Book of Orinite

toiling away at Urgalroth

The Book of Orinite in an ancient tome, penned some time in the Dawn Era by a primordial simply known as the Prime Architect.

How it ended up on Osâcharumâz and in the hands of the Old Ones has yet to be learned. They used the book to build their greatest monuments and structures. This was done with legions of golems that durkoth spies claimed were practically unguided. The awe-inspiring holdings of the Old Ones was one thing that garnered the envy of the durkoth and the subsequent wars between the two peoples.


Early in the Horgon Era, the Book of Orinite was plundered from a sunken city of the Old Ones. It remained in the Nemerion family for hundreds of years before it could be properly deciphered. This was because it was not written in the language of the Old Ones but in a primordial cipher designed by the book's author. It was not put to use till well after the durkoth departure from Osâcharumâz.

On Bal-Kriav, during the Durkoth Descent, Rereth Nemerion absconded with the book and went off to the fetid wetlands of Ilorath. Here he used the book to create true golems and the realm's first half-golems. The golems created from the Book of Orinite were used to defend Rereth from vengeful spirits (a byproduct of his half-golem experiments) and create the sixteen rings of fortifications that make-up the ruin Urgalroth.

When the night hag Thryunkian took claim of Urgalroth, the Book of Orinite was found in the squalid den of a troll. The troll gave up the book after being pummeled into submission and then went on to faithfully serve his new master. Thryunkian never made use of it since she lacked the knowledge to crack the book's cipher. During a war with the Orchish Empire, her treasury dropped so slow that she sent out agents to find buyers of the book. The book was sold through a third party and ended up in the libraries of the Magis Insitute. It sold for an undisclosed amount, yet enough to buy peace with the Orchish Empire.

The number of golems defending Magis Insitute and those that battled at Golem Pass are undoubtedly the result of the book's use by those at the Magis Insitute.

Girderhead Institute of War

Admiral One-Shot, founder of the Institute

The Girderhead Institute of War is an academy for training air tactics, astrogation, parachuting, and paratrooper tactics. It is the top institute of warfare in the Giff League, and a much sought-after academy for foreigners - though enrollment of them is capped at 10% per year. Most students of the schools get through the study and training in three to four years.

The school was founded by the Girderheads, a family with a long history in shipping and naval warfare. They built the place in the lowest of the floating spires that make-up the Void Steps. In the beginning, schooling was done out of their estate, but as the school gained renown and wealth it expanded across each of the Void Steps.

In the Third Suellk Invasion, the school was attacked, with the illithids either brazen or not thinking that the students of the academy would put up much of a fight. The Battle of the Void Steps lasted three days, with a garrison of 400, mostly students, defeating an illithid invasion force of 4,000. In many of the engagements, up to a half of the attacking ships were captured, with the rest having lost air control from battle damage, and plunging more than 6,000 feet to the broken volcanic plains below.

Dy'tzor Goulmor

During the Toomrur's long migration from the western tracts of the Aerie of Dragons to Thingrorn, they came across a number of ancient battlefields dating to the Demon Spawn War. In one of these, it is said they found an ancient tome, unharmed by time and weather, and in it was a lost art of magic called Arcane Pooling.

Dy'tzor Goulmor is the only school that teaches Arcane Pooling. This ancient form of magic was created by the then angel Arcana. He quit research of Arcane Pooling because of its higher incidence of producing wild surges and degrading an area's Web of Magic.

And we thought they were just ogres. We had heard of Toomrur battle prowess, but a platoon of ogre arcanists slinging fireballs, ice storms, and other destructive magic is something to fear. They dont just burn out after a few casts, they can hurl bolts of lighting and balls of fire until their arcane pool is expended - and by chance a weave spider appears in their midst, to punish the destroyer of the Web, the hapless victim will bellow out to his comrades - "Witness Ioun's Wrath!", and those around him will themselves scream "Witness!"

 - Gethorlarg, soldier of the Fograth, "Toomrur Battle Mages"

The current headmaster of this school is the ghost Zaris. When she came to the school, she was well versed in Arcane Pooling, having learned it from the lich Sammaster. Under her guidance, the school has become disciplined and enrollment expanded to include peoples and groups who may be potential allies of the Ogre Union.

Helephor

Helephor is a wood elf tribe of Taurelin. They never gave up worship of Silvanus.  
The Angrods consider this tribe to be a rebel group. As such, the Angrod also hold them in disdain for pulling their forces from the frontier during the ravages of the Gorum Horde. They blame Helephor for the complete destruction of Amanwen by the jara.

Hedge Sentinel of Helephor

If they had put aside religious disagreements, and fought for elven blood, then we would have had enough time to bring up our armies and drive back the jara.
 
- Siratillë, Angrod general of the Mindo Hírië army, "Helephor Betrayal"


The Helephor roam the eastern tracts of Fauglaith. They are close to the territory of the Witch Horde. The theegans of this empire have allied with the Helephor in their battles with both the jara and the Angrods. The Helephor are responsible for spreading the druidic arts and even the will of Silvanus into the populace of the Witch Horde.

Khaa'khas

Death Giant

Khaa'khas is an ancient order of eldritch giants that have given themselves up to necromancy or the shadows. Those following the path of necromancy become death giants and those choosing the path of shadow become shadow giants or shades. During the long reign of Saer Erkjorg, the Khaa'khas served as both a general staff and made up part of a confederacy government.

Khaa'khas was established in the Lith-Crillion Era by a militant society of eldritch giants.

It all begin in 375 LC when sailing the icy waters of Nautrek, scouring the coasts and inland for relics left behind from the two great wars of the Dawn and God Eras. In the late hours one night, the bell sounded the collision alarm brining all scurrying to their stations. Topside, we all looked in awe as a massive ship slowly emerged from one of Nautrek's all too common fog banks. This ship was bigger than anything we had ever heard of, towering five masts over our own. We moved out of the path of the slow moving hulk and then watched for a rain of missiles from her decks. When this did not come, and her decks and portholes showed no sign of movement, we moved aside her for investigation. There was no way to get topside, so we used our mountain climbing gear and crimped our way to the top. The top deck, 400' above the ocean below at its lowest, was tossed with shattered rigging, birds nest, including what looked to be an abandoned roc's nest. The size of the deck was thirty times larger than our own. The lower decks turned out to be the living quarters of all manner of undead and other creatures of the shadows. The creatures were nothing like we see today, instead being monstrosities of the Elemental Chaos, once soldiers of some primordial that battled the angels and gods in the Dawn War.
 
After losing half of my boarding party, we retreated back to the galley burdened with ancient magic weapons and coffers of gems, platinum, silver, and a cluster of scrolls. The most important piece of the loot were the ancient scrolls with spells and teachings of necromancy and the mechanics of tapping into the energies of the Shadowfell.

 - Rarnskeggi, captain of the Svold Kilf, "Boarding the Halatrax"

These scrolls that Rarnskeggi and his crew plundered from the Halatrax came to be known as the Scrolls of Maen. They would lead to the development of the Maen Saetild school of necromancy and and give rise to a group of eldritch giants that took the study to its extreme, giving up part or all of themselves to become shades, shadow giants, or death giants.