Shard

I thought maybe I'd share a little of my background with you. For anyone that might be interested.

I don't know a lot about my family's history, because family and home was destroyed the day I was born. What I do know was told to me by my sister, Rachel.

My father's name was Crag Rockthorne. Mother's name was Velma. I believe they were of the House of Ghrim. My family made its home in the depths an old volcano. I think they were mining the ingredients for the Black Powder. Rachel said she sometimes heard thunder from deep in the mines. And the sour egg smell is one of the few things I can remember from the short time I was there.

I was the lastborn of triplets. A rare event among Dwarves I've heard. There are some who have deliberately misheard that as "leastborn". I was "correcting" one such group when the Emperor's troops grabbed me and shipped me here for being a trouble-maker. That's better than what the Emperor's murderers did to my family.

According to Rachel, the Healers had warned mother that she would have a difficult birth. Her body wasn't ready to handle twins, let alone triplets. But when her labors began, the Healers weren't available to help with the birth. The Emperor's forces had found the entrance to our village. All the Fighters and Healers had to work together to try to stop the attack. Even the older children pitched in, grabbing whatever weapons or knives they could find. So that just left Rachel to tend to my mother. My brothers were born OK, but it was a long and difficult delivery. After that, mother was just too weak to deliver me naturally. Rachel tried to get a Healer to help, but the battle was going badly. A Healer couldn't be spared to deliver a baby, especially one they didn't think would survive anyway. But they did tell Rachel how to perform a C-Section to get me out of mother's womb. Rachel was always a brilliant girl. For many reasons, I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for her.

When Rachel got back, she found that mother's spirit was fading fast. Mother wouldn't give up on her child, and was surrendering everying she had to give me life. So Rachel had to work fast. She couldn't find a knife, but did find a nice shard of obsidian with a good cutting edge. She used that to bring me into this world. And later to give me my name.

Delivering a baby that way is a dangerous thing for the mother. I'm sure mother would have survived, if she just had the chance. But the Emperor never gave here that chance. Despite all their efforts, the people of my village lost their battle against the Empire. The Emperor wanted our mines too much to let us live in peace. The few left alive after the attack were taken into bondage and separated. Only my sister and I were left together, because they thought me too sickly to be worth anything as a slave. So my sister raised me alone, in the time she could spare from her forced duties. She told me about our parents, and the brothers that had been taken from us.

I've been looking for my brothers all my life. I never knew what had happened to them after that day. But I think I have finally found one of them, here in Puddleby. You may have seen him around - his name is Titan IV. He says my mother's name brings up in his memory his mother's face. I asked him to come to a clan meeting so you could see the resemblance for yourself. And perhaps he can join the clan as I have. I can think of nothing better than to have my long-lost birthbrother become my clanbrother as well.

If there are other details you would like for your chronicles, let me know and I'll see if I can recall them from Rachel's stories.