The Agony of Serpents
Steel Realms Timeline Event; recorded knowledge.
CY 8005: The Agony of Serpents – Dreamscale Serpents, tied to the power behind the Shadow Serpent of Svveny Dale, pour forth from the Valley of Sighs to attack the Grand Duchy of Rhyl and the Dark Lands.
Dreamscale Attacks
Local forces of Grand Duchy of Rhyl were being used to contain a small revolt and attack by the Ilbarsi. These were being inundated by Dreamscale Serpents from the Valley of Sighs, and serpents were attacking into the Dark Lands and eastern Rhyl. Over the course of a year, the attacks increased and spread. The horns of The Hornguard of Rhyl were blown frequently in the years CY 8005 – 8006. Eventually, the serpents attacks grew until they drew an army assembled by the High King of the Steel Realms to contain them and a battle was fought near The Warden’s Larder (one of the Picket Keeps of the Heartlands). The serpents chaos magic was contained, and they were destroyed by the army, which marched into the Tolkisson Mountain Range, killing all that they found as it came out. By CY 8007, the plague of Serpents had ended.
A Distraction for the Lich Lords
In late CY 8005-8006 a force of half the The Winter Host’s 5th Legion, led by Druzd Lord Gormigan Redhand (fallen knight of Aerna) the undead marched across the Tolkisson Mountain Range to attack the Grand Duchy of Rhyl.
The elves of the Haivelaugh Weald were left to defend the mountains of the Tolkisson Mountain Range as the serpents were being dealt with and the Lich Lords used the moment of depleted forces to attack. The elves put forward nearly all the able-bodied souls in a war band. They fought hard for months in unfamiliar terrain, drawing them north to Rime Basin Peaks and ambushed with the help of the druids of the Rimewyld of Kaerslein; The Lich Lords soldiers, believing the retreat was a collapse of the lines and not tracking their local closely, were led into a close ambush and their assembled forces were slaughtered. Their fear of Houska Castle was also used to channel their forces.
The Vinespear: The great elven weapon of the Vinespear – an artifact made from the living Vinewall itself, was used to slay many as an offering to contain the horde of The Agony of Serpents.
Half of the entire population of the Haivelaugh Weald were killed during The Agony of Serpents.