The Shadow in the North

A thousand years ago, at the end of the Second Age, an alliance of elves, dwarves, and men defeated the armies of the Shadow in the North for the second time. The victory was a narrow and costly one, however, and the dark god continued to marshal his strength in preparation for the next battle.

In the aftermath of this war, the undead began to plague the lands of Eredane. With the material realm veiled from the celestial kingdom by the Sundering, the souls of the dead had no way to escape the mortal world. Sometimes, those souls become tethered to their corpses and those corpses eventually rise as undead creatures. These abominations, commonly called the Fell, are driven to feed on the flesh of sentient creatures to sustain their unnatural existence. It is believed that Izrador’s dark magic was responsible for the first rise of the Fell.

Izrador spent the first centuries of the Third Age cultivating his black priesthood and sowing corruption amongst the free races. As predicted in ancient prophesies, four great heroes were corrupted by the Shadow and turned to his cause. The identities of these four remain a dark mystery to most, but they shattered the alliance that opposed Izrador and corrupted it from within. They became the Shadow’s lieutenants, the Night Kings, and led his forces to victory over the peoples of Aryth a hundred years ago.

Today, the great elven forest is besieged by the dark armies of the Night Kings. Orc and goblinoid hordes encircle Erethor, driving ever deeper into the heart of the ancestral forest of the elves. Only the ancient magic of the Witch Queen and the enchanted forest itself hold the forces of the Shadow at bay.

In the Kaladrun Mountains, the dwarves have abandoned many of their mountain cities, retreating to the deep subterranean holdfasts built by their ancestors in the First Age. The armies of the Shadow have been drawn into a war of attrition, as thousands die pursuing the dwarves though their underground tunnels and vaults. Every foothold the dark armies gain is won with the blood of hundreds of orcs, goblins, ogres, and trolls, but fresh troops pour into the mountains faster than the dwarves can kill them.

In the heartland, the once-great kingdom of Erenland is a shattered ruin. The proud cities have been occupied by the forces of the Night Kings, and patrols of goblins and orcs roam the countryside, killing, looting, and crushing any resistance. Those of the Sarcosan nobility who did not turn to the Shadow have been nearly exterminated to the last woman and child. Only a few brave freeriders remain to oppose the minions of Izrador on the open plains.

The great castles and keeps of the Dorns have been razed, and the last survivors of the Old Kings wage a desperate guerilla war against the ultimate triumph of the Shadow. The small towns and villages scattered across Eredane are ruled by petty tyrants who sell the blood and sweat of their people for the favor of the Night Kings. These greedy and opportunistic men betray their own for promises of wealth and power, and they have become the mayors and constables who use fear and suspicion to bend the common folk to the Shadow’s will.

All but a few nomadic halfling tribes have been destroyed or enslaved by the minions of the Shadow. Some refugees have found temporary sanctuary with their elven kin in Erethor, but most surviving halflings live lives of toil, misery, and despair.

The gnomes continue to sail the Goil and the River Eren, but now they are most often transporting orc troops and supplies for the Shadow’s war effort. Many think the gnomes are the worst kind of opportunists and collaborationists, but they do not realize that the gnomes use their relative freedom and autonomy to sabotage Izrador’s advance and smuggle much-needed supplies to the desperate resistance efforts in Erethor, the Kaladruns, and the plains of Erenland.