The Crystal Blight

The Crystal Blight was a period in Elderain's history, starting in mid-1533 DR and lasting for about a year. It refers to the period that Elderain spent fighting against malevolent, magical purple crystals brought about by the Black Dragon (under the control of the Faceless Man).

Flavor Text
''In the first year after the Wakening of the Great Dragon, huge crystals of an unknown provenance sprouted across the land. Those who touched or approached them went mad, and their madness spread to others. Sadly, many towns and villages were lost to this curse, before an army of heroes, led by a former Mage of the Tower of the Moon, rallied to destroy the crystals and purge their taint from the land.''

Description of Events
Shortly after the events of the Fall of Elderain, the same black dragon that the player characters defeated was raised from the dead by a powerful lich named Deionarra, who owes some kind of debt to the Faceless Man and is working with him. This dragon went on to terrorize the people of Elderain, only until the House of Glaive brought it down; in this battle, they were led by Naya the archer, as Lady Rienna Glaive had unfortunately fallen under the effects of the Crystals. The lich, Deionarra, was also responsible for convincing Thak to send Thak Jr. on an adventure – she achieved this by killing Tak Tik, Thak’s biggest fan, reanimating his head, and sending the head in to have a conversation with Thak about this. It went as well as you can imagine.

Within a similar time frame, an army assembled to defeat the Crystal Blight at its source; among other leaders was Lady Isobel Glen, of the Tower of the Moon. She was shown to be under some form of mind control from a mysterious lich king called Stophorath, who convinced her to use a young boy as a human sacrifice to absorb the power of the Crystals and contain them. Many others were also killed in order to achieve this goal, including Jacob Astley; however, a vaccine for the crystals’ power was discovered shortly after.

Meanwhile, the Cult of the Immortal Womb formed, led by the heretical St. Michael, and began to take hold of Elderain. Their ethos was simple: if the Gods are indeed dying, they can create their own, new gods to worship. The process of creating a god, however, was grisly; one such experiment involved using powerful magic to transform a child, but it was corrupted by the Faceless Man, and the child died a horrible death. And yet, the experiments continue to the present.