EarthDawn - The Age of Legends
The Forgotten City of Parlianth lies in the furthest northwest corner of Barsaive, deep within the Spiderspike Jungle. Before the Scourge, Parlainth was the provincial capital of Barsaive, created by the Therans during their occupation of the province.
To survive the Scourge, the magicians of Parlainth crafted an extraordinary spell, which would remove the city from the material plane and shunt it into a pocket netherrealm to protect it from the Horrors. Simultaneously, the spell would remove all knowledge of the city from the memories and records of Name-givers, leaving only a few scattered clues and a relic known as The Longing Ring. The ring was discovered by a young Thief Adept Named J’role, who followed it’s clues and released the city from it’s prison. However, not all had gone as planned.
Before the city left the material plane, the Theran mages summoned Horrors into their laboratories, intending to study and analyze them throughout the Long Night. However, as always happens, the Horrors broke free and began spreading their corruption. When they determined that the magic that was to keep them out also served quite well to keep them in, they settled in to slowly torture the residents to death, setting them against each other in brutal conflicts and slaughtering thousands slowly, extracting every last inch of pain they could. Finally, their food supply exhausted, the Horrors slipped into dormancy and awaited the moment when they would be freed from their prison.
After Parlainth returned, groups of adventurers journeyed to the city in search of the incredible wealth of the Theran occupiers. The city was horribly corrupted and infused with Horror magic from the centuries of torment centered there, and it easily claimed the lives of almost all who ventured inside. Eventually, a successful adventurer Named Torgak and his party decided a greater profit was to be had from supporting those foolish souls who decided to test their fate in the ruins. They cleared out a section of the city, walling it against incursions from within and setting up shop. Over the years, the town they Named Haven attracted more and more shopkeepers, artisans and merchants, and took on the attitude of a frontier town, with the wild land beyond being the accursed city itself. Torgak took up the position of mayor, and his former adventuring companions settled into their own niches, profiting from the endless supply of brave souls eager to secure wealth and glory in The Forgotten City.
The Passion’s Champions have ventured into the ruins of Parlainth many times, although each time they barely escaped with their lives and their sanity intact. They first ventured into the ruins in search of the Dragon Charcoalgrin, seeking her aid for the Jerris resistance. Later they journeyed in in search of information on the Theran Elementalist Baxa, and the staff he wielded. They also searched the ruins when Remiel of the Circle Path Company asked them to rescue his sister Yuriel, and they discovered the Path of Deception. Finally, when they caused a magical disjunction in the Heavenherd’s netherrealm in Indrisia, they found themselves thrown across the planes, landing back in the material plane in an area where astral space was weakest: the depths of the Western Catacombs of Parlainth.
After the cataclysm that destroyed the isle of Thera, the Passion’s Champions discovered that the Null had grown in strength in Parlainth, eliminating all magic in the ruins. All the buildings and structures were mysteriously weakened, and there was no trace of any of the Name-givers that had lived in Haven.
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