A few years after the fall of Bracaduun, a
Knight named Rion Gryphonheart gave rise to
a new kingdom known as Erathia.
Rion Gryphonheart eventually met Tarnum, the
Barbarian responsible for Bracaduun’s fall
in battle and killed him.
Tarnum's soul entered the Hall of Judgement,
where three barbarian gods known as the Ancestors
would decide his fate.
His dead body however, was used for a purpose
far more sinister.
In the Continent of Enroth, there was yet
another empire that fell in almost the same manner.
A Necromancer called Archon, commonly known
as the Lich King, was ruling most of Enroth
with only a small track of land being kept
by a band of rebellious Enrothian Knights
led by the late King's eldest daughter, Elizabeth.
At first, it seemed that the Lich King could
have quelled this rebellion rather easily.
However, a treacherous cult of Necromancers
sided with the Queen just when the battle
was dire and ensured the Lich King’s demise.
Elizabeth, the new Queen of Enroth, casted
an abolishment spell on Archon and he was
cast out to Antagarich.
Antagarich was a place where the undead were
only part of children’s stories at that time.
Archon was fortunate enough to have saved
his Cloak of the Undead King, a powerful artifact
that ensured his authority over the undead.
After a while, he heard tales of Tarnum, the
Barbarian King who overthrew an entire empire
and was intrigued by his story.
He hatched a sinister plan: To reanimate Tarnum’s
body as a Death Knight and use his strength
to help him return to Enroth triumphantly.
He found Tarnum’s grave and sacrificed his
own power and cloak to reanimate him to life.
The Lich King was weakened by the process,
but promised Tarnum to make him his successor
once the throne of Enroth was his again.
With his new-found powers, Tarnum started
harvesting an army of the undead from the
neighboring Barbarian tribes, his former fellow
countrymen.
His armies was bolstered by the addition of
yet another Death Knight, Lamentia, whose
origin remained a mystery to Tarnum, but her
prowess in battle was unmatched by any of
his underlings.
Harvesting wasn't the only reason they pillaged
the Barbarian tribes.
The Lich King's mind was drawn by a higher
power that rested in that rocky terrain.
He often spoke to Tarnum about a long forgotten
power, the power of the Ancients and how they
could use that power to restore his own diminishing
ones.
The Ancients were a technologically advanced
race from before the Silence, who shaped the
planet of Enroth (amongst others).
The Ancients were worshiped as gods when the
world of Enroth was young, and there were
still some shrines and temples left that were
centuries old even when Tarnum was still alive.
It was said that, whoever could harness their
power and technological advancements, would
become unstoppable.
It was this power that the Lich King was going
after.
The first Ancient Shrine that Tarnum encountered
was a Dragon Factory.
Tarnum destroyed the metallic dragon guards
and claimed one for his own army.
After taking everything he needed, he destroyed
the Factory, so that no one could take advantage
of the secrets that lay within.
In the Dragon Factory there was a map of a
temple of the Ancients, which lay in a sea
of Fire, near an Erathian port.
Tarnum and Lamentia followed the map and tracked
down the temple.
The seas surrounding it were plundered by
a pirate named Sallah, but his pirates where
no match for Tarnum’s undead minions.
The ancient temple was guarded by great Crustacean
beasts, with razor-sharp steel claws and legs,
known as Reavers.
These monsters were part beast and part machine
but Tarnum managed to overcome them and desecrate the temple.
The Lich King grew stronger every day, and
decided the three of them where ready to visit
the Desolate Lands, the last resting place
of the Ancients’ shrines.
As the campaign progressed, Tarnum grew weary
of it.
His mind and corrupted soul were bound only
on claiming revenge off his killer
the new King of Erathia.
It was in the Desolate Lands, a barren wasteland
of rock and sand that Tarnum found a way to
topple the Lich King’s power and claim his
army for his own.
In the meantime, Lamentia’s true identity
was revealed: She was Yalla, Tarnum’s love
interest back when he was still alive.
The fact that she was reanimated as an undead
corpse alongside Tarnum, was taken by both
of them as a sign that they were bound together by fate and now
she swore her allegiance to Tarnum alone.
Once the last shrine of the Ancients was found
and desecrated, the Lich King was fully revived
and his full strength gathered.
The only way that Tarnum could overthrow him
was to augment his power with a new finding:
An ancient Necropolis of another world.
The resting place of this Necropolis was found
in one of the shrines of the Desolate Lands.
Tarnum proclaimed that he sought out its power
to gift it to the Lich King, but as soon as
it was in his grasp, he betrayed Archon and
took over his army.
Tarnum soon found out that his powers over
the undead were failing him.
After interrogating Archon, he found out that
he would never be King of the Dead without
the Lich King’s Cloak.
Tarnum decided to split his armies in two:
Lamentia would invade the Erathian borders
and make preparations for a full scale invasion,
while Tarnum would search in the fallen empire
of Bracaduun for the artifacts that can form
a new Cloak of the Undead.
Tarnum managed to claim the three artifacts
needed from the dead hands of three powerful
wizards that were sworn to protect them.
Once Tarnum had the Cloak, a soothsayer crept
into his camp and warned him that if he would
meet Rion Gryphonheart in battle once more,
they will both destroy each other.
Tarnum disregarded that prophecy, as he felt
that with the power of the Cloak of the Undead King
he would become unstoppable.
However, that was not the end for Rion Gryphonheart,
as Erathian and Barbarian armies rallied forth
to meet Lamentia’s forces before Tarnum
could reach her.
They managed to break the lines of his banner
men and destroy most of his striking force.
They even destroyed and burned down Lamentia's
body, giving an end to her misery.
Still, Tarnum had the Cloak now and it was
easy for him to muster a new army out of thin
air and proceed with the attack on his own.
The soothsayer’s prophetic words were now
ringing in his ears, but it didn’t matter
to Tarnum, as his thirst for vengeance could
not be stilled in any other way.
Eventually, the two of them met indeed in
the field.
Rion Gryphonheart was mortally wounded, but
managed to give a final blow to Tarnum that
destroyed his Cloak and with it, his animated
corpse as well.
Rion Gryphonheart was dead.
Tarnum’s undead corpse was destroyed and
the Ancestors finally reached their verdict.
They deemed Tarnum unworthy of entering Paradise.
Instead he would roam the Earth as the Immortal
Hero, seeking redemption for his endless crimes
through acts of kindness and compassion.
As a token of the Ancestors' mercy, Tarnum
had no recollection of the atrocities he committed
as the Undead King, and the wretched part
of his soul responsible for these vile acts
was buried alongside with his former body
in the Hall of the Ancestors.
