Before there was a Widithey Empire, there was a dark and powerful mage/priest who built a grand keep on an island that would become known as Malheur. After that now nameless mage/priest fell from power, his keep was used by a succession of evil forces until the rise of the Widithey. The Emperor built a series of watchtowers and declared the location an internal penal colony.
During the Wedding Gift Alliance, the forces of Kedra and Dessit simply skirted the area and are on their way to mirroring the Widithey solution to the problem.
Rumors are that Malheur has, to some extent, merged with its analogs in the Shadowfell and the Feywild. Stories claim that walking down the wrong hallway can lead the wanderer into other planes of existance.
Malheur is located 18 days west-southwest of Fort Vickery.