The Valley of Darkness:The Main Plot
FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT: ONLY GMs should read this page
Essentially, the objective of this whole adventure is to rescue the valley from the constant darkness. So, there are several stages which will bring this about, and how you have the adventurers discover the clues, empower the items, and awaken the sleeping heroes, is up to you. What has to happen, when it all comes down to it, is that The Shadow Demon Lord who is responsible for the darkness must come to the valley, be confronted and destroyed.
Easily said, nearly impossible to accomplish. :)
The Truth Behind the Darkening:
To cut to the chase, the truth is that the valley is mostly in the Plane of Shadow (PoS). The Shadow Lord Hexablacorps (a silly name I gave him, that has no meaning) put certain events into action over the past millennium that ultimately resulted in a very significant portion of the valley being shunted so that it is mostly in the PoS.
Much to Hexablacorpse's shagrin, the great ritual event only brought the valley into his plane partially. His original intent was to bring the majority of the valley into his plane. By saying the valley is partially there, and that he wanted the majority it, is to make a very deep statement of magical theory. The movement of the valley to the PoS would not be a physical movement, as all great minds of magical theory understand, the valley, and all other geographical, as well as many very old or very magically powerful buildings and constructs, already have physical representations in the PoS, it is the spiritual and magical existence that important to Hexablacorpse. It was his desire to make a passage between the PoS and the valley much easier for he and his kind.
If his original plan had succeeded as Hexablacorpse had intended, then not only would he, and the denizens of his section of the PoS have direct access to the valley, there would also be easier movement from the PoS to the Prime Material Plane of Toril. However, as it worked out, only the weakest of his subjects have any access to both the sliver of the Prime Material Plane of Toril, in the form of the valley, but they have an even more limited access to Toril as a whole. Hexablacorpse has found this to be infuriating.
What Went Wrong:
Prophecy There was a prophecy back when time was first beginning in Toril. The races of the Elves and Dwarves were still young but somehow they knew it was prophetic and would impact their valley, somehow, someday. So they committed the prophecy to their history annals. As the millennia passed, most if not all forgot about the prophecy, nothing was done, for it seemed so odd, none could see how it could in fact be about their valley, their world, there were no creatures calling themselves Human. But then there came into their valley a new race.
The Elves & Dwarves were friendly with each other in the early days, not seeing their racial differences as reason for distance. When this new race came to their valley, their first impressions were that it was not more than another orc or goblinoid, that would be equally as warlike, and bicker amongst itself, and never rise to pose a threat to them in their incredible supremacy. But there were those, amongst each of these proud races who ventured down, and mingled with this new race - it was these these adventurous types who came back saying they called themselves Human, but none saw that as anything special, for the prophecy had been all but forgotten.
From their limited exposure to the Elves and the Dwarves, the humans learned much, they quickly began to build more useful tools & dwellings. Their communities began to organize, and solidify more quickly. Then they began to carve out large areas of territory that they claimed for themselves, warring with the orcs and goblins...all this time, the Elves and Dwarves kept their distance as a whole, w/ only some rare adventurous types moving amongst the human communities.
There were some who were very learned and studious members of the Elder races, and occasionally they spoke with those who traveled the world, seeking adventure. It was a one such Dwarf who Re-found the Prophecy. He brought it up amongst the elder librarians, and discourse was begun about this so called prophecy. Eventually, someone amongst the dwaves mentioned the find, and a reference to the elves, to one of his elven collegues. The elf went to their archives and after some searching, he too found reference to the prophecy - more energetic discourse ensued.
By this time, the Humans had proven they were far superior to the Orcs in intellect, defeating them in military conflict due to discipline, tactics and equipment. They were not as warlike as the goblinoids & orcs, but they were very short lived. It was still difficult for the Elves and Dwarves to understand how these inferior beings could ever be considered a threat to themselves. But then the humans began to forge near mastercrafted metal instruments, and they began to weave powerful magics, magics that rivaled that of the elves even. Something must be done.
At first, war was considered, there were those who said that if they were to remove the humans from the equation, would solve the prophecy for they could not bring eternal darkness if they were not around to do so. But when the Dwarves took up arms and marched against the Humans, they learned then that the Humans were here to stay, for they were too numerous, their equipment good enough to work against even master crafted dwarven equipment, and their ability to mix powerful magic with martial skill & ferocity, was freightening. The dwarves withdrew and were forced to abandon their surface communities, for they had a few in the early days, when the humans pursued them into the mountains.
There were many elves who wanted to join the dwarves, saying they could make the difference, and swing the course of history in their favor. But there were more, and more influencial elves who took the stance that a prophecy is just that, it Will come to pass, no matter the efforts of those who tried to stop it. The trick of prophecy, according to these philosopher elves, was to be able to right the ship after the prophecy comes to pass, in this case, to once again bring light to the eternal darkness. This, along with many other differences of opinion brought civil conflict to the elves, and those who were more militant in their approach to the humans were eventually chased out of elf society. They were hunted and slain at every oportunity, so they went underground, eventually becoming the Drow.
The internal conflict amongst the elves, and the slow recovery of the dwarves, meant that thousands of years passed without anything significant being done to deal with the imminent prophecied events. Fortunately for them and all the members of the valley, the humans were constantly warring amongst themselves. They had risen quickly to a level of competency, but they still had a long way to go. This did not stop them from expanding however. In spite of their regular warring, the humans numbers grew with what the dwarves and elves saw as amazing rapidity. They moved beyond the walls of the valley, they forged nations, they met and delt with nearly all other races of Toril - they were slowly becoming a mature race.
There were some amongst them who came to live amongst the elves and dwarves. They studied their ways, befriended them, defended them as need arose, true respect was eventually developed between them. One day, one of those adventurous types came across the prophecy which had yet again been mostly forgotten.
One of the beauties of the human race, is their passion for life. They seem to realize they don't have long to live, so they try to squeeze as much as they can into their short years. This passion was conveyed to the elves and then the dwarves, and finally after many millinea, preparations were begun to deal with the inevitable event.
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