Thorgun

“The sleeping continent. The breath beneath stone.”

Overview

Thorgun is the westernmost continent of Aescharion, a vast and mountainous land formed from the slumbering body of the titan Uldrun, the World-Shaper.
Where Canava gleams with artificial light and reflection, Thorgun breathes — slow, heavy, and eternal.
Its mountains pulse with a living mineral known as Heartroot, the divine tissue said to bind the titan’s still-beating heart.

Thorgun’s inhabitants — chiefly trolls, but also small human and halfling enclaves — live atop a god’s skin.
Their religions, politics, and wars revolve around one question: Is Uldrun sleeping, suffering, or dead?

Geography & Climate

Location: Western edge of Aescharion, across the Chimera Sea from Port Chimera and the eastern continent of Canava.
Formation: Believed to be the reclining body of Uldrun; mountain chains form his ribs, Heartroot veins his arteries.
Regions & Landmarks:
- Grumbleholt: Troll capital carved into Uldrun’s shoulder; city of drumming halls.
- Fenmarrow: Human and halfling trade town on a shallow basin where Heartroot surfaces.
- Virelin’s Rest: Abandoned elven ruin, overgrown and haunted by scholars and thieves.
- The Ardent Road: Caravan route linking Heartroot mines to Fenmarrow’s markets; frequent skirmish zone.
- The Deep Veins: Subterranean networks glowing with molten red crystal; source of both wealth and war.
Climate: Harsh but vital; twilight skies and veins of luminescence through the rock.
Trolls say: “We do not live under stars; we live under the glow of our god’s blood.”

The Titan Uldrun

Titles: The World-Shaper, Maker of Land, the Breath Beneath Stone
Domain: Creation, Motion, Earth, Breath
Symbol: A hammer wrapped in rootlike veins
Worshipers: Trolls, miners, artisans, and revolutionaries
Opposite: Serendahl, goddess of Stillness and Pattern

Legend says Uldrun shaped the land and then lay down to rest, becoming the continent itself.
When Serendahl declared the world perfect, Uldrun ceased his motion — and from that stillness grew Heartroot, either a scab sealing his wounds or a pulse of continued life.

Heartroot

Heartroot is a living mineral that glows red and pulses faintly like blood.
It regenerates when mined, forming veins that resemble nerves.
Its meaning divides the continent’s faiths:

Cleftwrights: Heartroot is a curse, sealing Uldrun’s agony.
Pulsewrights: Heartroot is life, the sign of Uldrun’s peaceful breath.

Mining Heartroot is both an act of devotion and defiance; every strike a prayer or a rebellion.

Faiths of Thorgun

The Cleftwright Covenant

Doctrine: Heartroot is a divine scab; mining frees Uldrun from torment.
Culture: Revolutionary, militant, sorrowful.
Goal: Eradicate Heartroot and awaken Uldrun for the Second Shaping.
Allies: None.
Enemies: Pulsewrights, Sanctifiers of Stillness.
Status: Outlawed, operating as guerrilla zealots in the deep tunnels.

The Pulsewright Order

Doctrine: Heartroot is divine tissue; it grows with Uldrun’s calm.
Culture: Builders, caretakers, and priests of rhythm.
Goal: Maintain the titan’s peaceful rest through measured mining.
Allies: Tranquilists and Sanctifiers (Concord Front).
Enemies: Cleftwrights.
Status: Majority faith; politically dominant in Grumbleholt and Fenmarrow.

The Concord Front

A coalition of the Pulsewrights and Sanctifiers of Stillness from Canava.
They jointly oversee Heartroot mining operations, claiming to act as “divine stewards.”
The alliance is uneasy — Pulsewrights wish to let the veins breathe; Sanctifiers wish to seal them forever.

Politics & Governance

Ruling Body: The Council of Hands — a dual-faith senate where each “hand” represents a region or guild-faith.
Governance Style: Rotating leadership every ten years, maintaining balance between sects.
Factions:
- Pulsewright Order – controls infrastructure, trade, and Heartroot regulation.
- Cleftwright Covenant – banned and hunted; operates from the Deep Veins.
- Concord Front – joint military council of Sanctifiers and Pulsewrights.
- Fenmarrow Traders – neutral mediators and smugglers.

Thorgun’s politics mirror its god: half asleep, half alive, and always shifting under pressure.

Economy

Primary Exports:

Heartroot dust and crystals
Forged trollsteel tools and weapon cores
Ore, silver, and basalt

Primary Imports:

Mirrorstone components from Canava
Processed goods, textiles, and refined foods

Currency: Rootmarks — braided copper rings infused with crystal dust, each representing a vein under communal stewardship.

Trade with Canava is officially “mutual faith cooperation,” but functionally a colonial supply chain managed by the Concord Front.

Culture & Daily Life

Architecture: Carved directly into mountain stone; interiors breathe with natural light veins.
Art: Sculptures that regrow over time, “living statues.”
Music: Deep drums and bass horns, echoing Uldrun’s heartbeat.
Language: Tonal and rhythmic; designed for echoing through caverns.
Rituals: Silence before mining, rhythmic chanting during, drumming afterward to restore the balance.
Values: Endurance, reverence, and the belief that creation never truly ended.

Even atheists knock three times on the ground before entering a cave — a reflexive prayer to the breathing stone.

Military

Thorgun’s military forces are decentralized and faith-bound, functioning more like guilds than armies.

Major Forces:

Cleftwright Militias:
- Guerrilla miners who use sabotage and “bleeding quakes.”
- Strike and vanish tactics; trigger tremors to destabilize Sanctifier forts.
Pulsewright Engineers:
- Defensive miners who fortify and contain Heartroot.
- Use resonant barriers and sound-based weapons.
Sanctifier Garrisons:
- Mirror-armored crusaders from Canava.
- Seal unstable tunnels and enforce religious law.

Doctrine:
Cleftwrights move like aftershocks, Pulsewrights build like architects, Sanctifiers stand like statues.
Together, their conflict forms the heartbeat of Thorgun itself.

Role in the Heartroot War

The Heartroot War began as a troll civil war and ended as a continent’s subjugation.

Phases:

Civil War: Cleftwrights vs. Pulsewrights — centuries of attrition.
Sanctifier Intervention: Canava’s crusaders joined to “preserve creation.”
The Concord Era: Alliance rule; Heartroot mining militarized and regulated.

Results:

Cleftwrights nearly eradicated but still active in secret.
Pulsewrights granted nominal control under Sanctifier supervision.
Concord Front occupies Heartroot mines and western passes.

Every tremor since is called a Cleftwright Prayer — the mountain’s whisper of defiance.

Faith & Philosophy

Even outside religion, Thorgun’s people hold motion as sacred.
To move, carve, or mine is to continue Uldrun’s divine act of shaping.

Common Proverbs:

“The mountain listens.”
“Stillness is a kind of death.”
“Every tremor is a heartbeat.”
“When the stone breathes, so do we.”

Work itself is a prayer; stillness is a sin.

Modern Era

Thorgun remains divided but alive:

Pulsewrights manage industry and faith.
Sanctifiers maintain occupation through fortresses of glass.
Cleftwrights bide their time underground.
Scholars and thieves inhabit Virelin’s Rest, collecting relics of both gods.

Each quake renews the argument — is Uldrun dreaming, dying, or waiting to rise?

“The mountain will wake,” say the Cleftwrights.
“The mountain is breathing,” say the Pulsewrights.
“The mountain is perfect,” say the Sanctifiers.
“The mountain doesn’t care,” say the Rational Coin.

The mountain only breathes.