The Line of Jarren Godsmith

[Johan]

In the second era of the Droung'Knaqt Empire, a time of great expansion for the empire, Jarren Godsmith, known as "The Incorruptible", was a General Commander in the Droung'Knaqt army. Jarren was a military genius who exhibited tenacity, tactical ingenuity, and great honor. Many were the battles that he saw and great were the deeds that he did.
 
It was held as common knowledge during that time that Jarren was descended of such parentage as could trace their blood directly to Moradin himself. Jarren's line earned the clan-name "Godsmith" as theirs was a line whose smiths could craft wondrous items directly from metals that no other smiths could work.
 
During this time Jarren had been married to a combat medic that had been assigned to his army, and raised a son, Schervick. During the war of The Hundred Warlords he lost his wife. As demanded by honor in that time, when Jarren returned victorious from that campaign (having subdued the Hundred Warlords, exacted tribute and fealty, and brought them into the Droung'Knaqt Empire) he gave his only son into his wife's clan as compensation for losing her. Jarren's wife's name was Charina Fireforge.
 
Schervick Fireforge was many things: Dutiful Son, Loyal Warrior, Gifted Seer, Ardent of the White Lady, Honored Nicht'Luraw. In the decades that followed his mother's death, Schervick served his father as well as his new clan. Jarren was a man of the hammer and shield though, and did not hold with Schervick's gifts of vision or Arcana and the two, while friendly, did not build a familial relationship.
 
Nearly 100 years later, a growing empire to the south - the DrachkParjun - declared war on the Droung'Knaqt. Jarren was commissioned to put the DrackParjun down. Schervick came to Jarren and beseeched his father to let another have this glory. Schervick explained that he had a vision: if Jarren put the DrachkParjun down, the Droung'Knaqt Empire would fall, and the Godsmith clan (at that point Jarren was the only Godsmith in existence) would be stricken from the face of the earth.
 
Jarren was enraged at his son's request; he accused Schervick not only of trying to unman Jarren and make a coward of him, but also of trying to steal Jarren's glory and by doing so jeopardizing the Droung'Knaqt empire. Jarren thrashed the young seer near to death, then left to war in what turned out to be a bloody 70-year-long campaign.
 
Jarren put down the DrachkParjun, but in the doing he fell in love with the Princess Indalia Shieldstone, the only child of DrachkParjun's royal family. He claimed her as his war prize, and after a time he announced his intention to marry her.

Schervick once again approached Jarren; it was the first time in over 80 years that the two had spoken. Schervick renewed his warning to Jarren as the White Lady had shown him: Indalia Shieldstone was already dead, and Jarren and all his children but one would follow. That one, should he be born, would bring about the end of the clan of Godsmith, destroy the Droung'Knaqt empire, and make the Gods weep. Schervick was ready for Jarren's attack, and left his father alone with his anger.
 
Jarren and Indalia had many children over the next decades while Schervick shared his visions among the Kharan'Jhul. But never could any evidence be brought to bear; no other seer had seen what Schervick had. The removal of Jarren's wife would not be met with approval, and among the Kharan'Jhul it was held that doing so would bring the Droung'Knaqt to their knees as readily as NOT doing so. And, as doing nothing afforded the Kharan'Jhul time to perhaps plan, it was decided to do nothing but watch, and protect who we could.
 
As is the case in any civilization, there came a time when a plague descended upon the Droung'Knaqt. In this particular plague the entire Godsmith family was wiped out while their 20th child was only a few years old. Some of Schervick's visions, at last, had come to pass. Many looked to Schervick as the lone survivor of the clan of Godsmith, but every seer in the Kharan'Jhul said no: Schervick had ceased to be Godsmith on the day when he entered the Fireforge clan. One, then, survived. And all the seers agreed: that one would be the vulture that gorged upon the carcass of the Droung'Knaqt Empire.
 
5 decades passed, and a new name entered the Droung'Knaqt Empire: Vorntoque Dramwall. Vorntoque and his wife came out of the hinterlands of what had at one time been the DrachkParjun Empire. It is believed that he was raised in the Wretched Swamps.
 
His wife, it is said, was odd to the extreme: intelligent, and elegant in company but frighteningly dark in solitude. She eschewed the public eye as much as she could, and cloistered herself indoors, claiming to suffer from extreme photosensitivity. She often made mention of things that happened so long ago that only the most learned of scholars might know them. It is said that she had a taste for blood, and sometimes dined on hapless citizens of the empire...especially the elves.
 
In the Empire, Vorntoque was a soldier in the Droung'Knaqt armies when he joined the Tareen'Phol; he was a gifted dispatcher.
 
Vorntoque grew in prominence within the Tareen'Phol and in the political arena of the Droung'Knaqt societal circles, although it was frequently whispered that his wife was more likely the brain behind his standing. Over the course of but a few decades, he had grown from a virtual nobody to a powerful force in the Droung'Knaqt senate.
 
Then the blight, which left him the only survivor of the senate. Vorntoque proclaimed himself emperor, and there were none to challenge him.
 
It is written in the library of the Marin'Thar that Vorntoque had only a few children with his odd wife, and only one survived: a lad named Kervan. Before that son had come of age, his parents plotted his death, as they did not deem him worthy of their bloodline. The child, Kervan, had been warned by Schervick Firforge, and understood their intentions. He fled the Droung'Knaqt Empire, never to be seen again. Kervan begat children that eventually led to a number of dwarven clans, notably:
Ironaxe (a great warrior clan far to the north-east), Granitesoul (long extinct clan of ill repute), Stoutspear (plains-dwellers to the west) and the Stonehammers of Derkenwold.