On the heels of the foreboding tidings and psychic assaults just months
before, strange insectoid humanoids appeared in Serenwilde and New
Celest, bloodied as though coming from a battle. Unable to communicate
except through sign language and a limited form of telepathy, they
communicated a need for help. Mysteriously, they suddenly died, and
witnesses claimed they saw a shadow just before they expired. Meanwhile,
individuals in Glomdoring and Magnagora began receiving telepathic
garbled communications apparently asking for an alliance.

Then, a grotesque tumour sprung up on the Southern Highway, and the
telepathic communications again were initiated with members of
Glomdoring and Magnagora, apparently asking that the tumour be fed and
giving warnings of enemies. Though Glomdoring for the most part
distrusted what was going on, Magnagora gave full support and fed the
tumour. The insectoid people finally made another appearance, bringing
forth an enormous wax pyramid. Having learned more of the common tongue,
they warned of the abominations and asked for help in melting the wax
pyramid using rockeaters.

The tumour was the first to burst open, releasing an army of cloaked
figures. Magnagorans took a contingent of the cloaked figures to the
pyramid and battled with the Serenwilders and Celestians that stood
guard at its base. The battle lasted many days, and the pyramid came
very close to being destroyed before the defenders finally repulsed the
attacks. Finally able to melt the pyramid, it released a being calling
herself Queen Mumhatuti, who immediately called forth an army of
insectoid creatures that called themselves the kephera.

Marching down the Southern Highway, Queen Mumhatuti declared the
Glomdoring Forest to be an abomination, and ordered it burned to the
ground, all females killed and men enslaved. The kephera led inferno
beetles into the forest to set it afire and began to carry out the Queen
Mumhatuti's orders, slaying the Great Spirit Crow. She then marched on
Magnagora but was unable to enter due to the psionic strengthening the
illithoid (as the cloaked figures came to be known as) imparted upon the
Necromentate. Eventually, Queen Mumhatuti and her army were repelled and
their war raged across the Basin of Life.

The kephera and illithoid asked their respective allies for help and
revealed a massive underground continent known as the Undervault, where
they were currently at war. Adventures who dared to travel there found
it to be extremely dangerous

Through research it was discovered that Queen Mumhatuti was of a race
known as the kephera, splintered beings from Keph, a primal Elder
Goddess thought to have died during the Elder Wars. Keph had battled the
one-time greatest of the Soulless Gods, Illith the Leviathan, cutting
Illith in half. Though the other half escaped and went on to become one
of the greatest destructive forces in Lusternia, Keph held onto the
other half and built a prison around it. Eventually, Keph splintered
into the race of kephera. However, just over a decade ago, the
imprisoned half of Illith splintered and unleashed the race known as the
illithoid. Though the kephera strove to contain them, the prison was not
meant to hold an entire race and they eventually escaped and thus their
great war began.

Now, each side continues to seek help from their allies, promising
rewards if only they could defeat and triumph against their enemies. But
the subterranean Undervault is a harsh place, and the cultures of the
kephera and illithoid are all but alien to the people of the Basin.


Penned by My hand on the 7th of Vestian, in the year 176 CE.