Author: Taras Guarhoth

by Taras Guarhoth (montand@canonfire.com)
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.

As the Aerdi armies moved southward, forcing their way into the Suel dominated-lands of the south, many of the Flan tribes and houses welcomed the Aerdy, but not all did. Some violently opposed the Oerid push which would eventually break the power of the Suel in the lands north of the Vast Swamp. One such group of Flan was House Toshna (of mixed Flan-Suel descent), the most powerful and influential of the Harashim houses in the Sud Graufult.

Situated just off the southern banks of the Greyflood river, Torvald was the richest of the towns in the area, and by far the most powerful. Founded in the days immediately following the migration of the Suel through the area, House Toshna vowed never to let another group push them out of their lands or enslave them. They vowed to keep their lands, no matter what the cost.

House Toshna greeted the Oerids as many Flan had, hailing them for destroying the pureblood Suel presence around them, which resulted in the destruction of many of their rivals. As the Aerdy began to slowly work their way into total control of the entire area, however, House Toshna struck back, sending troops across the river and attacking several forts and towns, burning them and butchering their inhabitants. Rumors persist that not all of those in the towns were butchered, but were instead carried back to Torvald to be sacrificed in hideous rituals designed to give more power to House Toshna.

Houses Mallosh and Nashalla were outraged at the activities of House Toshna, immediately throwing their lot in with the Oerids, who had, before this, treated the Flan and demihumans of the Sud Graufult as valued allies in their wars against the Suel. The wrath of the Aerdi was great. They descended on Torvald, and utterly destroyed the town, tearing it’s walls down, slaughtering it’s leaders, and defiling it’s temples.

Accounts from the destruction of the town are sketchy at best. It is known that a number of of the vengeful Oerids were driven mad by what happened within the shattered walls of that town during the final assult on House Toshna, and many other fell victim to fell horrors only half-seen by those who survived the assult. As the Oerids moved through the darkened streets, they were met by the Harashim living there, not to attack the Oerids, but instead to beg for the Oerids to take them out of that hellish place. Many more were found by the invaders, dead before the first Oerid ever found them, victims of the atrocities and blasphemies House Toshna was unleashing upon their own people in a futile effort to stop the Oerids.

In the end, the leaders of House Toshna were all believed to be killed, most of them clustered around the altar of the central temple in the town, which originally had been dedicated to the benign gods of the Flan, but now was devoted to something unspeakable, the icons and statues of the former gods shattered. It is unknown what House Toshna was worshipping in that temple, for of those Flan who survived the sack of the town, none had set foot within it since it had been converted to the new, dark gods of House Toshna, and the Oerids, at the urgings of those Flan, utterly destroyed the temple, burning as much of the hateful structure as they could. They then fled the town.

In the years since then, Torvald has stood, a forsaken ruin, unlooted and shunned, ordered sealed by the new Waldgraf of Olvanstaadt-am-Graufult. Those few who were known to have defied the order and entered the ruins have never returned. Since whatever dwelt within the ruins never came into the lands of the living, the peoples of the surrounding areas were content to ignore the ruin. Now, though, there are reports of those from areas around the ruin disappearing, and of strange noises within the ancient town. Some whisper that House Toshna wasn’t destroyed, and that they’ve returned to reclaim their land.