[center][h2]The Childer of the Wyrm[/h2][/center]

[b]Other Names:[/b] the Pale Men, the Goblin-Eaters, the mis-born

[b]Location:[/b] beneath the mountains of the central island 

[center][i]Before the world was, before the sun and moon were set upon their eternal courses, before the firmament was jeweled with stars, before all gods and heroes, there was the Wyrm, coiled at the heart of nothingness.[/i]

- Excerpt from the [b][i]Oracles of Shadow[/i][/b][/center]

[hider=Background]All travelers know that the mountains of the North are, like rotted teeth, riddled with caves and tunnels, deep chambers where the sky is never seen and the only light is the pale glow of fungus or the flickering of torches.

It is in these forsaken places that the many tribes of the Childer dwell. Human once, perhaps, or orcs or some other manling creature. What they are now is a league of the twisted and forgotten.

The ancient tales of the Bone Priests tell of a time when the Childer of the Wyrm dwelt in peace on the surface of the earth, offering sacrifice to the Dragon God, who watched over his slaves with stern solicitude. 

The time of peace ended with coming of the warlord Chios and his brutal southron hordes. The Childer failed their master in battle, and Chios and his cruel sword Surm drove the followers of the Wyrm in to the Mountains, where they were hunted and killed by the southrons. 

They took to caves and caverns and over time the deep tunnels, rebuilding their society in the darkness beneath the hills. They farmed fungus and hunted and tamed the great insects that dwelt far underground. And in the blackness, the Childer turned strange. Pale mutants, twisted versions of their former selves. Over the centuries, many surface dwellers have felt the call of the Wyrm and swelled the ranks of the Childer- orc tribes driven from their land by humans, the misshapen or mutant fleeing persecution, outcasts and exiles, the desperate or insane. The tribes are a muddle of races and types, all warped by constant darkness and years of interbreeding.

Led by the Bone Priests, sorcerers and shamans who offer sacrifices to the Wyrm and who have cultivated their bloodlines over many centuries, the Childer have spread throughout the mountains, raiding surface dwellers at night for food and sacrifices and warring among themselves. Their most hated enemies are the Moad, the children of Chios, the cause of their exile.

Recently, the Childer tribes have been falling one after another to a particularly cunning and ruthless Bone Priest, who rules the subterranean city known as the Skull. The Childer, it is said, are being united for the first time in centuries.
[/hider]