Chapter Six
THE VALHARRI SEARCH
Over the course of the past months, the Valharri and other leaders of the dark elves, along with the Urshkaar lords, Ute Giants, Charachau, and other Darkspawn were working together to remove the interdiction and bring back their Great Lord Dormas, also known by the rest of Illúmaril as the Dark Lord. They were also securing the expanded territories that they had obtained during the recent war. The past ploy the Valharri and their ally, the powerful necromancer Mordru, used with the border lords of helping to remove wandering undead armies had been successful to a degree. Now the underground expanses and the Underthaurnan tunnels were being expanded to connect the new territories acquired by pretending to help the border lords vanquish wandering undead. A few of those new territories were actually below the enemies’ lands.
Long ago at the dawn of the first age, the Erradan lord Dormas through his will and by his powers altered a large part of a mountain range and forged his first fortress. His Great Citadel was located in central Morthaurnan. It was south of the Whispering Marshes and north of the once vast forest of Tanglewood. The Great Citadel was built in the mountain that Dormas had shaped like an immense skull to instill fear in those who looked upon the fortress. The Great Citadel was also known as Skull Mountain Citadel by most of the Darkspawn, and it was a foreboding fortress of over one hundred thousand rooms for Dormas’ staff. The “eyes” of the skull held an eerie glow when viewed from a distance and each pseudo eye socket was over a mile high. The entire mountain section was over five miles high and was the western edge a large mountain range.
Inside the more northern eye section were the docking bays and platforms for the sky ships and the aerial fleet. The other eye held the caves for the dragons and part-dragon, part-demon Trigoliths. The nose-like opening of the skull led to the other flying Darkspawn holds. Lastly, the mouth-like area contained part of the vast garrison of the Army of Morthaurnan. Near the back of the skull-like area toward where the mountain’s peak continued upward and the rest of the mountains began were the palatial chambers of Great Dormas.The palace section of the Great Citadel had many meeting chambers and audience halls formed mostly of various stone and crystals including corundum. Dormas created the palace area out of sapphire and ruby and emerald materializing the crystals to form the various chambers and halls. Over time the dark Alor, Urshkaar and other Darkspawn added and built new sections.
Deep in Morthaurnan in the Great Citadel of Dormas, some of the Valharri, the senior wardens of the Dark Lord, were gathering. They were planning a sequestered meeting and did not want to risk that the enemy spellweavers might be trying to remotely observe or scry the meeting. As the Valharri arrived, some of them examined the wardings and protections started earlier by the dark Alor or Urshkaar spellweavers. One of the Valharri examining the preparations was Lord Valestran who was dressed formally in robes of state, including a fine pelicium and branil-alloy mail shirt. Symbols and insignias of his ranks adorned his silver and black robes noting his status as a Valharri High Lord. Like all Valharri he was a High Warden of Dormas, a weapons master, archmaster spellweaver and senior noble. As a High Lord, Valestran was one of the more influential as a Gilthrondal or grand duke. He also achieved status as a grandmaster spellweaver as well as knight grand morphandar of two different militant orders. Lord Valestran was not overly haughty and would even help in strengthening the defensive wardings, as he deemed necessary; his piercing green eyes watched for weaknesses in the defensive spellweavings.
There were fifty high lords of the Valharri and almost a thousand Valharri lords with territories scattered across Illúmaril. About half of the Valharri had territories in Morthaurnan itself or in the neighboring provinces of Koman, Dagornan, Urundi, or Trollgaard, or in the Underthaurnan below ground. Some held lands in the Wastes of Tath to the north or in the Orloon Province to the east. Not all theValharri lords or other Darkspawn lords favored by Dormas attended each Ruling Council meeting. However, each carried a great measure of influence with those meetings.
Besides the powers Dormas had imbued them with, all the Valharri were considered to have great personal powers and abilities they had developed over time. This meeting would be well attended, likely by several hundred of the Valharri, as well as many more Urshkaar lords and other Darkspawn leaders. The goblin-like Urshkaar made up the larger portion of the Dark Lord’s ancient forces. Leaders of the Dread Giants, the four-armed Charachau Darkspawn, and the shape-shifting Rûhks, as well as leaders of the bird-like Urakeen who served Dormas, would also attend the Ruling Council Assembly.
As the preparations for this Ruling Council Assembly commenced, one of Lord Dormas’ chief wardens, the Valharri High Lord Ammaroth, glided down the hallway toward the main chamber. Ammaroth had been one of the High Lords to agree to try the ploy with the undead to obtain more territory after the Urshkaar Lord Marshal Balgan had deemed it a worthy program and then determined the strategy. Although once a dark Alor, Ammaroth had been a special type of greater undead for millennia, ever since he was originally slain by the senior Alor King of Lindorien Province and brought back long ago by Dormas, the god-like entity who originally created him and the other Darkspawn.
Ammaroth wore a black Zetheric-alloy, chain-mail armor; his cloak and symbols of rank adorned on his robe; his armor and cloak indicated his status as one of the highest of the High Wardens of Dormas. Ammaroth was a renowned senior weapons master. He held the rank of knight grand morphandar of his primary militant order, composed partly of undead and knight high morphandar of another militant order composed of Charachau and dark Alor. His mystical rank of archmaster was located on his cloak and he wore a crown representing his noble rank of Aharonal. Below his crown, Ammaroth’s hood framed his glowing red-hued eye orbs, the reddish light gleaming out from the hood of his robes as he looked at the other arriving lords and Valharri. Dark Alor lords and Charachau generals who had been invited to the gathering bowed to the Valharri they passed. Many bowed to Ammaroth and, when he passed Valestran, he nodded and stated his usual greeting by great Dormas. Valestran nodded briefly in return, but he seemed to have an excessive interest in the protective wardings.
As Ammaroth moved toward his place at the great table near the Valharri High Lady Nelendra, who had already taken her seat, Ammaroth nodded to several other Valharri, including High Lords Karth and Valagarth who had also recently benefited by adding small new territories. Just before the council was about to take place, he saw several Urshkaar lords talking, and there were two of Great Dormas’ old favorites, Lord Marshal Balgan and Lord Neral. Not only had Great Dormas granted augmented abilities to his Valharri but also to his favorite Urshkaar as well. Those Urshkaar like Neral and Balgan were blessed with additional power, including a virtual immortality. Neral was a grandmaster and Balgan an archmaster spellweaver. Both were high-ranking Urshkaar nobles. Balgan was also one of Dormas’ chief military leaders for the continent of Ascalon and outranked virtually any Valharri on military matters. As he glided nearby, Ammaroth could overhear them discussing the results of the search for the wielder of the Sword of Order.
“We can find no substantial traces of the Alor who wielded the sword,” stated Urshkaar Lord Winqresh. “Surely the Alor or the White Council are hiding him.”
“As far as the reports I am reading, none of our soldiers still living got a good look at him,” Marshal Balgan stated. “Only Lord Nossus-Thoth did before that Lord of Chaos was defeated and banished.”
“You are probably right,” stated Lord Neral. “We can only surmise that during the battle in the Savanath, the wielder of the Sword of Order was injured andtakentobehealed.”Atthispoint,ValestranandsomeotherValharriincludingonethathappenedtobeoneofhissonsnamedValkis,tookseatsintherows of long arched stone tables carved and shaped in the ancient days by Dormas’ will in a circle around the Great Throne of Dormas that was now empty. Some attendants sat and some preferred to stand near the sides of the tables, such as Kerthlutus, one of the Lord High Captains of the Charachau. He would be one of those to