The Fall of Nabilhime

story

This Story is under editing and amendments

The Fortress city of Nabilhime once was the pride of Oxtrad's Military and a shining beacon of their strength.
Located in the mountains on the Borders of Corvania and Oxtrad it was the first line of defence for the country.
Built by the fire giants themselves it was a pure testament to the way of smithing and an undoubtably force of immovable for the country of Oxtrad and especially the nobels that lead the city.

But corruption leads to downfall.
The city of Nabilhime is nothing but ruins today.

Nabilhime was always considered a place of war, Originally build as a fortress to defended the border of Oxtrad it eventually came to be a city during peace time but the very fact that it still stood meant that war was only ever just on the horizon.
its location in the mountains was the perfect strategist placement providing optimal cover for defence and attack. the mountains were too steep and hazardous to scale so the only way through was on the ground level.
Nabilhime built houses for citizens outside the fortresses walls as well as dug into the mountains for their grand forge areas.

The City was not only grand in stature, but also in design. The Master craftsmen were not Dwarves or Gnomes, their were instead Giants.
The mightiest of all mortal smiths you could hear the ring of the Giant's hammers all across the country when they worked.
The giants were worshiped by the citizens of Nabilhime. their likeness was carved into the city at every corner. statues in thier honour stood as tall as the giants themselves and the great gate to the fortress known as Immovable Dharma in The giant's tongue. the legends say that not even the gods could break down the gate.
The Gate was guarded by Twin giant Warforged known as Gedon and Gora, one of the very first creations by the Giants of Nabilhime.

Nahilhime contributed more then half of Oxtrad's metal works and weapons during the years the forges were alight.
They Crafted some of the most powerful artifacts in the land as well as a whole new race of sentient beings known as warforged.

Warforged, an entirely new sentient species created by the hands of the Fire Giants. Humanoid creatures that could think and feel like humans although were driven more by logic rather then desire. strong and resilient they were soldiers that didn't need pricy armor, sustenance or sleep, healed as fast as they could be repair them and had a strong loyalty to the creators and the city of Nabilhime.
This time ushered in a new age of power for Nabilhime and its leaders, with an army of almost indestructible soldiers Nabilhime started to become over confident, stepping over boundaries they wouldn't normally. Bragging that it could easily take Oxtrad for itself and kick the King/Queen off the throne.

In secret the more humble giants took to crafting proper life rather then glorified soldiers, something that could think, desire and love, have a soul.
Special warforged crafted not of metal but magic.
Unicorn horn and Blood, powdered silver and Marble, mercury, Powdered mythrial and blood from a powerful Fey were the ingridients for clay to mould into Warforged. Powerful spells and alchemy were the tools and a Grand Gem was the catalyst, now all they needed was a soul, something they couldn't create.
3 of these warforged were crafted each with a different type of gemstone at its core, A Topaz, an Emerald and a Amethyst.

Rather then forged like traditional metal these variant warforged were made from the above mixture in a liquid clay, the mixture was poured into a Child sized humanoid mold that contained a manufactured torso skeleton. The idea was that these warforged could also grownup like normal humans do so over the years they would become more like adults.
then the large gem of choice was placed into the clay socketing into the assembly and covered with more clay.
The molds were then sealed air tight and placed into to forge to 'bake'
The life of this enchanted fire bound the mixture together, causing it to thicken and expand at an incredible rate, but the moulds were sealed so tight that instead the clay instead became far denser unable to expand completing the bodies for these variant warforged.
Once the baking was complete the molds were removed and left to cool where they now wait for a soul.

The Giants are panicked, one of their creations, the amythest warforged variant has been stolen. As these creatures were a secret there was no telling any other soul that such a powerful creature had been taken, no to the citizens and not to their fellow kin. they could only hope whoever took it was not of I'll will.

A demon had managed to steal the amythyst warforged and bring it back to the overlords of the nine hells. the lords have been planning an escape for many decades now and were trying all manor of ways to get their armies out of hell and into Mor-thir.
Their latest experiment is to use one of these warforged to leave the 9 hells with a demon's soul possessing it and act as a sleeper agent.
The Lords of hell already had their sacrifice, a young male Demon by the name of Valefor, born to an infected mother he was detained and shammed, even though he showed no sign of the infection his mother had the lords were more punishing Livion, his mother for birthing children that were not pure.

A large ritual was created similar to a Lich's creation ritual however this was to remove the soul out of Valefor and place it in the warforged.
it was a success and Valefore was able to freely leave the 9 hells however part of the Demon lord's plan was that Valefor would be under their control. even though he had a demon's souls Valefor was a new creature and was able to resist the Lord's commands. free but alone there was a strange guide, pulling him back to Nabelhime.

Valefor spent his young years in the Royal City of “Nabelhime” an orphan with nothing to his name other then his powerful views on order and honor earned him favor with the king and queen of the land they took pity on Valefor and adopted him as their own to raise him along their own son the prince. From this point on Valefor went by the name of Zyllis to signify he was no longer a Demon but something more.
Zyllis became good friends with the prince and was well loved throughout the city, people felt safe with him.

Zyllis was put under the teachings of a lady by the name of Serial when he showed an interest in combat. Zyllis showed natural skill with pole arm type weapons despite his keenness for swords.
he trained to become a Paladin with Serial as his mentor.
4 years of a simple perfect life but so easily a perfect life can get turned upside down.

“Hurry Zyllis, We need to leave, now!”

Those words still haunt Zyllis's dreams at night. When everyone was fleeing the royal city of Nabilhime, Zyllis choose to stay he wouldn't abandoned the city and everyone in it, he would fight, a decision that would affect the rest of his life.

Zyllis's life changed only a few years after he arrived in the city. without warning their city was invaded.
The Invasion came and the town was on the front line. The armies of the Beholder trio known as Sharax, Vorg and Gomen invaded the mountain city with tactics unmatched and soldiers born of twisted magic the human cities didn't stand a chance.
Zyllis was 16 when it happened, his adopted family (The King, Queen and Prince) slaughtered in the initial invasion as he was powerless to stop them. alone and frightened he watched as his once proud city was brought to beggar infested ruins.
The giants were killed or forced to flee,
The warforged armies corrupted and turned against their creators,
The grand forges were destroyed and the great gate was cracked.
foreign monster soldiers marched the streets defiling the once noble citizens that now line the streets.
Zyllis didn't give up so easily a burring revenge kept his soul striving for survival. he ran food and information trafficking to the small underground resistance in exchange for warm meals and safe places to sleep.
Food became scarcer for those without connections and to stay alive you bartered information to any interested party with food or gold to spare. Valefor was good at what he did, and thought that maybe things could be better.

That changed when Zyllis was captured by the Tears of the Beholder Trio, The Beholder's elite squad of soldiers. for selling secrets to those bent on overthrowing their Beholder lords. They locked Valefor in the cells of the once proud Grand gate to the City. The first weeks he hoped to stay alive. As the weeks turned into months, and the interrogations continued he began to pray for death.

Valefor's Capters grew tired of him, After doing unspeakable things for almost 12 months they decided they wouldn't be getting any more information out of him and tossed Valefor down the drain as trash.
broken beyond repair Valefor looked to take his own life with a rusted sword to die amongst the the hundreds of other bodies he had failed to protect.
“you are not done”
A whisper in Valefor's head, something that wasn't meant to be, this voice seemed to melt Valefor's sub-consious and fill his body with utter dread. the shear power of this voice held him in a Half-life.
Valefor opened his eyes to see he was floating in and endless red sky the very sight of it made his insides cramp and cough up blood. then before him as if waiting was a being, or a feeling? it was forever, a gapping maw that stretched far beyond anything imaginable, swallowing all existence. it was never ending suffering twisted emotion and forced memories. Valefor could feel his body vibrating as if exposed to very loud noise but nothing he could hear, blood ran down his ears and his eyes as this force this feeling before him silently screamed for Eternity's suffering. then a scream, small quiet but rapidly increasing in volume, Valefor clutched his ears and curled up as the scream rattled his body, shattering his body and his mind then nothing.

The Great old God simply known as The Crawler Had become Zyllis's Patron by force, for what reason is unknown.

Valefor woke, with new knowledge of a Hexblade warlock. with the main goal of taking revenge on the Beholder Trio and all those that would cause harm to the innocent and abusers of power, with the dark power of a warlock guided by the burning radiance of a Paladin, Valefor is a force to be reckoned with.