Sessrendale

Since arriving in Sessrendale in Eleint, the former citizens of Tilverton have struggled to build a community from the century-old ashes of Sessrendale. Settling around the mostly intact shell of the former Red Falcon Inn about a mile from the ruined walls of old Sessrenglade, the industrious Tilvereans have since mostly reconstructed the fieldstone inn, where it serves as the center of the community and residence of the leader of the refugees, Lady Metta Duskevren, herself the granddaughter of the last Dusk Lord of Sessrendale.

To the settlers of Sessrendale, much of their effort is spent in gathering together what resources can be salvaged from the ancient destruction of their chosen home, from bits and pieces of worked iron and pottery to huge amounts of stone from ruined buildings. Limited logging has also been undertaken on the verge of the Semberwood. The true wealth of Tilverton was in its horses, and that wealth is reflected even in its refugees. Almost every family has at least one horse, and dozens of them can be seen in the roads and paths around the community of New Tilverton.

Of old, Sessrendale stretched from the East Way in the south to just beyond Mistwreathe Hill in the north, and from foothills near the Bloodhorn in the west to Green Man in the east.

The Bloodhorn

The River Sember

The Semberwood

The Stone Tooth

A century after it's destruction, Sessrendale is a wild land of abandoned villages, mass graves, and overgrown farm fields. The steep foothills are littered with the wreckage of old mines, smelteries, and smithies. The gentle glens and fields are mostly barren, many still poisoned by the salt strewn by the Arkenfolk. Dark, wild forests that have not been hunted or logged for a hundred years encroach on the old fields of the Sessrendalesmen.

Old paths lead to Mistledale, Lake Sember, Deepingdale, and Archendale. All are overgrown and dangerous.

The Barrows of the Storm King

The Green Man

The Ruins of Gantrick

The Ruins of Sessrenglade

In the Days of Thunder, before the coming of the elves to the forested bowers of Cormanthor, the land around the Thunder Peaks was the domain of storm giant children of Annam, the All-Father, and wreckage of their ancient civilization remains scattered throughout the Dale, their barrows and henges once considered strange and haunted places by the dale's former inhabitants.

After the coming of the elves, the land between the forest's edge and the foothills of the Thunder Peaks remained a land of conflict, where the armathors and adventurers of the ancient elven kingdom honed their skill against the barbaric humanoids of the mountains. Yet, even this land of warfare saw its own influx of settlers as humanity began its approach on the shores of the Dragon Reach. With the raising of the Standing Stone and the founding of the nations of Cormyr and Sembia, people seeking free lands and open fields began laying down communities in the valley formed by the River Sember.

It wasn't until the Year of Unfettered Secrets (880 DR), however, that the scattered villages and holdings of the borderlands came together to form a dale. In that year, a wandering champion of Sune, Idrian Hawklin, and Selsharra, an elven sorceress, together slew a terrible shadow dragon, Drakandros the Dusk Beast, who had been ravaging the isolated villages for years. The two eventually fell in love, and used the dragon's hoard to found a keep near the shallow River Sember, in the shadow of the Bloodhorn in which Drakandros once made his lair.

Eventually, the community that arose around Dusk Keep, named for the Dusk Beast whose skull resided within, came to be called Selsharendale, as the people who lived there, under the guidance of the paladin and the sorceress, and eventually their children and grandchildren, held themselves to the edicts of the Dales Compact.

As the years passed Selsharendale grew into a prosperous land of merchants, miners, and farmers, still guided by Hawklin family, and the hand of their ancestor, Selsharra herself. The elven sorceress began teaching the Art to those of her descendants with the gift. The half-elven hero Auglauntaras set out from Sessrendale (as it came to be called), eventually founding the Tower of the Rising Moon at the crown of Highmoon Hill in the land that would one day become Deepingdale.

The land of Sessrendale was ruled ably and well until the rise of wizard by the name of Arkus Hawklin. In the Year of the Crimson Crag (1211 DR), he attempted to seize control of the Dale by force of arms, leading a year long rebellion fueled by citizens of the the dale discontent with the fair but firm hand of the Dusk Lords, fired by rhetoric against the "elven magic" of the now ancient sorceress Selsharra, and funded liberally by Sembian backers intent on destabilizing a powerful economic rival in the region.

Eventually, the Sembian mercenary fought revolt was quelled, and Arkus himself was brought before his brother to stand trial for his treason. Arkus and all of his staunchest supporters were exiled from Sessrendale. The defeated and bitter wizard led a group of angry merchants and farmers southward, turning his Sembian funded army against his own former backers and carving a territory for himself out of Sembia, settling in what he would eventually call the Arken Vale.

Six decades passed, and from the ashes of defeat, a new dale arose. The folk of Archendale, despite growing swiftly rich and powerful on gold found in the uplands of their new home, never forgot the resentment they held against their former countrymen. Under the iron-fist of the now-ancient wizard Arkus, the history of the two dales had been one of constant border skirmishes, harassment of merchants, and diplomatic warfare. Eventually, affairs came to a head, and the armies of Archendale, again liberally backed by short-sighted Sembian merchant princes, marched on their former countrymen. The Arken War, as it would come to be called, was a long, violent affair which saw the breaking of old alliances, the burning of fields and villages, and in the end, the old wizard stood triumphant.

When Archendale'’s forces triumphed, the Swords ordered the total destruction of the land. Every building was burned or cast down. Everything that could be carried off to Archenbridge was taken. Before they left, Archendale'’s soldiers salted the earth to ensure no one would return to the lands of their ancient rival.