Role

Chapter 2

Before Bilgritik was released from his earthen home, the Earth Song in his
soul. It sang of the origins of his people, the kingdom of dwarves. It sang
of how no hammer would take him where he would go, no pick would return him
to the surface. Only by following the seams and folds of the earth, becoming
one with his Heritage as his Gramps did, would he find a way out. He followed
these tunnels and cracks, the moist air in them moved, and finally the gusts
turned to great a great roar, inconsistent, and raspy. It was here, he came
across a great sleeping being.

Bilgritik noticed that this being, looked much like a dwarf, only enormous, a
true behemoth. His great nostrils exhaled, and the tempests buckled the rock
ceiling, raising it. When he turned in his earthen earthen bed, the stones
themselves shook and fell. Dripping from the corner of his mouth, molten lava
trickled as drool, forming a great pool about him, yet it never singed his
coal black beard.

This was the first time in ages any had witnessed the Ancient Nordiach,
placed to slumber by the Lord of Order in times before the dawn of Thera. In
a great fit, Nordiach spun with rage in his slumber, and his great molten
eyes opened but for a brief moment locking with Bilgritik's.

Bilgritik had a great revelation. It was in Nordiach's image that he and all
dwarfs were created, yet not in temperament. The Behemoth had shaped the
world not by the artisan's chisel and careful precision that dwarfkind were
renowned for. No, the crags and cliffs of the surface were formed by violent
upheaval and chaos of the depths.

To know the Earth's Song, was to know Nordiach. To know Nordiach, was to be
more than his image, but to bring the powers of shaping and creation to the
surface.