The Three Falls Region
The Three Falls region holds a special place in the lore of the last empire. Carved out of the southern frontier, the Three Falls region became world renowned during the height of the Nerathian empire for its almost universally beloved Three Falls Ale. High above the triple waterfall of the three sisters rivers, the ancient dwarven keep of Daden-dor churned some of the world's richest varieties of beer. The land soon became populated with the summer manor houses of lords and nobles who wanted to live in this agriculture rich area, and who soon became known as the Ale Barons, because their fields supplied the ingredients to the dwarven brewmasters for their fine ale. As the Ale Barons were able to supply more and better ingrediants to the dwarves of Daden-dor, the number of casks of fine dwarven ale leaving the keep and bound for the rest of the empire grew daily. Everyone got rich. After hundreds of years of this tradition, the last emperor in his arrogance made war on the dwarves. The people of Three Falls woke one day to find the keep of Daden-dor empty, the breweries of the dwarves dry, and the Dark Gate, a giant steel and stone door leading to the dwarven city under the mountain, sealed. Fortunes were lost, and with the fall of the empire, the regular shipping schedules fell apart. The host of the Nerathian army assigned to the region fled, and the people of Three Falls suddenly had to fend for themselves from the ever encroaching darkness in the region. Then 70 years ago a dwarven brewmaster, Hagrin Fellhammer, who was a lost relative of the clan who built Daden-dor, returned to reclaim his legacy. What he found was a rag-tag band of humans from the surrounding lands who had holed up in the old dwarven keep for protection. He decided to work with these humans, and offer them protection if they would once again work the land so the fabled Three Falls Ale could return to the world. Today, the region is once again a rich farm community, and producer of the finest ales in the known world. Commerce has begun again, and boats come up the river to Mirror Lake where they load the holds of their ships with the renewed Three Falls Ale and take it to cities across the continent. The old Ale Barons are gone, and their mansions on Mirror Lake fallen into disrepair, but humans still rule the area. Daden-dor has been renamed Barley Keep in the common tongue, and is ruled by an ex-adventurer named Lord Markhaven Bearheart, a descendent of one of the original Ale Barons. He controls the regions militia force. Hagrin remains, and as the Brewmaster is the second most powerful person in Barley Keep. The regions has grown rich again, as a steady trade with the cities of Coras-Telenth and Coras-Telark has formed. Recently however, the outlying farms have become targeted by roving bands of humanoid raiders, and a new darkness threatens to engulf Three Falls.