taste for adventure continued to grow.  In the east, Humans discovered the greatest adventure location on the continent: the ruins of Durandfl.

            Durandfl was a hotbed of danger.  Having fallen to Orcs, greater and more powerful monsters had moved inside.  An Orc king ruled the place bearing the mightiest of all artifacts, the Fell Hammer.  The entire place had become an Ulcer.

            Human adventures, led by a fighter named Magron, delved deeply into Durandfl.  Finally, they confronted the Orc king and retrieved the Fell Hammer.

            Leaving Durandfl, Magron set out to build himself a kingdom.

            For years, the Fell Hammer was the symbol of power among Humans.  The kingdom of Magron rose to greatness.  He conquered nearby kingdoms, and it was said that with the Fell Hammer in hand, he was invincible.

            In the years to come, Humans used the Fell Hammer to forge a great nation of Humanity, named the Kingdom of Malmic.  For five-hundred years, Human power grew and grew.

            The eastern Dwarves saw the rise of this Human nation, but they didn’t choose to investigate.  Within a single Dwarven lifetime, this kingdom united (or conquered) all the Humans of the east.

            Malmic was a good place to live.  The law was fair and well-enforced.  The people prospered.  It was a golden age of Humanity.

            Near this time, a Dwarven hero named Kharal of Gabad-Dagfl decided it was time to retrieve the Fell Hammer from the Orcs.

            Kharal delved deeply into the halls of Durandfl. He fought through hordes of orcs and terrible monsters.  He bested a serpent and defeated the most terrible creatures.

            But the Fell Hammer was nowhere to be found.

            Kharal took prisoners and interrogated them . . . vigorously.  The more he researched, the more he came to the conclusion that someone had taken the Fell Hammer.

            And so Kharal looked abroad.  It wasn’t long before he came to Malmic.

            Kharal sent word to the Dwarves of the east, telling them that he thought he’d discovered the location of the Fell Hammer.  He went to the Human king, then a man named Ezrian.

            Ezrian, who was not used to seeing Dwarven envoys, welcomed Kharal.  Kharal entered the throne room and immediately recognized the Fell Hammer.  He demanded Ezrian turn over the Hammer.

            Ezrian refused.  Kharal lost his temper and Ezrian ordered him killed.  Ezrian’s guards struck down Kharal and slew his men.

            Back in the Dwarven kingdom, word returned of the location of the Fell Hammer.  When Kharal did not return, the Dwarven king Agirâl sent a unit of soldiers to Malmic to find out what happened.

            The troops of the two nations clashed.  Soon, a war brewed between the Dwarves and the Humans.

            The war escalated quickly.  The Dwarven warriors were mighty, but the Humans had much more experience, and they greatly outnumbered the Dwarves.  Soon the lands of the east ran with blood.

            The Dwarves kept coming, wave after wave throwing themselves against the Malmic troops.  The feud grew increasingly violent, increasingly brutal.

            The Hammer enthralled Ezrian.  It wasn’t long before he began suspecting everyone of trying to steal it.  He accused all who approached him and never allowed it out of his presence.  Many belived that it whispered to him, that it granted him dreams.

            He became more hunched and seemed to shrink in stature.  Eventually he emerged from his chambers and demanded that an honor guard follow him outside the palace.  They left Malmic’s capital.

            When they were outside the city walls, Ezrian threw off his illusion of illness.  He demanded to go to the Dwarven kingdom.  The kingdom the Hammer had shown him in his dreams.

            The Dwarf-Human war did not end through arms or tactics.  It was not won on a battlefield or through generals.  It did not end through diplomacy or negotiation.

            It ended when the king of the Humans, his mind twisted with guilt and paranoia, went to the Dwarves and begged their forgiveness.  He turned over the Hammer and the Dwarves welcomed him into their kingdom.  He served out the rest of his days there in payment for the theft of the Hammer and the murder of a great Dwarven hero.

            Malmic had no clear line of succession.  With the loss of their king, the nation collapsed.  The heads of provinces and houses declared themselves the true king.  Malmic was no more.

The Age of Chaos

In the wake of the fall of Malmic, the world collapsed into chaos.  Humans leaders became nothing but petty dictators and tyrants.

            Meanwhile in Gabad-Dagfl, Clan Malachite decided that it was time to study the art of magic.  They sent envoys to the Kingdom of the Elves and opened a dialog.

            The Elves agreed.  A small group of Elves traveled to Gabad-Dagfl to further learn Dwarven craft.  In return, the Dwarves sent a group of their most intelligent to the Kingdom of the Elves.

            This group of Dwarves, led by the Dwarf Gfl, soon became adept at magic.

            Gfl spent the next few years using his magic to wage a war against the Nopheratus.  He became obsessed with hunting down lichs and destroying them.

            This obsession with the undead drove him to ever-increasing levels of danger.  Finally, he hatched a plan, involving an elaborate magical ritual.  It required a participant from each of the mortal races, and if successful, would banish the Nopheratus from the Mortal Realm permanently.

            He recruited Filrin, the greatest Elven mage.  Traveling west, he found Gwer, the greatest of all Gnomish illusionists.  Added to that was Zarannas, the most talented Human wizard in the east.  Finally, he recruited Mikkin, the Halfling priest.

            The ritual took over a month to cast and on the thirtieth day, they finished.

            A tremendous blast, destroyed them all.  The ripples from the spell tore the fabric of the Mortal Realm.  Vortices floated freely throughout the world, devouring people and spitting some out in random locations.  No one knows the fate of the others.

            Chaos ensued.  Over the next few years, the population of Belkanâth dropped to less than one third of its former number.

            The world fell into a state of panic.  People disappeared everywhere.  The fabric of time and space came apart.

            A group of mages came together in secret without the permission of their peers, concealing their actions because the mages of the world were convinced that more tampering would cause the plane to tear apart completely.  Their enemies discovered them, and they almost didn’t finish.  However, lesser members of their order sacrificed their lives holding off the enemy wizards.  When the blood and smoke cleared, the ritual had completed.  The vortices vanished.

            Most of the truly ageless kingdoms survived. The only exception was Gabad-Dagfl, where the entire royal line vanished.

            Gabad-Dagfl’s civilization collapsed.  The line of succession was unclear.  The Dwarves worst natures emerged and they fell into civil war.  After ten years of slaughtering each other, only a handful of Dwarves remained.

            The nearby Orcs heard word of this war.  When the Dwarves were at their weakest, the Orcs attacked.  By the end of 4,569 P.I., Gabad-Dagfl had fallen.  The Fell Hammer was lost again.

            The lesser kingdoms didn’t fair much better.  Half of all the kingdoms in the world fell into civil wars.  The rest, seeing their weakened neighbors, attacked.  Within a few years, the world fell into complete turmoil.

            Over the next few centuries, the Mortal Realm rebuilt.  It was slow, but before long the political situation of the world stabilized again.

            Just about the time all of this calmed down, Analin rose to power.  Analin was a Gnomish illusionist of great power, but her heart was dark and evil.

            Analin hated everything.  She hated other Gnomes.  She hated other illusionists.  Most of all, she hated the sun.

            She decided that the entire world would pay for her hate.  She devised a plan to destroy the light and cast the Mortal Realm into darkness.  She set up a tremendous spell, fueling it with the sacrifices of a thousand Gnomish illusionists.

            The spell was a success.  The entire western half of The Mortal Realm fell into darkness.  Crops withered and died.  The land grew cold and an unnatural winter set in.

            As matters worsened, a group of intrepid heroes set out to destroy Analin.  The fate of these heroes is unknown, but Analin’s spell broke.  They likely killed her, because latter she emerged a Demon in Hell and she’s been worshiped by dark cults ever since.  But for the time being, the world was saved.