The War of Chaos in Caladore
There was once a war,
There have been many, many wars on Tyrra, but this is a War I saw firsthand. It was a war that nearly tore the entire Kingdom of Dragonreach apart, a war between the forces of Chaos and Life for the sake of the lands of Caladore. Now, I know that by normal planar relations, Order wars with Chaos, but Order was very weak in Dragonreach, and the only related Element that was strong enough to oppose the overwhelming power of Chaos was Life. Chaos threatened to engulf all of Dragonreach, and the proliferation of undead was far worse than anything I had ever seen before.
Only several years before, circa 596, the lands just to the north of Dragonreach, the Land of Sanctuary, had been overrun with the Undead. Sanctuary was probably the most ironic name for a territory I have ever known, by the mid 590's the Land of Sanctuary had become a continuous losing battle, as every month or so a new town was overrun and completely burned to the ground by Undead hordes. Adventurers tried to fight it every step of the way, but over several years untold armies of Death and Chaos had overrun every bastion of civilization on the peninsula on the the southern coast of the Sea of Hadran. Dragonreach is directly to the south of Sanctuary, at the very base of the Peninsula, so once Sanctuary fell then the armies would doubtless try to spread throughout all of Avalon and eventually Tyrra.
By the time the forces of Chaos unleashed had began to spread throughout the Kingdom of Dragonreach, it was a truly mighty army. I first encountered such forces when I moved from Emuria to Dragonreach in July of 599, a 9-Day Long Gathering in the City of Caladore there that was intended to mark a new era of vitality and commerce to the Kingdom of Dragonreach. When within 10 minutes of the commencement of the Gathering a squad of Death Knights had raided the tavern and killed all inside, one knew it was going to be a long and bloody gathering. Count Grey Stoneturner permanently died that night, but he was revived by a mysterious force, perhaps the same force from the Plane of Life that would one day save my spirit from Oblivion. His essence was bound to a special Earth Circle on the outskirts of town known as the Sun Circle, where it remained for a good seven days before undead destroyed that circle and with it severed Count Grey's connection to Tyrra and he was forever lost. There have been many accounts of him being seen in the Kingdom of Elan, but those in other lands insist that the one seen in the City of Kilbar is just a Doppelganger. A Formal Celestial Circle of Elan identifies the one who walks in Kilbar as Count Grey Stoneturner, so I do not know if Grey died that night or not.
Every night entire armies of undead would arise from the land itself. Endless waves of mighty Death Knights, the likes of which I had never seen in Emuria swarned the city. Each one could strike with the spell of Death through it's sword twice per night, and swing the spell Wither Limb through it's sword another two times. They had awesome prowess with their blades, being able to cut down men left and right. Endless legions of these mighty abominations clashed every night with the finest and best adventurers from throughout Avalon. The mantra of fighting these abominations was "Wither, Wither, Death, Death, Slay, Slay, Down", referring to their normal combat behaviors and how often they were defeated. A mage as unskilled as I stood no chance in a direct confrontation with them, so I well learned the lesson of hiding, moving silently, and laying low when the skeletal warriors clad in black with red glowing eyes came marauding the town. For over a week every night the city was besieged by such abominations. They stopped coming around at dawn, and started appearing almost at the moment of sunset, so one could know when to run and hide. The thrifty could make a small fortune by scavenging the battlefields right after the morning, picking up silver and gold left littering the battlefield (and trying to ignore the blood and debris cluttering the front of the Tavern). By the end of that Gathering I had learned a lesson that I have seen many permanently die because they could not bring themselves to know: Sometimes Discretion is the Greater Part of Valor. You cannot fight every monster out there, there are things far stronger than you, whoever you are, and nobody is invincible.
Throughout the town for the entire summer and fall of 599 were myriad Chaos Pools. By technical academic discussion they would be called "Chaos Nodes", but Pools was the local term for them. They were inky, ichorous pools of pure chaos spread throughout the town and surrounding territories. Anyone touching one would be consumed by chaos energies and drop, mortally wounded. Anyone stepping or jumping inside one would be flung on a one-way trip to the Plane of Chaos. Frequently, all too frequently, undead would emerge from the pools. The pools could be destroyed by a Greater Destroy Formal Earth Magic ritual, which was performed under combat conditions because the moment the ritual began undead began to pour from the pool to defend it, and the Ritual caster had to be defended for the full five minutes the ritual would take to seal the pool. These rituals were very intensive in terms of the expenditure of ritual components and formal magic ability, and thus all the pools in town could not be sealed, only the largest or most ill-located pools would be chosen as targets for these raids.
An Elven Earth Wizard named Elandrin was a leader in the war against the encroaching Chaos in Calidore. He was (and to my knowledge still is), an ally of the Plane of Life and was perhaps one of the few truly pure Healers in Calidore. By pure I mean a caster who refuses to cast Chaos magics. By the fall of 599, an effective defense had been mounted, but it was clear that the forces of Chaos were growing ever stronger. In September of 599 he had assembled the scrolls and ritual components to attempt to seal the balance of Chaos and Life in Caladore. He even underwent a Spirit Forge to be competent enough with Formal Magics to attempt to perform the ritual. He was going to attempt to create a Major Life Node, and would need all our help.
Around the largest tree in the City of Caladore, Elandrin began the ritual, and with it he began one of the greatest battles I have ever seen. From everywhere around the city armies of undead warriors began to emerge. The balance of the planes was beginning to shift and Chaos was not going to take the change easily. Seemingly endless waves of powerful undead came charging at Elandrin, trying to disrupt the ritual. There was no shelter to protect the healers with, so I Imprisoned a pair of undead warriors, dragged them to the tree, and cast a pair of Walls of Force to build a makeshift fortification. From this fortification the Healers were able to base themselves from, while one started a Bane the Dead Cantrip so they could begin destroying the undead, and others could tend to the wounded.
My role in this battle was not over, although it was not necessarily glorious. At one point in this battle I saw a strong and dangerous undead warrior running directly at Elandrin. Elandrin was helpless as he was performing the ritual in a platform circle, and nobody was in place to protect him from being attacked and the ritual halted, except for myself. I interposed myself to try and stop the undead menace. I knew I was far too weak to defeat him alone, but I could try to slow him down long enough for reinforcements to arrive. I leaped in front of him and thrust out at his chest with my silver sword. It glanced harmlessly off of it's powerful magical flesh; a foul necromantic body that could only be harmed by magical weapons. For a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, the warrior just looked at me with contempt and scorn as I let loose a mighty battle cry and tried futilely to attack the undead warrior. It then unleashed upon me a fury with it's poisoned blades and I fell before it's swords. However, my efforts were not for naught. My battle cry caught the attention of other warriors who rushed in to destroy the warrior, and the healers I shielded earlier were able to attend to my wounds. However, that was also the last great push of the undead army, as Elandrin finished his rite and the area around the tree began to glow golden as the life node flared to life and the undead crumbled.
With the power of the Life Node established, and fueled each day by every healer in town. Before all the mages restored their spells, all the healers cast all their remaining Life spells into the Life node to fuel it and help it grow. With the power of a Life Node to help stabilize the balance the citizens of Calidore were able to mount an offensive and over the next few months and help destroy most of the nodes and restore the balance in the Chaos War in Calidore