Warcraft

****Warcraft**** (or **Worldcraft**), also known as the **World Smith**, the **Master Machine**, the **Ingenium,** and **Iron Lord** in present-day Westcrowns, **Metallon**, **Ferrum**, the **Kolossos** or **Koloss**, and **Seideros** in Kyonike, **Anuwyndal** in <Elvish>, **Gymir** in <EC Humans Language>, and **Karduikan** and **Khalaz** or **Kalaz** in <Azdal Language>, is a colossal construct of unknown make.

## History

### Origins

Warcraft's history is both the stuff of legend and truth. Both its creators and the time of its creation are shrouded in mystery, one that has perplexed the minds of thousands of scholars from Quenyar, Westcrowns, and Eastcrowns, who have produced several theories to satisfyingly date it, some in partial recognition and support of each other and some in plain contradiction. All, however, place Warcraft's creation to a time long before the Tyrmeidian Imperium's founding in X, to an era so ancient that no records from that time remain – the colossus is the perplexing, lone legacy of a civilization whose grasp on technology and magic has never been replicated.

### A Divine Discovery

Tyrmeidian archives first mention Warcraft in year X, 17 years after Arakhas's landing – several months after his conquest of Westcrowns, and only two months into his conquest of Eastcrowns, following the end of the Azdal invasion of Westcrowns against whom Arakhas united his new lands and peoples. It was at this point that he shed his Kyonian name – Autolycus – and accepted the Triune, thenceforth known as Arakhas.

Arakhas led his armies across the sea to <North-Western EC>, the homeland of the <Wildhammer Azdal>. <The Wildhammer Azdal homeland> was in the hands of the <Dark Iron Azdal>, who had used it as the staging ground for their conquest of Westcrowns. Thanks to their Kyonian mage-legions and Arakhas's artifacts, the Westcrownsmen cut a swift swath through the verdant inland and established a safe supply route for deeper inroads into the red wastes south and the ashen deserts east. It was here, in the jungles of <Borongiya>, that Karduikan was discovered – in the Valley of the Colossus.

Some sources claim that Arakhas came upon Karduikan, as the Azdal call Warcraft, through the divine intervention of the Triune – that the Three guided him to it, which is corroborated by his sudden turn towards Triunism that followed Warcraft's discovery. Others purport that he saw it before setting foot on Eastcrowns in the first place, through the boundless sight of Mind's Eye, which they reason was the true justification behind his conquest of Eastcrowns, and not the sentiment that his new subjects were fueled with – that he would make an example out of the Azdal who were too great a threat to be left alone even after their recent defeat, and thus had to be struck first before they struck again.

Still another theory, most popular among the Tower Society's scholars today, is that there was no divine intervention, likely no magical foresight, and little revenge that made up Arakhas's motives – Arakhas instead aptly abused the circumstances; in the wake of their failed war in Westcrowns, the <Dark Iron Azdal> were struggling to maintain control over the <Wildhammer Azdal lands>, which were beset by secessionist rebellion, and so the Tyrmeidian armies crushed the scattered defense and took the land by storm. They would not have held it as firmly as they did, however, had Arakhas not brokered an early peace with the <Wildhammer Azdal>. They traded one master for another, but achieved greater autonomy and other privileges in the Imperium than the <Dark Iron Azdal> and <Bronzebeard Azdal>, and their political spheres extended into the former's lands.

In accordance with the <Wildhammer Azdal's> history of events, it was they who informed Arakhas of Karduikan and thus entered his good graces. Like all Azdal, they had no connection to the Aether nor the Void, and thus none could wield magic, but <King Brung> reckoned that Arakhas, a greater mage than any he had ever witnessed or heard tales of in Westcrowns, would be most mesmerized with Karduikan. It was a perfect peace offering, and it enchanted Arakhas – days and nights he spent in the Valley of the Colossus, neglected the campaign and delegated it to his brother, and studied the shapes of what was for all intents and purposes a statue, but what none reckoned with was how his meddling with Karduikan would end. Arakhas gazed through the unbending metal with Mind's Eye, and spied an entry point through which Rolling Thunder uncoiled into a snake of lightning, entered, and vanished – and Karduikan awoke.

### Crimes against Reality

Up until this point, the records are in relative harmony. What exactly happened following Karduikan's awakening, however, is a puzzle. According to official Imperial writings, Karduikan produced an ear-wracking thrum that brought all those within the Valley of the Colossus to their knees, snapped the branches of ancient, towering trees and wholly uprooted saplings. Its moss-cloaked frame twitched to life and an emerald sheen appeared in the single socket that was its cyclopean face. It laid its eye upon Arakhas, and half a heartbeat later he stood atop its left shoulder.

The Tower Society's libraries describe its awakening differently, however. They read that Karduikan's awakening

## Appearance

The Warcraft was described as a golem of massive, unthinkable proportions, towering over the greatest of fortresses. Its very size alone, without its plethora of magical capabilities, was more than enough to level entire cities. The gravity of its existence seemed to warp and buckle reality around it, a result of its very presence wearing the Aether away, though this effect was very subtle to untrained eyes.

Although very prominently seen throughout its existence, historical descriptions as well as artistic depictions of the Warcraft are oddly varying. Some have described it as a dull bronze, while others a shimmering jade. Some described it with a carved, unmoving, face while others described it with no face at all, rather, possessing a singular glowing socket where a face would be. This phenomenon has perplexed the scholars of the Tower Society, who have long sought to further study the mystery of the Warcraft.

One commonly described attribute of the Warcraft was the immense sound it emanated. Upon movement, the mechanisms and structure of the golem could be heard for miles on end as a deafening cacophony of both magical and metallic noise. The rumble of its movement could be mistaken for quakes of the land. Even while idle the construct hummed with other-worldliness.