TIMELINE
0-1027 TF (Talsethyr's Fall)
As far back as records show, the Stormcrag Mountains were initially contained within the borders of Talsethyr, the High Elven empire, and held little importance past their natural resources until 0 TF, when the last fragments of the once-mighty Talsethyr finally collapsed after centuries of decline.
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For a time, no known settlements existed within the mountains, and it wouldn’t be until 406 TF that Vyldarin would be built by Frost Elves that had migrated into the area. With their choice being the ever-frozen heights of the mountains, there was little to break their solitude for a few centuries.
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It wasn’t until 643 TF that the Frost Elves had their first interaction with the recently discovered village of Thalas amongst the forests at the foot of the mountains. Soon, mutually beneficial agreements were made, and the two groups prospered for a time.
These simple agreements, however, soon turned into a mutual defense pact in 878 TF when a small portion of the Green March, an extensive Orc invasion of the north, named themselves the Grimskull Tribe and splintered off into the Stormcrag Mountains and set up their villages without knowing they were doing so within Wood Elven territory.
It did not take long until the Grimskull and Wood Elves were in a full-scale war over the territory, a war that lasted decades and eventually pulled in the Frost Elves to assist their Elven allies. This addition to the war finally contained the Grimskull, though not before they had cut themselves out a sizable portion of the forests. While it did not stop hostilities, as the occasional raid and ambush continued on both sides, the scale of the exchanges had dwindled, and territory lines were clear by 909 TF.
This divide of the forest between the Grimskull and Wood Elves while the Frost Elves held the top of the mountains continued until an influx of new races would change the region significantly. In 1021 TF, the expanding Kingdom of Orelia in the south eventually extended its borders up to the Stormcrag Mountains. It claimed the then-empty wetland coast along the mountains to help with their trade routes, introducing not only Humans as a new race, but Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings as well, as they all had sizable populations within the kingdom as Duskmire was founded.
Not even a year from founding their city, Duskmire was already devastated by the Grimskull within the nearby forests. Unlike the Elves, they had no allies to call upon immediately. While the Kingdom of Orelia would not send its army so far west for a small frontier village, it did send supplies and funding for those willing to deal with the Orc threat or build up a town in the face of it, drawing a sizable population of frontiersmen and adventurers that eventually proved capable of pushing back the Orcs.
1027-1135 TF
By 1027 TF Duskmire had pushed the Grimskull back far enough up the mountains that they started to run into their first confrontation with the Frost Elves. While capable, they were not prepared for the Grimskull to attack directly and suffered several horrible raids before adequate defense was put in place. The numbers of those killed or taken captive were minor compared to what the Wood Elves and Humans had lost in their battles with the Grimskull over the years. Still, it was a tragedy they had not seen in centuries for the mostly isolated Frost Elves. Many of their best minds started to create magic no longer for entertainment or art, but for vast destruction to be ready for future attacks.
Even with the Grimskull facing battles on multiple fronts, their numbers were continually strengthened by vestiges of the finally defeated Green March to the north. So they stubbornly refused to be entirely pushed from the forests of the Stormcrag Mountains. And as years of raids, capture, and slavery by the Grimskull went by, a sizable population of Half-Orcs started to grow in the region, primarily as slaves by the Grimskull, but unwanted pairings produced a few within Duskmire as well.
By 1075 TF, the Half-Orcs had grown into a sizable number, and with help from their more knowledge and trained kin that grew up in Duskmire, their camps started to be liberated and break apart from the Grimskull Tribe.
Around 1078 Several large camps of Half-Orcs that were previously Grimskull slaves and that were led by a Duskmire born Half-Orc, sought refuge in Duskmire to escape the Grimskull’s retribution but were turned away—instead leading to a pact with the Frost Elves that gave them rights to mostly unused land high up in the mountains between the Grimskull territories and Vyldarin, along with supplies to be able to build upon it. The pact clearly laid them out as a wall between the Grimskull and Frost Elves, but one that full Frost Elven might would support.
By 1121 TF, the Pact between the half-orcs that now called themselves the Bloodhowlers and Frost Elves had been tested many times by Grimskull attacks. Each time it proved a solid alliance as the Orcish raiders were devastated by ferocity near their own and unmatched arcane might. Putting the Grimskull Tribe on the backfoot and the Bloodhowlers urging their allies to once and for all remove the Orcs from the forests by making a combined offensive with the Bloodhowlers at the front.
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In 1131 TF, the region was forever changed. Records and knowledge from that point were mostly lost, but even as other areas over the world had regular days, in the Stormcrag Mountains, it would be called the Day Without Light, as darkness covered the region even through daylight hours. Fires and magical light were not spared, snuffing out the moment they were created. The first light to be seen would be that of the moon that cast over hordes of undead of known and previously hidden races devastating all settlements and starting up a race for survival for all factions within the region, as any that fell would rise again later as mindless undead.
1132 TF marked the discovery of many aspects of the curse through various means. The discovery of intelligent undead amidst and controlling the mindless hordes that traced back up to high in the mountains where an entire undead society seemed to be forming from those who rose again with intelligence.
The discovery that the Vyldarin was the origin point of the magic that caused the catastrophe. All living creatures within a large radius of the city had been instantly killed and revived as undead. Nearly all Frost Elves and Half-Orcs within the region were cursed to undeath, with most Wood Elf and Orc populations also being cursed. The people of Duskmire had been spared most of the initial death with its location.
The discovery that upon the death of a person within the Stormcrag Mountains, they would inevitably rise again as mindless undead within days; however, some people would later be spotted as intelligent undead, even if their previous bodies had turned mindless and were destroyed.
As understanding of that day increased, so did the knowledge that there was a growing unnatural blight spreading from the Vyldarin that killed all plants, weakened all animal life within its area, and continued to spread unless a means to stop it could be found. It is believed that this same blight was the cause of all dead creatures eventually rising again as mindless undead around the Stormcrag Mountains, its influence extending well past its actual visible border, and no one knew just how far across the world it could spread if left unchecked.
By 1135 TF, all known living creatures past the foot of the mountains were undead. The surviving members of the Grimskull Tribe were forced to create a small village in the Vilemire Swamp alongside the remaining Lizardfolk, Kobold, and other tribal races that stayed out of the previous conflicts but also suffered from the undead. The Wood Elves managed to use their magic to grow a small but suitable forest area on what had been ignored as unusable land by others for themselves, and the village they built there would later become known as Caethalas. Also, during this time, all hostilities came to a pause as an unspoken truce was formed while all sides kept pushing back the undead threat.
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Led by Duskmire, 1139 TF saw a short alliance of all living creatures in the Stormcrag Mountains formed to push back the undead threat. The offensive led to a sharp decline in the number of mindless undead. It allowed a group of mages to create nearly indestructible runic wards in the forests high up in the mountains to prevent the advancement of the blight. This group would later coalesce into the Mage's Guild that still monitors and repairs the runic wards that keep the blight at bay. The alliance ended soon after the wards were set.
1141 TF saw a large green beam shoot into the air, extending out of what is believed to be ruins from the Talsethyr, or perhaps from even before. The Mage's Guild could determine no cause or effect until another lost to the undead was suddenly seen again wandering back into Duskmire, confused about what had happened. Many that perished in the Stormcrag Mountains would instead resurrect fully alive at the beacon a short time later throughout the year and from then on.
1142 TF saw the first instance of a person previously lost to undeath being destroyed and resurrecting again alive at the beacon. With this came a resurgence of Luumpho worship in the region as she was named the cause of the beacon and resurrection to balance the undeath. Along with this came the discovery of a similar beacon deep within the now undead territory that was guessed to be identical to the one for the living but bringing a perished person back as undead. With the randomness of incidents, there seemed to be no way to be sure which would manage to bring a parted soul back.
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The official formation of the Adventurer's Guild in Duskmire in 1155 TF, along with the growing influence of religion, saw increased stability in the region. Undead were still a threat, and deaths were common. Still, for those living within Duskmire, it was more likely to be an adventurer, guard, or happen at one of the other races' villages. So the common folk within Duskmire that had dwindled in numbers previously from flight to other parts of the kingdom started to increase again. Life seemed to continue with some form of normality for a time.
1215 TF saw many losing their lives to undead as an official underneath the Baroness was later found out to have been a vampire passing as human. The official manipulated the information and location of the defensive forces within Duskmire to minimize its ability to defend and maximize casualties. The attack led to many lives being lost, but unlike the Day Without Light, the feeling left was more hatred than fear and grew to support the Adventurer's Guild, Mage's Guild, and the Church as forces that directly sought to deal with the undead threat. This forced the creation of the Duskmire Council that put the leaders of each of those groups, the Knight Commander, and the Baroness on nearly equal footing when it came to decisions the city made involving the undead threat even to this day.
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1274-PRESENT DAY
Akhatar rose in 1274 from the sands. The port city across the strait from Duskmire was built as a pleasure stop outside of the territory and laws of the Kingdom of Orelia for those traveling through the region or those wanting the entertainment of being so close to the conflict and strange magic across the river. This, however, proved to be a mistake, as not only were those that perished there within range of whatever magic both beacons used but there proved to be a strange undead presence deep within the sands that was in the opposite direction of the Stormcrag Mountains. All this, however, did not stop it from proving profitable, and to this day, it is a welcome place to rest for those across the river that have become weary and travelers from afar.
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It is now 1331, precisely 200 years after the Day Without Light, and while the region seems to have solidified itself as stable, there is still no official alliance between the settlements. The Grimskull Tribe, having partially returned to their old ways, no longer attack settlements with their reduced numbers but instead capture or kill those found unprotected in the wilds. The Wood Elves, having gone back to mostly isolating themselves with the occasional appearance in Duskmire or attack on Grimskull tribesman that get too close to their lands. And the slightly more adventurous Duskmire attempting to push back into the forests for resources and land that had been lost to the undead while calling for adventurers from all over to come deal with the undead threat for the riches they carry and what the kingdom will provide.
To some, it was as good as anywhere else, even with the curse. Funeral rites had long since incorporated the burning of the dead to prevent their rise as mindless undead. And while there was the chance to rise as undead by the beacon in Vyldarin, there was also the chance to be resurrected and alive again by the beacon of life, something that was generally not known to be possible to most or too costly for those that did know it was possible with magic in other places.
However, to others, there is a rising fear that the stability over the last century or so was simply the intelligent undead increasing their numbers until they could overrun any defense. Time and perhaps your own story will tell if this ends up being true.