The Fallen Kingdom - Overview
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The History of the Fallen Kingdom

Origins

The Vampire Wars

  • The first signs of decay set in some 300 years before the present day, the lands of the Old Kingdom's most northern extent grew dark and sinister. Summons went unanswered, caravans were lost and villages deserted.

  • The Northern Lords, twisted by a vampiric curse, marched out of their lands at the head of an army of thralls and other terrible monsters. Proclaiming themselves the rightful heirs to the Old Kingdom, the so called Vampire Princes sparked off the War of the Darkening Sky.

  • Much of the Northern lands were ravaged, and many innocents were slay. The royal forces, unprepared for such an attack, were forced back to the Ansburg, a crucial city that controlled access to The City of Farnor.

  • The Siege of Ansburg was eventually broken by the armies of the King and the Vampire Princes forced back, but such was the devastation that an uneasy stalemate occurred.

  • Many similar wars would be fought over the next 150 years with neither side able to gain a significant advantage.

  • That all changed with the coming of Athiar the Golden, a magnificent golden dragon who offered his aid to the King, who readily accepted

  • Many of the King’s best knights, under the patronage of Athiar the Golden would go on to found The Order of the Golden Talon.

  • For several years a crusade was prepared to finally destroy the Vampire Princes. When it finally launched five years of bloody fighting brought the forces of the King to near victory.

  • But it was in this hour of victory that the greatest tragedy occurred, a holy city of the Old Kingdom was deemed to have been tainted by the Vampire Princes, its inhabitants cursed. The king, unwilling to leave an enemy to their back ordered the city’s people slaughtered, every man , woman and child.

  • Athiar the Golden watched on in horror as the men he had fought with for so long descended into such savagery.

  • An ancient holy artifact within the city was even tainted by the slaughter, opening a rift into the Shadow Plane.

  • Athiar the Golden abandoned the Crusade, taking the Artifact into seclusion and vowing to cleanse the artifact and save mankind from themselves.

Tainted Artifact and the Corrupting of the Dragon

  • As the years past and the Crusade continued with Athiar the Golden, it’s mind was slowly warped by the influence of the Shadow realm. Its skin changing from a brilliant gold to a deep purple. Eventually becoming a Shadow Dragon

  • Its warped mind now saw that human’s could not be trusted to act for themselves and that to ‘save’ the Old Kingdom, it must be brought low.

  • In human form Athiar the Golden approached the defeated Vampire Princes, now desperate to fight back against the Crusade that had almost destroyed them.

  • Offering them aid against their enemies and the lands of the Old Kingdom, Athiar the Golden recruited them to his cause.

  • The Night Sisters who had, sensing the Dragon’s corruption, had began influencing it through the Shadow Plane offered their aid.

The Fall of the Kingdom

  • The Night Sisters created a great plague of undeath that ravaged the Southern lands of the Old Kingdom cutting them off from their allies.

  • At news of this the Crusade faltered, the King and his retinue returning to The City of Farnor to coordinate a response.

  • It was here that the Dragon struck, with the royal armies away in the North only a few members of The Order of the Golden Talon and the city guard were present. A great many were killed including the King. The Dragon claiming the Old Kingdom for itself.

  • The only royal to survive, a young princess escaped, with a handful of Paladins. Having sailed up the river, they were hoping to meet up with their forces, but when they arrived they found the army slaughtered by the Vampire Princes. With little other option they sailed on to Drakefell Keep where they still are today.

The Southernlands

  • The Dwarven Kingdom and the Merchant Lords looked on in horror as not only a plague of undeath appeared on their borders, but their powerful ally was being destroyed.

  • Unable to reach them by land the Merchant Lords offered to ferry the Dwarves up the coast to help their ally. The Dwarves, wary of ocean travel, nonetheless agreed.

  • However The Night Sisters had not been idle once their plague took hold. Covertly they had infiltrated the nobility of the Merchant Lords, gaining control of some of the leaders of the City States.

  • The fleet was gathered and the Dwarves were loaded on to the ships, it was then that The Night Sisters trap was sprung. The men of the Merchant Lords scuttled the ships and fired the harbours, not only killing the Dwarves but cutting off their citizens from their trading empire and means of escape.

  • The Dwarven King watched in horror from the shore as his kin were drowned, furious at the treachery his retinue tried to fight their way out of the city. Though they fought bravely, only a handful ever made it back to the Dwarven Kingdom, the body of the King in the tow. Thus began a great enmity between former friends.

  • The Night Sisters, from their base in The Swamp of Sorrows now control the lands of the Merchant Lords through their puppet rulers. Exacting a steady stream of souls from the inhabitants in the from of yearly human offerings.

The Present Day