# Kur Gren



## shivamuffin (Mar 2, 2003)

Kur' Gren
( Lost Home )

From the Mad Barber of Meda, Year 1501

He pauses to look at the gleam of the morning sun flickering off of his razor, then proceeds to tell his tale, as his nervous customer is being shaved....

" What can I tell you about Kur' Gren? Well I can tell you that it was once a powerful gnomish, or Neblar as the gnomes like to call themselves, merchant empire. For millenia the prosperous empire coordinated trade between elves, dwarves, and other races that dwelled in this region. It was an era of peace, and prosperity, and the gnomes were at the center of it all...

The barber rinses his blade and continues to shave and tell his tale...

Then humans came. Through shimmering gates came the fathers and mothers of humanity. They came with their science, their weapons, and their wonders. This being a land of plenty, the humans were welcomed and the other races quietly watched in amazement as their new neighbors built wonderous cities and tamed the wilds around them. After a long debate, the gnomes of Kur' gren decided to make first contact with the mighty men of old, and this first contact made the gnomes even wealthier. It wasn't long before every human emporer, king, and prince had a gnome advisor at his side.

The customer quickly pays the barber, and he invites you to have a seat in his chair..." The shave is on the house my friend. You're a good listener, and it's been a very long time since i've told this story...Please have a seat..." The barber lathers up your face and continues with his tale....

Then the Elf Wars erupted. The Jin' Ha as they are called now, hated men. They hated their cities, their science, and their wonders. Men were a plague upon the world, and must be driven off of it. The Jin' Ha watched in horror as men cleared the forests, depleted wildlife, exterminated " evil " races that threatened their cities...The Kuo, the Sauhg, the Birdmen, and others were driven to extinction or to the remote corners of the world...Jin' Ha that stood in the way of what the mighty men of old called progress, were driven away as well...Sometimes with as much brutality as the so called " evil " races. 

Traditionally neutral in the affairs of the world, the gnomes were torn by the Jihad declared upon humanity. The Dervak joined with men against the elves, the Halmari joined with the dwarves, While dragons joined the Jin' Ha. Goblinoids made war against all, and the gnomes endured  many millenia of civil wars. 

The gnomish civil wars were brutal and destructive. With the wonders aquired from men, weapons from the dwarves, and great magicks from the elves, the gnomes unleashed terrible forces upon each other. By the time of the cataclysm, the gnomes had nothing but ashes to show for 9 millenia of civilization...With the world in ruins, both  sides of the conflict left their ruined homeland. The race split into three groups. 2 went into the depths of the world, and one remained under the sun, swearing to someday rebuild their empire. Scattered throughout the known lands and even the savage north, the Neblin are a lost and dying people.

" What about the land you say? " The barber pauses to carefully apply the finnishing touches to your shave...." Let me tell you abot it my friend. "

An inhospitable wasteland, dotted with  thousands of ruins and horrid creatures. Little grows there, for something has made the land infertile. Temperatures in the shade can create enough heat to cook an egg on steel, and water is a rare find. Potable water is even more rare, as it seems that whatever sterilized the soil, had also poisoned the water that remained.
The few plants that can grow in the wastes, bear bitter and often poisonous fruit. During the regions brief rainy season, the rains are often brownish or  blackinsh in color...burning the skin slightly, and being most foul to taste.

The few adventurous souls that have returned from Kur' gren have reported vast amounts of wealth, wonders, and magicks buried within the wastelands ruins. Foul creatures, such as demons haunt the wastes...seemingly drawn to the ruined cities. It is also reported that the dead dominate many of the ruins, continuing a war that ended centuries ago.

Ku' Gren is so terrible, that the mighty Jinn, with the exception of the efreeti, refuse to enter the " Land of Curses " as they like to call it...Many bound Jinn servants have left their masters service, risking shame to their families, rather than enter the dreaded Kur' gren. Few gnomes will venture into the wastes as well...claiming that some parts of the realm have been made poisonous to their kind. What I tell you is not known by most men. The neblin claim that what rests beneath the wastes of Kur' gren should stay there, until the land is reclaimed by the coming prophet of the Neblin.

The barber pulls the towel off of you and thanks you for listening to his story...Somehow you feel that you have just heard a confession from the little gnome fellow...He seems less a madman and more a creature in mourning...You mourn three days later, when you hear the news that the Mad gnomish barber of Meda was brutaly killed...His tongue cut out and a  message on his barber shop tent wall, written in his blood..." Traitors that tell tales, lose tongues..."

You think to yourself..." Maybe I should reconsider leading that expedition to Kur' gren, that mad Sethian Ajami and his lackeys have no idea what they're getting into..."


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