The Red Hand of Doom

History in the Elsir Vale

“The dragon banners rose again from the Wyrmsmokes, and with them came ash, blood, and war.”

Origins of the Red Hand

Timeframe: ~1470 CE (around 40 years before the start of Scales of War)

The Red Hand was a Hobgoblin-led militant cult and militant confederation that arose in the Wyrmsmoke Mountains, south of the Elsir Vale.

• Led by the powerful warlord and dragon-blooded hobgoblin Azarr Kul, son of the infernal dragon Tiamat, the Red Hand was more than a warband—it was a zealous crusade.
• It combined military discipline, dragon-worship, and forbidden necromantic and fiendish magics.
• Azarr Kul declared himself the chosen of Tiamat, rallying goblinoids, ogres, trolls, and even dragons under a single unifying cause: the purification and conquest of the Vale.

The name "Red Hand" was a resurrected title, referencing a much older Hobgoblin empire that once ruled the Vale during ancient Rhest’s decline.

The Red Hand War (The Doom of the Vale)

Timeframe: ~1472 DR
Event: The Red Hand of Doom campaign module

The Red Hand Invasion unfolded with terrifying speed and precision:

Stage 1 – Subterfuge and Cultivation

Stage 2 – Open Invasion

Stage 3 – The Siege of Brindol

Aftermath and Legacy

• The Red Hand was defeated, but the cost was high:
• Drellin’s Ferry was destroyed.
• Trade and travel across the Vale were disrupted for years.
• Brindol’s walls still bear scorched scars from dragonfire.
• Azarr Kul’s cults were driven underground but not destroyed. Some remnants endure in:
• Dragon worshipping cults in the Wyrmsmokes
• Fiend-pacted sorcerers haunting the Blackfens
• Dragonspawn born from the surviving eggs

In “Scales of War”, the Red Hand is remembered as a terrifying warning. Their banners and relics sometimes reappear, and agents still seek to recover Azarr Kul’s legacy.