Osgrun the Defiler

The story begins with a Dwarf grieving the loss of loved ones taken too soon, deaths that he refuses to accept as final. He resents his people for surrendering to fate, believing that true warriors should never yield. His anger grows into a conviction that death itself can be defeated, and he becomes determined to find a way to restore those who were lost. Unlike his kin, who accept mortality without resistance, he believes that through knowledge and persistence he can reclaim what has been stolen from him. <i>‘They were taken from me. Too early. They did not deserve death. Not then, not in that way. What was I supposed to do, just accept it? Go on as if nothing had happened? I thought Dwarves were supposed to fight. To never give in, never relent. My banishment only revealed the weakness in my kind and showed I was better off without them. Oh my people will stand against Orc warbands, the Undead, Norr pirates, and the rest. But against our greatest enemy, they don’t even try. They have surrendered to death without so much as a whimper. It can be thwarted! It can be controlled! The secrets lie in the right runes and magic! The way to bring back our lost, not as shambling, rotting monsters, but as they always were. For wanting to achieve this I was dismissed from Gloomdeep Hold. Did I borrow from the tombs and catacombs? Yes. Did I – with enormous care – sample dangerous magic? Yes. I did these things to save lives. To replace sadness with joy. Yet no one cared. They cast me away. But in a sense they gave me freedom. Now there are no rules, no one to stop me. I have learned much. Life-force itself is energy to me, to restore tired muscles and seal wounds. I can store, bind, and release the power of existence through enchanted jetstone of my own manufacture. With a gesture or word, the weak-minded will do as I order. Because of this I now know also our ancestors were wrong to reject the gods wholesale. Siroth has given me much. Clues. Hints. Enough to carefully guide me yet not reveal that which I am not ready to find. His most recent word was a single name. Gronjarr. I spent months in the libraries of Ireth. I read tomes with script made of dried spiders’ legs. Cursed scrolls that made my eyes bleed every second they were unfurled. I lost many hours to battles with hungry shelf-shades and crazed knowledge-hoarders. But my efforts were rewarded. Gronjarr was at the Fall of the Dwarves. At Gloomdeep Hold. He disappeared while storming runescript archives. They’ve never been uncovered or explored in all the centuries since. Whatever was destroyed, I can repair. I will return home, delve deep, find the archives, uncover their secrets. Then I shall be more powerful than ever before, and yet closer to restoring my loves to true life.’</i> His quest leads him down a forbidden path. He experiments with runes, rituals, and dangerous magic, borrowing from tombs and secret places, determined to perfect a method of resurrection. The other Dwarves see his work as blasphemy and cast him out of Gloomdeep Hold. Yet banishment gives him a strange sense of freedom, allowing him to pursue his studies without restraint. Though branded a heretic, he sees himself as a saviour, striving to replace sorrow with joy by returning the dead in their true forms rather than as twisted corpses. As he advances in his craft, he learns to harness life-force itself, using it to heal wounds, strengthen his body, and bend the will of the weak-minded. He creates enchanted jetstones to store and release this power, proof of his growing mastery. Along the way he realises that his ancestors were mistaken to reject the gods entirely. In secret he listens to the dark whispers of Siroth, who offers guidance through fragments of truth, never revealing everything at once but always nudging him toward greater discoveries. One such revelation is a name: Gronjarr. The Dwarf embarks on an exhaustive search through the cursed libraries of Ireth, enduring torment from forbidden texts, hostile spirits, and other guardians of knowledge. His sacrifices are great, yet his perseverance yields the story of Gronjarr, a figure present at the Fall of the Dwarves who vanished while storming the runescript archives of Gloomdeep Hold. These archives, sealed and forgotten for centuries, may contain the very secrets needed to fulfil his ambition. The outcast resolves to return home and uncover what lies within the archives. With the knowledge hidden there, he believes he will not only surpass his current power but also come closer than ever to restoring the ones he loved. His journey is no longer just about revenge against his people's blindness but about seizing the chance to triumph over death itself. What began as grief has become an unrelenting pursuit of forbidden truth, one that promises both salvation and ruin.