Nevermore Troll Wars
The Troll Wars erupted when the troll warlord Grathul Ashhide united the Shadewall Mountain clans and drove them across the Howling Highlands into Duskreach, forcing the small settlement into a brutal and desperate conflict. Although the Crimson Order and Lammas forces ultimately helped defeat and dismember Ashhide, their intervention secured a lasting foothold in the region. The war ended in victory, but its political fractures continue to shape Duskreach to this day.
Like most of the Nevermore Expanse, the Howling Highlands were never a gentle land. Winds swept low across the grasslands, carrying the scent of the frost and old stone of the Northlands. To the east, bordering Thicket’s Grin forest, the Shadewall Mountains rise, dividing the Nevermore into two distinct regions. For generations, the people of Duskreach saw those peaks as a distant and dangerous border. The trolls living there were known threats, raiders at worst, but rarely organized and never united. That assumption changed in the year 619 EoIF.
The initial signs weren't troll attacks. Hunting paths changed, and shepherds reported tremors underground. Within months, smoke rose from the high ridges in amounts no seasonal wildfire could explain. Whatever stirred in the mountain didn't descend on the lowlands all at once. After a month, the trolls moved as a unified army.
Grathul Ashhide
At their forefront marched Grathul Ashhide, a troll whose name would be etched into Duskreach memory. Ashhide bore scars unlike any troll previously encountered in the Nevermore Expanse. One side of his body was blackened and hardened as if he had survived immersion in flames. Fire did not consume him as it should have. It slowed him, but only briefly. His regeneration was altered, stubborn in a way that prevented fire from calming his healing capabilities.
Ashhide had unified rival troll clans under a single banner. Such cohesion was unheard of in the Howling Highlands. Trolls were territorial, fractious, and driven by appetite and dominance. Yet under Ashhide, they moved with purpose and speed, pushing steadily toward Duskreach.
The cause of their sudden migration remains unconfirmed. Later accounts speculate that something older and more dangerous than the trolls awoke in the mountains and drove them west. No official expedition has ever ventured deep enough to determine the truth.
The Highlands Massacre
Duskreach’s first organized response came quickly. Ilana Vellor, respected for her determination and clarity during crises, led a counterattack into the Howling Highlands. She believed the trolls could be pushed back before their foothold solidified. Her husband, Tassyn Vellor, rode alongside her. Erik Stennbrand, then the leader of Duskreach, was also present at the engagement. The battle that ensued shattered any illusion of a contained threat.
The trolls did not falter under initial fire tactics. Ashhide pushed forward through flames that would have taken down weaker kin. His presence held the troll lines together, and their regeneration surpassed the early efforts to stop it. Ilana Vellor was killed during the second wave of the assault, struck down amid the chaos as the Duskreach forces struggled to regroup. Her death marked a turning point in the battle. Tassyn and Erik survived the failed engagement. Many others did not.
The War Years
The conflict stretched across two brutal years. Troll incursions continued across the Highlands, testing Duskreach’s defenses and burning swaths of land that had never known organized warfare. Aid eventually arrived through the Crimson Order, with forces from Falkovnia and Lammas answering the call. Among them rode Silas Dreadcaller, a wraith knight of Lammas riding an armored ox named Vincent. His combat experience and refined regenerative halting strategies would become central to the war’s eventual outcome.
Under combined efforts, fire tactics evolved. Engagements became calculated operations designed not merely to repel, but to destroy. Ashhide himself was finally cornered during the second year of fighting. He did not fall cleanly, with accounts describing a prolonged confrontation in which he was restrained and dismembered before his body could regenerate. The Crimson Order claimed custody of the remains, removing them to an undisclosed location. With Ashhide’s death, troll cohesion fractured, and the war ended a month later.
Political Fallout
Though victory was declared, unity did not follow. Ilana Vellor’s death left a deep wound for many townsfolk. Tassyn Vellor’s grief hardened into quiet resentment. Some within Duskreach questioned whether the initial charge into the Howling Highlands had been premature. Others argued it had been necessary.
Erik Stennbrand’s leadership, once steady and trusted, faced subtle scrutiny in the years that followed. The arrival and ongoing presence of the Crimson Order changed the political landscape in ways few had expected. What started as aid and mutual defense grew into a lasting influence by members of the Order.
In the following years, those divisions widened, ultimately culminating in a council vote that removed Erik Stennbrand and replaced him with a Sanguis-aligned leader, the ambitious Corvin Strathe.
Restricted Memorandum
Crimson Order Internal Archive
Subject: Grathul Ashhide Remains
Authorization Required: Vitae Scribe or above
Authorization Required: Vitae Scribe or above
Following confirmed termination of the troll Grathul Ashhide, physical remains were secured under direct supervision of Corvin Strathe. Due to observed irregular regenerative resilience to flame, standard disposal protocols were deemed insufficient.
Remains were divided into five primary segments to prevent recomposition. Each segment continues to exhibit diminished but persistent regenerative activity when exposed to heat or blood-rich environments.
Recommendation from Falkovnian hematurgic consultants: retain remains for controlled study. Ashhide’s altered physiology may indicate exposure to catalysts not yet identified. Potential applications include regenerative enhancement research and battlefield resilience replication.
All inquiries from Duskreach leadership regarding the final disposition of the remains are to be met with confirmation of destruction.
Disposition Location: Redacted.
Further note: Under no circumstances are segments to be stored in proximity to one another.
Further note: Under no circumstances are segments to be stored in proximity to one another.
by Dean Spencer
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