The following is pasted from the origional recruitmet for my Against the Storm pbp. There might be some useful ideas in it:
his campaign will take place in the Realms in 1380DR, but the origins of the dire situation facing the free peoples of those North is far older. Several years before, it was discovered that when the first humanoids arrived on Toril, elf-like creatures marooned in wrecked spacecraft after losing a pivotal battle with an enemy race, the Spirits of the land ruled over all life and land.
Some spirits welcomed the newcomers, while others sought their destruction. A great war ensued, and the newcomers and their allies were victorious, binding their vanquished foes into the dark side of nature, such as storms, predatory instincts, and volcanos. The victorious spirits, however, became the elder gods, such as Corellon, Tyr, Lathander, and Mystral. But the Earth Mother remained powerful, and became bitter at the betrayal of some of her children, and the binding of others. She plotted to destroy the newcomers and their offspring, free her children, and return the world to its natural state. She always had many worshippers, who usually worshipped in secret far from civilization. Eventually she became known to her followers as Tiamat (as per the original Babylonian Tiamat, not the MoTP one....similar to the canon Realms one), but she had other names and aspects, too, often devouring and replacing newborn gods, Shar being the most significant among them.
As Tiamat bided her time, species evolved and civilizations developed. The rise of the human magocratic city-states of Netheril was particularly bloody, as the Netherilese Arcanists sought to dominate all within their reach. The suffering of the goblinoids became so great that their god resorted to turning to Shar for aid. Shar caused to be born among the ogres a mighty and noble populist hero, not of common ogre stock, but an Oni (Ogre Mage) like those found far to the East. The god of the goblinoids was grateful for the gift, and favored the hero, whose original name is lost to history, granting him the prowess and charisma to unite his brethren against their human oppressors. While many of his raids were highly successful, and indeed were a catalyst to cause the Netherilese to create their flying enclaves and flee form their insecure ground territories, he knew that he could never truly achieve victory. Desperate, he allowed the demonic blood within him to get the better of his noble soul, and he bargained with the most powerful of the captive Spirits, the Spirit of Storms, absorbing some of his power and his evil, and even renaming himself Storm. He was eventually defeated, and the Arcanists who vanquished him reported that he had been slain, but in reality, they had bound him in what they thought was an eternal prison. Storm was far more powerful than they expected, however, as the Arcanists knew not the ancient evil that he represented. Slowly, Storm gathered more and more strength from the land with each passing storm, and over the millennia, he was able to gather enough of his former power to escape.
Meanwhile, as Tiamat watched her son grow mighty and free, she sowed dissension among the peoples of Toril. Even after Storm had freed himself and mother and son had set to releasing the other spirits and gathering allies, the world remained occupied with other problems of Tiamat's devising. Planar Rakshasa summoned by Tiamat's agents subverted rulers in the East, leading to war, strife, and confusion. The forces of good became haughty and invaded Sembia to reestablish the Elven Court in Cormanthar. A resurgent Sembia, ruled by a Spirit-posessed murderous dictator created large-scale war yet again. The Thayans and the Zhentarim were unusually active. Bane was reborn. One of Tiamat's plots nearly resurrected Myrkul. But it was all a distraction. She cared not for the outcome of the events that she engineered. For in the far North, Storm gathered an army, culled from goblinoids from throughout Toril, and some beings form the planes beyond. Combining the harsh, powerful discipline of his iron rule with the charisma of the hero whose body he still inhabits, he created the best-trained, best-equipped goblinoid army ever assembled, uniting Orcs, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Kobolds, Ogres, Oni, Wyverns, and other beasts, demons, and monsters, some summoned, some bred or created through magical experiments in one unholy horde.
When, aided by his part-freed brethren, he marched Southward, the forces of good, united by a somewhat ruthless group of worthies who called themselves "The Council" was unable to defeat them. Marching Southward, Storm divided his opponents, isolating Silverymoon, Evereska, and the Fey of the High forest under the command of the mighty druid Kurdin and the Turlang Treants, from eachother and from the other free territories.
A counteroffensive opened up the road to Silverymoon, and it was there that a great battle was fought. At Silverymoon, many of the mightiest beings in all Faerun converged, and nearly all were slain. In the end, the city fell, but so did tens of thousands of Storm's horde. Many of the Spirits were also defeated, but soon will return, as they cannot be slain by normal means.
After the fall and occupation of Silverymoon, Storm's forces, balking at the prospect of invading Evereska of challenging Kurdin in his home wood, were able to push on further south instead, until the combined forces of the North, fortified by reinforcements form abroad, managed to solidify their lines. Most inland city-states are now occupied by Storm's forces or ruled by Vichy-like collaborator states, but the Sword Coast, protected by the still-unmatched (but often challenged by the collaborator Luskanite Vikings) naval might of the elven fleet, and some nearby inland areas that the surviving metropoli of Waterdeep, Baldur's Gate, and Neverwinter can protect, remain free.
Although matters are bleak, all is not lost. It is thought that the reason why the Council defended Silvermoon to the death is that someone(s) or something(s) was in the city at the time. Something that could save mankind. For it is thought that a researcher in Silverymoon, using information from her former affiliation with the Council (before a rather nasty falling-out), was working for personal, veangence-related reasons towards a method to destroy the Spirits, (Called "The Ancients" by most) and Tiamat the Earth-Mother once and for all. Perhaps those who survived may have recovered enough information to salvage her work. Or perhaps the mage, whose body has never been found, still lives. More importantly, however, it has been long-rumored that agents of the Council traveled through time to ancient Netheril, and brought back a child. It is said that this child was chosen by the gods to be the savior of mankind, and gifted with mystical powers and near-infinite potential. However, in the alternate time stream before The Council interfered, the child was killed before coming of age, and thus the will of the gods never came to pass. Perhaps in this reality, the child survived the battle, and still lives to claim her destiny.....
