Rock Breaker

The title of Rock Breaker encompasses a range of different trades and professions, and the activities so often pursued by Dwarves involve differences in effort and application that are generally lost on above-ground dwellers. Many Dwarves are members of the Rock Breaker Guild, a brotherhood of warrior-workers who claim to inherit from the legacy of one of the heroes of Dwarven folklore. In ages gone by, the Dwarf under-empire spanned the depths of much of Teleria, and the skill and craftsmanship of the Rock Breakers was at its height. But as with so many great civilizations, the seeds of their destruction had already been sown. The gaze of the Shadow God, Siroth, fell upon them. Ignorant of his attentions or the level of power he wielded, the Dwarves were painfully unprepared for a Demonic incursion from Anathraad. Siroth’s armies surged from portals the Shadow God created in the depths of the world. Caught wholly by surprise, city after city fell to the Demonic invasion. But the legends of the Skyiron Dominion tell that when the sudden surge of monstrosities first struck the tunnels beneath the realm, a lone Dwarf stood and opposed them. This dedicated Rock Breaker, Ferrex Sunderhammer, had been laboring on his section of tunnels long after the rest of his crew had departed. After hearing the Demonspawn approach, he met the spawn of Siroth with a defiant roar and pair of breaker hammers at the ready. The narrowness of the tunnels meant that Ferrex encountered the Demonspawn one-to-one. He wielded his hammers against them as though the monsters were stone, splintering the corrupt forms of all who sought to kill him and filling the passageway with their dead. The sound of Ferrex’s wrathful resistance echoed up from the depths, reaching the Dwarves of the next shift as they made their way down. The clanging of the workers’ hammers as they struck alarm bells rang throughout more of the area. Despite all he had done, Ferrex’s lone stand would not have nearly bought the Skyiron Dwarves enough time to mobilize against their new enemy. Badly wounded and knowing that his strength was running out, Ferrex resolved to make a sacrifice to hinder the invaders. As the next wave of Demonspawn fought to reach him through the broken bodies of their fellows, he roared and slammed his hammers against the tunnel pillar he had been working on, smashing it with a single mighty blow. A mighty crack opened and shook the mountain, and the tunnel came crashing down, burying both Ferrex and the Demonic horde. Ferrex’s sacrifice did not end the incursion, nor did it stop the opening of many more portals, but it did buy the Dominion time to mobilize. When Siroth’s minions reached them, the Dwarves were not unprepared. Ever since, the Skyiron Dominion has venerated its Rock Breakers not only as workers, but as the warriors who helped save their realm in ages past.