Calarine

The lost nation of Calarine existed in a time before the Cataclysm, and few people nowadays even recognize the name. Its capitol was located on an peninsula to the south-east of Zyreema.

At the height of its power, it was one of the most powerful nations of its time. But with the arrival of the first Dark Gods, it fell to their corruptive influence. One god in particular profited from every step Calarine made towards destruction: Crowned Death. In the end, the capital city sank into the sea andits history into obscurity.

The society of Calarine was ruled by a pharao and supported by a strong yet benevolent death cult.

The death priests of Calarine were the world's foremost necromancers and the first to discover the technique of creating Undead. Yet they had strong ethics and regulations against disturbing the rest of the dead. The only undead they would ever create were volunteers who would guard the tombs of their rulers until the end of time.

## The slow Corruption of Calarine

A dark god who later became known as Crowned Death, was faszinated by the abilities of the death cult. He posed as an ancestor spirit and slowly but steadily infiltrated the cult. He stole their secrets and corrupted the techniques with his influence, then offered them to his followers. His followers, seduced by promisses of power, spread the word of the new god. That way, Crowned Death slowly rose from one ancestor spirits amongst many to one of the main objects of devotion.

Conservative members of the cult observed the development with worry, but failed to act in time. Eventually Crowned Death's influence became too big to subdue. Tension between the followers of the old way and the new way escalated, resulting in a schism of the cult. From there the conflict only escalated. Crowned Death's followers were willing to use ruthless, violent and amoral means, even breaking old taboos on raising the dead, and thus won the upper hand against the conservative factions. Some priests and their followers chose exile. Others remaind to continue the fight.

From there it was a quick descend into civil war, as followers of the new cultwas backed by political figures who would no longer accept the rule of the pharao. Warlords toppled the old government, then fought each other for supremacy. When it seemed that one faction was done for, Crowned Death would grant them a new boon, usually another army of undead, to keep them in the fight. Thus he managed to bind the leaders to him. When one warlord eventually won over her competitors, the land she was fighting over was destroyed, the people dead, her friends betrayed, and her very soul sold to a dark god. All that was left was service to her new master, who chose this moment to announce his new name to the world.

That was when the other nations finally recognized the Evil that infested Calarine. In one of the first crusades, they united against Calarine. While they laid siege to the capitol and the High Temple of Crowned Death, the entire peninsula sunk into the waves drowning the crusaders.

The surviving crusaders considered the high temple destroyed and their work done. In fact the pyramid had alredy been modified to serve as Crowned Death's submarine base, filled to bursting with the corpses of an entire nation and those who dared to oppose him.

## Fading into Oblivion

After the fall of Calarine, considerable effort went into erasing the nation from history alltogether. By declaring himself the Dark God of all Undead, Crowned Death tainted the reputation of the entire school of necromancy. The art was banned all over the land and necromancers hunted down, even if they were practicing the old ways and did not rely on the Dark God's power. This spelled the end for the enclaves of Calarine exiles.

Crowned Death secretly supported this prosecution. In addition he had his followers seek and destroy any signs of the fallen nation, going as far as burning down entire libaries to destroy a single book. It would damage his reputation and standing as the Dark God of all Undead if the world realized that there were ways to perform necromancy that didn't rely on his powers. Or even worse: That he had learned all he knew abut necromancy from mortals.

Only after the Cataclysm, when the world had forgotten about Calarine, did the church of Crowned Death move on to the next phase of his plan: To rewrite history by planting false evidence. The mystery of the name would lead curious scholars and power-hungry wizards down the path of corruption. One piece of that ploy are the Battle Staffs of Calarine.