The Great Learning

## 2020-2215 The Great Learning

Across the whole of civilized Eirethune, there was an increase in learning about most everything. There were moments of peace which benefited every industry or line of work. There was great excavation and understanding of metallurgy in the deep holds and seas of Eirethune. There was greater communication during the peaceful times, culminating in the establishment of the Magic Guilds.

### 2028 Abjark and Deep Metal

Abjark was from a noble family in the Halls of the Coten Dwarves, whose family had been known as some of the best miners and smiths in the Halls.  Abjark shared some of those traits, but even more, he was interested in seeing what the different minerals and metals pulled out of the rock could be used for.  He wasn’t very adept at smithing individual items, but he could make alloys from some of the materials he was able to find.  Mixing one metal with another under various types of heat or pressure, Abjark experimented and learned from all that he dug out from below.  The smithing guild master of the Halls, Rokthak Brunter, wasn’t impressed with the workmanship of Abjark’s items, but he was curious if he could find some alloy or metal that Abjark could manufacture regularly, just to find out if armor could be made stronger or lighter.

Abjark thought this was a good challenge, and experimented with every mineral he discovered or could find.   His results weren’t exactly what Rokthak wanted, but it was clear that Abjark was trying new techniques and discovering more about different minerals than had been discovered in centuries.  But alas, Abjark could only find alloys that were either very strong but sadly heavier, or much lighter, but sadly weaker.  That is until one day when he found a vein of mithril and began to experiment with it.  Mithril was extremely rare and when Rokthak found out Abjark was experimenting with it, he almost killed him.  But Abjark felt he could find something out about the great precious metal if given time.  Reluctantly, Rokthak allowed him to use some of the vein for his experiments.

Abjark worked with the mithril and was able to find different forms mithril could be transformed into with little modification of strength or weight.  But another attribute that Abjark found was that it could be separated into two substances, Llintar, a lighter, fragile metal, and Mahdrat, a very heavy, metal, also known as Deep Metal.   Abjark had seen Mahdrat before while excavating, in large quantities, but only in the deepest caves.  The fact that Mahdrat could be combined with another metal to create mithril, made Abjark think that he could perhaps combine more common metals with Mahrat to create something new.   Rokthak ordered that Mahdrat should be dug out whenever they found it, and in short measure, a great amount was found for Abjark to test his theories.

Abjark tried to combine Mahdrat with other common light metals to create something like mithril, but it was to no avail.  Nothing seemed to work in the right way.  However, Abjark was able to combine Alumar, a very flexible metal like copper, with Mahdrat to make a heavy but flexible metal. This new alloy, which Abjark named Astelion, could withstand great torque and pressure[1].   Soon Abjark was forging supports for the Halls out of the new metal.  A new bridge entering the Halls was constructed out of Astelion.  The dwarves of the Halls kept it to themselves for a while, until they were visited by a dwarf from Gelden named Dorgan.

### 2084-2214 Construction of the Bryan Bridges

Dorgan Rodthank was a noble representative of the Bryan Cliff Dwarves in Gelden.  The dwarves across Eirethune would send representatives to the other great halls to determine how each was doing.  Dorgan was assigned to the Coten Halls and found his way across the Bryan by normal means.  Dorgan was a metallurgist and architect himself, so when he arrived, he was struck by the bridge entering the hall.  He had no idea what the substance was.  After much discussion with Abjark and Rokthank, he began to understand and witness what Astelion was and could do.   Dorgan stayed longer than a representative would normally stay, but he was determined to learn more about the substance.  He had seen Mahdrat before, but not in the quantities found in the Coten Mountains.  Regardless, he began to think of what could be constructed from Astelion, other than just support beams or bridges.  Dorgan finally envisioned a bridge capable of withstanding storm or earthquake or flood.  A task that would require something heavy and strong, that could twist and not tear or shatter.   And why build it?  For more gold.  Land trade and passage between north and south…across The Bryan.

And so planning began.  The Coten and Bryan Cliff Dwarves could engineer it, but they would need money to supply the endeavor, and so Lord Hakinan sent delegations to not only the more human cities of Kreenan and Portmunt for support, but also to House Vaddoren and the other Houses of Raj Gohn.   This bridge would greatly help troop movements should another war with the Ûr Lords be fought.  Word of the bridge went to all of the great cities in the far west, luring more thought of trade and defense between the nations.  As some money poured in, Lord Hakinan began the bridge from outside Portmunt, heading to Gelden Heights.

For years construction continued, and more years.  Humans lived and died while it was being built; but eventually the last beam was attached, the last cable support tied.  The bridge was a great link between north and south that never existed before; a tribute to what the people of Eirethune could do with their world.  The bridge was just under 100 miles of metal, reinforced with more metal, capable of holding who knows how much weight.

As the bridge was being built, word of it reached the regions to the east on the Bryan.  Soon there was talk of trying to find Mahdrat in the east as well.  Dag Dwarven Deep had not found much of it at all, but outside of Dag Mier, the miners there found a great vein, wider than any they had found before.   The nobles of Azmunth, Devnah and even Surrin, Crocia, Rhone and Thearth began to pay for excavation and transport to a location between Cartain and Bryanende.  They even paid to get some design and construction help from the dwarves to the west.

The new eastern bridge would be much shorter, reaching from Devnah to the Lantro Shores just west of Yardham in Azmunth; approximately 35 miles in length.When the east bridge was open, it provided yet another route between the north and south continents in the east.  There were large populations on either side of the Bryan in the east, and having more routes of trade connected the lands even more.

### 2175-2200 Establishment of the Magic Guilds

With the rise of cities, came much learning and education.  Schools, temples, training centers were becoming available to more and more people in this time of relative peace.  If a person could afford to train or learn, a mentor could be found to help out.  In the larger cities, the mentors would band together to share information themselves and thereby provide an even better resource for learning to trainees who came from near and far.   In the realm of magic, this was particularly true.  The temples to Mata had always offered some knowledge to its following, but the larger temples started including more and more people, becoming colleges, having libraries and more.

Although the temple to Mata in Aachnarn was the largest college and library of magic in all of known Eirethune, other cities across the world were also providing great knowledge and training to adepts who wished to learn.   It wasn’t always just in temples to Mata in the cities either.  The Houses of Raj Gohn also had great libraries and facilities, although entry into the houses may not have been as easy as applying at a temple to Mata.

One great student of magic was Arddig Mardwm, an elf from Calandoriel, who travelled to Aachnarn to consume as much knowledge of magic as possible.  For years, he buried himself in learning several of the disciplines of magic, evocation, transmutation, divination, and enchantment.  He worked with many different mentors at the Temple of Mata there, as well as many adept colleagues, sharing and prying information as often as he could.  Arddig also became quite adept at seeking spells of communication, initially just to quickly communicate with colleagues for light information, but later to leave messages or see what experiments were being undertaken, etc.

Eventually, these incantations and enchantments led Arddig to look for more permanent solutions, perhaps a way to always watch a location or follow a person, or just communicate when you wanted without the exhausting of magic every time you needed to enact the ability.  So Arddig started to bring what he knew into greater and greater enchantments.  He was trying to embed all means of communication, visualization, audio presentation and more into an artifice that would permanently (or near permanently) permit minor ritual activation.  He found that linking the artifices together would require him to very carefully understand the environment in which it was placed as the ebb and flow of magic and spirits had a great effect on the success of the enchantment.   So Arddig worked with a close friend, Watral, who had been helping Arddig with some of his enchantments, and they went through a sequence of enchantments for one of the artifices to be left in Aachnarn.   Arddig also indicated to Watral what to watch for, which meant that Watral had to conjure successive magic eyes watching the artifice to make sure the indication on the artifice would not be lost.  Thereafter, Arddig traveled back to Calandoriel to the magic library there[2].

After several attempts, Arddig finally completed the enchantment for the artifice, linking it to the artifice in Aachnarn.  He then made the final evocation to activate the link.   The linked artifices now permitted Arddig and Watral to communicate freely once each was activated.  Once more, as the two wizards could easily see each other, they could manifest magic in each other’s area, including being able to teleport between them.  Once the artifices were made known to the temples, the world further opened up.

Arddig was the only one who knew all of the enchantments required to build the Gate Artifice to work, but several other great mages were interested in knowing the complex enchantments and evocations involved.   In particular, the high mages from the major temples of Mata and the mages from the Houses of Raj Gohn were interested in gaining this knowledge.   Arddig started to build more artifices to accommodate the other temples and houses, while teaching the high mages the proper evocations for activation and response.   As the Gate Artifices were built, however, Arddig began to become more and more drained of life, slowly giving his own spirit to the enchantments he had worked so hard to create.   Arddig finally reached a point where he could produce no more gates without perishing forever, so he made sure that the method of creating the gates could be recorded for the next mage to undertake the challenge.  By the time that Arddig completed his last artifice, there were enough gates for the temples in Calandoriel, Aachnarn, Fathe Nun, Kreenan, Glen Ar, Bredenkham, Balkmore, and Daemore.  These Gate Artifices served as the founding of the Magic Guilds in Eirethune.  More than just temples now, these Gate Artifices allowed the higher level mages to fully communicate with each other across the face of Eirethune.  In addition, the mages from the houses of Raj Gohn were each able to create a Gate Artifice linked solely to each other.  This would help the Houses keep closer communications with each other as well, to hopefully enhance the defense of all Eirethune.[3]

## Links

Chronology of Eirethune

Next, Second Age: Division and Desecration

Previous, Trade Towns Develop

## Notes

[1] It is said that Abjark created a ballista made of Astelion that may still lie in the Halls of the Coten Dwarves. It is rumored that a bolt made of Deep Metal fired when the bow is fully pulled back could cut through a mile of stone. Though this is only rumor.

[2] Calandoriel was destroyed, but Arddig's private library was never found. There were indications from his friend Watral's writings that Arddig had made many more enchanted communication and transmutation devices of different abilities while studying, but they had never been found. Perhaps they still are stored in the library somewhere in the Ruins of Calandoriel.

[3] Atronen Gŵl worked with Arddig on the Gate Artifices, but as a dream voyager, he explored possible changes to Eirethune by the creation of these interdimensional tunnels. "*Voyaging the Spirit Membranes"* is a work focusing on the possible outcomes of creating rifts between worlds, though there are only a few known copies of the work on Eirethune. To augment his abilities, Atronen used the *Circlet of Voyages* to create pocket dimensions based on his dreams. The *Circlet* is said to be hidden somewhere in the East Smothe.