Though summer still had two more weeks to go, the cool wind gusting from the northern forests bore a definite hint of the coming autumn.  It blew fitfully through the trees, swaying their branches in the breeze.  The wind blew across long-forgotten battlefields, where ages ago the armies of the Tasmine Hold had embarked on a campaign of liquidation against the creatures of the darkness...the orcs, the goblins, the ogres.  Not settling for merely repaying the non-humans for their caravan raids and plundering of a few livestock and womenfolk, the sworn goal was nothing less than extermination of the greenskins and goblinoids and ettins and hill giants.  Back in those days, when Men stood astride the known world like a colossus, muskets and cannon had blasted into the ranks of greenskins and goblinoids, laying waste to them.  Regiments of Tasmine soldiers, as well as mercenaries and fortune-seekers, had ridden and marched in search of blood and glory, shipping the skins and hides of the vanquished back to Tasmine as momentos.<br/><br/>But far from securing the supremacy of the human races in the world, the victory had in fact been the beginning of the end of the rule of Men over the world.  Men flowed into the conquered forests and hills, draining the fens, subduing the land, hunting the remnants of the dark creatures huddled in distant glen or sheltered cave.  And it was then that what came to be named the Counterstroke began.<br/><br/>One spring, a plague spread from the newly conquered lands, carried via the caravans exporting the land's riches into the heart of Tasmine Hold.  The effect was catastrophic, as wave after wave of pestilence spread.  Mortality was about eight out of ten colonists, and about four out of ten of those in the civilized regions of the Hold.  People throughout the Hold muttered that the land was cursed by dark forces, and an exodus began.  Within the Hold itself, which was deprived of the spoils of war which the nobles and merchants had counted on, Men turned on one another, fighting for what was left.  In the process, as three decades of fratricidal war raged, Men lost all they had gained from the war against the Dark, and more.<br/><br/>That was 180 years ago.  Since then, men have rebuilt, though still falling rather short of the wealth, advancement, and glory they once enjoyed.  The ruling days of the Hold are but legends and memories now, many of the details buried in ruins, or lost in the shifting sands of time.  But while the memories of Men may be short, the descendants of those whom Men slaughtered have longer memories.  Their numbers are growing, and the day of revenge is dawning...