At the beginning of time it is said the Gods of the Earth experimented with the forging
of many materials that would enhance their weapons, armour and power. This was done in great
underground forges that had access to the fires of the earth. Although they had some success
in their endeavours as time passed they began to see that magic rather than new materials
was the secret to divine power and they abandoned their forges and sealed them. In the depths
of time it is said that the dragons discovered the secret location of these forges but they
did not share this information with any other race holding themselves closer to the gods than
to mortals. When the
First Men arose their sages tried to find the location
of these legendary forges from their allies, the dragons, but they only succeeded in discovering
snippets of information which nevertheless they wrote in their books of lore. In time some
of these books came into the possession of the
Empire of Kelnore and the search for the
Forges fuelled the Empire''s expansion into the west.
The Empire possessed it is thought clues to the location of three of the great forges. The
closest, which was said to contain an unbreakable blue metal, seemed to be in the northern
Wilderlands probably in the Guarding Range or nearby
and the search for it led indirectly to the founding of
Damkina. Despite a thousand years of searching, however, the
location was never discovered.
A second forge was supposedly under a mountain on a great island in the west and the third in
a mountain range beside a series of great lakes. As these were clearly much further away,
however, and because the search for the first location was so unsuccessful no expeditions to
discover them were ever mounted and the stories became regarded as mere myths.
It was said that men have tried to question the dragons about the Forges but few know
now their locations and those that did would not reveal them saying that the contents of each forge
would be enough to found an empire of mortals and they had little interest in helping that
come to pass.
It is also said that the gods know the locations of the forges but by agreement among themselves
will not disclose them to their followers for fear of upsetting the balance.