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This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- storm_cloud [2007/01/04 00:27] – jims
+++ storm_cloud [2021/04/03 16:03] (current) – jims
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-[[World|Back to main World page]]
+[[start|Back to start page]]
 ==== Storm Cloud ====
-A veil of psychic energy which shielded the land below from the
-sunlight, but let the moon light through without hindrance.  This cloud was
-originally an unexpected by-product of the tremendous carnage at the end of
-the second age and was drawn down to Lowland by Pelham in 1093.  In 1104, it
-was brought down by the Good Party and has since drifted away from Lowland
-and fixed itself over the ruined capital city of Resh.
+A veil of psychic energy which shielded the land below from the sunlight, but
+let the moonlight through without hindrance.  This cloud was originally an
+unexpected by-product of the tremendous carnage at the end of the second age and
+was drawn down to Lowland by Pelham in 1093.  In 1104, it was brought down by
+the Good Party and has since settled over the necropolis that used to be the
+city of Lowland.
-[[World|Back to main World page]]
+==== History ====
+{{ stormcloudmap.jpg?400|The Tower Positions and extent of Hades' storm cloud}}
+[[Hades]]' storm cloud is a vast, black cloud that completely blocks out the
+light of the sun, but lets through the light of the moon with no hindrance.  Its
+origin on this world is shrouded in mystery, but it seems to have emerged over
+the reconstructed ruins of the [[Dark Mage]]'s castle shortly after the great
+explosion.
+There it remained for centuries, powered by the [[Dark Mage]]'s scepter and the
+great [[Luinmîr]], the gem of [[Corellon]].  In 1093, this gem was recovered by
+[[Karelia]] and the storm cloud lost most of its anchor (having grown weak over
+the centuries of isolation).
+[[Pelham]], meanwhile, had wanted to control the storm cloud for his own
+purposes.  When its connection faded, it swept off south and connected again
+over [[Lowland]].  There it was kept going by [[Pelham]]'s magics and he devised
+the means to expand it over his enemies ([[Backbone]] and [[Pleven]]).
+Beginning in 1095, [[Pelham]] (in disguise) went throughout the land convincing
+the various leaders that it would be in their best interests to construct a
+series of watchtowers "to watch and to protect" the lands from the orcs and
+other evils.  With his mind-influencing powers, he succeeded in this endeavor
+splendidly.  Once these towers were up, [[Pelham]] planned on populating them
+with hosts for special crystals.  These hosts could then keep the storm cloud
+alive over thousands of square miles. Only the dwarves in [[Blanan]] were
+unconvinced by [[Pelham]]'s logic, saying they saw little practical use for such
+a tower.
+The crystals [[Pelham]] were to use were fragments from a great crystal of
+immense magical powers.  When the [[Dark Mage]] emerged and contacted
+[[Pelham]], he was enthralled by the telepath's plan.  When his powers were
+built up to near full force, he took the crystals from [[Pelham]], recovered
+many of the still-missing ones, and carried [[Pelham]]'s plan to its "next
+logical step."  Whereas [[Pelham]] would have been content to enslave his
+neighbors, the [[Dark Mage]] would settle at nothing less than the entire world.
+When the [[Dark Mage]] took possession of the crystal in late 1097, the eighth
+tower had been completed, but only two of them were populated: the one over the
+captured city of [[Bearly]] and the one overlooking [[Gnome Valley]].  Both
+were considered by [[Pelham]] tests and only the [[Bearly]] tower expanded the
+shadow any.  At this point, the shadow (initially kept just over the cities of
+[[Lowland]] by [[Pelham]]'s own magics) had spread to encompass most of the
+orcish lands of [[Qôc Larnaî]] as well as the city of [[Bearly]] and the
+surrounding lands for about fifty miles.
+In November and December of 1097, the [[Dark Mage]] populated the towers in
+[[Leafgal]] and [[Torthorne]], thus enhancing the cloud's strength over the
+entirety of [[Lowland]], spreading it further into [[Backbone]], though still
+not over any of the major cities.  In January of 1098, the tower on the [[King's
+Island]] was taken by force and populated.  This spread the storm cloud suddenly
+over the cities of [[Backbone]].  However, the wizard [[Edric]] made the
+connection between the [[King's Island]] tower and the clouds.  In June, he sent
+his champion [[Lamar]] to investigate.  [[Lamar]] succeeded in ousting the
+shadow host from the tower and so the cloud pulled away from [[Backbone]] and
+settled back to [[Lowland]].
+The [[Dark Mage]], desperate for a strong host near [[Backbone]], forced
+[[Pelham]] to become a shadow host on June 24, 1098.  This was just the needed
+edge to restore the cloud over [[Backbone]], though slightly weaker than before.
+A month and a half later, on August 1, a host was placed in the tower in
+[[Kinander]], the orc-held city east of [[Larinday]].  This, combined with the
+already existent host in [[Gnome Valley]], was enough to spread a thin cloud
+over all of [[Pleven|Elfland]].
+With the cloud spread over more areas, the orcs were able to renew their assaults
+on [[Backbone]] and the elvish cities.  [[Marsvan]] fell in late August, mainly
+due to the number of fleeing citizens.  [[Hookridge]] followed soon thereafter
+when King [[Scardore]] ordered the soldiery to concentrate on saving the capital
+city.  On September 2, 1098, a host was placed in [[Hookridge]] and the storm
+cloud's presence over [[Backbone]] was established without a doubt.  The capital
+city fell under a concentrated siege on November 22.  Though [[Edric]] and his
+wife [[Tacey]] fled to safety, both [[Lamar]] and King [[Scardore]] were killed.
+Their bodies were used immediately as shadow hosts for the city of [[Backbone]]
+and for the tower near the spire in the hills south-east of the city.
+The next April (1099) saw the fall of [[Larinday]], mainly because the [[Ainagûl]]
+[[Elsa]] had been killed a year earlier and the city's defenses were not
+formidable enough without her.  The [[Dark Mage]] had saved her body to be used
+as a shadow host and with her in [[Larinday]] on April 26, 1099, the cloud grew
+stronger over [[Pleven]].
+In May of 1099, due to the mysterious disappearance of the protective dwarves in
+[[Blanan]], the gnomes of [[Riprap]] had to concede part of their territory to
+the goblin horde.  While the main city continued to operate, a shadow host was
+placed in a nearby tower on May 21.  Meanwhile, the nation of [[Resh]] enjoyed
+an unexplained safety for as the storm cloud expanded with the renewed energy from
+[[Riprap]], it seemed to come up to a protective barrier.  [[Resh]] breathed a sigh
+of relief and thanked their gods for saving them.  (See elsewhere for details as
+to why this protection came with a terrible price!)
+By July of 1099, the wood elves of [[Wisewood]] had been forced to flee into
+[[Pleven]] (as had the elves of [[Larinday]]).  Even the combined force of the
+three elvish kingdoms, though, could not face up to the ever-increasing might of
+the orcs under the storm cloud.  On July 24, the orcs broke into the city and
+slaughtered all the inhabitants they saw.  Surprisingly enough, the elves found
+represented only less than one percent of the elves expected. Somehow, the elves had
+all left.  This sent the [[Dark Mage]]'s plans slightly haywire as he could not
+find an appropriate shadow host for several months.  Nevertheless, on October
+, the [[Pleven]] tower was populated, strengthening the cloud even more.
+In a move to engulf [[Resh]], two towers were populated within a day of each
+other.  One, over [[Blanan]], on November 11, 1099, and the other west of
+[[Resh]], near a large marsh, on November 12.  Much to the surprise of the
+[[Dark Mage]], though, the cloud encroached the nation only slightly more.
+Instead, it held its distance at a radius of about one hundred miles.  After
+repeated failures on the part of the orc armies, he abandoned attempts to
+capture [[Resh]] for the time being.
+[[Wisewood]] and [[Lar Pelar]] were populated on November 26, 1099, and November
+, respectively.  These were followed by the tower over the ancient [[Glekdin]]
+the following January 14.  This, though, signaled the end of the main push for
+expansion.
+The next expansion came over the mountain pass south of [[Backbone]] and into
+the great desert.  The mountain pass tower was populated on August 8, 1101, and
+the first desert tower on March 27, 1102.  By September 1, 1104, five other
+desert towers had been populated with no resistance.  The nomads of the region
+simply fled south and west away from the expanding cloud.
+All this time towers had been put up all over the [[immenri|Northern Continent]]
+as well, and by January 1103 fifteen were in place and populated.  Three others
+were never completed (just as two in the desert).
+On December 4, 1104, a man named Ashby was placed in the secretly-constructed
+storm tower on Midore Island, causing the cloud to spread up from the
+[[thentao|main continent]].  That night, the wizard [[Griswold Gildersleeve]]
+was enslaved in the recently-completed tower on [[Lendore]] and the cloud firmly
+established over the islands.
+In perhaps his greatest mistake, the [[Dark Mage]], on January 4, 1105, diverted
+the storm cloud from the hosts in the towers to the more powerful //Scepter of
+Might//.  This expanded the cloud to encompass the entire plains of the
+[[N'Galt|eastern continent]], all of the [[immenri|northern continent]], and all
+but the south-west coast of the great desert.  Only [[Grugach island]] and the
+southern mountains and coast of the [[thentao|main continent]] were spared.
+Though this greatly helped the [[Dark Mage]]'s plans to defeat [[Rota]], it also
+left him vulnerable. The next day, as fate would have it, the [[Good Party]]
+(quite by accident) stumbled across the Scepter (located in the tower on
+[[Lendore]]) and took it away, giving it to a Deva.  Many of the storm hosts, by
+this time, had broken free of the cloud's influence and so the cloud faltered
+and did not reconnect to its original hosts. In one swift motion, the entire
+storm cloud retreated to its origin over [[Lowland]].
+After the defeat of the Dark Mage, the cloud began to dissipate.  For some reason
+(perhaps it cannot be fully destroyed), the cloud (in its original size: less than
+one mile wide) drifted over the ruined city of Lowland where it remains to this day.
+[[start|Back to start page]]