The Top of the World
The sprawling empire of Thassilon was powered by conquest and its sophisticated rune magic. That magic defined the empire’s rulers and included various forms of blood sacrifice, powerful glyph-laying, and dimensional warping. Without rune magic and the binding of the rune giants, Thassilon’s legions would never have conquered their vast lands. With them, they were unstoppable—or at least until the Age of Legend ended and the Age of Darkness began. For when Earthfall shattered Azlant, Thassilon was torn apart as well.
Of the seven realms of Thassilon, the wealthiest was the central realm of Shalast. As the second-largest domain after Cyrusian, Shalast collected wealth not only from its gold, mithral, copper, and gemstone mines, but also from its vast quarries, which produced the materials used to build the monuments of the age. The largest and most productive of these quarries exists today as the massive lake known as the Storval Deep. But the wealth these mines and quarries produced was never enough. Runelord Karzoug always wanted more, and the capital of Xin-Shalast was said to be paved with gold.
Shalast was known for wild ogres and forest giants, as well as enslaved stone giants and exotic otherworldly artificers. Its treasures were sometimes carried on powerful mammoth-drawn caravans. The general population survived largely as miners, smiths, and traders, providing further wealth. Many abandoned mines still litter the Storval Plateau; the mountain passes of Shalast still contain monasteries and ruins now abandoned to the wilderness.
Karzoug, Runelord of Greed, was known for his calculating mind and utter mercilessness. He was rumored to be either half-vampire or descended from draconic stock. Absolute greed powered his every action. Certainly Karzoug was covetous and deeply corrupt—famed for ordering the immolation of an entire city for its tax collectors’ shorting of a few silvers—but that was the reward granted him by the runes for his power and dedication to magic. He long fought a silent war of assassins, mage-poison, and demon-fetches against
Alaznist, Runelord of Wrath, the queen of Bakrakhan. In the end, something sank her kingdom below the waves even as the Thassilonian empire fell. Karzoug was enough of a master of the arcane that many suspect his hand in triggering the murder of an entire kingdom. His weapon of rule was a burning glaive, studded with priceless meteoritic gemstones. And the city of Xin-Shalast was his throne.
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