The God Stones
It is said that these stones were the original means by which the Dwarves were able to overthrow the Dwarven God Vrthrath. Whether they were created or dicovered by the dwarves to this day is still unknown, but the original use can be traced back to the 1st era and the Great Calamity. The stones are said to be sentient beings that can imbue metals and mechanics with sentient autonomy. While thought to have been lost, the Stones were recently redsicovered by Dwarven scientists, and were used in an attempt to create the means to take back the Dwarven mountains resulting in the destruction of the city of Quenval, and a near disastrous civil war in the city of Nereval.
History
The earliest tales of the so-called God stones differ in their origin. According to some sources, the Stones were created by the greatest Dwarven Smiths of the time as a means to murder the God Vrthrath. These smiths were said to have had an unnatural understanding of the nature of magic, and were able to incoporate wild magics from the Elemental Aether into the forged crystal-like stones. Other sources say that the stones themselves were discovered in the furthest reaches of the spine, far beyond were our current maps reach, in a hidden ancient cavern far below the Spine. Reality however, lies somewehre in the middle.
Early in the first era, Dwarven miners in a now forgotten dwarven city broke into a cavern far more ancient than any they had seen before. The air there was strange, and echos of soft wispers could constantly be heard as one walked through the cavern. It was said that most who entered this cavern for more than an hour would suddenly go insane, attack their companions, and quickly die. Some however were immune to this cavern sickness, and eventually discovered a series of strange ores that seems to reach out in fractured sentences within their minds. These dwarves quickly gathered what they could find of the ore, and using fractured directions, forged them into the crystalline stones that the God Stones are known as today.
From the moment they were forged into a more pure and complete form, the voices claimed to be the remnants of a long lost race of elemental beings who once embodied, and used at their whim, the entire forces of the elemental Aether that makes up many of the natural forces of our world. The beings reasoned with the Dwarves that they could help them destory their oppresive master Vrthrath, and In exchange the Dwarves would build these "beings" physical forms and help them find the remaining souls of their long lost race. This deal was accepted by the dwarves, and in the first era, witht eh abscense of Vrthrath to the south, the Dwarves concocted a series of advanced constucts that would be used by the elemental beings to Kill Vrthrath upon his return.
With the dwarves plot successful and Vrthrath mortally wounded, attempts were begun to complete their end of the bargain. Internal politics withing the enwly freed Dwarven kingdoms ensured however that they would never be completed. Great debates were held about the future of the Dwarven race, one side arguing that through the God Stones they could reach unimaginable heights, and the other arguing that aiding these unknown beings would jst lead to further submission under yet another Opressive God. Eventually, the debate was once by the secularists and the stones were forgotten about. Angry that they had been shunned their end of the bargain, the crystal beings lashed out and attempted a mechanical revolt using the Dwarven machines against their creators, but with little mortal support, this was quickly quelled and the stones, now a danger to all Dwarvendom, were cast far away into the ocean where they would be forgotten about for nearly three-thousand years.
Rediscovery
Rediscovery of the God Stones happened around 522 of the 4th era, when miners on the dwarven rig city of Quenval, managed to unearth them deep beneath the ocean floor. Upon their rediscovery. memebers of the long established Church of the Machine Heart, and ex-researchers in the then defeunct Arcanus Mechanicum project sought to give life anew, to what they viewed as their new God. These Dwarves in secret formed a new organization that would, by anymeans, raise these beings up to Godhood, and use their power to take back their long lost mountain homes. Seeing these new dwarves as useful tools, the Crystal beings agreed to aid them and slowly worked to twist these devoted dwarves to their own nefarious purposes. In reality, the beings still held onto the grudge from their betrayal, and now sought to bring about the destruction of not just the dwarves, but all mortal races.
It was on the city of Quenval that the revived Arcanus Mechanicum managed to give true physical form to these beings, and upon its release after centuries of being trapped in the crystals brought death and chaos upon the whole city.
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