Timepiece of Chronos

The Timepiece of Chronos is an ancient relic created by Chronos.  In the Dawn War, he remained largely aloof of the conflict between the primordials and the Nawirrûs Covenant.  He was more interested in tinkering, inventing, and doing things of much smaller scale than getting involved in world and plane spanning enterprises like the Dawn War. 

Timepiece of Chronos

In the God Era, the primordials were no longer much of concern to the angels and gods holding the Prime Material Plane.  They now had to deal with hordes of demons seeking to carve out areas of the Prime Material Plane for themselves.  One theater of the Demon Spawn War was Hells Womb and her Underdark belly Drarthiel.  Demogorgon and his hordes sought to take Hells Womb, while his ally worked to take Drarthiel.  Demogorgon was knocked out the conflict when his egg-like transport was destroyed at Ladneg.  In the dark reaches under Hells Womb, the other demon lord had an army of seemingly endless numbers.  These demons came to this realm through a rift between the planes called the Arioch Cloud. 

The angels at Phollûmâ decided that they need to do something about the Arioch Cloud.  If this gate was anything like the Sôvuk Sea Gate then they would be hard pressed to take it down by force.  The chief intelligence officer at Phollûmâ was sent to meet with Loki and come up with a more clandestine plan for sealing the inter-planar gate.  Loki gave the Phollûmâ officer a device he "borrowed" from Chronos and told him that it must be taken into the rift and activated by someone willing to give themselves up for the cause. 

An elven angel named Marindecar volunteered for the task of going into the rift.  She activated the Timepiece of Chronos by giving up her divine energy.  The device not only froze the angel in time, but ended up freezing the entire Abyssal plane Arioch in timelessness.   

Turning of Tiamat

The Demon Spawn War was a war between angels, gods, demons, demon lords, and their allies. It followed on the smoldering ashes of the Dawn War. It came about because the primordials were too weak to keep a lid on what was becoming known as the Abyss. The Demon Spawn War pitted demon lords against archangels and minor gods. In what was then known as Leret do Dovah, Orcus and his demon generals battled the archangel Asmodeus and his generals. The theater of conflict between these two was known as the Hoof Front.

Overall command of the Hoof Front fell to then archangel Asmodeus. His general of this region was the platinum dragon Bahamut. They had separate commands in the Aerie of Dragons, yet worked closely on matters of strategy. In the Crab Advance, a battle to take back Hiznaar Goz, the two worked together on a combined assault against the hordes of the demon general Drurn-Adruk. This attack was spread across hundreds of miles and involved a pincer strategy with Bahamut's flying army attacking south from the Sands of Hell towards Mohak while Asmodeus led an assault east through Enkii Mah.

Tiamat

In one of the great one-on-one battles of the Demon Spawn War, where a leader of one side fought the leader of the other, Tiamat squared off against an ancient demon. Legend has it that the battle was fought for ten hours and spanned the length of Krent Talaav. Whem Bahamut's army reached the last southern fortifications of the valley, Tiamat invoked the Rite of Challenge. This allowed her and her alone the task of taking on the enemy's leader if it accepted the challenge. Drurn-Adruk, a demon lord spawned from the Step of Foundation, gladly accepted for he knew that even if he died, Tiamat would still suffer badly from his morality undoing talons.

The battle between Tiamat and Drurn-Adruk was a pyrrhic victory for Tiamat. Her grievous wounds were chaos infused from the demon's poisonous talons. Bahamut was able to cure many of her wounds, including the chaos tainting her soul, but could not revert the warping of her body. Tiamat's body was changed from chaotic energies which turned into something akin to a primordial hydra with five dragon heads. Bahamut and Tiamat were also unaware of a demon seed that was planted in her by Drurn-Adruk's dreadful beak. This demon seed slowly turned her evil and in time led to her abandonment of Bahamut and the angelic cause of driving the demons back to the Abyss.

The Crab Advance was a success in that it cut off the head of Orcus's armies, trapping them between the army of Bahamut and those of Asmodeus. Those demons that did not go underground or find a way to sneak through the lines were cut down by the angelic forces. The demons that could fly were easing pickings for teams of dragons which prowled the skies or stood as sentinels on peaks scanning far and wide for the enemy.

In the last battle of the Hoof Front, Orcus and an elite group of maralith captured one of the three top generals serving Asmodeus. When the gates of Ghak were breached, Orcus personally decapitated general Ellumâ Orrasar and took his head back to Naratyr. This head became the skull that sits atop the Wand of Orcus.

Progeny of Gabin Kûn

Gabin Kûn

The story of Orcus got really good in 3rd Edition.  Not gonna go into that, since it has already been told.   What I'm gonna tell you here is how Orcus came about.  In the Dawn Era, one of the top dogs of the primordials was one named Piranoth.  He created planes and worlds, and the giants, and created a progeny of children.  These were not created in the normal ways that we think of, because he created things out of the elemental energies of the Elemental Chaos.  He made sure that those that he created, did not have the same power of creation, so his progeny, in most cases, went about the same ways of bearing children as others.  One of those that came about from his creative endeavors was a giant abomination named Gabin Kûn.  This son was hideous to behold, ill-tempered, spiteful, vindictive, and all-around bad to be around. 

Another of Piranoth's gifts was his future sense.  He saw a future with Gabin Kûn as one bearing seeds of a great uprising.  Piranoth was against infanticide, not on moral grounds, but on the possible outcomes of changing the future based on what he foresees, so he instead sent Gabin Kûn to Thantaos where all the other psychopaths were being herded.  On Thantaos, Gabin Kûn was tasked with building a great forge to fabricate armaments for what his father said was a great conflict to come.  The forge area that Gabin Kûn and his crazed minions built came to be called Naratyr. 

Gabin Kûn was like his father in two ways.  He fathered many progeny from a harem said to number in the thousands.  He guise is often depicted as unwholesome, though it was only one that he could take, to court, seduce, or charm others, he could be as comely as the most beautiful half-elf.  Many of those born of Gabin Kûn's seed were abominations.   These things beat with life, yet were devoid of emotion, were unmoving, and seemingly in a catatonic state.  Like his father Piranoth, Gabin Kûn could not dispatch of his progeny, so he sent them off to be hidden about the many layers of Piranoth's Steps. 

When the Dawn War ended, the primordials were defeated, driven from the Prime Material Plane and back into the bowels of the Elemental Chaos.  In a fit of spite, and to make matters worse for the angels and gods, Piranoth abandoned his 666 layers of Piranoth's Steps.   Late in the Dawn War, Piranoth's Steps was an area no longer under control by the primordials.  It had been overrun by chaotic and evil beasts called demons.  The demons were contained by the primordials during the latter years of the Dawn War.  When that war ended, the primordials left the demons unguarded.   For Gabin Kûn and his people, they were mostly wiped out for not even the primordials could muster the forces required to enter a plane besieged by hordes of demons.

A legendary battle was fought between father and son for rule of Naratyr.  In this epic fight, Gabin Kûn battled his son Orcus.  The son nearly perished, surviving only because of his father's mercy.  Orcus took quick advantage of this and immediately struck down his father, quipping:


I'll record this as zero for infanticide, and one for regicide.  
- Orcus, on the death of his father, "Gloating over Gabin Kûn"

With the death of Gabin Kûn, Orcus became master of Naratyr and the plane Thanatos.  The only thing left of Gabin Kûn is part of his spine, which serves as the handle of the Wand of Orcus.  After the demons took layer after layer of Piranoth's Steps, the realm came to be called the Abyss.

Order 3C

When the tragarans arrived in Brucrumus they knew nothing of the interior.  In time, they got reports of ancient ruins in nearly every direction, and of places with old empires dating as far back as the Horgon Era.    One of the more intriguing empires they learned of was Garmomuk.   

Widow of Modrerthim

Ermikel the Balance went and lived at Broken Teeth for a little more than a year. At this capital city of the gnolls, he  gathered history of the region's civilizations.  When he returned to the distance shores of Hells Womb, he began writing the history.  Some, not knowing his credibility, laughed at his talk of a civilization of gnolls.   As a result, he waited ten years to submit this history to the public, because by that time adventurers and explorers were returning from the Northern Hordelands with tales of great monuments and a sophistication among the gnolls they thought was impossible.

A period of enlightenment was started in this wild region with the Drugnod family.  This family did not get lucky and sire a line of great leaders that led the Drugnod Empire to greatness, no they were helped by someone very cunning and with the patience of centuries for plan to reach fruition.   The Drugnods, led by their venerated shamans were enticed to enter into a dark pact with the abyssal lord Demogorgon.  This  deal was the Drugnod Pact.  It required a certain sacrifice, that wasn't to be felt for several centuries.

The Drugnod Pact led to a dynastic line of rulers.  The male emperor, usually chosen for obedience or influence was married to a Drugnod daughter - one "blessed" by the unholy pact with Demogorgon.  Behind close doors, the emperor was referred to derogatorily as a "breeder", because the real power behind the throne was the Drugnod Empress.

One of the greatest policies of the Drugnod was Order 3C.  This mandated an end to the nomadic ways of the region's tribes.  As a result of this government policy the people experienced stability, population growth,  and the beginning of an allegiance to something bigger than the tribe and thoughts on when they were leaving for the next hunting ground.

The Drugnod Empire began to wane when the cities grew distant from the affairs of the countryside.  This led to the Hlothangi Insurgency.  During this civil war, Demogorgon returned to collect his end of the Drugnod Pact.  The Drugnods and many other elites of society ended up being charmed, abducted, or dispatched  by vampire cultists of the Widows of Modrerthim.

The gnoll period of civilization did not end with the Drugnod.  A half year after their fall, the territorial councilors that had once served their Empress went on to form the republic of Yagamph.

Netheram

Netheram is an enigmatic beholder variant inhabiting the Valefor Deathworks.  Before he became a forge master. he cruised the depths of the Green Nebulous.  As an eye of the deep, he had no interest in the land except for the potential prey that came too close to the water's edge.

Eye of the Deep

One day, he was captured by the apex predators of the Green Nebulous.  The aboleth that captured Netheram decided not to kill him but to punish him for not bending a knee (or flipper, pincer, fin) to them, so they put him in a specially designed tank and sold him off to illithid merchants.  He was then carried north for ten leagues in a glass-steel tank of water.  Drow merchants then purchased him and took him to Valefor where Underdark oddities were highly sought after.

Netheram ended up in a glass covered pool.  This pool was glass covered because above it was the palace chamber for meeting important dignitaries.   This pool awed many who came before whatever hobgoblin satrap held sway over Valefor.  It also led to embarrassing situations when Netheram, in a fit of rage, would spring from the pools murky depths and clatter his pincers on the glass.

Netheram became a forge master by necessity.  He was saved from death after Valefor fell, operated on by duergar dissector/necromancer, implanted with a Tiwa'erra Void Sphere, turned into a death tyrant, modified to have a forge hammer and tongs instead of pincers, and left to figure out what to do with these implements.  Probably, the worst of Netheram's suffering was that he now functioned better hovering about the ground, rather than cruising underwater.  This last condition was said to be a directive from none other than the master of pain and suffering - the god Torog.

Hoof of Gluttony

When raiding barrows, tombs, and crypts it is sometimes good to know what was buried there.

When Morbakh raided the Barrow of Agdúm, all he knew was that the barrow's dead Ogre Lord once

King of Taln'nazân

had a prized weapon of great power.  Unbeknownst to many, the history of that weapon and what happens to those who come to own it is obscure and dark.

Morbakh raided the Barrow of Agdúm, losing most of his soldiers and personnel guard to a powerful ghost.  This ghost was the ward of the barrow and cursed to give watch over the place.   One of her most dangerous powers is the ability to infuse another with the dark gift of Rioch Tetrax.  This comes in the form of them becoming an extremely powerful form of undead called a King of Taln'nazân.  Morbakh succeeded in gaining his much sought after prize, the Hoof of Gluttony.  He yanked what looked like a skeletal horse leg from the resting place of Agdúm and turned to meet the ghost.

Perhaps Morbakh put up a good fight, yet he still died.  His death while wielding the Hoof of Gluttony is probably how he came to be a type of undead called a famine spirit.  This wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that he was also infused with fell energies from the barrow's ghost.  He became a Taln'nazân Famine Spirit-King, which is possibly the most powerful form for a King of Taln'nazân.

Brightstar 1507

Ogre Lord Morbakh

It is obvious what these advisers are doing, their masters back at Drakhôr hope to destabilize the empire and wishfully see us waste boots and resources in a drawn-out war. What they and others continue to forget, is that high blood orcs don't fight because they have to, but because they want to.
 
- Blac'drugulois, excerpt from his personal diaries, "Brightstar 1507"

This is one of the observances made by the former emperor of the Orchish Empire.  He made this during the First Ogre War.  This war ended in a stalemate, at least according to the records of the Fograth.  To other powers, it was viewed as a defeat, with the Toomrur and their much revered Ogre Lords now seen as a regional power.