The legend of the massive underground realm known as Calebethon survived the cataclysm. What we know comes to us from The Hiergamenon which remains our primary source of knowledge of life before the breaking of the world.
Roughly two thousand years before the Cataclysm…
As we already know, for a long while the mortals of Elemental held their own against the invading Titans thanks in large part to the power of the Magicians. These great sorcerers were able to go head to head with many of the Titans in battle.
The most famous of these magicians was known as Dirdoth. As the High Mage of his order, he set out to create a secret refuge for men who were rebelling against the Titans.
Dirdoth’s greatest achievement became Calebethon. This immense city existed throughout the underground mountain chain on the eastern side of the continent.
Dirdoth’s fate was sealed when Tar-Thela completed her quest to transfer the magic of Elemental into the scattered shards. Deprived of their source of power, Dirdoth and the Magicians were ruthlessly crushed. For a long while, Calebethon was abandoned.
The rise of the cursed Morrigan
As told elsewhere, the heroic Hosten, first of the Channelers, was able to surprise the Titans and drive them from their capital. Powerful as he was, Hosten, like all Channelers, was mortal and eventually passed on.
His son, Morrigan inherited his ability to channel the magic from the shards. Unlike his father, he used his power to enslave men. Envious of the Titans, Morrigan looked to order the world to his liking. To achieve that objective, he studied both life and death magic.
Morrigan was the first Channeler to discover that life and death magic were mutually exclusive. The effects of his increasing reliance on death magic could be seen in himself and the lands around him.
The worst of his deeds, however, occurred in Calebethon. He and his creatures reoccupied it and began a series of dark experiments.
It is, with some irony, that the origin of the Fallen lies not with the Titans but rather with a mortal man. The secret of twisting natural beings into unnatural ones, discovered by Morrigan and perfected by the Dred’nir Curgen would cause great suffering for men long after Morrigan had passed on.
The silver orb
Morrigan’s creations, sensitive beyond all mortal beings to the presence of magic, sensed something of unrivaled potency in the depths of Calebethon. They soon found the source of this power in a small piece of metal that seemed to be able to change shape based on the will of its holder.
Dutifully bringing the object to their master, Morrigan realized it was an object of great power but could not divine what its purpose was.
Morrigan spends much of the remainder of his life trying to unlock the secrets of the silver orb in the belief that it was the key to immortality. He fails. In his failing days, Morrigan had a special chamber constructed that hides the song of the silver orb so that others would not easily find it.
The War of Magic
During the War of Magic, a Channeler of great might discovered a piece of special glass that Morrigan constructed that led him to Morrigan’s vault of treasures. The subsequent looting resulted in the eventual discovery of the chamber by the Shadow titan who recognized it for what it was. Realizing the inherent danger of removing it from the chamber, the Shadow titan placed traps to ensure it could never be disturbed.
Naturally, it will again be disturbed…