Olympnomachi Book 8: The Stjárgamen Goes West

The hunt for Akleion the Tigrun took the Stjárgamen as far as the mountain of Starrlaian, to the south-west of the Elf-lands, where he gave over the gem to his wife, Vedera.

Charmed by it, and being of an innocent character, she wore it and was the fairest of the tribe so long as she wore the star-gem. Little did her besotted husband or even she know that, their happiness was not to last; for Alderius arrived a year after his former co-conspirator.

The Elf-Laird was received by his fellow criminal, whence he arrived in the dead of night, and heard creeping about the tent of the lady Vedera, as one might have expected. Captured briefly, by a number of the suspicious Tigrun guards, he was ordered to be killed by Akleion, who feared his revealing how he had won the star-gem.

Somehow, the Elf-Laird escaped from his bonds, slew a number of the guards, before he tracked down the lady Vedera, whom he slew without question for the gem. Burning his hand but briefly, for he withdrew it swiftly, before he wrapped it in a special cloth torn, from Cadhranithia’s corset. Wherefore he fled from the Tigruns, desperate to return east before he was caught by the Tigruns, he soon ran into Lodthörn before he retreated.

The noble warrior attempted to give chase, only to be injured in the pursuit, by the Pious’s son Keldthran’s arrows. Retreating into the shadows, he attempted to meet with the local Tigruns, who chased after him, believing him to be allied with Alderius.

While his cousin fled, from the Tigrun tribe of the Tyggarls, Alderius arrived in the Dwarven city of Dvallinreimr inside of Mt-Vrostror. Received well, by Dvalin’s son, Thraïin and his five sons, with the treacherous brother of Vauldërion, dining well in the morn. The Dwarves guarded him and were keen to hear, of the great-Dwarf patriarch’s gemstone. Refusing to answer them, Alderius did not notice one of the grandsons of Dvalin, Dallin slipping behind him to grab at his pouch where the Stjárgamen was hidden under his chair.

Revealing the gem, Alderius was immediately slain for it, as Thraïin declared it his by right and as wergild for the murder of his mother. Regardless, of how Alderius was a descendant of Valderian who had aided in the forging, of the star-gem and was by Dwarven custom kin to him, this act along with the claiming of one of the Hámelerions crystals was the beginning of the last of the Elf-Dwarf wars. One that culminated in the first Ogre-War that, led to the destruction of the Dwarven Empire.

A prominent sub-King of the Dwarves, Thraïin had sworn to reclaim all the gems he believed, to belong to his father, in spite of the elder-Dwarf’s disinterest in their pursuit. He had also come to hate Pelunion, and believed him to still be alive, and to have never died, and had extended his own life with the use of the ‘elixir of Isis’. All in the hopes of fulfilling the oath he had sworn, upon his mother’s corpse alongside his brothers, who had eventually either given up, or died wandering through the Elf-lands.

It was thus that Kelvran the Pious sent his younger son, to inform the sub-King of his desire to find the gem, his nephew and to make all right. Aware that Kelvran was the son of Pelunion the original thief, of the great gem, Thraïin became naturally suspicious. And filled with the desire to keep the Stjárgamen for himself, he attempted to initially lie to Keldthor. Not being foolish, the Elf attempted to dissimulate his suspicions of his host, by pretending to be utterly fooled.

He spake afterwards, of the Hámelerions crystal, and of how his ancient uncle Valderian had forged those for the King of the Elves, and that peace could mayhap be restored, by returning them. When Thraïin replied vaguely, he spoke no more of them, preferring to play the fool, returning to his father he affirmed to him that, his host had the Stjárgamen and Hámelerions. He also informed his father, of the great hostility and hatred that, continued to live within the breast of Thraïin.

By this time, Kelvran own hunger for the star-jewel had reached the point, where he refused to pay heed, to any of his sons’ counsel. The Elf-Laird slipping into the city, where he made contact with the local priestly-caste’s representative the Zaldok, Arthorlan: Who for his own part, received the Elves cautiously, due in no small part to the Dwarves’ inherent suspicion towards Elves, which in this instant did little to reassure Kelvran’s sons.

It might very well have been better for all concerned, had the Elves abandoned the pursuit of the gem, as Kelvran pushed his sons into assisting him with slipping into the Dwarf’s palace. Located in the Upper-city, which was walled off from the rest of the city, by a twenty-meter high and thick set of walls, the home of Thraïin was constantly guarded. Still though, in spite of these thick walls, built by Thraïin and his sons decades prior, Kelvran slipped in by pretending to be a Zaldok. Doubling over so that none may discern his true height, and paying for drinks for the guards, he slipped into the deeper sanctums of the Upper-City and the estate of Thraïin. Wherefore he stole away the Stjárgamen sneaking out of the city with it, with the gemstone taken slightly north-east. The objective of the Elf-Laird was the mountain of Vlamethrimr (Flame of the Frost Mountain), said to be sacred to Vili, or Hoenir as the Elves knew him, and whom he thought deserved the stone above all others. Unaware that just as surely, as the Elves had quarrelled over it, so too would the gods, were they to see one of their own claim it.

He made it as far as the base of the mountain, when he heard the voice of Hoenir address him. The god of light, had no great wish to see the great jewel of Dvalin and Valderian spark, a conflict amongst the gods, and ordered him to smash the Stjárgamen.

A command, that Kelvran’s sons repeated, pleased by the support of their lord and god, however when the moment came to hold aloft a stone to smash it, Kelvran found his resolve faltering, enchanted at that moment, with the Stjárgamen as so many of his kinsmen were, over the centuries, with the Pious distracted by the noise of the arrival, of Thraïin and all his forces.

Their war-horns resounded throughout, the whole of the valley of Vlamethrimr. With Hoenir’s voice resounding in his ears to smash the jewel, being forbidden from interference himself, the god attempted to influence his servant to do what had to be done.

He was too late, as Kelvran was distracted by the sudden attack upon one of his sons, Valkran (his third child) who was struck dead by a throwing-axe by Thraïin’s third son Thréiln. Shocked, the Pious turned to catch his son, just as his other sons banded together to try to make a fight of the situation.

Declaring the Stjárgamen his, Thraïin triumphantly attempted to lay claim to it, with Kelvran pleading with him, to help him save his son. The Dwarves gloated over their victory, with the Tigruns of Tryggarl arriving thence to lay claim to the jewel.

The battle of Vlamethrimr was one that might well have been avoided, had Thraïin listened to Kelvran’s attempt to negotiate between them. However, the Tigruns were convinced that Kelvran was involved somehow with Alderius, while the Dwarves cared little for their grudges and only the Stjárgamen. Adeavam the chieftain of the tribe lay claim, to the jewel as his own possession, by right of the death of his wife wishing to pass it on to his daughter, as part of her inheritance scornful of this custom, the sub-King of Dvallinreimr, declared that no tribal barbarian’s customs would come before Imperial ones.

This began the conflict, even as Kelvran attempted to plead for them to negotiate. He moved to destroy the stone, only to see a spear headed for his youngest son, Welkthrin the fourth-born, and leapt into the path of the spear.

Thus ended the last of the sons of Pelunion the Thief, who had sought all his life to atone for his father’s sins, and mitigate the anger and division of his clan. Always, keen for peace, to redeem his family, he had passed as he lived; for the sake of another.

His last words, to his gathered, weeping sons as the din of battle arose, all about them, was to; “Keep faith, and destroy the Stjárgamen, or forget about it, and return to thy homes, to support thy cousin on the throne.”

Promising this, the sons of Kelvran swore a mighty oath to see to its destruction. They might well have done so, had Thraïin not seen their intent, and as the battle had turned to his advantage, he made to slaughter the children of Kelvran. He was swiftly distracted, by the arrival of Lodthörn, who swept into battle alongside his great-son Vilnögr having rallied the Wilder Elves, once he had managed to evade the Tigrun scouts after him.

So armed, he succeeded in chasing away the Dwarves, rescuing in the process his cousins, just as the Stjárgamen was stolen by a clansman of Akleion the Tigrun. With the Elves now aware of the jewel’s location, they set out in pursuit with only Welkthrin, the fourth son of Kelvran preferring to head wither to Caradarianna. Rather than waste any further efforts on the hunt, for the star-gem which had already caused so much suffering.

The Tigruns were easily located, slightly north-east, not having made it very far, before Akleion had attempted to lay hands (clothed in the protective cloth of course) upon the Stjárgamen. Whereupon, he was pushed out of the way, for another of his clan, the guard who had grabbed it to better study it, being naturally suspicious of it.

The guard wished to rid themselves of it, suspicious that as the source of all the violence, it could not continue to bode well for them. That warrior was named Sehan, and was swiftly killed by the furious Akleion, which had begun an internal squabble in the clan. Only for the Elves to sweep in, routing them all, and seizing once again the gem, with the Imperial troops sent to claim the Stjárgamen, to arrive. Having heard of the violence, and of Elves encroaching into their lands, they had marched under the command of the general Vorin.

These forces repelled the Wilder-Elves, before joining with Thraïin’s men, with Lodthörn preferring to flee up Mt-Rethdram. It was there that, desperate he attempted to parley, only to be rebuffed. “Return the Stjárgamen, to we; the heirs of Dvalin, and ye may keep thy pitiful lives.”

The response to this, on the part of Vilnögr was to lead a division of green-Elves out, breaking through at the encouragement of his father. Who hoped to then have his daughter, and cousins descend the mountain’s steep-side in the opposite direction by rope, alongside the other womenfolk. His heroic plan though, which relied upon his staying behind, was kept partly a secret as he knew none of his kin might, have agreed to abandon him.

Hardly intent upon dying, he was however full of the desire to protect others from further destruction, over the Stjárgamen. And yet, he could not quite bring himself, to destroy it; for this reason he threw it with all his might over the side of the mountain, in the dead of night. This before, he sent a messenger herewith to parley once more with the Dwarves, to inform them, of his deed. This they did not believe, and charged up the mountain, to put him to the sword, and seize the gemstone, they believed he still held close to his breast.

His deed has been much discussed over the course of centuries, his deed has inspired the popular saying: ‘To toss a Stjárgamen’ meant amongst the Elves, and Dwarves as to throw something of great value away, for another’s greater good.

In turn though, many have considered one of the most foolish things, Lodthörn ever did in his life. And yet, it was enough to secure him, along with the courage with which he fought not only for himself, but for several of his guards to escape from Mt-Rethdram, enough to have convinced Göndul the Valkyrie to select, him as an Einherjar.

His murder was never forgiven nor forgotten by either of his children, who in the course of the wars that followed, did all they could to encourage rebellions and the destruction of the Dwarven Empire.

The Empire was also precipitated to its end by the arrival into Miðgarðr, of Ogres. These youngest of all creatures at the time, were created by the Ocluvii, that most benevolent race of redeemed Giants who wished only to learn to create mortals out of the goodness of their hearts. They were however terribly foolish, and after being instructed in some of the arts of creation by Ve, trusted Loki despite the counsel by all those who knew them not to, so that he drove them mad. How he did so is that he took up a flute stolen from Ve (who’s form he assumed for the moment), one that sung such a tune as to enchant the children of the tribe luring them away whilst the parents slept off a drunken stupor (he had sent them a great deal of wine the night prior). The children once lured away were hunted down by Ultorvak’s household, with their blood mixed with mead which was cursed ere Loki fed it to the Ocluvii. Driven mad as much by their grief as by the curse cast upon the mead they fell to slaughtering one another and thus could not properly protect their creations from Loki and his supporters. This they did after they had chased away Ve, who had returned to teach the Ocluvii more of the art of creation, so that he flew away to the east where he remained for a time.

Once the Ogres were unleashed upon the world, worshipping demons such as Loki and Apophis and Ultorvak, Kenero and others, they were merciless and without reason. The first Elves, beast-folk and Dwarves who encountered them sought to negotiate with them. This was a futile gesture that ended in the deaths of all messengers and embassies sent out to reason with them.

Between all these factors, the Dwarves were forced mobilise the vast majority of their armies towards resisting the brutes who assailed them from the south. They also sought to call upon their allies, whom ranged from the Wilder-Elves to the High-Elves, to Wolfram tribes in the north-west, to the Wingar folk south of the Elf-lands.

Many of these allies spurned the pleas for assistance on the part of Emperor Drorin II Fellshield who was shocked when a division of High-Elves broke off from their nominal allegiance to the King of the Elves, Maldthior in order to assail the Dwarvish frontiers in the east. The reason for this mad act was the desire to force the Dwarves to surrender not only the Star-gem, but also the Hámelerions gems, as Laird Traïtian believed that the Dwarves held onto the former. As to the latter they were royal treasures and the Emperor naturally could not simply open the coffers to outsiders for them. What was more was that they were gifts by Valderian on behalf of his teacher Dvalin also, and was given to his great friend the great Emperor Throrain the Great.

This gift-giving to one of the finest Emperors to have ever lived, was considered a sacred event to the Dwarves, who revered the moment whence they were offered up. Even across several millennia they looked upon the ancestor of the current King of the Elves as a near-god in their eyes, and for one of his descendants to wage war to take back what was a gift, was blasphemy in the eyes of the Dwarves.

Already a hot-tempered individual with far too long a memory, Drorin XIII was to prove one of the most destructive figures in the history of the Dwarven Empire. It was he who was the cause as much as Vilnögr for the great Schism between the Dwarves and Elves. Wounds that had been healed by the ardent efforts of Valderian and Dvalin, who had striven all their lives to bring the two together in peace.

The first attacks by Traïtian resulted in the Elf King, Maldthior offering up apologies via his embassy, as he disowned the lord in question and calling for him to return to court to stand trial. The result was another series of attacks, as the noble scoffed at the orders of his liege-lord, who infuriated ordered that the man’s estates be confiscated and much of the wealth be utilised to repay the Dwarves for the damages inflicted upon them, by Traïtian. The messenger delivered the message, with it being the last thing the man did as the Dwarves had his head cut off with a rusty bronze axe so that it took fourteen strikes to slay him. After this they mounted his head upon a pike, and decorated the pike with the Imperial banner, as a gesture of mockery to the Elves before they marched upon the Kingdom of Caradarianna.

The attack upon Ockvarda, the frontier-most Elvish city bordering their lands and those of the Dwarves, founded millennia prior by the likes of Elthaelion I in the hopes of establishing peace between the two peoples, was put to the sword. The bones of his father buried there along with those of the great King of the Dwarves, Hrarlar II were thrown into the nearby river the Ockvan, by Drorin’s forces were seen as a gross insult in the eyes of the Elves, who at once declared the Long Peace of Dwarves and Elves at an end.

After this there would be a long age of blood and war, in which the Dwarvish Empire was rocked to its very roots. The Elves, though hardly able to fight the Dwarves on their own, resorted to alliances with the Beast-Folk of the plains of Beveriand, and even the newly arrived races of men. Through these alliances of they won many victories until at last the Ogres arrived to wage their long conflict against all the peoples of Beveriand. Attacking first the Beast-Folk and men, they slaughtered them in great numbers and heaped their corpses up into great mounds. At which time the Dwarves celebrated, just before several of their fortresses were put to the sword. Shocked and horrified, it took them nearer to thirty years of repeated slaughters and the loss of the Edranite Depths before they considered alliance with the other people of Beveriand. But not before Drorin, his sons and his nephews all lay dead in the Pelpanar Fields, where the Grand Alliance of Belgvrad had triumphed millennia before against the forces of Hella.