Code of the Skies by Graeme Lyon

Author:Graeme Lyon
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2019-08-27T08:29:53+00:00

Chapter Seven

The Fearless Undertaking soared high above the majestic Copper­fang Peaks. The mountains were a sight to behold, Borri had never travelled this far from Chamon’s stable core, and here, where magic was wilder, she could taste it in the air.

The practice of wielding magic was not common to the Kharadron Overlords, nor any of their duardin brethren. It was said that in the World-That-Was, the forefathers of their race had made the choice to eschew the shaping of the eight magical winds, and instead focus on capturing them in runes, using them to enhance weapons and armour, and to power ancient engineering that allowed them to carve out an empire in the mountains of that ill-fated and long-lost land.

The fyreslayers had taken runic magic to new heights, using the substance known as ur-gold, which they believed to be the broken remnants of the ancestor Grimnir, to bring themselves closer to the fire of Aqshy, turning them over time into creatures that were less than wholly duardin, and yet something more, recrafted in the image of the fiery hero they worshipped as a god.

Other duardin had settled in many realms. Some took to High Azyr, and became Sigmar’s smiths, working under the supervision of Grungni himself to craft miracles of magic and technology that would have made the mountain folk of the lost world fall to their knees in awe. Borri didn’t know how they had evolved in other realms, or even if they had survived there. Each realm was unto a world in its scope, and none could say, save perhaps the God-King himself, what wonders lay hidden beneath peaks in the wild places of verdant Ghyran, savage Ghur or even grim Shyish.

In Chamon, however, the duardin had come closest to the life they heard about in the ancient tales. Great holds were built into mountains, or entire ranges. Cities stretched deep beneath the realm, populated by a thriving race that had worked with men, aelves, ogors and other peoples to build a civilisation of engineers and craftsmen that had never been equalled in all of history.

And, she thought bitterly, never would be again. The shadow of the Dark Gods had been cast over the realms, and Chaos had come. Slowly, over generations, the Ruinous Powers turned weak and power-hungry folk to their worship, whispering of glory and gold and dominion over their fellows. And as time passed, the darkness grew. The pantheon of gods Sigmar Heldenhammer had assembled to protect the realms fell apart, and as it did, the folk of the realms withered. The sylvaneth and the aelves were the first to forsake the old alliances, retreating to their lands of life, light and shadow to defend themselves from the forces of Chaos that spread across all the realms.

The duardin proved more resistant to the gods’ lures than men. Where the great cities and civilisations of mankind had fallen to treachery, it was a more devious foe yet who had brought ruin to the great underground empires of Chamon.

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