Ever wonder who carved those fortresses directly into the mountainside, so seamless you can’t tell where nature ends and their craft begins? Who forged blades that never dulled and tools that seemed to work with a will of their own? Meet the Earthforged.
Children of “stone and the deep dark,” the Earthforged were a people short in stature but with strength and endurance that rivaled the mountains themselves. While others built with wood and fieldstone, they carved their vast halls and roaring forges directly into the heart of the mountain, living in the dark where gems gleamed brighter and forge-fire burned hotter. Their greatest stronghold sat atop a solitary peak, reachable only by two narrow, swaying wooden bridges over a dizzying chasm.
They weren’t always alone. The Earthforged once walked openly in the world, trading their masterful crafts with the other peoples. But they were met with mockery and prejudice, their pride deeply wounded by insults aimed at their height. In response, they chose solitude over insult, withdrawing behind their sealed gates and pouring all their passion into perfecting their craft, becoming legends whispered in the valleys below.
But their stone halls could not protect them forever. When the Darkness came, it didn’t lay siege to their gates; it seeped into the one place they held most sacred—their mines. What happened next was a fate worse than death. Those who fell to the corruption were not merely slain; their flesh and spirit were consumed, and from their bodies rose the
Turabada—monstrous beings made of jagged stone with eyes like molten ore.
How could a people as unyielding as granite be so horrifically twisted? What secrets lie buried in their silent, stone halls?
The full story of their pride, their fall, and their tragic legacy is a cornerstone of the World of the Cloak. Discover their tale for yourself and learn what happens when the mountain itself betrays its children.
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