Fyr’s Shadow

Pre Race War era

An ivory pillar was found here thousands of years ago. As the years passed, the pillar took on religious meaning. Symbols were carved into it to represent its holiness to the occupiers. As the years went on, tribes rose, fell, or moved through which caused the ownership of this holy pillar to pass from one set of hands to others.

Eventually, as groups started to settle more in the area, they began to build onto the pillar and make the site habitable. This building continued to grow and led to the founding of the first major settlement in the region. As the settlement started growing, questions as to which religion had rights to claim the land started to raise. Fighting ensued over ownership of this spot causing the site to slip in and out of several religious groups’ control. The most prominent ownership belonged to Kord.

Kord’s followers set up a stronghold in the city, building strength and treating all those that would try to take it to swift defeat. While their ranks and strength grew, the rest of the religious groups started to dwindle from their respective defeats. None withstood the onslaught of Kord’s followers as they spread their influence. At this point in history, one religion was completely obliterated. The name of this god was lost to time. Those that study come across whispers of this forgotten old one, though the name is never spoken which leads many to speculate who this god was.

The rest of the religious orders could no longer stand against Kord’s strength as a single entity and were rallied together by a half elf named Wynian Arazeiro, a follower of Avandra goddess of luck, to gather their remaining might to run Kord’s acolytes out from the city. Arazeiro led the battle plowing through the might of the opposing army until reaching the stone walls around the city. Legend says that Avandra herself came down to the battlefield at this point towering above the followers of the various religions and pushing down the wall so they could advance. This battle led to the fall of the city but all religions had become united because of it.

Arazeiro and the leaders of the other religious orders sat down after the battle was finished, 367 years before the Great War of the Races broke out,  and set out to make certain that this would never happen again. They signed the Treaty from Religious Fyr which struck a truce between all major religions, including Kord. This led to a cease of fighting on this site claiming that it was holy to all religions and must be respected by each as such. Equal rights to the site were given that day.

After the truce had been struck, people of all religions started to flock there, building up the city as they joined. A couple hundred years passed while groups started to expand and turf skirmishes started breaking out. This was exascerbated by the racial tensions that were growing throughout the world at the time.  Because of the great war, the city was razed to the ground. All that was left standing was the foundation of the wall that had been built around the spire. This only seemed to reinforce the idea that the ivory spire was holy.

When the great war ended, the truce was reinstated with an addendum. To avoid any turf skirmishes moving forward, each group would also be allotted equal land to do with as they saw fit. A great Dwarven architect of the era, Brourdus Ironbeard, was hired to draw up plans for the city. His design was symbolic in that it was shaped like the great nexus, where all religious planes are connected to each other, known as the Shadowfell. The city was built in a circle with a spire built in the middle to represent the great forgotten god. Skyward Pillar now houses the ivory spire that the original spire was built around.

Post Race War Era

The Festival of the Bay

186 years after the city had been rebuilt, the foundation was again under the threat of destruction. A storm was growing in the east, resonating from the islands found above Glaring. As the days went on, the storm continued to grow in strength. Several ships made for land in the ports just outside of Fyr’s Shadow. Sailors that came in claimed that the storm was supernatural in the making and warned of a giant elemental guiding the storm toward the city. As the storm continued to grow in power, many people chose to leave, the warnings of an unstoppable force of nature reassuring them that their homes were already lost. The most devote of each faith stayed behind to guard against it as best as they could.

Winds grew and waters started to rise destroying any coastline settlement. It was all the mages could do to keep the force at bay and protect the city, but even the most stubborn of those started to lose hope the moment the elemental came into view on the horizon. From the center, massive bolts of lightning flew, vaporizing anything near where they landed. There was not enough power to hold against the storm at this point, let alone destroy the elemental at the root of it.

As the storm was making landfall, something unimaginable started to happen. From out of the forests surrounding the city came all kinds of fey creatures lending their magic to the defense of the city. Man and beast alike did what they could to form a magical barrier to block out the storm. At first it seemed that it would hold, but after two days of constant battering, their power grew weak again. Fey started to fall outside the city gates and mages started to drop dead from exhaustion where they stood. Again forces outside the city’s control came to the rescue. The forest seemed to come alive to form a natural barrier against this beast.

The battle to protect the land raged for 7 more days. With the combined force of man, beast, and the influence of the Sylvan world, the city withstood the elemental. It pounded against the shore trying to destroy everything in its way only to be pushed back time and time again. Its gathered strength was worn out after 9 days and those that were left managed to work together to quell it.

After the elemental was defeated, the fey and beasts disappeared back into the forest as suddenly and unexpectedly as they had emerged. The Sylvan creatures also left, seemingly swallowed by the land. The city was left relatively unscathed because of the event. To this day a gathering of that size has yet to be seen. After damages were repaired, the people of Fyr’s Shadow threw a festival to celebrate the fact that so many different creatures could put aside their differences to help each other in this one instance in history. As years went by this became a festival lasting 9 days in reference to how long it took to hold off the elemental. It became known as the Festival of the Bay.

The Tomb Eye Plague

275 I.B. after the great war saw new problems with the city. This time it came from within the city’s walls. The people living within started to fall ill. The disease was known as Tomb Eye. Symptoms included severe weight loss, chalky, pale skin, blisters oozing pus that wouldn’t heal, patchy balding, and various other things. The main indicator of this disease was the color of your eyes and around the eye would turn black. That coupled with the loss of hair and weight made people look like walking skeletons. As the disease would spread on the body, the blisters would turn black as well. As the victim started dying, spores would erupt out of their body becoming air born affecting anyone around them.

The disease wasn’t a big deal at the beginning and was easily cured using magic, but the magic could never quite get rid of it completely. Over the course of 73 years it kept coming back, getting stronger with each reemergence. It got to the point that there were more sick than could be handled and the death toll started to become catastrophic. Entire sections of the city were wiped out because of the plague. To try and ebb the growth, a quarantine section was set up in the part of town dedicated to Nerull where as many people as could fit were grouped together and then walled in and left to die.

These were dark times for the city, and for the world. This disease swept across much of the southern continent specifically in the swampy marsh region. It hit Glaring and Fyr’s Shadow the hardest. It got to the point that many felt that the humanoid races that inhabited the land would soon die out completely.

As fate would have it, a small Elven girl named Ryul Fenzana found a way to fix this issue. Legend tells that Ryul lost her family to the this plague and had started showing symptoms herself. Instead of getting corralled in quarantine or giving up, she decided to try to make a desperate plea to the Gods. She choose to climb Mount Fyr, the tallest known mountain it the world, in order to be closer to the Gods in hopes that it would make her prayer clearer so that it would be answered. Many scoffed at the idea as she preparing to take leave of the city. She climbed the path that goat herders had worn into the mountain face as the disease set in deeper. Her struggle was hard trying to reach the summit. Some claim she actually died halfway up but when Nerull came to collect her, she ignored him and continued her quest to the top and he kept pace beside her waiting for her sense of purpose to burn out.

When she reached the top, she shouted out to the heavens for relief from the plague that was killing the peoples of the land. Once her prayer had left her lips, she fell to the ground with exhaustion. It is claimed that Pelor came down from the heavens that day in his full radiance to stand atop the mountain and looked down at the city. He pointed and from his fingertips shined a bright light that seared through the sickness. As he moved the light across the land, the sickness vanished at its touch. With a loud crack and a blast of bright flame, he ascended back into the sky.

A group of paladins from the church of Pelor quickly mounted up to make their journey up the mountain. When they arrived at the pinnacle, they found Ryul crouched beside a fire to keep warm. She claimed it was left behind after the God had left the material plane and she had used it to keep the chill from being the end of her.

When she was brought back down from the mountain top, she was heralded as the city’s greatest hero for her deeds and determination to convince the Gods to help their plight. It was seen as a sign by all the religious groups of the city and they set about to make Ryul Fenzana their leader above all others in the city. She received the title Atoka which translates to religious leader in common. From that day forward this position has been held to oversee all religious orders.

Vanities Flame

As the city continued to grow, it also began amassing a great sum of wealth. 633 years after the great race war, a shift in the way people behaved had started to show. They no longer put all of their attention into appeasing the Gods. They started to work at trying to make their lives easier as well. Their focus turned from the afterlife to their current life on earth. They began to collect lavish treasures and have resplendent artworks created. As this lifestyle overtook the city, parties and revelries became more common. Feast days became feast weeks. Eventually a counter culture began to grow preaching against the ways that had become so commonplace.

Led by a human by the name of Gacs Vrebux, this group went around shaming the establishment for their hedonistic ways stating that they had lost sight of what it meant to lead the religions. Gacs went so far as to verbally attack Atoka Calomis calling for his resignation from the high seat. Calomis refused to give any head to this movement claiming that it would eventually sputter out as people had no interest in the ways of the past. That was not the case, however, as Gacs started a movement within the city to fight back against the material worship that continued to grow in numbers as he spoke out against the establishment.

648 years after the great war, the movement boiled to a head as Gacs Vrebux called for an end to the material life and a return to the pious worship of the past. He and his followers collected material wealth from several private houses including jewelry, paintings, and clothes and built a pyre in the main square outside of the Skyward Pillar where they threw all of the items in to burn. The whole time the fire raged, Gacs preached of the sins of the hedonistic lifestyle proclaiming that Calomis would burn in the nine hells, just as his wealth did on that spot.

Calomis could no longer ignore the building resentment against his position and ordered Gacs to be arrested and put to death for his heretical teachings against the collective religions. Gacs went on the run after that hiding with the help of his followers. Calomis became impatient with the search, fearing that each day he didn’t resolve the situation, he would lose more supporters. He eventually extended the decree of death to those that were also suspected of hiding Gacs within the city.

The hunt lasted 4 more years until Gacs was found hiding with a band of orcs outside one of the coastal towns. He was then brought back to the city where he awaited a quick trial and was put to death by hanging in the same square he had held the bonfire just four years prior.

Perenth’s Reign

Until Gacs’s bold move, it would never had been thought to go against the Atoka but 712 years after the war, just 60 years after his death, a battle broke out against the right to the religious position. Prior to Calomis and through his own reign, the position of the Atoka had been becoming increasingly more corrupt. When it came time to elect the new one, it was already decided who would be taking up the seat of power. Calomis  had seen fit during his life to groom a young human boy named Joshua Sanguine to take over after he passed to secure his legacy.

Many people within the religious orders didn’t appreciate this and rallied against it when it happened. The Council saw fit to deny the masses their claim of injustice. Because of this, several groups decided to splinter off from the main churches and elect an Atoka of their own. Yukgnath the first ever half-orc to be elected. He was elected from the house of  Kord and was ushered up as the people’s choice of leader. This caused a great deal of infighting among the new group as there were those that recalled the history of the last time an orc of Kord ruled the city before the Great Race War. Out of racial fear, the group split again. The new group elected Perenth The Careful, a dragonborn from Chandall. The three groups were at odds with each other claiming that their respective Atoka was the correct individual chosen by the people and blessed by the Gods. The arguments broke out into war. Joshua Sanguine hid inside the Skyward Pillar while the other two groups fought in the streets to prove the right of their cause. Eventually Perenth the Careful and his followers defeated Yukgnath  and turned their eye towards removing Sanguine from the tower. As they fought against the guards that held the the entrance, Sanguine slipped away through a series of tunnels under the tower. He was never seen again.

Perenth the Careful took the seat of the Atoka in the year 717 I.B (Imperatoribus Benedictus).  His nature helped to pull the schism between the religions back together before it fell into mass fighting. To this day the city has remained at peace.

Orders and Schools

Order of the Blue Scale – A paladin order also referred to as the city guard. They operate inside the city taking up positions of political power. Only 25 knights hold a position in the order. Others are only apprentices in training or guards.

The First of Kord –

The Sanguine Rose –

Notable NPCs

Atoka Arnold – The leader of all religions within the city and spiritual advisor to political leaders

Brutus – A strapping, buff young human who came from Anarya looking for some action.

Charlie – Bartender of Dragonash Inn in Elhonna’s sector.

Craig – A mysterious Tiefling Wizard from the far west. Nobody knows what he’s up to be it can’t be good.

Frumple – Frumple best Goblin Bard. Other Goblins is saying so.

Lady Richter – Noble woman that lives in Lyonhall Hold on a small island north of Fyr’s Shadow.

Marius Tullen – A general in the Southern army sent to guard Fyr’s Shadow against outside attack. He is quite worried about the Atoka’s ruling to allow northern refugees sanctum inside the city walls.

Rovaro – Claimed his sister had vanished for over a week but now that she’s back she is acting weird.

Sir Blannden of House Richter – A potential candidate to enter the house of Kord and become a champion

Wilam Sigschnell – The assistant to the Atoka. When the Atoka passes, he fills the roll until another is elected to the position.