Nalðàzam

City of Black Flames

Jeytra startled awake at the sound of his dogs’ howling. Kændàlari Herders were not easily spooked, so he knew something was wrong. Pressing his hat firmly onto his head, he stood and looked around. The rugged mountain slopes looked no different. There were no dust plumes to indicate movement along the valley roads. The animated dogs continued their throaty singing, bounding about in circles, sending confused sheep scattering across the loose stones and brush. As Jeytra turned to collect his crook and blanket he noticed that the fine pebbly-dirt was shifting on the hillside, and larger stones were starting to rock and tumble. Looking again toward the lowlands, his jaw dropped as he watched the ground split asunder and black flames erupt into the air. Soon the sound of fracturing earth cracked and echoed throughout the pass. Each deafening crack gave birth to another rift until the valley floor was a spider’s web of burning chasms. It was only then that the first of the dark spires emerged. Jeytra threw his things aside and ran.

Undeniable evidence that powerful magics are still possible on the World of Teréth End, the emergence of Nalðàzam marks the largest ritual of vulgar magic since of the fall of the City of Ildûn. Sheathed in a consumptive cocoon of black flames, the City of Nalðàzam was lifted from the depths of underworld by an army of Drûl Neylfèrahl magicians. The exact details and costs of such a feat may never be known, but whispers percolating up from the subterranean realms tell of massive sacrifices of Gnor, Urdar, and races never cataloged in the bestiaries of the surface. It is impossible to conceive that such efforts would be expended without some long-term objective of dire intent.

In 564 DR, the City of Nalðàzam appeared along the Run Neðyzan on the eastern border of Zyrr, casting a preternatural shadow across the Snaking Pass. The only surface observer to the event was a young Yrūni shepherd who happened to be moving his herd to their spring slopes. The young man was able to tell his tale to a handful of shepherds and villagers before he was discovered by the Shroud. He was summoned to tell his tale before the High Circle of Zyrr, but his fate is unknown. In the months to follow, Shroud ðardram were dispatched to the Snaking Pass to investigate. Their report confirmed the shepherd’s story of a strange city of twisting towers where none had existed before. Furthermore, the ðardram observed the presence of tall dark inhabitants with features that were reminiscent of the Eylfāe. It was this last finding that mobilized the armies of Highland kingdoms (i.e., Ummon and Zyrr) and has kept them on guard for almost a century.

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