• Rockfang Clan of Sky Raiders → close with the Amethyst Liferock and more open to other namegiver cultures and the benefits of change and knowledge
• Originally a kaer of 3000, built to not only survive the scourge, but to thrive
• Natural veins of elemental earth and orichalcum throughout the mountain
• Bolstered by elementals of water, fire and air to create an internal ecosystem capable of supporting life - bound by blood magic and powerful Elementalists - the HEART of the Kaer is the life-tree Yr.
• It’s wards include 7 gates fueled by powerful blood and magic. The kaer is deemed unbreakable and is the pride of the Rocktooth clan.
• Original population included Trolls, dwarves, humans, T’skrang, orcs, elves, windlings and obsidimen
• Council of Hope - 2 members for each of the namegiver races. Strive for mix of adepts and non-adepts and all skills and perspectives.
• Blood magic to support the wards and the elementals requires sacrifice: 1 life every year and a day. The Ritual of Life is lead by the Minister of the HEART and their acolytes (6)
• A lottery was developed to select those that would sacrifice - those in the last quartile of their lives, those with little magic or ability to contribute to the kaer and criminals. There are, of course, exemptions for council members, their families and the powerful adepts and mages needed to maintain the wards.
• 1050 - the Kaer is sealed.
• The mad passions Dis, Vestrial and Raggok were born.
• Belzarion becomes a questor of Raggok
• In 1230, 180 years into the scourge, a major horror is assumed to appear and over the next 45 years, gate after gate is slowly unravelled and broken. The Minister of the HEART announces that the wards of the last gate are also being pulled apart and informs the kaer that the only way to stave off destruction is to accelerate the ritual of life to once per MONTH.
• The population is shocked and horrified, but can do little but acquiece.
• The other races began pushing for changes that prioritized the orcs selection for the Ritual of Life. Examples of Gahad were used as criminality. The orc blood flowed. The orc council members Graz-Belad and Nyssa Longgrip sought for allies and called out the hypocrisy and racism, but they were overruled.
• Others also saw opportunity in the conflict: orcs started disappearing and rumours of dark rituals in the depths of the Kaer began to surface. See ‣
• In 1307, Graz-Belad’s Gahad explodes in council as Belzarion accused him of spreading lies for his own personal gain. The attack was halted by the council guards and Graz-Belad was imprisoned and then selected for the Ritual of Life.
• Nyssa called upon Lochost and the orcs rose in rebellion. They fought into the dungeons on level Mynbruje, to free Graz-Belad, but they were too late. Graz-Belad, undergoing the ritual and drugged to contain his power was sacrificed, but not before uttering a powerful blood curse that the people of Kaer Morgahl would dwindle and perish in the dark, as had so many of his people.