The year 100 in shar, a man with a average job working I T goes about his usual duties often fixing menial issues with computers sometimes doing other tasks, though on this particular day he gets weary, it seemed a convention run by people who made his favourite mmo had stopped for whatever reason, that slight loss in motivation might've been cause for his weariness never the less he falls asleep, a few moments pass he feels falling the
man awakens only to see a void and a sense of falling, as if the gods cursed him to spend the rest of his days in the oblivion, as he looks around a glowing book catches his fancy it reads "Forge spells a appropriate guide to being a afflicted" seeing as hes forever to roam this oblivion he reads it, it seemed best to read in silence for none should need to hear him
The fallen lords command their own unique magic known as Forge Spells
A notable type is asexual reproduction, those afflicted as a egg layer species can create eggs that will hatch without the need to fertilise, doing so costs the user much of the forge smoke they have ingested, whereas afflicting another has little to no cost,
Having multiple souls bellow you in a afflicted bloodline ie having many afflicted by you and lower, grants you combat focussed spells
Such as breath of the forge, "every exhale shall torch you and you foul heathens"
Acquiring the spell allows its user to passively breath weak forge smoke that becomes lethal to those the user intends harm, causing the victim to burst into what appears to be flames, as it tears their nerves only to heal them then repeat, only ceasing when the victims brain is too charred to feel the pain of the smoke.
Whereas if a subordinate comes into contact with the users breath of the forge they get the same benefits that they would from the bloodforge's forge smoke
Benefits to drinking forge blood
Those who merely bathe in the blood of the bloodforge shall awaken anew, may god have mercy on those who cross a awakened afflicted, for they have forgone the need to gather mere embers of smoke from the forge, then again they are the less fortunate for merely bathing
The forges blood is a bridge from one world to another world, on the otherside a catalyst to send souls from their world to the bloodforge, material shall be strengthened consumed even, the in between this bridge a void, those caught in the catalyst shall fall until birthed out the forge
A thought crosses the man, "a little ranty for a guide to what appears to reference my situation"
The year 999 the void brightens the bones of what used to be the man have long decayed, many months pass until the bones appear to float atop glowing blood red water, seeming to revive the mans corpse, his skin paler his eyes that had long since gone replaced with black orbs, much of his height had been mitigated, a permanent sense of youth having taken over the man, it seemed the guide was a means of reassurance from the void, after some time it occurs to the creature he was no longer a man, the area around him seemed glassy and void like, being illuminated by the red hues of the pool he swims in, it seems he should experiment to see what can be created from this pool, the man further looks around, it seems some of his bones were on the ground by the pond, with haste he grabs one now outside the bloody pond, he dips the rib into the pond, at a glance he couldnt feel a difference with the rib he held, however upon pulling it out, it appeared like a hilt, pulling it further from the pond showed a silverlike mass form a blade at its end, it appeared further clear this was what the book referred to as the bloodforge, material bathed in this basin grants new properties, appeared to be written into a newly appeared page of the book,
Unsure of what "new properties" meant the man decides to slice his hand with the forge sword, making him weary, upon awakening he noticed a increase in height, his previously revived body gained a youthful appearance, spikes had formed bellow his ribs, he had grown horns upon looking into the glass like walls of his environment a white glow appeared surrounding the centre of his eyes, like circles of light, his once human ears were knifelike.
It seemed appropriate to use asexual reproduction, as it seemed he was a awakened variant, many months passed the creation of a vampiric dagger had been completed, after dipping a bone into the pond, desiring a sense of purity the dwarves sought to test it on a intruder in the year 499, issue was they had already fled,the following year, they had caught wind of another changing them with the experimental tool, such discoveries made the dwarves decided, it seemed that they could convert many more people.
500 years had past the dark dwarves had changed many people, a sense of repetition had been noticed, a dark dwarf by the name of ruk realised that maybe humanoids werent the only thing the forge could change, as such he and a friend navigated the caves such places were quite familiar with him, after a few days of travel through a cave that seemed south east of home cave, he happened upon many likely test subjects cave creatures, they appeared much to starved for his tests, though it took a while he managed to find a suitable subject a spider, due to its size ruk felt it best to have light to be much more precise than what his night vision could allow, as such his companion lit a torch, with a swift jab it was done, the creature started to morph and change, as with the humanoids the pair decided to leave the creature so it could change for the sake of safety.
After some light observation weeks later it became clear it was a success, as is standard they share this discovery with the rest of the dark dwarves though it for them such news became menial in nature, as such they decided to use a special tool capable of reincarnating someone from their leaders old world into this one, as a kind of final test that related to this, then a few decades later a dark dwarf jab a silkworm in a deep hole inside of a great tree in the year 2032 this crevice smelling quite pleasant infact red berries bush's seem to grow inside this crevice or tree cave, seemingly filled with nutrients from the forge smoke, many fluffy moth litter this peaceful place. Ruk had a little look outside the tree, only to be met with a intriguing display, steam tech, appearing to do things their leader spoke of yearning to enjoy once again, after "sampling" some devices, ruk went back down to the caves to share such devices, leading to the dark dwarves new interest in developing more advanced tech. Ending this chapter of magic.