Forum

[MichaelK]

"Centuries ago a clan of dwarves named the Etheel clan committed a terrible crime. The nature of this crime is kept secret by their High Elders, entrusted only to a select few who pass the knowledge down to their replacements.

They were cursed by Kalshaken, the dwarvish god of the Earth, with an almighty geas upon themselves and their descendants to never set foot upon solid ground again. They built the floating city of Borask that sails the oceans nearest the great volcano, harvesting the grey ash. They mix these ashes with plant resin from their floating gardens to make a light yet hard ceramic substance, from which they make everything in the city.

The artifact-foundries at the heart of the city though do more than make their tools. The High Elders are a secret cabal of Ur-priests and spellthieves mystics, who rob the divine spark from the ashes of Raishea hoping to turn it against Kalshaken's geas.

They have achieved a limited success and several dwarves have been freed from the curse. Under the cover of the heaviest ash-storms, they go to concealed docks and sail away for the continents in their Apparatuses of Kwalish underwater craft, recovered from a lost underwater civilization. These dwarves act as secret agents of the High Elders upon the land. The High Elders know that each clan was entrusted with one of the secrets of Kalshaken's divine nature and drive these agents to infiltrate the churches and uncover each secret.

Borask is sometimes lashed with mighty storms of the ash that they sail through, scouring the city like a sandstorm. During this time the dwarves take shelter deep within the city in mighty shelters of stone. Each year though the storms grow worse, now only the strongest buildings are safe and anyone left out upon the streets can be flayed down to the bone by these winds.

A few non-dwarves have come to live on Borask and every so often dwarves from other clans who find themselves unable to follow the strictures of Kalshaken choose to liven on Borask, following their brothers into exile. They do not share in Kalshaken's curse though and there is ethnic strife within the city between the cursed dwarves of the Etheel clan and those who have come to the city more recently."

(Now system neutral)