History of White River
History of the White River Valley
The White River Valley was once a border region of the human Empire of Nerath. At the height of Nerath’s power, the valley was peaceful and productive, full of farms and pastoral rolling hills. The swamps of the lizardmen and the orc infested northern mountains were never civilized, but their threat was once contained by the villigance of the Knights of White River.
From the city of Whiteford, the Duke of White Valley ruled effectively (if not always justly) over the entire region. When the Empire of Nerath disintegrated under assault from Gnoll invasions, the Duke declared himself King instead. The new kingdom was short lived, however. Within two years of independence, a cambion warlord and his summoned devils lead waves of orc tribes down out of the mountains and sacked Whiteford and many of the surrounding towns and villages. The Knights of White River, now lacking royal patronage, retreated to the surviving town of Drakeford and took the responsibility of both defending and ruling the remaining civilized peoples of the region upon themselves.
This tenuous balance of power changed when the Eladrin city of Eolemune appeared as if out of nowhere on a hill in the midst of the valley. The scattered elven peoples that inhabited the forested regions of the valley rallied quickly behind the Eladrin banners, the faltering humans joined more hesitantly. Under the leadership of an Eladrin warlord, remembered now only as “the Fairy Prince,” the alliance of civilized folk managed to break the power of the orkish invaders. The Fairy Prince slew the cambion in single combat, and the orkish forces collapsed into small, squabling tribal bands (which persist to this day in the eastern portions of the valley). For almost a century the Eladrin of Eolemune were the undisputed rulers of the White River Valley, but then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the Eladrin city vanished once again.
With Eolemune’s dissapearance, the undead began to appear. In the ruins of the old towns and cities of the valley, the dead from the war with the orcs begain to rise from their graves and from the unmarked battlefields. Soon Whiteford and the surrounding portions of the valley were overwhelmed by wights, skeletons, zombies, and other sorts of undead. They seemed determined to defend their territories, as if they were reliving the orkish invasion for eternity. Those living souls who have tried to reclaim the area have most often joined them in their undead guardianship.
When the Eladrin withdrew from the world, their elven allies assumed the rulership of the civilized peoples of the valley, including the patronage of the Knights of White River. More and more, however, they have withdrawn into their own borders and their own concerns, leaving the few remaining “human” settlements to fend for themselves against the gathering darkness that encroaches upon their borders.