Quick Overview
The earthen were ancient stone-bodied beings whose history became central to the dwarves' search for their origins. Traces of their connection to forgotten vaults and makers raised questions far older than the clans of Ironforge. Discovering those roots changed how the Bronzebeards understood their own people.
Full History
Dwarven history was long told through kings, clans, and the mountain halls they held. Beneath those familiar stories lay the existence of the earthen, ancient beings fashioned from stone. The discoveries that brought them to the attention of dwarven explorers challenged the idea that the dwarves' origins could be understood solely through their own royal lineages.
Ruins and buried places offered clues to a world shaped before the rise of modern kingdoms. Muradin Bronzebeard and the Explorers' Guild sought answers in such places, sometimes uncovering dangers as well as knowledge. The earthen became especially important to that search because their existence suggested a link between the dwarves and powers that had worked the earth long before recorded clan history.
The search did not provide every answer at once. Much of the oldest world remained mysterious, and discoveries demanded careful interpretation. But the earthen gave the dwarves a reason to look beyond the War of the Three Hammers and the founding of Ironforge toward an antiquity that might explain what they were.
The Living Archive · Subject Chronicle
Through History
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Further Reading
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