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Back to College of Wizardry
The next day, a guard wizard from the college teleports to the Kasbah. Dhakiy Dreschul is a transmuter who has lived in Ber-Gathy earlier in his career. After helping out the town Dreschul meets with Alzar and they head out to talk.
After an hour or so, Dreschul has agreed to sponsor Alzar to the Arcane Order.
Alzar is teleported back and the company will stay here for a while, safe.
Alzar meets with a few other Regents and guild wizards from the college.
He spends some time with Dreschul though, who walks him through some of the more ancient history of the College of Wizardry…
Long ago, before the fall of Amun-Re led to the opening stanza of the Sand Mire, to the west of Khaibar stood a citadel and home to mages and elders from all over Hamedh. This citadel, named Mathgamhna, was the home to an ancient order of warlocks and wizards.
During the time of Amun-Re’s reign, an evil demipower Dargeshaad, cast down from the heavens, arrived in the area. After seducing many with promises of power and prestige, Dargeshaad began to grow in strength in the area. He was banished to Hamedh because he would not be able to leave easily.
He gathered forces, knights, and mages and began to grow in power and influence. He was checked by the people in Mathgamhna. His followers crafted a shield called the Bright Barrier and stole the Halberd of Mathgamhna and renamed it Betrayer.
Then Amun-Re fell. Wielding these items of power, Dargeshaad saw the beginning of the collapse of the nation Amun-Re forged, and he begun to carve a swath of death across the area, creating his own little fiefdom. No one, save for Lyzandred the Mad, who would fall to lichdom, carved a more powerful or devastating nation as Dargeshaad.
Various elders rallied at Mathgamhna to try and put down Dargeshaad’s advances, but all they could do is build a stalemate. Eventually, via sedition and treason, Dargeshaad won the day, and began to destroy the citadel. As a result, the surviving elders invoked the most powerful of their Language Primeval, a lingua that described magic power in mere words instead of incantations , gestures, and ingredients. They let loose Speech of Twilight, and the world opened up and the Dragon of Shades entered.
Arriving at Dargeshaad’s citadel of Ascavalon, the Dragon began an enormous battle with Dargeshaad. But none from Hamedh could stand against the creature of shadow, power, and malice. And the battle was lost, and Dargeshaad and his side fell.
But the Dragon of Shades was not sated. It vented a massive amount of rage and destruction against an already war-torn and damaged land, and pushed the Sand Mire even further into forming. It would take years before it had its fill and left Hamedh.
And Mathgamhna would lay, silently, a testament to the old days, towering above the growing sands.
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