A thousand years ago, the vile demon Sathmog came to our world. His prophet was a village priest named Azrahel Koth. The demon whispered dark secrets in his ear until his magic grew so powerful that he could open a rift between the worlds and allow his dark master to take physical form.
With Azrahel Koth as his herald, Sathmog proclaimed a demonic realm in the world of humans that lasted two centuries. It was a time of darkness and evil, but also one of incredibly rapid human expansion at the expense of the elder kin – dwarves, elves, giants, and halflings.
As time passed, the opposition to Sathmog grew, until one day a young hero named Eledain managed to summon the ancient dragons charged with guarding the world from demonic influence. Mounted on dragonback, with the elder kin as his allies, Eledain finally defeated the demon. The beast was banished on a hill in the depths of the forest, but as his final act he cast a curse which he said would spread a sickness throughout the world and one day be its undoing.
Azrahel Koth was captured, but since his master had made him immortal, Eledain’s knights could not slay him no matter how hard they tried. Instead, he was imprisoned in a crypt under an island in a lake in a remote valley, guarded by warriors sentenced to remain at their posts until the end of their days.
