Background
In the ancient recesses of time, a powerful and benevolent
cleric set upon a well-intentioned plan. In those days, evil
was on the decline and the forces of darkness had been
routed in almost every field of battle. The master of evil
dragons had been chained, and even the fell races of orcs
and goblins—once more numerous than the races of
humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, or gnomes—had
squirmed back into their meager, shadowy refuges.
With malevolence on the wane, the cleric Danar Rotansin
sought once and for all to rid the world of the remaining evil
influences. This powerful figure began to gather up all the
evil artifacts, objects of dark power, trapped essences of vanquished
fiends, demonic relics, and even the last vestiges of
particularly horrible diseases. Danar called all of these things
“banes” and imprisoned them. He believed that, if
destroyed, the banes would simply release their evil into the
world to wreak more havoc and bring about other darknesses.
Destroying banes begat new banes.
Danar used powerful spells and magical items to accomplish
his task, working tirelessly. As his collection of banes
grew he began to bury them beneath his tower, Mosul Pearl,
located near the sea. Danar constructed a vast catacomb, well
warded and sealed, deep underground, and he called it the
Banewarrens. He also found allies who believed in his cause
to aid him. Chief among them were the dragon known as
Saggarintys the Silver King and a celestial named Bastion,
Guardian of the Morning.
But Danar’s goal was folly. Concentrating so much raw
hatred and despite—so much darkness and evil power—
in one place was a terrible mistake. His actions drew the
attention of vile intelligences of whose existence Danar had
never even dreamed. These secretive forces manipulated
events (and perhaps even time and space) to ensure that
the Book of Inverted Darkness fell into the hands of this
well-meaning cleric.
The Book of Inverted Darkness is an artifact older than the
world itself. Scribed by gods and demons, its pages contain
vast lore (only the Book of Eldritch Might contains greater
lore, it is said), all of it dreadful. Unfortunately for Danar
Rotansin—and the world—the book presented this dreadful
knowledge using supernatural techniques, giving it an irresistibly
seductive quality.
While he intended to seal the book away with the rest of
the banes, Danar lingered over its pages for just one instant
too long. Its cunningly crafted words beguiled him to keep
the book by his side. Soon, he read more. And more.
And still more.
The book consumed Danar. He neglected his quest to
gather the remaining banes. He withdrew from his family
and comrades. The book’s dark lore corrupted his spirit and
twisted his mind. The lure of the dark power and forbidden
knowledge was too much, even for Danar. Danar Rotansin
became Eslathagos Malkith—the Dread One. With the vast
resources of the banes he had gathered and the knowledge
he had gained from the Book of Inverted Darkness, the Dread
One withdrew into his tower, also renamed: Jabel Shammar.
He emerged only a few years later, launching an attack so
devastating, it threatened to tear the world asunder. His
might knew few bounds, and with his magical aid, the
armies he had created or summoned conquered the surrounding
lands with ease.
The earth itself, no longer able to tolerate the concentrated
evil that Eslathagos Malkith and the banes represented,
thrust Jabel Shammar away from it, creating a tall, impossibly
high and narrow spire atop which the tower stood, its
former pearly hue turned black as night. From there, the
Dread One could survey the world—a world he desired to
either conquer or crush entirely.
Only the actions of all the mortal races, led by powerful
and stalwart heroes (many of whom had been friends and
companions of Danar), stopped the forces of Eslathagos
Malkith. It is said they carried the battle into the halls of
Jabel Shammar itself. When it was over, the Dread One lay
defeated. The world’s greatest heroes sprawled dead and
dismembered all around him. Most of them had lost not only
their lives but their souls to their foe’s magic and the banes he
wielded.
Some bit of Danar—the good and true man he had once
been—still remained, however. His spirit, now free of
corruption, managed to seal the Banewarrens once again.
Although his quest remained uncompleted, and some of the
banes were released again when he became Eslathagos
Malkith, the warrens still contained vault upon vault of evil
artifacts, foul creatures, and vile relics that it would keep
away from the world at large.
Unless the Banewarrens should ever become unsealed
again.
