Master Arcanist Eamin Horan 182de - eight years before the breaking of the Echo.

  In the years of the Carvers, when the island kingdom of Erudor was rocked by civil unrest, the Orc chieftains of the eastern coast of Parthenea sensed the Emperor's weakness. Seizing the opportunity, they defied him by bringing war to the Black Peaks, intent on expanding their territory and establishing new strongholds in the high places.

  Their swift and brutal campaign led them to Lothsrock Keep, nestled in the northern pass of that feared mountain range, where there they laid siege for seventy-nine days.

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  On the eightieth day, the Orcs stormed the gates only to find the great castle empty. Its people fled into the mountains, and its waters poisoned with bloated carcasses of the dead. Body parts of captured Orcs hung from the walls, the signs of brutal torture clear on their bodies.

  Incensed, the Orcs gave chase. After finding the bodies of the sick and the weak that had been left behind, they knew that their enemy's retreat was like some great dying beast that left pieces of itself on the mountain trails. The Orc chieftains pressed on, unrelenting.