The War for the Plane of Earth

Murdunk’s invasion

In the Elder Age the ogre empire wanted more than Norrath. Egged on by Rallos Zek’s son Eriak, the great ogre Murdunk led the first Rallosian army into the Plane of Earth, home of the Rathe, the Council of Thirteen. He wanted to prove himself worthy to lead all the forces of Zek.

It was doomed. Whenever a member of the Council fell, another took its place. Many guardians of earth died, but the Rathe won, and the surviving Rallosians were hurled out of the plane by the Council’s wards.

Sources: EverQuest.com: Seeds of Destruction, Unfolding the Lore Part 5 (2008) · Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text)

The Warlord’s second assault

Furious, Rallos Zek raised a second invasion under two proven war heroes, Tallon and Vallon, and brought the scarred Murdunk along for what he knew of the plane. This time the members of the Rathe Council were captured and dragged to Norrath, where one of them was executed. Where that Rathe member fell, the Rathe Mountains rose and Lake Rathetear formed. On Norrath, that death was permanent.

But Rallos Zek knew little about how the Planes of Power worked. He was scarred and disfigured by the same wards that had thrown Eriak out, and he lay regenerating in the Plane of War while the reborn Rathe took their revenge. Murdunk was killed.

Sources: EverQuest.com: Seeds of Destruction, Unfolding the Lore Part 5 (2008) · Allakhazam: Rallos Zek

The curse

To end the invasions for good, the Rathe Council, aided by several other gods, cursed every creature of Zek. The curse swept through the giants’ lush homelands and froze them into what is now Everfrost, and it turned Zek’s followers everywhere into lesser beings in mind and body. The manual adds that thousands of ogres died, their empire fell, the giants were scattered, and the goblins were cursed so thoroughly that nothing of their history survives.

Tallon and Vallon begged their god to save them, and Rallos Zek pulled them into his plane in time. He could not save anyone else. The gods then raised a barrier around the Planes of Power, shutting out mortals and lesser gods alike.

Sources: EverQuest.com: Seeds of Destruction, Unfolding the Lore Part 5 (2008) · Library of Erudin: “The History of Norrath” (original EverQuest manual text) · Library of Erudin: EverQuest RPG Player’s Handbook: History of Norrath (2002)

Eriak’s punishment

Rallos Zek decided Eriak must have known about the ward and kept quiet. He tore the essence of warfare out of his son, split it, and gave it to Tallon and Vallon, the two mortals who had succeeded where Eriak failed. Eriak, crippled and disfigured, was banished to the lower levels of Drunder to forge weapons for his father’s armies. If you raided Drunder, you met him there as Eriak the Oblique.

In Seeds of Destruction (2008), the forces of Discord tried to strike at this exact moment in history, because a Rallosian victory would have meant endless war on Norrath.

Sources: EverQuest.com: Seeds of Destruction, Unfolding the Lore Part 5 (2008) · Allakhazam: Drunder

Remembered by the victors

The in-game series War for Earth: The Passing of an Empire is written as the diary of High Lorekeeper Baeldon, recording his impressions of “the war that has ended the greatest empire in the history of Norrath” so it would not be lost to time. The Library of Erudin also lists the Rathe Council among Rallos Zek’s enemies, and Seeds of Destruction lore names Eriak as the son who started it all.

Sources: Library of Erudin: Rallos Zek (War for Earth: The Passing of an Empire; Seeds of Destruction Part 5)

How the ogres remember it

The losers and the descendants tell it differently. The Chronicle of Gromok Hergom says the twelve rulers of the Plane of Earth were captured and dragged to Norrath, “where they were being executed by Murdunk and his Generals,” that mountains burst up where the gods fell, and that their dying tears formed a cold, deep lake between the peaks. EverQuest II’s Bootstrutter’s Field Guide to the Feerrott describes Murdunk’s Fall, a waterfall whose green water ogre myth calls the blood of Murdunk, “the destroyer of the Rathe Council.” In-game, Fall From Grace says the Rathe made the curse and the other greater gods agreed the punishment was fair.

Sources: Library of Erudin: The Rathe Council (The Chronicle of Gromok Hergom; Bootstrutter’s Field Guide to the Feerrott; Fall From Grace — The Dromrek)