Chapter 112 City of Shadows
Hearing these people mention City of Shadows again, Brian had to take it seriously.
Faerûn, the beginning of the year of wild magic.
A mysterious floating city, surrounded by black walls and numerous towering spiers, showed its shape above the ferocious forest.
Soon after, it came to the southern part of the Eno Oak Desert, parked near the Scimitar Peak Mountains, and immediately set out to create the Shadow Empire.
The emergence of Shadow City coincides with the flooding period of Thirst Sandbank.
The residents of this newly emerged city are the descendants of the great arcanists who fled to the Shadow Plane on the eve of the destruction of the Netheril Empire.
The city escaped destruction only because of a great magic that moved it and its inhabitants into the Plane of Shadow.
A flying city miraculously escaped the catastrophe unscathed, albeit entirely by accident.
The fundamental reason is mainly because the aristocratic ruler of this city is a powerful arcanist, and he happened to be constantly experimenting with movement between the material world and the shadow plane during this time.
Eventually his research achieved a breakthrough.
Not only can he control his floating city to travel between the two planes at will, he can also make other people and objects travel with him.
In the weeks before the Catastrophe, the arcanist, now the Lord of Shade City, was contemplating the possibility of moving the entire city to the Shadow Plane, only a few seconds before Karthus cast his spell. A few days later, the city lord suddenly ordered his floating city to start conducting this experiment.
So the night before the catastrophe, the entire city and all its residents were transported to the shadow plane. After arriving, the Lord of the Shadow City was very happy about his previous correct prediction. The city and all its residents were on the journey. No adverse effects were experienced.
However, he soon discovered to his horror that, for reasons he still could not understand, he could no longer move the city back to the physical world.
It took him several weeks to figure out the secret.
When the city returned to Netheril, the residents were shocked by what they saw. Their empire was destroyed in just a few days.
For the next few days, the city traveled through the ruins of Netheril, desperately searching for survivors, but to no avail.
These Netherese people can only assume that the horrific scenes before them are entirely caused by the hateful phaerim, and they are eager for revenge.
But the city lord of Yinhun City understands that his own flying city cannot compete with the Felin Demon Sunflower.
Moreover, he believed that the Netherese people living in the City of Shade were probably the last survivors of this race.
Finally, he decided that he could not risk losing his city and his subjects, and vowed to return to the material world one day and rebuild his destroyed empire.
The city lord of Shadow City once again teleported the city to the shadow plane.
There, after experiencing unforeseen circumstances, for unknown reasons, the City of Shadows stayed in the shadow plane for much longer than originally expected.
Of course there is another way of saying it.
That is, on the eve of the destruction of the arcane empire Netheril, the priests of the Night Goddess Shar successfully cast a prophecy spell. Their dark god gave them information, allowing them to understand the truth about the destruction of Netheril.
Or, at least, that's the truth Shar wanted them to know.
Brian quite agrees with this statement.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for all the descendants of the Arcane Empire living in the City of Shadows to defect to the Night Goddess Shar, or even transform into Soul creatures.
With the destruction of the Arcane Empire, these refugees continued their society and civilization in the Plane of Shadow for centuries to come, freely using shadowy materials to cast arcane spells and conduct experiments.
Wizards and warlocks who were already quite powerful began to become more powerful after becoming proficient in mastering the dark matter in the new environment under the guidance of the priest Shar, the goddess of the night.
Wearing black armor, these combat legions of spellcasters patrol the streets of the city and the new surrounding areas.
A leading group of shadowy arch-arcanists rule the city.
They are just like the arcanist city lords of Netheril who ruled their own floating cities in ancient times.
When they arrived in the main material world, they immediately declared that this huge desert was their territory.
At first, most forces did not take this seriously, thinking that this group of people were arrogant, and even looked at the Eno Oak Desert with mocking eyes.
But when the caravans of the Sanlin Pagoda Society began to disappear in the southern part of this wasteland, someone finally realized that the claims of the ghost people were no child's play.
And it also caused great panic among a large number of scholars and wise men. Rumors about these mysterious strangers appeared in almost every city on the mainland.
Who are these enigmatic people?
They are literally a page of history torn from the world's almost forgotten past.
Their ancestors and flying cities, their homeland, the Empire of Netheril, were also destroyed in a cataclysm caused by experiments to save themselves from their greatest enemy.
The magical knowledge possessed by the most advanced arcane nation disappeared from Toril on the day of destruction until today.
Countless pairs of eyes turned to Aenook and the city looming in the sky, hoping to find the slightest hint of its intentions. In the early days of the emergence of Shadow City, no action was taken against the Bedai barbarians, the nomadic people living in this desert.
Because they think this nation is insignificant.
But as time went by, their attitude toward the peoples and civilizations outside Ainook gradually began to change from indifference to curiosity, and from contempt to aggression.
As it continues to gain the upper hand in the confrontation with all forces, Shade City has shown itself to be one of the most powerful and concentrated forces with arcane power in the world of Toril.
They do have this capital.
In the information that Brian is familiar with, the city lord of the City of Shadows, the ‘Supreme King’ Telamant Tanshur, is a Nese relic who has lived for thousands of years and is a contemporary of Karsus.
His challenge level is level 35. In addition to having to improve his arcanist profession due to the changes in the rules of the magic network, he also has a shadow magic network based on the shadow magic network exclusive to the goddess of the night Shar. Film tutor profession.
In addition, the strength of the twelve ghost princes and lieutenants under the Supreme King have all reached the legendary realm.
There are about 5 intermediate legendary spellcasters who have reached level 25 or above.
You must know that in the entire Kingdom of Cormyr, the only powerful ones in the legendary field are the Supreme Mage Sandra Hast of Susar City and their king, as well as the Grand Duchess Myrcella of Arabe City. .
Fortunately, the City of Shadows also has a tradition of involution. The sworn enemies of the followers of the Night Goddess Shar, the Chosen Goddess of Magic, and the Harper Scouts who love to maintain world peace not only often interfere with their plans, but also regard the Shadows as The city was an evil force that needed to be eradicated, and even took advantage of the floating city's empty defense to sneak inside and almost detonate their secret energy core.
It was this incident that caused the strategic policy of Shadow City to change from fighting to operations.
Otherwise, just relying on the fourteen legendary strong men in Ghost City would be enough to push Cormier evenly.
When Brian learned that people from Ghost City were going to hold a wedding in Mokou Town, he immediately realized that they had begun to set their sights here.
Because once Mokou Town, the bridgehead to the Kingdom of Cormyr, is consolidated, the next goal of Ghost City is to invade the rich mainland.
Although Yinhun City has been managing the desert and even melting the northernmost glaciers, the effect is not as fast as expected.
In order to expand their power, while governing the desert, they also set their sights on the lands surrounding the Eno Oak Desert, such as Cormyr, Sembia, Valley and Cormanso.
It may be because of the pride engraved in their bones, or it may be due to involution. When the Yinhun City invaded, the twelve Yinhun Princes not only did not work together, but instead had a clear division of labor, each choosing their own goals and not interfering with each other. He was planning a conspiracy to seize.
This gave many weak forces and kingdoms a chance to breathe.
After the forces of Yinhun City intervened in Mokou Town, they were not in a hurry to launch an attack. Instead, they joined forces with the Dragon Worship Cult, which was studying the Dragon Madness Mystic Lock, to provide them with knowledge and speed up the research progress of the Mystic Lock.
With the initial success of the Dragon Mad Lock, the Kingdom of Cormyr has also ushered in the Year of the Dance with Dragons.
This disaster can be said to have damaged the foundation of the Kingdom of Cormyr.
The Supreme Mage and the King fought against two ancient dragons, one dead and the other seriously wounded.
After the death of the king, his brother Prince Serante formed an army of mercenaries and launched attacks in many places within the territory, which directly led to the complete division of the kingdom.
In the end, the crumbling divided kingdom ushered in catastrophic destruction due to the raging waves of demons and the invasion of the ghosts.
Recalling the history of the future, Brian naturally decided to use his ability to foresee and prepare to nip it in the cradle.
After all, his goal is the Eno Oak Desert, and Mokou Town is his best development territory.
This is undoubtedly a serious conflict with the forces of the Ghost City that have occupied the Eno Oak Desert for many years.
In this case, burdened with the task of saving the small world, not only can he not be allowed to grow up in a deep mountain and old forest, but he must also quickly capture Mokou Town under the eyes of the forces of Yinhun City. , and then completely consolidate it, and then use it as a basis to continuously strengthen its own power, and finally have the ability to challenge the City of Shadows.
This is also the fundamental reason why he must cooperate with the Kingdom of Cormyr.
Without the support from the kingdom, with his current strength, he would not even be able to handle a fourth-level shadow mentor in Haunted City.
What's more, those shadow guard assassins who became sword mages and specialized in assassination skills.
As for how to quickly capture Mokou Town before the forces of Yinhun City could react, after Brian learned of Yinhun City's intentions, he actually had a preliminary plan in mind.
After all, his only advantage now is hiding in the dark. Most of the forces in Mokou Town do not know his true intentions and thoughts, let alone his origins and whether he will bring any threats. .
He must use this advantage to catch them off guard.
When they reacted, the entire Mokou Town had changed hands and was completely occupied by him.
As long as he finds a way to stabilize the town and build the Wizard Tower, he won't have to worry about counterattacks and revenge from Ghost City.
Although capturing and holding this town seems difficult, it is not completely impossible.
(End of this chapter)