- "A palace that had endured for two millennia was leveled in a single day by a tribe of mindless barbarians who knew not what it was they destroyed."
- —Anurion the Green.[1a]
Athel Tamarha was once the keep of Lord Moranion, and an outpost of Tor Yvresse. When the forces of Grom the Paunch came ashore at Cairn Lothel further north, it had not taken them long to find a target for their wrath. His army burned and destroyed all in its path as they sought to find Tor Yvresse. Fields of magical crops unique to Yvresse were trampled beneath iron-shod feet, never to be seen again. And any settlement that came in the goblins' path was raised to the ground. It was on their way south that they found Athel Tamarha, and, thinking it was Tor Yvresse, they attacked.[1a]
Only boys and old Elves defended the walls of Athel Tamarha. It is said that when Moranion saw the green horde from his tower he knew that his home was lost. His eldest son, Eltharion, was leading his army in the north against the Dark Elves, whilst his youngest, Argalen, studied in Tor Yvresse.[1a]
What remains of the keep is bleak. An ancient citadel built into the side of the mountains, its once slender towers having fallen to ruin, the great mansion at its centre gutted by fire. Once impregnable walls lay shattered, its stones cast down and the great basalt causeway that led to its vine-choked gateway littered with rubble. Fallen guardian statues lay toppled in the dry moat, their sightless eyes seemingly staring with forlorn anguish at what has become of their former home.[1a]
Passing through the causeway, beneath the broken arch of the gateway, one will enter the fire-blackened courtyard where the ghosts of the Goblin King's invasion linger. Splintered gates and doors hang on sagging hinges and everywhere one looks, you can see the devastating fury of the goblin attack. Broken sword blades, snapped shafts of arrows and shattered shields lay strewn about. The detritus of war forgotten and abandoned.[1a]
Of the central mansion, the ceiling has long since collapsed, whilst piles of broken timber and fallen stone choke the once grand halls and elegant chambers.[1a]
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