He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.

   

The Chronology of the History of Fastheld, as compiled by Iselore Zahir, a Captain in the Imperial Watch and Commander of the West Aegis Garrison. This Chronology lists most of the important events that have ever transpired in Fastheld, constantly evolving as Iselore continues to research the history of the realm, continuing to grow as more and more information about the history of Fastheld - and the time before it - is discovered.

  
 

The castle on Turtle Rock was the realization of a dream for a stonemason named Hammon Smith.

Smith came from common blood, but aspired to nobility. He built his most defensible fortress before seeking recognition of House Smith by the Council of Nobles - the ruling body in those days before the First Wildling War and the ascent of the Wildcat Crown of House Kahar.

However, the six noble houses refused to recognize the validity of House Smith. So, Hammon Smith declared war on the Council's membership.

An event heralded with a rose given by Prince Junus Kahar to Veronika Vozhd as a symbol of his love.

It was Veronika's rejection of his heart, and the symbolic toss of the rose to the hearthfire, that signaled both the birth of the independent House Vozhd, and the rift that would ultimately doom it.

  • 87 BTA – Crown of Vozhd Forged

The Crown of Vozhd is a relic from a distant age before the rise of the Kahar emperors and the First Wildling War, when House Vozhd enjoyed its glory days and remained independent. The last Vozhd chamberlain, Ymir Golov, surrendered the crown to Tanus Kahar after Golov's master - House patriarch Dunal Vozhd, fell in battle against House Kahar. The crown returned to the Vozhd bloodline after the family joined House Kahar through marriage.

  • 65 BTA – The Elk Staff Crafted

Carried by Grummlan Path, the explorer hired by Fahral Mikin to scout the woods around Light's Reach, the Elk Staff was crafted in the year 65 Before the Aegis by a woodsmith named Hundon Lock.

The Staff was commissioned by Yadrell Mikin, a Patron of the Church of True Light, who bestowed the walking stick as part of a reward to Grummlan Path for his efforts in scouting along the Lightholder River for a suitable site to locate the Stanchion - a major citadel in service to the Church that still stands to this day.

Path carried the Elk Staff with him until his mortal wounding by Wildlings after his discovery of the Sheltered Flame Keep not far from Light's Reach.

A Ranger of some renown who served Emperor Talus Kahar I during the First Wilding War. Sirion Starkhorn would go on to forge his name through the hunting of Wildlings; a profession in which he excelled at, and can be accredited as the source of much of the information that the "Wildling Tactics" that are taught to Bladesmen to this very day are based upon.

Around 35 BTA, there is said to have lived an eccentric armorer by the name of Aenit Hammer. Aenit was obsessed with making the best set of armor possible, and wasn't satisfied with the designs that existed in his day, nor with only using one metal in their creation. He mixed and alloyed metals and minerals freely, and the designs for his suits of armor (such as the hammer-helm, designed to be used as an augment to headbutting an opponent if the user was disarmed) often verged on the ludicrous.

However, near the end of his career, he finally came up with something that came very close to his need for perfection: the Aenitshield. Made from two different alloys melted on top of each other, it consisted of a bluish alloy that he called hardore, which was virtually impervious to blows and very slick to the touch, and a reddish-brown alloy on the back called stifleshock that seemed to soften the effects of weapon blows on the wielder's hand and forearm.

He fashioned it in such a shape as to be able to catch attacker's blades and disarm them, yet maintain maximum usability as a shield. This opened up the ability of using large shields offensively without injury to one's hand or arm, and a new sword fighting style was created with the Aenitshields in mind, called simply 'Aenit'.

Over the remainder of his career, he fashioned more than two hundred of these shields, charging exorbitant fees and getting few complaints. He never gave out the formula for his alloys, and just after the Aegis was completed, he died. As these masterpieces were passed down over the ages, the flaw in Aenit's design became evident: they were extremely susceptible to rust. Those that actively used the shields soon found that in twenty years or so, the rust would overtake them and they would become useless.

Light's Reach was founded on Eastwatch Hill by Fahral Mikin in 25 BTA (Before the Aegis). At the time, Fahral was a pioneering young nobleman of 23, with a wife named Corsara Mikin and sons named Annath and Allal.

Fahral dubbed the high ground - a mesa - upon which Light's Reach sits as Eastwatch Hill. Now, as many Fastheldians realize, this has led to some misunderstanding and confusion with the township of Eastwatch, well to the northeast of the mesa. The simplest explanation accepted by scholars in the Church of True Light is that, when the young duke founded the town of Light's Reach, it was atop the easternmost point of known explored territory outside the Old City.

In 25 BTA (Before the Aegis), a woodsman named Grummlan Path set out to survey the land surrounding Eastwatch Hill on behalf of Fahral Mikin and discovered an ancient castle deep in the woods, downhill on the eastern side of the bluff. Within the vine-choked stones of the keep, Grummlan encountered a pack of Wildlings lurking among the ruins. He fought them, killed them, but sustained a mortal injury from poisoning inflicted by the monsters.

He struggled back to Light's Reach and survived just long enough to tell his master of the castle and the Wildlings found within.

The castle became known as Sheltered Flame Keep, and was established as the headquarters of the Order of the Flame, an organization devoted to the defense of Light's Reach against forces of shadow and evil. The keep remains in use for that purpose to this day.

In 22 BTA (Before the Aegis), Grummlan Path's widow, Sorine, and son, Grummlar, wanted something done to specifically honor the memory of their loved one. They petitioned Fahral Mikin at East Bluff three years after Grummlan Path's death and won the Mikin patriarch's approval for a project to commemorate the sacrifice of the woodsman.

Fahral Mikin commissioned the sculpting of a white marble statue of Grummlan Path by an artisan named Yanim Grove. The sculpture was then erected in a garden at Sheltered Flame Keep.

  • 8 BTA – Fighting Knives of Sirion Forged

Named Valacar and Arvendor, from what was mention in the journals of Emperor Talus Kahar I, it can be said that these unique blades were forged some time before the Aegis was dreamed of, before Talus Kahar had even arisen to his station, and that they was borne by Sirion Starkhorn, a Ranger of some renown in the service of the then Prince Talus Kahar, who forged his name from the blood of the Wildlings he hunted with these fighting knives.

In Starkhorn's possession, during the First Wildling War, the Knives of Sirion drew blood in several battles: At the Darkening of Fastheld, in the Valley of Blades, during the Battle of the Gray Forest, through the Hunting of the Raven, and finally during the Last Ride of Ulfell in which Sirion Starkhorn lost the knives after ultimately falling to the creatures he had once hunted after finding enough strength to return to the Emperor and inform him of Ulfell's death before succumbing to the Light.

Forged for Goram Zahir in the year 6 BTA (Before the Aegis) by a Hedgehem blacksmith named Yull Fin, this armor was worn by the man known as the Craven Raven about the time he orchestrated the dastardly betrayal of the Emperor's Blades and the Church of True Light at the Valley of the Blades to the Wildling invaders.

Legend holds that Zahir intended for this to be his signature armor when he ascended to the throne of Fastheld upon disposing of Emperor Talus Kahar I. He fancied that the raven eyes gazing out from the back would create a mystique about his cognitive abilities and deter others from trying to betray him as he would betray them.

As it turns out, however, the eyes did nothing to save him from capture after the Emperor survived the Wildling ambush in the valley along the Fastheld River. He wore the armor as he hung along the Imperial Thoroughfare, the deep amber eyes gazing balefully down through misty rain at those who thwarted his scheme.

  • 5 BTA – First “Flamekeeper” Of Light’s Reach Hired

The first Flamekeeper, hired in 5 BTA (Before the Aegis), was a hunched old man named Wun Wood.

The name given to the battle that heralded both the coming of the First Wildling War, and the formation of the Emperor's Blades. After defending the walls of what is now the Shadow District from Wildling attack with the aid of Ulfell Lomasa, Sirion Starkhorn, and whatever men were courageous enough to take up arms by his side, Talus Kahar proclaimed that the people of Fastheld "Stand at the crossroads of history," and sent forth riders to muster a call to service.

The term "darkening" was adopted as a two-fold meaning; the first being that Wildlings would then only attack in the twilight hours, and the second remaining symbolic of the dark taint that such creatures would forever cast upon those who would be born in later generations.

The name for the first declared war between the People of Fastheld, and the creatures known as Wildlings. The First Wildling War took place in the year 4 BTA (Before the Aegis), and was sparked by an event in which Wildlings assaulted the walls of the city that is now known as the Shadow District.

Upon that day, Emperor Talus Kahar I, along with Blademaster Ulfell Lomasa, Sirion Starkhorn, and a handful of comrades, valiantly defended the citizens of the city from the slaughter that the Wildlings would have brought upon them in the battle that is now known as the Darkening of Fastheld.

  • 4 BTA – Wildfang Forged

This sword, known as Wildfang, was forged on behalf of Blademaster Ulfell Lomasa in the year 4 BTA (Before the Aegis), during the First Wildling War. The Blademaster had scavenged a handful of fangs from the first Wildling he killed in battle during the war. Emperor Talus Kahar I took the the fangs to a blacksmith traveling with the troops and commissioned the creation of the sword, which he called Wildfang.

The smith, Antem Soot, bestowed the sword to Ulfell Lomasa as part of a special ceremony in the weeks after Goram Zahir's ill-fated betrayal of the troops at the Valley of the Blades.

During the war, Lomasa went on to raise the sword known as Wildfang as a rallying point for his troops, from the Gray Forest to Halweir's Notch. He carried the sword until his demise at the claws and fangs of three Wildlings that ambushed his encampment one morning along the Lightholder River in the season of Huntsmoon in the year 3 BTA (Before the Aegis).

The blade bears the six-dot-circle mark that signifies a sword forged by Antem Soot. Soot went on to become a legendary bladecrafter in the years after the First Wildling War.

During the first Wildling War, fought under the banner of Talus Kahar I, Goram Zahir betrayed the Emperor and the Blades, misleading them about the enemy's numbers as they entered the valley. Many Bladesmen were slaughtered.

One of two sons of Fahral Mikin, Allal was forced to joust against his brother for the honor of serving in the War. Allal triumphed; Annath remained at East Bluff Keep - still under construction but habitable - to help his father manage affairs in Light's Reach. Allal died within a year, in the Valley of the Blades.

  • 4 BTA – Ancestral Guardian Forged

A martial weapon, what little history surrounding this weapon exists, states that it was forged sometime in the year 4 BTA (Before the Aegis), after the Valley of Blades incident. Wounded, bitter, and seeking to ensure that such betrayed by the House of Snakes would never happen again, Emperor Talus Kahar I requested that a weapon of great power and honor be forged through the spirit and fury of those who needlessly fell to Wildlings through the betrayal of Goram Zahir's own political agenda. The Ancestral Guardian was the result of that furious desire.

It is not known how this blade was created, nor is it known who - or what - it was created by. There were certainly no Blacksmiths of that age who could forge a longsword of pure gold and make it more effective than one of steel, nor is that knowledge apparent today.

What is known, however, is that the Ancestral Guardian can be wielded only by those of the pure bloodline of the Imperial Line, and burns the hands of any others who dare try and claim it as their own with an unnatural and furious heat. The effect that it has upon creatures of Shadow is also equally as fearsome, able to cause vast destruction to those who walk outside of the Light.

Some claim it was fused with the very spirits of those who fell to Goram Zahir's treachery; and, indeed, those comrades of the craven Zahir painfully witnessed the ferocity of this blade as it forged righteous justice in tainted blood when the Emperor finally crusaded against them two weeks later as he pursued the traitor with vengeful zeal.

The name given to the pursuit of Goram "The Craven Raven" Zahir, following his betrayal of Emperor Talus Kahar I at the battle of the Valley of Blades during the First Wildling War. Emerging relatively unscathed from an event that was meant to kill them, Talus Kahar, along with Ulfell Lomasa and Sirion Starkhorn, swiftly sought furious vengeance against Goram and his loyalists.

After much bloodshed, Goram was finally apprehended, along with an entourage of his of his loyal minions, and promptly hung and left for dead along the Imperial Thoroughfare.

The name given to the battle that took place amidst the high branches of the sacred bloodwood trees in the Gray Forest; one of the few places in Fastheld where Wildlings found they could manoeuvre safely regardless of the hour. Blademaster Lomasa wished to chop down the trees and burn the forest, but the Church held the land and trees as sacred. Bladesmen, along with a unit of Shadowscourges from the Church of True Light, eventually assaulted the forest, though the battle was not deemed a decisive victory for either side of the conflict

Had either Fastheld force tried this battle alone, the Wildlings - even outnumbered - would have wiped them out. As it was, the combined force lost more than half of its attacking 327 soldiers to the dervish-like attacks of the invading savage Shadow creatures, who didn't have to kill a man on the battlefield to leave him dead or dying a short while later. The poisoned claws took many more lives than might ordinarily have been lost against a normal enemy.

The name given to the event in which Blademaster Ulfell Lomasa, along with the scouting party that traveled with him along the western ridge of the Lightholder River, met his demise at the claws of three Wildlings during an ambush in the First Wildling War.

The Blademaster fell under the thrashing claws and teeth of the three Wildlings. His scouts fared little better; only one survived long enough, poison coursing agonizingly through his veins, to return to the encampment and inform the Emperor that his friend and most able warrior had fallen in battle.

Sirion ultimately met his demise during what is referred to as the Last Ride of Ulfell, in which Starkhorn was the only survivor. Severely wounded, and racked by agonizing pain from the Wildling poison that spread through his body through his injuries, Sirion Starkhorn still managed to find his way back to Emperor Talus Kahar's encampment to inform him of the death of Ulfell Lomasa, before finally passing into the Light.

"I do not know how we shall persevere without Ulfell's wisdom," the Emperor wrote in his journals of the conflict in the wake of Ulfell’s death, and the promotion of Wayul in his steed, “But we have no choice but to try. We must trust in the Light to see us through these dark times."

It was on the site now known as Aegisport, upon the hills north of the river, that the first Kahar Emperor finally cornered and defeated the Wildling warriors who decimated the Fastheld forces at the Valley of Blades.

Gifted to the family Fionnlagh by Emperor Talus Kahar I for the heroic service of Shawn Kenly Fionnlagh, archer, in the Valley of the Blades. According to legend, an arrow shot from this very bow felled the Wildling that cursed the Kahar bloodline.

Shadowsbane is an Imperial relic, crafted in the courts of the Emperor by the finest bowyers of the age. It is one of the Fionnlagh family's most treasured possessions.

  • 3 BTA – Construction Of “The Twins” Begins

Two ambitious projects devised by Light's Reach founder Fahral Mikin. In despair over the loss of his youngest son at the Valley of Blades, Fahral ordered twin keeps erected on the bluffs east and west of the town proper, to guard the four torch towers.

The first castle, East Twin, was finished before Fahral Mikin died of old age. The second castle, West Twin, would not be completed until eight years later, under the guidance of Fahral's oldest son, Annath.

Returning from the First Wildling War, Emperor Talus Kahar I built this town on the north shore of the Fastheld River, near the site of the final battle in the first Wildling War, where his forces triumphed and smashed the remnants of the invaders.

  • 2 BTA – The Helm of the Horsemaster Forged
  • 1 BTA – Emperor Talus Kahar II Born
  • 0 ATA – The Aegis Is Constructed

The hard-fought First Wildling War, a conflict against a race of humanoid, poison-clawed Shadow monstrosities from the wilderness, had just ended. The Imperial Council recommended to the Emperor that a protective wall be erected around the territory of Fastheld to defend against further incursions by the savage creatures. But even a modest defensive wall would take years to construct. The Emperor, himself injured in the war, had pushed the troops of the Emperor's Blades and the Church of True Light to the breaking point. Many able-bodied men had entered service to fight the war. He could not reasonably expect them to now pour themselves into the exhausting, backbreaking work of raising a wall. Nor could the Emperor take for granted that the Wildlings wouldn't try to mount another offensive while the wall remained unfinished. He could think of only one way to accomplish this with needed rapidity: Mages.

He extended an offer of amnesty to any Shadow-Touched denizen in Fastheld: Lend their ability to raising the Aegis in exchange for free passage out of Fastheld, unharmed, each with a horse and wagon loaded with supplies. It was the best compromise the Emperor could offer without sparking a revolt by the noble houses or the Church of True Light.

Dozens of mages took the offer of the Amnesty of the Wildcat Crown, as it was called. Their only real alternative was to live in secrecy for fear of being discovered. If discovered, they might be captured by the warriors of the Church of True Light or the Emperor's own Surrector, and forced to endure torture, maiming, blinding, and muting. They'd become Lessers, forced to live as slaves working in the mines of the realm. Or they might be killed.

So, the wizards took their crown-bestowed wagons, rode out to points along the perimeter designated by the Emperor, and waited for the signal from a courier. When it came, the conjurors used their abilities to rip soil and stone from the earth itself, raising the towering wall between themselves and the territory they once called home.

Despondent over the loss of Allal, Fahral became reclusive, relying more and more on Annath to manage his affairs. He saw the completion of East Bluff Keep and its twin torch towers, insisting they always stay lit, before finally joining the Light.

  • 6 ATA - Scepter of Carwel Crafted

During the formation of Fastheld, Talus Kahar I decided to elevate six major Houses from the nobility of the time, giving them Crown sanction within his new city-state. For the other houses, they had three options: find a major House that would incorporate the minor house into its ranks, accept citizenship in the form of becoming freelanders, or don't accept citizenship at all, and be forced to fend for oneself outside of Fastheld. The major Houses pulled out the most promising and useful of the minor houses and incorporated them, but dozens of minor houses were left with a choice between the latter options.

House Carwel, a house known for its quality woodworkers and carpenters, were faced with this very dilemma. They had once been a house of mild renown, but over centuries of badly-strategized marriages and a populous who were beginning to take more to stone structures than wood ones, the house was reduced to two keeps, a few farmer's fields, and a small forest just northeast of what is now Wallwatch Wood.

After months of deliberation, patriarch Follir Carwel decided to allow his house to be integrated as freelanders into Fastheld, but vowed that one day, his house would rise into power once more. He saved a large tapestry, the throne, the signet ring and the Scepter of the Carwels for safekeeping until that day should arrive. Four generations of his kin kept these relics safe, but Follir's great-great-great grandson, Belal Carver, didn't seem to have quite as much faith in the family's noble prospects.

Faced with the looming possibility of being committed to the Blades for his failure to pay an outstanding loan, he auctioned off the four items to the highest bidder, each one going to a different collector. The scepter has thusly been bought and sold by collectors of antiquities for centuries, little more than a footnote in the history of Fastheld and a conversation piece on someone's mantle.

According to legend, Talus Kahar II struck down the Viscount Brφselov Vozhd from his warhorse, Arbat, using a Longbow known as the Kingmaker in what history has called the Battle of Red Fields. With the fall of their house leader, the stalwart Vozhd defenders fell into a panic as they tried to recover the body, and in the chaos, were forced to retreat from the field. This route, coupled with the loss of the Vozhd's last great commander, would be the decisive event in the House's capitulation.

As Talus Kahar II grows ill in his final years, Regent Vurrun Lomasa is chosen to rule alongside Empress Vala Mikin until Talus Kahar III is fit to do so. This lasts until 65 ATA.

Once every 45 years or so, starting in about 50 ATA (After the Aegis), bizarre happenings plague the township atop Eastwatch Hill. That first year, scores of horses, goats and cattle were slaughtered, their flayed carcasses left hanging from trees in Mikin Wood.

Talus Kahar III commissions Harlim Nillu, a noble artisan, to sculpt a number of monuments in his Great Grandfather’s honor: A giant wildcat's head to house the constabulary, a giant wildcat with heads and paws on the north and south ends that houses the Riverview Tavern, and a domed mercantile with three attached rearing wildcats. A no-frills, fairly ordinary grey stone temple stands out among the structures.

Aegiskeep was first designed during the reign of Talus Kahar II, but it was not until the ascension of his successor that artisan Harlim Nillu completed the final work on the stone head that now houses the residence.

The great keep was fashioned to look like a luxuriating wildcat, with two massive clawed forepaws flanking the portcullis that leads into the castle below the stone head that holds Aegiskeep's residential quarters.

  • 87 ATA – Nameless Light Forged

Said to have once been the weapon that the Horsemaster Cendra Zahir used to defend Emperor Talus Kahar II with, the Nameless Light is a pure weapon of cold steel that was forged in an age that demanded weapons of as much grace and honour as the people that were deemed to wield them.

Used as the basis of the design from which the Lawgiver was conceived, legend states that the Nameless Light was brought to Fastheld from the stars, though other tales claim that it was forged by a grieving father, or was the weapon of a virtuous Emperor from before the Aegis.

In truth, it is thought that several such blades existed, though all but one were lost with the passing of time and the battles that weaved through it. They were created with the blessing of the Light, and if this sword is anything to go by, each has had many stories from any number of owners. Perhaps that is the true power of the Nameless Light; it compels people to craft heroes of their own, and Cendra Zahir was no exception.

  • 89 ATA – “Serry Rush” Incident And Landmark Named

The stretch of the Fastheld River that runs broad and green between Darkwater Junction to the southeast and the high cliffs that drop from Sun's Point plateau to the northwest was dubbed “Serry Rush” this year.

Serry Rush, named neither for great heroes of bardic fame nor bloody battles, but instead for a Scion of the Kahar line.

His affections ensnared by a Shadowed freelander mage, he declared undying love to her. Shadowscourges from the Sun's Keep upriver came to free him from the spell by sending Darina through purifying flame but the taint of the magic lingered in his mind. Driven mad by the darkness he lived here on the banks, guarding the place where her body fetched up on shore after its flaming drop off the upstream cliffs.

The murderous brigand Halom Halweir, whose gangs marauded a fair stretch of the Lightholder River, finally received justice from the Emperor's Blades this year. Halweir's Notch – as the stretch became known – has since become a popular refuge for squatters and destitute panhandlers, who dwell in coffin-sized niches carved out of the rock.

In 95 ATA, strange blue and green lights glowed above East Bluff and inhabitants reported ghostly moaning sounds. A housekeeper named Forman Dust went mad and massacred his family before hurling himself over the edge of the bluff.

The catastrophic collapse of West Bluff's north tower occurred this year, sparking a blaze in the nearby woodlands that threatened to spread throughout the entire Forest District.

A foreboding section of the Lightholder River, populated by the weather worn skulls of those who attempted to place themselves above the Imperial Law.

It was not called Brigand's Turn because the area was a favorite haunting ground of Fastheld's cutpurses and river pirates; far from it. Instead, it got the moniker from the fact that it is here that Emperor Talus Kahar III declared that all thieves who murder legitimate citizens would have their severed heads mounted for all to see.

Taithar Shadowlancer, so legend has it, was a devoted hunter of Wildlings; so much so that he made it his duty as a Knight-Errant to seek only this one path in life, and slay Shadow wherever he found it. During one of his frequent sojourns into the Wildling Woods - an area deemed off limits under Imperial Law - Taithar became ensnared within a Wildling ambush. Finding his Horse slain, his Knife lost, and his Half-Pike broken in the wake of the attacks that followed, all seemed lost as he was backed into a corner.

Luckily for him, if being ambushed by a horde of Wildlings can be considered lucky to begin with, Taithar found a Bronze Longsword lodged in the tree he was backed up against and, pulling the blade, used it to fend off the attacks, and finally rout the Wildlings. The blade was named Serendipity shortly after, if for no other reason than because of the vast luck involved in finding an old, yet flawless, Longsword in the middle of a forsaken forest, just when it was needed.

  • 122 ATA - Aurora Janus Removed From Power
  • 123 ATA – Emperor Talus Kahar V Born
  • 127 ATA – Kedalla Mikin Dies
  • 128 ATA – Wildstone Progeny Forged

According to legend, the original owner of the blade - Kedalla Mikin - was a prolific and respected Light Maiden who became known as a dauntless slayer of Shadow shortly after Aurora Janus was removed from power in the year 122. Kedalla's devout duty to the Light made her eventual death at the hands of a Shadow-Touched Mage all the more tragic. Her companions saw her death as an insult to the life she once cherished, and the faith she once held, and vowed to hunt down and destroy the Wildling that took Kadalla's life.

To this end they crafted the Wildstone Progeny; a weapon they deemed to be blessed with Light, adapted from the Katar that had previously served Kadalla so well. History does not record the outcome of the battle between the Mage and Kadalla's companions, but this blessed Katar has survived the test of time all the same, and in doing so remains a testament to Kadalla's devotion to her cause.

  • 135 ATA – Scion’s Halo Forged

A circlet forged from precious gold by Light's Reach blacksmith Zoren Hammer on behalf of Fahral Mikin. The circlet, meant to sit upon an adult head, was commissioned as a token for leaders of the township of Light's Reach to bestow upon the heir apparent in each new generation.

In 140 ATA, a dozen infants were snatched from their cradles by a furred beast and carried off into the night, never to be seen again.

  • 156 ATA – Emperor Talus Kahar IV Dies
  • 174 ATA – Bronze Hall of the Imperial Horsemen Built

The ancestral home of the Imperial Horsemen, this ancient Hall is long and wide, filled with shadows and half lights; mighty pillars upholding its lofty roof.

The legendary shields and weapons of Horselords long passed rest upon the pillars of this domain; at once both solemn and proud and they stand guard over the Hall, and all that walk within it.

  • 180 ATA – Emperor Talus Kahar VI Born
  • 182 ATA - Shadow Plague Sweeps Through Old City

A pox that blinded, disfigured, and ultimately killed its victims swept through the cities of Gatetown, Silver Valley, and Halo.

  • 183 ATA - The Quarantine

Emperor Talus Kahar V made the difficult decision to quarantine the Old City, and, using the might of the Blades, slaughtered all of its residents to prevent the spread of the Shadow Plague. Tens of thousands died.

  • 188 ATA - Ayzra “The Black” Zahir Born

Count Ayzra Zahir, Ayzra 'The Black', was a fallen Zahir nobleman and ringleader of the infamous 'Coven'. Obsessed with his belief in the inherent superiority of the Shadow-touched, his short, violent life become synonymous with sorcery and hubris.

Born in 188 ATA with dark and elemental shadow-powers, the young count revelled in his abilities and eventually grew to believe that he was ordained by the Darkness to lead the masses.

Added to this megalomania became a rare breed of erotic perversion: the rumours of Ayzra's vilest pleasures would eventually become too much for even the Zahir to bear, and he was disowned from the family.

In the absence of kin, he would spend his ancestral fortune organizing a secret society of Shadow-Touched brethren - titled the Coven - with the express aim of spreading fear, hatred and chaos.

  • 201 ATA – Emperor Talus Kahar V Dies
  • 216 ATA - Ayzra “The Black” Zahir Terrorizes Fastheld

Ayzra and his 'Tickler' – a long black bullwhip - terrorized Fastheld during the 'Long Winter' of 216, leaving in his wake a string of mysterious mutilations and murders. The assaults were similar, yet bewildering: the victim's flesh was contorted with strikes and marks that were burned into form, as if seared and branded with fire itself. With the murders continuing unabated and the noble's constables unable to find a culprit, the Emperor himself dispatched his legendary Spymaster, Baron Billan Lomasa, to solve the case.

  • 216 ATA - First Time of Illumination is declared by the Church

During a time of lasting winter, faith among the people of Fastheld begins to falter. It falls to the then Corona of the Church, Thalina Kahar, to declare a period of meditation upon the blessings of the Light. Many answer the call and balance is soon restored once more.

  • 217 ATA – Ayzra “The Black” Zahir Dies

For nearly a year more, Spymaster Billan Lomasa played cat-and-mouse with Ayzra until their fabled showdown in the Shadow District, in which - suitably decapitated - Ayzra and his whip met their end. According to the legend, Billan tied the Tickler around a rock, attached it to the Count's headless corpse, and tossed them into a river.

  • 233 ATA – Emperor Talus Kahar VII Born
  • 247 ATA – Medallion of the Blades Forged

The Medallion of the Blades is the only one of its kind, denoting the wearer as the person that holds the rank of Blademaster of the Emperor's Blades. It is documented that the Medallion was originally forged in the year 247 ATA (After the Aegis) for Second Blademaster Lalia Redshadow; A freelander who, though valiant deed and service to the Crown, fought his way up against all odds to the position of command by Imperial Decree.

It was granted to Lalia in recognition of his fighting capability and determination, though was ultimately lost when Lalia was separated from his unit by a pack of Wildlings. Seriously wounded from the encounter, Lalia sought refuge in a small cave, though was followed by two of the Wildlings.

Dispatching one of them, even though wounded, Lalia forced the other to retreat; though not before the Wildling could slash the medallion from his neck, retreating into the dark with the item snagged upon its claw.

  • 249 ATA – Radiant Darkness Forged

Legend has it that the blade was forged in smouldering brimstone fires, and cooled in the blood of its creator Zymarra Zahir in the year 249 ATA (After the Aegis). The Radiant Darkness is a typically evil weapon; the kind of sword that has inspired more than a little diabolical laughter throughout the ages while being waved in the face of one or another virtuous Kahar.

Some claim that it is possessed of thoroughly heinous evils, with the main attraction of the weapon perhaps well being the theme of "comeuppance" it seems to bring upon those who may have scorned its current owner...

Forged in the year 264 by a smith named Gurtam Coal, this remarkable weapon was first wielded by a prominent Church of True Light patron named Amaloz Mikin. With its flame-shaped handguard and writhing flames engraved in the polished steel length of the blade, Forgefire was the sharp kiss of justice for the Shadow-Touched of Fastheld. It was this sword, by Amaloz Mikin's hand, that inaugurated the Imperial "Blades Days," public beheadings on the grounds of Fastheld Keep.

  • 262 ATA – Medallion of the Blades Recovered

The Medallion was finally recovered again in 262, and returned to Lalia Redshadow. Too old by that time to do the medallion justice, Lalia instead gifted the item to the Blademaster who was serving at that time, and the passing down of the medallion has remained a tradition ever since.

As Emperor Talus Kahar VII dies suddenly, the elderly Chancellor Tilut Kahar is tapped to take his place until Talus VIII is fit to rule. Unfortunately, he dies in 306 ATA.

When Regent Tilut Kahar dies, the burden falls to the thirty year old Watermaster, Drell Mikin, a popular but unimaginative leader. He rules until 311, when Talus Kahar VIII is seen fit to rule.

  • 321 ATA – The Southwatch Tavern and Brewery Closes Down

The first building to have been constructed in the Southwatch Township, it was famously renown for having remained open to all both night and day, all year long. It is rumoured to have closed only for one night in the last five hundred years, and that was during the Storming of 321 when the city was invaded by shadowed creatures from over the wall.

  • 347 ATA – Ceallach Tower Built

An ancient and ill-fated tower, built in 374 by Ceallach Ionhar Fionnlagh, which was eventually destroyed by the Wildlings who inhabited the Woods near which Ceallach defiantly built the tower near. His memorial reads:

"Here rests the brave and noble forester Ceallach Ionhar Fionnlagh who, in the year 347, scoffed at the warnings of lesser men and built this fine tower. He learned of his error shortly thereafter. Beware of Wildlings."

In the middle 300's, there was a fairly renowned Shadowscourge by the name of Sorenn Kahar. During her life, she was known to be extremely powerful with the Sun's kiss, rumoured to even have the ability to dispel the Shadow from an individual and leave them clean of its taint, all with a simple touch of her hand. At the age of thirty two, Sorenn was brutally murdered, and when her body was found, her head and right hand were missing; the hand hacked off at the wrist. The killer was eventually found and disposed of, and the head was recovered, but the hand was never found save for rumours of its use.

On the death of Talus Kahar VIII, Empress Cereline Kahar begins her rule until 370, when Talus Kahar IX is ruled fit to begin.

  • 362 ATA – Moontrap Ring Forged

The Moontrap, a ring fashioned in the year 362 ATA, is a creation of a Wedgecrest jeweller named Fasso Grayfog. Carved into the pliable gold circle, linking the silver rings embracing each gemstone, are wavy lines that signify the "trap" holding the moons within the confinement of the ring.

Grayfog kept the ring as a display piece in his shop for at least two decades. While many people expressed interest in the Moontrap, he refused to sell it. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to spin tales and intrigue his customers - and then proceeded to talk them into buying his other items of jewellery.

Most commonly, Grayfog spoke reverently of the ring as having the effect of protecting the one who wields it from evil, for it has harnessed the light of the moons that fend off the Shadow during the dark hours of the night. But he also varied the story, sometimes insisting it had once belonged to a Nillu mining heiress who became lost in a gold mine beneath Nillu's Lode and used the stored power of the moons within the ring to light her way to safety. Other times, he joked that he found it after carving open the belly of a chitter he'd cooked on a spit over an open fire.

After his death in 395 ATA, Grayfog's wife, Isanara, sold the ring to a wealthy Kahar nobleman so she could raise enough money to pay the tax assessor.

The story begins in 436 ATA, with a Mikin Baron by the name of Alint who was obsessed with bloodstone. Many of the items in his keep were adorned with the precious, deep red rock, but he had a constant passion for more. He was scouring along the inside of the Aegis for deposits of it when he saw a boy of no more than 15 from across a pond. As he watched, the boy transformed into an elk. Shaken to his core, Alint sent a contingent of men after the elk, instructing them to kill and dismember the Shadowed creature. It was not long before they had done so, and left the carcass to rot.

It was also not long before Lord Jolfor Seamel realized that something terrible must have happened to his son, Frair. Over the course of several weeks, he found out the truth: his son had been Shadow Touched, and Alint Mikin had had him killed. Wraught with grief, guilt, and shock, Jolfor's anger focused on Alint, blaming him for all the pain the Seamel was suffering. Spending a quarter of his fortune, Jolfor bought a 4 inch by 1 inch piece of flawless bloodstone, and taking a long piece of antler from his son's body, he hired master blacksmith Polkor Slate to make a dagger of unearthly beauty. He then hired an assassin to pose as a merchant trying to sell the dagger.

It wasn't long before the Baron Mikin heard about the bloodstone-hilted dagger that was being sold, and came running to buy it. It was in a stall in the Market District that Alint Mikin met his end, run through by a dagger that combined what he and Jolfor loved the most.

As Talus Kahar X is struck with Shrieking Fever, Regent Trallo Lomasa is tapped to rule alongside Empress Zerata Zahir until Talus Kahar XI can begin. He rules until 467.

This statue was the work of an artist named Hakke Wheatfield. He created the statue in the year 463 ATA (After the Aegis) as an homage to the first Blademaster, commissioned by Duke Galken Lomasa.

He didn't get it quite right at first, as far as the Duke was concerned, however. The original design depicted Ulfell Lomasa in the process of being pounced by the Wildlings. The Duke took offense. Wheatfield explained that it was what happened and, besides, it was more of an artistic challenge to try to show the Wildlings leaping within the parameters imposed by marble. Also, Wheatfield said, he had quarried the rock himself and didn't feel terribly compelled to go back and do that again.

After Galken Lomasa threatened to reclaim the retainer fee and to ruin Wheatfield's reputation throughout the realm, the artist relented, quarried more stone, and built a statue that offered a more flattering depiction of the brave Blademaster.

  • 472 ATA – Helm of Darkness Discovered

However, the history of this Helm - what little of it there is - tells of the true meaning of the helm. It is not known when the Helm of Darkness was made, nor by whom, or for what purpose or intention. What is known, however, is when the Helm was first encountered: 472 ATA (After the Aegis), upon a woman named Ariana Nightfall.

That a woman would opt to take up arms against the innocent in full armor for no real reason was just one great mystery that confounded the Shadowscourges who finally slew her. That she died amidst the corpse of three Shadowbanes that she had slain before the Shadowscourges could stop her was an even greater one.

The Helm of Darkness, along with the rest of Ariana Nightfall's possessions, was swiftly deemed evil and promptly locked away in the vaults of Halo to prevent such items ever being used against the Church again. That the Helm went missing three years later remains a testament to the fears of those who locked it there.

Though not deemed Shadow-Touched by the Church, those who locked it away in 472 ATA feared that the darkness of the Helm never the less had the power to slowly corrupt its wearer to the Shadow's influence, so that the darkness eventually gains itself a new ally against the Light...

  • 475 ATA – The Infamous Bandit Gilgen Mosswood Is Born
  • 475 ATA – Helm of Darkness Vanishes From Halo
  • 476 ATA – Shimmer Forged

Forged in the year 476 on behalf of Gaeus Kahar by the renowned blacksmith Yathram Steel of Marble Grove, the blade known as Shimmer is polished immaculately so that it nearly shines, giving the sword its moniker. The blade is engraved on both sides with the stylized image of an outstretched wildcat leg, ending in a clawed paw. The blade fell into mystery after the Second Wildling War, when Gaeus Kahar died in battle against the Wildlings.

The legend surrounding the weapon dictates that the blade originally belonged to Kousra Dawnstar; a Shadowbane who it is said obtained total unity with the Light. Such was his devotion to the Light that he saw death as nothing more than a challenge to overcome, and so - in wishing to continue to serve the Light even when death finally came - sacrificed his physical body to allow his inner-Light to inhabit this ancestral Katar.

  • 502 ATA - Count Cooperation Is Forged

Legend has it that the infamous bandit Gilgen Mosswood used this mace in connection with many of his carriage robberies. He was said to have taken it into the carriage as he demanded the occupants' money and jewelery. If one of the victims refused, Gilgen would turn towards the Count and carry on a conversation with it, usually expressing his regret that he'd be forced to use the Count, and how much he would hate having to do some graphically unpleasant thing to the victim once the Count knocked them unconscious.

The Count (played by Gilgen in a falsetto) was usually much more eager and explicit. This routine often inspired the would-be tough guys to part with their loot. For those that continued to refuse, Gilgen almost unfailingly carried out what he threatened earlier. This served to paint Gilgen as a lunatic that couldn't be bargained with, which only seemed to help his criminal exploits.

  • 523 ATA – Twelve Shadowbanes Lost In Wildling Woods

It is believed that Crystal Dirks were forged in 523 ATA by the Church of True Light for use by a select groups of Shadowbanes. Annoyed that the Imperial Council had done little to purge the shadow that exists within the