Motala and Her Grandmother

Motala sat up in her bed, her back against the sea-sponge pillow. As she sat, she hummed a small tune. A woman swam into the room and pursed her lips. “Motala, what are you doing up at this hour? You have to get to your lessons early in the morning!”

“I’m not tired Nana!”

The woman shook her head. “Even if we are not tired it is still important for us to get enough sleep. Otherwise, you will be incredibly tired tomorrow. You wouldn’t want to fall asleep during your seahorse riding lessons, now would you?”

“I wouldn’t do that Nana! I’ve never done that!”

“Just because you’ve never done it, child, does not mean that you won’t do it tomorrow. Or if not tomorrow, the next time that you choose to be childish and stay up so late.”

“Hey! I’m no child! I am twelve years old!”

The woman smiled. “Be that as it may, you are but a child compared to me. Now, what are you humming there?”

“It’s the Song of Tanatha the Faithless.”

“And do you know the story of Tanatha the Faithless?”

“Yes Nana! Everyone knows the story!”

“Well...I seem to have forgotten. Could you please remind me of the story? In my old age, I’m afraid all of the details have bubbled out of my head.” She said, sitting on a chair next to the bed.

Motala jumped up. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I’ll tell you the story! You see, it began with the first elves. They had a huge republic with lots and lots of really big cities in the world above the water.”

“And before they had that huge republic, who were the first elves? How did they come about?”

Motala squinted. “Wasn’t it that the Old Ones made them from the land?”

“Yes, child. They made them out of the land. They took the stones and they turned them into our bones. They took the took the water and turned it into our blood. They took the plants and turned them into our skin. And how did they make our minds and our souls?”

“They took their love and their happiness and sung them into us.”

“Yes. Exactly. Now, this great republic, who made it?”

“It was two brothers. Uza and Azu.”

“Yes. And did they love each other?”

“They did! But, Uza was greedy. He wanted all of the power to himself.”

“And what did Uza do?”

“He cast his brother out. He threw him to the current along with all of friends.”

“What happened then?”

“The followers of Uza began to worship him like he was an Old One. They treated him like he was Nafani or Susalu.”

“And what is wrong with loving someone so much?”

Motala frowned. “Worship isn’t love Nana!”

“Is it not? Do you not love Nafani, Susalu, Hurakana, Pusinu, and Telane? You worship them.”

“I do! But showing love to an Old One is done through worship! Showing love to a person is done through words and hugs and gifts and doing stuff for them. And showing love to an honored ancestor is through remembering them and respecting them. Not through worshiping them!”

Nana nodded. “Someone has been talking with Seaspeaker Poname.”

“Yes! He’s really funny! He told me this really cool joke! Wanna hear it?”

“Yes!”

Motala clasped her hands together. “What does seaweed say when it is stuck to the bottom of the sea?”

“Oh, I’m not sure. What does it say dear?”

“Kelp! Kelp!”

The woman chuckled softly. “My, that is a good joke. I don’t think I’ve heard that one before!”

“Really?”

“Well...maybe I’ve heard it before. I don’t know. I’m quite old. I may have forgotten that I’d heard it.”

“That must be sad, not remembering everything.”

The woman looked out the window at a passing tuna. “It is child. It is…”

The two sat in silence for a moment. The woman looked out the window. Motala looked down at the woman’s feet. After what seemed a mighty long time to Motala, the woman look at her and smiled.

“But the joy of growing old is seeing you. It is seeing new people get to have their fun and new experiences. It is getting to see you grow and learn.”

“That is really sweet Nana.”

“It is just how I see the world, dear. Now, the people in this great republic began to worship Uza like an Old One. Then what happened?”

“Then Tanatha the Faithless came into power.”

“And why do we call her Tanatha the Faithless?”

“Because she stopped her worship of the Old Ones. She threw them to the current in place of Uza.”

“That’s right. And then what happened?”

“Then they broke the republic. They took their greatest city and shattered it, destroying all of the faithless.”

“Right. And that is how we were made, isn’t it Motala?”

“Yes! Our ancestors were the ones in the city that still held the faith! While Hurakana shattered the city, Nafani protected us from his wrath. Susalu gave us the ability to see in this new world. Pusinu gave us the ability to breath. Telane led us to the Waterwalkers, so that we could learn to live and build in this new world. And Hurakana gave the Seaspeakers some of his power, a reward for our belief.”

“Yes, that’s exactly how I remember the Song of Tanatha the Faithless.”

“Nana?”

“Yes dear?”

“I’m tired.”

“I know, dear. I know. Lay down now and close your eyes. You need to get up early tomorrow.”

“I love you Nana.”

“I love you too Motala. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Nana.”

The Thundersteel Dwarf Project

Morgrid shuffled frantically through their notes. Armor clanked in the hallway. Plate slamming against mail. They started throwing papers to the ground. Nothing. Armor clanked again, getting closer. Morgrid ran to a bookshelf, finger running along the spines of books. Again, the armor clanked, nearly to Morgrid’s study. Then, Morgrid stopped, grabbed a book from the shelf, and opened it. A paper which had been shoved into it fell out onto the stone floor. As they bent down to pick it up, the door flew open. Morgrid dropped to their knees. 

“My lord!”

“Get your ass up off the floor Morgrid.”

“Of course, my lord.”

“Well…?”

“Yes, my lord?”

“What is it that you wanted me to see?”

“Oh! Yes! Right. You remember the Ironbane Dwarf Project?”

“Yes. That foolish plan to build soulless metal soldiers.”

“Yes, my lord. That’s it exactly.”

“Well, what of it?”

“Yes. Right. You see, the problem with that project wasn’t the creation of the soldiers themselves. Much more reliable than a conscript or a levied dwarf. They can, in theory, endure longer than an hardened soldier.”

“Right.”

“The problem was the lack of a soul. The lack of the spark of life. Of thought.”

“Right. But that can’t be done. The Ironbane Dwarf Project showed that.”

“Almost.”

“Almost?”

“Yes. Almost. I thought so too. But then I came across this.” They brandished the paper that had fallen to the floor.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a blueprint.”

“A blueprint for what?”

“For the salvation of our clan. For the new steel soldier. A steel soldier with a soul. With a mind. And with unquestioning loyalty to you, My lord. The Thundersteel Dwarf.”

The old Earl Thundersteel. stared at their younger clansman. They grabbed the horn at their side and took a sharp swig. 

“What would we need for this to work?”

“Steel. A lot of it. Glass. Cogs. Gears.”

“That’s it?”

“And souls.”

“What kind of souls? Soldiers?”

“No. Any soul will do. We just need Lightstone earthspeakers to bind the souls to the steel bodies.”

“And how long would it take to build these soldiers?”

“Three months. Maybe four.” 

“Hmm...okay. Who else knows about this?”

“No one, my lord.”

“Good. Let us keep it that way.”

Earl Thundersteel crossed to the door of the study. “And Morgrid?”

“Yes, my lord?”

“This is some fine work.” With that, the Earl slammed the door behind him.  

I Saw Them in the Grain

I Saw Them in the Grain

Traditional Dwarf Poem

English Translation:

i Saw them in the grain.

i Chiseled them from their prison.

i Held them before me

and Cried.

the earth then Shook.

and the gem Jumped from me

And Fell Into The Deep Below.

The Life Of A Dwarf.

Original Mountain Dwarvish:

buzzëk voi humill ak.

koglain voi llandër yul.

kofëln jaele voi pal enddak

pof bumenddqokarr.

oirr tav guddër.

pof nurr koif pal yul.

pof gaeld yanut pyidot edyid

rrinak daedunyi

A History of Graedjo: The Shaping of the Multiverse

The Shaping of the Multiverse

After the Void had been contained, the Zeniths had to decide what to do with the Multiverse that they now ruled over. It was an empty place, devoid of any rock or river. Chaos could not abide this. And thus, it created the great cosmic soup that is space. It created all of the earth and air and fire and water.

Immediately, Law had a problem. There was no order, no reason to the matter that Chaos created. Anything and everything could be anywhere. Matter could have multiple forms and exist in opposed dimensions. Law had to act, and so it did. It created gravity. It created all of the ways that the elements can combine with each other.

Until this point in time, Good and Evil had been fighting incessantly. With the creation of matter though, Good and Evil both understood the consequences of this new world being created was. A new battlefield. It was Good who started the Arms Race. It saw the potential for interaction between the elements, and from that, created life. Into this life, Good gave the ability to feel. The ability to have emotions. The ability to think. Good also created with this the first Elder, Life, to watch and guard it’s new creation. But what happened to life over time?

This was the question that Evil asked itself. What does happen to life over time? Can it end? After all, earth can become water and water can become air. With these words, Evil created the Elder, Death, and upon Death Evil conveyed  but one command: end life. Thus began the great race. The marathon to see if Death will overcome Life.

Life, as it turns out, is a malleable thing. There was no order or disorder in it, at least not at first. No, Law could not abide by that. Law instilled in animals basic needs and desire. The need to eat and to sleep. The need for water and for heat. For each of these needs, for each of these subdivisions of reality, Law created an Elder Dragon and a Dragonflight to watch over it. Now, it is important to know that these Dragons are not like the Dragons of Earth. No, these Dragons have many different forms. When you see the word Dragon, think not of a winged, fiery reptile, but rather, think of a being of immense power that has access to some of the strongest magics of the Multiverse.

And so it continued, with Chaos and Life and Good and Evil constantly created new things. New ways to interact with each other. New battlegrounds. With the Dragonflights, new soldiers for their armies.

Unintentionally over the course of eons, there was created The Great Planes. Each of these Planes was an embodiment of one or more of the Zeniths. They are as follows.

The Four Elemental Planes: the Plane of Water, the Plane of Earth, the Plane of Air, and the Plane of Fire.

The Plane of Good is known simply as Wun, named as such for the Elder Dragon of Good, Wun. The beings that inhabit it are known only as The Radiant, called such because of how brightly they radiate Goodness into the Multiverse.

The Plane of Evil is called Ezal, for Ezal, the Elder Dragon of Evil. The creates who call this place home are known as The Seething Ones, for the palpable evil that sheds off of them into the Multiverse.

The Plane of Law is Akris. Here is where the Judges live, measuring and enforcing their dominance over any interaction they can observe.

The Plane of Chaos is known only as the Great Reaction, and those who live there are the Changelings.

The Plane of Balance, known today as Graedjo, for the Elder Dragon that comprises the world, who sleeps around a sphere of magma. This plane was created by Balance as a place where everything could coexist and thus unintentionally, the place where the greatest fighting would occur.

Hel is the Great Plane that exists at the convergence of the power of Law and Evil. It is an infernal hierarchy that has nine distinct levels, where the deeper that one goes, the more evil and powerful they become. The residents of Hel are known as Devils.

The Maw is the Great Plane created by Chaos and Evil. A fiendish pit, full of the most wicked things, known as Demons, that fight amongst each other for all of time, establishing short-lived hierarchy through shear strength and dumb luck.

The Heavens rest upon the convergence of Law and Good. Here, the Angels rule over and care for the Multiverse with the best of intentions.

The Meadows are the Great Plane where Good and Chaos come together. Resembling an infinitely interlocking series of idyllic meadows, The Meadows sees its inhabitants coexisting peacefully with one another without any rule imposed onto any of them. The inhabitants of this realm are known as the High Fey.

Lastly, there is the Shadowlands. A realm where the dead go. Where those souls who do not go to another plane after their time in Graedjo go. The Shadows live here, ruled over by the Face in the Dark.

A History of Graedjo: The Void and the Empty Space

The Void and the Empty Space

In the beginning, there was only the Void and the Empty Space. The Void was full of the Twilight, which seeks only to expand and consume. The Empty was everything else. The emptiness of the Multiverse that was not consumed by the Twilight. No one knows exactly how the Twilight first came into existence. Some say that it was always there. They say that it was born with the creation of reality.

After countless eons, the Split occurred. A part of the Twilight became separated from the Great Twilight Sea. This separation caused a mutation in the now-independent Twilight. This mutation caused the creation of the Zeniths.

The Zeniths are the beings that exist both in and outside of our reality. They have the ability to alter the flow of time, to create matter, to utterly destroy life. The Zeniths that were created in the Split were Law, Chaos, Good, Evil, and Balance. Law was opposed to Chaos. Good to Evil. And Balance, Balance was found between Law and Chaos, between Good and Evil. Together, through Balance, the Zeniths were opposed to the Void.

Together, Balance led the Zeniths to create The Bramble, a crazed weave of their interlocking powers that sealed the Void away from the rest of the Multiverse. This was one of the only things that Balance would ever convince the others to do with each other. So great was the animosity between the four. But before they all had went their separate ways so that they could wage war for the rest of eternity, Balance was able to convince the others on one last thing: the creation of the Arbiters. With all five of the Zeniths working together, they were made. The Arbiters existed outside of existence. They existed within the only part of reality that was outside of the Void or the Multiverse.

It was in this place, later to be known as the Hall of Judgement, that the Arbiters created the Current, the flow all magic and power that the Zeniths had. Each one of them had surrendered their power to the Arbiters. But why did they do this? Because of the Void. The Zeniths were terrified of the Twilight. Even after having sealed it away, they all knew that it took nearly all of their power to do so. There would be times again where they would need to have that power used and they needed to ensure that it would happen. Thus, the Arbiters were made. Existing outside of the Multiverse, they were able to create all of the rules of power and of magic in what seemed to be no time at all to the Zeniths. They then bestowed on each Zenith the knowledge of how their part of the Multiverse worked and the rules that governed it. From here, the Zeniths could do whatever they so wished. With the knowledge of the rules of the Multiverse, they could still do the things they had done before, but only if the Arbiters granted it to them, which they would do if the Zeniths followed the rules. Thus the Zeniths were able to battle each other without fear of the Twilight returning.

The Lady of Fall

From the bards of the United Empire of Ozur comes the tale of the Lady of Fall, said to live somewhere in the Sur Remar Forest.

The Lady of Fall

Down in the forest deep,
In dark fens where black things sleep,
Beyond the last of the marked stones,
Loves a lady, fair and alone.
She moves from tree to tree without sound,
Yet her voice in your head does pound.
When she looks at you with her lidless eyes,
She takes your soul and your body dies,
She twists your form to be her thrall,
Until silence befalls us all.

Thus is the tale of the Lady of Fall.

Mountain Dwarvish Phonology

Mountain Dwarvish

Pulmonic Consonants	Bi- labial	Labio- dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal	Other
Plosive	p “p” b “b”		t “t” d “d”		c “ky” Ɉ “gy”	k “k” g “g”
Palatalized Plosive	pj “py” bj “by”		tj “ty” dj “dy”
Nasal	m “m”		n “n”		ɲ “ny”
Palatalized Nasal	mj “my”
Trill			r “rr”
Fricative		f “f” v“v”	Ɵ “tt” ð “dd” s “s” z “z”	ʃ “ss” ʒ “zz”		x~ɣ “x”	h “h”
Palatalized Fricative		fj “fy” vj “vy”	sj “sy” zj “zy”				hj “hy”
Lateral Fricative			(ɬ) “ll”
Approximate			(ɹ) ‘r’		j “y”
Lateral Approximate			l “l, r, ll”
Affricates
Non-Palatal			tʃ “q” dʒ “j”	tɬ “tl”
Palatal			tʃj “qy” dʒj “jy”

Vowels	Front	Central	Back
High	i “i”	ɨ “ï”	u “u”
Middle	e “e”	ǝ “ë”	o “o”
Low	ɛ “ea” æ “ae”	a “a”
Diphthongs	oi “oy” ai “ay”

Syllable Structure:

(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)

ex. strondl

No gemination in allowed in Mountain Dwarvish, though it was allowed in proto-dwarvish.
This has led to the creation of several new phonemes, which can be seen below.
Always resistant to change, however, Mountain Dwarvish writes the words the same as in
proto-dwarvish.

Palatalized consonants before /i/ and /e/.  For /m/, before /ɨ/, as /ɨ/ comes from a break with *i

*i > ɨ /m_

ɨ/_#

else  > i

*ae> æ

*ea> ɛ

*s> ʃ/s_

else >s

*z> ʒ/z_

else >z

*t> Ɵ/t_

else >t

*d> ð/d_

else >d

*n> ɲ/_i

ɲ/_e

else >n

*ǝ> Ø/C1_C1

Ø/_#