The Rise of the Undead

Calastryx, Yarlzedd, and their undead armies lay waste to the Reaches and the eastern portions of the Barony of Atlan and the Barony of Mabon for six years, and for half a century undead terrorized the land after Yarlzedd and Calastryx were defeated.
Since time immemorial, the people of Fultar buried rather than cremated their dead. A connection to the physical body played an important role in reaching the reaching the afterlife, but even more important was the connection between the dead and their ancestors. The ancient Fultonians believed that in far less separation between the divinity of the person and the gods, and worshiped heroes and ancestors, as well as the gods. All of Ancient Fultonian religion was heavily rooted in ancestor worship. Pictures, statues, busts, and death masks were kept in the home and Ancient Fultonians looked to these deceased family members for advice and approval. Ancestral spirits were thought to have some influence on their living relatives’ lives. It was believed that during ancestor worship that spirits of the dead would return when being honored by family cults.
Yarlzedd, the lich lord, founded the Order of the Necromantia and brought forth armies of zombies, human and animal skeletons and minor demons to terrorize and destroy all civilized people. The rising of the undead, given the strong cultural importance of the dead, was deeply shocking and demoralizing for all Fultonians, and even more than their physical presence, helped lead to near complete collapse of civilization.
It took almost 50 years after Calastryx was put to sleep by the mage Starris and Yalzedd disappeared, for their major armies to be conclusively defeated. For centuries, the undead posed a major challenge the human, halflings, dwarf and elf people. Even today, their remnants can found in these remote areas. However, despite the lessons of the past, modern Fultonians, while they no longer worship their dead, steadfastly continue to burry their dead making near impossible to end the threat of necromancers and the undead.
The Rising of the Undead is officially chronicled from YR 2, which is from Yarlzedd's rising of the great undead armies to the final defeat of the last skeleton and army and the Skeleton King Leoric in YR 49 by the combined forces of the elf Queen Elbereth, the Dwarf King Rekkr, and the Atlan King Harran (the Kingdom of Atlan eventually became the Barony of Atlan).

Years of Iron 2 to 49