4715 - the Year of Calamity

In 4715 the Second Earthfall brought the most serious natural disaster of the modern age, with vast clouds of ash and dust heaved into the sky, blotting out the sun and cooling the world. The effects were felt all across the globe, and were all the more terrifying for those in far flung regions who did not know what had happened. Still more shocking and terrifying was The Rising. All across Golarion, the dead refused to stay dead. Scholars now understand than Phrasma had been killed some days before and that Theocide had broken the laws of Death. Until the end of the subsequent War for Death, many who had died simply rose again. In some places of great necromantic power, those already dead rose en masse, overwhelming large cities and even whole nations. The Immortal Principality of Ustalav was crushed between a massive wave of undead horrors that clawed out of the nations crypts and graveyards, summoned by the lingering power of the ancient Whispering Tyrant, who now fulfilled his long promise of return.
The cause and key events of the rising were ultimately centered in Osirion, and there climaxed with the destruction of the God-King Hakotep. Following this, the dead were able to be permanently slain again. Of course by then for millions across the world it was too late.
Brevoy endured the Rising, though not without terrible cost. Many believe the disappearance of the Golka Dwarves was due to the Rising, and many smaller towns and holdings were wiped from the map. Fortified settlements like Restove, Stoneclimb, and Eagle's Watch survived. In New Stetvan, the Ruby Keep held out, though the rest of the town was overrun. Eventually, over the next decade, the living fought back, reclaiming ground, and learning to burn their dead.
Ustalav remains a wasteland, matching its northern neighbor - the World Wound - and the horrors of those two lands now overlap as crusaders from Lastwall and Mendev strive to restore order, aided by their old enemies, the Belkzen orcs. The office of the Marshal of the Dead - a chief servant of the Raven Queen - established the Order of Raven Knights 30 years ago to aid the Marshal in hunting the dead. The Marshal and the Raven Knights have cleansed Castle Corvischoir in eastern Ustalav and taken it as their seat.

The Order of the Raven Knights
Scope: Global  Structure: 5  Stability: 45

• Might: 2
• Wealth: 1
• Influence: 1
• Intrigue: 0
• Mystical: 3