The Forging of the World's New Heart
Date: c. 35 Years Before the Burning of Haugaeldr (35 BH)
Key Figures: The Dvergar Clans, notably Clan Stonebeard and Clan Ironhand
As the Great Frost descended in the age of legend, the Dvergar (Dwarves) did what they had always done in times of cataclysm: they sealed their mighty mountain holds, known as the Under-Kingdoms, and entered a state of deep, magically-induced hibernation. They slept for generations, their great engines of industry stilled, their forges cold, waiting for the world above to become stable once more. They were unaware of the Great Growing unfolding on the surface, the event that was transforming their distant kin.
The receding of the Frost-Grasp in the period known as the First Thaw triggered ancient magical wards. Deep within the mountains, the Dvergar began to awaken. They found their holds intact but their people changed. The same magic that had swept the surface had permeated the very stone, and they had undergone their own "Stone-Growing," emerging as the first Iarn-Greppar ("Iron-Grippers"), the Dwarf-Giants. With a strength and stature to match the new world, they performed the Rite of Unsealing, and the great stone doors of their kingdoms groaned open for the first time in centuries.
The Dvergar emerged into a world both familiar and alien—a frozen landscape now populated by other giant clans struggling to survive. Their first act was not conquest, but construction. Using their innate understanding of geology, they located the planet's bleeding wounds: the geothermal vents. At a site now known as the First Hearth, Clan Ironhand ignited their forge using volcanic steam, creating the first permanent, reliable heat source in the new age. This was a pivotal moment, proving the frost could be fought with ingenuity and industry.
The Awakening also created the first major philosophical schism among the Dvergar, foreshadowing the factionalism to come.
The Stone-Shield Forge-Clans: These clans, led by Borin Stonebeard, believed their purpose was to become the unshakable foundation of the new world. They saw their strength and craft as a gift to be used to build bastions of order and safety for all, laying the ideological groundwork for the Stone-Shield Commonwealth.
The Ashen Crest Smith-Clans: Other clans, notably Grimnir Ironhand, saw their awakening as an opportunity for mastery and progress. They believed the world's resources—the heat, the ore, the very people—were to be harnessed and optimized to build a greater, more powerful future. This utilitarian philosophy would eventually evolve into the Ashen Crest Dynasty.
The Awakening of the Dvergar was the true beginning of structured civilization in Niflheimar. They did not merely adapt to the frost; they declared war on it with hammer and forge. They taught the other fledgling giant nations how to harness the earth's warmth, how to build for permanence, and how to craft arms and armor that could challenge the colossal beasts of the ice. However, they also introduced the concepts of deep mining, industrial ambition, and the schism between communal duty and relentless progress—conflicts that would define the world for centuries to come. Their emergence from the stone marked the end of the age of survival and the beginning of the age of empire.