Editing Guldervale (section)

===History===

Guldervale grew rapidly and prospered in this time. The Southwall was completed and protected the Kingdom to the west and the orcs and goblins in the Thunderline Mountains were quiet for the most part. The biggest threat came from an aggressive tribe of plainsmen that occupied the land south of the mountains. They would frequently raid over the passes in summer, often catching the people of Guldervale by surprise. To try and counter this threat the Watchtowers were constructed. Three enormous spires were built to heights that are absolutely unthinkable in the current time. They were made of solid tallite reinforced with mithril struts and they soared to the tops of the mountains. Between the three towers the Kingdom had an unblemished view over the southern lands and plenty of advanced warning of plainsman attacks. 
Over time the people of the southern Kingdom turned their attention to the lands to the south of the mountains. An army headed over the hills and, after a brief but bloody battle, turfed the plainsmen out into the vast expanses of the eastern plains. Settlers from Guldervale, Southwall, Camber and Ridgeback Rise headed to the south to make a new city there in the areas now known as Calm Cove and the Sunken Lands. 

When the Kingdom split and entered the dark ages Guldervale was one of the cities that tried to push for the crown. The Watchtowers were turned inwards on the Kingdom to give advance warning of approaching armies and acting as strongholds. Guldervale was intensely involved in the strife and civil war and was in a strong position until a plague struck. Leaving the defences weakened a cabal of evil arcane spell-users known as the Circle of Nine descended on the city. Using their magic and an army of fiends they took the city, murdering most of the nobility and decimating the army. The Circle installed an evil magocracy on the city, brutally enforced by their devilish captains. The three most powerful of the Circle took up residence in the Watchtowers and the other six commissioned another tower each. The numbers of slaves estimated to have been killed in the construction of the new towers numbered in the thousands. 

This was a dark time for the people of Guldervale. The Circle of Nine ruled from their evil towers of magic though they were mostly content to leave the day-to-day issues to their captains. The slave trade thrived in the city and the population grew. This was mostly because any attempt to leave the city was considered high treason. The devils took great pleasure in punishing, torturing and executing any found trying to escape the city. 

Throughout the dark ages the land to the south of Guldervale had stayed apart. It had enough troubles keeping the undead of the Sunken Lands and the plainsmen to the east quiet though the latter problem had been temporarily solved with a truce. Even so they were so appalled when word of what had happened to Guldervale reached them that their king of the time, a man named Cereneas, took steps to rectify the problem. He infiltrated spies into the city who smuggled small numbers of locals out of the city. He sent in the Slayers of Domiel who sought out high ranking devils for assassination. Raids by his armies kept the devils on their toes and freed large numbers of slaves. His court wizards also spent their time harrying the Circle of Nine, disrupting their vile experiments and sending celestial creatures to plague their towers. 

The Circle of Nine exacted revenge. On a fateful winter's day they gathered together at the top of the tallest tower and cast an abomination of a spell, six months in the casting. A black fog of death rolled over the south side of the mountains and covered most of the land. All caught in its wake were killed. A few survived by heading below ground into a series of caves and tunnels that had been created as an emergency hideaway. The fog settled on the land and remained for a year and a day. In this time the few survivors gradually succumbed to the fog and those that didn't found they were infertile. The Circle had killed Cereneas and his people. 

At this time the celestial paragons took the case before Heironeous' court. Pelor, Ehlonna and Kord all sat an attendance as well as the neutral gods; St. Cuthbert, Wee Jas, Boccob and Fharlanghn. The paragons asserted that the Circle of Nine had gone too far, employing foul magic for genocide and that they needed to intervene. The gods present all agreed. Raziel and Domiel lead an army of celestials against the devils in Guldervale and cast them all back to hell. Pelor himself descended on the Circle of Nine, sealing them in their towers for eternity. 

The people of Guldervale rejoiced for they were free. After the celestials had won the day Pelor entered the city and cleansed it of the evil taint, rebuilding it as it had been before the Circle arrived. Domiel chose from among the survivors a shrewd and honourable priest named Veren to lead the city in its new age and since that day the blood of Veren has watched over Guldervale. The priest's bloodline carry the touch of Domiel. 

Veren and the people of Guldervale were instrumental in forging the truce that brought the former Kingdom out of the dark ages and formed the republic it now is. Veren was offered the position of first Princeps of the Erethol but he declined on the grounds that his city needed him more.