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« on: December 26, 2009, 11:33:23 am »
The following is not exactly a community game or succession game, exactly, but a collection of stories (as per the second part of the forum title) that interested me from the city of Rakeglaze. If you have suggestions, ideas, or requests, I'm open, but no guarantees. A bit of background:
Rakeglaze is the name of a dwarven settlement of the Guild of Culmination, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Angelic Dwarves, founded in the year 220. It is located next to a magma pipe, with a surface presence consisting of eight archery towers, a fortified bunker built into a mountain (which shows little sign of use), and a eight-layer city that includes a massive housing complex for the nobility, a richly decorated shopping plaza, a sprawling network of tombs, and over a hundred jail cells.
As near as anyone can tell from the historical records, the founding members of Rakeglaze are Sarvesh Netwheel (miner, first appointed broker; deceased), Dastot Whitebells (mason, expedition leader), Athel Glazedtempest (carpenter), Meng Watchedcrypt (clothier; deceased), Zas Inkcusp (deceased), Rovod Tradedrum (deceased), and a seventh which is debated to be either Dastot Streamgild (mechanic; deceased) or Zaneg Imagesmith (engraver; deceased).
The fortress has a surprisingly low adult mortality rate and a unsettlingly high child mortality rate. Historically the city has not been a large magnet for immigrants, and historians speculate that the primary reason for this is the city's status as a strategic military outpost in a long-tunning war between the Angelic Doors and the goblin nation known as The Curse of Strength. Conspiracy theorists point to the evidence of a secret dwarven cabal attempting to limit the adult population at the site, but these rumors are unfounded.
At present, there are 173 dwarves in Rakeglaze, including 35 buried within the tombs beneath the city. Of these, nearly half (16) are children - some mere infants, bearing horrifically traumatic wounds indicative of the long-held dwarven practice of mothers carrying their children into battle. Four others bear marks on their coffin marking them as from the Angelic Doors, rather than the Guild of Culmination, indicating merchants killed during a raid. Skeletal evidence of periodic conflict indicates two of these were guards before they died. Four other coffins depict images of goblins, with the skeletons inside showing signs of periodic, lifetime abuse - bones broken and set time and time again, fingers clipped off at the ends, and one (if not more) terrible wounds. It is assumed these four are the bodies of dwarves kidnapped by The Curse of Strength and put to rest, finally being laid to rest in Dwarven lands after years of untold torment. Two of the coffins are unmarked, and contain little more than a few scorched bone and skull fragments - solid indicators that they were once members of the nobility. One of these has at some point been defaced with the words "Goblin Bait" scrawled into its lid.
The fortresses population, at current, stands at 23 military, 64 children, 5 nobles, and 46 productive members of society. 17 of these are masons, as attested by the massive stoneworks on the surface. In spite of this, by far the fortress's most productive industry is self-defense. Goblin clothing, made from giant cave spider silk, fills the city's trade vault, with even more clothing of a more common nature scattered about the surrounding regions, often with a few crossbow bolts still stuck int he pile. The fortress has also housed two different jewelers in its time, one of which still lives.
It is currently late 241, twenty-one years after the settlements foundation. Its first generation of children have come into their own, now working besides their fathers and mothers in as masons and craftersdwarves. These are their tales.
