Kalrathia

Kalrathia during the Morden occupation

Kalrathia is a Human city located on the Plain of Tears, due east of the battlefield where the Sword of Zaramoth and the Shield of Azunai met in combat at the end of the First Age.

History

Founding

Kalrathia was founded soon after the legendary clash of Azunai and Zaramoth brought about the First Cataclysm. The surviving members of Azunai's army were led east by a soldier, who brought them to the place where the city of Kalrathia would be built. In his later years, this soldier would claim to be Azunai himself, and some believed him, while others just saw it as the result of far too much time spent in the desert sun.

The town would flourish in the decades that followed, rising to become the most important settlement on the Plain of Tears due to it's central location and ready supply of water. Around this time, prospectors uncovered a fragment of the Shield of Azunai, the Aegis of Sight, and brought it to the Kalrathians for safe-keeping. The powers granted by the Aegis would guide many of the city's leaders wisely.

Valdis and the Morden

In the early 1200s, several centuries after the city's founding, a young prince named Valdis came down from the Northern Reaches, crossing the desert to the ancient mountain-fortress of Zaramoth's Horns, where he discovered the lost Sword of Zaramoth. Using it's power, he created many races, most notable of which was the Morden.

In the decades that followed, the Morden settled in the ancient Imperial ruins of Okaym to the northeast of Kalrathia, founding the city of Darthrul. They were savage neighbors, and as Valdis rose to dominate much of eastern Aranna, few dared to challenge them. Many of Kalrathia's neighboring villages were ransacked by Morden raiders, their people massacred or drafted into Valdis' ever-growing armies.

Dungeon Siege II

When the Morden came to Kalrathia following the Siege of Snowbrook Haven, the citizens surrendered, allowing them to annex the city. The occupying Morden cut off Kalrathia's supply of water, and stationed a Ganth to protect the source. When the young Lord Kalrathia sent a small band of the city's remaining warriors to reclaim the water chapel, the Ganth butchered every last one of them. Many of the people began to lose hope, some, like Advisor Kynos, believed that their water would be returned to them after they proved their loyalty to Valdis, while others formed an underground resistance cell.

It was not until a hero, carrying two of the four Aegis, arrived, fresh from the battle at Snowbrook Haven, that the water was restored. In the chaos that followed, the hero slew the Morden Chief of Darthrul, allowing the Kalrathians to reclaim their town under the command of Tehruth. For this great service, Lord Kalrathia granted the hero the Aegis of Sight, and told them the location of the Aegis of Life, protected by the Dark Wizards within the Mines of Kaderak.

The young lord fell seriously ill soon after, and passed away. It is believed that Kynos poisoned him Lord Kalrathia, although some, like Tehruth, were unsure of such an assertion. Regardless, the hero claimed an ancient key from Kynos, and entered an ancient Agallan ruin deep below Kalrathia: the Agallan Trial.

Broken World

The destruction of Zaramoth's Horns following Valdis' defeat was visible from Kalrathia, and there was much rejoicing, but the ravages of the Second Cataclysm that followed in it's wake proved to be the city's undoing. It is unknown exactly what happened, but when Tomas the Merchant came to do business several weeks later, he discovered nothing but mud flats where Kalrathia once stood; the city had completely vanished, and all of it's people with it.