The Ghast of Fendurin

Once, a king ruled over the area that has now become the north part of Hallowgrave. That region of the county was once ruled predominantly by dwarves, and the infamous dwarven king Fendurin ruled over the area. He was not a tyrant, a kleptocrat, or former scoundrel. Neither did he abuse his vassals, nor were people subject to cruel laws. The reason he became notorious is that he ended up striking a deal with a greater demon in order to fulfill a great desire of his. His kingdom was constantly struggling with monetary problems, as excavation and exchanging what they mined for food was pretty much the kingdom's entire economy. They couldn't produce enough minerals that were actually needed, rather than luxuries to be sold. Neither could they produce enough food for the entire kingdom, considering how settlements operated. At most, they boasted above-average defenses against the wilds. When the combination of an orc war band robbing their regular traders, as well as kobolds infesting their mines and sabotaging operations, their economy fell into ruin. Desperate for huge stacks of electrum and platinum in the treasury, Fendurin's most trusted archmage completed a ritual to summon a demon.   The name of this demon has been lost to time, though it is depicted as a jewelry-covered, fat human that has some features resembling that of a boar. As it was a greater demon summoned directly from the depths of the Darkest Hell of Dimas, it stood for giving mortals any opportunity to cause chaos by seeding greed and gluttony, which then turns into debauchery and madness. It offered the king a deal: a large sum of money in the moment, for a lifetime of greed to feed with that money. The king refused, saying he would like much more money than was offered in order to compensate for the greed. The demon said yes, but only if the greed persists after death. He didn't think too much about it in the moment, so he accepted. Though it did benefit the kingdom in the long run, the king eventually began spending money on things that the kingdom never actually needed, like a garden dedicated to a circus he once saw passing by and never even spoke to, as well as for the dungeons beneath his keep to be furnished with human skin. Human skin, specifically. His requests became more and more delusional, he grew fatter and less open to his kingdom. He locked himself away in his chambers and sent in servants, one by one, to bring him food and luxuries. Once they were running low, when told the news, he said to simply buy more as soon as possible, as well as for the servant that told him the message to be sent into his chambers. All their corpses were found with almost no flesh hanging off the bone, all of it consumed raw by the king, bones strewn all around the room.   Of course, once the servants and council members had become cautious about who was to deliver messages to Fendurin, a band of adventurers, all priests of Dulvir, were sent to kill him. They found his hair to be long and unkempt, his body to be pale and strangely muscular, and his facial hair almost completely gone, replaced a huge jaw that could be unhinged and was filled with jutting teeth. They fought hard and stoically, but the fear he instilled into them was supernatural, coming from the demon that had now possessed him during this transformation. His long, horrible claws tore open two of the four priests, but the other two managed to slay him. They realized that the demon's spirit could simply possess another body, so they doused Fendurin's body and encased him in a bed of vines and flowers, sealed by their divine magic and Dulvir's assistance, as he saw it as a great threat. The bed was placed inside a stone sarcophagus, which was lowered into a secret passage to the dungeons beneath the keep, which was beneath a frozen lake. Yet somehow, barely a hundred years later, a group of adventurers braved the monster-infested keep and managed to find the sarcophagus.   During this time, a cult of the Old Gods had performed unholy ceremonies here, but were later disbanded due to a lack of funding. Their presence and rituals desecrated the holy ground of Dulvir, and the seal was lifted. All that remained was for someone to open Fendurin's resting place, which the adventurers promptly did. The demon's spirit, as well as the taint of the Old Gods, made the body disappear and turn into a cloud of ash. This cloud possessed the one who opened it, an elf warrior who was a charismatic leader. He immediately began transforming into a similar creature as Fendurin, this time undead and able to influence those like it with just a thought, everything connecting to a hive mind. The creature's awakening shook the keep with a mighty earthquake, and it proceeded to slaughter everything in its path. All who have eaten the flesh of a sapient being before in a 100 mile radius began to turn into the first ghouls. The Old Gods were getting a stronger grip on this world, and the dreaded Ghast was one of their first steps.

Though Fendurin was a real king, and he did in fact go insane, no one is 100% sure it was actually him who was responsible for creating the corpse-eaters. The corpse-eaters are a known type of undead that plagues the entirety of the kingdom, and most likely all of Iterron. Ghouls breed quickly, even though they are undead, and give a strange semblance of life to what they create. They can create more of themselves by keeping some of their prey alive and subjecting them to the diseases that they naturally carry until they are dead and cannibalistic. Ghoul preachers, otherwise just known as devourers or thouls, have an uncanny effect of manifesting the worst nightmares of those it targets with its ghostly howls and claws. That is the only true historical basis for this, and the Ghast itself may not exist. Though an unusually large ghoul has been known to stalk Veilguard Wood.

Most people outside of Hallowgrave don't know the myth, but they most likely know about corpse-eaters and why cannibalism is considered a horrible deed.

Some say that the hallowing seal simply wore off as the years went by, rather than the Old Gods being responsible for any of this.

This is why people have a cultural taboo in Ashtree against cannibalism, as it is thought to turn you into a ghoul if done enough times, or at least a degenerate. The fact that the Ghast is supposedly a former elf suggests the reason for why elves seem to be immune to the paralysis of the corpse-eaters' claws. It is also used as a way to stop children from wandering too far into the woods, lest the toe-eaters (as they are called in the children's version), led by the horrific Ghast, come out of the ground and eat their toes.

There is a book written by an elven poet in the form of a poetic novel that is meant to be a biography of Fendurin's life and the history of his kingdom, as well as some of its well-known heroes. It is called The Saga of Fendurin.

There are many paintings, especially in the northern part of Ashtree, depicting Fendurin dealing with the demon.