The Great Drought

In the year 179 RV, a great drought fell across the land. Granaries across of the realm emptied as crops failed and livestock died in the meadows. As wells dried and lakes turned to dusty fields, hope too died within the kingdom. Nothing grew, save the unrest of the people.

Berring the Clever, a wise and just ruler, could do nothing to save his people. Desperation and fear lead to a breakdown of the rule of law, as the strong preyed upon the weak and roving bands of ruffians took what little food and water remained. In the Red Marches, a bandit town known as the City of Brambles formed, ruled by a bandit king named Eazor the Lopsided. The cruelty of Eazor and his bandits became well known, but it was also known that he controlled the only remaining well in the western lands, so the peasants flocked to the city, offering what little they had in exchange for water.

It was unfortunate that much of what the peasants had for barter were their crops of wheat, straw, and hay. The drought made this material particularly dry, and the makeshift city expanded, constructing its buildings from the materials on hand, largely bails of bone dry straw and hay.

On the final day of summer, just before sunset, on the evening that would come to be known as the Night of Inauspicious Winds, the city caught fire. Reports from the time say that it was Eazor the Lopsided, reading by candle light in his expansive makeshift library. The library was filled with tomes of arcane knowledge, traded by scholars throughout the land for paltry rations of water. The Great Fire followed, and consumed nearly all of the United Realms by the time the embers had died by dawn.