Behold...The doom of Theredore...
How he came to be, none know, how he found his power...none dare tell.
It was he who laid siege to great cities, and in his wake burned many in the flames of death.
Bel'Zammon...
It was this dark lord, a Forsaken mage, who was long held under the dark sway of the "Black Tome of Malastar".
Long had the Black Tome sealed the fates of many, the book written long ago by ancient demons, before the foundation of the world was formed...Its blood stained pages held secrets too great and terrible for mortal minds...Even the gods were wary to hold it.
The book had long ago sealed the soul of a great wood elf named Tanath, who in his greed for power beyond his lineage. In his deep wanderings at last he came across "The Book", and it was then that his fate was sealed.
Written by the hands of demon sages, and long buried beneath the sands of a great desert, Tanath could feel the power course through his veins, the rush of the dark Aer filled him with a hunger for its secrets.
With great struggle he pulled at the seals, with all the spells of his mortal kind he sought to break them and see what was held within.
Atlast the first seal gave way, and the secrets of Hell, were opened...
The Book cursed him with great power, a power never held by any of elf kind, or any race under the gods.
His dark power did many things, he raised dead trees, rotted and twisted, piercing with thorns and death. Great poisons he culled from the earth, and brought all that was evil in the souls of flesh under his dominion...
But ever more, his greed crept into his mind, and the lust for power consumed him...He poured himself into the dark lore of the tome, great secrets he discovered, dark powers he wielded, and of the deeds of ancient evils he learned much...But it was upon one dark chapter, that he found a terrible calling.
The dark pages, told of a great demon, a dreadful lord amongst them. Whom in his great arrogance, sought to rule all the realms of Hell, and when he attempted to destroy it...The Demons of Hell revolted, and overthrew him, and imprissoned his soul within a buring stone, to be imprissoned for eternity, and banished him to the mortal plane, where only death or the gods could return him.
It was then, that a secretive order of Paladins, "The Order of The Golden Lady", chased down the demonist wizard, and cornered him in the fertile eastern lands of Ashen...
It was here, deep within the fertile land, that Tanath found a great tomb, buried deep into the mountain side of a mountian, cut off for eons, by a great abyss that stretched before it.
He made his way down and up the side of the mountain, and before the massive gates of the tomb he rested...He gazed upon its surface, a great work it was, and carved by evil hands, sealed by a magic so dark, it pierced even the light of the sun, and wrapped the mountain in a mist of gloom...
He soon found the spells to open the great doors, and he entered within it's gaping maw...
He made his way down, deeper and deeper into the demon's crypt, great statues of evil beings lined the walls, their robed bodies, and cowls hid the twisted faces of long lost demon lords, who still dwell perhaps in the very roots of Hell.
Atlast he came to a great hall, and across a gulf of darkness rested a great stone...Burning red and licked with foul energies, it illuminated the cavern in its scarlet light, its crystaline hide was tightly held in place, by an obelisk of bone, and set deep into an iron dias.
Upon the dias was written in runes of fire, "Thou shalt not dare remove the stone, or thou shalt tremble before the burning might of Hell"
Tanath scoffed at such a warning, and lifting the bood before him, he summoned the very bones of the earth to pry with force the gem from its resting place.
But as Tanath approached the burning gem, the Paladins interupted. They burst into the hall, and fought the demonist.
Tanath prevailed long into the day, while his powers remained, but soon the Paladins gained the upper hand, and prepared to fell the final blow...In desperation he grasped the gem, and as he touched it the ground split apart, and a demon ascended from it. And with a loud roar, struck Tanath...
"The stone shalt remain." The demon said.."Fore neither by the Power of Hell, nor the Gods, shalt you release this power."
Tanath lifted the book, all his hope now resting in the pages of the dark tome. In all his arrogance he sought to kill the demon with whatever dark monstrosities were held within...
But the demon laughed at the pitiful attempts, and lifting his hand he ripped the aer, and flesh from Tanaths screaming body, all that remained was was bone, and his soul laid bare...
And laughing once more the demon forced Tanath into the book, and cursed him to remain imprissoned for all eternity...
The Paladins, then were beset by the demon..and fled from it..And quickly by the power of Larissa they sealed the tomb...With a mighty door...And placed upon it runes of warding, and inscriptions of containing...to seal the tomb for all eternity.
And upon its face, but a curse appeared upon the door...and a spell was forged upon it, that should the prophecy of the tome be read by one of power, the door shalt open...
The Paladins feared this...and took the tome, and sealed it also within a secret tomb...and above the tomb they built a massive Cathedral, and above the tomb of the gem, a fortress...
And they forged a kingdom whos sole purpose was...to guard the secrets of the tombs...lest their evil spread forth, and the powers of Hell be set loose upon Darjis.
They called this kingdom...Theredor.