It's a promise -
She gave us the promise of a new mountain!
We have a future, and a hope... — Damien Steelsong
In the Hall of Judgement
Lies a document, a white document, glistening, shining, shimmering. Just like the trunk of the great tree, the world tree,
Elysium. It shines and shimmers giving light even in the depths of the darkest night. Formed by a goddess, made from Dunia Uzi, it shines with the power of life itself, defiant against the darkness of death.
This document is precious to the people who come here. It speaks of a power that has fueled wars - both to obtain and protect it in every land in every world in the entire universe and indeed, in many others. It knows no boundaries but speaks to all living creatures from the greatest to the smallest.
It was the heart of
Yulasta's power that she put on that page, power in nesting and crafting, power in tending and healing and loving - first all who were hers, and then, from her plenty, she made provision to those who came in peace, and had need, and helped others when they had healed. She put into it the fierce protection of the orcish race, the relentless aggression against the despoiler. She put into it the courage to go on, the strength and resiliance that all living creatures find when they have a place of their own.
On the surface it seems that this document is not much perhaps, just a map to a mountain - a mountain that she told some wayward dwarves could be made suitable for them should they bring all their skills and stregnth to bear in civiliizing it. But she knew that it was their heart's desire, a respite from wandering for a people who had no place to lay their heads. And for the world of Arrhynsia - well, it was the beginning of the
Steelsong, a clan of dwarves whose master smiths,
sorcerers, and
wizards worked together to invent the
Sorcerer's Engine to deal with their dangerous new mountain; a technology that radically shifted the balance of power between humans and the short in the southern part of Arrhynsia.
And for us, centuries after she created it, after the briefest moment of immediate relevance, after she has passed from this world, we still come to gaze upon this map, for it calls to us, all of us.
It speaks to us of home.
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