Eternal Beasts

Chapter 16: MuulHaden

At the same time the summons was taking place in Tammen Gall, a desperate battle was being waged in the deep caverns far beneath the granite peaks of the massive eastern escarpment that spread from the edge of the great plain to the eastern sea. These mountains and the caverns beneath them, were the last retreat of a once proud people and former allies of the Tuatha, and the erstwhile rulers of the mountains and the valleys in between.

Now they were hunted and driven by the forces of Darkness as the enemy sought to use the caverns as a way to attack the lands of the Tuatha without the obvious sweep over the River Synn. As befitting their heritage as defenders of the Light, the honorable people resisted this advance of the dark troops with their full strength. Only the sheer number of the dark armies assaulting their holds were enough to press them back, driving them first from their homes, then from their fortresses on the surface to desperately flee to the deep, winding caves that honeycombed the foundations of these mountains with their winding and twisting ways.

There, the people managed to hold the dark armies at bay for a time. But now, even that wasn't enough. The dark armies, well accustomed to the lack of light and space that existed in the caverns, as they themselves were creatures of the netherworld, sent forth their forces to hunt the last of this once great people down. And the battle that now raged was the last great one that could be fought before this people became no more.

They called themselves the MuulHaden, which, in their simple yet powerful language, meant 'Stonecarvers', shaped by the mountains they knew and loved. Short, but incredibly strong, the MuulHaden fashioned the very stone around them to form beautiful homes and cities, graceful structures and incredible works of art. They had truly enriched Ethaeron with their presence. And now, horribly, they drew nigh to extinction!

It was Korad, the last High King of the MuulHaden that first led the Muuler army against the encroachment of the Legions of the Harbingers into their territory. Mighty and powerful was he, the best and bravest of their honorable race. But, despite his power, in that great battle that they waged against the Legions over the space of two full weeks, he was slain, along with nearly five thousand of his finest soldiers, though they themselves flew five times that number of the enemy.

The mantle of leadership then fell onto his eldest son Maug, who had managed to survive that first great battle. But he would not survive the next, as the Legions pressed against the fortresses of the MuulHaden in the heart of the mountains. Again the dead lay like a corrupt harvest, their slain bodies bloated and black in death, in heaps around the broken might of the MuulHaden nation.

From Maug, slain at the final defense of the Muuler capital of Muul SerNerath, the leadership of the people fell to General Tag, a great warrior and leader amongst the MuulHaden, and the only surviving officer of command rank from the siege of the capital. The task fell to him as the last of the Muuler royal family in death amongst the shattered walls of their once mighty capital.

It was Tag that guided the battered remnants of the people back from their disastrous surface battles to the caverns beneath the mountains. But, as he and the rest of his people had learned all too quickly, these were not the final refuge they had sought out, but only a temporary pause from the relentless assault of their adversaries. Their foe would see them all dead!

This hard fought battle was the last ditch defense of Bjorn's Hammer, a large, mystical hammer made from the original silver mined when the MuulHaden came into being tens of thousands of years ago as miners and workers of metal. From Bjorn's Hammer they took their great strength, and will to live and be free. As long as it remained in their hands, the MuulHaden would and would continue to fight.

Knowing this, the Harbingers sent one of their dark princes, the drolim General Scathcon, a twisted creature of cholim descent who loved the darkness and closeness of the caverns, to wrest the Hammer from the MuulHaden and crush them once and for all! With the MuulHaden removed, the eastern flank of the lands of the Tuatha would be exposed, allowing a two pronged attack on Findias and her surrounding territory. Even the last City of Stone, the mightiest of the remaining fortified cities of the Tuatha couldn't resist such an assault! So Scathcon attacked and this was the resulting battle.