Dun Guldur
History
In 164 DR, the Year of the Fallen Temple, as the fledgeling nation of Impiltur aggressively advanced north through the territory of fallen Narfell, an ancient evil moved to oppose them. From the heavily forested eaves of the great Black Forest of the western marches arose a creature of darkness. Calling himself Gulthias the Immortal, this sorcerer of ancient Narfell roared forth from his dark citadel of Dun Guldur with an army of vicious goblinoids and a great red dragon, Ashardalon, at his command. In the course of the war, which lasted nearly a year, vast swathes of newly claimed land were blighted and destroyed, ravaged by war and fire as the settlers were pushed back toward the south, fleeing the power of the wicked arcanist and his armies. When the strength of the goblinoid army was broken at the Battle of Blue Fang Water, and the red dragon Ashardalon wounded and driven off to the frozen north, the armies of King Pendarn Mirandor I turned upon the citadel of Dun Guldur, eventually throwing down the gates of Gulthias' twisted sanctum. Within, they discovered the truth of his immortality, the Nar tiefling was a vampire, and old. But even his strength, dark and terrible, could not stand against the power of a legion of Ilmatari priests and Pendarn the Paladin-King. Gulthias was slain by an ashwood stake being driven through his black heart. The victors, flush with their triumph, ritually invoked the wrath of the gods upon Dun Guldur, sinking the fortress into the earth with a great earthquake, sealing it beneath the mountains for what they thought was the end of time.
But evil never truly dies, and a great evil like Gulthias, combined with the dark nexus of power that was the fortress constructed in the heyday of the twisted Narfelli regime created something new. From the ashenwood stake driven into the body of Gulthias, a tree began to take root in the sunless depths of the citadel, unlike any that have been seen in the world. Over the centuries, the Gulthias tree began to slowly take over the dark citadel, and in time, when a second quake opened up a rift to the surface once more, drew evil back to itself.
