Last Days of Hammerknell (Rift Lore)  

The account of Forgul of the Runeguard, put to record in the days following the loss of Hammerknell:

A large number of our forces were gone, marched off to fight beside Zareph Mathos against his corrupt brother. When the first wave of Death magic hit and the rifts started, we were overwhelmed. Moonshade was overrun. We shut the doors, and only a few of us, the Runeguard, stayed out to defend. It was always our place to be outside of Hammerknell, and so we stayed, even though we were sure it meant certain death.

We had no idea what would happen. It was some kind of cruel joke. Those of us who were ready to die ended up being the only ones to survive.

We fought, and for even though sometimes it seemed like we were done for, we lived. General Stanig was lost, but he was lost defeating the worst of the demons in Moonshade - Gorvahlt. And with him gone, we thought maybe we could open the doors of Hammerknell once again.

But when we opened them, we found a terrible sight.

Death. Everywhere. Our families, friends, affectionate rivals... all gone. And feasting on them were some of the most terrible aberrations of death. We didn't quite know what happened then. We would only peice it together later. But a message had been left for us, scratched into the very stone walls of Hammerknell so the dead could not erase it.

"Close the doors. Destroy the wheel. Never let them leave. There is no one left."

So we did. We shut those doors, and the great wheel, the only contraption capable of moving their immense weight, was destroyed.