South of Thenon, around the year 322 EC., a cult forms around the dark mage Ortan and his followers. Although the shadow world has not yet reached the southern tip of Tirakan, these followers attempt to build a portal to the shadow world.
Ortan was once a student at the Jaar Academy, where he was expelled before completing his training. What happened there is unknown, but it must have been something important, as it's not easy to leave the Jaar community. He disappeared from the scene for a few years.
Around the year 300 EC, it became known that an old tower in the woods south of Thenon was the home of a new community. Ortan gathered a group of mostly young followers. His aim was to create a portal to the shadow world. Using Hermetic and demonology, he began a ritual that would take two years.
As time passed, the portal grew larger, and strange and curious creatures began to appear around the tower. Ortan ended up keeping a number of ghostly creatures that obeyed his commands. The statues in the tower's garden were also animated by a strange power and began to take on lives of their own.
In 322, he was joined by Xandor, a black mage from Thenon. He soon became a loyal companion. But Ortan dehumanised himself more and more in the course of his ritual, until he was nothing more than a living skeleton in a robe. Xandor didn't follow him that far; he remained human. At some point, however, he adorned himself with a skull mask, presumably to mimic his companion.
Together they continued their efforts with some success until some adventurers working for the Church of Algor in Darkmoor put an end to their efforts. Although Ortan's cult was crushed and Ortan killed, the surviving followers continued the cult in secret. Most of them found refuge in the city of Thenon, where hidden places of worship continued to exist well into the 7th century.