User:ARMYJEN/Zorchikan
Note: This is a player-created work meant as a proposal for Grot'karesh lore expansion around locations, culture, language, and craftsmanship. It is not official in any way.
Rationale
- Giantkin are not represented in the glassworking document.
- Grot'karesh Hammer Clan are masters of zorchar. Zorchar is pure white or dark blue in color.
- Grot'karesh Hammer Clan are magic-wielding Kindred.
- Grot'karesh Hammer Clan are not nomadic, so it could be presumed they have built up more elaborate arts and crafts over the many years they've been living in Kilanirij on the slopes of Asharikan.
- “The Grot'karesh Hammer Clan have placed themselves in the most defensible part of the Southron Wastes. Their fortress city, Kilanirij, sits perched on the side of a large mountain south of Tamzyrr and west of the new Ta'Faendryl. The Hammer Clan has made a science of magical fortification here, strong enough that the city walls give a wispy, dark blue glow at night. Construction on the city began shortly after the first group of giantkin was exiled from their clans. Their chieftain, Samarak the Grim, wished to keep the ruins of Maelshyve in view via magic, so they would have the first warning on the coming of the Second Age of Chaos.”
- Grot'karesh Hammer Clan uses magic to protect the world from Despana.
- Grot'karesh Hammer Clan watches over Maelshyve and Rhoska-Tor for the return of Despana. It can be presumed they visit it as well.
- Grot'karesh Hammer Clan already have lore associated with black diamonds.
- “Giantmen traditionally believe that a spirit inhabits every diamond. Dark-hued diamonds are believed to be inhabited by female spirits, while pale diamonds are inhabited by male spirits. It is considered unwise to wear diamonds unless you are a cleric or otherwise trained in spiritual magic, and it is seen as particularly dangerous for people of a fertile age to wear diamonds opposite their own gender, as the diamond’s spirit will battle with the potential parent’s spirit and cause deformity in his or her children.”
- “Samarak the Grim, first chieftain of the Grot’karesh Hammer Clan, would often describe women who had earned his respect as being “as wily as a black diamond’s fire!” Upon at least five recorded occasions, he presented women in his newly formed clan with a distinctive ornament that he called “a black spirit amulet,” using it each time as a way to reward someone who had aided the newly forming clan with a significant feat of spiritual magic. Each one was made from a magnificent, tear-shaped black diamond set in a disk of silver, and leather bands spanned the disk in such a way that it could be bound about the head, woven into the hair, or worn as a choker with equal ease. No one ever knew where Samarak obtained these diamonds. The Jastevian priestess Anshosar, who lives in Kilanirij and advises the current chieftain of the Grot’karesh, currently wears one of the black spirit amulets. The whereabouts of the other four (or more, if more than five were distributed) are unknown.”
- Grot’akresh uses “sh” and “ij” and “ar” and hard-k sounds in their words.
- Ishan (wanderer/seeker)
- Ikarrak (vision rock)
- Kilanirij (their city)
- Asharikan (the mountain)
- Grot’karesh (magically cursed /magically haunted/daemon tainted)
- Ronlon (day for the public remembrance of the dead)
- Bolia (day to grieve lost ones)
- Kamiir (living who are communicating with dead enter family’s tomb)
- Saramar
Proposed New Lore Releases
- Waste roses - the Grot’karesh Hammer Clan creates artwork with Waste roses (new name for desert roses), something they hold somewhat sacred. New mythology and legends could be written around these including a "language of Waste roses".
- Asharikan is expanded to be a Grot'karesh word that includes glass in it. One option is to say that "ashar" means mountain and Asharikan is known in the common tongue as Looking Glass Mountain as Kilanirij was built upon it to look over Maelshyve.
- New lore describing a new place called Asharlasaiir as a sacred volcano in the Southron Wastes near Asharikan. This sacred volcano is the source of the Grot'karesh crimson glaes used in their armbands. Asharlasaiir is sometimes called Spirit Mountain in Common.
- Additional New Lexicon Definitions
- Ashar means mountain
- Ikan means glass
- Grot means magic or daemon
- Kamiir means mourning
- Karesh means haunted, cursed, tainted
- Lasaiir means spirit
- Ruush means rose
- Saramar means history
- Urram means reverent
- Zorch means lightning
Types of Ikan
There are multiple kinds of ikan created by the Grot'karesh Hammer Clan. While some of the glass is easily created (such as zorchikan), some forms of ikan require additional magic or materials and are therefore more rare. This includes rushikan, maelshikan, grotikan, urramikan, and kamiirikan.
zorchikan
Translation: lightning glass
Sand from below the slopes of Asharikan is gathered and turned to glass. Zorchar is cast into the shape of a variety of different Saramar runes for various purposes. Runes for justice, intuition, strength, fertility, creativity, transformation, and other such concepts are rather commonplace among the clan. This form of glass often features pure white zorchar. Argent bolts of energy will occasionally spark through the glass. This kind of glass will *always* have a READ description defining the rune which giantkin can read.
ruushikan
Translation: rose glass
Waste roses (desert roses from the Southron Wastes) are gathered by the clan and the petals are painstakingly tipped with zorchar which hardens to gild the rose in niveous and cobalt hues. Once encased in glass, Saramar runes are etched onto the surface for a variety of magical purposes including lightning defense upon being struck. This kind of glass will *always* have a READ description defining the rune which giantkin can read.
- Standard tier ruushikan would be able to be imbedded with spells (depending upon the runes etched onto the surface).
- Auction-level or high-tier versions of this material might have a rune for "barrier" which would cause any piece of armor or weaponry adorned with that type of ruushikan to create a barrier of reactive lightning.
maelshikan
Translation: maelshyve glass
Sand from around Rhoska-Tor is collected by the clan. Pure zorchar is cast into the shape of the Saramar rune depicting detection, and magic is imbued into the sand-turned-glass engulfing the rune. When in the presence of the undead, the electrical sparks around the rune become more fervent. When the undead are very close, the glass begins to glow cobalt. This type of glass is very rare due to the amount of magic required and the trip to gather the necessary sand. It usually features cobalt-hued zorchar. This kind of glass will *always* have a READ description that giantkin can read that includes the word detection.
- a maelshikan cabochon
Etched Saramar runes blanket the smooth surface but upon looking deeper, centered within is a deep blue ingot of pure zorchar cast into a Saramar rune. [No description is added if undead aren't present, but the following appear depending on the closeness or quantity of undead: Zaps and sparkles of argent-laced cobalt energy roil through the clear cabochon. / A steady cobalt glow emanates from the glass, sparkles of argent-laced energy roiling throughout it.]
>read cabochon
In the Giantman language, it reads:
Detection
grotikan
Translation: possibly magical glass or daemon glass
Commonly Called: Flame Spirit
Pure glaes from the slopes of Asharlasaiir is mined and reformed into what is called the Flame Spirit. Niveous zorchar is cast into the shape of a flame and carefully placed in the center of an eye-shaped cabochon of crimson glaes. When a Grot'karesh Hammer Clan member is wearing one of these sacred pieces within their aemikvai and meditates upon it, they can summon a brief simoom emanating out from their body in all directions which sears and electrocutes those around them (AoE fire and lightning flare). Their eyes temporarily have flame dancing within them which wears off (unique feature line and wears off when the cooldown is up). Other Kindred summon a swirl of heat and lightning around them briefly which dies out (fluff only, no flare), but also get the Eye of the Flame Spirit effect for a period of time. Non-Kindred cannot activate the Eye of the Flame Spirit feature change, but do get the cosmetic swirl of heat and lightning.
urramikan
Translation: reverent glass
Briolette-cut black diamond is centered on a black glaes cushion pendant mined from Asharlasaiir and framed with niveous zorchar. While not themselves a black spirit amulet, these rare pendants reminiscent of Samarak's amulets are gifted to female-spirited clan members who have earned the respect of the giftee. Male-spirited clan members receive a briolette-cut desert diamond instead.
Special versions of urramikan are gifted only by the Preceptors (magical instructors of the city) and are framed instead in cobalt zorchar. (Urramikan cannot be altered to have cobalt zorchar except through direct GameMaster award.)
kamiirikan
Translation: mourning glass
Commonly Called: Mourning Flame
Sacred crimson glaes from Asharlasiir is mixed with a pinch of ashes from the sacred fires warming the graves of the dead and carried out of the Kilanirij Tombs by those who survive Kamiir. The ash-and-glaes is poured into a flame mold and strung upon a leather thong. It has been said that the survivors of the Festival of the Dead would rather die than let a non-family member touch or possess their Mourning Flame. When the glaes is touched by a member of the Clan, the individual can hear the deep, rhythmic thrum of chanting spirits battling acoustically with the hideously angry scream of banshees.