Narfell

Narfell was a once-great, albeit brief-lasting human empire of the Cold Lands, that languished for hundreds of years as a collection of ruined fortresses and a single settlement that arose only in the summers. It was a realm of....

Description
The remnants of Narfell's magnificent empire were mere oft-avoided ruins that usually held ancient and long-dormant magical traps and undead in the form ghosts and wraiths.

Geography
During the peak of its influence and power, Narfell stretched from the Giantspire Mountains eastward to Lake Ashane, and even the Endless Wastes beyond, extending south and east into the Unapproachable East.

It was once the heart of a vast empire that stretched from the Giantspire Mountains to Lake Ashane, which included the Great Dale, much of Thesk, part of the Plateau of Thay, what would become Impiltur, and other lands.

Hills & Mountains

 * Hark's Finger, a mountain formed from the ruined Netherese enclave of Jikisdur, that unceremoniously fell from the sky unto the plains of Narfell.
 * Mount Nar, the massive snow-capped peak that lay in the lands of Narfell. It was even visible from the crossroads at N'Jast.

Society
Following the fall of Narfell, the Nar people remained among the plains of the Cold Lands, forming tribes of nomadic horse-riders that spread across from the Rawlinswood to the southern stretches of the Great Glacier. Few if any remnants of the ancient Narfell empire lived on in the Nar people, unlike the legacy of the Raumathar that remained with the Hathran of Rashemen.

Culture
Nar culture was wholly ingrained with the practice of conjuring and bargaining fiends, as evidenced by the summoning chambers that have been found in each uncovered Nar fortress. Using mere glyphs and wards as their protection, Nar conjurers frequently opened portals to numerous layers of both the Abyss and the Nine Hells.

Magic
Rune magic was commonly practiced among the Nar people, having learned some of its secrets from nearby giants.

Trade
Trade was minimal, but merchants who did not wish to traverse the land of Thesk sometimes passed through Narfell instead by way of the Long Road. The Long Road started in Damara and entered Narfell through the pass in the Giantspire Mountains before intersecting with the Cold Road at N'Jast. From that point, the road continued on to Nathoud, which stood in the shadows of the Icerim Mountains in northern Rashemen. The Giant Gap, as the road was commonly called, was virtually impassable in the winter and was plagued by hobgoblins.

Defenses
The realm was defended at sea by the Narfell Armada.

History
As the nation's history was long tied to that of neighboring Raumathar, it was only fitting that the two nations shared a common origin. Both realms were founded by mercenaries from the Old Kingdoms of Mulhorand and Unther, following the decline of their first respective empires, after they relocated north as bands of independent warriors. The collective fate of the Nar kingdoms were wrested from their control in the, when the malevolent Thargaun Crell, Nentyarch of Tharos, gained possession of the artifact known as the Crown of Narfell. Granted immense power by the crown, Thargaun established his seat of power at Dun-Tharos and began his campaign of conquest. Within a quarter century all of the kingdoms fell under the emergent empire of Narfell, beholden to Tarragon and his demon lord patron Orcus, Lord of the Undead.

Just as Narfell became a preeminent power in the Cold Lands in the centuries that followed, so to did the burgeoning power of Raumathar. By the, the two emergent nations had significantly risen in power and engaged escalating conflicts with one another. In the, Narfell and Raumathar entered into a struggle for control over the lands surrounding Lake Ashane. Undeterred from this conflict, Narfell led a failed invasion of Mulhorand and Unther just a few years later.

Having seen the first sign in the failure or decline in their power, the priest-kings of Narfell maintained their power through horrid blood-pacts with powerful demons, gaining terrible and mighty sorcerous powers.

Collapse of the Empire
In the, Narfell and Raumathar entered into what would become their final war, known centuries later as the Great Conflagration. It raged on for ten years, ending with one final battle that saw the fall of two magnificent and terrifying civilization.

The empire's few survivors fled back to individual enclaves in Narfell, vowing to rebuild their mighty realm. In the century that followed, neighboring powers carved out Narfell's outer territories for their own, such as the Suren barbarians from the east and Impiltur from the southwest.

Millennia later, fiends continued to run rampant over the countryside of Narfell, lingering remnants of the empire's uncontrolled thirst for power at any cost. Organizations like the Knights of Imphras II of Impiltur devoted their service to the Triad by destroying the demons and devils that continued to blight their neighboring lands.

That dream, however, had long since faded by the 14 century DR. By then, Narfell was a frigid land of barbarian tribes who had little or no knowledge of their grand and sinister past, preoccupied as they were with simply surviving the region's harsh and bitter winters.

Legacy
The horrific actions taken by the conjurers of the ancient Narfell empire left a lasting strain between the ongoing relationship between men and elves of the Realms. The elves could not forget the atrocities committed by those that had utilized corrupted magic as readily as the empire's own descendants. Some rare individuals of the Damaran ethnic group whose bloodlines originated from demonic Narfell sorcerers held onto part of their ancestors' arcane powers.

Settlements

 * Bildoobaris, the unofficial capital of post-imperial Narfell was little more than an open plain that turned into a bustling city consisting of over 30,000 Nars for one tenday every summer.

Fortresses

 * Fortress of the Half-Demon,
 * Fortress Narder, a ruined stronghold near the Forest of Lethyr used by Nar forces to launch assaults on Raumathar.
 * Immilmar, the capital city of Rashemar was built around a long-ruined fortress of Narfell.
 * Jastaath Castle, the site whereupon the priest-kings of Narfell first communed with the fiends of the Abyss.
 * Val Murthag, an ancient castle that once served as a spiritual center for the Narfell demon-worshippers.

Settlements

 * Dun-Tharos, the once-great capital of the Narfell empire languished as ruins for centuries, drawing strange and powerful beings to dwell within.
 * Shandaular, a former capital of the Nar kingdom of Ashanath later came to be known as the City of Weeping Ghosts.

Appearances

 * Card Games
 * Spellfire: Master the Magic