Myth Journals

I think Soulblighter lost his nerve when the Tain shattered. To him, only a few seconds passed between the invocation of the thing and its sudden destruction, while it took us two days to escape the caves inside it.

Anyway, he didn’t stick around to figure out what went wrong.

Messengers reached us today saying that Maeldun has lost Bagrada and that The Deceiver crossed the mountains at the Stair of Grief. Worst of all, what’s left of the Nine had it out with The Head, which had apparently been double-crossing them ever since they pulled it out of the ground last summer.

Something like a civil war erupted back west, too, as thousands of our own men unexpectedly rose to defend The Head. Two of The Nine were killed, which makes them something like The Three now, if you also subtract Murgen and Cu Roi, who did not escape the destruction of the Tain, and the others who have died this year.

The only good news is that Alric is still alive, and will join us tomorrow.

This far east, the dwarves with us are closer to their occupied homelands than any of their race has been in fifty years. Not expecting to return, many of them have decided to give up their lives rather than abandon their country once again to the Ghôls who have overrun it.

What follows is their story.

1. Soulblighter: One of the Fallen Lords. ↩
2. The Tain: An artifact created by the Smiths of Muirthemne during the Empire of the Cath Bruig. ↩
3. Maeldun: One of the Nine. ↩
4. Bagrada: Southernmost of the three passes across the Cloudspine Mountains. It connects the Plain of Scales with Forest Heart, and has been the site of battles from time immemorial. ↩
5. The Deceiver: One of the Fallen Lords. ↩
6. Stair of Grief: The northernmost passage through the Cloudspine. ↩
7. The Nine: Nine powerful wizards who oppose the Fallen Lords. Alric is chief among them, and Murgen, Rabican, Maeldun, Cu Roi, and four others act as his generals. ↩
8. The Head: A severed head animated by its own arcane magic, it was discovered buried under tons of sand and rock and claimed to be one of Balor's ancient enemies. ↩
9. Murgen: One of the Nine. ↩
10. Cu Roi: One of The Nine. ↩
11. Alric: One of The Nine, former King of the Southern Provinces. ↩
12. Dwarves: A diminutive race of sturdy craftsmen. The Dwarves delight in the elements of Fire and Stone, and are unrivaled masters of both. They share a deep hatred and countless years of war with the Ghôls. Driven from their homelands in Myrgard and Stoneheim, they returned to reclaim them following the defeat of the Dark at the end of the Great War. ↩
13. Ghôls: A bestial race of knuckle walkers that served the Dark during the Great War. Inhabiting the same hills and mountains as the Dwarves, Ghôls have been in conflict with that race for as long as they have known one another. It is they alone who remember the names of the dark gods. ↩

«... thousands of our own men unexpectedly rose to defend The Head.»

«... many of them have decided to give up their lives rather than abandon their country once again to the Ghôls...»