As the armies of the Linnorm Kings gathered along Irrisen's western border, the frost giant jarl led his gathering of giants north, decimating everything in their path. After hearing that the reports of the jarl's movements, the Linnorm armies set up a perimeter and dug in for the winter. As the Long Night fell, the giants laid siege to the city of Whitethrone.
In Abadius, when the sun rose two months later, the capital of Irrisen was in ruins. The only stretch of the defensive wall that remained standing was the main gate; Queen Elvannia's head stared sightlessly, impaled on a pike in the middle of the road. Her sister, Sveta Yagaeva, had managed to escape the city before the arrival of the giants, abandoning her sister. Followed by her children and those loyal to her, she retreated across the frozen wastes to a secret lair at the base of the Great Glacier and now rules over what little remains of Irrisen, which amounts to the northwestern quarter of the original kingdom. Many of the White Witches died defending Whitethrone or other settlements but most of the survivors retreated here. However, several, especially those of Queen Elvannia's bloodline, fled to the Realm of the Mammoth Lords; rumors say that Mighty Kuldor, leader of the Bearpelt Following, now counts at least two White Witches among his wives.
That first morning, the frost giant jarl claimed the Irrisen as his domain. He was promptly assassinated by his sons – Zakhar, Alexsei, Iosif, and Semyon. The brothers fell to fighting amongst themselves and, over the next few days, the giant army splintered into four factions. Infighting led to many small skirmishes and meant that the giants were totally unprepared for the Linnorm Kings. During the Long Night, hundreds of Ulfir soldiers had sneaked through the darkness, hiding themselves amidst the ruins of the cities of Irrisen. They rose at dawn of the seventh day and, in a surprise attack, devastated the giants. Over the next few days, the Viking soldiers, backed by the full might of the Linnorm King armies behind them, pushed the giants all the way to the Hoarwood Forest.
The fighting continued along the border of the Forest for another tenday but, midway through Calistril, both parties backed away, reaching an uneasy, unspoken truce. With the fighting at an end, Zakhar, the oldest of the frost giant's sons, named himself jarl over Eisheim, claiming the eastern half of Irrisen as his kingdom and proclaiming the ruins of Hoarwood as his capital.. He granted the title of Skirl to his younger brothers Alexsei and Semyon and they remained in Eisheim, each with small holdings outside of the Hoarwood Forest. However, a sizable faction of frost giants followed the youngest son Iosif into the Kodar Mountains. As he traveled south, frost, stone, and hill giants joined his ranks, and, as winter drew to an end, he led them into the Hold of Belzken.
They clashed with the Belzken orcs as they moved through their territory but the giants swiftly turned west, penetrating the eastern borders of Varisia before the end of Pharast. Their numbers grew as the native giants of Varisia fell into step with Iosif's troops, heading westward, razing Urglin and then moving onto the Storval Plateau, either subjugating, rousting, or killing the giants and barbarian tribes that lived there. After a month of steady advance, Iosif's troops came across a long-hidden, giant-sized keep in the foothills of the Kodor Mountains. He called a halt and declared himself Objarl, the Giant King, and claimed the Plateau as his demense. Though he has done nothing to solidify his rule, the frost giants and many of the stone giants have settled in the area around the keep.
The rest of the giants, though leaderless, turned their appetites south, cutting a swath across the plateau. They advanced all the way to the Mindspin mountains, where their momentum disspiated. With no active leadership, many of the giants began drifting away, either back into the wilderness of Varisia or into the mountains but some clans began building crude houses and towns, settling Iosif's unnamed kingdom. A a burgeoning city sprung up on the ruins of Urglin. Less civilized giant-kin, especially hill giants and trolls, still roam the area, raiding surrounding villages and falling back into the giant-claimed lands when they meet strong resistance.
The march of the giants displaced many of the creatures that once lived in the Varisian wilderness, leading to monstrous incursions and humanoid attacks in Varisia, Nidal, and Nirmathas. The orcs of the Hold of Belzken, bolstered by their seeming victory over the giants, mobilized, making forays into Lastwall and Nirmanthas. The governor of Molthune saw these attacks as a golden opportunity and, on the anniversary of the fall of the Startree, Molthunian troops began pouring into Nirmathas. The promise of citizenship to all soldiers who take part in the northwestern expansion is causing their ranks to swell with both dispossessed laborers and immigrants from as far away as Augustana, despite the disapproval of the elite city dwellers.
With its neighbor actively invading Nirmathas, rumors began spreading through Isger that war would soon spill past its own battered borders. As panic began to infect the populace and riots erupted, midway through Desnus, the steward of Isger made a grand speech about their allies to to the southwest coming to aid them in their time of need. As Hellknights and the regular Chellish army began crossing into Isger, the steward pled for calm, claiming full control over the government; it's become quickly obvious that, even though the Isgerian flag still flies over Elidir, Isger is a kingdom in name only, now truly little more than an extension of Cheliax.
As the pomp and pageantry of columns of black-armored troops drew eyes to the east, a fleet of Chellish ships secretly massed off the western coast, joined by a handful of unmarked ships, ships as black as coal. The ships set sail as one, heading out to sea under the cover of night.
As summer warmed the southern lands, the bulk of the Linnorm armies were still active in their new holdings, fighting against angry fey and Irrisenian guerrilas led by White Witches. They were woefully unprepared for the arrival of the Chellish navy. The ships dropped anchor off the coast, south of the Grungir Forest and, uncontested, began unloading troops and supplies. As the first Chellish soldiers set foot on the cold Linnorm soil, the black ships grounded themselves on the beach behind them. These ships didn't bother with gangplanks: the hull of each ship burst outwards, disgorging a horde straight from the Hells, infernal troops falling in next to their mortal allies.
Even with the bulk of the Linnorm military still engaged in the east, the Vikings fought hard and well; despite their bravery, they were outmatched by the fiend-backed Cheliax army. It didn't take long before the city of Jol fell, and Chellish engineers began culling the Grungir Forest. Combining manpower with magic, hastily constructed walls now stretch from the coast, past the Forest, all the way to the western edge of the Kodor Mountains. Cheliax occupies the entire peninusla south of the wall, even absorbing the northern edge of Varisia. Two days after Jol fell, in Varisia, the flag of Korvosa was lowered and the flag of Cheliax was raised over the city, setting up a midway point for Chellish ships to resupply and cementing what the Korvosian monarchy had been trying to accomplish for years.
Taldor, in an effort to regain some semblance of its former standing, dispatched a massive fleet – easily half of its standing navy – under a combined flag of Taldor and the Land of the Linnorm Kings. The ships arrived at the Arch of Aroden on the 25th of Sarenith and engaged the Chellish ships there. The Taldorians never had a chance; every ship was scuttled and every sailor captured was put to the sword, leaving Taldor in an even worse position than it had been in previously.
Be wary, Raven Company. Dark times are no longer on the horizon.
They are already here.