Hammermarks

by Iker Urteaga

Hammermarks

In terrible sorrow Codod mindlessly slams her hammer into the ground, desperate to spark forth fire that once warmed her heart and land. What's left behind is instead great impact sites that become places of pilgrimage for devout followers. They're such a strong symbol of belief that their shape is often inscribed on jewlery and other trinkets.

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Divine Impacts

Boulders the size of horses crash through the air as shrapnel, and a fine stone rain begins to cascade down upon the shattered ground. Where there might have been volcanic fire and heat from below, instead there's only heavy dust and cold smoke that billows out from the impact site -- a Hammermark. Codod's gargantuan hammer leaves terrible empty craters behind, symbols of her loss. The circular patterns smashed into Degrunda's volcanic stone become metaphors for the missing parts of life, the empty hole inside all of us that we're constantly seeking to fill -- whether it's love, purpose, or simply the quest to feel whole.

Hammermarks are generally around 75-100m wide, with a near perfectly circular inner circumferance that's ringed by an irregular smash pattern outside. The bottom of the crater is essentially flat, and the ridges around the sides are sloped enough that getting in or out of it can be a challenge -- which the thousands of yearly pilgrims don't seem to mind. Month after month, people migrate from the safety of civilization to trek out to Codod's hammering grounds in order to visit a Hammermark. The journey represents the lengths they're willing to go in order to fill that hole inside, and visiting such a holy site left behind by their God-husk is done in the hopes for fate or divine intervention to grant them that which they are missing.

The sentiment has gained such popularity that Hammermarks have become quite normal symbology on jewlery and clothing as well. It's common to see people wearing rings or pendants with the symbol on them in most cities within Degrunda; which, as such things usually go, can mean a few different things. When a pendant with a Hammermark is worn, it's a more general sentiment of "searching" for the wearer -- it just means that they're searching for meaning, for purpose. It's often not meant as an incredibly serious sentiment, just that they are still on their journey of self discovery. When worn as a ring, it has another two seperate meanings; on the left hand, it means the wearer is searching for love. When worn on the right hand, it means the wearer has suffered great loss, and that the hole left behind will forever be a part of them.