Book of Id
On Mechanisms and the coming of Malakai
To begin with it must be said, all dwarves are of Armok, they are his sons and daughters. Mortal and of the flesh and blood, all dwarves are under him and will eventually pass from this world to his halls. This is the tale of Malakai, the engineer patron spirit. The being that ascended into dwarven saint hood.
In the time before time, when the world was born and magma raged. Armok made his sons, those of dwarven kin. Unto his sons he did grant descendants, to reap revenge for their parental losses and to tantrum smash kittens into flagstones in grief for loved ones. Unto dwarven kin was born Malakai Malakaisson. From the northern reaches of the realm, in a small cave fortress known as menacing-charcoal, his mother gave him life. It was a foundling fortress, only a year into its beginnings. But oh would it grow. For 12 years the fort held, siege against siege crashed and broke against the walls and the fortress soldiers. But every year, another dwarf would fall. And the attacks would grow more relentless as the goblin and elvin hordes grew in number. Unto this field of blood-shed strode Malakai Malakaisson, pick in hand, the trainee miner saw the effort of war waged, and, knowing they would fall without respite, got to work on the first drawbridge. And lo, when he was done, the dwarfs questioned its use, for wile it was possible to raise and lower manually, the dwarves might as well knock out the floor for the same effect and less effort, but they agreed it looked nice architecturally, with many a “admired a exceptional genesis bridge”. And the son of our lord Armok was stumped. In his Melancholy he went and sat by the volcano pool, staring into the fiery magma. And lo! Unto his visage he saw the mechanisms! Malakai blinked, and then he saw, A gift! It swam in the liquid fire, a gift from the servants of Armok, the gift, of knowledge!
Thus equipped, Malakai returned to the fortress, and he carved out a room with his old, trusty copper pick and in this room, he installed a door for privacy from those who know his business not (including all those nosey nobles), and a workshop. A Mechanisms workshop, into this place he did drag holy stone, Obsidian, a rare commodity before the later invention of Obsidian forges. Into the night he worked. And from his room he brought out a mechanism. A contraption unknown to mortal kind, for its workings had not been witnessed before. Malakai set this into the floor in the guard room, stuck a lever in it and hooked it up to the drawbridge with two more of his holey contraptions, and to this day, his original design is used the world over. The fortress Menacing-charcoal-chasm (the later added after a massive mining project to make the front of the forts ground to open up and swallow all who dared to siege that land), from which the term mechanism was eventually coined for these contraptions that made the basis of all dwarven engineering lore, and have been the corner stone of weaponised lava floods and mega projects to the humble menacing spike and traps of more modern times.
From the legendary Mechanic Malakai, fortresses the world over grew stronger with the blood and riches of the mountains at their finger tips.
Malakai was envied, his creations made it suicidal for the dark ones to assault such a place, and thus Hiddenifious Funturio Stuffaria plotted with his servant, Lord F Pee S, and upon the divine designs was placed a curse: For if used incorrectly, the fortress would be doomed, ground to a standstill in time unbearably slow, or destroyed by fire or flood (or both, or if you are really creative, ice).
Unknowing of this curse, Malakai was failed by his holy devices in a time of need. And, after the military had become complacent behind these buildings of destruction, they were all butchered by a combined goblin force of over 20 squads, with trolls in toe. But woe! Malakai knew one day he would fall, his fortress defeated by the very design that made it great, and he had made preparations. Laughing the laughter of the mad, Malakai pulled the last lever in the fortress, and from behind him, as goblins sprinted forward to butcher the old one, a flood gate opened, and the volcano did erupt magma. The entire place was burnt to a cinder, and the only survivors were Malakais students. They fled. And when they spread the design far and wide, the dark lords of the deep cursed. The dark had been held at bay for now.
And in his old age, having taught all dwarfs who came to him the way of the mechanism and spread their holy design far and wide. He died, baptised in the fire that had granted him his inspiration. His soul went to the grand lord Armok and became a part of the pantheon of spirits, gods and saints of the blood god. Thus ends his story, while his legacy lives on to this day.
This is the draft for the opening of Book Id. it explains Malakai. I will add another section for the lore of who Id is. -the first student, and the one who spread word of her/his master far and wide im thinking-
Please post all suggestions and changes youde like to think of for the current parts and so forth. everything submitted will be considerd and duely credited. -when i get round to it at the end of the book, please dont delete any of these posts, as ill be trawling through them to put the correct credits on, thank you-
Art is also apreciated.