The First Dwarf

Before Mankind arrived on Ryune from across the Plague Sea...
Before the Eldar Tree grew in the Elfwood, allowing the Elves to cross to and from the Wyld...
Before the Orcs and the other Orcine races were spat out upon the world of Ryune...
Before the Sun and the Moon were chained into the sky to light the darkness...
In the time when the First Peoples freely roamed the whole of Ryune, under a sky lit only by the three seas of stars set there by the great dragon god Riyujhin, this is when legend tells us that the first Dwarf was birthed into the world.
In those days, the Magi of the First Peoples were potently skilled in the practice of arcane arts. Their talents made it effectively effortless to perform many acts that would seem miraculous in these days. The Magi of those forgotten times commonly summoned powerful elementals from the Planes of Fire, Earth, Air, and Water to accomplish whatever menial task they deem beneath their own physical effort. The mystical scholars of the time held that summoned elementals were drawn from an indistinct pool of elemental force that could only take form after being summoned by spell, ritual, or other arcane practice, and when dismissed, the elemental would return to that pool of force and become subsumed with all experiences erased. An odd effect was noted amongst elementals that remained in the material plane for an extended length of time. It was observed by some magi that the elementals would begin to take on a kind of personality after being corporeal for great lengths of time. This was held as a curiosity until the incident. One particular mage who's name is lost to time decided to keep an earth elemental active for five years to see what would happen. What happened was singularity; the earth elemental gained self-awareness almost to the minute of the five year experiment. More than that, it understood the precariousness of it's situation. The simple unbinding of a spell, and this newly sentient lifeform would cease to be.
This new life fled deep into the earth, under a range of mountains. Instinctually it enwrapped itself in an earthen cocoon. It began to expel the elemental energies from its form, and to a lesser degree began to absorb energies from the material plane of Ryune. Thus it began to refine itself into something new. The expelled energies were transformed into veins of rare minerals, ores, and gems. After some time passed, the transfiguration completed, the stone cocoon cracked along a seam, and a new lifeform emerged. The first Dwarf took their first breath upon Ryune.
The first dwarf was more of stone than flesh. They knew what they were, and that they were alone. They pondered their current state and were happy. They realized that they had a wealth of knowledge gleaned from their five years of servitude to their mage master. They carved themselves a home deep under the mountains where they had first fled. And there they began their research on how to expand their kind from one lonely Dwarf into a nation of Dwarves. It took time, but they created a series of rituals that could summon earth elementals, grant them sentience, and transform them into Dwarves, while also enriching the stone around them with the biproducts of the leached of elemental energies. Over the many centuries that passed, the generations of dwarves became nearer to flesh, but never fully lost their stonelike disposition. The rituals were refined to a point where elementals were no longer needed to propagate the species.
The first Dwarf, seemingly immortal, while their children were very mortal, set themself outside of the reach of their people, as their children had begun referring to them as their god. After all, gods are not for everyday use, they are for special occasions. They watched with pride from a great distance, while Dwarvenkind made their way in and under the world of Ryune.

Historical Basis

Hydromancer Leaunard Shuay, the author of this tale, first recorded it in 211 AL.
He claimed a Dwarf with a stony disposition, and a bottle of elven Absence, joined him at a table in a tavern and began to tell him this tale and share the potent elven spirit. Both acts are typically uncharacteristic of a Dwarf.
The location of the tavern often changed with each telling of the tale. Sometimes a young man with a staff carved in the image of a dragon would also be there during the Dwarf's oration, but contributed nothing other than his presence to the tale.
Most scholars and loremasters consider this to be purely a flight of fancy. A few bards have picked up the tale over the centuries since its first introduction, so it is widely known amongst common folk, and nobles alike.

This tale comes to us from a Hydromancer known more for their prodigious accomplishments as a drunkard, rather than those of a scholar.  If you find any use in this drivel, mayhap you shall travel his path of scholarship as well.

— Loremaster Rovert Ornald 

Date of First Recording

211 AL (After First Landing)

Date of Setting

100,000 BL (Before First Landing)