Diary of the Grand Artificer

Garrim Gyr, the Grand Artificer of Luchuirp tribe



It has been several days after the ice had thawed. At first we did not believe that the Age of Ice had ended, but then we saw the first blade of grass. We rejoiced, but also mourned the loss of many, not only our family and friends but also our faithful golems that broken during fulfilling their duties. The Age of Ice had taken so many dear from us, and to honor their memory, the Luchuirp mourned them for the last time.

Despite the grand cities and hosts of golems that we once employed, the Luchuirp is now reduced to a handful Dwarves and several golems. Other than me, there is only one other Artificer of sufficient knowledge to support the golems. I guess, we have Nantosuelta and Kilmorph to thank, that the Age of Ice ended now. If it continues for several years ahead, maybe there will be nothing left from us at all.

I sent the mud golem to improve our city. We are blessed indeed, for there are several locations fit to cultivate Wheats. We also found a good stock of Stone in the north. We will build a quarry there to get stone supply to build more golems, but that has to wait until much later. Now, the priority is providing food for our starved population.

I put the one of the Wood Golems under the Artificer's command and sent the group to explore further. What they found, however, was quite disconcerting for me. A few leagues from our border, lies a pyramid dedicated to Bhall. This in itself is a good news, we could always harness the arcane energy of the pyramid and convert it to Fire Mana to sustain our tribe. However, a few league further west, there are sights of corruption permeating the land. Instead of forests and plains, the Artificer reported that he saw twisted stone-pillars rose from the crack of barren earth.



Working with Fire Mana is always risky. There were times when the Fire Mana would explode and destroyed everything near, but that is the lesser risk. The greater risk is the spread of corruption. There were times when the ground near the Mana node suddenly turned black, cracked and permeated a disturbing aura that corrupt everything it touches.

I have studied the Fire Mana in our palace for quite a long time and am able to build a protective enchantment to contain such corruption but we need to locate the source of this new corruption before it expand. For a corruption of this scale to exist, there should be a large concentration of wild energy, and we should tame that soon.

Meanwhile, our sages succeeded in rediscovered the lost arts of Artificing. We now can train promising young Luchuirp how to build, maintain and support golems. It is still the basic arts, unlike the marvels of old, but this would help our endeavor tremendously.



Our priests, or what is left of the clergy, also spent considerable time to codify the teaching of Kilmorph. Many of the religious tomes were lost during the Age of Ice. The priests have encouraged the youth to join the clergy but not many were interested in the offer. To be honest, I myself prefer the worship of Nantosuelta than the strict and too rigid code of Kilmorph but I let them be. As long as they did not take too many of our resource, there is a place for everyone and every dream in Ithralia.

Third year of the Age of Rebirth
Luchuirp Tribe

Last week, Ithrallia was surprised by the appearance of Barnaxus. I was told that it was one of the most beautiful golem during old Luchuirp empire and, after all of this time, it shows perfection beyond any crude Wood Golems that we can build now. However, we were taken aback when Barnaxus greeted us!

Not only it he can speak, he also can think! I and the other Artificers interrogated him for several endless days to discern how did he get his speech and thinking abilities but to no avail. Barnaxus does not remember anything; his first memory was seeing the gate of Ithrallia and meeting us.

Barnaxus's presence helps us tremendously. He managed to clear a Barbarian settlements north of Ithralia and investigated the presence of a corruption there. The corruption was not as severe as the one on the western of Ithrallia and Barnaxus has located the source of this corruption: a Chaos Mana Node. I need to build a city there and dispel the corruption in the Mana Node soon.



The progress in reclaiming the lost arts is going well. Some of the sages decided to further pursue the arcane arts, and I allowed them to establish a Magi Circle in Ithrallia. Their arcane research will help our Artificers in building more powerful golems.





Barnaxus explored further. After slaying a Gold Drake, he found a Dragon bone! We don't know whose bone is it yet, but the presence of such valuable object in one of our cities surely will increase trade! I ordered a hasty preparation to settle near the Dragon bone.



The city of Mutanbo was established sortly. Barnaxus was guarding the city until the Artificers managed to build more golems to guard it. There were a surge of promising young scholars in Mutanbo, unfortunately our coffer was low. We could not grant them the necessary fund to establish a Mage Guild or a Library. It was a wasted opportunity which sadden me greatly.



From Mutanbo, I sent some explorers to go east and they met another tribe! This one is a human tribe called themselves as the Dural. They sent an envoy to Ithralia and after some diplomatic exchanges, I agreed to meet their leader. She was a fine woman, a scholar and also a good governor for her people. We established an open border agreement and I hope that our relations will grow into something more beneficial to both of our nations.

Eighth year of the Age of Rebirth
Luchuirp Nation, Ithralia


This morning, a scout delivered a report. She saw a horned horse in the forest bordering Ithralia. While she claimed that the horned horse was not dangerous, I was not so certain. I ordered the sages to research about the horned horse and they found that the humans apparently call these a "Unicorn" and believed that it has magical properties.

I was both wary and intrigued to hear that. How could a horse gained magical property and grew a horn? Could it be the result of the corruption in the west?

Finally, I ordered the hunters to capture and kill the beast. The magi could use whatever magical from it and perhaps they could determine the source of this aberration.



For some time now, the Magi Circle and the Priesthood were competing to recruit young aspirants to expand their ranks. Up to this point, the Magi Circle is more successful in attracting new recruits. Some Stonewardens were dissatisfied with this and demanded me to take actions in their favor. I refused but, to placate them, I agreed to sponsor one of the Disciples to travel to Mutanbo and spread the teaching of Kilmorph there.



The popularity of the Magi Circle might be the result of their support to the production of golems. The latest combined research from the Artificers and the Magi Circle led to the development of Gargoyles. These stone statues are not only stronger than our current Wood Golems but they are also more mobile than the golems. They could not fly; their wings are only for decorative purposes. But, they could "hop" to a great distance. I tinkered with the basic design of these Gargoyles and with, my knowledge, increased their "hopping" distance. Now our Gargoyles are as fast as a horseman on the best horse!

We have established a Sculptor Studio in Ithralia and Mutanbo, and soon, both studios are busy in making the Gargoyles. They are perfect for guarding cities, since they can perch on top of city wall, hidden away from enemy observation, and then "hop" to any unsuspecting foe. To support the Gargoyles, I stationed Artificer units in each of our city. For now, each Artificer only capable of supporting two golems but I am optimist that this will change when we have researched more advanced arcane knowledge.

Meanwhile, Tia'ran was established and the Magi Circle was starting to work on cleansing the Chaos Node. I personally supervised their work and, after casting long and complex spells, we managed to dispel the corruption from the Node. Without delay, the Adepts were binding the Node and turning it into a Fire Node.





Not all are well, however. Despite my efforts, the corruption slowly seeps through my enchantments and starts to affect people in various ways. The most subtle is the corruption in behaviors. Some citizens started to behave more rough, some even performed criminal acts. I ordered the Guard Captains to arrest these people without delay. To my astonishment, some of these criminals have gone too far. Not only theft, they also kidnapped people and sold them to slavery!



These filth can not be considered as Dwarves no longer. I ordered the Guard Captain to execute them.



The corruption also manifested in more drastic afflictions. Some people started to get sick and both the healers and the priests could not cure them. Babies were still born, or born with deficiencies. The worse incident was happened when a group of people suddenly breathed fire and ashes!



Again, no healer, priest of mage could cure them. There was no other way: I had to order them to be executed.

Thank you for this story illustrating the different way of playing MoM compared to the regular FFH even modded; I hope we will read this kind of story with other civ as well

Opuhara said:

Thank you for this story illustrating the different way of playing MoM compared to the regular FFH even modded; I hope we will read this kind of story with other civ as well

Click to expand...

I am glad that you enjoy it!

I have plan to write short stories for several civs to show their unique mechanics, but can't promise when I can publish those short stories

Meanwhile, enjoy the next episode in Garrim's life.

Eleventh Year of the Age of Rebirth
The Pyre of Seraphic, Luchuirp Border


Finally I sent scouts to penetrate the corrupted land. Imagine their surprise, and mine when receiving their report, that in the middle of the corrupted land, lies a kingdom of humans. This people called itself the Sheaim. They were lead by Gosea the Sorceress.

The Sheaim were well versed in the arcane arts, even though theirs were focusing on conjuring elementals instead of enchantments like ours. I suspected that the corruption was the result of their carelessness in conjuring fire elementals. But I need more information before I could determine the exact cause of the corruption. Thus, I agreed to exchange envoy with the Sheaim. I hope our envoy could provide sufficient information on the Sheaim and the corruption in their land.

However, this is a strategy that I regretted after. Opening diplomatic channel to the Sheaim meant opening our nation to the corruption that infested their land. Apparently, it was not the Sheaim's reckless use of magic that caused the corruption but their strange religion, which mixed arcane arts, religious dogma and fatalist philosophy. I noticed this only after several months. The Stonewardens reported that the lady ambassador from the Sheaim was forging a close relation with various young Artificer. These young Artificers then changed, starting to criticize the clergy openly and even put some blasphemous speeches. They accused that the rigidity of the clergy is the source of stagnation of the Luchuirp nation and that Kilmorph herself is the goddess of past and history, not of the future and invention!

While I often disagree with the clergy's approach and complained about their rigidity, I never, never!, consider Kilmorph as the goddess of the past. It was through her and Nantosuelta's interventions that we could survive the Age of Ice!

I sought information from our envoy but could not receive anything useful from him. He sent his letters regularly and using our secret ciphers, thus I could put confident in the letters' originality. However, his letters lacked the... sharpness of mind that he was well known of.

Finally, I and the Runekeeper set a trap for the lady ambassador. I invited for a private dinner, just the two of us, to see whether she would try to influence me. I deliberately put a gentle criticism toward the clergy in our conversation; nothing too sharp to raise her suspicion. Apparently, she took my bait. During several weeks of our private dinners, she began informing me with the religious tradition of the Sheaim. She called it: the Ashen Veil.

During one particular night, she brought a black book with her to our dinner. The black book was a holy book of Ashen Veil, one that contained great powers and would, quoting her, "liberate you from the confinement of the Stonewardens, Milord."

I was so focused on the book and barely noticed the changes in the lady ambassador. Fortunately, the Runekeeper had blessed me with his holy powers, so that when the Domination spell struck me, it dissipated and triggered a counter-attack. Chains of holy energy bound the lady ambassador, disabling her and showing her true form: a demoness.

After the incident, there was no other way to deal with the Sheaim except to vanquish them. I sent gargoyles and Artificers led by Barnaxus himself to secure the Pyre of Seraphic before sending declaration of war to Gosea. She answered by sending us our envoy's head.



When our army entered the Sheaim territory, they were terrified by the level of corruption in the land. There were no humans that remained pure. All Sheaim citizens bore the mark of demon in their bodies. Some even transformed into various demons in the front of our soldiers.





Barnaxus quickly led his army to capture Sheaim's capital. He had to face the demonic army that the Sheaim had conjured but fortunately I had developed protective enchantments against corruption. The Artificers wove these enchantment around the golems, making them almost immune to the entropy effects of the demons. When it came to raw strength, our golems were more than capable to take down even the strongest demons. In no time, Galveholm was ours.

One factor that was crucial for our success was the mobility of our Gargoyles. I spent considerable time to research the best schema that gives greater mobility to golems and succeed in enchanting our golems so that they could move faster. Other Luchuirp leaders with less knowledge in golem-making need to take this into account and formulate other strategies befitting them, instead of relying on Gargoyle rush like I did.



I sent reinforcements to Barnaxus: teams of Gargoyles and Artificers. While some of Barnaxus' army were left as garrison in Galveholm, the rest were pressing west. Gosea had fled to Grottiburg and if we tarry, she might summoned more demons to strengthen her army. Again, we managed to press forward because of our golems, which do not need rest.

In the eighteenth year of the Age of Rebirth, we managed to capture Grottiburg. I ordered the execution of Gosea immediately.

The destruction of the Sheaim was not the end of our work, though. While we had managed to vanquish the source of corruption, we did not have the necessary means to cleanse the land. The Stonewardens did what they could in containing the corruption but we need more than their prayers and miracles to be able to restore the corrupted territory.

which map are you using? I I trying MOM earthlike and it looks ok

I enjoyed reading your story.

The screeshots are nices (it should have needed time to do them !).