Deep under the Glass Range.

Mines iron, silver, and reflective crystal that amplifies light magic.

Culture:

pragmatic craftsmen; believe mirrors are souls asleep in stone.

Relationship:

trades ore to Harlequin Vale; occasionally fights off kobold raiders.

Lore

For centuries, the dwarves of Ironbraid Hold extracted mirrorstone — a silvery crystal that could be polished to perfect reflection and used to refract both light and magic.

Mirrorstone was prized for:

Runeforging: when inscribed, it amplified enchantments and allowed spell-light to “bounce” through weapons or machinery.

Architecture: noble courts across Canava imported it for vanity mirrors, windows, and light-capturing mosaics.

Navigation: pirates used mirrorstone lenses for early telescopes and signal devices.

It was the lifeblood mineral of Canava’s economy, and Ironbraid Hold’s fortune gleamed with it.

How the Spirits Got There

The Glass Range was once the site of the First Forge, an ancient dwarven civilization that attempted to bind their ancestors’ souls into the very stone of the mountains — believing they could create an eternal homeland, impervious to time or death.

They succeeded, for a while. Every generation added new spirits to the “mountain-soul.” But when the Forge collapsed in a magical cataclysm, the ancestral souls fused into the crystal strata. Their minds became fragments of light, endlessly reflecting one another — alive, aware, and trapped.

So, when the modern dwarves of Ironbraid Hold mined mirrorstone, they were unknowingly carving out the ghosts of their own lineage.

The Moment of Revelation

The first signs were small: whispers when lanterns were dimmed, pickaxes that sang back. Then came the Cracked Mirror Plague — miners speaking in the voices of long-dead relatives, or seeing their own eyes blink from within the crystal walls.

Eventually, a single mirrorstone vein “screamed” as it was split open. Every dwarf present dropped their tools and fled. That scream echoed for seven days in the mine halls.

Since then, the Shardsworn live in dread.

They no longer say they “mine” mirrorstone — they “unburden” it.

Who Buys the Ore (and Why They Keep Digging)

The Shardsworn trade with Harlequin Vale and Embervault, supplying mirrorstone shards used in:

The magma engines of Embervault, where mirrorstone acts as a mana regulator.

Even after discovering the truth, the dwarves cannot stop. Their economy — and the survival of Harlequin Vale’s industry — depends on the resource.

Each shipment is a moral wound.

Social Structure and Exploitation

Ironbraid Hold is split between:

The Forgewrights’ Union — proud craft families who see mining as sacred duty, believing they’re “liberating” their ancestors from captivity.

The Lantern Priests — The Lantern Priests claim that the quieting is not peace, but obliteration. When mirrorstone is mined, the spirit within is ground into dust — its energy bled into whatever machine or spell uses it.

The Veinless Rebels — a secret abolitionist sect — believe neither release nor consumption occurs.

Political and Economic Weight

Mirrorstone is Canava’s most vital magical commodity.

Without it:

Pirate signal systems in Port Chimera would go dark.

Harlequin Vale’s fireworks and weapons would lose their gleam.

Embervault’s engines would fail.

So every kingdom and guild has a reason to keep the dwarves digging — even as their mountains weep light.

In Canava, the economy runs on reflected souls.

Cultural Tragedy and Rumors

Whispered Belief: every child born in Ironbraid Hold is missing a sliver of their soul — it was already mined.

Ritual Practice: miners smear soot across their mirrors before bed; to sleep in reflected light is to risk possession.

Forbidden Theory: some Lantern Priests secretly harvest intact ancestor-souls to use as living batteries for machinery — “The Bright Ones.”

Rebellion: a sect called the Veinless is spreading underground pamphlets: “Let the mountain rest.”

The Fate of the Souls Within Mirrorstone

The Shardsworn have debated this for generations, and three competing beliefs — part theology, part physics — now shape their society.

All begin with the same grim truth:

when mirrorstone is mined, it changes color.

Freshly cut ore shines silver-white, but within hours, the inner gleam dims to gray.

Miners call this the “quieting.”