Shurash Hûl

Shûrash Hûl of Ordâkh was the leader of the Ordâkhai responsible for the effects of the Din of Stone and subsequent Great Dearth. In the year 2890 of the Third Age, he raged against the River Usâl, for it blocked the passage of his armies north. With the aid of agents of Mordor, his sorcerers devised and cast deadly spells that cracked the earth about the springs of the river. The rituals triggered great tremors in the foundation of Mûr Ghala, collapsing reservoirs beneath the surface and causing the Usâl to run dry. This allowed Shurash Hûl to pass on into Kighân and the Valley of Ikorbân in order to subjugate their peoples.

The quakes continued for weeks, one after another, and the ensuing noise caused by the shifting of the rocks came to be known as the Din of Stone, which the Zajâni scholars named "Urash-zâl". The Usâl was not the only geologic casualty of Ordâkh and Morder's fell cooperation. The wells of the Usâl's sister-river, the Agâl, were partially blocked, and the Idagâl lake emptied, becoming a ruin of cracked and broken mires.

More than one hundred years after the Din of Stone, the lake has seen no sign of restoration.