Library: The Giants, the Dwarves and the BAT

Genesis In the Beginning there was only Darkness. And the Darkness was without for, and void and moved upon the face of the waters. The Darkness saw that something would be better than nothing and took its natural form in the shape of a BAT. Not a small one you can see flying in circles or not even a giant bat, the silent hunter of the night. A gigantic one. An Eternal Primordial BAT, which had wings wide enough to darken a whole continent. Only there were no continents yet. Just an infinite ocean. The BAT slided through the air, over the vast ocean. It was minding its own business, until it felt a need to relieve itself. So huge lump of guano fell down to the ocean. It made an enormous splash and the eternal ocean was changed forever. The quano had formed a continent. It wasn't much back then, just a huge piece of muddy land rising over the waves, later to be named as the Northern continent. Even much later it would be called Rothikgen. Over the thousands of years that followed, the continent started to team with life, trees and plants would grow everywhere. And nobody would suspect its humble origins. Giants and Dwarves There were giants in the earth those days. Nobody knows from where they originated from, but it is known there were seven of them. The giants were wise and powerful beings beyond what mortals could understand. They were gentle creatures, who took care in the welfare of the lesser beings and nature. Their names were Rog, Hul, Dhi, Guj, Mra, Dra and Tra. The giants had abilities that made them almost omnipotent, wisdom and patience being some among those. A giant could build things, create simple lifeforms and together they could even move mountains. But arts were what they were most interested in, such handicrafts, music and sculpting scenery. They created wild animals to inhabit the lands. The most numerous inhabitants of the continent were the dwarves. They were gifted constructors, who saw making and gathering nice things as their meaning of life. They had come with boats from somewhere else and kept coming from from time to time. The dwarves often dedicated their lives into learning skills, building things and prospering. They were not as skilled as giants or could not make as large creations, but some of them were brilliantly skilled in their own ways. And they liked to learn new skills from giants whenever the latter had time and will to teach. And finally, there were the third race, the gully dwarves. Normally everyone would want just to forget the existence of such small and ugly creatures. They were to dwarves what kenders are to elves. No real dwarf wanted to acknowledge ?the gullies? being related to them in any way. And nobody knew or cared where they came from. They just seemed to turn up and almost as often to vanish too. The gully dwarves looked up to normal dwarves as their idols. It was polite for dwarves to wish the gullies welcome as they turned up and started gibbering. After greeting others the next thing the gullies typically did, if they could even manage to talk, was to start questioning. They just didn't seem not understand how things worked, not even the most simple ones. How to eat, how to dress, how to move or navigate outside. It was generally thought that the vanishing of gully dwarves was most probably due to their stupidity and being unable to learn to live at all. The gullies kept nagging the dwarves and even the most patient ones lost their temper. It just felt stupid to sacrifice your time to teach them, because most often they would just disappear the next day and the next one would want you to start teaching from beginning. The Lizard case And it came to pass after the giants and dwarves were settled in, that the first catastrophy happened. The green banks of the Northern continent must have been to sweet to look at, for there would be other being that would want to claim them. These were the fire lizards. They were ancient behemoths that lived under the sea. But from time to time they would try to find nesting grounds on land and crawl out. They were gigantic, clumsy but powerful monsters that cared nothing of other beings. In their quest of seeking nesting grounds they stampeded, knocked down and destroyed everything on their way. Sometimes they would stop and breath out fire, which would consume the villages or poor dwarves. The small dwarves were powerless in front of those huge mobile blights. After hearing of the tribulations from the dwarves, they giants decided they would have to act. There could be no arguments with a fire lizards, as the latter ones chose to ignore all the habitants of the lands. Rog the Mighty urged and united the giants in fight to repel the invaders. When the lizards came the next time, they were in for a surprise. The giants fought hard with their hammers. For hammers were the ideal weapons for creators, both able to build and destroy. The bludgeoning damage worked well against the stony lizards. The lizards soon learned that they would be assaulted as soon they crawled on the land. They would try to snap the giants to their jaws or crush them under their legs. But although smaller than the huge reptilians, the giants were faster. And their hammers hit with enough power to flatten mountains, and to break even the thick stony lizard skulls. Guj the Gallant was especially skilled in the martial arts and proved his worth in dozens of battles fighting alongside with Rog the Mighty and others. In the next few years the lizards stopped coming. They were either dead or learned to go to other places to live. And all of the Northern continent would know peace again. The largest of the dead lizard bodies were too big to be moved, but the smaller ones were carried by the giants to the northern edge of the continent and piled in a large wall-like mass facing northwards. The body wall would also form a barrier to prevent cold Northern winds from blowing too hard on the continent. The corpses gradually crumpled to boulders and formed mountain ranges. The largest carcasses formed long mountain chains of their own, two of them almost side to side in the south-eastern side and two a bit smaller in the south-west-corner of the continent. After defeating the lizards all of the dwarves celebrated the giants as their saviours. From now on they would trust giants to solve their problems and listen to their advice. Well, the gully dwarves didn't really understand, but they followed the dwarves in everything, like usual. Universal laws for almost everyone The giants assumed the position as overlords. They carved mountain shapes, built things and places and planted forests. They wanted to help the dwarves also in civilizing them. With giants guiding them and teaching them new concepts, skills and things, life would be better for everyone. The society would work better with rules, decided the giants. Mra the Just was the one who best understood the workings of the Realms and its Lore. He and Hul the Vigilant took great care to device just rules for everyone. This meant of course the dwarves and gullies. Giants naturally were always right and above the law. And so spoke Mra to the dwarves: Killing of others is to be forbidden, without a very good reason at least. It was know that sometimes dwarves would each others from stealing their things. Also was it rumored that some of the gullies disappearing was due to fed up dwarves just finishing them off. And Mra ordered: As for creating automatons, that is to be forbidden. Only giants may create new beings. The dwarves were far from being able to create real life, but some were clever enough to create mechanical beings to do the most simple work for them. This was to be stopped. Rules were written everywhere so that even gully dwarves couldn't say they didn't see them. There were punishments for criminals, which meant everyone who broke the rules on purpose. The dwarves were not without a choice, however. They could either follow the rules or be removed from the land. The latter meant a glorious hammer powered flight off the continent, which usually led to being smashed and drowned. But nonetheless it was a free choice. Giant troubles start The Dwarves obeyed. The dwarves were greedy by their basic nature, this was also the force driving them to learn and make things. So the dwarves would ask the giants for more. More skills, things, or interesting places to visit. The most annoying were the comments about how everything used to be better before some changes that the giants had lately done. Rog the Mighty in particular became quite soon tired to the constant whining. He preferred the company of giants and seldom associated himself with the dwarves. Some others like Dra the Gentle, Guj the Gallant and Hul the Vigilant spent much of their time with the dwarves, listened to their pleas and even arranged parties for them. Guj the Gallant got easily interested in new ideas, no matter how crazy those seemed and tried to bring those forward. Guj had a dwarf friend who often companied him. One day the dwarf went missing and the other dwarves couldn't find him. After a fair amount of searching the dwarves found out that Guj had stomped the dwarf. Flattened him to the ground so that only a wet spot remained. Other dwarves never got to know why this had happened and nobody was brave enough to push Guj about why he did it. Everyone just had to believe that Guj must have had a good reason to do so. After that any dwarf was always frightened when Guj was around. The most hard working helper for dwarves was Tra the Tireless. He was especially talented in polishing things to working order. Tra had a good heart and taught many things to dwarves, fixed their problems and gave his time unreservedly. Tra's dilemma was that he was younger and smaller than the other giants. This meant that he was lower than others in the giant hierarchy. The others didn't quite pay attention to his doings. No matter how much work he did, he was considered just ?the little one? by other giants and he was not given as much power. Dwarf problems grow Over the centuries there took place several episodes where a benevolent idea from giants would turn into a full size catastrophy by the masses of dwarves. It was just extremely hard even for giants to estimate how things would go. The case of Manic Mining had its origin in giants teaching mining resources and gem cuttinging with proper tools. Seeing the lustrous glimmer of gemstones the nature of dwarves drove them into mining frenzy for longs hours work with pickaxes to uncover riches from stones. Almost everyone wanted to try it quickly became a gem rush for best places. There really were not so many precious stones to be found and the rush might have eventually faded, if not for the gully dwarves. They saw what their role models were doing and wanted to do the same. As usually they had more enthuism than understanding. Soon many gully dwarves were digging around, and every tale of someone actually finding something spread around as an inflating rumor. Where one gully dwarf was performing dedicated digging work, others would believe treasures could be found. Soon everyone within sight rushed there to dig in the same place. The gullies were all digging and creating huge pits and soil piles all over. This created lots and lots of holes in the ground. They were everywhere, also on the roads. Something had to be done before all the continent was full of holes. The giants declared that gemstones were almost worthless and flooded the markets with their own, which they could quite easily make in great numbers. Gradually the mining madness cooled down. As the holes gradually filled with water, they created the numerous small lakes that you can still today see in Rothikgen. Recipes for progress The case of Cultivation Crisis had its origins from the philosophy oriented Dhi the Calm contemplating that introducing agriculture would benefit the mostly hunter-gatherer society of dwarves to become more civilized. He taught dwarves how to find some suitable wild plants for farming and which herbs could be used for making different medical potions. These recipes also happened to include information about fermentation and distilling. The wisdom after the events is obvious, but at that time there were high hopes of dwarves using the information to advance their society. Instead they degenerated into crawling and stammering intoxicated retards. The gullies didn't understand enough about the process to make it, but most of the dwarves wanted to enjoy the new potions. The correction measures included the ban of alcohol sales in the shops, but it wasn't enough. In the end giants had to also to sabotage the gardens to make it harder to grow their ingredients. Gradually most dwarves turned sober again. Grouping for greatness The final chapter of the failures was the Clan Catastrophy. It started from Dra the Gentle's idea. Dwarves were to help more their smaller cousins, the gullies. For this purpose he presented the concept of clans. Every dwarf belonging to a clan would get extra training from giants, but every clan would have to also take responsibility of some gully dwarves and teaching them how to survive. It need not be said that everything that happened didn't go quite as planned. So far the gully dwarves had had a large turover rate, so to say. Normally the gullies were with a fast rate, dying or disappearing to other planes of existence. However after starting clans they kept piling up. The largest clans grew and grew, because there was no plan how to restrict their sizes. With agriculture they could be fed at least until a certain point and the growth in numbers was exponential. With the increasing population everywhere on the continent, also the need of help and problems increased, particularly where to get enough food. The giants could simply not have time to solve the problems happening in the ever growing clans and the gullies would keep complaining and asking for this and that. The Return of the BAT After time passed the masses were growing and the whining of the gully dwarf masses was becoming louder and more irritating, and it was going on all the time, day and night. It was so strong and it travelled even to the sensitive ears of the BAT, which was still flying over the vast ocean. The BAT preferred the northern ocean, because it wasn't too hot even in summer. The huge Beast also liked its own peace, minding its own business that no mortal creatures could ever understand. But the continuous cries from the Northern continent were disturbing it, so it decided to get rid of that sound. The BAT spread its wings. It embraced the Northern continent in darkness. This caused an ever lasting night. Without warmth from the sun, the whole continent gradually started to freeze. Clouds coming from the ocean snowed down on the cold land. The whining as the gully dwarves and dwarves alike was gradually quieting down as they were frozen and buried in the snow. The layers of snow packed into an ice sheet. The ice gradually grew into glaciers. The largest glacier formed in the center of the continent, its weight gradually pushing down a depression that would later be the bay in the middle of Rothikgen and separating the southwestern part to form island. The BAT saw that its work was done, it could once again take to flight minding just its BAT-business. So it left the glacier covered continent behind. And what of the giants, you might wonder? Before the BAT arrived they had long since departed the Northern continent, considering helping the dwarves an ultimately bad idea. It was a nice try, they all agreed, but didn't work out on the long run. It just wasn't worth their time and there were more serious things to do. No-one knows where they went, but it is said that their spirits are still in the Reams today. In the millenniums to come the ice age gradually ended and most of the glaciers melted down, forming huge, slowly moving rivers and lakes everywhere. And thus Rothikgen was empty when the first settlers from the Southern continent, Laenor, arrived much, much later.

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Library: The Giants, the Dwarves and the BAT