Tharum

Stone Giant of Tharum
CategoryWastelands
ContinentBrucrumus
RegionGrashakh, Miradelgûn
MapTharum Wasteland

In the Demon Spawn War (8972 GE - 9493 GE), Tharum was the southern arm of the Inghild mountains. The demon lord Ogtha controlled the south, and the Covenant the highlands north of the Viiz Bo river. In the southern mountains were based the armies of Ogtha, guarding an inter-system rift linking their Abyssal home world to the battlefields of Bal-Kriav. Ushered through the rift, demons thirsting for plunder and bloodshed, were given the basics, armed, then rushed to the front.

It took two centuries of trying, hundreds of our best agents killed or worse. Our saboteurs got past Ogtha's deep defenses, over walls, and past towers, bypassing the trenches of the dead, and past forests of evil predatory creatures and demon patrols. On a one-way mission, they reached a pond that smelled of death. They probably looked about and saw the help throwing hooks into a pond of brackish water. They were pulling the drowned out, or snagging those swimming up from below. In the deeps of this pond was the rift to Ogtha's home world Kelresson. Based on the plan they entered the waters invisible, then swam down to the rift's opening where they set-off a null mine.

I know whoever reads this may question my allegiance, but if it were not for Rilthang's assets, these noble sacrifices would have been in vain.

- Arkûn, Eastern Brucrumus Head of Intelligence to Naraz-Nâru - "76th Counter Rift"

The explosion from the null mine caused another rift to temporarily open next to the existing one. This counter rift merged with the demon rift, causing the land to buckle, split, and then float upwards for hundreds of feet, pushed apart by a wave of entropic energy. Once this wave dissipated, the broken landscape fell to earth killing demons in the tens of thousands. The rift was closed, and the landscape a smashed rugged landscape of broken rock, great boulder fields and deep crevasses, the remnants of mountains reduced to rubble.

Late in the Horgon Era, Tharum became the new home of stone giants in the hundreds. These were the refugees of Gadstill Dynasty. They chose the area's nearly impassable terrain to escape the world around them. For a long time after their empire's fall they lived in shame for what their leaders had done, and fearing possible retribution by the "little folk" they went into seclusion. They have long remained outside of the affairs of those around them. Sometimes, the area's stone giants hire out in teams for interesting construction projects. Two of the best examples is the work they did on Ragongrak and the Orchish Empire capital city Gháshulg. There are thought to be thousands of stone giants living across Tharum. All of the trails and paths cutting cross this area are suited for a giant's stride or sure-footed animals.