Valdeholm

The Founding of the Wraithguard

The Krithgor giants hold the greatest regard for their ancestors and heroes, a fact which made Rallos Zek's curse upon them so painful. In the blink of an eye, the majority of the Krithgor heroes were slain and turned to Shades of Zek when King Beltron Wulfnor rose from death to became the first Shade.

Then, when the Krithgorian ancestors and honored dead began to rise and attack the living they were faced with a moral dilemma. To disturb the dead and kill their own heroes was unthinkable, yet they did not want to give themselves over to the shades either.

Many believed that it would be best to allow the Shades of Zek to take them. They had dishonored themselves by abandoning Rallos Zek when he called to them and it was a heresy of the worst kind to disturb the dead. Most did not know what to do. Each night the Shades would come and destroy many of their kin. They knew soon they would all die and join the cursed.

But some decided to act. Malgar, a lorekeeper of great foresight, worked to find ways to defeat the Shades, or at least find protection from them. Malgar managed to touch the mind of one shade and learned a configuration of runes that seemed to repulse them.

With some practice and reconfiguration of symbols, some found on the shades' skin, he created plans to build a runed-carved stone wall to protect Valdeholm from the shades.

While Valdeholm still had some protection, it became clear that these passive defenses alone were not enough. A small group of Krithgor asked Malgar for help to forge weapons and armor that might aid them to kill the shades, and he did so, all with the same runes of repulsion.