As you may recall, you visited the old gnome, Bassy. She indicated that before her grandaughter left town she had been working on a brief history of Belhaim for school. You saw the document. I have provided it here for your reference.
The Dragon Plague
years were quite eventful for
northern Taldor.
During the years between 3660
and 3672 AR, the
region endured an explosion of
violent and bloody
depredations by no fewer than three
dozen different
dragons. Among those affected by the
attacks was a young
woman named Tula Belhaim, who
lost her family
when a black dragon named Aeteperax
destroyed her
hometown of Nazilli on the southern edge
of the Verduran
Forest. She would go on to become a
great hero, and the
mercenary company she founded
the Slayers of
Nazilli-defeated more dragons than any
other group in
those days. Her final triumph was slaying
Aeteperax in the
heart of a swampland deep in the part of
the Verduran Forest
known today as Dragonfen.
For her service,
the Taldan emperor awarded Tula the
title of Baroness
and the stewardship of the Verduran Fork
region, including
all of Dragonfen. Her legions of admirers
soon founded a town
bearing her name, its buildings built
of limestone quarried
nearby. In 3676 AR, as Belhaim was
still finding its
place in the world, a band of lroran priests
presented themselves
before the Baroness of Belhaim and
asked her permission
to build a monastery east of the town,
overlooking
Dragonfen. Lady Tula graciously granted their
wish, and soon
thereafter, the monks built a fine monastery
on the far side of
the swamp.
The Iroran sect grew
and prospered in this setting along
with Belhaim, and
over the years developed strong ties to
the town. Lady Tula
eventually married one of her fellow
Slayers, Arturic
Canteclure, and built a castle atop one of the
town's hills. The
couple had four children, but each one died
of accident or
misadventure before the age of 9, leaving the
new barony with no
heirs. Tula and Arturic's relationship
grew strained as the
baroness grew morbid and obsessed
with building a grand
tomb for herself and her family. As
she and her husband
grew apart, Tula amended her will to
have Arturic buried
in a separate part of the tomb, rather
than alongside her.
When they died, rule of Belhaim fell
to distant relations of Arturic's, the Canteclures. In
4500 AR, Baron Sarvo Canteclure, a vicious lord who imprisoned
subjects for the slightest infraction,
joined an
ill-advised rebellion against the Grand Prince,
and his family and
the castle were destroyed in retaliation.
Upheaval was not
limited to the town of Belhaim that
year, though. A
month prior to the razing of Castle Tula,
afterward referred
to superstitiously as the Witch Tower,
the monks of the
Monastery of Saint Kyerixus vanished
mysteriously and their home fell into
ruin.
Back in Belhaim, a
man named Sir Arkold Devy was
awarded the Barony of
Belhaim for his role in helping to put
down the seditious
Canteclures. His descendants have ruled
for the past 2
centuries. During this time, a few memorable
events touched the
region-most notably the earthquake
that left the town
relatively unharmed, but caused the town's
quarry to flood. With
access to the quarry's fine limestone
lost, Belhairn's
fortunes slowly receded.
Residents of Belhaim
have repeatedly put forth plans
to have Dragonfen
drained in order to salvage the land
for agricultural use
and to reveal potential new quarry
sites. Yet again and
again, these notions were discarded as being
far too daunting and
expensive. Belhaim seems
destined to be
nothing more than a sleepy backwater of
the dying Taldan Empire.
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