Deepforge

Icosahedron

Deepforge

By: Ron Washburn

This is a work of fiction, and any similarities between the characters in this book and actual persons living or dead are purely coincidental.

This is copyrighted material, and no part of this work may be reprinted or distributed, with the exception of excerpts already released for promotion, without the expressed written consent of the author.

Copyright © 2013 Ronald Jay Washburn

First Edition

The Knights of Altoris Publications

Deepforge by: Ron Washburn

Illustrated by: Ron Washburn

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1484090152

ISBN-10: 1484090152

http://www.amazon.com/author/ronwashburn

Table of Contents

Foreword

Part 1: Citadel in the Mountain

Part 2: The Spring Games

Part 3: Expedition

Part 4: War and Punishment

Part 5: End of an Era

slik at den forste ene kan do

This book is dedicated to Alva McKinney. If you work hard enough, your dreams can come true.

Foreword

By: Ron Washburn

As I go through this odyssey I call the Alternate Universe series of novels, I find myself resisting the urge to write more and more. There are so many possibilities. The idea of Deepforge came to me as I worked on the intricate timeline of this Alternate Universe in preparation for the gods of Arias trilogy. I knew it was one novel I had to write separately. This is the story of the ‘old guard’, the empire that existed before the kingdom of Velland. More than that, it is the first time the distant ancestors of Velland come together to defend the land from a terrible foe.

The story of the foe herself is one that is hard for me to track correctly without the timeline in hand. For those who have already read the other books in the series, you will recognize this foe as soon as she is described. It is my hope that this story will clear up some details in her story as well.

This novel is not just about her. This is about all the characters in this ancient time, and especially the dwarven emperor Grognor himself. Most of this is written from his point of view. The decisions he makes, and the sacrifices he has to endure will forge the future of the world. You will see the connections to Velland in many ways, by the way he rules, and by the way he fights.

Many connections are clarified here; including a few that may surprise you. As true life over the course of many generations is often very complicated, so is the greater story of Ahl-Thoor-Hees (Altoris). Just hang in there; it will all become clear as you read. This novel is included in the gods of Arias trilogy as well, in its proper chronological place. The connections to the time line are inevitable, and span both the Velland stories and the Future History stories. It all comes together in the greater series of the Alternate Universe, in what I like to call ‘Literary Convolution’. I like that term.

While you read this story, try not to focus on the time period it takes place in. Instead, immerse yourself in the actions of the characters.

Part 1: Citadel in the Mountain

Chapter 1

ca. 2,520 of Deepforge

(~12,000 Before Velland)

I
n the time before the legends of Velland stood a citadel, a massive city built into a mountain. It was called Deepforge. It stood as the center of the known world, the apex of civilization. It had existed for untold eons, so long that no scholarly dwarf was sure of when exactly it had been built. Legend said that it had stood before the world was formed by the solar cataclysm, forged in the intense heat for the dwarves themselves by some unknown god.

Deepforge was a cave city built into a mountain with high ceilings and ornate construction making up the building inside. In reality, it was an active volcano that was tamed before the time of written history. Using incredibly ingenious designs, they fashioned ways to keep the pressure of the constantly rising magma in check and harness the energy. The result was a massive forge right in the center of the city, where amazing creations of metal were fashioned by the highly skilled forge craftsmen. All throughout the city were ports to the magma, venting off the pressure in a very specific way, as regulated by the city’s engineers. These engineers utilized the energy of the natural vents to power anything from basic steam to water condensing and purification units, to elaborate engines used for nearly automatic elevators to the other levels, and even some self-propelled vehicles and electrical generation. It was a city of geniuses.              

The bright red vent pools also provided a nearly daylight source of light for the city, mostly in the infrared portion of the spectrum. This suited the dwarves well, as they could see well in nothing but infrared light. In fact, all humanoids could see well in infrared light or ‘red light’ as they called it on this world. The rest of the city lay in concentric circles around the central forge, on twenty vertical levels. The further out from the center, the more elaborate and ornate the city was. Decorations of the most gothic style dominated the construction in the hollowed out mountain. The massive high ceiling mountain cave city had only one official entrance, the Great Door. It was at the natural opening to the cave which had been the original mouth of the sideways facing volcano. It was several dozen feet in diameter.

This was the world of Ahl-Thoor-Hees, a world set in a trinary star system, and the third planet out from the two nearly contact binary stars at the system’s gravitational center. These two central stars were of two different spectral types, one of an average yellow dwarf, (nearly the same as Earth’s Sun for comparison- G3V) and the other of an average red dwarf (M5V).

The third star was another, much smaller (M0V) red dwarf, and sat in a distant orbit, way beyond the last planet in the system. It had a very eccentric orbit, and would pass near the inner planets once every 10,000 years. Occasionally this would cause catastrophic events on the inner planets.

Legends of the distant past told of a ‘before time’, a time when the two suns of Ahl-Thoor-Hees were both yellow. Some unknown solar catastrophe wiped out all life on the world, and reconfigured the system. Somehow, perhaps a billion years later, life eventually returned to the world. Not much is known about the ‘before time’, and is generally referred to as mythical times.

Over the eons, nearly all forms of surface life developed the ability to see not only in the visual portion of light that people of Earth could, but also into a portion of the infrared, or ‘red light’. 

The world of Ahl-Thoor-Hees was nearly one Earth mass, and as much of a sister world to Earth as you could imagine. It had continents, oceans, seasons, and so forth. This world was a long distance away from Earth, however. More than six billion light years distant.

The citadel of Deepforge lay at the center of the humanoid civilization on the eastern continent. This was at the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere, at the base of a large mountain range that ran east-west. At its highest peaks the mountain range had perpetual snow caps and alpine glaciers. These large mountains were the result of two smaller continents colliding, and over millions of years the mountains formed. These were the northern mountains. To their south lay the River Valley and the River of Prosperity. The River Valley spanned almost the entire continent, from the western mountain range, all the way across for more than one thousand miles to the eastern ocean. This was where the humanoid races came to live. The River of Prosperity and its tributaries provided fresh water, transportation and irrigation. 

The River Valley itself was a virtual paradise for most of its length. Hundreds of small villages and clusters of villages thrived in the rich fertile soil. Vast farms stretched out across mostly the southern edge of the river, the more rich soil being there. The seasons were mild, and the scenery was dominated by the color green. Only a few natural clearings existed in the mostly hardwood and pine forests. Any other clearing was man-made, and was either for housing or farming. Most of this lay at the northern edge of the Great Savanna.

The Great Savanna was a vast high plain with gently rolling hills on its outer edges. It was a lush, fertile area the size of a small continent. Most of the moisture came up through this area from the sea to the south, and dumped hundreds of feet of rain each year on the River Valley as the weather patterns forced the moisture laden clouds over the northern mountains. The result was a paradise for a diverse population of wild animals, including several types of herd animals. Imagine the savannas of Africa, but much larger and greener. The Great Savanna ended just before a Great River at its northern border. Where the River Valley and the Great Savanna met, the vast farms proliferated.

South of the Great Savanna was the southern Great Sea. East of the River valley was the eastern Great Sea. North of the northern mountains were more mountains, and the arctic wilderness. West of the River Valley were the western foreboding mountains, and on the other side the Great Swamp. The Great Swamp was only seen once by the legendary explorer Markog Drgoodondt. He discovered that the swamp was nearly impassible. Many fierce forms of wildlife had been discovered there, and he had lost nearly his entire company of traveling companions simply trying to cross. He did manage to get across and back, revealing that he had found another vast mountain range further west that ended in the western Great Sea. He also discovered that on the western side of the continent the land extended further south and ended in a massive mountain range, nearly impossible to cross. He eventually discovered a wide valley through them, and on the other side was a huge valley and  lake nearly the size of River Valley itself. It was a fresh water inland sea. The valley was even more rich and fertile than River Valley. Markog noted in his journal that it was,
“…a fine place for a home, with high mountains almost certainly rich with various types of ore, and a rich valley. The inland sea goes beyond sight, and if I didn’t know better, I would think it was the western sea. The fresh water reveals its true nature...”

The continent was roughly shaped like the letter ‘P’, with the River Valley running right about through the center of the round portion. This was the known world. It was generally accepted that the world was a sphere, but no one had been able to explore beyond the continent because of the impossibility of sea faring. Many previous explorers had attempted to sail to discover the severe currents and multitude of predatory sea creatures. Most returned heartbroken. Many never returned at all. It was said that Markog’s last expedition was of a sea faring nature. The last entry into his journal told of them building a ship on the shores of the western sea. Nothing else was heard from him or his crew. It was generally accepted that he and his crew had fallen to the hazards of sea travel. Many adventurous souls had attempted to build sea worthy vessels, but all were unsuccessful. It was a common saying that great riches could be found if the waters of the world could be conquered. Scientists in the Deepforge Ministry of Science had done many studies on the wildlife of the known world and had found enough evidence to suggest that there was at least one other major continent, possibly more. It was a subject of great speculation when wars were not being fought.

This was not a time of primitive technology. It was a mish-mash. Beasts of burden were still used for some of the larger tasks such as tilling the fields and land transportation, but that was where the resemblance to primitive society ended. Homes were made out of formed bricks or felled trees in nearly any configuration imagined. There was indoor plumbing, advanced sanitation, and electricity. Artificial lights were normally either of incandescent bulbs that radiated mostly in the infrared, or the more traditional oil lanterns. Wiring and all things needed for an electrical infrastructure was manufactured in factories further to the west, and most of this was centered in the industrial city of Hawkflight Industries. This industrial city lay southeast of Deepforge, south of the river. The electricity itself was generated by a variety of ways, including utilizing an artificial lake called the Great Lake which lay at nearly the center of the eastern trek of the River of Prosperity with its electrical generators built into the eastern dam; or by smaller household steam engines. Some generators were run by beast power or wind. Of course, there were also the thermal generators at Deepforge. Communications also had a sophisticated infrastructure and included the commonplace telephones we would have equated to the 20
th
century Earth. Radios had been used for long distance communication in the recent past utilizing vacuum tube electronics technology until recently, when telephones were invented. Weapons were of mostly blades and other ‘medieval’ design, but a few black powder guns were used as well. It would be impossible to equate technology to an Earth standard. If one were to give the known world an estimated ‘tech level’, it might fall somewhere between the 1650’s and the 1970’s Earth, with obvious medieval traits. In any case, it held little resemblance to the advance of technology on Earth.

Despite the technology and appearance, it was not a time of peace. Battles raged constantly as warlords sought to control lands and make themselves rich with power.  Humans and halflings had brokered a lasting peace, with dwarves warring with them and any other race. The many diverse elf races pretty much stayed away from the humans, halflings and dwarves.

Other, smaller races such as pixies, sprites and the like also tended to stay away from the warring races, although there were battles between differing factions of their races as well. Gnomes and dwarves were solid allies, and shared nearly every facet of their civilizations. 

The supreme leaders of the races were the dwarves. They had successfully imposed their will on all peoples, large and small. This was considered the Deepforge Empire. It spanned the entire Great Valley, and the entire known world.  Even so, wars popped up on a regular basis to try and topple the authority of the Emperor, the respected Warrior-Chieftain Grognor Ironfist: leader of the Deepforge dwarves.

Most battles were fought between separate human factions, which the dwarves never participated in; or between the dwarves and some interloping human army.  Only a few outlaw dwarven factions remained, and it was just a matter of time in Grognor’s estimation that they would be either absorbed or destroyed.

Grognor was a tall dwarf, nearly as tall as an average human. He stood 5’6” tall, and was nearly as wide. It was all muscle. He had long fiery red hair he normally wore in two braids, a long red beard, and black eyes with red sclera. His skin was light brown. No person of any race could match his strength, including the metalsmiths. He had grown up in Deepforge, and quickly made a name for himself as the strongest as he grew bigger than any other. His father Zorgnor was also a warrior, and nearly as strong as his son. He taught his growing boy not only how to fight, but how to forge his own weapons out of the finest alloys. This was where Grognor’s strength came from- wielding a hammer to force the metals to succumb to his will. Hammers became his favorite weapon as well. Zorgnor did teach the young warrior how to use other weapons with great efficiency, but the hammer was to be by far his weapon of choice. 

Grognor had three brothers: Mergnor, Kergnor, Bergnor; and four sisters: Brenda, Selena, Rebecca, Haansa. All were fine warriors. His mother Fayndsa was one of the mightiest hand axe throwers of her time, and had won many awards for single shot kills. All of the Deepforge dwarves had a similar look. Stout, muscular bodies, prominent facial hair (including the women- albeit much lighter and more feminine) mostly dark colored hair, or nearly blonde with dark eyes, usually with red sclera and light brown skin. Some of the more ‘exotic’ of the dwarves had less stout frames and lighter features. Reddish hair was considered of the most exotic feature of all. Grognor was the only one in his family that had been born with fiery red hair.

When Grognor was barely an adult, a war broke out between the Deepforge dwarves and the Lakeshore human army. It was a very bloody and dishonorable war in which the humans relied on technology to fight. Large black powder cannons fired upon the Deepforge dwarves, nearly decimating the 7
th
Deepforge Army who defended a small gnome village from the humans’ murderous intent.  It was during this war that Zorgnor lost his life. Grognor grew up with a passionate hatred for humans and killed them any chance he got. 

When time came to contest for the right of Deepforge Chieftain, Grognor won by a landslide. This was not a metaphor. He single-handedly caused a massive landslide that wiped out his opponent and his companions. He was declared Deepforge Chieftain and Emperor. He was barely fifty years old, a young adult by dwarf standards.