AlaricGrimgold

IGN: Hrokaz RP NAME: Alaric Grimgold AGE: 212 ACTIVITY REQUIREMENT: All (Legion, Guild, Home Owner, Clan List) CANDIDATE: Alaric Grimgold

Alaric exclaims at the Dwarven radio. “Absolutely heinous news the Doomforge fatha’ did! And reported from such an unbiased and reputable news source!” He said, remembering to write out another tax deductible public access funding check to the Gold News Network.

My diving bells and diving suits aren’t even accepted fully yet; how the hell are we going to straight jump to submersibles that would be crushed like grapes under the pressure?

Alaric has Ram Ranch flashbacks.

Alaric had practically seen the Golem in a dream, a vision of his, the first time he laid eyes upon it in that sun swept desert. As his eye flew open from the dream, there was but one thing hot upon his lips. "THE TOWER... THE TOWER WALKS!"

The Holy Grimgold Empire chucked at the Orenian response, as apparently anyone could call themselves an Empire now despite not controlling any Kingdoms beneath their de jure.

Alaric stared at the Grudge, seeing that the crafty Ulfric had drawn his own line above the real first line that he had signed. With a slap of the document he cursed. "DAT CRAFTEH BAHSTAHD!"

Mc name: Hrokaz Current Tier: Not on it Desired Tier: C or D Reason to be moved: Trained by Mick, but not even he can fix stupid.

"Hrokaz: Remember to wait for your sword to return to full position before you strike." Wise words from a combat sage.

Deepstone - Songsteel Origins Long before stories were told, stars have fallen to the surface of our world embedding themselves in rock and soil. For centuries prospective Starbreaker Dwarves and those of the Mali’ame have sought to harvest the fallen stars, but those that go unfound are swept away by the churning tectonic activity into the depths. Here, the pressure and heat have cracked and churned the deposits in with other base and exotic metals like a mixing bowl, forming it into a new alloy where the rolling plates settle in veins. Amongst deep caverns beneath mountainous sea cliffs or chasoumous valleys of the ocean, streaks of black rock shining with crystals of purple and blue and green and gold coat forgotten walls along chthonic rivers, where the material has found time to cool. The silvery cores of the fallen stars now brimming with impurities of niobium and titanium and base ferrum until a new material was birthed in the rocky womb of the earth. Tales have passed from deep delvers about this mineral and the strange resonating properties it gives off-- tales of caves that chime with the groaning movements of the earth, the light hymnal sound of metal begging to be pulled from the walls, the secret songs of the steel that sing in the deep parts of the world. These stories have all come to give the metal its enigmatic names; some call the strange substance ‘Deepstone’, while others have chosen to use ‘Reverbium’ as a preferred description of the anomalous ore Those who have gotten lucky enough to receive a sample of the stone and refine it have given it the name Songsteel or Deepsteel in refined form. What is known about the substance is its overwhelming difficulty to find. Deepstone (Raw Form) Deepstone is found in veins of crystalline, jet black striations along walls of deep caverns within regions of heavy tectonic activity-- coastal mountains, volcanic regions, and sea trenches. Having originated with a meteor that went unfound for thousands of years, already a very uncommon find in its own right, the metal is rarely discovered. In a raw, untreated form the rock is a dark black hue with crystal formations of an array of colors including gold, green, blue or purple sprouting from the metal’s structure. The most noticeable sign of being close to a deposit of the material is the slight hum of the rock’s reverberation sounding through the cave. It takes an extremely experienced miner to determine an ore vein to be deepstone by appearance in the darkest depths. Red Lines (Raw Form) Chthonic Song Mining (Harvesting Method) After finding a large vein of the vibrating stone, the first thing a knowledgeable miner would wish to do is to test the vein with a small brass hammer, listening carefully to the sound each area of the rock would ring. Once an area was found with a duller, more ‘thuddy’ call a chisel would be placed to the stone and chunks would be freed from the hard stone wall around it. Should a more inexperienced miner pick a part of the stone that gave of a more bell-like, high-ringing chime the vibratory pushback of the material would be far stronger due to the tightly banded crystals of the area, possibly strong enough to cause the brittle crystals to shatter in an event causing a ‘Grim Shriek’, a loud expulsion of stored kinetic energy that sounds like the large wail of a banshee. Should the ‘scream’ be loud enough and the nearby rock weak enough, it would risk a full collapse of the cave around the node. While the process itself is not hard, it can still be quite dangerous should the proper precautions not be observed. Deepstone Ore Chunk items may bear this description and an ST signature: “An irregular shaped rock that hums and vibrates with delight, rough and unrefined. It appears to be stratified with glossy, jet black stone , which glistens with flecks of purple, blue, green, and gold when put under light. It shines and shimmers like untold galaxies under the lustrous dark surface. Even if one knew its name, they most likely will not know exactly what to do with it.” Red Lines (Harvesting) Songsmithing (Refining) The process of crafting deepstone into Songsteel begins by breaking the excess of rock away from the jet black ore, separating the slag material from the workable metal. When a large portion of fleck-filled black nuggets are left, they are placed into a crucible. The crafting process of deepstone is very particular, as the ore must be heated in a powerful furnace that keeps the stones frozen in stasis between two large slabs of Magnetite. Because Magnetite has a lower melting point than the deepstone, the preparation of the forge must be careful to retain its magnetic properties, and to not heat it to it’s critical point, losing its magnetism. Once the metal has melted, it is important to clear the slag with proper coke and sintering, before being poured into billets or ingots. If done properly the metal will retain the vibratory properties in the form of a workable product. To test this, a forgemaster should lightly strike the now processed songsteel with a small mallet and listen to the sound it makes. If the sound is dull like the sound of ferrum or steel, too many impurities were left and the final product will be rendered inert; while if the sound is shrill and screaming like a hellish wail, there is not enough carbon to maintain the form of the final product, rendering it too weak, and it must be reforged with more coke added. If the material gives off a long chime that resonates with a high calling pitch, the material has been forged properly, and can be worked much as one would work steel or lunarite, being difficult to cast quick enough to fill all the holes of the mold, but easy to work with by heat and hammer. The processed bars hum and sing only a light and constant buzz that may comfort those who hear it, giving off a slight vibration upon the skin. Refining Redlines Songsteel (Refined Form) Songsteel demonstrates roughly the same ductility and toughness as crucible forged steel, but gleams with a jet black finish speckled with opalescent flakes. It is known under many names depending upon the region in which it is found-- ‘Songsteel’ or‘Deepsteel’, but they all bear the same distinct qualities. Songsteel will gather ‘rust’ upon its surface, but remarkably, the layer will not pierce the surface, instead gathering atop the metal in growing crystals of iron oxide material stolen from its atmosphere and contact overtime through the slight magnetic pull of the metal. This layer is easily removed with a chime of the steel, shulking off the accumulated oxide like a dog shaking off water. While a handy property of the metal, it often leaves valuable tools and weapons hidden away amongst rusted artifacts in dusty tombs, waiting for their secret to be discovered. Worked Songsteel will reverberate and hum with an intensity similar to that of a struck tuning fork and about as loud as a singing bowl when subject to even the slightest movement or force. This whimsical quality of the metal has attracted many crafters wishing to make use of the strange sensation it gives off. Uses of Songsteel (Refined) Once refined, a skilled artisan or blacksmith would find many uses for Songsteel billets, between its beautiful surface, gentle sound, and auditory qualities. Besides the lustrous nature of the finished product, often compared to the sibling of Lunarite, it is also known for its peculiar ability to be etched with grooves that provide audible sound when vibrated-- allowing for certain short recordings to be produced on discs, cylinders, or more rarely metal etchings. Weapons, tools, and armor made of the material are purely produced for decorative purposes, being equivalent in strength to a standard forge smithed steel or starmetal blade. More often it is reserved for decorative pieces such as statues, bells, and other auditory luxury goods. Jewelry and other accessories made of the material will produce a gentle vibration against the skin many will describe as soothing or pleasant. Songsteel Redlines Purpose Songsteel is purposed to exist as a more flavour focused decorative metal, more known for its audible nature. It is to serve as a twin to lunarite, whose audible and vibratory qualities are to be the opposite of Lunarites luminous and visible nature. Many different types of objects such as weapons, tools, armor, and artisan goods could be crafted of the material in creative ways, including more of a RP focused way for music discs and other rudimentary sound recordings to exist. I hope it also provides more mining and smithing RP, creating specialties in the craft, and filling a niche in the deep cavern environment which often feels empty. Citation Spoilers

Alaric Grimgold had been working on hammering rails into the earth as the Grand Queen departed, not getting a proper chance to see her leave. It was only as he set his hammer down and took his mask off to wipe the sweat from his brow, that he saw the goat carrying the crimson haired monarch away to rest. He didn't know if she saw him on the mountain top, but he knew he watched one of the hardest working regents and sovereigns he had seen depart the realm and he raised a lone long wave to her in parting. It had only been a few decades since he arrived in town, but Dhaen had steered the Grand Kingdom straight for most of it, and now it was time for the next Dwarves to step into her footsteps. And the mighty footsteps they would have to fill. It was long after the goat carrying the regal figure crested and disappeared into the horizon in the distance that he lowered his hand, and somberly returned to his work.

The news caught Alaric as he sat on a mountain top over the Kingdom, his sole cyan gaze turning to face the woods of Hefrumm as a lone tear dropped from his eye. A small touch of his gauntlet reached out to touch the stone connection at his severed arm and remembered the great battle so long ago with a deep sigh, and realized that it was starting to be time for his generation to pass into myth and stone legend. Reaching up to grab his Clan Mask, he set it down on the lone log as an offering to Dungrimm for the Lord of Death to guide his lost friend safely to his hall for judgement. A soft prayer left his lips for Anbella to bid well for the troubled soul as he stood to his feet and turned with a bare face of tears to stumble back down the mountain side.

The Grimgold Endorsement The debate floor had been absent from the Grimgold candidate for the past four stone days, and few had seen him around the capitol of late as his constituency at the port claimed to have seen him ‘smacking small metal balls with a hammer into a hole’ at the Kal’a-Lago. Upon further investigation of his campaign office all that was found was a single Grimgold Clan Mask, with a vote pinned to the stone with a dagger. The paper had a long list of names that had been scratched out and rewritten before it finally settled on one in bold:

IGN: Hrokaz RP NAME: Alaric Grimgold CANDIDATE: Norli Starbreaker

To Register IGN: Hrokaz RP Name: Alaric Grimgold Rank in the Legion: Longbeard Do you agree to the rules of the competition? Yes

MC Name: Hrokaz RP Name: Alaric Grimgold Discord: Shadowhunter Zulan'jin#2772 Timezone (EST, GMT, etc.): EST

The Wronged: Clan Grimgold The Assailant: Clan Irongrinder The Wrong: Accusing Clan Grimgold of stealing their colors 50 years after they voted to approve Clan Grimgold to the council under said colors. Choosing to resort to legal trickery to make money off of fellow Dwarves. Accusing Clan Grimgold of disrespecting the name of Clan Irongrinder, even though no action or words were ever taken against or towards them. Date of Wrongdoing: 18th of Amber Cold, Year 1 of the Second Age Terms of Settlement: An apology for accusing Clan Grimgold of disrecpect to be delivered before the Council and 500 minae in compensation for attempting to demand the same over a supposed slight, claiming it happened now when they approved the colors five decades prior when the Grimgolds were first brought into the Clan Council.

Alaric would respond simply. "Da Port is called Tor'Sjorvath..." "But dis name is fah bettah."

The issue with Steampower being the current status quo is supposedly technologically advanced races such as Dwarves tend to get the short end of the stick, our Steampower only coming up in the case of war. With the Redline being made to diminish the average potato farmer from just establishing train lines everywhere, the hope for this was to allow CERTAIN more Steampowered nations to connect via railways. There is a lack of different types of trains besides the basic Steampowered variant to prevent everyone from just creating their own different form of trains. It should be noted that the Techlock was written to encourage Train Lore to be submitted, not to say it will be automatically declined:

On the our Clan thing-- I wrote the document, but this is from a group of people who wanted to do it. The traditions we are talking about are the Iron Chargers (over 100 years old) and Steam Ships, which have also been around for over 100 years. On the second point-- Yes that would be a far better wording. Lastly-- That is fair, and I like the idea of the supply stations along the line. It just seems certain resources-- coal especially-- become useless down the road and we were hoping to keep a purpose to people still doing certain more mundane jobs, like actually collecting coal. But yes, that can easily be modified.

I should clarify. The original plan was for fast travel using a system of warps, but as that is generally disliked to be implemented by a section of the community we rewrote it to be more organized and FASTER travel using long stretches of minecarts. If the idea of warps becomes more accepted on the server, it could easily be converted back. Upon the coal-- I could see it becoming a hassle, but as coal often becomes a throwaway resource we wanted to give some purpose to players making money off of coal mining or charcoal making RP professions by selling to Rail Companies. This could also be done away with, but our hope was to create more options for RP to arise.

The Dwarven Steam Train Model SE-1 “The Grimforge Engine” Origin In the late 1780’s, upon the massive expansion of the Kal’Drahgalotharem minecart system, a great team of Dwarves from the clans Grimgold and Hammerforge began work on a massive undertaking: to renovate the chaotic labyrinth of tracks into a more organized system of rails. Under the engineering knowledge of the Clanfathers, combined with engineers brought in from the Worker’s Guild and the esteemed Clan Irongut, large beams of timber were laid over the stripped tunnels that once housed the intertwined cart system and rails far larger than the previous tracks were laid. With a base of stories of old Imperial Iron Chargers, the Dwedmar set to work designing a way to carry far more freight over far distances, setting up a system with a wheeled coal-fed steam engine, redesigned from one of their steamships. Dubbing the device The Grimforge Engine, the multitude of Dwarves piled upon the loading platform to watch the first set of testings. Description This device consists primarily of a retrofitted steamship engine; a large coal burning furnace that heats up a boiler of water. When the water inside boils, the steam produced pushes pistons that sit in the engine above to turn a crankshaft, rotating the wheels via a connecting rod, or axel. As this pushes the first engine cart forwards, it will carry along a number of cars behind it equal to the size of the engine equipped. The Coal Car with Passenger Cars in the distance. Capabilities: When carts are hooked up to the steam engine, it allows the transportation of large amounts of freight or people over long distances to preset locations. A steady supply of water, coal, oil, and sand (which is required to maintain traction on the wheels) is required to keep the maintenance and upkeep of the train of carts. The load and speed bearing capabilities are determined by the size of the engine pulling the cart. Small Engine-- A more specialized engine, most would not see a reason to build such a small carriage unless to traverse flattened terrain or to travel to more remote locations. Requirements: 2 Blast Furnaces Towing Capabilities: One Engine, One Coal Car, and One Car of any type Speed: Top speeds of 50 MPH under optimal conditions, standard speeds of 27 MPH fully laden. Medium Engine-- The standard carriage design set by the original designers of the engine, with the planned use for most city to city travel and the ferrying of cargo and passengers between these towns. Requirements: 12 Blast Furnaces Towing Capabilities: One Engine, One coal car, and four cars of any type. Speed: Top speeds of 60 MPH under optimal conditions, standard speeds of 35 MPH fully laden. Large Engine-- These engines are suitable over long distances and for travel over steeper terrain. While capable of carrying vast quantities of goods and people, they are very expensive to maintain and are slower than most engines due to the large amounts of weight they carry. Requirements: 22 Blast Furnaces Towing Capabilities: One Engine, One coal car, and ten cars of any type. Speed: Top speeds of 65 MPH under optimal conditions, standard speed of 38 MPH fully laden. Gaining power-- For every 10 blast furnaces added to the engine without additional cars attached, a small engine can add 10 MPH to both its optimal and fully laden speeds, to a maximum of 20 blast furnaces. Allowing smaller trains with larger engines to be the most suited to uneven or difficult terrain. Redlines -Adding more engines above 22 does not further increase the power of the engines. Thus the top speed of a train is 70 MPH (one car with 22 engines, unladen). While the purpose of the trains is for quicker travel, the speeds should be in realistic ranges. -The knowledge and capabilities of building these devices have evolved from hundreds of years of steam engineering and mining traditions, and takes intense training for one to learn the complex mechanisms required to bring the locomotion to the vehicle. Without the knowledge of the craft, the average person would be incapable of crafting such an engine. -For every IRL month of operation, a line (defined as a travel point between two destinations) must hand over a single chest full of coal or charcoal to the ST to destroy. -It is impossible to take a train off of the rails, neither will these engines be capable of being compressed enough to make a steam wagon. -A station must be built at both locations you wish to set travel between. The Flat Bed and Caboose OOC Information This invention post is meant to give a more unique sense of industrial culture and travel to match the steamships for certain semi-industrialized groups. If implemented, we would wish to see stations appear to allow fast travel between cities that allow a station to be built in them to the central station. These stations would be set up by any builders of the town and would supply both roleplay and purpose to certain areas. It is intended for the laying of tracks to be handled mostly IRP with engineers heading out to areas to plan the course of tracks. With a cost added to each month of operation, we hope that it would deter a lack of roleplay. Minecarts As one boards the train they would find an elevator down to a tunnel beneath that would have minecarts running between the two destinations. Here, they could purchase a cart and use the track to their own discretion. With the possibility for some of the track to breach the surface, nice view points and spots for ambushes could also be set up. Citations: https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/180554-✗-iron-chargers-engines-and-railways/ Credit to Hrokaz, Overlord8000, Bdanecker, and Norgeth_

@Wretched How is it not just less restricting to simply say-- “It is abnormal for Kha to choose to dye their fur, and those who do are commonly outcasted from Kha society or are killed for their actions”? That is IRP consequences for IRP decisions, and I am certain story team would be more than reasonable to listen to that. Let’s stop acting like people are amorphous blobs incapable of reasonable thought and emotion. The 1/6 or two or whatever you want to call them are still players, people behind the computers, and so are the story team, who I am certain aren’t just unreasonable cogs who will shoot out any form with an error in it. They like interesting stories just as much as the rest of us.

@Wretched How would coming up with an even more contrived IRP reason to restrict their choices make it less of an OOC decision? That is just saying-- well if you don’t like that I am going after them, I can come up with an RP reason to do so.

Maybe they have a story reason that people are unaware of and should figure out through interaction? Maybe they wish to form a group that disagrees with the Turned Trident, and dye their fur white as a profane statement towards Metzli’s death and form a ‘Ghost Cat Cult’ or some ****? Maybe they undergo the painful dyeing process as a self-mortification towards Metzli like medieval flagellants? Maybe they don’t want to tell you why? That creates culture and story and actual original flavor that was asked for. But to just assume it’s to pretend to be a Tlatlanni and outright say no, seems limiting and unrealistic. @chaosgamer_ I never did say you were on our side, or would prevent it from happening, but I did say we discussed the opposition side and you saw where we came from (i.e. it does seem a little **** to throw a portion of your community under the wheels). Beyond that, I am only pointing out the opposition opinion, which is plainly, restricting character choices is bad form.