Issalia Rising Tensions

Over 1,000 years ago in the great central desert of Issalia, clinging to the edges of the mighty Mortis River lived the Nekiharen people. Divided into three warring kingdoms all vying for supremacy of the great river. The conflict was ceaseless lasting for centuries on end, waxing and waning in intensity but ever ongoing. That was until in the northernmost kingdom a new ruler took the throne named Inathor, and he began swiftly conquering southward at an alarming speed. Rummers flew that his swift victories were due to his channeling and use of dark magics granted to him from a horrifying entity from the negative planes. After he unified the Nekiharen people he began massive building projects, several of which were extremely secretive and in odd locations in the middle of the desert, those who worked on the projects were never seen or heard from again.   About a hundred years after the unification of the Nekiharen people the Pale Comet made its thousand year journey back to Issalia. As the comet passed by it radiated energy from the negative plane strengthening those who channel it, primarily necromancers. A few days after its passing, like a scene from the blood wars of the nine hells, a tide of undead poured from the eastern desert led by Inathor. They marched west to the shrine of the gods of the positive planes slaughtering all in their wake and raising them to swell their ranks. Upon reaching the shrine Inathor and his dark priests performed unholy rituals under the new moon to create items of immense power seeped in dark magic. Appalled the Gods, in an unusual moment of joint action, banded together and smote their shrine rathering it be destroyed than corrupted. This caused a great cataclysm as the shrine was near a massive volcano with a massive magma chamber below it. The resulting cataclysm gouged out the earth creating what is today the calamity sea and what remains of the volcano where the shrine was located is known as the forbidden isles. Inathor and a few of his dark priests survived the blast and began to flee back towards the desert with their new items of power and a pursuing army close behind. Finally in a town near the desert's edge, now named Lichtenfell, Inathor was slain by the pursuing army, meeting his end at the hero's Vaul’s hammer.   His body was dragged into the desert by his dark priests and the world braced itself for his return assuming that this leader of the undead would surely return in undeath. But days passed with nothing, the days turned into weeks, the weeks into months. Finally after a year had passed, an expedition of brave adventurers were tasked with entering the desert and scouting. What they found was eerie, every city that they visited was abandoned. And at every city center they visited was a massive tomb complex filled with a staggering amount of dead stretching back hundreds of years. The newest editions to these necropolises were however disturbing. It appeared that the entire population of the cities perished around the same time. Which left the question of if everyone died than who entombed the bodies. To this day few dare enter the desert save a few merchant caravans who make the crossing between the three trade posts that dot the landscape, the only semblance of life in the desert of the dead.