Kälin’har

Real World Location: Giza, Egypt (Subterranean)

Buried beneath the vast and unforgiving sands of the Crimson Desert lie the catacombs of the Kälin'har. Once a massive metropolis of Gûndre design, the great city of Kälin'har was a beacon of Light for the entire world. Built using Gûndre design and technology, Elven and Chatûl magic, and the intrepidity of Human ingenuity, the glittering spires and cloud-piercing towers of Kälin'har inspired the races of the Blessed Living to aspire to new heights. During the middle of the Second Age, the city of Kälin’har grew beyond compare, and as it grew in size, it attracted the ire of the Void Serpent.

Onûs loathed Kälin’har, taken aback by the ability of the Blessed Living to band together and combine their creative talents to create things of beauty. He was enraged that even these insignificant creatures possessed the ability to create, the ability that was taken from him by the One. The dark lord was enraged, consumed with jealousy, and felt there was only one way to rectify the situation. Onûs called his servants to his side, one of each race of Blessed Living that had participated in constructing the great city. Each of these lieutenants were instilled with great powers, as Onûs bade them drank the blood of his avatar.

There were four damned souls who committed themselves to Onûs that night, swearing to do his will, whatever the cost. Siniriel Valathorien, the Disgraced Queen of the Marred; an Elven princess and heir to the throne of Valathor, the great Gold Elven realm in north of Anûrias. Björn Sundersword, the Apostate Reaper; a Gûndre general who had achieved greatness in the Celestial War in the service of Sûldin, but had since fallen from grace. Flamesinger Suzan, the Ravenous Priestess; a former High Priestess of Jolarä who watched her entire tribe wither and die from starvation, eventually going mad. Maloch the Dark Hand; a Human poet and artist of significant repute who was forced to watch his dearest love murdered before his eyes, eventually swearing fealty to Onûs in the hopes that he would see her again. They were all betrayed by the will of Onûs, tricked into their dark paths by the machinations of the Void Serpent. Now, he sought to use them as agents of his will.

His servants gathered into his presence and infused with a portion of his divine blood, Onûs commanded his thrall to set out into the great city crafted by the hands of mortals and sabotage the great work their kin had created. As messengers of the Void Serpent, the four forsaken souls set out to lay waste to Kälin’har, using their now-considerable powers to undo what their kin had wrought. Within a month, they rent asunder the glorious creation that took decades of unending labor to erect. The glittering spires, and sky-piercing towers of the one great city fell into the sands that surrounded it, the unmaking of such great magic tainting the sand red as blood. In the end, all was rubble and ashes. All that remained were the vast and seemingly unending halls of the Gûndre quarter, and even further below the deep-delving and cavernous expanse of the great tombs of Kälin’har.

In the wake of the atrocity they had committed, the Forsaken set out to dwell in the remnant of their once beloved home, their minds twisted in mourning as even the fell whispers of Onûs’ dark power faded against the cacophony of their insurmountable guilt. The Four Forsaken dwelt in their misery, given immortality by the power of Onûs’ blood. Consumed, they used their newfound gifts to restore their lost loved ones to life after a fashion, gifting them with a wide array of dark blessings.

Now, after five thousand years the dead still walk in the great necropolis of Kälin’har, a dark reminder of the price of failure as what was once a bastion of the forces of light has since fallen into the shadow of despair.