Ghostlord Lore

The story of the peaceful nomads and their druid leader, the nobles who hunted their proud lions and subjected them to various torments, and the spectral invaders who attacked Rhest long ago is a story and tale told around fires and in secret halls alike, as both folklore and history.

These tales speak of a once-proud druid who dwelt in the verdant plains south of Rhest and led several tribes of nomads. These nomads were said to have built a massive lion of stone in the honor of this great druid,k who taught them the ways toe h lion and how to live at peace with these proud creatures. Yet when dark times fell on Rhest, their shadow also fell upon the lions' plains.
It began when nobles visiting from Rhest arrived in the region. The nomads befriended the nobles but were betrayed by them when the visitors hunted down and killed a lion monarch for his pelt and claws. The nomads reacted with violence, slaying the visiting nobles to a man. Rhest answered in kind, and its army marched against the southern plains. The disorganized nomads stood little chance against Rhest's military might, and the tribes were slaughtered despite the fact the lions rose to defend them. The warriors of Rhest confronted and slew the druid between the paws of his own massive stone shrine.
But the night after the warriors returned to their city, doom came to Rhest. Ghost lions prowled the streets, stalking and killing anyone they came across. When the dawn came, the entirety of Rhest's cavalry, including families, servants, and squires, lay dead. Rhest never recovered from this night of terror, which marked the beginning of the decline of that once-proud nation. In the years since, the once-verdant hills to the south have grown horrid and tangled. The Thornwaste is all that remains.

That is the tale they tell. However, somehow, the truth of the matter is far darker.

Urikel Zarl, the great druid of the story, was in fact the leader of a cruel lion cult based in the southern regions of the kingdom. His people were not noble nomads legend recalls, but feral cannibals who believed that in death their bodies would transform into lions and thereafter live forever. Urikel Zarl was their undying lord and master, who had long before turned his back on the natural world for the tainted promises of eternal undeath. When the Rhestian lords sought to challenge his power and subjugate the region, their cavalry and the cultists destroyed each other; in the years to come, both Rhest and the Thornwaste fell to ruin. But what led he had is now the Ghostlord down this path? And to what end did he achieve his undying nature. That mystery is now lost to the ages.