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The work contained on this page is the property and copyright of Jared Rascher and is used with permission. It has been formatted for viewing on the web by the Scribes of Candlekeep.
Kara-Tur Shaking Events
By Jared Rascher
Events of note from the past that affect the current situation
During the Time of Troubles, an Oni known as the Philosopher ended up organizing the oni to protect the deitites of the Celestial Bureaucracy when they decided to retreat from the world of mankind, thus making sure that they caused as little upheaval as possible. While the Philosopher had in the past been reprimanded for his views, the Celestial Emperor granted the Philosopher a writ of pardon for any action that he might take in the future that might get him into trouble. While this may have seemed rash, the Emperor's thoughts on this revolved around the idea that a single oni, no matter how powerful, could never cause so great a harm that the gods could not repair his folly.
While the Oni guarded the avatars of the Celestial Bureaucracy, the rogue spirit known as the Black Leopard set a plan into place, and he enlisted some of the oni that the Philosopher had gathered to guarrd the gods to aid him. The Black Leopard slipped a special spirit poison into the food and drink of the gods. While the poison would not harm them immediately, the Black Leopard could trigger the poison at any time that he wanted to do so.
The Events of 1371 DR in Kara-Tur
During 1371 DR, a cult of fanatics manged to find the resting place of the Slayer of the Gods, and set the creature free. This cult beleived that the universe would be destroyed with the end of the last god, and that upon the unmaking of the universe, that the souls of all mortals would become the new gods.
The cult also found out that the Slayer of the Gods, while able to kill gods, could only be bound by mortals.
The Slayer went on a rampage, destroying many of the less powerful, but still important dignitaries in the Celestial Bureaucracy, as well as a few of the gods of the Ten Thousand Spirits of the Island Nations. Always the Slayer hid, and pounced on the gods when they least expected it, and unlike other divine beings, the Slayer could kill a god even if they were not in their home plane.
Eventually a band of heroes found about about this threat and travelled to the Spirit World and gathered the items needed to bind the Slayer of the Gods. Finally, the Sword of the Heavens was given to the leader of the heroes so that he might have enough power to fight the Slayer while the other heroes bound him.
While holding the sword, the leader seemed like unto a demigod, and the Slayer was drawn to the spot where the sword was. On a remote island off the coast of Tu' Lung, the leader of the heroes battled with the Slayer, but was slain, even as the other heroes of Kara-Tur managed to set the objects around the Slayer in a triangle, and bound the Slayer with the objects of the Spirit World.
Priests could not raise the leader of the heroes from the dead, for his soul was now part of the Sword of the Heavens. The Celestial Princess, daughter of the Celestial Emperor and the patron goddess of Wa and Kozakura, drew a veil of mists over the Slayer's binding place, and made the island invisible to all eyes save hers and the Celestial Emperor's.
Despite the victory, many gods in the Bureaucracy died, leaving voids, and many of the Ten Thousand Sprits were slain and so weaked the remaining spirits, who were streached thinner now.
The Events of 1372 DR in Kara-Tur
The island nations of Kozakura and Wa were beset during this time with the forces of many massive creatures native to the Ilse of the Gargantuas. Normally the creatures rarely ventured forth, and when they did, it was in small eough numbers that sorcerers and bands of warriors could deal with them.
With the weakening of the Ten Thousand Spirits the year before, the creature known as Krankentoa manged to take control of many of the beasts of the Isle of the Gargantuas, and move them in a concerted effort to block trade and assault the nations of Wa and Kozakura.
The dragons assigned by the Celestial Emperor to the nations of Kozakura and Wa fought many of the creatures directly, but Krakentoa was powerful enough to best many of the dragons that stood against him.
The shukenja known as the Monkey (Doin Sanehiro) and his allies travelled to the Isle of the Gargantuas and spoke to the weakened Spirit of the Isle, learning what they could do to restore it and thus allowing the spirit to challenge Krakentoa once more. The heroes battled many restless gargantuas that still inhabited the isle, and manged to find the sacret waters that would help restore the Spirit of the Isle to power. After restoring the spirit, it drove off Krankentoa, and the heroes use various charms given to them by the Spirit to lure the gargantuas home.
The Events of 1373 DR in Kara-Tur
Initially the concerns of the dragons around Toril are not the concerns of the dragons of Kara-Tur. As servants and messengers fo the gods, they felt isolated from teh madness that seized dragons in Faerun. Then some of them fell to a madness seemingly just like the madness of the dragons of Faerun.
Indeed, while the madness was not something the dragons would normally ahve to worry about, the Philosopher ahd afound a way of infecting the dragosn of Kara-Tur, thuscausing the Dragons of the Four Winds to pull them out of the world and back into the Spirit World.
The Philosopher had also found out about the Black Leopard's poison, and encacted the Catalyst to kill the Dragons of the Four Winds, thus allowing his loyals conspirators to move.
Most of the oni in the spirit world continued to do their jobs as they had always done, but the Philosopher had manged to amass a large gorup of them under his banner, promising them that when he became a god, they owuld serve as his personal staff. He then sent them out to gather an army of hobgoblins, bakemono, and ogers, and set them to assaulting both Tu' Lung and Shou Lung.
This was a ruse by the Philosopher to cover his search for the Seal of Kuo Balung, a seal created by the Celestial Emperor years ago was a reward to a specially favored mortal. This mortal was tasked with finding the seal,a nd if he did, he would be awarded a place in the heavens as a god for his cleverness. The mortal failed to live up to the Celestial Emperor's faith in him, and the Emperor declared taht any that found teh seal could claim the seat set aside. The Philosopher had decided to claim that seat, but was afraid that if he inquired about its location, he would be thwarted in his efforts, and thus created a distraction.
Eventually a band of travellers found clues to the whereabouts of the seal, and sought out this great treasure. They ran afoul of the Philosopher, but they manged to defeat the powerful oni when they contested over the right to the seal. The travellers eventually decided none of them were right for godhood, and thus sought out a means to speak with the Celestial Court, and a dragon dared to venture back into the world. This dragon presented the seal to the Celestial Emperor and was made the Dragon King, for now to assume the duties of the Dragons of the Four Winds.
After a great deal of loss on both sides, the Tu' Lung and Shou Lung forces met and discussed forming a single front against the raiders, and eventually drove off the army led by the oni. Much of this cooperation came about due to the diplomacy of a mysterious man named Kuang (who was actually Prince Gisen of T'u Lung in disguise). While the generals of the two nations had great respect for one another, true peace between the two nations might still be further off.
The Events of 1374 DR in Kara-Tur
The Black Leopard is a fugutive. The gods found out that he poisoned them and that that poison was used to kill the Dragons of the Four Winds. The Black Leopard did not divulge this information to anyone, and was only seeking a way to balance out the power of the gods with his own ability to threaten their domination of the universe.
The Black Leopard eventually is caught and bound by agents of the Celstial Emperor, and the gods beleive the threat is over. But cultists of the Black Leopard know better, and since their god figure is bound, they seek out the Mad Monkey for aid. Mad Monkey guides them to safety from the agents of the Celestial Emperor, and leads them to a band of sprit folk, korobukuru, and other wild folk that might help them.
The cultists and wild folk eventually find out that a rogue spirit of some kind from Faerun has been watching over many of the powerful beings in Kara-Tur, and unleashing their secrets in a manner that will cause as much chaos as possible. When found out, the mysterious spirit withdraws before Monkey and the other gods can challenge it or learn its true identity.
The Black Leopard is still deemed dangerous, and is bound for a thousand years in the place the agents of the Celestial Emperor captured him.