Creative writing submission from the Rest Less community – submit your entry here.
Adamas, one of the co-founders of the Oathblood family, is the last surviving member of the Silvermountain Dwarves; her tribe perished during the race wars. She hopes to find other survivors like herself, or other dwarves without kin, to help re-establish her tribe – an unreal dream, some would say.
Whenever a bard or historian would visit the Oathblood compound, Adamas always made sure she heard about their arrival. She would rush from whatever chore she was currently engaged in to ask them questions about other dwarves they had met or if they had any records of the times of the race wars. Normally, such encounters would end with her gaining only a few more insights into the battle that had destroyed her kin, but occasionally she would gain more. For example, an encounter with a gnome archivist, a master historian from the royal court, gave her an idea of how the dream of her tribe reborn might become reality.
Tevet, the archivist, had been ordered to update the crown’s census of ranking families and clans, thus causing his visit to the Oathblood compound. Because he had heard a great deal about Adamas and her interests in the Silvermountain Tribe’s history, he had requested an audience with her upon reaching the Oathblood Palace. Prior to leaving the capital, he had searched his records of the tribe and made notes about their laws and customs, which he intended to gift to her in hope she would help him update his records in return.
He sat quietly in the main hall, looking at the portraits of the ladies of Oathblood depicted either with their favourite weapons or mounts. He jumped to his feet as Adamas entered and dipped into a courtly bow.
“Oh, please, we don’t stand on ceremony here, so resume your seat, learned one.” Adamas was clearly laughing as she spoke.
“I’ve brought you a gift, and I hope in return you might make my task of updating these crown records quicker”, Tevet said while passing a notebook to Adamas.
As Adamas opened the book, her face broke into a happy grin. “Records of my tribe, including laws and customs. Why, thank you, learned one.”
Tevet nodded. “Please, call me Tevet, and if you’d assist me in updating your families’ and clans’ records for the censuses, then I feel it’s a fair trade.”
Adamas quickly agreed and, taking Tevet’s crown records, added all the new information on both her family and the membership of the Clan they belonged to, as well as the names of others she knew that were of the same clan. Afterwards, she showed Tevet to the banquet hall where a feast had been prepared in his honour and thanked him again for his records. Tevet was able to leave the next day with more than half of his task completed due to Adamas’ help.
Adamas was already back at her own mansion inside the Oathblood compound, reading up about the different laws and customs of her clan from Tevet’s research notes, and she was delighted to find a mention of an ancient oath of kinship that she could use to see the Silvermountain Tribe reborn.
Incula is a sky-rider warrior, trained to be part of the elite gryphon sky patrols that protect the dwarven mountains. Her gryphon, Firefall, which she has hand-reared, was injured during a battle with orcs when her clan’s settlement was destroyed. They were both rescued by Adamas, who took them back to the orphanage. Incula means sky-gem in dwarven, and she is a fierce warrior who has learned both single combat and special routines that allow her to battle well in the air, on her gryphon, or on the ground, in concert with it. Incula has pledged the ancient dwarven oath of kinship to Adamas, as she owes a blood debt for her rescue. Between them, they hope to re-establish the Silvermountain Tribe.
Manignis decided to find the Oathblood family after hearing about Adamas from traders that had ventured into her tribe’s remote ice mountains, where she lived alone. This was after she was cast out by taming an ice bear instead of killing it, which was the usual method of surviving her tribe’s right of passage. Manignis was spotted heading towards Salamander town by Incula during one of her flights, and she led Magnignis into the Oathblood compound, where, after telling her tale, she was accepted into the Oathblood family. She has also pledged the ancient dwarven oath of kinship with Adamas and Incula. Manignis means moonfire in dwarven, a very suitable name for a dwarf from the barren ice mountains. Manignis is a Druid who is also very skilled with traps and following tracks like a ranger, but her best strength is her strong affinity for bears, and an especially strong link with her ice bear, Nyoko, which travelled with her. Nyoko means topaz, and the ice bear has an unusual blue tinge to its white fur.
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