Quendalon/Session21ThorwaldInterlude

In the Plain of Triumph, a single voice could shout and its echo would be heard for days. But today it was not a lone voice. As the light of dawn peered in the eastern horizon, two hundred men, women and children stood and together and in unison, their voices caused even the surrounding mountains to tremble.

“STONEHOLD!!!!!”

Every year during the God’s Time the Storm Clan had gathered in the Valley of Triumph and shouted their defiance of the Anathema. They had no rituals to protect their foodstore, promote fertility or placate spirits. Instead they gathered together in plain view, when the evil was strongest, and shouted, daring spirit, Fair Folk and fallen alike to come to their deaths.

The ancient war cry of the Storm Clan was only four hundred years old but its origins, like the roots of a tree, were far older. A thousand years ago, when the Storm Clan’s ancestors arrived at the Edge of Creation, they set themselves to the task of building a mighty fortress that they named simply Stonehold.

It was a marvel of achievement that rivaled any of the wonders of the First Age. It was carved out of the very face of the Great Mountain almost near the top. Stone gave it strength and durability to withstand the passage of time while iron walls made it impossible for the Fair Folk to storm it in large numbers. In addition, pacts with earth and air spirits kept the Keep safe from the unceasing winds, constant avalanches and frequent lightning storms that battered the mountain.

Stonehold was built high on the mountain for three reasons. The first so that it could look out along the entirety of the north from the Frozen Mountains to the Plains of Ice. The second reason was to make it unassailable and impossible to surround. But the third reason was the most important, and that is that it served to challenge the Storm Clan.

There were no creature comforts in Stonehold. No soft beds, no easy protection from the wind. There were no tunnels or passages leading in or out; there wasn’t even so much as a main gate, for it was felt that even iron doors compromised the integrity of the walls. The only way to enter or leave the keep was to climb over its iron walls. If a warrior was too tired, weak or wounded to make the climb, he was left outside to die.

Stonehold stood invincible and impregnable. It repelled every assault for over 500 years. To the Storm Clan, it was the symbol of their strength and determination. To its enemies, it was an emblem of fear and hatred. Ceaselessly, the servants of the Anathema tried to destroy it, but the walls easily held against any physical or magical assault. The wards that protected the Keep were too strong.

But that which protected Stonehold eventually was its downfall. With one carefully planned and deliberate act a single traitor undid these wards, breaking centuries old pacts with spirits and elementals who in response turned their full fury against the keep. Rockslides, avalanches, fierce winds rained down on the mighty fortress killing almost half its defenders. Decimated and without protection, the keep fell easily to the invading Fair Folk.

The Storm Clan would have died then and there were it not for the heroic leadership of Rejvald the Keeper. Uniting the tattered remnants of the people, he mercilessly drove the Fair Folk back to the Edge of Creation. After the trouble passed, the Storm Clan lamented the fall of their great stone keep but even more they lamented their arrogance. They had become complacent. Their false belief in the utter impregnability of their keep caused them to lose their age-old vigilance. Angered, they turned their backs on the magic of the First Age, and Rejvald the Keeper declared that from that moment on, all the charms of the Anathema were forbidden.

And so, Stonehold was abandoned, never to be rebuilt. But its ruins served as a lesson to all of the folly that lay in relying more on stone and Essence than on courage and determination. To this day the ruins stand as a reminder of the price of complacency.

Once ever so often, seasoned warriors will forgo their own name and title in favor of the name of the Fallen Keep. By declaring themselves Warriors of Stonehold, they in effect swear undying allegiance to the war against the Anathema.

“STONEHOLD!!!”

Thorvald and Franya stood together and hurled the word like a weapon into the wind. When the God’s Time was over, they would climb the Great Mountain together and there, at the top, they would scale the cold iron walls of the Fallen Keep and sleep for a fortnight in its walls, daring all the dangers of the Keep, be they beast, spirit or Anathema. And together they would return, not as Thorvald One Eye and Franya Stone Finder, but as Thorvald of Stonehold and Franya of Stonehold. Warriors bound by destiny and to each other.