The Fall of Netheril

The First Age

By Dale Reckoning, more than 5,350 years ago, the villages of Fenwick, Gers, Gilan, Gustaf, Moran, Nauseef, and Janik formed the settlement of Seveton, banding together to form an alliance against orc warbands determined to pillage, and plunder and murder every last settlement they came across. The Shaman King of Gers, known after the accord as Nether the Elder. Before long, Nether the Elder grew arrogant, and greedy, renaming Seventon to Netheril, and demanding increasing tributes from the villages. In time the villagers began to fear that Netheril would collapse under the strain of trying to meet the demands of King Nether.

In the end, a poison dart put an end to the kings demands, and set a path for Nether the Younger, his son to take control of the region. The date of King Nethers' death was lost to time, perhaps on purpose, perhaps because of the events of the next several decades that drew the people of Netheril to heights greater than they could ever imagine, and yet, still only a fraction of the power they would ultimately achieve. It was under Nether the Younger that the Earlanni Elves took notice of the human kingdom, and decided to share with them their magic. Humans, a relatively young species at this stage, did not pick up on the craft quickly, but in time, a few among them managed to perform the basic cantrips that could add ease to their day to day lives.

Their lack of skill with the craft did not damper their desire to learn more, and within the next 3 years, Therion of Gers had mastered many spells that the elves were attempting to teach the humans. Soon they began to study the theory craft of spells, and worked feverishly to develop new magics. Their desire for power drove them to create more, and more powerful spells, and with a burgeoning trade between the humans and elves, and the discovery of magic, the Netherese soon began to build their society around magic use.

The Nether Age

Almost 350 years after the founding of Netheril, a major discovery changed the civilization permanently, and arguably led to its downfall. A Netherese man known only as The Finder, was exploring a region west of Netheril called the Far Horns Forest. Hidden deep within an old ruin in the forest were ancient magical secrets that came to be known as the Nether Scrolls. There were 100 scrolls in total, in two sets of 50, and they detailed the secrets of arcane lore in such detail that the power of Netherese spell craft reached unimaginable levels. The knowledge contained within these scrolls led to some of the greatest inventions the world has ever known.

A Netherese man known as Congenio Ioun discovered a way to magically enchant crystals with a plethora of beneficial spells. They granted massive boosts to intelligence, vitality, visibility, and many, many more. These were the first Ioun Stones, and they not only improved the everyday lives of the Netherese people, but also gave them the ability to achieve near god like levels of intelligence. It was this development that would allow the greatest accomplishment of the Netherese possible. The Mythallar.

The Mythallar Era

Ioulaum, quite possibly the longest living mortal ever, spent the first century of his life attempting to eradicate the Orcs that threated human civilizations, leading thousands of spellcasters and warriors in an all-out assault on the Orc Warbands. His success came at the cost of many lives, but the threat of the Orcs was all but eradicated. Having succeeded in driving back the Orcs, he set his sights back to the study of magic. Studying the Nether Scrolls, and using one of Iouns stones to increase his capacity for knowledge, he created the Mythallar, a massive crystal designed to draw its power from deep within the weave, tapping in to the raw magic of the gods, opening up a whole new world of creation.

Before the creation of the Mythallar, enchanting magical items required the creator to use their own vitality to power the enchantment. This was all changed with the raw power the Mythallar granted, allowing the magic to be drawn instead directly from the weave. The range of the magic was limited, the items could not be further than 1 mile away from the Mythallar, and soon, another discovery would be made to significantly reduce the burden of this restriction.

Using a spell of the 11th tier, he sheared off the top of a mountain, used another spell to orientate it tip down, and planted a Mythallar in the center, thus creating the first ever floating city. This gave the Netherese a reprieve from the attacks of goblins, bandits, and roving bands of Orcs, and became a safe haven for the people of Netheril to dedicate themselves to studying the Nether Scrolls, and develop new magics. Over the next two centuries the Netherese raised a total of 13 cities to the sky, and more than 90 percent of their citizens lived among the clouds. This divided the Netherese into the upper and the lower citizens. While the upper Netherese lived relatively easy lives of magic study, the lower Netherese lived hard lives toiling the earth to provide food and resources to the civilization.

The Silver Age

Over the course of the next 50 years, the Netherese began to burn through resources at an alarming rate, and as such, they started scouting the world for more. They eventually came across a massive mineral mine that provided the empire with over 1,000 years of gold, iron, silver, platinum, and other valuable resources. As the search for resources continued, many outposts were setup for scouts and caravans to restock, resupply, and rest their horses. - -These outposts, spread far and wide across the nation, eventually becoming the cities and towns that populate the world today.

During their decades of expansion, a powerful oracle called the Terraseer told them of a number of barbarian tribes, big on strength, and low on intelligence that would be perfect for their mining operations. Within the next 2 years the Netherese would seek out these tribes, and entice them with magical items, and better defenses against raiding orcs. They would in exchange use the barbarians might to mine the minerals and rare metals they required for their spell work. They began setting up more outposts and eventually fully enslaved the barbarian tribes.

The Terraseer found another prime location for an outpost, but it was overrun with strange monstrosities known as owlbears. With their spell craft and the enslaved barbarians bloodlust, they were able to clear out over 3,000 owlbears. - - Unbeknownst the them, this drew the ire of the Creator Gods, who had breathed life into the creatures millennia ago. - - The Netherese set up the Old Owl Well outpost, not just as a watering hole, but also used it to develop a spy network, scrying on the Illefarn Elves, who deemed the Netherese as a growing adversary.

The Mythallar allowed the arcanists of Netheril to tap fresh running water from the Elemental Plane of Water, and they created globes of light that could be turned on and off with command words, allowing the city to function without torchlight. So long as these items stayed within 1 mile of the Mythallar, the homes of the Netherese were very comfortable indeed. They also continued to experiment heavily with the Mythallar, using to craft magnificent spells that were capable of changing the very fabric of time, space, and reality.

The Shadowed Age

There were two ages previous to this, and only one major discovery of note. While their power and influence continued to grow over Valeria, and their search for resources was never satiated, there was a discovery that lent itself to the Netherese need for spell creation. That discovery was the dark purple crystal called Chardalyn. An accidental discovery that changed the way spells were stored. While the value of Chardalyn as a spell component was not great, the value of it as a vessel for spells was immense. This allowed the Netherese to save spell work necessary for creating other spells in a temporary stasis until needed. This was also the beginning of the end of Netheril.

Of the many great archwizards, and liches that lived through the many centuries of the Netherese Empire, none had ever attempted to go as far as Karsus, one of the most talented wizards to ever touch the weave. Spell craft was almost an innate ability for Karsus. The youngest mage to ever create a Mythallar and craft his own flying city, and one of Netheril's greatest researchers. Karsus even sought to study the Nether Scrolls in attempt to find a link between the ones in the possession of Netheril, and the ones that were stolen many centuries ago. Unfortunately the last of the scrolls were stolen when the caravan enroute to Karsus was attacked.

The loss of the Nether Scrolls was a massive blow to the empire, though it did nothing to cull the hubris of Karsus. Seeking to expand his influence, he used his floating city to fund underground research, and developing a new branch of spells, called shadow magic, drawing not just on the power of the Mythallar, but also from the shadowfell itself. This magic was unpredictable, and powerful, and took spell craft to new and magnificent heights.

Olostin, a researcher that was helping to develop this new magic, saw the danger of letting someone like Karsus wield this power. He started a campaign against Karsus, but due to the influence Karsus had, and the general desire for magical power that ran rampant through the Netherese, Olostin was exiled. He managed to steal a number of secrets before being forced to leave the city. He sought out a powerful enemy of the Netherese, the Phaerimm. These massive creatures, conical in shape with four arms, were eager to help Olostin exact his revenge on the Netherese, having been hunted relentlessly by their archmagi. Using the shadow magic that Olostin stole from the Netherese, and combining it with their own form of magic, they created a spell to drain the magic from the area.

Though the magic drain spells they created left visible signs, the Netherese paid little attention, that is until the resources for their cities began to dry up. Karsus used this as an excuse to begin his exploration of Heavy Magic, a force mortals were not meant to deal with. The spells of Heavy Magic were meant for use by deities, and most mortals were only ever researchers, never users. Those that did try to experiment with Heavy Magic were destroyed in the attempt. The spell Karsus designed was 12th level, and stole the power of a deity temporarily.

Karsus's Avatar swelled his body to the size of a giant as he absorbed the god-like power of Mystral, this was the mistake that his hubris lead to. The avatar of Mystral that maintains the weave was lost, and as such the weave broke, causing all magic to falter, and forced Mystral to sacrifice herself in order to pull the weave back together. The break in the weave lasted less than a minute, but it was long enough to destroy Karsus, and cut the Mythallar off from the magic that sustained them. The floating cities began to fall, crashing across the world. This event would come to be known as Karsus' Folly

The weave was put back just in time for the Mythallars to all flicker back into life as the cities were breaking against the ground, killing thousands of the Netherese people, even those that sought their immortality in lichdom were destroyed as the magic that contained their phylacteries was broken when the cities fell. A hand full of the liches survived, and even less of their research made it through the destruction of the cities. Ythrin, one of the magnificent floating cities, was researching the stars and flying dangerously high, when the weave collapsed and the Mythallar failed, they were flying high enough that there was enough time to steer the city towards an ice cap near the northern pole. The Mythallar also allowed enough of the citizens to survive the fall that they were able to eventually start another outpost in the frozen lands. This outpost began as a small refugee camp, but as magic returned to the world, and the Netherese people began to learn the new restrictions on the weave, they found a way to build a city, and started a trade route that opened the doors for smugglers, and criminals to move dangerous and stolen goods.