A walled human port on the eastern lake that was conquered, starved, turned to cannibalism, and is now ruled by the masters of the fungal dead.
Founded: c. year 400 (Second Age), by humans at Svarog’s command · Now: besieged, endlessly
Story
Founding. Around year 400, Svarog commanded the humans to found Glaive Port on the eastern lake, and in the same years advanced it into a defensive fortress. Around year 500 it raised an army — the nearest walled city to the new desert-crystal mines and to the orcs.
The Branded. In a time of fear, the ruler gathered pirates, prisoners and the worst scum of the docks into the Branded — necks burned black with hot tar — who defend the city’s river and sea by the dirtiest means there are: fire-ships full of people rammed into the enemy, plague corpses over the walls (Astralis, c. year 500).
The fall (c. year 600). The Hollow Knight (then the Doombringer) led two orc armies and their war beasts against Glaive Port and took it — the Fall of Glaive Port, first great battle of the Age. No massacre, no pillage: curfew, martial law, a trading city still trading, its defenders gone partisan. It became the heart of a Great Orkish Empire in the making (Atlas). Elyndra answered by founding the Purifiers of Evil for a counter-offensive.
Corruption. The occupiers found city life better than the desert, and their ruling caste rotted into brutes (Astralis corrupted the city). Sylvanus then bound corrupted Glaive Port to the Last Tide in the Evil Alliance — the city, not the orcish race.
Elyndra’s defeat and cannibalism (c. year 610). Among the city’s refugees elsewhere rose the fanatical Vengeful Paladins — the only good orc is a dead orc (Svarog). The Hollow Knight, disgusted that his war had decayed into corruption, abandoned the orcs. Elyndra led the Healers and the Purifiers to liberate the city and was decisively defeated — Elyndra’s Defeat; the pursuers burned part of the mushroom forest, the battlefield became the Corpse Field, the river was rerouted and the lake began to dry. The siege had lasted six or seven years; the giants had frozen the lake, fishing and trade died, and Glaive Port fell to cannibalism — Svarog’s avatar corrupted it again.
Plague, famine, and the four armies (c. year 620). The Fungal Plague was worst here. Glaive Port raised a third army; famine came as the fungus took livestock, fish and crops, and a fourth army rose. All four marched south for bread against the Grove — the Great Battle of the Third Age — and were lost: fewer than half died, the rest scattered as bandits across the Wasteland.
Malakai and the Mycomancers (c. year 630). A leper healed himself and began to heal others — Malakai the Messenger, Svarog’s avatar. He founded the Mycomancers — humans, orcs, anyone — who command the fungal dead. They became the ruling class, and the dead now patrol the streets without harming anyone.
The siege (c. year 640). Malakai raised a defensive army. The Deepkin — for whom raising corpses with fungus is a travesty, and whose forest had burned — laid siege, and the city held: the Siege of Glaive Port, a siege without end (Astralis). Zombified Mycomancer agents slipped out in disguise to found cells that work in secret in other cities.
Now
Mostly human; the orcs are the nominal rulers, the Mycomancers the real ones, through religion. The fungal dead patrol the streets. Besieged without end by the Deepkin. The Branded still hold its waters. Malakai lives here, old and decrepit but alive. Its four armies went out and died. The city may be renamed.
Connections
- Svarog — ordered its founding; corrupted it; its avatar rules it
- Branded — tar-necked defenders of its waters
- Hollow Knight / Orcs — conquerors, then abandoned
- Elyndra / Ice Giants — failed liberators; the Corpse Field
- Malakai / Mycomancers — the real rulers now
- Deepkin — the endless besiegers
- Last Tide — the Evil Alliance
- Vengeful Paladins — born from its refugees
- Great Battle of the Third Age — where its armies died
Open: its new name, if renamed [?]. Which avatar of Svarog corrupted it to cannibalism around year 610 [?]. Whether the Glaive Port orcs are evil [?].