Gnome King's War

The Gnome King waged a war on two continents during the First Age. The Forge War on the continent of Damocles against the dwarves proved too costly to continue. Certainly, the Gnome King felt the conflict on Wanjur had a better chance of success. It is not certain why the Gnome King initiated his two-front war.

The dwarven kingdoms would have it that he simply hated dwarves because they were good at mining the rock creatures’ treasures in the earth. Others have suggested that clutches of gnome eggs were mistaken for gemstones and stolen away. These explanations only concern the dwarves and, therefore, do not explain the Gnome King’s interest in the Anakim Empire of the Summa on Wanjur. It is known that the Gnome King is the traditional enemy of the Summa. The Gnome King saw their expansion from the Dragon Mountains into almost all of Wanjur as a threat to his own power. Mountain dwelling storm giants and rock-skinned gnomes have ever been enemies. Giants have never bowed to the Gnome King, an affront he does not suffer well. It is also known that a balrog was involved in the fall of the Anakim Empire and it may be that the Gnome King’s true enemy was not the Summa so much as the balrog. It is not known whether a balrog was involved in the Forgewar.

## The Anakim Empire

The Anakim Empire was the empire of the Summa, a race of lesser cloud giants. They are responsible for the building of the King’s Road, which stretches through most of Wanjur. All legends regarding the Summa as a benevolent race are false. In truth, they built their empire on the backs of slaves of other races. Slaves worked their fields and mines (notably providing soulstones for the Archmagus’ war machines) and died in Negatar’s Games. While the Anakim Empire was powerful at the beginning of the First Age, it was all but a memory during the Second Age. Its ruins stand as a testimony to its excess and corruption. Mot Hadrall, one of its proudest trade cities, became the Accursed City. The Archmagus, once revered as gods by some, were wiped from existence. Good King Negatar wished to extend Summa rule to the entire world, essentially changing the Summa ideal of the Eternal Empire into the Endless Empire. He saw himself as the successor to the dying Emperor [aka Eternal Father], whose influence was barely felt. While the Emperor served as a figurehead and father figure, the Parliament Imperius ran the Empire. As the Emperor had no suitable heirs, Negatar was one of three possible successors to the Imperial throne. Duarden, High Chancellor of the Imperius, and Goliath Bashan, High General of the Anakim Army, were close contenders for the Imperial seat.

## The Archmagus

In his quest for power, Negatar of the kingdom of Gath made a pact with the High Ones, whom history would later name the Archmagus. In his pride he underestimated them and fell under their thrall.

The decades-long war with the Gnome King had taken much of the Empire’s resources and even some of its land. The gnome forces had successfully taken the Firepeaks and the Oz Plateau. The Archmagus provided Negatar with an army of machines and magically-created war beasts. As the Archmagus were chronomancers, many of these creatures and innovations were actually stolen from other places and times. These innovations relieved the Summa of having to personally battle the gnomes for the most part; this and Negatar’s gladiatorial Games made him one of the most popular kings – and promised to make him one of the most popular emperors – in the Eternal Empire’s history. For their part, the Archmagus used their share of the war’s spoils to build what is now called the Temple of Heretics, far beneath Mot Hadrall, and to institute the worship of magus as godlings. Since Negatar was king of these godlings (while actually under their thrall), he was perceived by adherents of this cult as a true god.

## Charnel

The Imperius sent Negatar’s nephew, Belthazarius, to try to convince him that the Archmagus could not be trusted. Belthazarius was able to break the Archmagus’ thrall, but Negatar was unwilling to admit he was under their spell. To keep his nephew from telling the Imperius that he’d been compromised and under the Archmagus’ spell, Negatar imprisoned Belthazarius in the Deep Prisons. Negatar then made a pact with Charnel, a balrog of surpassing cruelty and cunning. Charnel hoped to wrest the balance of power in the area from the Gnome King, the Summa’s traditional enemy. Negatar sacrificed entire villages of his own people, allowing the Charnel to transform them into ogres, an enemy capable of fighting both rock-skinned gnomes and the machines and warbeasts of the Archmagus. Negatar secured popular opinion by blaming the disappearance of entire villages on the Gnome King and then questioning the High Chancellor and High General’s ability to keep their people safe. The Gnome King unintentionally played into his hands by sending gnomes into unmanned villages to easily claim new territory, making Negatar’s stories seem plausible. When questioned about his connection to the Archmagus and the disappearance of his nephew, Negatar responded with counter-accusations that the Imperius was superstitious about magic and cared more for politics than discovering the whereabouts of their missing people. Negatar’s innovations also made the Imperial Army unpopular. It was greatly reduced to keep Summa blood from being unnecessarily spilled in the Gnome King’s War.

## Civil War

War’s end came abruptly. A civil war between Negatar and the Archmagus broke out within the very gates of Mot Hadrall. A joint slave uprising led by forces from the conquered human kingdom of Ravinia and the besieged dwarven kingdom of El. The Gnome King took advantage of this internal conflict, attacking Negatar’s forces while he was distracted. Finding himself on the losing end, Negatar appealed to Charnel. The balrog scorned him, but Negatar tricked him into leaving the Gate to the Nether World and locked it behind him. Only by fighting for him personally could Charnel return. The balrog began decimating Negatar’s enemies. Unfortunately, the balrog was slain by an arrow of light at the moment Charnel as casting his most destructive spell. The blast of wyld magic created the wyldstorm in what is now known as the city’s Dread Quarter. Charnel cursed the city with his dying breath, his heart becoming the Night Gem that casts Mot Hadrall into eternal night. The Gnome King and Archmagus were also trapped within the blast. Bereft of the Arhmagus’ innovations, the greatly reduced army of the Anamkim Empire found itself besieged on every side by foes it had once enslaved. They were overthrown and their cities were destroyed. Bereft of leadership, the gnomes left off from war.

## Firelord

One unforeseen result of the conflict was that a pyrokinetic human magus, a former slave by the name who had taken the name Rakshasa Kahn, was altered by Charnel’s final spell. History would later name him the Firelord, first and last of the Dark Lords.