The Elsir Vale

History

The scattered human towns and villages of the area grew up along the Dawn Way, an important east-west trade road linking Astoria in the west with the Valaisan and Dwarven kingdoms of the east. Much of the Dawn Way was built by an ancient entreprenuers from the vast Tal'Thrummaz that spanned from their mountain domain as far west as the Wyrmsmoke Mountains more than a thousand years ago. While the Dwarves are long gone, their roads, bridges, and cisterns remain in use to this day. After the Dwarf-realm on the surface passed, the presence of various monsters and raiders kept traffic along the Dawn Way light for many years; few caravans dared the long and dangerous trek. Few humans lived in Elsir Vale during those years—only scattered settlements of druidic folk who left behind little more than grassy barrows and stone circles on the hilltops.
About five hundred years ago, the nearby city of Rhest came to control the vale and a large swath of land north of the Giantshields as well. Soldiers from Rhest secured the roads all the way to Dennovar and beyond, creating a safe passage for trade. More and more traders traveled the Dawn Way, and the kingdom of Rhestilor grew wealthy on the tariffs exacted from the passing merchants. Under the kingdom’s shield, the towns along the Dawn Way—Brindol, Talar, Terrelton, and the rest—grew up from tiny hamlets or lonely soldiers’ posts to flourishing human settlements.
The kingdom of Rhestilor eventually collapsed under civil strife, monstrous incursions, and magical blights. Almost two hundred years ago, the city of Rhest was burned by a savage horde out of the Wyrmsmoke Mountains. Although the warriors of Rhestilor killed many of the goblins and their kind, the city was abandoned and the already weakened kingdom broken. The locks and canals surrounding Rhest fell into disrepair, and the Blackfens swallowed the ruined city.
In the years since the kingdom’s fall, the towns of Elsir Vale came to look after themselves. Most of the local lords, such as Jarmaath of Brindol, still held titles derived from the old kingdom of Rhestilor. While everybody knows that the kings of Rhestilor are long dead, no new realm had arisen in the vale. The surrounding kingdoms all saw fit to leave the towns on the Dawnway to their own devices while they took advantage of one of the precious few trade routes across central Bellephon. It served the townsfolk well enough too. Afterall they were rarely swept up in wars of the plots of vengeful villains, and even if they were their influence on merchant routes was often enough to acquire aid from their more altruistic neighbors.
Until the Great War swallowed up the realms entire. And when Azzar Kul came for the Elsir Vale, they were all but powerless to stop him. The Fall of the Elsir Vale lasted only a few short months but would forever scar the landscape. Towns were burned to cinder and ash, scattered refugees fled far and wide with tears shed for slaughtered loved ones. Goblinoid voices cried out joyously across the rolling plains, as dragon wings blotted out the sun and great statues of the Dark Queen cast their shadows on a ruined land.
Elsir as it was is no more. Now the empire of the Red Hand builds in it's place, it's Warlord already setting his sights on grander treasures ever on the horizon. The weakened Human realms can only tremble and wait.

Neighboring Nations

• Astoria