Prologue: A Looming Darkness

Long before the songs of valor were sung. Before the last fires faded in the ancient halls, the mountain had a heart, and that heart was ours. Then came the beast. Wings blacker than the starless sky. A voice that shook the pillars of the earth. A breath that turned iron, flesh, and memory to molten ruin. It drove us from the deep places. It shattered our gates. It buried our kin beneath stone and ash. And there, before the broken doors of our kingdom, an oath was sworn. Sworn in grief. Sworn in fire. Sworn in blood. An oath was sworn. That one would come, chosen by nothing less but by fate itself. One who would descend into the forsaken halls, to reclaim the heart of the mountain and end the darkness looming within. Countless years have withered into dust since that oath was spoken. Kings have fallen. Names have vanished. And those who answered the call before... never returned. But dust does not forget. Stone does not forgive. And Once more, the mountain stirs. And on this fateful night, ancient steel answers the summons. Deep within the darkness, the forge burns once more. And so it shall begin...