Gaorm
When the hill I had been clambering up moved, I was sure I was dead. Instead, I turned to find an enormous pair of impossibly gentle eyes gazing serenely down at me with little more than idle curiosity. “Not wise to wander where you oughtn’t, little goat.” It’s voice rumbled across the valley like an earthquake, but it spoke with no malice. Slowly, gently, as though handling an insect, it scooped me up and deposited me some distance away from itself. It waved and bade me goodbye, before it settled back into it’s former position, at once indistinguishable from the landscape around it. ~ excerpt from An Adventurer’s Guide to MiðgarrAs much a part of the Mímameiðr as the realms themselves, the gaorm are made up of the very bones of the heimr. Solitary and rare, the gaorm are the stony thoughts of the world tree made manifest upon the realms. Ever growing until their final slumber, they are often removed from other foundlings by merit of their size alone, leaving them a lonely race of foundlings forced to wander the realms as they grow old.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Gaorm are varied in the size and shape, taking on whatever form they desire as they grow older and add piece after piece of new rock to their body. Most start out small and round, but roughly bipedal, taking on the shape that suits them as they age.
Genetics and Reproduction
Gaorm reproduce when a thought - one they cannot stop thinking - becomes too much to bear, and they rip it out from themselves bodily. From this chunk removed is born a new gaorm, driven at its core by the unwanted thought that led to its creation. Usually, the youngling gaorm is immediately aware and able to navigate on its own, but sometimes the thought is ripped out so quickly after it is stuck that the youngling is left with diminished intelligence and capacities as it finishes developing separate from its progenitor.
Growth Rate & Stages
Gaorm grow as quickly as they choose - and can facilitate. They must layer stone after stone onto themselves to grow larger, leaving the rate at which they grow largely up to them. At a certain point, most if not all gaorm grow too large and tired to continue to move, and lay down to take their final sleep. From their core sprouts out a stórrwood heartree, around which will grow a new grove of stórrwood trees.
Ecology and Habitats
The gaorm wander all across the realm of Miðgarr, unbothered by the chill or the cold, limited only by where they can bring themselves with their chosen form. So long as there are rocks for them to attach, they will wander there.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Gaorm require a steady supply of new rock to be fused to their person in order to continue functioning. As little as a few pounds a day is sufficient to fuel most gaorm that spend time around foundlings, with the required amount escalating heavily as the gaorm grows beyond that size.
There have been gaorm that refused to grow, and seemed to derive their energy and sustenance through feeding others rather than the usual method employed by other gaorm.
Behaviour
Gaorm are generally timid wanderers, spurred to continue wandering by the intrusive thoughts that are their birth and spark, ill fitting in foundling societies, and usually unable to maintain their own.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
All gaorm have an innate link to realm, tied to the heimr itself. This link gives them a sense of the mountains and caves around them, that, while not perfect, allows them to better navigate mountains and caves.
Lifespan
300 to 500 years before they go to sleep
Average Height
3' to 7' while within foundling society. Largest known gaorm was roughly the size of a mountain when it slumbered.
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments