Gotrek rests until they wake again.

[Papa Rock 387]

DEEP IN THE HALLS OF KAZ'AD NOLVARAZ, DWARVEN HOLD OF GOTREK...

Dreadful was the moment Ulfar had to face the two mighty behemoths of his clan, but it finally came as he entered the warmth of the industrial halls of Urguan and yet his skin felt so cold. The hairs upon his skin rose straight and sturdy beneath his steel armor as the Mighty Beast bellowed, “You” towards him. The words the beast, The Lord of Gotrek’s Folk Jorvin Starbreaker, spoke were blurred in the red that tainted the memory as all that anchored the thought was Jorvin’s iron fist planting itself deep into Ulfar’s face. It is hard for Ulfar to think of much else besides the events that transpired in the halls of his clan, sitting there in the center of his northern factory.

 

“Oi thought they could see the truth, instead they molded it intu hate..” Ulfar says.

 

His hands come up to clasp the sides of his head as the memories strike at his dome. “Ingrate!” - “Betrayer!” roared from the chest of the Lord Starbreaker, thundering within the stone chambers enough to disturb the magma ducts beneath the ground. Ulfar could only stand against the waves, his feet planted into the ground as he prepared for what was to come. No word could be comprehended within the memory anymore except for the  flurry of slurs and insults thrown at him, both titans talking and talking as their maws grew wider and wider whilst their eyes dimmed darker and darker.

 

“You.. Y-You Deserter!” - “You abandoned your clan!” cried the serpent that coiled around the Lord’s throne. Its innocent emerald gaze stared at Ulfar while its tail lurked through the shadows of the hall, stalking the young Starbreaker. 

 

Ulfar set out long ago to claim the northern mountain he decided would be his home and the home of many others that journeyed with him. He had planned a future where his clan and people could live in peace in a place that encouraged them to craft and grow their minds instead of shedding their blood for false beliefs and blind faiths. A place to restart, but these two titans of the family couldn't see it. They saw it as a distraction from the true goal, a minor setback or waste of time. They lost their sight for the future long ago and now only see into the past. Relishing themselves in the memories of their pasts, their primes, as that is what is left for them to hold onto now, or so Ulfar believed.

 

His ashen hand gripped the shaft of his Star metal axe, pulling it off the belt around his waist. A rage boiled within him, a bubbling pot of black ichor and beneath it a raging flame that roared against the iron. “Betrayer” - “Deserter”, the words echoed and thrashed around within his skull as the veins began to bulge across his face. 

 

STRIKE! Before he knew it, his axe already cleaved a piece of industrial equipment. Ulfar’s silver gaze looked down onto the broken pieces now beneath him the sight of the destruction only fueling him further, strike after strike as he swung his steel into metal and stone, breaking apart the interior of his factory in a fit of rage. 

 

Until..

 

CRACK

 

 

Ulfar found himself standing in the chambers of the golem forge, his face frozen in shock as he looked down upon what he had done. His body tensed with horror with the Mother Anvil in front of him split in two. He rushed to her side as he set his hands upon her stone surface, tears welling up at the base of his stone eyes whilst his palms felt the beat of her magic slowly fade. 

 

Badum.. Badum.. Dum…. …. …. ….

 

Once a deep connection to the Anvil and its magics, now silent and still, leaving the dwarf with a familiar cold he once felt upon the sundering of his soul. He laid there by her side, filled with great pain upon his heart and mind until finally, he snapped. A pale and empty gaze formed over his face as he stood up from the rubble of his own making. The Star metal axe held tightly in his grasp, the once pure steel now tarnished with the black dust of the anvil. 

 

“Fine..” he thought before clicking his fingers, “Prepare deh charges, Kin ov Stone.. Fill evreh crevice yeh fine in dis hold wiff them.” and so by his command they did so, setting explosive charges all throughout the hold, in every barrel, pillar, and crack. 

 

His mind flooded once more with the memories of Jorvin and Norli, their words like swords and dagger clashing upon his steel, none harming him but a single cut that drew blood. The removal of his authorities and the dismissal of his children’s trials. He remembered the feeling, for but a moment he wished to swing his axe into the Lord Starbreaker’s torso, though it faded as quickly as it formed. “Why am I like this?" he had thought, why did the thought of slaying Jorvin even dare appear into his mind’s eye? He did not now, and this still remains so. 

 

His voice then roared out into the halls “Moi Kin! Yu must evacuate the hold! Et is going teh collapse!” he warned them, giving them time to pack their belongings as the charges were set into place. 

 

“They called meh ah deserter, they fink oi left them, but all Oi did was try to give them ah better future. Clearleh they are not prepared, nor worthy to enter the new age.” He said as he made his way out of the hold, standing at the center of the giant elevator that rattled as it slowly ascended. At the top, he exited the gate which he was proud to have carved with the help of those that joined him, but it is over. It is time to put to rest a future that the present is not ready for.

 

 

 

 

As the last of the Gotreki dwarves leave the hold and eventually the lands, Ulfar lights a torch and tosses it down into the line of oil that trails back down into the factory. He stood there as the flames grew bright and brighter, watching the land he had claimed from a distance in the snow until finally, the ground shook as the hold within erupted. The pressure contained within the construction was so great that it all funneled out from the grand pipe and the mouth of the gate as steel and stone burst open and shatter, a plume of smog and smoke forming a great cloud over the hold as rubble and dirt is flung through the air.

 

“Oi will see you soon, Ulfar.” These were the last words Ulfar heard from Norli, he spoke it in such a way that it rolled off his tongue like the slither and hiss of a serpent.

 

“Vereh well, Eldur Norli. Yuu will see me soon.” Ulfar spoke as he walked away from his lands to make his way back to the Father lands, The Grand Kingdom of Urguan. The hold, Kaz’ad Nolvaraz, itself is buried deep in rubble, left to remain sealed and unclaimable by his kin as none are worthy to embrace the lands of Innovation and Creation.

 

“The Kin are not readeh... Until then, Gotrek rests.” Ulfar thought as he travels across the snowy cold lands, pulling against the weight of the wagon that carries all his belongings. 

 

OOC

Spoiler

All images in here are generated by A.I
 

 

[Nooblius 5794]

Norli Starbreaker had long since retired, his time of service to Kin and Clan long done. But when the young Ulfar Starbreaker insulted him so flagrantly, and for little perceived reason; it awoke something that had long been dormant in Norli. This feeling was beyond even his own words, for the only apt description was an Irongrinder adage. Spite makes right.

[SimplySeo 5270]

The Great Beast, Jorvin Starbreaker, loomed silent in the halls of Starbreaker, contemplatively pouring over that most-sacred book of the Kornazkarumm, the Tome of Kazraden, half familial record- And half relic, runic bindings on the book flaired whenever the family tree expanded, whenever additions were made. They had been dim now, for quite some time. A somberness fell over the Clan-Lord, and his inner forge waned.

 

Lulubelle, gone, Lyni, gone, Stromni, gone, his mother, gone. Nara, Sif, Crevin, Azdal, Kazarath, all missing. . . Even his father, Kazrin, wisest of their kin, now spent more time within the Ancestor-Sleep than not. That fool, Ulfar had sequestered himself off to the far north, Ulfar, on who Jorvin laid his faith for the future, who he had strove to support always. Had he not done enough?

 

What use was greatness if it couldn't be passed on? What had he done to wound Ulfar so, that the boy had thought to humiliate him? Was there a shred of truth to Ulfar's words, or was it just rampant ambition? Rampant ambition. . . Jorvin had known that well, he had nearly fallen to it himself- He saw it in the eyes of his uncle, when he took his traitorous head, he saw it in his mother's eyes, moments before an arrow found her throat at the siege of Nordengrad. That bane was Velkan's curse, he used to tell himself- Though in truth, who was more ambitious than those who played with creation itself? They were blacksmiths and golemancers, yes- But so much more than that also. They were the apprentices of the Godsmith himself. There were few more ambitious than Gotrek's Folk- Could Jorvin blame Ulfar?

 

The Halls of Starbreaker were always dim- Save for forge glow, for Cave Dwarves had little need for the light of the surface. But now it truly fell dark, it felt cold- Empty. By his command, kingdoms had fallen- With his voice, he had broken armies, his axe had slain beasts beyond imagination, beyond space and time itself- And his hands directed the hammer that had cloven the skull of a God.

 

What had he done to be abandoned? Had he done all these great things, and still failed? That famous rage was absent now, a melancholy had seized the Great Beast, the Godslayer. Doubt plagued his old brow.