PART 1 - The Fall and Rise of the Shadow

In the ageless time before the dawn of history, there was a war in heaven. In desperation, the lords of light severed the black spirit of the dark god Izrador, casting him out of the celestial kingdom. The gods succeeded in vanquishing their brother, but Izrador corrupted their magic and turned their victory against them. As the fallen god’s spirit was severed from his physical form, so too was the celestial kingdom severed from all contact with the material realm.

The lords of light discovered that they could no longer commune with their mortal children. This cataclysm shook the foundations of the world and came to be known as the Sundering. The dark one fell to the earth, his foul essence staining the land with its evil shadow. Weakened and bodiless, Izrador retreated to the ice and cold of the far north. There he slumbered, slowly recovering his strength and dreaming of vengeance across eons of time. Empires were built and crumbled to dust, races were born and died, and the Shadow in the North grew deeper and darker. Three times the dark god rose and threatened the nations of Aryth with iron and fire. The first time he was defeated by a proud host of elves, dwarves, and Dornish men led by Aradil the Witch Queen. The second time, races of good held the Shadow off long enough for aid to come from an unlooked for ally. By the time of his third rising, the free peoples of Eredane were battered, bitter, and distracted by their own infighting as well by the insidious corruption sown by the dark god’s spies over the years. Four of the land’s greatest heroes fell prey to his dark promises and betrayed their people, leading his hordes from the north. This time, the dark god won.

The dwarven clans were broken and retreated to their holdfasts deep within the earth. The elves withdrew into their vast and ancient forest, abandoning all to the Shadow. The Dorns, tamed by a power from across the sea in the Second Age, were betrayed from within and fell swiftly.

One hundred years have passed since the Shadow fell. The elder races those of good heart and fey ancestry who have battled Izrador for millennia are being systematically hunted down and exterminated. The great forest of Erethor has become an island of light in a darkening world, its elven keepers fighting a never-ending battle against besieging hordes of orcs, giants, and goblinoids. The surviving dwarven clans have locked themselves in their mountain holdfasts, and the streets of once-proud subterranean cities have become meat grinders for the orcs who are sent in to root them out. The lands of men are ruled with an iron fist by the minions of the Shadow. Cities lie in ruins, and the commoners in isolated towns lock the gates against the darkness each night. Literacy, magic, and weapons are illegal, and ignorance spreads across the land like a terrible plague.

NOW...

In the world of MIDNIGHT, evil rules and the last, brave heroes strive against unbeatable odds. The lands of men have been crushed under the iron heels of the Night Kings and their minions and the lands of the fey are besieged on all sides by the dark hordes of the Shadow in the North. Those who would resist the dominion of the dark god must often do so from the shadows, fighting a secret war that most people believe was lost a hundred years ago.

The heroes of MIDNIGHT stand against orcish hordes with snow elf warriors in the frozen woods of northern Erethor. They travel the barren lands of the Dorns and fight a guerilla war in the shadow of the broken Fortress Wall. They join with gnome smugglers to carry food and medicines to the besieged dwarven clans of the Kaladruns. They ride with Sarcosan outlaws and halfling nomads on the open plains of central Erenland. They elude scheming legates and their magic-sniffing spirit servitors as they search for the priceless artifacts of a lost age. These heroes fight to defend isolated towns from the ravages of fell beasts and undead the same towns that shun them as troublemakers and glory-seekers.

In the world of MIDNIGHT, the rewards of heroism are not fortune and fame. In this age of shadow, your hero fights only to guard the last lights in a darkening world and to preserve the glimmer of hope that the long night will pass. This is the legacy the heroes of MIDNIGHT have inherited and the world they must survive. As the Shadow falls across the world, they are the few brave and defiant souls who dare to oppose the tyranny of the Night Kings. They struggle to stem the tide of darkness and restore hope to a despairing world. Pursued by the Night Kings’ foul minions and the secretive legates of the Order of Shadow, these heroes will never receive parades and victory feasts as the reward for the their noble efforts. Their greatest foes are often the suspicion, resentment, and fear of the very people they strive to champion and protect.