Falgoon Gap

Falgoon was for centuries one of the most powerful and prosperous of all dwarven kingdoms. It extended far beyond the surface citadel of Falgoon Gap, atop the Cear Cadia mountain range: there were vast residential quarters dug deep into the mountains, and the surrounding mountains and lowlands were dotted with mines and small dwellings. The Falgoonians were famously pious: many claimed that Daeder himself had been involved in the founding of the citadel, in times before even the First War of Fate. The citadel was defended by a stout army including an elite warrior order called the Trodding Hammers, who dedicated themselves to Daeder’s service and feared nothing save the Blue Sickness.

For centuries one of the shards of the key to the Crown Spires was hidden in Falgoon Gap. The dwarves took the defense of the shard very seriously, as it was Daeder himself who had built the Crown Spires where Krell was imprisoned. However, eventually a traitor named Orbsen revealed the location of the shard to the Church of the Shroud, in return for the promise that he would be named King of Falgoon. Most of the Shroud Elders showed little interest in retrieving the shard, but a small number of them joined forces with Delrox and the Red Shroud and marched their armies up the Cear Cadia mountains. The dwarves were prepared and the siege seemed set to be drawn out for months or even years: several of the Shroud Elders actually turned their armies around and headed home.

The Shroud generals in command of the siege took drastic measures: they called upon followers of the god of death, Hellacaster, to release terrible magics that reduced much of the city to rubble and destroyed almost everyone on the surface of the mountain, including the larger part of the Shroud’s own armies as well as the dwarves. The shard was retrieved and the citadel was left in ruins. Hellacaster refused to permit the spirits of those who perished in the cataclysm to enter the hereafter, and so they were doomed to relive the fight into eternity, Falgoonians and Shroud alike rising undead each day to do battle in the ruins.