Isan-Kun

Isan-Kun was founded on 23 Witchrite 76 HE by city-states spread across three Subterranean Tiers. The oldest of these city-states are in eastern Gullvar, the uppermost of the tiers. Each of these holds began as refugee camps for those fleeing the horrors of the Demon Spawn War (8972 GE - 9493 GE).

We fled into the Krephus Sink, abandoning those that wanted to stay and fight for their land. It was a fool's folly, higher-ups had already considered the region, the continent expendable. The Covenant's grand strategists, particularly Asmodeus, convincingly told others that they couldn't save everything, it is best to concentrate our forces, focusing on taking out major king-pins.

Retreating from the pursing demons, thousands of us went into a hole burrowed long ago by the primordial worm Krephus, mother of all purple worms. We paid the stiff tolls of the earth elementals at Baruk-Agan, then boarded their Nalu Skree for the journey along the Earth Seam.

We were taken far north to a resettlement area, 6500 miles to what the Covenant coded as Sector Gullvar.

- Kurdekai, excerpt from his journal - "Abandoning Zythess"

In the last months of 8994 GE, those that would became known as the Svirfneblin, settled down in vast cavernous expanse of Vogelak.

Isan-Kun came about from a war seeking to unite the resources of the holds and city-states against their enemies. The fringe holds were suffering the costs and casualties of decades of conflict with frost giants, goliath, ice trolls, and the Azwyr Amoruk. The bastions and city-states behind these forward lines became rich from war trade. The holds doing all the fighting and suffering felt that those in the rear didn't put up enough gold or soldiers for the war effort, only enough to see it drag on while war merchants got rich. General Isan-Kun decided on his own to put an end to this, so he turned his army around and marched on the nearest friendly at-peace city-state. Battle-trained and hardened from 30 years of conflict, Isan-Kun's forces stormed the city and crushed resistance in one night. At the site of their easy living, while the frontier holds had so long suffered, Isan-Kun turned the place of over to plunder. Over the next five years, all of Vogelak's deep gnome holds and city-states fell to his control. The collective resources of these places, along with their green soldiers, was enough to put an end to the Vogelak War of Unification. General Isan-Kun founded a kingdom under his name in 76 HE. His general staff and their families became the first royalty. Even after many generations, many of these families still have a tradition of military service to the kingdom with princes becoming high ranking officers from merit rather than social status.

Isan-Kun continued to be plagued by evil foes around them. Their defenses are bolstered by bands of arcane energy scattered all about the area. These arcane conduits can be tapped, restoring an arcanist's ability to cast spells. Implements like wands, staffs and rods can also be re-charged. The arcane energy from all this comes from the marvel COA 411. After many magical mishaps, like the creation of dead magic zones and the disappearance of an entire city to a cascade, in recent times Isan-Kun has restricted the use of the area's arcane conduits.

Many of Isan-Kun's people pray to Arcana. One legend for this is that priests of Arcana came to Vogelak in the Lith-Crillion Era, teaching the Svirfneblin the methods of harnessing the Cube's invisible magical rivulets.