Tens of thousands of years ago, only the shadowmen existed in the eastern region of Essos, with a huge mountain blocking their path across the nd and no ships to cross the seas. The shadowmen lived a primitive life in one of the most hostile environments in the world of Ice and Fire, hiding in caves and eating beasts that fed on the terrible ghost grass. The predators and creatures in these nds were the most terrifying in the world, and it was a miracle that such a weak race could live here. Among the terrible monsters that lived here, those enormous ones that flew through the sky and those cruel and cunning ones that hid in the shadows were the ones that took the most lives in this pce. It took a long time for the tribe to adapt and expand throughout the territory, but one day, it was as if a gift from heaven was sent to these humans who lived in the Shadownds. They finally found two abandoned cities that they named in their native nguage, Asshai and Stygai.

  The shadowmen finally found a safe pce to live and soon settled in the two cities that now kept them safe from almost all the predators that inhabited this region. The cities were rge and there were houses for everyone to live in. But one day, driven by curiosity, they decided to explore the mysterious locked towers that existed in the city...

  Little did the shadowmen know that opening these towers would give rise to the first of the Five Great Camities... It is unknown whether the evil that arose in the two cities was simply the previous inhabitants who were asleep, if the towers cursed and corrupted some shadowmen, or if the towers were a type of prison that they innocently opened, releasing an imprisoned evil. There was no time to gain any benefit or satisfy their curiosity about what the mysterious towers were. Half of the Shadow Men's popution was killed by the demonic beings that now inhabited the two cities. They used the Shadow Men's bodies as food or performed macabre rituals that further increased their powers.

  With no choice, the Shadow Men fled the two cities, and whether by luck or fate, the evil that lived in the cities did not pursue them. Upon realizing this fact and feeling guilty for the terrible disaster unleashed on this world, they named the creatures Shadow Demons. They then selected the best warriors among their men and gave them a very important mission. These warriors, now called guardians, were to remain on the outskirts of the two cities, always ensuring that evil never left there. And so the Shadow Men remained in this role for almost 1000 years.

  But the role pyed by these guardians would soon change due to the arrival of several people in floating wooden houses that came from the sea. They were now not only supposed to prevent evil from leaving but also prevent innocents from entering the cities. Not speaking the same nguage, the shadow men did their best to prevent men from disembarking at the port of Asshai, trying to expin with gestures about the terrible evil that inhabited the city. But these men, who would ter be called Rhoynar, did not listen to the pleas of the natives and began to explore the city.

  As expected, the first ones who entered were massacred, soon a greater fight began, but as the fight continued, too many valuable treasures were found in the city, for every 100 men killed, at least a dozen would always survive and return with enormous riches from within the city and its cursed towers. Thanks to this, more ships were constantly arriving, with more men fighting and gaining territory within the city. Very soon, the guardians left their oath aside and decided to join the Rhoynar in an attempt to exterminate all evil within the city.

  The shadow men were very critical of the guardians' attitude, but their participation in the fight began to yield several riches to the guardians, which were exchanged with the Rhoynar for several valuable items such as grains, animals, meat, skins, weapons, and armor. This war against the creatures of the city sted almost 300 years, when finally, after the fall of several powerful demons, the remaining ones decided to opt for a truce. As part of the truce, the Rhoynar and the shadow men were allowed to return to live in the city and would no longer be attacked by the demons. In exchange for peace, they would need to pay a certain number of "sacrifices" as part of the agreement. The lives could be humanoids or beasts. With that, the shadow men would always offer beasts from the Shadownds, and the Rhoynar would bring sves from other regions to quench the demons' thirst. For both, it was a much cheaper price than the lives of their people.

  After that point, the explorations of the cursed towers continued enthusiastically, many men died to kill a single creature inside these pces. But many left there rich enough to never work again in their lives. Along with the gold and jewels extracted from the bck towers, there were legendary treasures that transformed ordinary men into true heroes who fought tirelessly, penetrating even deeper into the towers that soon began to be called Dungeons. And it was at that moment that something terrible happened again. While exploring one of the rgest dungeons in Asshai, a kind of fog began to spread from that tower. No one took the fog seriously since nothing bad happened to the explorers and adventurers. But a silent evil had already spread throughout the Shadownds...

  Two days ter, all the animals brought by the Rhoynar began to fall ill, and within 2 more days, they all died from a mysterious disease. Soon after, all the children in the city also fell ill and died in less than 3 days after showing signs of the same disease. All the dead had bck eyes as if the shadows had consumed their lives from their bodies. Worst of all, a few days ter, Stygai was also hit, again the animals first and the children ter. As the days went by, the adults also began to be affected by the disease, showing the first symptoms of the mysterious disease/pgue. And to the despair of the shadowmen, the disease was spreading throughout all the Shadownds.

  Even the native animals of the Shadownds were affected, and not even the demons that lived in the two cities and were trapped there escaped. The people called this disease the Shadow Pgue. The surviving adult Rhoynar, desperate with the death of many of their people, boarded ships and abandoned the Shadownds, taking only a few surviving guardians with them. The only ones left in Asshai and Stygai were a few hundred adults who were somehow immune to the disease.

  In the midst of the chaos, as the disease spread throughout the nd, most of the shadowmen decided to take a risk and began a great mass migration toward the dangerous Shadow Mountains. Some of the shadowmen believed that the disease would spread throughout the world and that fleeing was useless, so they decided to return to Asshai to go to the dungeon where it all began and try to find a way to stop the disease from spreading any further.

  During this chaos, several temples appeared in Asshai and Stygai where supposed Gods could heal and save those who followed their religion and believed in their Gods. They also dispyed in their temples the heads of several demon leaders who were somehow also immune to the pgue, but who had now been completely exterminated, proving that their gods were just beings and would punish all evil, showing that they were on the side of the survivors, this earned great appreciation from some of the survivors. A portion of the shadow men who returned to Asshai chose to follow these new Gods in exchange for their salvation and gave up exploring the dungeon until the end. But a group of shadow men were still fearless, not trusting their salvation to strangers and moving forward with the intention of eliminating the evil that was devastating their nds, and with that, they entered the dungeon again…

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