Great Mountain
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The Great Mountain is An unending massif of seamless stone that rises within the Elemental Plane of Earth as a single, world-sized block, no seams, no joints, only strata like pages pressed forever shut. Voices carry short, tools ring true, and every footfall is weighed and remembered. Here, vows are rock and fortifications are prayers.
Customs
Oath of Landwalking
All visitors pledge to eschew air/sea passage while within the realm; breaking it deadens the stone beneath your feet (speed halved, checks at disadvantage) until penance.Clause of Constancy
Every contract must assign who bears change-risk; unsigned clauses void bargains.The Bedrock Bow
Daily kneeling to touch brow to stone, giving thanks for stillness.Bracefast
Before any cut, three witnesses set braces and speak a work-oath; the wall hardens to their words.Unspoken Hour
One bell per shift: silence, tools laid down; wardens listen for fault-whispers.Fort-Tithe
Every Hold contributes stone, labor, or oath-time to the realm’s border bastions.Geography
Spurs and buttresses the size of continents radiate from a heart-core called the Bedfast. Terraced scarps host citadels carved whole from the living rock; causeways descend in measured gradients; every span is a catenary, every vault an equation in granite. Rivers appear as stoneflows, creeping belts of metamorphic glass that carry load and heat without breaking the realm’s stillness.
Notable Locations
The Bedfast
The realm’s heart-core: an unbreakable cube veined with oath-runes. Grumbar manifests here as pressure, voice, and tremor.Citadel of the Changeless Face
A fortress carved from a single block; its walls bear the unedited history of all sworn treaties.The Keystone Courts
Open courts under a mile-wide arch; verdicts are struck upon balance-altars and etched into the arch’s intrados.Hold of Cornerstones
Monastery of the Disciples; labyrinthine cloisters train body and breath to the realm’s cadence.Rampart Crown
A ring of continent-length bastions that project into the Elemental wilds; each has a Fort-Tithe ledger and alarm stones.The Quiet Fulcrum
A perfect keystone on a needle of basalt; whisper here and the Mountain carries it to those named in your vow.Vault of Oath-Keys
Sealed reliquary that keeps tokens linked to living contracts; keys crumble to sand when a vow is fulfilled (or betrayed).The Unfailing Stair
A spiral descent proofed against collapse; each landing holds a Bracefast chapel.Granite Choir
Cavern where galeb duhr sing stress maps; architects translate song to brace plans.Redoubt of Sardonyx
Knightly keep, its parade ground measures worth by weight, not wealth.The Anchor Yards
Gate-yards where teleports are pinned and taxed; contraband flight magic is petrified into teaching stones.Travel and Access
Oath-Gates
Portals open in mountain passes and keystone plazas across the Elemental Plane of Earth. To pass, pilgrims place palm and vow upon an Oathstone; the gate grinds wide only for landwalkers and those under service to the Hold.Ethereal Curtains
Brown veils deposit travelers at the Pilgrim’s Stairs, a mile-long ascent where the Oath of Landwalking is offered. Refuse it, and the stairs spiral you back to the Ethereal Plane.Earthglide Lanes
Marked galleries allow earthglide, but throttled to a walking pace unless you bear a Warden’s Seal. Unkeyed teleports shunt to Gate-Yards for inspection.Economy and Diplomacy
Exports
Keystones, brace-maths, rune-wards, siege-breaking counsel.Imports
Foodstuffs, lamp-oils, texts. Envoys from dao, dwarves, azer, marids, and mercanes are received, under strict fort codes. Slavery is not recognized; bond-service must be time-bound and witnessed or it petrifies to void.Inhabitants
Grumbar’s Earthwardens (oath-sworn priests, Cornerstone monks, Sardonyx Knights) oversee galleries and forts. Earth elementals and galeb duhr serve as bailiffs and engineers; pech and xorn act as couriers through the rock. Stone giants maintain beacon-buttresses. Dwarven and gnome embassies keep austere chapels to allied earth gods. Urogalan holds a quiet barrow-demesne for honored dead and keepers of memory.Localized Phenomena
Stone’s Memory
Surfaces retain the weight of spoken vows; sanctioned divinations read truth versus tremor.Oathquakes
Breaking a sworn public oath triggers a local tremor and seals unsanctioned exits for a day and a night.Self-Healing Grain
Unwitnessed excavations close by inches per hour; blood and lies slow the closure not at all.Load-Lines
Faint mineral striations show safe bearing; ignore them and tools chip, braces creak, and luck runs thin.Silence of the Vaults
Areas under Unspoken Hour dampen sound and haste; patience checks seem easier, rash acts harder.Bedrock Boon
Complete a fortification in good order, and the stone hardens one grade finer than its nature.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Heavy and unwavering (≈1.5–2×). Pull trends “inward” toward the Mountain’s heart; no drift, no seams of skewed gravity. |
| Time | Normal, with a slow-change quality—erosion, decay, and long-term transmutations progress at half pace. |
| Shape & Size | Functionally infinite massif of contiguous stone; caverns and roads exist only where sworn and sanctioned. |
| Morphic Traits | Divinely morphic to Grumbar alone; oath-morphic to sworn wardens, stone yields only to vowed, witnessed work. Unsworn excavations self-heal. |
| Elemental Energy | Air Dominant. |
| Alignment | Neutral. |
| Magic | Earth, protection, rune, binding, ward, and memory/divinations about oaths are enhanced. Flight, gaseous form, uncontrolled transmutation, summoning from Air/Water, and casual teleportation are impeded or deflected to gate-yards. |
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