Part III: The Third and Present Age
At some point, an enemy of ours had created a weapon with absolute authority over our species. We do not fully understand who it was, and if we did know it's unlikely I would reveal such a secret in this scroll, but we can reveal the nature of this weapon, the Blade of the Khettata.
This sword was forged with the ancient bones of Gogel, which out of respect we did not move from its underground ruins within Tarmenex. This weapon was a physical object with the abiliy to breach the very programming of the Holy Netherworld, for this was a sword constructed by the makers own shell, and it was being used against his own powers.
The very existence of this blade was altering our connection between worlds. As thus, the three shrines were forced to remain inside of the Van'Ci in the murky place between physical and spiritual interraction. Here we were locked, banished away for centuries. It was most painful indeed.
In our attempts to call out to the Earthplane, we caught the attention of a cultist from Arda known as Toralin the Traitor, who served some dark wizard on his world. He created an unsteady allegiance and became obsessed with finding the blade for us and neutralizing it. Travelling the multiverse, he located a nameless world known by some as The Keep. Here, he discovered the Blade and built a nearby shrine of worship so he could call out to us. He neutralized the Blades effects and was able to summon us from our banishment.
And thus, we had returned to our previous state. Myself, and many of my Lich Brethren, including the Avatar of Sethmar, travelled to visit Toralin during this operation, and we were quite pleased. We did not expect what would happen next. Indeed, Toralin suddenly began serving himself instead of us, some say he was angry over a mortal woman. He turned up arms against us, and tried to revive the powers of the blade from a secluded mountain shelter.
It did not take long to locate him, and we destroyed him utterly. However, he hid the Blade in a location we could not sense, and somehow the power of Gogel's bones kept Toralin's spirit on the mortal coil. We understood the immediate danger of this, as Toralin's ghost could call out to virtually anybody and bring that person to use the Blade against us.
So, we immediately dispatched The Ebon Citadel into The Keep to rectify this situation, and perhaps indoctrinate the citizens as well. We mustered a large army, and fought hard, sometimes hopeless battles against the powerful natives as we followed the command of Warlord H'roth. To our disdain, we could not find the relic.
Things, however, got very unwell for us. As some of us began to retreat and re-arm, the power of the Blade started to counteract us again, and the connections between our world and the Van'Ci diminished, trapping a legion of our troops in the Van'Ci with no way home; thus the Ebon Citadel became stranded with very few guardsmen left to protect it. It became increasingly difficult to defend from attacks.