HISTORY OF THE FLANAESS

The “Year of Peace” (585) saw little of the sort. War raged in the Principality of Ulek and the Wild Coast against orc invaders from the Pomarj, and efforts to retake Sterich were initiated in the west. The Circle of Eight was brought to full membership once more and began acting against every power its wizards perceived as tyrannical or dangerous to the common welfare.

In 586, Canon Hazen of Veluna employed the Crook of Rao, a powerful artifact, in a special ceremony that purged the Flanaess of nearly all fiends inhabiting it. Outsiders summoned by Iuz, Ivid, or independent evils fell victim to this magical assault, which became known as the Flight of Fiends. King Belvor IV of Furyondy quickly joined Canon Hazen in declaring the Great Northern Crusade, an ambitious military action aaimed at regaining land lost to Iuz during the Greyhawk Wars. By the end of 588, the armies of Furyondy had restored the nation, as well as Critwall and Scragholme Island in the old Shield Lands. The destruction and debauchery revealed as Iuz's agents fled sicked the crusaders. King Belvor declared eternal war upon Iuz, pledging to settle for nothing short of the complete destruction of Iuz himself. Raids against Iuz from Furyondy and the Shield Lands continue to the present.

However, Iuz's forces gradually recovered from the loss of most of his demonic underlings, and no further advances were made. War continued to burn on the eastern border of Iuz's empire as well. Iuz's control of Stonehold slipped in 588, and shortly thereafter a many-sided war began in Tenh. Large scale fighting in both lands continues to the present. These conflicts have regularly spilled over the borders of the Pale and the County of Urnst.

All the countries on the border of Iuz's empire of darkness live in fear of the day when the hammer will fall once again—and wonder where the first strike will come. King Belvor of Furyondy, Iuz's most implacable foe, is aging, and his only heir, Prince Thrommel, was lost during a military campaign in Verbobonc more than twenty years ago. Political instability in the land of Iuz's greatest enemies is visible on the horizon.