Valshoom

Valshoom was a human necromancer from before The Great Upheaval. He is mostly remembered for keeping the peace between the two kingdoms of Elenestra and Nimenora through the use of a great army of undead. The Kingdoms were at the point of a great war when he moved into the wildes between the two kingdoms and built his tower. He didn’t want the headache of having to deal with a war zone so he summoned up a great undead army to keep the peace. Through the use of his undead the two kingdoms were separated and it stopped further border disputes. He also insured that there was safe trade between the two kingdoms. At tense moments in the kingdoms’ history he would even mediate the disputes through meetings at his tower.

Valshoom was not necessarily a bad guy but being a necromancer he dealt with the undead quite often and in fact he rather preferred the company of the endlessly decomposing than with the living. A fact that would become apparent on a typical visit to his tower. The tower was surrounded by a high, thick defensible wall manned by all sorts of undead in various states of decomposer. You would enter through one large gate and be greeted at the tower by the finest dressed undead you had ever seen. They would escort you inside and you would find yourself surrounded by warm drapings and furnishings. The ambassadors who had the chance to stay there say that the place was eerily quiet with only the occasional sounds of moaning. The place was always spotless. The actual meetings with Valshoom were not what they often expected.

He would often seem to be indifferent to the whole affair and would appear bored while the dignitaries argued endlessly. His typical tactic was to just outlast the nearly endless arguing before trying to find some sort of common ground. He had endless patience and never appeared angry, although his demeanor might often suggest some amount of agitation. While it was well known that he didn’t particularly like the company of the living, he tolerated it from time to time. It was rumored that he even took on the occasional living apprentice throughout his life. However, despite some people claiming to having studied underneath him, no proof to that effect has surfaced.

The only time that anyone tested Valshroom’s army was at its initial creation. Both kingdoms saw him as a threat and made to attack him, but their efforts were fruitless. Whenever they thought they had gained some ground, their dead troops would be re-animated and Valshoom’s army would only become stronger. No one had seen anything like it in living memory and other than the powers of the gods themselves, no one has seen such power since. The kingdoms quickly learned that they couldn’t defeat him and after some time they came to appreciate the peace that he offered.

This peace lasted for several hundred years, that is until The Great Upheaval destroyed both kingdoms. During the destruction Valshoom’s tower was destroyed and he disappeared. His armies fell to the ground, with the occasional undead surviving to roam the forests. No one knows if he died in the devastation or if he survived and lived on.