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Original Link (now dead) - http://zone.msn.com/asheronscall/ASHEhistoryDM.asp
Dark Majesty
by Chris L'etoile
Turbine Entertainment Software
Dereth: Harvestgain 12 PY / Earth: October 2001
A Brief History of Marae Lassel
Marae Lassel, or "Sheltering Isle," was the name that the original denizens of Asheron's world gave the island. These people, the Empyrean Yalain, maintained the island as a nature preserve and religious retreat, and a Protector of Marae was appointed every decade to preserve the island's habitat.
It's interesting to note that records recovered from long undisturbed underground archives indicate that a scandal erupted near the beginning of the reign of Emperor Caerlin I, prior to the Empyrean Shadow War.
According to the records, a young priestess named Adja testified that the Protector of Marae at the time was not doing her job. In fact, the Protector was actively destroying the island's habitat. At the conclusion of a long public trial, the Protector was stripped of her position and noble title. Her name was expunged from all official records of the Empire.
When the Olthoi invaded, they were able to spread across the land quickly through a worldwide series of portals, called the Empyrean portal network. To quell the lightning-fast spread of the Olthoi, the Empyreans dismantled the Empyrean portal network and escaped to a world in-between dimensions. One Empyrean, Asheron, remained behind to discover a means to defeat the Olthoi.
As a result of the dismantling of the Empyrean portal network, various outlying islands were cut off from Dereth, including Marae Lassel.
Marae Lassel's "re-emergence" can be traced to a person named Candeth Martine. History says that Candeth was a member of the Dereth Exploration Society. The Society's leader, Mikael Alayne, betrayed Candeth to the Virindi, a powerful and capricious race of magic-users. The Virindi performed horrible experiments on Candeth, breaking his mind and mutating his body.
Eventually, Candeth escaped. He has created a portal from Dereth to Marae Lassel, where he intends to avenge the transgressions against him by destroying the Virindi infrastructure located on the island.
There are three human towns in Marae Lassel. Humans are newcomers to Marae, and cluster along pacified coastal areas suitable for relative new adventurers. Just watch out for the highwaymen that have come from Bandit Castle and MacNiall's Freehold.
The monsters will get tougher as people venture further north, and access to the central Marescent Plateau is restricted by level. There are two Tumerok towns in these wilderness areas. They're quite different from one another, for reasons that will be revealed soon enough. One of the Tumerok towns is a virtual fortress built up on the Plateau, and the other can be found hidden deep in the wetlands along the west coast.
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