Icevein: Interlude
Forty-eight years after the founding of Glint, the ürsi hosted again, flooding the passes in numbers never seen before. Even Sledgefist fled before their tens of thousands, abandoning Sledge Rock and barely reaching Glint ahead of the foe. He was not alone in his flight; the Gold River Range sought Glint for safety. Of those who attempted to wait out the winter in their claims, few survived, for the ürsi did not disperse in Spring. The hatred of One-Ear held them.
Upon Tonkil’s Rock, the great foe fell at the hand of Rightauger, Chargrim’s son. Well is the story known. Is it not told in the annals of the Irik-Rhûl? And is the song not sung wherever the dhar strike stone? Of their deeds and dooms their own tales tell.
What tales are told of Glint,
Where Chargrim raised redoubts
To stay the scourge of ürsi,
To hold the halls of stone!
No meager, greedy hoard was theirs;
Toward shelter all in need were shown,
Herds slaughtered, halls opened,
Alike were stranger and kulhan.
No ürsi breeched the bones of Glint
No foe could force its gates asunder.
In Chargrim’s halls the champions held
beneath the stone, below the snows.
But in giving, all gifts grew scarce,
Hunger gnawed the iron-clad heart.
Locusts upon the land, the ürsi horde.
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Spring broke on barren hills.
Not in silent tomb to lie untended
Nor in desperation to flee dismayed.
Nay, forth the brave, by fear unfettered.
Despair was fit for frailer hearts.
Swaddled in arms of beseeching wif
Latest babe in hold, born of honor.
Yet firstborn in boldness battle-sallied,
hastened to the hammer-storm.
Rightauger right-minded eager for foe-cleaving,
sought by sire in fear, all else forsaking.
On Tonkil’s Rock they met, together to fall,
to offer life as dear as the Owners’ hoards.
There Treadfoot smote and sundered.
There mountain smoked and thunder spoke.
Through dark of night from Glint was seen
The sparking trees, the shining stand.
In dawn lay still the doomed, night-delivered.
Charred mountain hushed, the battered huddled.
One-Ear rose, and Chargrim stood to face,
Duty-bound the Irik-Rhûl, bone-wearied.
The infernal beast, the fiend grown fell
Who long years haunted river-range.
Long they looked upon the likeness
of each their deepest hates.
But lo, the roar of fire and steel,
The smoke that spat from morning’s still.
No hand was raised by Irik-Rhûl;
The heir redeemed his father’s debt.
Like namesake Thrushbeard nested spear,
And struck the foe ‘gainst stone and staff
To his Rhûl he raced and rallied arms
Surface slain, the chiefless ürsi broke.
Not chief in arms was Chargrim bold
Nor reddened most the riven loam.
But judge him not by feat of strength
But by folk craft and courage forged.
In dust our forebeards lie ‘neath stone.
In sunrise see their sons and claims
And judge them fair, the living folk,
The glory of a father’s good.
Ay judge them fair, for living folk
Make glad the halls of hallowed gold
Where ‘throned in ever-settled state
Reigns Brokenspear of old.
Since ancient bone and burning rock,
Cataclysm to crash of fate,
No father’s deeds have ever died
Whose sons have dug the slate.
Timeline:
Year 1: Sledgefist, Shineboot, Hobblefoot, Warmcoat, and Savvyarm find and stake the claim.
Year 2: Chargrim arrives
Year 3: Greal, Khlif, and Onyx arrive.
Savvyarm is slain.
Year 4 — Chargrim marries Onyx and becomes Mine Lord.
The Battle of the Blizzard.
Year 17 — Jackals annex East Spire.
Year 18 — Rightauger born.
Year 20 — Peridot born.
Year 46 — Icevein flees East Spire and heads north to Glint.
Year 47 — Icevein slays a warden, hides at Sledge Rock, returns to East Spire, and is captured by the Jackals.
Sledgefist holds the Rock against One-Ear.
Year 48 — Spring: Icevein arrives at Glint.
Icevein is outlawed by Chargrim.
Fall/Winter: Sledge Rock overrun. Siege of Glint begins.
Year 49 — Battle of Tonkil’s Rock.
Rightauger slays One-Ear.
Sledgefist leads Hammers to East Spire, routes lingering ürsi, ends Deep Cut rule, and restores the Hardeye hold.