After Moraddin's rebirth, Dorrit, newly-invested priest of Dunethoin, speaks to the dwarves.
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| Dave Choat |
Hard as a rock.
Immovable as the mountains.
These are the greatest compliments that a dwarf can receive, and yet -- We have all felt the earth move. Anyone who has seen the strata, bent and twisted by unimaginable forces, knows that rock itself can be twisted like clay. And we have seen fossilized sea creatures entombed at the tops of the highest mountains. As we see the exteriors of mountains eroded and washed down to the seas, we know that if they weren't being pushed up from below, there would be no mountains.
I submit to you that we are living through such an earthquake now.
Earthquakes are fearful and destructive, and yet they are but the shadow evidence of the mountains growing beneath our feet, the bending of the strata, and the concentration of ores by the earth father. Nobody who has seen what we have witnessed here can fail to be moved. As the gods themselves are reborn, so we too must rededicate ourselves. The question is: what should we rededicate ourselves to?
We all know of the three kinds of stone: the Igneous, born of lava come forth from the deepest layers of the earth, hot, plastic, whose aspect is motion. The Sedimentary, formed by slow accretion and deposit, static and unchanging whose aspect is static. And there is yet a third kind of stone: the Metamorphic: formed from the others and yet changed by pressure and heat into something new, whose aspect is transformation.
This then, I believe is our mission. The words could not be clearer. We must not fight each other. We must alloy together, black and white. We shall be formed together by the forces of the earth into a new ore, one with the strength and stability of the white, the flexibility and adaptability of the black, the traditions of both to form here, on this spot the grey dwarves. We cannot deny the message we received. We cannot doubt the power and importance of this place. And we cannot turn away from this opportunity. I will make my digs here, and if you will join me we will found a city.
It will not be easy. It is often easier to make a foe than a friend. I do not know how hospitable the strata beneath our feet are. I know that there will be difficult days ahead, full of disagreements and dissension and yet, I also know that this is a worthwhile effort. Here where Morradin himself has been reborn, dwarves must found an indwelling. I can think of no more fitting tribute than to found it together, black and white, to be ourselves reborn and refigured as he has been this day.
Dorrit begins to dig.