While the Celts had been expanding, things were stirring in the West.

When the great storm that ravaged Asdhen in the Celt year 163 (the same storm that helped to bring about the founding of Asdhen as a government), strange, dark, deep, things were happening elsewhere. In fact, these things are what caused the great storm that brought Asdhen to its knees.

Unbeknownst to Cardë, the evil Gacatë had founded a separate continent shortly after Cardë. This continent (called Razhgurm by Gacatë himself) lay just westward of Almalinë. Gacatë, in his exile, had thought of new horrors. Razhgurm was nearly pitch black at all times, except for an occasional faintness when a few parts of the sky were not quite as dark as the rest. The creatures were true abominations to the word "creature" itself. There were huge worms that would suck in massive amounts of air to draw prey into their mouths. Giant cockroach-like beings walked on two legs and ate the worms as their main source of food. The plants could hardly be considered plants anymore: they had long, slick tentacles that would lash out for any "food" that they could possible obtain. The plants killed each other as well. -- A man walking around Razhgum, without some form of light to help guide him, would mostly sure be dead in moments; he would be walking and then in almost the same instant find himself sucked into the belly of some starving, violent worm.

Cardë saw that the Celts were too far to reach Razhgurm in time to prevent Gacatë from invading Almalinë from the North. In a desperate stand, Cardë brought forth a huge army of men. The dusts swirled up from the grasslands near Atolnalant, and then they rushed northward. The dust formed many spirals, and the dust spun round and round, until a man was created. Once Cardë had created enough men to make a decent army, he sent a great wind from the top of the world blowing fiercely down onto the people. The cold wind filled their lungs, and in that moment, Men awoke on the face of the world.

At first, the Men went immediately into chaos. They were far up in Atolnalant, and the great chill battered their mortal bodies. But, Cardë provided thick furs for them, and so the men settled and began to interact with their fellow men. However, they had only a short time to do so. Cardë had endowed two of the men with the ability to lead and the gift of language (however, unlike the Celts, the rest of the men did not have this gift. It took quite some decades for reasonable language to develop among Men).

These two men, named Chazacrá and Rothag, did the best they could to show the men to follow them. After a while, the army of men was heading westward toward Razhgurm, but then, something that Cardë had not anticipated happened.

A great snowstorm suddenly blew down on the men, and they became separated. They tried to cry out to one another, yet their ability to speak was limited mostly to grunts and senseless shouts, and so the army became split into two groups, with a few men scattered here and there in between. Fortunately, each of the two groups had one of the men who could speak, and so they each instructed their fellow men how to best position themselves to avoid being killed by the fierce gusts of wind and the painful chunks of hail which rained down upon them.

The men sat in two large circles, huddling for warmth in the pitch black of the storm that Gacatë had summoned. Occasionally a bolt of lightening would strike, and the men could discern a tall chain of mountains about a mile ahead of them, and it stretched to the left and right farther than the eyes could see. Back behind the mountains, there was a gigantic shape that never became visible by the lightening. However, when the bolts struck, occasionally the vague shape of the object could be made out... It was a great tower, standing high above the mountains. If there were sun, the tower could most certainly be seen from at least fifteen miles away. The width of the highest tower appeared to be about as wide as one of the mountains that the men saw before them, and the length was anyone's guess.

As the men watched in awe of the powerful, dark tower before them, they began to notice a black tide coming across the mountain. At first, it was hardly noticeable, but it was gaining speed now, and as it came, faint cries could be heard coming from that direction over the noise of the wind of the storm.

Carde saw the great peril which he was now presented with, and his last, best hope for victory was in the men, who were lying huddled in the snow out in the darkness of the storm, terrified for their lives. Cardë then made one last, great effort: he sent a rain of lightening bolts flashing alway to the ground. The light filled the whole area, and it looked almost as if it were daytime. Fires began to burn all across the field, and the men were fascinated by it. Chazacrá and Rothag hurriedly tried to show the men that they should pick up something from the ground, and set one end on fire. The men were also fascinated by the fact that a man could hold such a thing, and they certainly wanted to do it, too. Soon, all the men held torches high over their heads, and the sundered army of men pulled together into one once more. And then Cardë stopped the lightening, and the darkness quickly took over once more.

But now the men had light! They turned and saw the thousands of beady eyes which glared towards them in the distance. The men were becoming thrilled, nervous, excited, scared, all at the same time, and then a gigantic thundering burst forth from the black tower behind the mountains. The ground beneath the feet of the men quivered as if even it were terrified of the horror that was nearby. The Dark Army of Gacatë then let out fierce shrieks to join the chorus of their master, yet there were sounds were swallowed completely in the great cry from the tower.

Then, the great thundering ceased, and the men saw the beady eyes which were in the darkness began to rush at them wildly. Chazacrá and Rothag, trying to summon the spirits of their fellows, cried loudly, "AHÛA!" and then began to run full-force towards the Dark Army. The other men, knowing that they could not possibly outrun the Dark Army, followed, shouting the cry loudly, too. The fire of their torches made an orange, glowing river that flowed toward the mountain.

And then, Men and the Dark Army met. While the fire of their torches lasted, the men could see black, oozing things rushing past them, colliding with others behind them. The men who were attacked first shoved the flames of their torches into the glowing eyes of their enemies. When they did so, a sickening green slime would pour out of the creature, and then it would slowly fall limply to the ground with a thud.

It wasn't long until the men were dripping the blood of their enemies, yet many of them had lost the fire of their torches, and the number of men was slowly, but steadily, dropping. Chazacrá was beginning to wonder how many men exactly had endured, and then, as if by some mystical call, the beasts of the Dark Army stopped attacking and stood still. They remained so for a moment, and the men wasted no time in taking as many of them down in that time as possible, but soon the beasts began to sprint off towards the mountains.

The storm which had blackened the sky during the battle wavered, and then simply vanished away. Off in the West, the Sun was beginning its downward descent; however, as the men watched it as it began its journey downward, very soon thereafter, it was blotted out by the black clouds hovering over Razhgurm. The men set up a camp nearby, just away from the dead bodies of the beasts. Chazacrá and Rothag gestured for the able-bodied to pull the injured in, and for the dead men to be taken to a nearby spot. As the men were gathered from the battle field, the men who were not injured brought along their torches, and clubbed the beasts who were still alive until they were most certainly dead.

Rothag showed the men how to tend to the wounds of the injured people, while Chazacrá had a group help him bury the bodies of the dead.

The next morning, Gâlonus the Almalë came up to the camp of the men. He had seen the storms far in the distance from his tower, and so he set out immediately, and he was just now arriving. Rothag told him an account of what had happened. Gâlonus, being the Almalë of math and the sciences, showed the soldiers how they could use stones to make fire at any time they needed it, and he explained the whole concept of how a storm works to Chazacrá and Rothag to explain the questions that they had. In addition, he assisted the men in healing the injured. After that, Gâlonus really thought that there was not much else that he could do to help; he invited the men to visit his domain, and he told them how to reach it. With that, he returned to his home near the Morndhalen Mountains.

At the end of the day after the battle, Curumo, the Almalë of warfare, gets a strange visit. He recognizes the visitor as the seventh Almalë to whom Cardë had given a secret task. Curumo was informed that his assistance was strongly needed in Atolnalant and that he must leave immediately. Curumo mounted his war-horse, Helcarnor, and he rode off into the sunset.

When he arrived the next morning, he found that the men were fighting again. A moderate amount of beasts had come over the mountains in the night to try to destroy the men in their sleep. This army of assassin beasts was not prepared for Curumo, however, and he helped the men to defeat them. The beasts, realizing that they were outmatched, fled back toward the tower of Gacatë. So ended the second battle: with the retreat of Gacatë's forces, just like the first.

Curumo, being the Almalë of warfare, gave every men a sword, and he showed the men how to make a sword from raw metal, as well. He guided them in their sword-practice.

Curumo summoned horses to come from Almalinë, and so in a few hours they began to arrive. He taught the men how to ride the horse and how to use their sword at the same time. Lastly, Curumo showed the men how to make bows and arrows, and he trained them in the way in which they should be used.

Late that night, Chazacrá and Rothag held council with Curumo. They told him every detail of the last two battles. Curumo decided that, because the beasts had retreated in two battles already, they would probably do so again, and so Curumo decided that an offensive must be taken. With the rise of the sun the next day, the men who were able to go all mounted their horses. Along with their swords and bows, they stealthily rode across the battle-field toward a mountain pass.

The pass was much rockier than the men had expected, and as they went, it became darkers, and so it took them nearly all day to make it to the other side of the mountains. Had the Sun been shining, they would have seen the immense tower of Gacatë. Yet, it was far too dark, and so the men, not seeing their peril, quietly led their horses inwards.

Away in the distance, they could just make out some sort of group, due to the beady eyes. The men split into two groups, as Cardë had instructed before they left camp. One group would begin the attack, and soond after, the other group would come from behind and flank the army of the enemy.

The two groups quietly said their goodbyes (the language of Men had by this point developed to say a few basic things such as "food, pain, good, hello," etc.), and then they went their separate ways.

The leading army went around to the left of the group, and then they snuck around behind them. They next crept forward little by little, until they dared not go any farther, becauses the horse might neigh and give them away before they were ready. Rothag (head of the leading army) gave the word for sword, "Capit," which signalled that the men should draw their swords and get ready. He gave the men a minute or so, and then cried out, "Ahûa!" and began to rush down toward the enemy army immediately. The other men followed with a long, drawn-out "Ahûa!" of their own as their horses ran onward.

The element of surprise plus the training of Curumo helped the men greatly. They weakened the number of the enemy down, and then the flanking army of men came rushing forward, slashing at the beasts on the ground from their horses. After the beady eyes were all on the ground and fading out, Chazacrá lit a torch to see by. Using the very few, basic words that men had developed, Chazacrá did the best job that he could telling the men that they would now be heading back for camp across the mountains. The other men seemed to understand decently enough (and those who didn't just followed along anyhow), and so soon they were off, going the same way that they had come. The men were very delighted that they had won a battle, and they marched on with smiles in the dark, and beast-slime in their hair.

Back in the mountain-pass, the men would occasionally notice a flicker of light show for only a second, and then be gone again. The horses were becoming uneasy, and as they walked along, they begin to neigh nervously at times. The men increased their pace, hoping to make it out without another confrontation, but their hopes were in vain. As they continues down the path, many beasts suddenly jumped out from large rocks, and they blocked the path. The men looked to their left and right, and they were surrounded there, too. They tried to retreat, but they didn't go far: the beasts had formed a line there, too.

More beasts came from behind the ones who had trapped the men. They forced the men to dismount the horses. They bound the men together in thick ropes, and then they gathered the horses together. The men were to become slaves, but the generals of Gacatë had not mentioned horses, and the beasts were quite hungry. Many of them slinked and slithered forward, and the horses became visible in the glow of the beasts' eyes. Then, at once, they leaped onto the horses, and there were many cries and shrieks, but after a short time, the beasts walked away, and began to shove the men along. As they walked by, the men slipped on the blood of the horses, and horses' bones crunched under their feet. The beasts pulled out whips and forced the men along at a quick pace. They walked through the pitch black.

Later, at night (though it was hardly distinguishable from day), the beasts of Gacatë stopped to rest. Although the men were supposed to be spared so that they could serve Gacatë as slaves, occasionally one would be yanked up by the hair in their sleep and devoured before they could realize what was happening. The men who were awake were terrified of what was happening, and they heard the noises as the men were eaten. It is because of these gruesome sounds that they gave the beasts their name: Gurg, for they made a "gurg" sound as they ate their victims.

The next morning the men were marching along, the Gurgs whipping at their backs all the while. They had more or less lost all hope, and several of them tried to kill themselves to avoid the suffering and torment that was to come, yet the Gurgs stopped them before they could succeed. They marched all day with hardly a rest, and then as they were settling for another restless night, they saw a bright light coming up from the West. The Gurgs were frightened by this, and they began to brutalize their slaves. In the confusion, the men were able to find rocks to cut their bonds free, and they in turn freed the other men who were still captured. The men, inspired by this one chance for freedom, became wild with frenzy. They ganged up on the Gurgs, kicking them forcefully, and jabbing at their beady eyes with their hands. When they had gotten their vengeance for the whippings, they turned to witness the white light that was coming. In the light that it gave off, they could see a small army coming in. They presumed that it was the men who had been injured but were now well enough to fight again. Rothag lit a torch, and he told his other fellow men to do the same. With their torches, they rushed off to greet their fellow men and to see what was bringing the light.

After their rendevous, the newly-arrived men gave the men who had been slaves swords, as well as horses that they had brought along with them. Mysteriously, the white light had vanished, and the newly-come men said that they had not noticed it. The others decided that they had seen many strange things in Rozhgurm and that now was no time to worry about such things. Chazacrá and Rothag decided what they thought would be the best way to escape across the mountains to return to camp, and so off they went.

However, another large army of Gurgs had been watching from afar. When the men began to ride back towards the mountains, this group of Gurgs rushed over to stop them. So began the fourth battle of the war against Gacatë.

This Gurg army was rather large, judging by the number of eyes that the men saw. The formed a defensive line. The archers stepped forwards and began to fire out at the Gurgs as they came forward, but this only caused a shriek here and there, and the vast majority of the Gurg army pushed closer and closer. Chazacrá let out the battle cry, "Ahûa!" for the final time. All the men rode forward on their horses, trampling the Gurgs who were trying to climb upward. The Gurg blood splashed up onto the faces of the men in the back as they rode downward. The remaining Gurgs rose to their feet and chased after the men. Once again, the archers shot out towards any beady eyes that they saw, while the men on horseback readied for the attack, but then, the gates of the Gacatë's Tower opened, and out came something unimaginable...