The Shattered Lands

The Swords of the Orcs
In the days following the elven exodus to Faydwer, the
Crushbone orcs of that continent began to move out of the
region known as the Loping Plains in a great and seemingly
unstoppable horde, at last entering the forests of the Faydark
and assailing the wood elf kingdom of Kelethin. Hard-pressed,
the wood elf ruler Carandril turned for aid to the high elves of
Felwithe. Under the leadership of the high elf hero Edril,
cousin to King Tearis Thex himself, the high elves marched
into battle, defeating the orcs in a surprise assault and driving
the survivors deep into the shadowy forests of the Faydark.
There, they remained for centuries, brooding and plotting
vengeance against the elves.
Edril and the Gnomes
Since the gnomes’ arrival on Norrath, they had lived both
among the dwarves and in the wilds near the edge of the forests
now occupied by the wood elves; while they were not disliked,
they were regarded by most dwarves as second-class citizens or
poor country cousins. At last, the famed gnome Biddyn
appealed to the wood elf ruler Carandril to be granted an
independent kingdom of their own. Carandril agreed, giving
the gnomes a portion of the barren lands beyond the Steamfont
Mountains. A party of gnome explorers and surveyors imme￾diately set out to map the new region, now called Akanon
(Elder Elvish for “gift”). Unfortunately, the land proved
cursed, and only a single explorer returned with tales of a
fearsome plague dragon that had slaughtered his companions.
Once more the elf-lord Edril, Champion of Tunare, rose to
the occasion. Together with the brave Biddyn and a group of
hand-picked companions, Edril journeyed to Akanon, where
he faced and slew the plague dragon in single combat. For

centuries, the skull of the slain dragon stood above the gates
of the gnomish citadel of Fortress Mechanus. After the dragon’s
death, Biddyn, Edril, and their companions fought tirelessly,
ridding the place of the monsters that infested it, making the
land safe for gnomish settlers. Soon, Akanon was a thriving
settlement, the permanent home that the gnomes had so long
desired.
War of the Seven Tribes
Long ago abandoned by Cazic-Thule in favor of his chosen
people, the iksar, the trolls were forced to fight for survival in
the wilds of the Tunaria. After countless generations during
which they alternately gathered into something approximat￾ing a troll empire and then inevitably splintered apart, the
trolls regressed to brutal savagery for good and turned on each
other as never before. Their once-prosperous lands were torn
by the civil conflict that came to be called the War of the
Seven Tribes. This watershed event did not last long. In a
relatively short time, only a single troll tribe remained, led by
the ancient, cunning troll warrior and visionary Nalikor, who
by strength, guile and outright treachery succeeded where all
the past attempts at troll empire had failed. Instead of allowing
the existence of squabbling tribes that would later fracture his
empire, Nalikor simply decimated all the other trolls.
After some years of gathering their strength, the trolls met
the ogres of Oggok in battle, and soon won their foes’ respect.
Nalikor and the ogre rulers reached an accord, and Nalikor
gave them his magical sword, which was kept for many years
at the sacred spot known as Broken Skull Rock. With the
ogres’ help, the trolls founded the city of Grobb, where they
began once again to grow in numbers and power.
The Lost Age
In what some call the last act of divine intervention, several
tribes of barbarians were molded by Erollisi Marr into a new
race that was more thoughtful and kind than their forebears.
(That goddess herself, once revered as a warrior deity, had
taken on the new aspects of love and partnership.) At this
time, the race of humans as they are known today at long last
took their place in Norrath amid the elder races.
More quickly than anyone would have thought possible,
the fast-breeding and quick-learning humans spread through￾out Norrath and created the Combine Empire. Eventually,
though, as quickly as it had arisen, their mighty empire fell to
treachery when the evil General Seru betrayed his emperor in
a bid to seize the throne for himself. Those still loyal to the
Combine Empire escaped from Norrath, founding the city of
Katta Castellum on the Moon of Luclin, but Seru and his
minions were quick to follow, building their own city, Sanctus
Seru.
After Seru departed Norrath, the Combine Empire was
truly dead, and to this day almost no known records of the first
and last human empire exist, though its relics and ruins are
found scattered throughout the world.
The Age of Enlightenment
Though their empire lay behind them, the humans still
possessed great power and resilience. They founded two great
cities on Tunaria, Freeport and Qeynos, and renamed the
continent “Antonica” after one of their leaders, Antonius
Bayle II, the Great Defender. As humans from other conti￾nents streamed to the newly established human twin capitals,
they brought magic and new learning back from their many
homes.
The knowledge and stories of faraway lands and magics
inspired a malcontented minority of humans. Wanting this
magical knowledge for themselves and forswearing the war￾like ways of their predecessors, these humans followed their
leader, Erud, across the sea on a pilgrimage to found an
enlightened society. Landing on what they named Odus, they
succeeded in developing their own society based on magic and
knowledge.
The Age of Turmoil
The followers of Erud, who had by now dubbed themselves
the Erudites, focused their society on the ways of the spellcasting
arts, particularly the arcane. However, the quest for power of
one Erudite, a young genius and radical called Miragul, led
him to rediscover the dark path of necromancy, which had
long been known to the dark elves and had been dabbled in by
humans of the Combine Empire. Miragul led more of his kin
to this dark art, but those who studied necromancy were
eventually found out and branded heretics by the High
Council of the city of Erudin.
A civil war erupted between Miragul’s faction and those
“morally advanced” teachers and rulers who opposed his
studies. Practitioners of the magical arts on both sides were
slain in droves. Then, in one final, cataclysmic battle, the
combatants unleashed great mystical energies that somehow
translocated the entire kerran city of Shar Vahl off of Norrath,
leaving only a huge crater that descended into the depths of
Odus. The heretics retreated into this chasm — known as the
Hole — and built the city of Paineel within its depths.
However, after a relatively short time, the hordes of the
Underfoot (earth elementals and other servants of Brell)
emerged from below, destroying Paineel and driving the
heretics out of the depths. Paineel was painstakingly rebuilt,
though closer to the surface, and the heretics plotted to retake
the depths and both to recover their own lost lore and to wrest
the secrets of the Underfoot from Brell and his minions.
The Portals of Luclin
Torn from Norrath by the terrible magics of the Erudite
War, the kerran city of Shar Vahl plunged through space,
eventually coming to rest on the Moon of Luclin. There,
under the rulership of King Vah Kerrath, the kerra founded a
new civilization, and renamed themselves the Vah Shir in
honor of their ruler and his clan. There, the cat-folk grew
numerous and prosperous, eventually making friendly contact
with the Combine Loyalists who had fled Norrath. Soon,
however, the Vah Shir somehow awakened a terrible evil, for
from beneath the surface of the moon came a race of evil,
diminutive humanoids known as grimlings. War between the
two races raged for centuries until the Shattering finally
destroyed the moon entirely

​

Before that tragedy occurred, though, a strange thing hap￾pened — the Moon of Luclin wandered close to the world of
Norrath, and the strange structures long known as “wizards’
spires” became active, flickering and pulsing with untold
power. Soon, the legendary Erudite wizard Al’Kabor discov￾ered that the spires could be used as gateways to the Moon of
Luclin, and for the next few decades trade and travel between
that distant, mysterious world and Norrath became almost
commonplace. The goddess Luclin, a jealous and secretive
deity, watched the influx of strangers with growing concern,
but chose to lurk in the shadows and to watch.
The Planes of Power
The events that would end the Age of Turmoil and bring
about the terrible Age of War began with the birth of the
godling Lanys T’vyl, daughter of the god Innoruuk and his
most revered high priestess. A vessel for his hatred, Lanys was
to be Innoruuk’s instrument of ultimate vengeance against
the elves who had rejected him. As she grew to adulthood,
Lanys gathered up artifacts of power and began to draw
together a mighty army of dark elves, which she intended to
unleash upon the unsuspecting peoples of Antonica.
Seemingly by chance, Lord Tethys of Highkeep learned of
Lanys’s plans and called upon the good races of Antonica to
fight her. Aided by the barbarian warrior Carson McCabe;
Galeth Verdeth, leader of the Paladins of Tunare; the dwarf
warrior Tubr Broadaxe; and Firiona Vie, lost daughter of the
elven king Tearis Thex, Tethys and his army faced the dark
elves in the depths of the Kithicor Woods. Firiona Vie struck
down Lanys T’vyl, while Galeth faced the shadow knight
Laarthik, commander of the dark elves. Wielding a mighty
artifact, Laarthik fought ferociously, but when he was finally
consumed by the magical energies he himself had unleashed,
he cried out in agony and called upon the Prince of Hate
himself to aid them.
Enraged, Innoruuk took up the wounded body of his daugh￾ter and summoned a fearsome creature called, simply, Hate, an
embodiment of the Dark Prince’s Plane of Hate itself. This
abomination’s presence tainted the Kithicor Woods, trans￾forming them into a place of horror where the undead stalked
the living and good was forever banished.
Unfortunately, the Prince of Hate’s rash act set in motion
an irrevocable chain of events that would end in destruction
and tragedy. The summoning of Hate had caused an irrevers￾ible shift in planar alignments, distorting the planar barriers
long ago put in place by the Rathe and thus allowing even
mortals to enter the realm of the gods easily. Soon, mortal
scholars and spellcasters had learned how to open gates to the
other Planes of Power, and — as had happened on Luclin —
outsiders began to flood into the immortal realms.

​

But this time, the gods would take a suitably harsh view of
mortal interference, and the world of Norrath would suffer
terribly for it.
The War of Plagues
Even as mortals began to enter the gods’ domains, violence
and fear continued to stalk Norrath. The humans of Qeynos
were beset by the a horde of plague-infected undead created by
the evil (and undead) shadow knight Lord Grimrot. A mem￾ber of the hated Bloodsabers faction, Grimrot worshipped
Bertoxxulus, Lord of Plagues, and sought to spread his fear￾some master’s ill will throughout Antonica.
Soundly defeated on the Thundering Steppes, the human
forces fell back into the Qeynos Hills where, under the
command of Lord Kane Bayle, master of the Qeynos Guard,
they made their final stand. Despite what most assumed were
grave tactical errors made by Bayle (but which were, in fact,
intentional, for he was a traitor who served Grimrot), the
humans nonetheless prevailed. Lord Grimrot, Lord Bayle, and
the surviving Bloodsabers were eventually captured and ex￾ecuted (or destroyed, as necessary), but the remaining undead
Grimrot created would trouble the region for many years —
even into the post-Shattering era.
The War of Fay
Meanwhile, around the same time that Grimrot’s armies
were marching on Qeynos, the dark elves once more set off on
the path of conquest. A massive Teir’Dal armada landed on
Faydwer and in secrecy moved to take the Forests of Faydark
and the elven lands that surrounded the forests; there, the
dark elves reasoned, they could establish communities on the
surface, yet remain hidden from the sunlight they hated so
much. Scouts of Kelethin learned of the invasion, but too late
to prevent the bulk of dark elf forces from swarming onto the
continent. The War of the Fay lasted for well over a year, and
many battles both large and small were fought in that time.
The gnomes of Ak’anon and the dwarves of Kaladim took
arms alongside the wood elves and the high elves, and the
creatures of the Faydark — the brownies, pixies, and faerie
dragons — also joined in, engaged in one last, brutal struggle
to preserve their homeland.
In the end the dark elves, supported by minotaurs, orcs,
trolls, ogres, and other evil races, seized Felwithe itself, hold￾ing it for two full weeks before being finally driven out by the
allies and fleeing deep into the Faydark. King Tearis Thex
himself perished early in the fighting, dying in battle upon the
walls of Felwithe; the cost of the war had been terrible, and the
survivors began sorrowfully to rebuild their ravaged lands.
The repercussions from the war would prove enormous,
especially for the Teir’Dal ruling dynasty.
The Fall of Thex
The Thex Dynasty had gambled everything on the War of
the Fay, and lost. Most of their army were now slain or
scattered across the Faydark. For many generations, a caste of
necromancers called the Dead had opposed opening their
world up to the surface, urging their rulers to turn their
attentions to the caverns and dark places of Norrath.
Queen Cristianos Thex was, of course, one of the founding
members of the Dead, and their leading proponent in keeping
the dark elves off of Norrath’s surface — for she was the very
same monarch kidnapped ages earlier by Innoruuk, and her
necromantic power, her wicked transformation, and her natu￾ral elven longevity kept her healthy and vital even after so
many centuries. King Naythox I had in fact been slain centu￾ries earlier by none other than the first Teir’Dal Overlord,
Xanit K’Ven (who was in turn captured and turned over to
Innoruuk). Queen Cristianos married another of the royal
Thex who became King Naythox II, but she longed for the day
when she could seize the throne for herself alone and declare
herself Empress, taking up her own family’s name in place of
the Thex title she had gained only by marriage.
The War of the Fay proved to be the chance for which
Cristianos had long waited. As the Teir’Dal armies were slaugh￾tered among the trees of Felwithe, she and her allies from the
Dead moved against Naythox II, slaughtering hundreds of Thex
loyalists in a single bloody night. Cristianos herself had the
pleasure of slaying her hated consort Naythox as he slept. By
dawn of the next day, Empress Cristianos had seized control in
Neriak, giving the Dead great temporal power as well, and the
Thex Dynasty among the dark elves had come to an end.
Though unaware of this subterranean coup, surface dwellers
were preparing to move against the dark elves of Antonica.
The conduit to the surface of Norrath was a subterranean city
called the First Gate, and the good races, especially the
halflings, developed a plan to end the dark elf threat for good.
Accordingly the Leatherfoot Raiders — the elite guard of the
Rivervale halflings — allied with the gnomes to assault and
destroy the First Gate and forever cut the dark elves off from
the world of sunlight.
Aided by a wondrous mechanimagical device created by the
gnomes for this purpose, the Raiders entered the tunnels
leading to the First Gate. Aware of the dark elves’ power, they
advanced stealthily, slipping past guards and planting the
gnomes’ device where it would cause the most destruction,
and then they swiftly and quietly withdrew. The device
exploded soon thereafter, utterly destroying the First Gate
and — as far as the halflings could tell — sealing the dark elves
in the bowels of Norrath forever.
Stranded on the surface, the surviving Teir’Dal lost in the
Faydark, scattered and few in number, were forced to re-adapt
to life amid the trees of Faydwer.
The Council of Gods
At last, some 125 years after the re-opening of the Planes of
Power, the gods became angered by the many mortals who had
encroached upon their domains, many of whom seemed
incapable of treating the gods with proper respect and defer￾ence. Gathering together in solemn council, they debated and
discussed in the manner of gods. Though time was meaning￾less to them, the Great Council of the Divine lasted for a full
century to the perception of mortals. To this day, no mortal is
certain of exactly what transpired in this mighty meeting; all
that is known is that, at the end of that time, Norrath changed
forever.
The Age of War had come.

​

The Age of War
Abruptly, the druid portals and wizard spires — long used
for transportation throughout Norrath and beyond — ceased
to function. Communication, travel, and contact between
geographically removed races became difficult and thus rare.
The books that led to the Plane of Knowledge were systemati￾cally destroyed by the most powerful agents of the gods. The
gates accessing the Planes of Power were shut, and no mortal
magic seemed capable of reopening them.
Norrath’s weather began to change as well. Storms raged
across the oceans, making sea travel difficult at best and
impossible at worst, further isolating the continents from each
other. Elsewhere, earthquakes shook the land, and volcanoes
rose up from formerly stable mountain ranges.
During this early period of the age, the priests and clerics of
the gods also made what was for them a horrifying discovery
— the gods had cut off contact altogether, apparently having
departed the mortal realm entirely. They no longer responded
to requests for aid, and the use of divine magic became both
difficult and risky. Despair seized the folk of Norrath, and
many prophets began to declare that the end of the world was
at hand.
Explanations for the gods’ departure varied. Those who
followed the powers of good claimed that this was merely a
time of testing, that through acts of faith and self-sacrifice the
gods could be persuaded to return. Followers of the evil gods
were less optimistic and charitable — they believed the
disasters and changes wrought on Norrath were the gods’
punishment for mortal disrespect, and that the gods would
return only when (or if) their anger subsided, or when enough
blood had been shed in their names.
The most extreme explanations came from the agnostics,
who had always professed that the gods were little more than
wrathful, arrogant, and powerful children — perhaps much
more powerful than the greatest mortal spellcasters, but cer￾tainly not true divinities worthy of worship. The agnostics
believed that the gods’ own foolishness in opening the Planes
of Power had led to their downfall, and that these great
children had finally — thankfully! — departed the realms of
mortals (some went so far as to claim that the gods had actually
been slain), at long last leaving mortals to choose their own
fate.
Regardless of the true explanation, the facts of the gods’
disappearance grew increasingly clear as Norrath sank into a
time of violence and disaster.
The Avatar of War
Though the gods had gone, beings of great power still
remained on Norrath, and the coming of one of these — the
terrible Avatar of War — heralded the return of one of the
most feared powers in history: the Rallosian Empire.
With the departure of the gods, many curses and lingering
divine effects vanished. Of these, the most significant was the
Curse of the Rathe, which had held the goblin, orc, ogre, and
giant races in an artificial state of stupor for many ages. Now,
the Rallosian races had regained their ancient intelligence
and cunning, combined with a renewed and perhaps even
greater thirst for conquest and blood.
Under the leadership of the Avatar of War, the ogres began
to build a new city deep in the jungles of Feerrott; they called
this place Rallos in honor of their imprisoned creator. There,
the Avatar of War marshaled an army of giants, orcs, and other
children of Zek, as well as a few of the surviving minions of
fear. When the new Rallosian army emerged from the jungle,
it proved an unstoppable juggernaut, quickly conquering the
surrounding lands and slaughtering or enslaving all who stood
in its path.
Even the disasters of this age were small compared to what
approached, however.
The Horde of Inferno
As the new Rallosian Empire grew, another force of destruc￾tion rose up in northern Antonica. Under another being
apparently of divine origin, the Avatar of Flame, thousands of
bloodthirsty humanoids rallied to the banner of the horde
known as the Horde of Inferno and descended upon the
Northlands. Three orcish empires, the Deathfist, the Rujarkan
and the Frozentusk of the Northlands, combined forces with
the goblins of the Serpent Spine Mountains to form the bulk
of this new horde. Soon, both barbarians and humans had
their hands full with this new threat, and the ogres of the south
were able to pursue their dreams of empire relatively unhin￾dered.
By 291, the Horde had grown strong enough to threaten
both Qeynos and Halas. A great army of orcs moved south to
threaten the human lands, while a second pressed on against
the Northmen, forcing the defenders back step by step.
Despite a dogged defense, the barbarians were outnumbered
and outmaneuvered; by the spring of 302, the Horde was at the
gates of Halas itself.
To the south, the Rallosian armies, pressing deep into
Qeynos territory, had a harder time of it, but it seemed
inevitable that eventually they would lay siege to that city as
well.
The Avatars of Good
For a time it seemed that the doomsayers were right, that the
end of Norrath was nigh and that soon the forces of darkness
would triumph. With the Horde of Inferno pressing from the
north and the reborn and seemingly invincible Rallosian
Empire growing daily in power to the south, the good races of
Antonica had little reason for optimism. Yet even in this dark
time, when all seemed lost, a spark of hope still burned — a
spark suggesting that, though the gods might be gone, there
was still good in the world, and that good might yet prevail.
Legend holds that one of the faithful of Quellious, a priest
whose faith in the gods had never wavered, was invested with
some of the powers of the divine, and was transformed into a
powerful Avatar of Tranquility. He strode the land, gathering
the forces of light to him, bringing with him a new hope and
drawing together those forces scattered by the hordes of
darkness and the various catastrophes that rent the land.

​

Soon, the Avatar of Tranquility was joined by another
powerful force, this one a mighty force of nature calling itself
the Avatar of Storms. Rumors of this being’s true identity are
as varied as theories about the real reason for the gods’
disappearance, but most believe that he too was a dedicated
servant of the gods that was granted divine power in exchange
for his faith and service to Karana. The appearance of these
avatars was seized upon by the faithful as proof positive that
the gods had not truly abandoned Norrath after all.
Together, these two avatars helped rally the scattered forces
of good on Antonica, effectively forming a buffer zone of
resistance to the two mighty juggernauts. Though their efforts
were considerable and, without them, the lands of men would
have been overrun almost without effort, their ultimate suc￾cess and the survival of civilization on Norrath remained in
doubt. When the Avatar of Tranquility eventually vanished
into the Desert of Ro, many felt that the cause of good was
doomed, even though he had promised to return.
The Return of the Rallosians
Once all of the Feerrott Jungle had been subdued by the
ogres, they descended upon the froglok center of Gukta. By
the year 295, the orderly frogloks had been forced back into
the labyrinth of Guk, where the ogres placed them under siege
while preparing for an invasion of the Plains of Karana. The
Rathe Mountains fell swiftly to Rallosian forces, and the ogres
began to ferry great numbers of troops across Lake Rathetear,
creating a gigantic force they unleashed into the plains in
early 302.
Though (or perhaps because) the Plains of Karana were
vast, they proved almost impossible to defend effectively, and
those humans who met the Rallosian army were swiftly
overwhelmed. Within a relatively short time, the plains were
almost entirely in the hands of the empire, and the gnolls of
Splitpaw were forced, reluctantly, to join with the Rallosians.
The ogres and their allies seemed on the verge of total
triumph, but then they committed an error that was to prove
fatal.
The Avatar of Fear
The Rallosian Empire had experienced an uninterrupted
string of victories, from Feerrott to Gukta and into the Plains
of Karana. As their scouts drew near the city of Qeynos, the
ogres also fixed greedy eyes on the Temple of Cazic-Thule, the
great citadel of the departed God of Fear, located deep in the
swamps of southern Feerrott. For years, the Rallosians had
preferred to leave the temple untouched — whether out of
respect for the followers of Cazic-Thule or for some other
reason none can say. Now, facing the prospect of absolute
triumph, the ogres set aside their reservations and landed
troops on the island, seizing the temple and the inactive portal
within.
The temple was still held by Tae Ew lizard men loyal to
Cazic-Thule, aided by a squad of the horrific Amygdalan
knights. Nevertheless, the ogres’ attack took the defenders by
surprise, and the fight for the temple was swift and bloody.
Within a few days, the ogres had almost completely secured
the temple (though a few defenders continued to lurk in the
mazes of the lowest levels) and began to loot the vast treasures
and magic items that lay within. The Tae Ew were enslaved
and forced to serve in the Rallosian armies.
Perhaps the hordes of Rallos simply believed that Cazic￾Thule’s remaining worshippers weren’t powerful enough to
oppose the Avatar of War — Rallos Zek had always despised
the weak, and now that his followers were ascendant, perhaps
they held the old alliances meaningless. Whatever their
motives, the ogres and their allies had violated an ancient
agreement never to disturb the Temple of Fear, and they
would pay the ultimate price for their presumption.
Unknown to the Rallosians, Cazic-Thule’s most powerful
minion, the Avatar of Fear, thought slain by a group of
adventurers, in fact had long slumbered beneath the swamps
of Feerrott, left there as a final guardian by the departing
Cazic-Thule. The sack of the temple jolted the sleeping
behemoth to full awareness, and the enormity of the ogres’
betrayal spurred the being to action. It would be years before
the full import of the ogres’ transgression would be made
manifest to them, but in due course, the Rallosian Empire
would be doomed.
The Fire in the North
Meanwhile, in the Northlands, the Horde of Inferno seemed
similarly unstoppable. While they besieged the barbarian city
of Halas, they also struck south, capturing the Oasis of Marr
after a fierce struggle, surrounding the city of Highhold and
capturing Misty Thicket. Soon, the Avatar of Flame had led
its forces into the depths of Blackburrow, capturing the citadel
from those few gnoll tribes that still remained free from
Rallosian domination.
Finally, Halas fell after a protracted siege. Orcs rampaged through
the city, burning and killing. The ancient barbarian holding was
reduced to ruin, and the survivors fled into the wilderness, where they
sought to resist the horde as best they could.
Soon, the Horde of Inferno came into contact with the
resurgent Rallosian Empire. Though intent on nothing less than
complete conquest, the orcs saw the ogres as convenient allies,
and were willing — for the moment at least — to allow the
Avatar of War to have nominal command of their forces. When
ordered to march on Freeport, the Horde of Inferno complied.
The Gathering Storm
Freeport’s streets were clogged with refugees from battles in
the north and the south; its military forces lay in disarray. The
Knights of Truth and Priests of Marr had long since departed
(like the Ashen Order, they had grown disillusioned with the
corruption and violence of human society), and now only the
Freeport Militia, along with Sir Lucan D’Lere and his cohort
of knights, defended the city.
The stage was set for the final confrontation between the
forces of light and the forces of darkness. In the year 314, the
two human cities of Freeport and Qeynos were among the last
bastions of freedom on the continent of Antonica. A few
pockets of resistance remained elsewhere, particularly among
the Jaggedpine Forest and the refuge of Surefell Glade beyond,
as well as around the halfling city of Rivervale. Highkeep
remained under siege, but still resisted.

​

Outnumbered and outfought in virtually every battle over
the past 10 years, the defenders were now led by the Avatar of
Storms, for the Avatar of Tranquility had not been seen since
vanishing into the Desert of Ro years before. The Avatar of
Storms remained in the field, however, battling personally
against the champions of the Rallosians, wielding the great
blade Maelstrom and heartening those troops who could still
fight for the side of light.
The forces arrayed against the humans and their allies,
known to historians as the Armies of the Hordes, seemed
invincible. The Horde of Inferno was comprised of an unholy
alliance of two mighty orcish forces — the Deathfists and the
Rujarkians — along with many thousands of slave troops, all
marching under the leadership of the Avatar of Flame. The
reborn Rallosian Empire was led by the Avatar of War who,
armed with the legendary sword Soulfire, commanded a disci￾plined force of ogres, orcs, goblins, giants, ettins, and other
minions of Rallos Zek, along with its own mass of slave troops
— frogloks, gnolls, Tae Ew lizard men, and humans alike. The
goal of the Avatar of War was nothing less than the complete
annihilation of all other civilizations on Antonica.
By unspoken assent, the Avatar of War was looked to as the
overall leader of the Hordes. The Horde of Inferno was sent
west to assault Qeynos, while Rallosian forces marched through
the Commonlands, bent on the city of Freeport. All knew that
once the humans were destroyed, however, the separate
Hordes would turn on each other and fight for ultimate
dominance, though most believed that this would end in the
complete destruction of both armies and the end of all life on
Antonica.
Then, at long last, the humans were energized and encour￾aged by the return of the Avatar of Tranquility, who emerged
from the Desert of Ro at the head of a great troop of warrior￾monks from the Ashen Order. Years previously, the order had
departed Qeynos, but now — with civilization itself hanging
in the balance — they had agreed to return to aid their fellows
in this final struggle. With the Avatar of Storms leading the
defense of Qeynos, the Avatar of Tranquility and the Ashen
Order moved to reinforce Lucan D’Lere and the embattled
Freeport Militia.
The conflict to come would be known as the Battle of
Defiance, though in reality it consisted of a series of smaller
engagements spread across the continent that took place over
a span of seven full days. In this time, the fate of the cities of
the humans and indeed of all Antonica was decided, and the
future of Norrath itself hung in the balance.
The Battle of Defiance
Those who still worship the vanished gods point to the
Battle of Defiance as proof that the gods still exist and will one

​

day return. Nothing else, they claim, can explain the series of
fortuitous events that combined to save the humans and their
allies.
The first of these events seemed to be the work of Brell or
his representatives; those who revere Brell claim that the Lord
of Underfoot’s rage at the enslavement of the gnolls caused a
series of earthquakes to erupt in the Commonlands and the
Qeynos Hills, slowing and even swallowing up huge portions
of the orcish forces in both Hordes. Damage to the Armies of
the Hordes was significant, but not fatal, for the orcs were but
a small portion of the combined forces. The Avatar of War
commanded the orcs and goblins around Highkeep and
Rivervale to reinforce his armies in the Qeynos Hills, while
the orcs of Kithicor and Everfrost were ordered into the
Commonlands.
Once more, however, geological disaster plagued the Hordes’
reinforcements. Thousands more orcs and goblins disappeared
into great fissures and crevices or were buried by rocky debris.
Only a few hundred orcs and goblins survived to join the
battle, and these came too late to substantially affect the
outcome.
Nevertheless, the Armies of the Hordes remained mighty,
and the battles that raged over the next week were fierce.
Slowly, with dogged resistance, the combined forces of the
Freeport Militia and the Ashen Order were forced back, and
once more it seemed that Freeport would fall to the Rallosians.
In the Qeynos Hills, the battle raged just as fiercely. The
Avatar of Storms arrived on the field, leading the Archers of
Surefall and the Knights of Thunder — still faithful to Karana
even after so many years — against the Horde of Inferno. The
fight was fierce, but, thanks in large part to the tremors that
slew so many of the Hordes, the battle was fought to a
standstill.
Then another disaster struck the Horde Armies. The gnolls,
conquered and forced to serve as slave infantry, rose up and
struck back at their oppressors, demonstrating keen magical
and military prowess that led many to suspect that they too
had received divine inspiration. Deprived of their gnoll shock
troops, the orc generals reeled back in confusion, and on the
eighth day of the long struggle the Avatar of Storms led the
Knights of Thunder in a final assault. As the Qeynos Guard
drove into the surviving orcs, the knights threw themselves at
the Avatar of Flame; though many perished in that battle, the
knights persevered, and their leader struck the blow that
finally brought down the Avatar of Flame.
The surviving orcs fled in disarray, and the Avatar of Storms
presented his weapon, the famous sword Maelstrom, to the
honorable leader of the Knights of Thunder. As the humans
counted their dead and piled the corpses of their foes, the
Avatar of Storms vanished, departing Norrath, leaving the
faithful of Karana and his chosen champion to carry on his
legacy.
The struggle for Freeport was even more bloody and cha￾otic. Many different tales of the battle are told, but most agree
that both the Knights of Truth and the Priests of Marr
returned to aid the defenders, helping finally to turn the tide
against the Rallosians. Even in the face of such determined
defense the ogres remained resolute, and they might still have
prevailed had their past actions not at last come back to plague
them.
Deep in the swamps of Feerrott, the Avatar of Fear had
finally completed its plans for retribution, and for the second
time in Norrath’s history, the terrible plague called the
Greenmist began to creep across the land. Once, conjured by
Cazic-Thule himself, it had slain almost all of the shissar,
destroying their empire and forcing the survivors to flee
Norrath altogether. Now, its victims were the ogres, and soon
they were dying by the thousands, causing the leaders of the
Rallosian Empire to fall into utter panic. In the south, the
ogres were also struck down, and the races that they had
enslaved rose up in rebellion. Only those ogres engaged in the
assault on Guk and the small ogre enclave in the Islands of
Mist survived, protected from the Greenmist’s approach.
As the Greenmist obliterated the ogre forces and then
dissipated, the Knights of Truth struck, plunging into the
heart of the reeling Rallosian army. The Avatar of War was
overwhelmed and slain, and his deadly weapon, the blade
Soulfire, fell into the hands of Lucan D’Lere. Some claim that
D’Lere took the blade by treachery after commanding his
forces to slay the Knights of Truth; the tyrant’s subsequent
actions certainly confirm that such a thing is possible, but no
one knows for certain. D’Lere claims that he personally slew
the Avatar of War and took the sword as his rightful prize, but
since all of the Knights of Truth perished in the battle, there
were none to dispute his version of events.
In the battle’s aftermath, the Ashen Order once more
turned its back on human civilization and returned to the
Desert of Ro. The human victory was not complete, for in the
confusion following the battle many of the Deathfist Orcs had
escaped, retaining a significant portion of their numbers. In
years to come, the Deathfists would return to plague the
humans, but for the moment most were content merely to
mourn their dead and to rebuild their population.
Civilization had been saved, but the cost had been terrible
— and exactly how terrible would become evident in the
coming years.
The Word of the Tranquil
In the days following the Battle of Defiance, the humans
began to assess the damage and lay plans for rebuilding. Most
believed that the forces of evil were irrevocably shattered, and
most felt that a crusade against the ogres in the south was in
order. They turned to the Avatar of Tranquility, the last of the
semi-divine beings left on Norrath, for guidance; however,
much to their dismay, he too had departed.
Yet the Avatar had one last gift to bestow upon hisbeloved
people. Before his departure, he had visited certain mortals in
dreams and there had uttered a cryptic but ominous message,
which would come to be known as the Word of the Tranquil:
When the shadows are broken and fire rains from the sky, seek
refuge within the cities of men.
Those who still revered the gods saw this message as nothing
less than a sacred prophecy, and as further proof that the gods
indeed cared for mortals and wished to save them. Others
claimed that the so-called prophecy was a sham, concocted
merely to promote the notion that the gods still existed, and

​

​