Great Dearth

The Great Dearth was an event that happened two hundred years ago, affecting the river Usâl and its bordering lands. The river used to form the southern border of the green and fertile plain of Sûgedin, a natural border between the lands of Shagâna and those of the Empire of Ordâkh. Then the Great Dearth happened - it was a terrible drought and famine fell upon the green fields of Sûgedin, where once thrived the Abundant Kingdom of Nísaka. The River Usâl ran dry, leaving only the arid and cracked channel that was once the river-bed. Desert claimed the Khûd, and the fertile land on either side of the Usâl became the Lâkhedin, the Witherlands, and the lands through which the Usâl flowed never recovered. They will never be green again.

The drying of the river Usâl removed the last barrier between Shagâna and the Great Southern Empire of Ordâkh. The armies of the Ordâkhai marched north into Shagâna and brought formerly separate kingdoms under the control of the Hûl of Ordâkh, and the Dark Lord he served. Most learned men believe the Great Dearth was not caused by nature, but was the result of dark sorcery given to them by Barkhûsh. Ever was the Dark Lord seeking to remove the barriers between the lands under his control and those he sought.