Possible Future: Alfheim refugees in Ethengar help cleanse the World Mountain
by Marc SaindonA quick brainstorm on how Ethengar's great conquering horde could actually do something: Glen Welch sends them to Wendar, Ramelin Mystara has Ethengar re-located west of Glantri (where it can invade Sind for a change) and there's the Mystara 'let's put wings on it' approach of giving Ethengarians a bunch of pegasi to get around the mountains.
Another possibility is that after the fall of Alfheim, some refugees find themselves in Ethengar, journeying northward to Wendar (covertly carrying a Tree of Life sapling). After following a single white horse in the steppes that they see as an omen, they soon find themselves in discussion with emissaries of Moglai Khan, and in a rare meeting of minds between two very different cultures, some Shamans of Ethengar and some orphaned elven Treekeepers agree to cooperate into finding to cleanse the World Mountain and the Land of the Black Sand through a potent collective ritual that will bring back harmony to nature and the spirit world, with the least difficult being planting the sapling on top of the World Mountain and protect it while it growing until it is firmly rooted.
World tree: Mongolic and Turkic folk beliefs
Many years (and Levels of adventuring) later, the Ethengarian-Elven group has bonded, some even having children together, creating a mixed, syncretic culture at the camp that borders the Black Sands. Both cultures make them elite archers. When the cleansing finally succeeds, many founding members of this small tribe have died during the ritual, but the World Tree is secure and the portal to the Spirit World has stabilized.
And it now leads to SOMEWHERE ELSE.
This is important, as the aging Moglai Khan is being challenged by his war chiefs for failing to deliver the 'Great Adventure' he has promised them all. With the World Tree ritual, there is now a portal to a land ripe for conquest.
Where is it?
Is it in Skothar, so that the old BECMI map's "Empire of the Great Khan" can finally be true?
Is the land in Forgotten Realm's Hordelands, northern Zakhara or Kara-Tur?
