Revision as of 18:18, 2 July 2023

The First Runesmith

By: Nakis

Lore

As the histories show, the Khazad were created to shape the world and this was their task. To shape the world is not as it sounds, for humans say they shape the land as they till the fields and plant shrubberies. The elves say they shape the land as they form the forest and work with the trees to live. All races claim to shape the land, but to the Khazad, we were built differently in that our work was not to simply move the trees and dirt, but to place the dirt and create the trees themselves.

Shaping what was made, however, takes more than raising a hammer and striking with intent. To raise the mountains and dig the oceans, to give form to all requires thought beyond the sparks of the hammer strike and understand how it all connects within the fabric of reality. Of the Khazad, some were more proficient than others with their task and while the craftsman toiled endlessly there arose some who their work was an artform.

These craftsman had the knowledge of the underpinnings of creation, that where you or I might move a hillock, they wove the spines of mountains and smoothed the beaches with the skill of a weaver making a tapestry. With skill, wisdom, and no small amount of work spanning decades, these Khazad guided our ancestors work to make this world we inhabit so beautiful and thoughtfully placed, placing power within creation itself.

Many think that we hold no magic skill, but this is a presumption based on a misunderstanding of the timeline of history. The Khazad were formed before magic, made to work without magic. To ask us to cast a spell would be as to ask a farmer to make an apple or orange. The farmer tills the fields, plants the seeds, and cares for tree and then you will have decades of apples but the farmer themselves do not create the apple. This is an important distinction.

The gods put us to rest, as if in storage, when we were first made from stone, as you know, and it was the god’s game of tossing stones to the ground that woke us from rest. When the debates raged and the votes were cast, some of our most knowledgeable chose to return to rest, and even as the Khazad explored and mingled amongst the elves, others yet returned to the earth and mountains to rest. Perhaps those who most closely reflected the will of the gods questioned leaving the caverns in the first place, or maybe they were simply desiring to rest after their monumental efforts to reshape the world.

As the curse of flesh stripped us of our stone bodies, the connection that we shared with the will and power of the gods also left. In time this would be felt most keenly, and so there were those who sought out ways to rekindle this power; and also in time the Khazad would lose one or two from their holds seeking long lost knowledge. Some hoped that they would find lost relics that still bore a connection to the divine, and yet others hoped to find some other method to regain their access to the fabric of the world.

It was Hagrin Stonebrow of Clan Shovelfist who made progress where many others failed. While scouting new tunnels revealed by a cooled magma overflow vent for new mines for his clan, Hagrin dug into a hollow room. The walls and floors were smooth, and a simple chair and table formed from the same stone the walls were made from. In his description the chair and table were a part of the floor itself, as if someone had brought the floor up and made a table and chair from it. Setting his gear down, the Khazad inspected every element to the room and found nothing else that was interesting. Everything was stone, it was just finely shaped and without decoration.

Laying down to rest, Hagrin’s breathing began to slow and his mind quieten, and at the cusp of sleep he heard something just out of his hearing. Rather, not a sound, but a feeling of the absence of sound. Imagine a bear roaring at you; normally you’d feel the sound in your beard just as well as you can hear it. Hagrin said it was like hearing the bear’s roar but not feeling it. There was something not quite right with it. Laying still again, Hagrin heard it again. The sound only ever happened on the verge of sleep, never the same sound, and he never could quite make out what this whisper in the darkness was saying.

Hagrin left the room the next day and returned to his kin to report the strangeness. No one could ever replicate it, and so they wrote it off as tired scout having too few brews to stay steady. Over the next few years he would return to the chamber to try and hear the voices but again and again he failed to properly find the source of the voices in the dark. This would change when Hagrin finally gave up.

Even Khazad mines are dangerous, if simply less so than those of other mortal or immortal races. The earth does not care how many buttresses you installed, helmets you are wearing, or even if the inspection said the mine was perfectly safe. If the cave-in is more determined than you were when shoring up the ceiling, then the cave-in is going to win. The Shovelfist clan lost several good Khazard in the accident, one of which was one that caught Hagrin’s eye and the loss was heavy on his beard.

Finding his way into the caves for quiet solace, with a few too many travel kegs for a trip but not quite enough for a full journey, the troubled Khazad’s feet found their way to the chamber once more. Yielding himself to his sorrows and to the hangover that tomorrow would bring, he drank his sorrows and most of the beer until the he joined the empty kegs on the floor for a quick nap.

Hagrin reported his dreams were haunted by an almost memory like state, where he saw and felt the world being crafted by him. The rising of mountains, the furrowing of seas, great forests growing as the seasons themselves were born, and then he awoke. Over the next few weeks, Hagrin repeated the process, throwing himself to the work to cover his grief, and slowly learned that alcohol wasn’t really needed, it was mainly the sleeping bit that was important.

The last vision he saw though, was himself slowly walking through the earth itself, filled with a deep, deep sadness that reflected his own. He felt anger, bitterness, worry, sorrow, and great loss. The hands in his dream fashioned the room he was in, and then he sat in the chair and felt himself dissolve into the stone around him.

We believe that this was one of the loyal Khazad who returned to rest in the rocks below who learned that Durgarth had slain the messenger of the gods, and that they were cursed by the gods themselves for this crime. His emotional state at the time caused him to unmake himself, a great reversing of the creation he had gifted the world, and that Hagrin’s tears allowed a connection to the echoes in the chamber.

It is here that the runesmiths arose, in deep sorrow and loss that was reflected through the ages. For the next year or so, the first runesmith set up camp near this cavern and worked to find ways to connect to the echoes, finding that his emotional state often mirrored that of the memories he experienced. Through deeply tapping his feelings and meditating Hagrin began to develop ways to touch yesteryears These methods are kept secret and are passed from runesmith to their apprentices. The key, from what many can tell, is “finding a bridge.”

Hagrin’s exploits pulled him from khazad society but in return he began to widen his connection to his ancestors who helped shaped the world as we know it. While we are stripped of the raw connection to the elements in our flesh bodies, our souls still harbor a connection to the fabric of our world. Time has put space between our greatest ancestors, and as a result we’ve lost knowledge that raised the mountains themselves and planted the great forests.

The Runesmiths, however, have learned through deep study and practice how to find echoes of our departed ancestors and listen from our forebearers themselves. While it is a record unchanging, it has given them glimpses of how latch onto some of our inherent ability to shape the world. Elves, goblyns, trolls, humans, their magics come from many sources and can weave many beautiful and powerful effects. A fireball or enchanted bow is an enchantment of great value, the khazad do not dispute this.

We do not even dispute that we are magicless. Khazard are not given to the weaves, winds, mana, and whatever source of magic the other races have access to; what we do have, however, is the ancestral call to create and refine. In this, the Runesmiths have learned how to call forth traits inherent in whatever they are working with to enhance. This means, however, there are different rules to runes than many may think of.

Because Runesmiths work with the inherent nature of an object, you will not find a an armory full of flaming swords or bows that string themselves. A Runesmith may call for a sword to be sharper, owing that it’s shape is that with an edge. They may call for it to be harder, enhancing the properties of the metal itself. A sword that doesn’t easily fly from the grip of the holder, enhancing the leather of the grip. The most skilled Runesmiths can enhance properties not quite seen, but this comes from experience, knowledge, and cunning as opposed to any sort of fey trickery.

But what of the flaming axes of the Khafelin Guard of legend? As we said, a Runesmith must call forth the inherent properties of the item. A powerful Runesmith might take a metal axe and work with it’s ability to hold heat, but then you must apply it to a fire before using. A legendary Runesmith might work for a decade and fashion runes in such a fashion that the act of swinging the axe generates friction that causes it to burst into flames

A pragmatic Runesmith, which must be said is all of them because they are Khazad first and Runesmith second, will find rare metals or gems that inherently burn, or use washes, oils, and unguents in the process of making the axe that make it exceptionally volatile. The more of a quality is present, the easier a time that a Runesmith will have to enhance something.

This is why you hear that khazad have the sturdiest armor, the sharpest blade, and the most unyielding of walls. Our Runesmiths have simply made each thing they work with more of the thing than it was before.

With all of this said and done, however, not every echo will connect well with a Runesmith, not every echo will contain the knowledge that a Runesmith will need. It is an art as much as it is an endeavor. Much like an artist or musician, the way someone perceives their art is as varied as there are artists and then some and so Runesmiths often make excursions to far flung lands and holds in search of the resting places of our ancestors. Taking meticulous notes and communicating with other Runesmiths it is not uncommon to see a letter enter a Runesmith’s forge and suddenly see them scuttle off with their assistants and family following behind trying to load them with enough food so they don’t starve on the trip.

Which is why sometimes the Khazad will fight over land that seems ordinary and worthless. A mountain hold with no mining prospects nor trade routes might have access to an echo chamber, or access to a specific mineral that’s only useful to the Runesmiths. No king or lord is so quick to raise the ire of a Runesmith to let access to these rare spots fall into enemy hands.

In the tradition of our ancestors, however, the Runesmiths are also keenly aware of the impact of their death, seeing as how Runesmiths are empowered with knowledge the way they are. A Runesmith is loathe to die far from home, and will seek to die on their own terms. Spending so much time dwelling in the nature of our world’s construction will see a Runesmith rejoin it, leaving their own echo behind.

In the greatest of holds, a Runesmith may find a final resting spot in a specially constructed chamber deep in the mountain, careful to ensure that their essence is captured but not mingled with other ancestors. Some choose to wander the mountains one last time and shape a chamber away from home. Every decision is unique to Runesmith, with one particularly contrary Runesmith choosing to pour his essence into a room beneath a mountain with instructions to open a lava vent into the chamber. His last words, paraphrased for posterity, were along the lines of “As troublesome as my life was made by the cavern owner’s guild, I make my death as troublesome for them.” [Author’s note: The cavern owner’s guild later rescinded their policy against purple painted signposts after the king inquired as to what happened.]

In this, a Runesmith adds to the ancestors, leaving their knowledge behind for new Runesmiths to learn and grow. Unlike a library, it’s much harder to remove echos from the stone, so even if all the Runesmiths are killed, a new Runesmith can always find their calling by listening to the stones.

Roleplay Aspect

Runeworking is essentially reinforcing a specific aspect of whatever you are working with. Something sharp can be made sharper. Something metal can be made more durable. Something conductive, more so. Effectively "this, but more so" if it helps. It also helps to think of it as a set of scales in terms of strength and effort needed. The amount something is of something on a scale of 1-10, the inverse is true of the effort needed. So, if you have granite, that might be a 1 on the scale of flammability, so you'd need a 10 in terms of effort to make it set on fire. Coal, however, would be a 10 in terms of flammability, so you'd need a 1 in terms of effort to make it catch fire.

The goal of runeworking, at the end of the day, for roleplaying aspects is to justify dwarven magic and why it's not battlefield usable. A runesmith can make a wicked sweet axe, but it gains no actual battlefield bonus. It also gives a reason to fight over artifacts and quest and the like, because acquiring ancient artifacts of power is easier than trying to recreate them. This lends from the Warhammer Fantasy universe where knowledge of runes is very specific, a majority of it is lost, and it's much safer, easier, and more certain to just find the damned Fireaxe of Lord Kil'morork than to find the echo chamber, find all the really need ingredients, and then make it.

For apprentices, there's generally three main paths of Runes.

Runesmiths: Those who create items. This falls into your crafting territory. The idea here is to encourage people to make great items with lore attached to it.
Runemasters: Those who create stories. This is for people who are better with stories. Bring them your item and they'll give you a story to it.
Runelords: Those who quest/fight. This is for people who may not be great at crafting or writing, but perhaps they fight a better story and are more willing to create quests for others to engage in.