Eye of Dread

TIMELINE

–3708 ar The orc warlord Belkzen conquers the Sky Citadel of Koldukar and renames it Urgir. –3701 ar The fey queen Gendowyn forms an alliance with local Kellid tribes around the Fangwood. 896 ar

Aroden mortally wounds the wizard-king Tar-Baphon on the Isle of Terror.

2631 ar Varisian wanderers north of Lake Encarthan unite as the nation of Ustalav.

3203 ar Tar-Baphon returns as the lich known as the Whispering Tyrant, unites the orc tribes of Belkzen under his rule, and terrorizes central Avistan for more than 600 years.

3754 ar Taldor launches the Shining Crusade against the Whispering Tyrant.

3827 ar The Whispering Tyrant is imprisoned in Gallowspire.

Ustalav is returned to its people. 3828 ar The Shining Crusade ends;

its crusaders form the nation of Lastwall.

4062 ar The corrupted dryad Arlantia overthrows Gendowyn and unleashes the Darkblight in the Fangwood.

4237 ar The orcs of Belkzen assault the nation of Lastwall and retake the city of Urgir.

4517 ar Lastwall’s border defenses fail against the hordes of Belkzen. 4632 ar The province of Molthune declares independence from Cheliax.

4655 ar Northern Molthune declares independence. Its leader, Irgal Nirmath, is assassinated, and the new nation is named Nirmathas in his honor.

4674 ar The Palatinates in northwest Ustalav overthrow their aristocratic leadership in favor of parliamentary rule.

4692 ar The orc warlord Grask Uldeth seizes control of Urgir and establishes a token system that allows non-orcs to travel Belkzen in relative safety.

4710 ar The right of indentured laborers and immigrants to Blood and conflict have been facts of life in north-central Avistan for centuries, and with the recent collapse of the valiant crusader nation of Lastwall, the area is even more dangerous. Though many perils haunt these war-torn lands, among the deadliest is the lich Tar-Baphon, known as the Whispering Tyrant, who has recently reemerged to threaten the region once more. The wizard-king Tar-Baphon first rose to prominence around 850 ar—his mortal life is shrouded in myth and legend, but he mastered necromancy and drew the attention of the god Aroden himself. In 896, the two clashed on the Isle of Terror, where Tar-Baphon tried, but failed, to lure Aroden into a trap called the Well of Sorrows. Aroden killed Tar-Baphon, but the powerful wizard rose again, 2 millennia later, as a lich. Under the title of the Whispering Tyrant, Tar-Baphon seized power in Ustalav and united the orc tribes of Belkzen under his banner. The Whispering Tyrant held central Avistan firmly in his skeletal fist for centuries, raising slain troops to fight as undead warriors.

In 3754, Taldor launched the Shining Crusade to vanquish the lich-king. Its Knights of Ozem established the port town of Vellumis as a foothold and, with the dwarves of Kraggodan, fought back the Whispering Tyrant’s armies. The crusaders beseeched Aroden to vanquish his ancient foe, but Aroden sent his herald, Arazni the Red Crusader, in his stead. The Knights of Ozem rallied behind her, but Arazni fell against the wizard-king and was slain.

Outraged, the Knights of Ozem redoubled their efforts, routing the orc hordes and pushing the Whispering Tyrant back to his city of Adorak. There, the valiant General Arnisant faced the Whispering Tyrant in single combat. The overconfident lich casually wished for the general’s heart to fly to his hand, but Arnisant was protected by a shield crafted by Aroden himself. The shield absorbed Tar-Baphon’s magic, shattering into a dozen pieces. One of the pieces embedded itself in the Whispering Tyrant’s hand, burning his undead flesh with its life-giving energy. The weakened lich retreated into his fortress, called Gallowspire, where the crusaders, too exhausted to pursue, sealed him within using powerful magical wards.

The crusaders named the lands surrounding their former base of operations Lastwall, establishing themselves there as watchers of the Whispering Tyrant’s prison and defenders against Belkzen. The nation of Ustalav was free at last, although it never recovered the vigor that Tar-Baphon had stolen from it. Yet the Whispering Tyrant plotted within his prison. He learned he could use the shard still lodged in his hand as a devastating weapon, remotely detonating the other shards of the shattered shield. His agents—a group of necromancers and death cultists called the Whispering Way—stole the shards and placed them in key sites, including Lastwall’s capital of Vigil and in the shadowed halls of Gallowspire. The Gallowspire explosion cracked the crusaders’ great seal and freed the Whispering Tyrant. After setting loose hordes of undead across Lastwall—now known as the Gravelands—the lich moved against Absalom, determined to seize the power of the Starstone. Powerful heroes sacrificed themselves to detonate the shard in Tar-Baphon’s own hand, staining the area now known as the Tyrant’s Grasp with his necromantic power but forcing the Whispering Tyrant back to his phylactery on the Isle of Terror. The Whispering Tyrant now amasses his undead armies and prepares to ravage Avistan anew.