HISTORY OF THE FLANAESS

In C.Y. 479, the land called Iuz was only a fractious collection of paltry fiefs. Among its princelings was a minor despot of the Howling Hills who died in that year and left his barren holdings to a son of dubious origins: Iuz. Iuz used the strategy of dividing his opponents to weaken them, then assimilating their lands and residual forces, sowing rumors and lies to put the princelings at each other's throats. He began to expand his domain far beyond its original boundaries.

Refugees fleeing the lands told astonished Furyondians of Iuz's unbelievable evils: massacres; a road of skulls built from the Howling Hills to his new capital of Dorakaa; and watchtowers along the road with beacons fed on the fuel of human fat and flesh. Iuz was said to be a fiend himself, seven feet in height, red-skinned and feral of face. If Furyondy had acted then, Iuz might yet have been contained. But King Avras was opposed by southern nobles who resented excessive taxation levied to protect the northern lands, and Iuz grew steadily more powerful.

Iuz disappeared in C.Y. 505, imprisoned beneath the towers of Castle Greyhawk by a group including Zagig, aided by St. Cuthbert (it is said). But his armies - mostly humanoids - had learned the lessons he tought them. They held to their lands; their leaders said their master would return, and they were right.