Tamirov, the Raven's Hammer

In the stories passed on orally from the priests and preachers of the One Faith, and the aprocryphal Books of Actions under the Church of the Divine King, the life of Tamirov of Thessidia was one life lived by Islik the Divine King when he was reincarnated as a mortal. The lack of "miraculous" events in the story have led to the Church of the Divine King to take note of the story, but not pay much attention to it. The One Faith, however, takes this as a central story in the importance of building respect and trust between foreign peoples.

Summary

Tamirov was the prince of a large and partially-settled clan based in the far western territory of the Steppelands called Thessidia. Humans and half-bloods, all equal under the law of his grandfather and father before him, worked together to create a resilient and capable proto-realm on the coast and in the borderlands between the Steppes, the Realms of the Goddess, and the conquered and despoiled gnomish lands. He was a singular swordsman and a war leader of renown. Tamirov' capacity for cavalry maneuver, uncanny timing were legendary. His penchant for raven-beaked warhammers earned his motley company of retainers a red banner with ravens in flight and black wolves howling at a crescent moon. Known as Malleus Corvinus to the Imperial Dwarves from whom he had much enmity initially, but both he and they had earned mutual respect and trust. It was Tamirov who rode to the relief of the Thirteenth Legion as a youth, and as leader of his people oversaw and protected the long march of the dwarves who survived Yhera's Tears from the western shores back to their homelands. Over that time, he had grown to respect the dwarven peoples for their industry and candor, and he had made good friends with the myriad tribunes and centurions who survived the fall and the long march. Throughout the escort of the dwarven column, Tamirov saw the state of the realms from the Steppes through the Free Realms and into what would become the Imperial Remnant. What he saw was sobering: widespread poverty, famine and disease among the common people while aristocrats, priests and magicians filled their purses and piled their plates high. They controlled the people with vast, well-armed armies that were run nepotistically and each was rife with corruption. He noted that these armies, while splendid and capable on paper, were mostly organized to suppress their own populations than to protect their lands from external threats. Once he crossed into the Imperial Remnant with the dwarven column did he see what was possible with law and discipline. Dwarven legionaries worked alongside human and gnomish auxiliaries carving out drainage ditches, setting stones upon great commercial roads, and helped to survey routes for artificial rivers that would take fresh mountain water to parched but otherwise fertile fields and valleys. Agriculture was generally undertaken by human-blooded and gnomish peoples, but the dwarves did do their share of the work of it all. The difference in quality of life was stark, and it irked Tamirov greatly to see that same privation as he returned back to his homelands in the far west. All in, the prince had been away for a little more than three years, he saw that famine and disease had gnawed away at the structures that he and his forefathers had put in place before his departure. Tribes within the realm had taken to raiding neighbours, extorting the aide sent to the gnomes from elven lands, and preying upon refugees themselves as they fled east and south. This angered Tamirov greatly, seeing the lack of resilience and discipline sickened him. To see men and women who were only a step or two into real hunger and exhaustion descend so quickly into violence, it enraged him to the point of taking action himself. He embarked on what would be called the Plowshare Crusade, once again pacifying his own peoples and bringing in knowledge-keepers from the east and from the gnomish lands to share the ways of settled life as he had observed in his travels. His actions created a stable realm for his people, and one that protected gnomish refugees and dwarven traders throughout the Steppelands and its borderlands. He centered this approach in the morality of discipline and the responsibility of those with power to use it for the common good. For a time, this Realm of Raven King flourished. Things would continue to go well for the Raven King, but another famine would emerge with the coming of the Arcanum and the end to the Age of Blood and Fire. This time, the surrounding realms would descend into and bring about widespread death, famine and pestilence throughout the lands of the People of the Blood. The Steppelands, the Free Realms, the Lakelands, and even the Realms of the Goddess and the Lands of the Eye would see great famine and desperation. At this time, Tamirov was pushing seventy years of age. Despite all this, the man known as Malleus Corvinus to the Dwarves would sally forth from his relative comfort and enforce the common good. He did this in concert with the Legates of the Imperial Remnant, who marched west as he rode east. They attempted to stop the madness, but it would not hold. The islands of stability they controlled waivered, but held until the famine and diseases passed, but it was on the battlefield that Tamirov found his end. In attempting to break the siege of a gnomish settlement protected by two cohorts of dwarven legionaries, he was laid low by attacking high elven soldiers. He died horribly, and abruptly, but his legacy lived on.

Historical Basis

From "Chapter 19: Sowing and Settlement in Response to Crises" in the book Peoples of the Steppelands: Antiquity in a World Without Monument, by the historian and natural philosopher Bellisaria of Bibractis Minor in the Imperial Remnant.

Most assuredly, dear reader, our travels and investigations have confirmed that Tamirov was one of the leaders of the southern steppeland tribes that rose to the defense of the Thirteenth Legion as they took their Long March homeward. According to that legion's records, Tamirov was the eldest son of the old Chieftain Kirillov the Ashen-Faced, both of which focused on consolidating their land holdings and establishing incentives for their subordinates to become the beginnings of a settled nobility. In this, they were partially successful, as their chosen war leaders took to settled life as restless warriors might. The Chieftain and his advisors established a ritualistic system of controlled combat between these bloodlines to reduce damage to others and the surrounding area (please see Chapter 46 for more details), something they took from the stories told by gnomish traders about their early days (Junius Callidus' A History of the Gnomish Peoples touches upon this in some detail but good luck finding it). Some of the details regarding the way that the tale is told in the meeting halls and tents of the One Faith have been altered, either by the usual twisting of words over the continual verbal retelling of a tale, or for political reasons when that differentiation can be traced to the first times these stories were transcribed. One of the most obvious examples of this was the way in which Prince Tamirov earned his moniker as the Raven King. It was well-known that the Prince was gifted a full set of steel harness for his aid to the Thirteenth Legion against a deep incursion of an orcish horde under the Great Warlord Kurzon Twice-Borne. Included with that set of armour was a blessed warhammer forged in the Delve Foundry of Thungrim the Eleventh called The Magpie's Beak. So, it was not the weapon that led to his naming, but rather the gifting of a cloak of black feathers by the gnomes of the northern city-states after his relief of the Thirteenth Legion. Thus, it was a spontaneous proclamation of the moniker by the gnomes in attendance, not necessarily the dwarves -- whose reports and memoirs confirmed it but transliterated it incorrectly. As an aside, the dwarven soldiery are perhaps the most educated of all the world's fighting men and women. They are not, however, exacting in their reports nor their cross-cultural understanding. The surviving tribune and centurions who were present at the relief and the following celebration translated the gnomish term virrassech gormena or "Raven Prince" into the "Hammer of Ravens" which denotes that the possessor hammered ravens (presumably to death) rather than The Raven's Hammer which denotes a Hammer owned by the Raven. The latter is more correct, but both were incorrect. It is believed that Tamirov raised his weapon in acknowledgment of the crowd's chanting, and that this was taken as the meaning of the words. Gnomish language has not only tenses and many varied cases but also tones that are not well represented in dwarven writing, which renders it one of the most difficult languages to understand nuance through translation. This is why experts in such languages are better described as interpreters, rather than simple translators, and budgets must include their vital contributions in various expeditions and studies. Needless to say, the educated legionaries misunderstood what was going on, and gave him the wrong honorific name in their own writings. Thus, the Prince of Thessidia known as Tamirov was gifted a cloak of black feathers (which were much too big to be from a common crow or magpie, but not large enough to be from the great black ospreys of the northern coasts, so assumedly they were from ravens). That cloak earned him the name "The Raven Prince" by the gnomes, which somehow translated to The Raven's Hammer by the dwarves. Regardless of that, however, the young Prince took them all on as titles and reveled in his newfound provenance. Tamirov was a tireless warrior, a creative tactician, and a perceptive strategist. He was instrumental in settling the borderlands of the gnomish north and returned to his homelands a hero, and weighed down with the silver and coin rewarded to him from both the gnomish peoples and the dwarven governor. Soon after, his father would pass away peacefully, and he would assume the mantle of King of Thessidia -- a title newly founded and recognized by the Thessidians themselves, but also the Dwarven Governor, the Legate of the Thirteenth Legion, and the City Fathers of the Gnomish lands. It was only during the rise of the high elves' White Sage, Riga the Magnificent, that King Tamirov took on the name of the Raven King. During a running cavalry battle outside the embattled city of Illoria, he had lost his helmet to a savage blow from either an earth elemental or a bullette (reports vary). Tamirov survived the encounter and the high elven general sent a replacement helmet over as a gesture of respect. It was fashioned as a new-pattern great helm with a beak jutting out slightly in the style of a raven from the visor. The King of Thessida took it as the honour it was and wore it in battle for the rest of his life. It was only then that official Thessidian records began to refer to him as The Raven King of Thessidia, which became a hereditary title upon his death.