Great Slave Rebellion of Stonelords' Throne

The Great Slave Rebellion of Stonelords' Throne was an ancient uprising in the great Stone Giant capital of Stonelords' Throne. In this conflict, the slaves of the Stone Giants rose against their masters, and armed with the newly forged Skyswords and the benefit of surprise, managed to drive back the giants for just long enough to escape.

This is one of the most foundational myths of the Time of Wander, and the most peoples of the Southern Continent trace their origins to the heroes of the rebellion.

Belligerents

Stone Giants

Stone Giants were creatures twice as tall as man, and immensely powerful. They were capable of ripping a fullgrown tree of its roots like a stalk of grass, and throwing rocks as tall as houses. The giants were near immortal, because even if their bodies were killed, their souls could always mold a new body for themselves from the rocks of the earth.

The Stone Giants had built great cities in the past, but now the human slaves were doing the most of the work for them. They had become slow in their action and thinking, and they were not alert, not watching their slaves.

Human slaves

Many of the human slaves were half-giants and had inherited a part of their enslavers' strenght, but were still no match to them. They were armed only with crude bronze weapons and the six of their leaders each carried a Skysword.
But they were desperate. They would buy their freedom, the freedom of their families, with their blood. Or die trying.

Leaders

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• Stone Lords, the kings of the Stone Giants.
• Mandible, herald and captain of the Stone Lords

• Deremhos the Elder, the father of smiths
• Çargin, his son Dálas was the progenitor of Tašals.
• Arnenn, founder of Wasäkawakal
• Kaminbanda, founder of Artana
• Undinselwin, followed the giants into the depths where he died
• Walnai, later betrayed the others and became a vassal of the Stone Lords

Setting

The Stonelord's Throne was the northern capital of the giants, ruling over the coastal region of the Serme Mountains. The city consisted of the Overcity, a great mountain fortress where the human and half-giant subjects of the giants worked to supply the city. It was the home for thousands of people, where they learned many skills from their giant teachers. it was surely the greatest city of the age.

But the part of the city that reached underground into the mountains was even greater: There were ever-burning forges, where raw minerals were cast into weapons and armor of bronze to supply the armies loyal to the giants. There were caverns filled with pale slimy moss, and fungi and unknown creatures of the deep that the giants fed on. And there were halls rising into immense hights, where the giants worked and lived - for even at this time the giants were rarely seen on the surface - and the greatest of them all was the Royal Chamber of the Stone Lords.

Even further below were the mines, where the most unfortunate slaves worked, breathing the dust of the earth and never seeing the light of day. The tunnels reached far into the heart of the world. Perhaps they connected the Throne with the great mines of Ulum, and the southern capitals of Bonehold and Ardarta, and the giants used them for travel and communication

Forging of the Skyswords

The humans had been kept as slaves deep under the cities of the Stone Giants for generations. One of them was Deremhos the Elder, who became a master smith under the teaching of the giants. Because of his skills, he was put in the lead of the research into the properties of Greystone. The giants had found this rare material in their mines, and they realised it had very powerful magic in it, but had not found a way to work it into anything usable. Deremhos eventually found a way to smelt and cast it, but he did not reveal this to the Stone Lords, but set on a work of creation in secret.

He forged six great blades of greystone, and he named them the Skyswords, for the greystone had come from the skies. Then Deremhos gathered around him his closest allies, and revealed that he had created powerful weapons, perhaps powerful enough to free them of the slavery. Part of the slaves agreed with him, but some were afraid and threatened to reveal their plan to the giants. It was then, that the Skyswords got the taste of blood for the first time, because the revolutionaries attacked them, and killed them. But once they died, no táldar appeared, and from that they learned, that the Skyswords had the power to kill not only the body, but also the soul. They were all horrified, but also encouraged, that they might have a chance against the giants.

Battle in the Depths

The Holders of the Skyswords gathered together their people, and armed them with what they had: swords and axes and armor of bronze, and tools and hides for those that had nothing else. Then they set out - to their freedom, or grave. But before they could leave the Forges, their escape was cut off by the giants. They were faced by Mandible, the herald of the Stone Lords. He towered high above them, and they could see he was enraged by the slaves' audacity to stand up against their masters. But he came barely armed, trusting in his tough skin and the strenght of his arms.

But the giants were unaware of the might of the Skyswords. When the giants attacked, the Five stood forth. The greystone bit into the stony skin of Mandible like a knife through butter, but the giant barely felt the pain of his wounds. The humans were still merely an annoyance - if a painful annoyance, perhaps like a mosquito bite - and he was ready to crush them like the bugs they were. He lead his troop into a charge, throwing men against the walls of the tunnel with the swing of his mace, crushing them effortlessly inside their armor. But his arrogance was about to make him the first giant to fall. The men fought valiantly, and it was not long, until they got him to stumble down, and before he could rise again, Undinselwin thrust his Skysword through his chest. Suddenly the soul that had bound the stones together into the mighty body was gone, devoured by the sword, and the giant crumbled into a lifeless pile of rocks on the floor of the tunnel.

Other giants were horrified when they realised what had happened - that they were made mortal by this new weapon. They raised their crackling voices in alarm, commanding their half-giant commanders to kill the Five at once, but the giants themselves retreated back to the shadows of the endless tunnel networks. Now demoralised and leaderless, the half-giants were easily pushed back. The route to the escape was clear. Then Undinselwin stood forth and spoke:
"We cannot leave like this: Not now, that we have the power of surprise on our side! The Lords are afraid, but they will soon rise again stronger. We must attack now, when they are weak, and rid the world of them once and for all!"
His voice was burning with strange bloodlust. They did not know it back then, but it was not he who had spoken, but the voice of his sword. The others were afraid of his words and did not listen to him, but Undinselwin took his people, and lead them into the darkness - and into his doom - for nothing was heard of him after that. Thus he fullfilled his name: the one who has deep knowledge only became to know the depths.

Burning

Silently the heroes emerged from the tunnels, into the blinding sunlight of the Overcity. There they met with the people, who had not taken part in the fighting, and the Holders invited them to come with them, to be free of the slavery. Some joined them eagerly, but some did not want to. The Throne was their home, and there was nowhere to go on the mountains, no way to escape the giants' wrath. Thus the Holders once again rose in arms against them, ready to kill them, so that the giants could not use them to reveal their plans and track them down. But the people fled inside their homes, refusing to fight and letting them go without resisting. Deremhos then adviced them to leave, there was no time to hunt them down. But once they were leaving through the gates, Arnenn and Çargin trailed behind, and with their men, they set the wooden houses into fire, to burn the traitors and all they had, so they could not follow them.

When the others saw the smoke clouding the red of the evening sky, they cried tears of pain and anger, because many had relatives and friends among those who had decided to stay. The chief of them was Walnai, who demanded for the execution of Arnenn and Çargin, but Deremhos forbid him, because the killing was already done, and they did not need any more bloodshed among them. Thus they all fled to the mountains.

Faith of the Holders

The Holders swore to create a mighty free kingdom for all men, but soon arguments broke among them and they all went their separate ways. First Çargin's wife gave birth to a son, who was a half-giant. Refusing to give the baby up to be killed, as their newly created laws demanded for any child who had giant blood in them, he sent his wife, the newborn son, and his Skysword away to the north. Çargin was killed for his treachery, but his son Dálas survived and became the king of Tašals. Walnai betrayed the others, and returned to the giants, to become a vassal of the Throne. The last of the Five split up, Kaminbanda went west to found Artana, and Arnenn to the south founding Wasäkawakal. Deremhos went with Arnenn, and served him as his smith.

The Holders became all great heroes, and the Skyswords brought the new kingdoms wealth beyond measure, but they were also filled with unsaturable greed for power, any many atrocities were commited by them. When Deremhos realised, that it was the evil will of the swords that was taking them over, he regretted that he had ever forged them. He even tried to destroy his own sword, but was also bound by its curse and couldn't do it. Therefore he hid it, and tried to hide his past as well as he could, and much wasn't heard of him after that. Eventually his Skysword passed onto his grandson, Deremhos Nemar, who in turn was a hero smith during the Giant Wars.

Aftermath

The slave rebellion was a great humiliation for the giants, one from which their reputation never quite recovered. Afterwards the power of the free human settlements grew, and even though the giants still exercised their indirect rule on them, this time was marked by a more equal partnership with the giants. The giants themselves were afraid of the humans and stayed in hiding, while powerful half-giants ruled as their stewards above the ground.

Included under Conflict

War of Men

Conflict Type

Rebellion

Battlefield Type

Urban

Start Date

c. 200 BFS

Location

Stonelords' Throne

Key events

Deremhos the Elder was a mastersmith, who learned the secret of greystone smithing and forged the six Skyswords. Armed with the Skyswords and weapons and tools they could steal, the slaves set out for a desperate escape from the tunnels under the Stonelords' Throne.
They were stopped by Mandible, the herald of the Stone Lords, and his army of giants, half-giants and loyal humans. The giants would have defeated them easily, but once they discovered that the Skyswords were able to kill the immortal souls of the giants, they were afraid and fled. The holders were able to drive the rest of the opponents back, and escape.
Once safely in the mountains, the holders swore to found a free kindom for all the slaves that had been freed. However, they soon began to fight with each other, and one after another they went their own ways, and thus the humans split into separate tribes, giving rise to the later peoples of Salan.

by Tuisku

Dálas son of Çargin and a Skysword
As depicted in the Tašalian Book of the Demons